horror genre in creative writing

• Scriptwriting

How to Write Horror — Horror Writing Tips for Fiction & Film

• Best Horror Movies of All Time
• Best Christmas Horror Movies
• Best Zombie Movies
• Best New Zombie Movies
• Best Vampire Movies
• Best Jump Scare Movies
• Best 1980s Vampire Movies
• Best Werewolf Movies
• Best Stephen King Movies and TV Shows
• Best Underrated Horror Movies
• Best Scary Movies
• Best Horror Movie Soundtracks
• What is Horror
• Body Horror Explained
• Giallo Films Explained
• Horror Movie Tropes
• Found Footage Filmmaking
• What is a Grindhouse Movie
• Best Free Horror Movie Scripts Online
• Best Horror Movie Scripts
• How to Write Horror
• Scary Story Ideas
• Midsommar Script PDF Download
• Halloween Script PDF Download
• Get Out Script PDF Download
• Alien Script PDF Download

S o, you want to learn how to write a good horror story? Whether you want to know how to write a horror movie or how to write a horror book, the four steps outlined in this guide will get you started on the appropriate course of action and help you to align your creative goals. Writing horror isn’t all that different from writing for other genres, but it does require the right mindset and a creepy destination to work towards. Before we jump into the first of our four steps, let’s begin with a primer.

How to write horror

Before you get started.

The steps outlined in this ‘how to write horror’ guide assume that you already have a grasp over the fundamentals of writing. If you do not yet understand the basic mechanics of prose, screenwriting , or storytelling, then you might not get everything you need out of this guide. Luckily, we have a litany of informative resources that can bring you up to speed on everything you need to know.

If you intend to tell the  horror story  you have in mind as a screenplay, then the best way to fast track your screenwriting education might be to read through some of the  best screenwriting books  or to enroll in one of the  best online screenwriting courses .

Our guide to writing great scenes  is another good place to start, and our  glossary of screenwriting vocabulary  is a great resource if you encounter any unfamiliar terminology. When you’re ready to start writing, you can get going for free in  StudioBinder’s screenwriting software .

Now, we’re ready to jump into step one of our how to write horror guide. But, be warned, if you don’t already have a basic story concept in mind, you should consider that Step Zero.

There’s no concrete way to generate story ideas, but you can always look to creative writing prompts  and  indie films to kickstart inspiration .

HOW TO WRITE A HORROR MOVIE

Step 1: research and study.

Writing horror often begins by consuming great horror . We look to the stories of the past when crafting the stories of the present. Someone who has never read a horror novel or seen a horror film is going to have a much harder time writing horror than someone who is a voracious consumer of horror stories. By watching and reading, you can pick up plenty of tips for writing scary stories.

Before writing your opening line, be sure to do your research. It can be worthwhile to explore all manner of horror media. But for the purposes of this step, it’s best to focus in on the type of material you wish to create.

If you want to learn how to write a horror novel, then read as many horror novels as you can get your hands on. Our list of the  greatest horror films  ever made is a good place to conduct your research if you plan to write a horror screenplay. You can also check out our rundown of  underrated horror films for even more research.

Here are tips on how to write horror from the master himself, Stephen King. And, while you're at it, might as well catch up on the best Stephen King movies and TV based on his work!

How to write good horror  •  Stephen King offers horror writing tips

It’s important to go beyond simply reading and watching horror and to begin to analyze the material. Drill down into why certain decisions were made by the writer and try to figure out why certain elements work or don’t work. It can often be worthwhile to explore material you consider bad as well as what you consider good, so you can learn what not to do.

Check out our analysis of Midsommar   below for an example of how you can break down and explore the horror films that inspire you. You can also download the Midsommar script as a PDF to analyze the writing directly. You should check out our Best Horror Scripts post for more iconic script PDFs.

How to Write Horror  •   Read Full Midsommar Script

When consuming material to learn how to write a horror story, pay particular attention to the pacing and structure of the stories you’re inspired by. For example, if the style you find yourself most drawn to is slow-burn horror, then you might want to aim for a much slower pace than average with your story as well, but the build-up will become even more important.

Horror story writing

Step 2: decide your type of horror.

So, you’ve decided you’re writing horror, congratulations, you’ve settled on a genre. Now, it’s time to pick your sub-genre (s) and to decide on the specific avenue of horror to explore. There are many horror sub-genres to choose from. Just take a look at our ultimate guide to movie genres for quick rundown. And, check out the video below to see horror sub-genres ranked.

Ranking subgenres for inspiration  •  Horror story writing

Keep in mind that genres and subgenres can be mixed and matched in a multitude of combinations. For example, The Witch blends together the horror and historical fiction genres. From Dusk Till Dawn fuses action, crime-thriller, and vampire elements. And Shaun of the Dead fuses the horror and comedy genres by way of the zombie subgenre.

Our video essay below offers insights into Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s creative process. Check out our ranking of Edgar Wright’s entire filmography if you want even more.

How Edgar Wright writes and directs his movies  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Step Two is also the time to decide on the specific avenue you will exploit when writing horror. By “avenue of horror,” we mean the primary source(s) of tension and scares. Witches? Zombies? Cosmic horror? Body Horror ? Social Horror? These are all different avenues that your horror story can take on, and just like with genres and sub-genres, mixing and matching is encouraged.

