Writing Advices - Blog Posts

So I just started my short story writing class! These are dialogue tips from Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft

hey do you have any tips on how to write surreal horror (mostly short stories?) it's a genre that i've really been interested in trying to write, but i'm not too sure how to go about it (and thanks for providing such a useful blog :D)

I love surreal horror. 

Okay. 

Plot twists are your best friend. Do the unexpected. Do a 180 last second, turn everything around on the reader. Obviously it has to be believable with in the context of the story, but keep it a surprise.

False sense of security? Works wonders. Nothing is safe. Let readers think something is good/pure/innocent/calm/safe/helpful/etc when it’s not. Lure them into that trap. Let them believe and then rip it away from them. 

Invert things. Similar to the false sense of security. Take things that are usually strongly associated with one thing, and associate it with the opposite. Take something dark and make it the good thing. Take something bright and make it evil. Take something sweet and make it bitter. Take something healthy and make it deadly. If you do it right, you can make the reader curiously uncomfortable. 

With surreal horror you want to shock your reader. You want to make them feel strangely uncomfortable. You want to make them question things. 

Hope that helps :)