People love to be terrified, to be challenged, and to feel unsafe in a safe place. But horror can be a tough genre to write especially if you don’t know how to build suspense and tension and how to tie it to your character's fears. How can you make your readers feel unsafe…in a safe place?
Luckily, you can use tips and tricks to write a gripping horror story. And in this article, you will learn how to do it in just six easy ways.
1. Determine your story idea
The first thing you want to do is determine your story idea. I’m not going to talk about it here since I’ve already written some tips on how to find a story idea. So, check that out if you’re wondering.
2. Incorporate horror elements
Horror is not a horror without some terrorizing elements. Horror elements vary depending on your story idea and where you want your story to go. If you’re writing an apocalyptic horror, the elements will be different compared to if you’re writing gothic horror.
a. Choose your monster
In a horror story, you want to incorporate a monster. You can incorporate anything, be it a human being, a swamp monster, a witch, an animal like a cat, or even the protagonist herself. In a horror story, your monster will be the story’s villain or the one who stood in the way of your protagonist.
But remember, don’t go overboard thinking you need to insert as many supernatural elements as possible. Don’t put an alien into your story if you’re planning to write a campy ghost story or it will be all over the place unless you’re combining both within your worldbuilding.
Just because horror is speculative fiction, doesn’t mean you can cram in anything you want into it.
b. Choose some fear factors
Besides monsters, you can write some fear factors that lie within your characters. Think about a phobia and how it can play a big part (or small part) in the story.
3. Don’t forget your tone
Tone creates an atmosphere in a story. An atmosphere is a crucial element in a horror story. Some writers struggle with their tones. They aim for a heavy dark atmosphere but end up with a cheerful happy tone.
Try considering your sub-genre. If you’re writing gothic fiction, you want your tone to describe the dark and eerie atmosphere of the setting. Maybe about the groan from the old wooden door, the dampness of the walls, etc. On the other side, if you’re writing a cyberpunk horror, then maybe it’s not the groan from an old door, but the heavy metal sound from the door.
This doesn’t mean you have to have a gloomy, dark, eerie atmosphere, a story like Midsommar is set in a broad daylight but it still can deliver an eeriness of the story. Just make sure it is contrasting to the character’s feeling intentionally.
4. Build suspense
Suspense is common in horror stories. Its purpose is to leave your readers biting their nails in anticipation and curiosity. It is different than mystery and you get to choose which one you want to use—or even both.
In mystery, the difference is that you’re holding back information from the readers as the author. Whereas in suspense, you’re giving out information to the readers. So, try giving out information to both your characters and readers, this will leave the readers anticipating your characters’ reaction and action.
5. Character development
It is very important to consider your characters’ development so you will have a strong horror story.
Your horror story needs to be about what happens and why it matters to your characters. Remember that character in a horror movie that jumps into the journey despite having a big chance to run away?
Yeah, totally a dumb character, right?
Give them motivation, fear, belief wants, and needs. I have a post discussing how to write a realistic character. The recipe is the same for horror, but here’s the extra: make their fear connects to the monster.
In a horror story, you can enrich your character development by making the monster meaningful like using it as a metaphor or a symbolism of your character’s fear.
An example of this is The Ritual by Adam Nevill. The monster, or the God, in the story, is a manifestation of Luke’s fear. You can disagree with me in this, but my point still holds as the God connects in some ways to Luke’s fear.
6. Distort your character’s reality
This one is optional, but I highly recommend it. This tip will take your horror story to the next level as your character starts to confuse his/her/their reality with hallucination or dreams. Not only this will enrich your story, it will leave your character completely hopeless with no way out and make your readers have no choice but to read until the end.
Here you go, My Friend, six tips to write a good horror story. Do you have any tip that’s not on the list?
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