Q&A for How to Write a Horror Story

Humor can be an effective element of horror, as both humor and horror rely on surprise. Try building in funny, unexpected moments into your story.

To effectively create suspense in a story, carefully build the tension between your characters and their environment, alternate between intense and bizarre moments, and hint at a horrific climax.

Have plot twists everywhere! And then make that plot twist false, obliging the reader to want to know the real truth. Or, you could reveal the guilty one at the beginning, so that reader is like "I can't wait for him to die!", only to have some other twist added later, such as mistaken identity or a twin. Or, you can even foreshadow it little by little and when it's obvious, change it to something that will cancel out the hints to the "truth".

Describe the spirit's intention, its story, how it died, its specific traits and how it reaches the protagonist. Then discuss the ways in which it attacks the protagonist and makes life difficult at first, then scary for the protagonist. Take the scariness up a notch each time, until the protagonist is ready to be scared to death or needs to run away (perhaps only to have the spirit pursue it).

You can make a plot twist shock by giving closure to the story yet still adding a question that will linger in the reader's mind. Twists can include a sudden realization, discovery, or final scare.

Depends on what the horror is. A single word might be enough. For example, if it's about a spirit that chokes people, "Strangle" or "Gasp," might work.

Give the character with the powers an interesting backstory, show how they handle their powers, and don't overpower them to the extent that they become comical.

It can be as long or as short as you need to tell a good story. You can create a horror story in as little as a few sentence or many book volumes.

The key to making a horror story more memorable for the reader is to make special, distinct features in the story that other horror stories do not have. Include vivid, even eccentric descriptions and keep the reader lingering in fear of what might happen.

Find a picture on the internet that suits your story. Roughly describe that photo, but add a bit of a twist. For example, suppose the picture was of a forest: you could change it so that the trees have no leaves; there could be a thick/heavy fog; in the distance there could be a burned down house that is said to be haunted; and so on. Use your imagination.

Question the readers' sanity, their perceptions of innocence and guilt, their sense of logic...Play on their fears of what they may not understand or what they may lose. Use these elements of horror at perfect levels, and you'll scare them spectacularly.

You can do either! I once read a book which had the author as the narrator. It was like "Reader, do you thing he should have done that?" I found it interesting.

Maybe it's a ghost of someone who died in a brutal way there. A lot of people are afraid of dolls, so maybe a camper had a doll which was possessed or such. Whatever scares you the most, tie it into the campsite.

it should probably be in the future, like 2085. It would be more interesting than the present or the past.

In general, horror novels are easier to write compared to other genres. You should have a good plot and try to describe monsters or whatever with great detail. For the science fiction aspect, include other planetary stuff, star voyages, aliens, weird happenings without explanation that needs investigation, and so forth.

Personally, I like to hop right into the guts and blood because I just can't help myself. If you are the sort of person that likes their stories calm in the beginning, then do that! If you want more mystery or something, then don't tell the reader anything in the beginning in order to make them collect more knowledge along the way.

If you use a twist every chapter, the reader is likely to get confused. It's okay to have one or two big twists, but try to keep it from getting too complicated. It's easy to forget that the reader doesn't know the story as well as you do, and might not follow the plot if there are too many twists and turns.

Abandoned houses are perfect places for horror stories so when you're writing, use the setting to your advantage. Maybe your character gets stuck in the house, maybe they move in and don't know it's haunted, or get kidnapped and taken there. Make sure to add scary descriptions about the house to get the readers heart racing.

Yes. Say you want to write a story about some sort of ghost. Ghosts don't necessarily have to have gore. They can do horrific stuff, like windows shutting and opening. But blood and gore are just some things to take your story to another level.

Her closest friend sounds interesting. Maybe it would show character development from the mysterious teen.

You could 1) create a world in which people's thoughts become reality. 2) make the entire story inside the character's head, (but wait to reveal this fact until the end). 3) have the main character suffer from a mental disorder. WARNING: if you choose to do this be very careful. Make sure the character isn't portrayed as being dangerous, evil etc. because of their illness. Also do your research!! Use their pain/ mental distress as the horror factor, not them being scary/terrorizing others.

Try to make sure the reader knows something the protagonist might not. You will also want to make sure you show that the protagonist is paranoid. Humans react to emotion; if the character is brave, the readers will be less scared.

Remember that a good solution has to fix or achieve someone's goal (like the antagonist's desire for revenge), twist readers' POV, and lead to the ending of the story. Basically you can think of this as a chess game between the antagonist and protagonist: each character's motives and actions will lead to more actions, and that action will lead to the conclusion.

You can write a good horror story without any blood or gore by playing on people's other fears, like the supernatural.

Describe the mutant animal in a noble sense. Don't describe it as a scary thing, but give it a little dignity. Remember, a mutant's life is normal looking from its own perspective. Also think out the mechanics of the animal. If you are writing about a two-headed frog, do both heads have a different personality? Do both heads blink, lick their eyes etc, or is one just hanging there dead, attached to the other. Describe the animal honestly and your readers will be horrified if it scares them.

Add a lot of tension and go heavy on details when you describe a really gory or revolting sight. Make the situation relatable so the reader feels like the threat could really happen.

You could try regularly switching between the nightmare and the real world, showing how they affect each other. Or, you could allow something from the nightmare to travel between the two worlds.

A good horror story can be written from any POV. If first person POV is your strength, then I'd suggest going with that. You can choose to write from the protagonist's side or the villain's side, and either one has room to make a great story.

Make it consistent. Take your time on world building and ask yourself what the characters can and cannot do. If the entire world throughout remains consistent, and what is "normal" in the world doesn't change (aside from characters with super powers and whatnot), then it should be more believable.

One way would be to make jokes during macabre or scary scenes. For example, in a story where the protagonist gets her hand chopped off, the villain says, "Thanks for lending me a hand!" Though it might seem like a lame joke, it's funny when the reader is in a suspenseful moment.