Avoid Violence or Gore (unless, you know, it's funny)
Tips on getting the balance right in middle grade horror
Last week, I was delighted to take part in the online Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators what-we-used-to-call-Twitter chat. I loved answering all the questions (Pop over to https://twitter.com/SCBWI_BI/status/1701302085625717253 and use the hashtag #SCBWIchat to follow), and I thought I’d share a couple here, expanding on my answers a little, especially for anyone out there writing horror for kids.
For some reason, I still have a minor, inner flinch when I juxtapose those words: horror and kids, like they shouldn’t go together; this is, of course, an adult reaction to thinking of horror stories as blood and guts or 18-rated slasher movies - a definition we all learned in the 1980s (not to divert you immediately from my post but this is a nice, quick read on the subject from the Horror Writers Association). I agree with their/author Douglas Winter’s assessment of the ‘genre’ - horror is an emotion, and for me, children’s books are all about emotion. Flinching begone.
In the chat, something we touched upon briefly was a topic I’ve been looking into a lot recently: how beneficial might it be for young readers to practice this particular emotion (fear)? Horror books, or those with any kind of scary peril, can provide a sort of rehearsal platform for experiencing the feeling of being scared … all in the safe space of home, school, or library. The ability to practice your response to fear can help young people (and adults) manage those feelings IRL, when it comes to sitting a test, preparing for the arrival of a new sibling, or digesting the latest news on climate change.
Returning to that knee-jerk definition of gorefest horror ... I was asked in the chat how I went about getting the balance right between making the book scary enough to be thrilling (and heaven forbid - not boring), without giving anyone nightmares - it is Middle Grade after all. How do you know how much is too much?
Of course, having an editor, or a critique partner/beta readers is extremely helpful here - they can assess the potential for fear with a more distanced eye, and as I remarked to Scbwi, I did check in several times with my editor when I thought I had possibly gone too far. The answer was of course that I hadn’t, and indeed on occasions I was encouraged to push the unsettling scenarios even further, which led me to ponder, as I often do, the myriad ways in which we underestimate children! My editor was right of course and I realize that what I, as an adult, found terrifying at the writing stage, my child readers are now finding thrilling and “awesomely scary” (~ a ten-year-old fan). Children are far better than us adults at compartmentalizing fantasy and reality and figuring out that ‘this is just a story’. But still, I didn’t want to actually traumatize my readers so here are a few tips if you’re writing, or considering writing, horror or scary scenes in your MG or younger manuscripts.
Avoid violence or gore (unless it’s comedy gore in a horror-com)
Steer away from deeply affecting emotional trauma - jump scares are good though
Use language in place of actual danger to create tension - blood-red curtains, skeletal trees, a hand as cold as death, etc
Stay within the realms of fantasy when putting your characters’ lives in peril
Balance that peril with moments of levity or humour. It doesn’t have to be outright funny, just enough to release tension
Use the horror as a backdrop - focus on the main character’s internal development arc as you would in any genre
Make sure villains are dispatched and the ‘good-guys’ win the day. Middle Grade likes hope, and a happy ending, and this can, more than anything, signal the fantastical nature of the journey
I like this last point a lot - for me, kids horror is all about resilience and hope, bravery and righteousness. In even the darkest fairytales, the antagonists get their comeuppance (in some alarmingly gruesome ways) and they all have signposts, marking them as separate from the real world: Once Upon a Time (in other words, not here, not now - an elsewhere place) and of course our favourite ending: They Lived Happily Ever After.
Hoping to make it Happily to the shortlist After (oof, that was clunky), this was a very nice surprise: https://twitter.com/JuniperEdRes/status/1700071543793942579
I’m extremely grateful to be on this brilliant longlist alongside some of my favourite authors (and some I’m looking forward to discovering) and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next stage.
And as we return to September, and my happy place (aka autumn) I’ve been reading a lot of suitably spooky books, kicking off with this absolutely incredible read:
Here’s the blurb:
He'd been drawn here by the grass and the bees and the strange sensation that this was a magical place, that the bones of the world were a little looser here, double-jointed, twisting back on themselves, leaving spaces one could slip into and hide . . .
Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps - gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza goes missing, the people of Bone Gap aren't surprised. After all, it isn't the first time someone's slipped away and left Finn and Sean O'Sullivan on their own.
Finn knows that's not what happened with Roza. He knows she was taken, ripped from the cornfields by a man whose face he can't remember. But no one believes him anymore. Well, almost no one. Petey Willis, the beekeeper's daughter, suspects that lurking behind Finn's fearful shyness is a story worth uncovering. But as we, like Petey, follow the stories of Finn, Roza, and the people of Bone Gap - their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures - the truth about what happened to Roza is slowly revealed. And it is stranger than you can possibly imagine
Yes, it is every bit as good as that sounds and will slide you into spooky season with a chill, but also a bit dollop of joy.
That’s all from me (folks). I’ve got more to say but I’ve been neglecting my Substack and it’s already taken over a week to get round to posting this! As ever, if you’re writing and need an extra pair of eyes on your work, please do get in touch. You can find me by clicking on the banner below. I specialise in children’s fiction and as you can probably tell am partial to anything a bit spooky!
For books, go to https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/cosy-magical-autumnal-spookiness for a whole heap of glorious autumn reading fodder including The Housetrap, as well as some of my solid faves, including BITE RISK and the brand new, THE WITCHSTONE GHOSTS.
See you soon and follow me on Twitter at @emmydee73 and Instagram @ediereadie
These writing tips are great. I’m writing for middle grade at the moment but have been worried about scaring young readers to death!