It’s Spooky Szn. Let’s give ’em chills.

Welcome to Spine Tingler, a twice-monthly newsletter for anyone who wants to tell more gripping stories.

Here, I’ll share inspiration from two oft-maligned genres I unabashedly love: horror and musical theater. Though this focus might seem like an odd one for someone running a purpose-driven storytelling shop, I think it makes unlikely sense for a few reasons.

Both genres are polarizing because they push the boundaries of what’s possible to illuminate our emotional and existential realities. There’s a lot they can teach us about crafting stories that resonate, provoke, and enliven new worlds.

The worst are a master class in creativity and determination. (Or is it delusion? Either way, it’s enviable.) The best, meanwhile, force us to examine ourselves, our surroundings, and our cosmos by boldly going where few dare, and imagining dreams — or waking nightmares — into being. Honoring these extremes of our human experience — unbridled joy, sorrow, love, rage, and terror — is something I’ve learned from my clients is vital to sustaining the work of building better futures.

And as the walls of our algorithm-fueled echo chambers cave in on us, it’s more important now than ever to learn from different disciplines to keep our minds open, critical thinking skills sharp, and wellsprings of inspiration overflowing.

But aside from all that, this newsletter is pure selfish justification for all the hours I sink into horror and musical theater. My goal is to better spend some of that time unearthing gems for all of us storytellers — and trust me, as a human, you are one — even if mileage for the genres themselves may vary. In fact, I encourage you to invite your skeptical and squeamish friends to subscribe so they can get the inspo without having to stomach all that belting and bloodletting. (We’ll tackle heavy themes with a light touch.)

Up first: a craft piece on dispatching your darlings to tell a more expansive story. Let me know what you think of it, and what else has gotten your blood pumping lately.

Thanks for being here.

Delaney

Delaney Rebernik
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Death becomes you, darling

Editor’s note: This essay contains spoilers for the films Hereditary (2018), Funny Games (1997), Scream (1996), Psycho (1960), and The Bad Seed (1956), and the musical Rent (1994).

Kill your darlings.

It’s a common adage in writing. Variants will have you murdering kittens or even babies — basically anything precious that you’ve been nurturing on the page to the detriment of your overarching story. It’s about getting cold-blooded and clear-eyed: sacrificing the saccharine for your prose’s higher purpose.