A horror story that exploits kills and gore as its avenue of horror will be written in a much different manner than one that focuses on a sense of creeping dread and leaves more to the viewer or reader’s imagination.

Related Posts

• What is a Giallo film? →
• The Best Christmas Horror Movies →
• How to Master a Storyboard like Jordan Peele →

Step 3: Mine your fears and phobias 

You have decided on your genre and your avenue of horror, now it’s time to get more specific and drill deeper. For Step Three, go beyond asking what makes a story scary and instead figure out what makes your story frightening.

Depending on what you chose in Step Two, this might already be baked into your sub-genre and avenue of horror. For example, the home invasion sub-genre by nature mines a very real phobia that many people share.

The best home invasion films

However, if you chose to go with the zombie subgenre for example, you may need to work a little harder to discover what it is about your story that will scare audiences. Zombies on their own certainly hold the potential to be frightening, but audience overexposure to them throughout the years has gone a long way to lessen the scary impact they once had.

For examples of how to do it right, check out our rundown of the best zombie films ever made . And, for a different yet equally effective take on the sub-genre, check out our list of the  best zombie comedies .

How to write a horror story  •  Exploit common phobias

The above video breaks down the statistics surrounding a number of phobias. One common piece of writerly wisdom is “write what you know.” When writing in the horror genre, we can tweak that advice to, “write what scares you.” Mine your own fears and phobias when crafting your horror story; there are sure to be others out there who get creeped out by the same things.

This is also the step where you should try to discover your X-factor. What is it that sets your story apart from similar horror stories? If the answer is “nothing really,” then it might be time to take your concept back to the drawing board.

How to write a horror story

Step 4: keep your audience in mind.

From this point on, you are ready to start writing your horror story. Much of the writing process will be carried out in the same way as you would write a story in any other genre. But there are a few extra considerations. Put all that research you did in step one to work and ensure that your prose or screenwriting is well balanced and doles out the scares at a good pace.

You will want to find a good middle ground between sacrificing story and character development and going too long without something to keep your audience creeped out.

Narrative pacing is important in every genre, but horror writers also need to worry about pacing their scares, similar to how someone writing an action film needs to deliberately pace out their big action sequences.

How to write a horror story  •  Keep pacing in mind

Decide on who your target audience is from the jump and keep them in mind while you write. There can be a significant difference between horror aimed at teens vs. horror aimed at a mature audience. In film, this can mean the difference between shooting for a PG-13 rating instead of an R rating.

In fiction, this decision might manifest as a plan to market directly toward the young-adult crowd. Horror aimed at children, like Frankenweenie or The Nightmare Before Christmas , is drastically different from other types of horror aimed at older audiences.

Use your target audience as a guiding star that informs all of your narrative decisions as you write. Now, it’s time to put everything you just learned about how to write good horror stories to use.

The Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made 

If you are stuck on step one and looking to find some inspiration, our list of the greatest horror films ever made is a great place to look. You are sure to find something to get your creative juices flowing within this lengthy list. Writing great horror starts with consuming great horror, coming up next.

Up Next: Best Horror Movies of All Time →

Write and produce your scripts all in one place..

Write and collaborate on your scripts FREE . Create script breakdowns, sides, schedules, storyboards, call sheets and more.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Pricing & Plans
• Product Updates
• Featured On
• StudioBinder Partners
• The Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets (with FREE Call Sheet Template)
• How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet)
• The Only Shot List Template You Need — with Free Download
• Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template)
• A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet
• Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates)
• Movie Magic Scheduling
• Gorilla Software
• Storyboard That

A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques.

We’re in a golden age of TV writing and development. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? We’re here to help.

• Making It: From Pre-Production to Screen
• What are the 12 Principles of Animation — Ultimate Guide
• What is Pacing in Writing — And Why It’s So Important
• What Does O.S. Mean in a Script & How to Use It
• What Does a Leadman Do in Film — Job Description Explained
• What is a Unit Production Manager — Job and Role Explained
• 1 Pinterest

Kindlepreneur

Book Marketing for Self-Publishing Authors

Home / Book Writing / How to Write Horror: A Step-by-Step Guide for Authors

How to Write Horror: A Step-by-Step Guide for Authors

I was never much of a horror fan at first, but as I grew older, I realized that horror allows us to confront our deepest, darkest fears in a safe fictional setting, and it became far more interesting to me after that. 

My love for the genre eventually led me to try my own hand at writing horror stories (still unpublished). Over the years, I've learned a lot about the horror fiction craft through trial and error, advice from more experienced horror writers, and studying successful works in the genre. 

In this article, I want to share everything I've learned about writing horror in the hopes that it will help aspiring authors.

• What the horror genre is
• All the different subgenres
• What makes a good horror story
• Step-by-step tips for writing horror effectively
• The typical plot structure of most horror stories

Table of contents

• Types of Horror Stories
• What Makes a Good Horror Story?
• What Are Some Common Horror Tropes?
• 1. Read Plenty of Horror
• 2. The Setting Creates the Atmosphere
• 3. Mix Mortal Peril with Real-world Horror
• 4. Ask Yourself What Frightens You?
• 5. Flesh Out Your Characters
• 6. Ground it in Real Life
• 7. Personalize the Stakes
• 8. Happy Moments Increase the Tension
• 9. Preserve the Secrecy of the Antagonist
• 10. Jumpscares Do Not Make a Horror Story
• Act 1: Setting Up the Situation
• Act 2: Rising Tension
• Act 3: The Climax

What is the Horror Genre?

