How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction
- Author
- J.N. Williamson (ed.)
- Year
- 1987
- Cluster
- dark & speculative
- Format
- book
A time capsule with working parts. J.N. Williamson assembled this anthology in 1987, at the height of the horror paperback boom, collecting short instructional essays from the genre writers of that moment — each taking one craft problem: the opening page, believable monsters, suspense mechanics, worldbuilding on a budget of pages, revision, submission.
Read it today and it splits cleanly in two. The craft chapters hold up surprisingly well — fear, wonder, and momentum have not changed their mechanics, and the compression of the essay format keeps the advice concrete. The business chapters, meanwhile, describe a vanished civilization: a magazine-and-midlist ecosystem where a genre writer could climb a ladder that has since been dismantled. Treat those pages as history, not instruction.
Who is this for? Writers with a genealogical interest in dark fiction — how the generation that filled the spinner racks understood its own craft — and collectors of fundamentals stated plainly. If you want one genre anthology and no history lesson, Lamson’s Now Write! volume is the modern descendant; the verdict below pairs them.
You want the fundamentals of dark fiction from the generation that built the paperback boom — and can filter 1987 market advice.
You only want current advice; the business chapters describe a publishing world that no longer exists.
Dark Thoughts on Writing — the same tribe, interviewed instead · Now Write! SFF & Horror — the modern, exercise-driven descendant