Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-24841494-20140401134050/@comment-10950063-20140401145740

It's not that an order of assassins CAN'T make a good pasta. It's that it's extremely hard for it to.

It's the same reason why it's hard to write a horror story where your main character is Superman. What does Superman have to be afraid of? Where is the tension going to come from?

Horror stories work best when the reader can put themselves in the shoes of the character. Ordinary people with ordinary skills facing problems that are beyond their abilities.

Even if this kid is weak, it's still a story about him becoming strong (again, I'm assuming). Horror is about something occupying the weak spaces, not something repairing them. Adding elements of horror most likely won't make this a horror story, it will make it a dark story.

On top of that, assassins are professional killers. Their business is killing. An horror or discomfort or tension is negated because you understand their reasoning and motives. The coldness doesn't heighten the horror, it dulls it. No matter who they kill, it's not going to be a horror story. It's going to just be fantasy, action.

Again, it's not impossible. You've just got a lot of hurdles to overcome.