Horror is a genre intended to make the audience feel fear, dread, disgust and unease. 

Unlike thrillers which focus on suspense and mystery, horror aims to provoke visceral reactions by showing the disturbing and the macabre.

The horror genre has its roots in ancient folklore and myths about evil spirits, monsters, the afterlife, and the occult. Some of the earliest known stories with horror elements are Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Homer's Odyssey, and the English poem Beowulf. 

Gothic horror as a genre emerged in the late 18th century with the classic horror novels like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Format Beautiful Professional Books

Easy to use, and and full of amazing features, you can quickly turn your book into a professional book.

In the 20th century, horror fiction expanded into numerous subgenres:

• Supernatural horror – Stories featuring ghosts, demons, cursed objects, unexplained entities, and paranormal phenomena. Eg. The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson.
• Monster horror – Tales focused on vicious monsters and creatures like vampires, werewolves, zombies, and aliens. Eg. Salem's Lot by Stephen King.
• Body horror/Splatterpunk – Graphic depictions of gore and mutilation of the body. Eg. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.
• Psychological horror – Terror arising from the mind, perception, and sanity of characters. Eg. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
• Survival horror – People trapped in an isolated setting trying to escape a terrifying threat. Eg. The Mist by Stephen King.
• Cosmic horror – Threats from malevolent cosmic entities beyond human comprehension. Eg. The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Slasher horror – Serial killers stalking and murdering victims in gruesome ways. Eg. Psycho by Robert Bloch.
• Paranormal horror – Uncanny events that contradict the laws of nature. Eg. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
• Zombie horror – Stories focused on zombies or zombie apocalypse scenarios. Eg. World War Z by Max Brooks.

Horror books certainly aren’t limited to these types of genre, but they are some of the most common.

Not all horror fiction works. Great horror stories have some common qualities that elevate them above mediocre attempts at the genre:

• Strong atmosphere and tone – The setting, choice of words, and imagery establishes a tense, creepy, and unsettling mood right from the start.
• Suspense and tension – Keeping the audience guessing about what might happen next. Using mystery and thrill to build suspense.
• Vulnerable characters – Having empathetic characters that the audience can relate to and worry for when danger approaches.
• Creative monsters/villains – Original and frightening antagonists that pose a credible threat without seeming silly or contrived.
• Blurring reality – Obscuring the line between the real and unreal to make the audience question what is actually happening.
• Slow reveal – Withholding just enough information to tease the audience and make them keep reading to get answers.
• Disturbing imagery – Visual descriptions intended to shock, repulse, and frighten, like gruesome death scenes.
• Themes of dread – Touching on universal human fears and phobias – darkness, pain, disease, isolation, madness, death, etc.
• Shocking twists – Surprising revelations that turn the story in an unexpected direction.

There is a reason why Stephen King is such a master of horror. When you read his book, you’ll notice that he hits almost all of these spot on.

Over the years, certain plot devices, archetypes and conventions have emerged as popular tropes within the broad scope of horror fiction:

• The haunted house – A house inhabited by ghosts, poltergeists, or other malevolent entities. Eg. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
• Serial killers – Charismatic but deranged serial murderers with peculiar motives and modus operandi. Eg. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
• Cursed objects – Innocuous items that bring misfortune and harm to their owners. Eg. The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs.
• Man-eating monsters – Predatory creatures hunting humans as prey. Vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. Eg. The Howling by Gary Brandner.
• Evil children – Uncanny, sinister, or possessed kids. Eg. The Omen by David Seltzer.
• Zombies – Reanimated corpses hungering for living flesh. Eg. Zone One by Colson Whitehead.
• Torture devices – Elaborate contraptions used to torture victims. Eg. Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.
• Creepy small towns – Remote towns hiding dark secrets and sinister cults. Eg. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
• Demonic possession – Loss of bodily control due to a demonic spirit. Eg. The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
• Creepy basements – Dark, subterranean spaces hiding disturbing secrets or serving as gateways to the underworld.
• Mad scientists – Eccentric, amoral researchers carrying out unethical experiments. Eg. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
• Ancient curses – Malevolent supernatural forces punishing violations of taboo. Eg. The Mummy.
• Sinister cults – Secretive religious sects with sinister agendas and occult practices. Eg. The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Haunted asylums – Derelict psychiatric hospitals harboring tortured spirits of the dead.
• Ghost ships/vehicles – Phantom or possessed modes of transport carrying a deadly curse. Eg. The Fog by John Carpenter.
• Evil dolls/toys – Playthings possessed by wicked entities or springing to murderous life. Eg. Child's Play franchise.
• Eldritch abominations – Grotesque monstrosities that induce madness and doom. Eg. The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft.
• Ancient burial grounds – Tombs and burial sites harboring vengeful spirits and curses. Eg. Pet Sematary by Stephen King.

While tropes can be useful shorthand for conveying certain ideas, overusing them can make stories seem unoriginal and predictable. The best horror writers use tropes selectively and put their own spin on them.

