Notable Weird Fiction Authors: How to Write Weird Fiction

Weird fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that combines supernatural, horror, magical realist, and fantasy elements. Speculative fiction focuses on stories containing speculative elements that do not exist in the real world. Weird fiction’s roots lie in Gothic fiction, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. It subverts the traditional conventions of these genres, creating a whole new crop of unsettling and sophisticated short stories, anthologies, and novels.

Weird fiction plays to an audience’s discomfort and fascination with the unknown, digging deep into the spiritual, emotional, and existential conflicts of the human condition in ways that traditional horror stories may not. Weird fiction stories may feature bizarre creatures, haunting mythos, or mental disturbances caused by unknown forces.

Here is a brief overview of weird fiction’s evolution:

• Beginnings: As the nineteenth century brought about the golden age of ghost stories, another branch of literature found inspiration in the supernatural, which fell outside of the expected Gothic tale that blended elements of romance, horror, and death. These weird stories were examples of paranormal fiction containing twists or subversions of expectations, branching out from the traditional tale of the age to add a sense of dread and mystique.
• Poe: In the mid-nineteenth century, Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first authors to write in a dark style different from the common fiction styles of the era.
• Pulp magazines: The popularity of weird fiction hit its initial peak in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as new horror authors found inspiration in earlier works. The American pulp magazine Weird Tales published many of these types of stories between the 1920s and 1950s.
• Lovecraft: In 1937, H.P. Lovecraft popularized the term “weird fiction” in a series of essays, categorizing the work of himself and others (notably Poe) within this specific subgenre. Bolstered by a growing platform, the weird fiction movement continued to gain favor with other writers.
• The New Weird: By the 1990s, the weird fiction movement experienced a shift, giving birth to the ‘the new weird’ literary subgenre. ‘The new weird’ is a more recent speculative fiction branch with a more realistic and complex fantasy tone.

From the nineteenth century to today, there have been many “weird writers” whose works have impacted the literary world. Here are some of the most influential weird authors and some of their best weird fiction books and stories:

1. 1. Algernon Blackwood: Blackwood was a master weird storyteller who delved into various worlds filled with unsettling horror, wonder, and spiritual forces. His 1907 novel The Willows depicts two men as they travel down a river. They experience several unsettling occurrences, and the narrator suspects the surrounding sentient willow trees are instigating these events.
2. 2. Robert W. Chambers: The first four stories of Chambers’s anthology The King in Yellow (1895) deal with a malevolent, mysterious presence in yellow (as well as a yellow sign). This motif was an inspiration for HBO’s True Detective series.
3. 3. Lord Dunsany: Lord Dunsany (whose real name was Edward Plunkett) was an Anglo-Irish writer of dark, fantastical fiction. The Gods of Pegāna (1905) is a series of short stories depicting deities in their narratives, featuring illustrations by English artist Sidney Sime.
4. 4. Brian Evenson: Brian Evenson is a speculative fiction writer who has gained much of his inspiration from the weird fiction genre. Evenson’s 2019 short story collection Songs for the Unraveling of the World delves into the strange and unsettling world of fantastical horror.
5. 5. William Hope Hodgson: Hodgson was an English writer whose notable works included fantastic fiction and sci-fi. His short story “The Hog” (1947), first published in Weird Tales, follows a supernatural detective who must deal with a giant hog spirit. The novel The House on the Borderland (1908) follows a recluse’s hallucinatory account of a stay in a remote house, where they encounter strange and supernatural occurrences.
6. 6. Franz Kafka: Kafka’s famous short story "The Metamorphosis” (1918) features a salesman who awakes one day to find that he has turned into a monstrous insect. The narrative follows the protagonist as he deals with his new condition and the consequences of his transformation.
7. 7. H.P. Lovecraft: American writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one of the most famous weird fiction authors. “Lovecraftian,” a term named after Lovecraft, refers to conditions that defy the laws of nature and embody weird, cosmic horror. His short story “The Call of Cthulhu” features the abomination known as Cthulhu, a horrifyingly destructive monster with tentacles and a squid face. The story originally appeared in the science fiction and horror periodical Weird Tales in 1928.
8. 8. Arthur Machen: Arthur Machen was the pen name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh author in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who wrote several stories dealing with a sense of the unknown and mystical occurrences. His first major success was a fantasy horror novella, The Great God Pan (1894), inspired by his experiences at the ruins of a pagan temple in Wales.
9. 9. Edgar Allan Poe: Many historians consider Poe the first weird fiction writer. Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) features an unidentified narrator—a childhood friend of the main character—who visits the main character at his seemingly sentient home. As the narrator learns more about his old friend’s family and state of mind, he discovers that the house is alive and threatening to collapse.
10. 10. Jeff VanderMeer: VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014), the first of three books in his Southern Reach Trilogy, follows four women who set out on an expedition to Area X, a mysterious land cut off from civilization that is rife with tragedy. Many people who visit this area either do not return or end up otherwise changed or sick.

Weird fiction stories often contain a variety of macabre elements and supernatural components. Follow these steps to write your work of weird fiction:

1. 1. Start with a mood. In the short essay “Notes on Writing Weird Fiction,” H.P. Lovecraft directs weird fiction writers to begin with a mood when they start building the world of their story. Brainstorm all of the concrete imagery, landscapes, and words that would best embody that particular feeling. Keep these pictures in mind as you assemble the elements of your narrative, like setting, characters, or conflicts.
2. 2. Build your narrative. Before you start writing your weird fiction piece, outline all of the elements of your story. What is the plot? Who are the characters? Where do they live? What does their world look like, and how is it different from yours? Weird fiction involves blending tropes and crossing genre boundaries, but you don’t want to overload your story with too many fantastical components because it might overwhelm the reader. Structure your story and build the atmosphere first before adding action and lore. Outline all of the major events in your story—first in the chronological order they happen, and then in the narrative order.
3. 3. Eschew the tropes. Weird fiction subverts the traditional stories of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, or other supernatural creatures. This genre is about finding new and refreshing ways to shake up the classic arcs and tropes. Avoid clichés that don’t bring anything new to the table.
4. 4. Find a deeper, darker meaning. Weird fiction dives deep into the darker and more troubling components of human emotion and experience. In these stories, magical or mystical forces are always tethered to some truth about the human condition—like a fear of the unknown. If you incorporate supernatural or symbolic elements into your story, give them a message that goes beyond the surface level. Give your fantastical elements a deeper meaning that speaks to the overall theme of your narrative.
5. 5. Write and revise. Write out your narrative, making room for dramatic suspense, twists, and other compelling events. If the writing feels cliché, take the story in an even weirder direction. Weird fiction is all about breaking convention, so feel free to switch and swap elements, so it feels fresh and thrilling to you.

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