The state of horror that is non-Action/Adventure/Smut…

[ElijahRyne]

I just did some checking, and it is a bit disheartening to see that my favorite genre isn’t doing too hot here on ScribbleHub… The reason I am not including horrors with Action/Adventure/Smut is because typically when those genera are usually not primarily focused on horror, and instead more focused on the aesthetics of horror or on horrific moments, if that makes sense. Of course there are exceptions, but I don’t know how to find them, for this analysis, without reading them.

There are ~50 currently updating horror stories.
There are ~116 horror stories marked as completed with more than 1k words.
There are less than 20 horror stories that have more than a 100k words.

This is quite disappointing to me, but there is little I can think of, except writing your own, to change this. The numbers are probably like this because it is hard to sell a horror without smut, action, or adventure on this site. This is probably because the audience and writers of this site are inspired/interested in anime/manga/light novels. There are few of these that are primarily horror, and even less that are translated. Even then it feels as if ScribbleHub still has proportionally less stories primarily focused on horror than anime and manga. This might be because it is harder to write a horror with out the visual medium.

What are your thoughts? Is my analysis accurate? If not, how? What is your favorite genre and how is it preforming here on ScribbleHub?

 

[TheEldritchGod]

What are your thoughts?

Memes.

Is my analysis accurate?

Sure. Let's run with that.

What is your favorite genre and how is it performing here on ScribbleHub?

Reverse Morality.
Poorly.

 

[Tsuru]

I just did some checking, and it is a bit disheartening to see that my favorite genre isn’t doing too hot here on ScribbleHub… The reason I am not including horrors with Action/Adventure/Smut is because typically when those genera are usually not primarily focused on horror, and instead more focused on the aesthetics of horror or on horrific moments, if that makes sense. Of course there are exceptions, but I don’t know how to find them without reading them.

There are ~50 currently updating horror stories.
There are ~116 horror stories marked as completed with more than 1k words.
There are less than 20 horror stories that have more than a 100k words.

This is quite disappointing to me, but there is little I can think of, except writing your own, to change this. The numbers are probably like this because it is hard to sell a horror without smut, action, or adventure on this site. This is probably because the audience and writers of this site are inspired/interested in anime/manga/light novels. There are few of these that are primarily horror, and even less that are translated. Even then it feels as if ScribbleHub still has proportionally less stories primarily focused on horror than anime and manga. This might be because it is harder to write a horror with out the visual medium.

What are your thoughts? Is my analysis accurate? If not, how? What is your favorite genre and how is it preforming here on ScribbleHub?

Simple logic.

Ask yourself. Why are horror movies less popular nowadays in cinema.
And ask yourself too : what are the world record selling movies nowadays (cough previouslySPIRITEDAWAYghibli cough)

Its not that you are the asking the answer. But you ALREADY KNOW the answer.

 

[Bobple]

I mean, it makes sense why.

It's not crazy to say most people aren't crazy about horror, if they don't mind it, then its more likely they like it as apart of something else (Of course there are plenty of people who just like a good horror story as well). A good horror arc is amazing, but a story that is just horror gets less interesting (Generally, there are plenty of great exceptions).

Now why there is so few. Well besides the obvious, it can also just be people aren't interesting in writing horror. Yeah it is very true it can be harder to convey horror to audience in written form, but if people don't have the motivation to write them in the first place, then yeah...

It would be nice if there was more, but not really much you can do. Honestly, the best strategy to getting more horror on the site is to trick people into writing horror short stories for activities like Halloween . This might not be that hard to do.

I don't really touch horror much (Cause I don't like being scared a lot, but it is fun to dip my toes in it every now and again.). I did write one horror-y short story once, that was fun, even if it wasn't that scary. But if I do touch the genre again it will probably be apart of something else.

 

[BigBadBoi]

Horror is really hard to write and it's difficult to keep that sense of dread over time. There's also the fact that horror is a really unpopular genre overall and people prefer visual media if they're looking for horror like horror movies, manga, visual novels, and games.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

Horror is really hard to write and it's difficult to keep that sense of dread over time.

Pretty much this, which is why it's not suitable for web novels that are generally quite long. Horror is better suited to short stories or books with a beginning and an end.

people prefer visual media if they're looking for horror like horror movies, manga, visual novels, and games.

Well yes, but actually no.
It's true that people might prefer visuals when it comes to Horror, but in reality, as a genre, it works better when the horror is not seen, and thus writing is the best way to represent horror.
However, you need to be damn good to scare through reading, and I think this is one of the reasons why it's a genre not widely spread among amateur writers.

 

[prognastat]

Horror just isn't that popular in general just look at movie box offices. Sure a few horror movies hit it big, but usually they still aren't the big performers and even those successes are quite rare. They generally rely on making a profit by having a lower budget so they don't have to sell as much to make a profit.

I would also say it's even worse for reading since conveying horror in written form is much harder than it is visually. You can't really rely on jumpscares to convince people it was scary and is instead about building and maintaining a certain atmosphere which is much harder. This is even harder without sound which is also a big part of the experience.

Also it doesn't lend itself well to the serial publishing format that is popular on here. Nothing like you just starting to get into the creepy atmosphere and then having to wait until the next chapter comes out.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

And after looking at horror you look at sports genre.

 

[BigBadBoi]

And after looking at horror you look at sports genre.

I mean who the fuck would read the sports genre anyway outside of scifi VR esports? Most sports fans only watch sports while sitting on a couch with a beer in hand, anyway.