11 Tips to Write Horror

Here are some tips to guide you in crafting captivating horror fiction:

As with any genre you want to write in, read lots of existing works in that style. Study how the masters of horror fiction like Stephen King, Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson create atmosphere, build tension, and deliver scares. 

Make notes on effective techniques you could incorporate into your own horror stories. Understanding what works will help you avoid bland clichés.

Establish an ominous mood from the very first page through your descriptions of the setting and location. Use sights, sounds, smells and other sensory details to make the place seem creepy and foreboding. 

Isolation – trapping characters someplace inaccessible – can heighten a feeling of vulnerability against supernatural or deranged threats. Make the setting itself feel like a character, interacting and affecting the characters in sinister ways.

While monsters can be scary, everyday real-world horrors resonate more profoundly. Stephen King often combines supernatural elements with psychological realism – dysfunctional families, abuse, addiction, grief – to ground the horror. 

The scariest stories feature threats that could plausibly exist in the real world, even if taken to fictional extremes. Readers find visceral, real-life horrors more affecting than fantastical monsters because they seem more likely to encounter them.

Think about your own deepest fears and phobias. What scares you in real life? Bringing personal dread into your horror writing will make it more intense. For example, if you have a fear of losing your mind, you can channel that into stories about characters going insane or losing their grip on reality. 

Draw upon your nightmares, both sleeping and waking, as inspiration to explore the dark corners of your psyche.

Weak character development can ruin an otherwise scary tale. The audience has to care what happens to the characters for the story to have impact. Take the time to flesh out distinct, relatable personalities. Give each character clear motivations , quirks, strengths and flaws. Make them seem like real people so that when you subject them to horrific ordeals, the audience worries if they will survive.

While horror often features supernatural threats, grounding stories in a believable real-world setting makes them resonate more deeply. Have your characters react in natural ways, with all the confusion, disbelief and denial actual people would exhibit. 

The mundane details of real life juxtaposed with the bizarre enhances the fright factor. Keeping supernatural elements to a minimum also gives your story a veneer of plausibility that augments the horror.

Generic horror tales are easy to shrug off, but when characters we care for are imperiled, we get invested in their predicament. Build up emotional connections between characters early on so that later we truly fear for them. 

Have threats target their vulnerabilities or personalities in some way. Personalized stakes make a horror story more intimate, raising the tension level.

While horror is often bleak, moments of hope, humor or tender character connections provide contrast that amplifies the darker elements of your story. After a traumatic event, show characters clinging to cherished memories or optimism to survive emotionally. 

Brief interludes where everything seems like it might be okay lull the reader into lowering their guard before you unleash the next shock or threat.

The greatest fear comes from the unknown. Give only hints about the nature and origin of supernatural entities or villains in your story. Keep their appearances brief and clouded in shadow. 

The less readers understand the threat, the more their imaginations will conjure something uniquely chilling. Allow the audience's mind to fill in the blanks with their own deepest dreads.

Cheap jump scares that briefly startle through loud sounds or sudden activity are not enough to carry a horror narrative. These should be used sparingly for occasional shock value. 

True horror comes from sustained atmosphere, engaging characters in peril, and tapping into primal fears. Unnerving psychological dread will stay with a reader long after a jump scare's momentary surprise fades. Don't rely on them as a crutch.

Book Marketing Made Simple

Over 47,000+ authors, NYT bestsellers, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain key insight to the market.  Help your book now

Plot Structure of Most Horror

While not universally followed, many successful horror stories adhere to a three-act dramatic structure that does some of the following:

• The Hidden Monster – Hint at the existence of a sinister threat through ominous events and unexplained phenomenon. Keep the audience guessing.
• Introducing the Characters – Establish the characters, their relationships, and individual fears or weaknesses that can be exploited later. Make the audience care about them.
• The Inciting Incident – A events which initiates the problem and draws the characters into dangerous circumstances or the path of the threat. The point of no return.
• Meeting the Monster – The characters first come face-to-face with the threat, confirming its frightening nature or powers. Still keeps secrets for later.
• The Turning Point – An event that escalates the peril and leaves the characters vulnerable to the monster/threat at the halfway point. Raises the stakes.
• The Pursuit – The antagonist now relentlessly pursues the protagonists. Creates a constant sense of danger as the threat closes in.
• The First Failed Confrontation – The hero or heroes attempt to defeat the threat but are unable to for some reason. Increases desperation.
• All Is Lost – A low point where the characters seem totally helpless and all hope is lost. The threat will prevail.
• The Breakthrough – The heroes rally, resolve their inner turmoil, and discover a way they might vanquish the threat at the last possible moment.
• The Final Confrontation – The protagonists confront and do battle with the threat, either defeating it or failing nobly with consequences.
• The “Death” – The demise, usually of the threat itself. However, one or more characters may also perish for a melancholy resolution, or there is a psychological death of some kind.
• The Fallout – Wrap up the aftermath, showing how characters and the world at large were impacted and changed. Evil might still lurk, awaiting a sequel.

While there is more to a horror story than just these elements, this should hopefully allow you to get started writing your next horror story, and getting those words on the page.

