Control: Modern Goth

I, Dalton Lewis, wrote a draft of a horror novel called Modern Goth. It’s a series of three interconnected stories about what the goth movement means and who is in it.

Story one follows unpopular, alienated teen EWP, who has no friends, no life, and yet fights desperately to survive the real-life horrors of high school. People can be mean, and everyone is mean to EWP. Overweight EWP tries to find a hobby and ends up finding a horrifying attack by a man with a katana and no remorse, a giant of a man who fights with terrifying skill. This is not one of those stories where the geek strangely gets the girl, either — this story has the slightest connection to reality. He doesn’t become rich or famous or get the girl.

Story two shows a fortysomething black inventor who suffers a series of horrifying predicaments by people who ask him for help — people who are horrible creatures, different and terrifying. I wrote this part of the story in the year 2002 or so and am proud of it. I’m glad to include some of my older writing in this work of literature. I included all the strange and horrifying creations that I could come up with — basically all the scariest things that occurred to me. Good stuff.

Story three shows a group of twentysomethings becoming a goth band and trying to be noticed — while being stalked by ghosts. I wanted to show a woman who is searching for something in life and in her art and finds it in the goth movement — someone who will be paid attention to…someone who will be the face of the goth movement.

How do I write this novel? I wrote an outline and reread the whole thing, slowly and carefully, so that it tracks from one chapter to the next. I also tried to make unique and interesting characters who have their own feelings and motivations. I thought that I could create an interesting story with a unique setting and show people something new and yet old — the gothic movement is several hundred years old, after all.

An effective horror novel needs for the moral community to be unhappy with something — something which hunts and hurts members of the community. In this story I include a group of villains who portray the negative stereotypes of the goth movement — I thought that would show an interesting and different quality of villain. I hope that I have succeeded.

What does goth mean? What is the movement? Well, if I had a short answer I wouldn’t have written the book. Basically it is a group of people with a dark and romantic look at reality: people who believe in art and culture and darkness and dark emotions, like fascination with death and pessimism and everything angsty about life.

Thanks, and take care, friends.