Bram Stoker and the Power of the Document

Epistolary Intimacy

I’ve been leafing through Dracula as the wind rattles my studio window. We often remember the vampire, but we forget that the novel is told entirely through letters, diary entries, and newspaper clippings. Stoker knew that by using these “found documents,” he could create a sense of grounded, terrifying reality.

The epistolary form forces a specific kind of intimacy. We aren’t just hearing a story; we are reading a character’s private records. It allows for gaps in the narrative—things the character didn’t have time to write or was too afraid to record. Those gaps are where the reader’s imagination takes over.

The Monroe Minute
Write a one-paragraph diary entry from your character’s perspective about something they would never say out loud to another person.

Until the next page,
Sloane S. Monroe

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Sloane Shay Monroe

I don’t write to idealize love, but to explore it honestly, with emotional precision and depth.