Like these tips for writing horror? Here’s a bonus one. Make even the most mundane things terrifying. ![]() When you write your scary scenes, don’t just reach for the leering demon or grinning clown. ![]() What is he waiting for? What will set him off? Jimmy’s ball banging against the wall? Kassie’s wail when her friend pulls her hair? The cheery song about bananas becomes menacing. The laughter of those kids becomes heartbreaking, brittle. All he has to do is break the glass and all those laughing six-year-olds will be dead in less than twenty minutes. That man over there in the corner? He’s not the teacher, is he? He has a vial of poison in his pocket. A kindergarten classroom on a bright, spring day could be scarier than an abandoned mental hospital at night if you set up the scene right. Remember those perky tulips? Not exactly scary flowers, are they? Even bright sunlight can be scary if you set it upright. Let us see the terrified old woman who can’t stop shaking, who can’t even talk, who can only point a bloody finger at the gleaming scale embedded in the door of her house. Show us the other knights, beheaded and left deliberately in the main character’s path as warnings. Show us the burned village, the gutted sheep. We don’t have to see a description of the wyrm to know it’s vicious. Think of the intrepid knight searching for the dragon. You can use the setting to your advantage. Want a great example? Think of Jack Torrance in the horror novel The Shining. When that happens, you can bet they’ll get shivers up their spines when they catch a glimpse of something looming outside their window late at night. The minute you do that, your reader becomes your character. Figure out how to make your reader identify with them. Give your character problems your reader can identify with. You don’t have to spend thousands of words or several chapters doing this, either. If you want to make me stay up way past bedtime to find out what happens to the main character, let me get to know them. ![]() Violent opening scenes often don’t work because the author hasn’t given the reader any reason to care about the person getting mangled. That means you need to give your reader time to get to know your character before you let your monster out to play. To write great horror, you must create characters your readers care about. Keep on reading to know how to write a horror story and create anticipation and suspense in your next book! Let Your Reader Get to Know Your Characters But we know it’s neither of those things, don’t we? We know something terrible is waiting in the shadows, something with ripping claws and teeth.
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