A few months ago I attended a Zoom panel with Jason Blum (Blumhouse) where he answered questions from horror fans. One of those questions that caught my ear was from a young man who wanted to know if every story had already been told, and if there was any possibility for new, fresh ideas. Blum, to his credit, immediately replied, “Oh, absolutely not! There are many, many fresh horror ideas that haven’t been told yet and you guys have them.”
That moment stuck out to me because for so long the horror genre has been pretty stagnant in ideas — or at least what mainstream fans would call ideas. I tend to struggle myself when sitting down to write something new. Then it dawned on me; the reason why someone would ask that question is because horror, in general, isn’t as diverse in storytelling as other genres.
Diversity isn’t just about showcasing actors who look like me and you, but amplifying stories from various cultures to enrich the genre. I look at films such as His House, about a refugee couple from South Sudan or the upcoming project from Afro Horror co-host Chris Courtney Martin, Charcuterie, about the dangers of gentrification in Philadelphia. These projects do not exist without the Black writers who penned them. They’ve stemmed from a lived experience and could never have been replicated by anybody else.
We could have an entire discussion about the lost history of Black Americans, but I’ll save that for another time. Instead, I want to focus on how to approach a unique premise for your screenplay if you have little to no lived experience and/or have limited knowledge of your culture or family history. Here are three tips to use your life experience as a premise when writing:
1. Start at home
Three years ago, I lost my best friend — my grandmother Bobbie — to bone cancer. She was a three-time breast cancer survivor and the best human I will ever know. As we buried her for her final rest, a singular thought replayed in my head over and over again: I didn’t ask her enough questions. There was so much about her life prior to being a grandmother, a mother, that I didn’t know. Days after the funeral, I sat with my aunt, Bobbie's eldest child, who told me stories of Gran I never knew.
She told me how she was one of the first Black female welders to work on the floor at General Motors. She told me about the time my grandmother stole diapers for my infant father during the Watts riots. She outlined the history of my family — how Gran met her husband, why they ended up in Michigan, and the family business they started in my hometown. Hearing all of this made the wheels in my head turn; so many stories to explore and I was out of time.
If you’re struggling to find inspiration when it comes time to write your next horror, I highly suggest starting at home. Your mother, father, grandparents; they are riddled with stories just aching to be told. Take an hour — take two — sit them down and ask questions. Not only will it jog your creativity, but life isn’t forever and from experience I can tell you … you will regret it if you don’t do it sooner than later.
2. Keep a dream journal. Seriously.
The one thing I didn’t expect after my grandmother passed was how little I dreamed about her. It would be three months after her funeral when I finally “saw” her again … and it was scary. I won’t go into detail about what happened, but I will say it was enough to frighten me to tears. I was disappointed. The image of my gran spoiled by a nightmare. Even now I still have the same dream.
I finally decided to write down every time I dreamed of her; what she looked like, what she said, what she didn’t say. It has inspired some pretty creepy stories. Dreams are our subconscious echoing our internal fears (or hopes) back at us. The most frustrating thing about dreams is that we tend to immediately forget them after we wake.
My second tip is to keep a journal next to your bed and write down every dream you have the next morning. Try this for a week and I bet you’ll be surprised at what stories your mind tells when your body is asleep.
3. 23AndMe
Okay, I’ll admit it. This may be the most expensive tip and not everyone can do it. But if you don’t have access to family and dreams just aren’t doing it, why not try an ancestry kit? Tracing your DNA is a great way to ignite your creative fire and learn about your family history in one swoop, especially if your family history is difficult to trace as it is within the African American community.
Writer’s block usually occurs when we feel like we have nothing left to say. As vast as the horror genre is, there are still millions of untold stories to be unearthed. Make sure you’re taking small digs into your personal garden every day to uproot the next great frightening tale.