Control: Horror Goth Epics, Vol. One

I, Dalton Lewis, believe in horror stories. They are something special. To scare someone — that is important, but it’s also important to reflect what’s wrong with society in the form of a slasher killer. In Carrie Stephen King wrote about the anger of an unpopular and bullied person and showed her fighting back and killing people. In Friday the 13th killers fight to punish teenagers who cavort and have sex while the outsiders struggle.

That’s the key, then, isn’t it? The outsiders attack the pretty and popular people because of hatred and fear. Why? Why can’t the story go differently? Listen to me for a second here: what if the popular kids got angry, really angry, at someone who is trying to be unpopular but being successful? That would turn the genre on its head.

That can’t work, though. I want popular vs. unpopular to not be the central conflict of the piece: it needs to be something else. Something more primal, with more feelings, and more emotional baggage is needed. I need some goth characters and I need them to feel, really feel something. What makes someone angry enough to run around with a katana killing someone?

Who hates life? Who is angry? The popular people aren’t angry enough. I’ve written about plenty of unhappy outsider incels. It’s time to mix it up: talk about the preps at the top, the intellectuals who have pressure on them from parents and teachers and mentors, the people who hate themselves because parents are demanding more from them. That’s it — that’s the rub. We need to work on preppie guys who have too much pressure put on them and they break. That’s a real character — that’s someone who would have a problem with the goth kids at school.

I started this novel — a novel about the goth subculture in the present and its beliefs — eighteen years ago or so. I want to finish it, give it the release that it deserves. I remember at the time that I was burnt out on stories that were important or meant something or gave an important lesson about life and its difficulties. I just wanted to write something in which I showed good characters facing the most terrible and monstrous problems I could throw at them.

Simon liked it. That was a time when My Little Paradise had just been ripped to shreds by friends and family who read it and didn’t like it — and I appreciated the honest feedback but was still hurt by it. I needed a win, and this story made some people stand up and say that I should finish it. This really meant something to me — so I’m glad that I’m finishing it, almost twenty years later.

I want to write horror — it seems to be what people respond to. Writing within a genre has its problems, though — I want to write about literature and pulp at the same time. By doing this I can elevate my writing to mean something, say something about life while still entertaining an audience.

Thanks, and take care, friends.