Jason Hamilton

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

Related Posts

How to write a whodunit, top 8 best scrivener alternatives for writers (+ the only one that matters), scrivener vs. ulysses: which writing tool should you buy, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

Learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks.

Join the community

Join 111,585 other authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them make more money selling books.

Horror Writing 101: Crafting Scary Stories 🖊️🎃

Table of Contents

Horror writing , a genre that delves into the darkest corners of the human psyche, has captivated readers and writers alike for centuries. From Gothic tales of the supernatural to modern psychological thrillers, horror writing spans a vast array of themes and styles, each more bone-chilling than the last. This genre’s ability to evoke fear, suspense, and a sense of the unknown is what makes it so uniquely compelling. Aspiring writers drawn to this genre must not only understand how to terrify and unsettle their readers, but also how to craft stories that linger in the mind long after the last page is turned.

The allure of horror writing lies in its power to tap into our deepest fears and anxieties. It’s a genre that goes beyond mere entertainment; it forces us to confront the darker aspects of life and the human condition. Whether it’s through ghostly apparitions, monstrous creatures, or the horrors of the human mind, horror writing serves as a mirror to our collective nightmares, offering a safe space to explore and understand them. For writers, this means venturing into uncharted territories of creativity and imagination, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in storytelling.

However, effective horror writing requires more than just the ability to scare. It demands a careful balance of mood, atmosphere, character development, and pacing. The best horror stories are those that build tension slowly, drawing readers into their eerie worlds gradually, then gripping them with a sense of dread that is both exhilarating and terrifying. Crafting such narratives is a skill that can be honed and refined, making horror writing an exciting challenge for writers who dare to explore it.

In this exploration of horror writing, we will delve into various techniques and elements that make a horror story truly frightening. From developing chilling settings to creating haunting characters, the journey into horror writing is as much about understanding human emotions as it is about evoking them. Whether you’re a seasoned horror writer or just starting, this guide aims to provide valuable insights into mastering this spine-tingling genre.

The Foundations of Horror Writing

In the realm of horror writing , the foundations of a compelling story are rooted in its ability to evoke fear and suspense, creating an immersive experience that lingers with the reader. Central to this genre are key elements like a well-constructed plot, intriguing characters, and an atmosphere dripping with tension. Horror stories often revolve around universal fears – the dark, the unknown, death, and isolation – exploiting these primal fears to create a sense of dread and foreboding. The effectiveness of horror writing lies in the writer’s ability to tap into these deep-seated anxieties, crafting narratives that not only scare but also resonate on a psychological level.

A crucial aspect of horror writing is the setting, which plays a significant role in establishing the mood. Whether it’s a haunted house, a desolate forest, or an ordinary setting turned sinister, the location sets the stage for the story’s horror elements. A well-depicted setting can become a character in itself, contributing significantly to the story’s terror. It’s this environment that first immerses the reader, enveloping them in a world where the normal rules don’t apply, and anything is possible – usually, the worst imaginable scenarios.

The narrative voice in horror writing also has a profound impact on how the story is received. A first-person narrative can offer an intimate sense of terror, as readers experience the protagonist’s fear firsthand. Alternatively, a third-person viewpoint can provide a broader perspective, often adding to the chilling nature of the story. This choice in narrative voice can drastically change the way readers experience fear and suspense, and it’s a tool that horror writers use skillfully to manipulate readers’ emotions.

The pacing of the story is critical in horror writing. It often involves a slow build-up, where tension simmers and grows before leading to moments of intense fear or shock. Mastering the art of pacing is what keeps readers on the edge of their seats, eager and apprehensive about what lurks on the next page. The best horror stories are those that balance the anticipation of terror with moments of reprieve, keeping the reader hooked and invested in the unfolding horror.

Building Suspense and Tension

Creating a sense of suspense and tension is the lifeblood of horror writing. This genre is about making the reader feel a constant sense of impending doom, even when they can’t pinpoint the source. One effective technique is the use of foreshadowing, which involves dropping subtle hints about what might come. This keeps readers guessing and heightens their sense of alertness. It’s the anticipation of horror, as much as the horror itself, that makes a story gripping.

Manipulating the reader’s expectations is another method to build suspense. Horror writers are adept at leading readers down a certain path, only to surprise them with an unexpected twist. This unpredictability is what keeps the genre exciting. When readers can’t guess what’s coming next, their engagement levels increase, and so does their investment in the story.

The use of sensory details is also crucial in building suspense. Describing not just what is seen, but also what is heard, smelled, or felt, can create a multi-sensory experience that heightens the sense of fear. It’s about painting a picture so vivid that readers can’t help but immerse themselves in the world you’ve created. The creak of a floorboard, the chill of a breeze, the faint smell of something rotten – these details can build an atmosphere thick with tension.

Character reactions play an equally important role in building tension. Readers often experience fear through the characters in the story. How characters respond to the terror they face can either amplify or diminish the suspense. Characters who react believably to the horror elements help to ground the story in reality, making the fear more tangible and relatable to the reader.

The Psychology of Fear

At its core, horror writing is deeply rooted in psychology. Understanding what scares people and why is crucial for crafting a terrifying story. Different people have different fears, but there are universal fears, such as the fear of death, the unknown, or loss of control, that resonate with a broad audience. Tapping into these fears involves a deep understanding of human psychology and the common anxieties that haunt us all.

