Thread by @BrianKeene

1. Been a lot of online hand-wringing this week about what Horror writers should and shouldn't write, and about the people who read Horror. As someone who's made a living writing (mostly) Horror for the last 20 years, here's my thoughts on what I write and the folks who read it.

2. All readers, regardless of genre, have the expectation of being entertained, of course. But readers of specific genres also have distinct expectations, as well. Horror readers generally expect to be scared, frightened, or made uncomfortable. They are actively seeking that.

3. This is achieved in various ways, depending on what the story calls for & what the reader craves. It may be the quiet horror of Charles Grant. The gross out of Edward Lee. The poetic brutality of Jack Ketchum. The American mirror of Stephen King. The weird of Laird Barron.

4. Like some Science-Fiction, Horror may have a political or social agenda, such as Gabino Iglesias, Wrath James White or Skipp & Spector. And like some Science-Fiction, Horror may just be for pure entertainment, like Hunter Shea, Guy N. Smith, or Richard Laymon.

5. Nobody gets to dictate whether Horror should be quiet or extreme. Nobody gets to dictate whether Horror should be socio-political or simple entertainment. That is up to the writer. The public can decide whether or not they wish to support it financially, but that's all.

6. If readers and fans *do* support what a writer is doing with Horror, you don't get to dictate to them, either. You can say, "Oh, Samantha Kolesnik's debut or Bryan Smith's new novel was too unflinching for my personal taste" but you DO NOT get to judge fans who enjoyed it.

7. As someone who has written both quiet and extreme and all the corners in between, and who has written with both a socio-political perspective and a pure entertainment perspective (depending on what I wanted to say), let's talk a bit more about that.

8. I have empathy for other people. Trauma and I are lifelong companions. But trauma and triggers are not universal. They are deeply personal and singular. I struggle with stories involving child abuse, dead kids, and (more recently) people getting burned.

9. But I would never presume to tell Josh Malerman "You can't kill the kid" or call up Sarah Pinborough and admonish her for burning someone alive in a novel. I don't get to dictate the terms or content of their art.

10. Nor does the public get to dictate *who* I write about. In the last 20 years I've written characters who are white, black, gay, straight, trans, asexual, Progressive, Conservative, cop, priest, banker, plumber, good, bad, flawed, and fucked. There's several reasons for that.

11. First, because even back in the late-90s, I believed that representation matters. All of those people were reading Horror, and were reading my stuff. Horror is most effective when readers empathize with the characters. So I always strived to reflect my readers.

12. Secondly, because the story or the message often dictates what type of character is required. THE COMPLEX was a book where I decided to get socio-political It specifically required those characters. Without thm, it would have just been another entertaining siege novel.

13. But it was the story requirements that dictated the usage of those characters. Not the public and certainly not some diseased wombat-licking motherfucker on Twitter with a fake name and an anime profile pic.

14. So you motherfuckers tearing down younger writers, female writers, writers of color, etc. and trying to dictate what they write, and judging their fans - come try that shit with me and my fans. I may be getting older, but I can still club you over the head like a baby seal.

15. Thanks for coming to my T.E.D. talk.