Horror stories can be fun to both read and write! A good horror story can make you horrified, terrified, or give you nightmares. Since a horror story must be believable in order to frighten, upset or disgust the reader, it can be difficult to write it well. Like all other genres of fantasy, though, horror can be mastered, with the right mix of planning, patience, and practice.
Steps
Part 1 of 5: Learning about the Horror Genre
Step 1. Consider the subjective nature of a horror story
Like comic lyrics, horror stories can be difficult to write, because what terrifies or screams one person can leave another bored or emotionless. But just as the best comedians manage to create great jokes, the masters of horror have been able to write many masterpieces. While your stories may not be liked by all readers, or they may not cause screams of terror, there will almost always be at least one reader who will be horrified by your story.
Step 2. Read many different types of horror stories
Get familiar with the genre by reading the genre's classics, from ghost stories to contemporary masterpieces. As the famous horror writer Stephen King once said, to be a true writer, you have to "write and read a lot". Think of the ghost stories you told as a kid around the fire or the award-winning horror stories you read in school or alone. You could also follow these specific tips:
- "The Monkey's Paw", an eighteenth-century short story by William Wymark Jacobs about three terrible wishes granted by a monkey's paw.
- "The Revealing Heart", a short story by horror master Edgar Allan Poe, which deals with murders and hauntings of ghosts in a way that disturbs the psyche.
- Humpty Dumpty's version of the nursery rhyme in "The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds" by Neil Gaiman
- You would miss a lot if you didn't read at least one novel by what is believed to be the master of the genre, Stephen King. He has written over 200 short stories, and uses many different techniques to scare readers. Although there are many lists that rank his best stories, read "The finger" or "The children of wheat" to learn about his style.
- Contemporary writer Joyce Carol Oates also wrote a famous horror story titled "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" Which uses psychological terror very effectively.
Step 3. Review the examples of horror stories
Choose one or two examples that you have read with pleasure or that you find interesting for how they use a certain setting, plot, character or twist to create horror or terror. Eg:
- In Stephen King's short story "The Finger", the author creates this premise: a man who thinks he sees and hears a human finger moving and scratching a wall in his bathroom. The novel then follows the man closely for a short period of time, as he tries to avoid the finger, until he is forced to face his fear. King inserts other elements, such as a prize quiz on television and a conversation between the protagonist and his wife to increase the feeling of suspense and terror.
- In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" of Oates, the author introduces the protagonist, a young girl named Connie, describing scenes from her daily life, and then goes into detail on the fateful day, in which two men park a car near Connie's house, who is alone. Oates uses dialogue to create a sense of dread and allows the reader to experience the fear Connie feels about the two men.
- In both stories, horror and fear are created with a combination of shock and pause, using supernatural elements (a moving human finger) and psychologically disturbing (a young girl alone with two men).
Part 2 of 5: Generating Ideas for a Story
Step 1. Think about what scares or horrifies you the most
Exploit your fears of losing a family member, of being alone, of being abused, of clowns, demons or killer squirrels. You will have to represent your fears in black and white and your experiences or explorations of the subject will keep the reader glued to the page.
- Write the list of your greatest fears. Then, think about how you would react if you were forced to face them.
- You could also seek the advice of family, friends, or your partner. Collect personal ideas about horror.
Step 2. Take an ordinary situation and create something horrible
Another approach you can take is to observe a normal everyday situation, such as a walk in the park, making a salad, or visiting a friend, and add a terrifying or bizarre element. For example, think about encountering a severed ear on a walk, lettuce become a finger or tentacle, or your old friend doesn't recognize you and claims you are someone else.
Use your imagination to add a horror touch to a normal daily activity
Step 3. Use environments to limit or trap characters in your story
One way to create a terror-inducing situation for the reader is to restrict the character's movements so that they are forced to confront their fears and then find a way out.
- Think about the kind of confined spaces that scare you. Where would you be most afraid of being trapped?
- Trap your character in a limited space such as a cellar, coffin, abandoned hospital, island or abandoned city. This will create an immediate conflict or threat to the character, and immediately add tension and suspense to the story.
Step 4. Let the characters limit their movements
Maybe your character is a werewolf who doesn't want to hurt anyone on the following full moon and thus locks himself in a cell or room. Or your character is so afraid of a severed finger in the bathroom, that he does everything he can to avoid the bathroom until he is tormented by the finger to the point of being forced to go into the bathroom and face it.
Step 5. Arouses extreme emotions in the reader
Since horror relies on the reader's subjective reactions, the story should try to elicit the following extreme feelings:
- Shock: The simplest way to scare the reader is to shock him with a surprise ending, a sudden gory image, or an unexpected moment of terror. However, creating fright with shock can become predictable, and in a sense make the reader "immune" to this type of fright.
- Paranoia: The feeling that something is wrong can be unnerving for the reader, can make him question his personal situation and, when used to its full effect, can make the reader doubt even his beliefs and ideas about the world. This type of fear is very suitable for psychological horror stories and for those that gradually develop tension.