Exploring the psychology of your characters can also add depth to the horror. Characters with complex psychological backgrounds offer a richer, more immersive experience. Their fears, traumas, and reactions can make the horror more relatable and, therefore, more terrifying. When readers can see a part of themselves in the characters, the fear becomes more personal, and the impact of the story is significantly magnified.

Moreover, the psychological impact of horror on readers should not be underestimated. A good horror story can leave a lasting impression, playing on the reader’s mind long after it’s finished. This lingering effect is often what separates a good horror story from a great one. It’s the ability of the story to tap into the subconscious, to evoke a primal response, that makes horror writing so powerful and enduring.

Crafting Memorable Horror Characters

In horror writing, characters are not just vehicles for the plot; they are essential to the story’s impact. The protagonist in a horror story often represents ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Their relatability is what draws readers into the story. Seeing a regular person navigate the terrors of a horror story can be both terrifying and compelling. It’s through these characters that readers experience the fear and suspense of the narrative.

Antagonists or monsters in horror need to be more than just scary. They should have depth and, in some cases, a backstory that explains their nature. Whether it’s a supernatural entity or a human antagonist, understanding their motivation adds a layer of complexity to the horror. This makes the antagonist more than just a source of fear; it turns them into a character with motives and purposes, which can be even more frightening.

Supporting characters also play a significant role. They can add to the protagonist’s isolation or be a source of relief in the story. How these characters interact with the main character and the horror element can significantly affect the story’s tension and pacing. They provide contrast and relief, and their interactions with the protagonist can add layers to the narrative.

Horror Writing and Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting in the horror genre presents unique challenges and opportunities. As a ghostwriter, capturing the author’s voice and vision for a horror story requires a deep understanding of the genre and the ability to adapt one’s writing style. Ghostwriting in horror involves getting into the mind of the author, understanding their interpretation of fear, and translating that into a compelling narrative.

Ghostwriters often have to work with detailed outlines or concepts provided by the author. This requires a balance between adhering to the author’s vision and injecting their own creativity into the story. It’s a collaborative process where the ghostwriter must find a harmony between their own style and that of the original author.

The collaboration process in ghostwriting horror can also be a learning experience. Ghostwriters often gain new perspectives and techniques, enhancing their skills in horror writing. They learn to be versatile and adaptable, skills that are invaluable in the writing world. Moreover, ghostwriting can provide an opportunity to explore different sub-genres of horror, broadening the ghostwriter’s range and expertise.

The Role of Setting in Horror

The setting in a horror story is often as important as the characters and the plot. It sets the tone and atmosphere of the story, influencing how the horror unfolds. Whether it’s a claustrophobic space or an expansive, eerie landscape, the setting can significantly amplify the story’s fear factor. The right setting can make the difference between a horror story that’s mildly unsettling and one that’s deeply terrifying.

Historical settings can add a layer of authenticity to horror stories. They can also allow writers to explore horrors rooted in historical events or folklore, adding depth and richness to the narrative. Historical settings provide a backdrop that can heighten the horror, making it feel more real and immediate.

Modern settings, on the other hand, can make horror more relatable to contemporary readers. They can explore the fears and anxieties of modern life, from technological horrors to urban legends. Modern settings allow writers to tap into current societal fears, making the horror more relevant and impactful.

Horror Writing in Different Mediums

Horror writing is not limited to novels and short stories. It spans various mediums, each offering a unique way to tell a horror story. Movies, television shows, podcasts, and even video games have become popular mediums for horror storytelling. Each medium brings its own set of tools and techniques for creating fear and suspense.

Adapting horror stories for different mediums requires an understanding of the strengths and limitations of each. For instance, visual mediums like film can rely on visual scares, while written stories often build horror through the imagination. Understanding these differences is key to effectively translating a horror story from one medium to another.

The interactive nature of video games offers a new dimension to horror writing. It immerses players directly in the horror experience, making it a unique and powerful medium for the genre. In video games, the horror is not just observed; it’s experienced firsthand, which can make it even more terrifying.

Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Horror Writing

Mastering horror writing is about understanding the nuances of fear and suspense. It’s about creating stories that scare and engage readers on a deeper level. Whether you are a seasoned horror writer or just starting, the journey into horror writing is thrilling and rewarding. Effective horror writing involves balancing atmosphere, character development, and pacing. It requires a deep understanding of what scares people and why. By honing these skills, writers can create horror stories that are not just frightening but also memorable and impactful. In conclusion, horror writing is a diverse and dynamic genre, offering endless opportunities for creativity and expression. For those who dare to explore its depths, it can be a profoundly rewarding creative endeavor.

Takeaway Horror writing is an art that requires a keen understanding of fear, suspense, and the human psyche. From building tension to creating memorable characters and settings, mastering this genre involves delving deep into what terrifies us. Aspiring horror writers can enhance their craft by embracing these techniques, exploring different mediums, and continually pushing the boundaries of their storytelling abilities. Whether through ghostwriting or crafting your own tales, the world of horror writing offers a thrilling and rewarding creative journey.

Click here to contact The Writing King to discuss your project today!

