How To Write A Horror Story?

Tips to be more suspenseful with your writing.

I was recently watching a horror movie that made me think. What characteristics distinguish an excellent horror story?

Toss in some horrible creatures, fountains of blood, and things that jump out from behind every corner.

But as legendary horror novelist Howard Phillips Lovecraft said, the oldest and most powerful sort of terror is the fear of the unknown. And writers should harness that fear not by disclosing horrors to the audience, but by keeping them hanging in suspense as they await what will happen next.

Surpirse or anticipation

By blending every day with the shocking, the unnatural, the horror story should touch on the audience’s concerns. Many horror stories situate their male/female protagonist in realistic situations such as a new house, a summer camp, a hotel stay, or a camping trip. The audience is primed for future dread by the relatability of these surroundings.

When the protagonist confronts moments of dread, the more the protagonist’s point of view resembles that of the viewer, the scarier it will be. When a young family in a new house experiences a slasher is scarier than when a robot in deep space encounters a slasher. Why?

Because most of us have experienced moving into a new home. We have no idea what it’s like to be a robot in space.

Suspense is achieved by posing a question or a series of questions to which the audience expects an answer and delaying that answer while sustaining the audience’s interest and keeping them guessing.

Good horror = good imagination

Classic horror fiction, whether in the form of a novel, novella, short story, or film, will always touch on themes that terrify the majority of people. Ghosts, werewolves, vampires, zombies, serial killers, murderers.

The fear of the unknown is a great key point in the structure of a horror story.

What helps is to put yourself in the unknown and conquer your fears through the story. Authenticity is beneficial to horror, just as it is to humor.

Stephen King has written about how the technique helped him conquer plenty of his personal fears in writings on horror writing; his know-how is based on the experience. If something scares you and it will probably be able to scare an audience.

Character perspective is the key

Tell the story from the character’s point of view. They may begin with the same level of knowledge as the audience and progress as they acquire more. Similarly, great works like Dracula, which are told in the form of letters and diary entries, are based on the experiences and fears of the characters.

Choose the correct backdrop and picture next to place the horror story in; old houses or castles with meandering corridors and secret passageways hint that something sinister is being hidden; nighttime, fog, and storms all play similar roles in limiting visibility and restricting player movement.

The location of the incident contributes to the horror story’s development.

Make horror more human

The more human your story or screenplay’s characters are, the more their errors and terrible decisions will resonate with an audience.

Take inspiration from the people around you and create characters with flaws that contribute to the story’s action. Characters with desires, feelings, and a past may be found in any good literature and movies.

Consider your high school teacher, who was terrified of spiders. You can utilize this dread to turn this spider into a nighttime monster, which will add to the story’s action.

Horror is a storytelling genre that focuses on fearful emotions. It’s difficult to write and think about because there’s already a lot of horror fiction out there, but it’s also enjoyable because it forces you to be distinct.