The Author’s Toolkit: Horror, Survival, and Everything Between
How does writing a survival guide inform writing a zombie apocalypse? Let me show you.
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When someone asks what I really write, the full answer is messy: horror, yes. But also how to live when everything unravels.
Here’s a peek into my author’s toolkit — the overlap between despair and hope:
Tension as structure In horror, the rising pressure must never flatten. The same applies to self-help: you guide the reader from low to high, from doubt to small conviction.
Unreliable narrators & personal memory Memory is fallible. When you doubt your own recollection, the world becomes stranger. I use that in my psychological horror — and in motivational pieces, I confront how we lie to ourselves.
Setting as character The dying Earth, the zombie-scourged city, or that tiny rural street — each is a force that pushes and pulls your characters. And in survival guides, the environment is your adversary.
Silence and what is unsaid In horror, the monster is often in the silence. In self-help or survival writing, the monster might be your fear of failure. Learning to read silence — to lean into it — is part of both crafts.
Scene economy Every sentence must earn its place. No fluff. No meandering. Whether I’m teaching how to ration food or describing a creeping shadow in a hallway, precision matters.
My challenge to you: Think of a moment you felt your own fear — perhaps in daylight, in broad daylight. Write it down, with detail, with sound, with the smell. Then ask: what monster would that memory birth?
If you want more crossroads between horror and survival, or to explore my full body of work across genres, here → Tommy Marcum on Amazon
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