Writing the spooky stuff
Tapping into the dark side with author Allison Rushby
There’s no hiding the fact that I like to write the spooky stuff. I have characters who are ghosts (okay, lots of characters who are ghosts). I have a spirit who lives in the walls of a house and when she’s angry her face comes out of the walls and screams. I have cursed trees. I have evil magic.
And this week I will have antique anatomical wax figures that come to life at night to murder the men who have wronged them (disclaimer: this one – Slashed Beauties – is historical fantasy for adults).
Yes, I am little bit into writing the spooky stuff. So much so that when Megan Daley first heard what Slashed Beauties was about, she narrowed her eyes at me and said, “You don’t really look like you should be writing that sort of thing, do you?”.
He he.
But that’s the funny thing about books. You never really know what someone’s going to gravitate towards reading. Or writing. I always think it’s fascinating to see what floats someone’s reading/writing boat.
Why do I write the spooky stuff?
In interviews, I’m often asked why I write all things spooky. This is a hard question to answer because I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love the spooky stuff. However, when I look back, I think I can cobble together an almost coherent response.
For a start, I’ve always loved reading historical books. For this, I blame my mother, Pamela Rushby, who writes in exactly the same space, reads exactly the same books and has a Masters degree in Classics and Ancient History. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Then there’s what I believe is my origin story.
Origin story: having a love of all things historical, my mother was a member of the local Victorian cemetery’s historical society. Members would usually pick a few graves to tend – ones of some historical significance that had no one left to care for them. When she went to tend to the graves, she’d often drag my brother and me along for the ride.
One day, while we were on one of these visits in the historic cemetery, my brother managed to lock us out of the car. It was late afternoon, light was fading fast and I became fully convinced that we would have to live in the cemetery forevermore with the ghosts (because, of course, there were ghosts).
This did not, in fact, happen and our car was unlocked for us within the hour. But it might have happened! Overactive imagination much?
Then, there was this book (isn’t there always a book?)
To add to my origin story, there’s also this book – Usborne’s The World of the Unknown: Ghosts by Christopher Maynard. First published in 1977 this cult classic is, well, a cult classic– I know many writers and readers of the spooky stuff who also adored this as children.
I borrowed this book from my primary school library approximately 5378 times. I would have borrowed it 5379 times, but the teacher librarian gently took it from my hands (okay, she probably had to wrest it from my sticky grasp) and suggested I might like to try something else. I did not, in fact, want to try something else and, lucky for me, no one else seemed particularly interested in borrowing said text, so I just went right on borrowing it.
In my eight-year-old opinion (hey, maybe even now!), The World of the Unknown: Ghosts is the finest book ever written. It’s chock full of interesting little ghostly tidbits from around the globe, fantastically illustrated in full colour – huge, energy-filled illustrations on every single page.
So imagine my joy when Usborne recently reissued this cracker for a whole new generation of ghost-hunters. (Yes, I pre-ordered.)
Now, why did I adore this book so much? I honestly believe it’s because I loved how frightening it was.
I loved how frightening it was while also knowing I was completely safe in my fears.
Kids need scary books
You might have missed the piece I wrote for this newsletter a while back about why children should read scary books, but this is the point I made in that piece – childhood can be a scary time, but books offer a very safe space in which we can explore our fears.
Yes, I was scared of ghosts. But in The World of the Unknown: Ghosts I could learn all about them. Perhaps I thought I’d even learn how to beat one if I met one in real life?
And when those ghosts I was reading about got too scary? Well, I could put the book down for a bit and pick it up again another day. Bonus: the next time we got locked out of our car in the cemetery I wouldn’t be frightened at all (this definitely worked, because I’m currently desperate to buy a house that’s for sale on the edge of Highgate Cemetery in London at the very reasonable price of £5M. Donations appreciated).
When I’m speaking in schools, I always encourage young readers to take a good hard look at what they love reading. Do they like funny books, historical books, spooky books? I ask them if they’ve ever re-read a book (many have). And then I tell them that’s the best indication of the sort of thing they should be writing whenever they’re called upon to write something of their choosing.
Amazingly, they’re often a little shocked by this, but the truth is even adult writers often haven’t considered this at length – what you adore reading is an extremely good indicator of what you will be happiest writing. I’ve started taking along my copy of The World of the Unknown: Ghosts and telling them all about how many times I borrowed it from my school library. And how it made me the writer I am today.
If you have a young reader on your hands who loves reading the spooky stuff, I highly encourage you to get them to take a deep dive into why they love reading it.
Do they love the spooky house they’ve just read about?
The ghost?
The creepy tree?
The darkness?
Get them to see if they can add an element of this to their next piece of writing.
And don’t forget to order a copy of The World of the Unknown: Ghosts and press it into their ghoulish little hands.
Allison Rushby is the author of middle-grade novels The Turnkey (series), The Mulberry Tree, The Ghost Locket and 25+ other books for children, YA and adults.
Find out more about Allison and her books here.
YKNR recommended book lists:
*10 spooky (not scary!) reads for Halloween
*10 spooky (or scary) middle-grade reads for Halloween
*More Spooky Stories for Kids 8+
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