I've been thinking about the difference between writing science fiction and writing horror, now that I've done both.
Here's the formulation I keep coming back to: science fiction asks "what if?" Horror asks "what then?"
The Science Fiction Question
"What if a microbe evolved to consume synthetic plastic?" That's the question behind Plastivore/Plastiphobia. Everything else — the characters, the plot, the stakes — flows from following that question honestly. Science fiction is, at its core, a literature of consequences. You change one thing and trace the ripples.
The pleasure of writing science fiction is intellectual. You're building a system, testing it, watching it break. The fear in science fiction is usually systemic — the fear of what we've built, what we've unleashed, what we can't take back.
The Horror Question
Horror starts after the "what if" has already happened. The door is already open. The thing is already in the house. The question is: what do you do now? How do you survive? What does surviving cost you?
The fear in horror is personal. It's not about systems — it's about *you*, specifically, and what you would do.
That's why horror is harder to write, for me at least. Science fiction lets you hide behind the idea. Horror doesn't give you anywhere to hide.
Where Monster Lives
Monster is both. The labyrinth is a science-fictional premise — an ancient structure with rules, with logic, with consequences that can be traced. But the experience of the characters inside it is horror. The question isn't "what if this exists?" The question is "you're already inside it — now what?"
I didn't plan it that way. That's just where the story wanted to live. Genre is a useful shorthand, but the best stories don't stay inside the lines.