- Fear: This type of fear is the horrible feeling that something terrible is about to happen. Fear works well when the reader is very involved in the story and begins to care for the characters to the point of fear that something bad might happen to them. Inspiring fear in a reader is not easy, because the story will have to be well written to engage them, but it is a powerful type of fear.
Step 6. Use horrifying details to generate horror or terror in the player
Stephen King argues that there are many ways to create a feeling of horror or terror in a story, which can create different reactions in the reader.
- Use creepy details, like a severed finger rolling down the stairs, something green and slimy falling on your arm, or a character falling into a pool of blood.
- Use unnatural details (or fear of the unknown or the impossible), such as bear-sized spiders, a zombie attack, or an alien claw that grabs the protagonist's foot in a dark room.
- It uses psychologically terrifying details, such as a character returning home and finding another version of himself, or a character suffering from terrible nightmares that alter his sense of reality.
Step 7. Create a texture profile
Once you have chosen the premise or scenario and setting, decided which extreme emotions to leverage, and decided the kind of frightening details you will use in the story, create a sketchy outline of the story.
You can use Freytag's pyramid to create an outline for your tale, starting with the description of the setting and the protagonist's life or day, moving on to the character conflict (a severed finger in the bathroom, two men in a car), continues with the action, where the character tries to resolve the conflict but encounters obstacles or complications, and finally reaches the climax, and then ends in the resolution, where the character has changed, transformed or, in the case of some stories, meets a tragic death
Part 3 of 5: Developing the Characters
Step 1. Get your reader to feel affection or to identify with the protagonist
You can do this by introducing clear details and descriptions of the character's routine, relationships, and points of view.
- Determine your character's age and occupation.
- Determine your character's marital or relationship status.
- It determines how the protagonist sees the world (he is cynical, skeptical, anxious, cheerful, satisfied, fulfilled).
- Add unique or specific details. Make your characters unique with distinctive traits or characteristics (a haircut, a scar) or an element of their appearance (a piece of clothing, a piece of jewelry, a pipe, a cane). Even a character's speech or dialect can make it unique and make it stand out in the eyes of the reader.
- When the reader identifies with a character, he has a tendency to become like a child. He will feel empathy for the character's conflict, and will cheer him on to succeed, even though he knows the chances are slim.
- This tension between the reader's desire and the possibility of something going wrong will be the driving force of the story.
Step 2. Prepare for bad things to happen to your characters
Most horror is based on terror and tragedy and the challenge between the character and the fear he has to overcome. A story in which good things happen to good people will be pleasant, but probably not scary. In fact, it's not only easier to identify with a tragedy where bad things happen to good people, but the story will also have more tension and suspense for that reason.
- To create conflict in your character's life, you'll need to introduce a danger or threat to him, whether it's a moving finger, two men in a car, a magical monkey paw, or a murderous clown.
- In Stephen King's short story "The Finger", for example, the protagonist, Howard, is a middle-aged man who likes to watch quizzes on television, has a happy relationship with his wife and seems to have no financial problems. King does not allow the reader to relax too much with Howard's quiet life, however, by introducing a scratching sound in the bathroom. The discovery of the finger in the bathroom and Howard's subsequent attempt to avoid it, remove it or destroy it, creates a story where the life of a seemingly normal and agreeable man is interrupted by the unknown or the unreal.
Step 3. Allow your characters to make mistakes or make bad decisions
When you have established the threat or danger to the character, you will need to make him react with the wrong move, but emphasizing his belief that he is acting in his best interest.
- It is important to create sufficient reasons for which the character makes the wrong decisions, so that they do not seem just stupid or arbitrary. A young and attractive babysitter who reacts to a masked killer by running not to the phone to call the police, but outside in a dark forest, not only makes a stupid move, but also a little credible in the eyes of the reader.
- If, on the other hand, your character makes a wrong but justifiable decision in response to a threat, the reader will be more likely to believe it and cheer on the character.
- In "The Finger", for example, Howard initially decides not to tell his wife about the noise in the bathroom because he thinks he is hallucinating or mistaking the sound for a mouse. The story justifies Howard's decision by recalling what most people do who witness a strange or bizarre event: it's not real or I imagined it.
- The story then justifies Howard's reaction when his wife, after being in the bathroom, does not speak of the finger. The story therefore plays with Howard's perception of reality that he may in fact have been hallucinating.
Step 4. Clearly describe the risks the character runs, which must be extreme
A character's risk in a story is what he or she would lose as a result of a decision. If the reader does not know what is at stake for the character, he cannot fear defeat. And a good horror story should always generate fear and anxiety in the reader.
- Fear arises from the consequences of the character's actions or the risk of these actions. If your character then decides to face the clown in the attic or the two men in the car, the reader will need to know what the protagonist might lose as a result of this decision. Preferably, the risk to the character should be extreme, such as the loss of sanity, the loss of innocence, the loss of his life or a loved one.