• Recent Posts

• 10 Powerful Flaws in Reasoning That Can Mislead You - April 12, 2024
• Powerful Charm of Non Sequitur Fiction - March 12, 2024
• 8 Powerful Ways Using Food in Fiction can Improve Your Book - March 9, 2024

6 thoughts on “ Horror Writing 101: Crafting Scary Stories 🖊️🎃 ”

This is good to know. I am not really a fan of horror so, I have no idea what’s going on when the author writes one. Thank you for giving me a fresh perspective on this. Made me appreciate their work more.

You are not kidding about the lasting impression. My BFF from middle school (still my BFF today) had her dad put on a horror movie for their family when I was there for a sleepover. Lights out and everything to make it scarier. I’d never seen a horror movie. It was my first and my last and I still remember the name of that daggone show and I’m a grandma now.

This was such a fantastic breakdown of the genre. I have never been able to write horror stories, although I love reading them. I was never able to figure out how to build the tension that I love so much in this genre.

Ooohhhh….this is good tips to carry with me, when I do ever write about horror. I will need a bit of practice with the setting and introducing it to my readers.

The horror genre is one of my favorites to delve into. I don’t write but reading this article gives me a greater appreciation for those that do.

After reading this article, I’m seriously considering trying my hand at horror writing for a change of pace in my content creation journey.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Our 84-page book planner and 111 day writing course.

Crafting Fears: Essential Techniques for Writing Horror

Stepping into the realm of horror writing is no small feat. Venturing into horror storytelling requires an intricate grasp of tension creation, suspense building, and the art of developing memorable characters that linger in one’s mind well beyond the final chapter. This article will dive into Techniques for Writing Horror , offering practical advice to elevate your scary stories from simply unsettling to truly unforgettable.

You’ll learn how to create an atmosphere thick with dread, design antagonists that are both complex and chilling, and avoid common pitfalls that can break immersion or lessen impact. Whether you’re aiming to unsettle with psychological depth or shock with supernatural scares, these insights will help sharpen your horror writing skills.

Table of Contents:

What really is the horror genre, the many faces of horror, gradual tension building techniques, using pacing to enhance suspense, compelling supernatural foes, the human mind as a battlefield, violence for violence’s sake, the importance of rules for paranormal happenings, children vs adult narratives, the importance of transparent stakes, balancing act: high stakes without overdoing it, what techniques are used in horror stories, how do you write an effective horror, what are the language techniques used in horror, what are the 5 elements of horror genre, understanding the horror genre.

Horror grabs us by our fear-filled hearts, dragging us into a world where every shadow could hide a nightmare. Thriving in its capacity to captivate us, the horror genre weaves a tapestry of suspense, unexpected jolts, and an exquisite flavor of fear that keeps us yearning for more. But what exactly makes horror tick? Let’s peel back the curtain.

The essence of horror lies in its power to evoke our strongest emotion: fear. Horror, through tales of spectral whispers and perilous chases where existence is fragile, reaches into the shadowy recesses of our psyche to stir the ancient fears hidden within. It’s not just about monsters and mayhem; it’s about exploring humanity’s vulnerabilities.

To truly grasp this genre’s impact, consider how it keeps you hooked—waiting for that inevitable jump scare or plot twist you never saw coming but somehow always expected Wikipedia – Horror Fiction .

Dive deeper into the abyss and you’ll find horror wears many masks. Supernatural entities haunt haunted houses while psychological thrillers unravel inside minds as twisted as any labyrinth. The variety within this genre ensures there’s something terrifying for everyone—from gothic fiction with its creepy atmosphere to modern horrors echoing today’s anxieties.

This diversity allows writers like Stephen King and H.P Lovecraft not only to scare people but also make readers question their reality Gothic Literature . Each subgenre uses different tools to build suspense; however, they all share one goal: keeping your heart racing until the very end.

Crafting Atmosphere in Horror Writing

The role of atmosphere in horror storytelling cannot be overstated. To construct a truly terrifying narrative, it’s essential to lay down an ambiance that feels both ominous and disconcerting. Transforming an ordinary story into a spine-tingling journey that haunts you well beyond the final word is its magic.

A dive into horror fiction reveals its core aim: to evoke fear, suspense, and shocks. Delving into the unknown, be it via tales of specters or mind-bending mysteries, revolves around stretching limits and venturing into uncharted realms. Horror’s heart lies in its ability to draw upon our primal apprehensions, weaving tales that captivate and horrify us in equal measure.

The allure of this genre lies in its ability to accelerate pulses and provoke curiosity about the mysteries concealed within darkness. But remember, for all its diversity – from haunted houses to supernatural entities – each story hinges on how well it can manipulate its atmosphere.

In unraveling this genre’s complexity, we find an array of subgenres each with their unique flavor but united by common threads – building suspense and invoking dread among them. Supernatural tales might transport us to otherworldly realms whereas psychological thrillers keep us grounded yet no less uneasy.

Grasping these subtle distinctions not only broadens your creative toolkit, enabling you to customize journeys that resonate uniquely with the essence of your story. Delving into Gothic literature, for instance, provides invaluable insights on weaving together eerie ambiances essential to crafting stories that grip us with fear.

Building Suspense and Tension

In the shadowy corridors of horror writing, building tension is like slowly turning up the dial on a haunted radio. You start with whispers—subtle hints that something’s off. This could be an odd look from a main character or an unexplained chill in a room. Engage in a delicate dance of ambiguity, encouraging readers to conjure up terrors far beyond the scope of your words.