- In the case of King's tale, the main character is afraid that facing the finger he might go insane. The risk to the character is very high and very clear to the reader. Therefore, when Howard finally faces the finger, the reader is terrified of what the protagonist might lose.
Part 4 of 5: Creating a Terrifying Climax and Surprise Ending
Step 1. Manipulate the player without confusing it
Readers may be confused or frightened, but not both. Deceiving or manipulating the reader with anticipations, changing character traits or revealing a plot point can create suspense and anxiety or fear in the reader.
- Make references to the story's horrific climax by giving small clues or details, such as a bottle label that will later be useful for the protagonist, a sound or voice in a room that will later become an indication of a supernatural presence, or even a loaded gun under the pillow that can be fired in the future or used by the protagonist.
- Create tension by alternating tense or bizarre moments with calmer ones, where the character can calm down and feel safe again. Then, raise the tension by bringing the character back into conflict, making him appear even more serious and threatening.
- In the short story "The Finger", Stephen King creates this effect by describing Howard's fear of the finger: The protagonist later has a relatively normal conversation with his wife in front of the TV while still thinking about the finger, and then tries to escape by taking a walk.. Howard begins to feel safe and certain that the finger is not real, but of course, as soon as he reopens the bathroom door, the finger seems to have gotten longer and is moving much faster than before.
- King slowly builds the tension for the character and the reader, introducing the threat and then leaving it in the background for the rest of the story. As readers, we know that the finger is the sign of something negative or possibly evil, and we are in a position to observe Howard first tries to avoid it, then is forced to face it.
Step 2. Add a surprise ending
The ending of a horror story can make the difference between a masterpiece and a bad story, so it's important to create a surprise ending that makes sense of the question marks of the character's conflict, but leaves an important one unresolved to stimulate the imagination of the reader.
- While you should create a satisfying ending for the reader, it shouldn't be clear enough to leave the reader without some doubt or uncertainty.
- You could give the character an insight into the conflict or how to resolve it. The revelation should be the result of all the details described in the story and should not seem random or forced to the reader.
- In "The Finger" Howard's enlightenment comes when the protagonist realizes that the finger could indicate an evil or a mistake in the world. He asks the police officer who arrived to arrest him, after neighbors complained about the noises, for one last question in a quiz, for the "inexplicable" category. Howard asks "Why do the most terrible things happen to the best people in some cases?" The agent then turns to open the toilet, where Howard has hidden the severed finger.
- This ending leaves the reader questioning what the agent saw in the toilet, and whether the finger was real or part of Howard's imagination. In this way, the ending remains uncertain without surprising or confusing the reader too much.
Step 3. Avoid clichés
Like all genres, horror also has its clichés and clichés that writers should avoid in order to write engaging and unique stories. From familiar images like those of a crazy clown in the attic or a babysitter at home alone at night, to overused phrases like "Run!" or "Don't look over your shoulder!", clichés in this genre are hard to avoid.
- Focus on creating a story that is personally terrifying to you. Or add an original element to a horror cliché, like a vampire who loves cakes instead of blood, or a man trapped in a garbage can instead of a coffin.
- Remember that too many gory or violent images can desensitize the reader, especially if the pools of blood keep recurring throughout the story. Of course, some gory imagery is suitable and probably necessary for a horror story. But make sure you use them meaningfully or effectively so they hit the reader in the stomach instead of boring them.
- Another way to avoid clichés is to focus more on creating a disturbed or unstable state of mind for your character, rather than gory images or pools of blood. Visual memories often do not linger in the reader's mind, while the effects of these images on the character are likely to create a lasting unpleasant sensation in the reader. So don't aim at the reader's imagination, but at creating a disturbance in his mood.
Part 5 of 5: Reviewing the Story
Step 1. Analyze the use of language
Read the first draft of your story and look for sentences where you repeated adjectives, nouns or verbs. Maybe you have a preference for the adjective "red" to describe a dress or a pool of blood. Terms like "ruby", "crimson" or "vermilion" can give more body to the language and transform a banal phrase like "a pool of red blood" into a more interesting one, such as "a pool of crimson blood".
- Grab your thesaurus and substitute repeated words to avoid using them over and over in the story.
- Make sure you use a language and vocabulary choice suited to the character. A teenager will most likely use different words and phrases than a middle-aged man. Creating a vocabulary for your character that reflects their personality and perspectives will help make them more believable.
Step 2. Read the story aloud
You can do this in the mirror or to a group of people you trust. Horror tales began in oral tradition, created to scare someone around the fire, so reading your story aloud will help you determine if its pace is steadily and gradually increasing, if there are enough elements to create. shock, paranoia or fear, and if your character makes all the wrong decisions until he is forced to face the source of the conflict.
- If your story contains a lot of dialogue, reading it aloud will help you determine if they are believable and natural.
- If the story contains a surprise ending, evaluate the reader's reaction by looking at the faces of the audience to see if the ending is effective or in need of some modification.