To master this art, consider pacing as your best friend. It’s not about throwing jump scares at your audience but more about letting fear simmer until it reaches a boiling point—a technique Stephen King’s known for. With each page turned, let your story’s heartbeat quicken incrementally by revealing pieces of the puzzle so tiny and disturbing they’re almost overlooked.

A good horror story thrives on anticipation; think of it as the slow climb before a rollercoaster drop. Use unexpected plot twists to jolt readers just when they think they’ve figured things out. Keep in mind, maintaining elevated risks guarantees each fright resonates deeply with those who plunge into your narrative.

Pacing in horror fiction can make or break its ability to grip hearts with icy fingers of dread. Effective pacing requires balancing moments of calm with spikes of terror—it’s akin to breathing life into words that whisper horrors yet unseen.

This dance between quiet unease and outright panic helps build suspense organically without relying solely on gory details or shock value alone—a common pitfall many writers face. In the realm of Gothic novels, where chilling environments reign supreme, pacing serves as the conductor for an orchestra of impending dread.

The key lies in understanding when to hold back and when to unleash hellish nightmares upon unsuspecting characters (and through them, our readers). When done right, even simple actions take place under an ominous cloud—the promise that soon all will reach their terrifying climax leaves audiences both dreading and longing for what comes next.

Master the art of horror writing by gradually building tension, using pacing to weave suspense into every line. Let fear simmer, revealing just enough to keep readers on edge. Balance calm with spikes of terror, creating an atmosphere that whispers horrors yet unseen. It’s not about shock value—it’s about anticipation and the promise of a terrifying climax.

Designing Memorable Antagonists

Every horror writer knows the spine of a good scare is not just in the creaking floorboards or the ghostly whispers but in crafting memorable antagonists. These are not your garden-variety villains; they’re complex beings with fears and personalities that drive the plot, making readers’ hearts race.

To create a supernatural entity that haunts more than just the narrative requires a blend of unique characteristics and an uncomfortable atmosphere. Think beyond mere power – what makes them tick? What twisted desires or tragic histories have led them to become such harrowing figures? This depth transforms them from simple boogeymen into characters that linger long after the book is closed.

This guide serves as a fantastic tool for infusing your ghostly foes with vitality, shedding light on the intricate process of character evolution. Keep in mind, the real magic that propels your narrative is the deeds driven by their richly painted fears and desires, ensuring your audience remains captivated, hanging on to every word as if under a spell.

Crafting these memorable antagonists also depends on the clear definition of boundaries in your universe. It’s easy to fall into clichés where anything goes because “it’s all magic.” But setting clear limitations adds tension – knowing exactly how far they can reach makes every shadow potentially deadly and every spell cast a calculated risk.

In summing up this ghastly affair: think big but detail small. Your antagonist isn’t just evil incarnate; they’re individuals shaped by their experiences within your world’s boundaries. Crafting human antagonists or terrifying specters involves peeling back layers to reveal what truly makes them horrifying – turning them from mere characters in a horror story scary enough to haunt dreams.

Psychological Depths of Horror

In the shadowy corners of horror, where jump scares and haunted houses dare not tread, lies a more profound fear—the human psyche. Yes, we’re talking about psychological horror here. We delve into the art of psychological horror, skillfully manipulating our deepest anxieties to turn our very thoughts into adversaries.

Utilizing psychological horror isn’t just throwing in a creepy doll or two and calling it a day; it’s an art form. This style of storytelling strategically maneuvers through the labyrinth of your psyche, crafting situations that strike chords within the very essence of who you are. Why? Because what truly terrifies us isn’t always the monster under the bed but rather the possibility that we might be capable of monstrous things ourselves.

Tapping into human psyche fears requires finesse. You need to craft situations and characters that mirror readers’ internal conflicts and anxieties—think Stephen King’s mastery at this game (and if you haven’t yet indulged in his work for inspiration, I highly suggest diving into his world ). By leveraging these elements effectively within your story structure or narrative pacing, you can achieve unease without ever showing a single fang or claw.

But remember folks, this power comes with responsibility. A successful delve into psychological depths means respecting your reader’s imagination while guiding them through darknesses they recognize—those inside themselves. It is indeed possible to scare people by making them look inwardly, something great authors have achieved timelessly. This kind of terror sticks because it feels real, it feels possible—it haunts beyond pages. So next time you sit down to pen something horrifying, don’t forget: the most fertile ground for planting fear could just be within the confines of one’s mind.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Horror Writing

Writing horror is like walking through a haunted house; every turn could lead to a scare or a cliché. But, fear not. Avoiding the usual traps can make your story stand out in the dimly lit corridors of horror literature.

Splattering pages with gore might seem like an easy way to churn stomachs, but it’s often just lazy writing. A deep dive into horror novel history shows that true terror comes from anticipation and suspense, not just bloodshed. Let your reader’s imagination do the heavy lifting by suggesting horrors rather than explicitly detailing them.

Maintaining good pacing ensures your readers are always on their toes without becoming desensitized to shock tactics. Think of violence as seasoning – too much overwhelms the dish.

No matter how wild your ghost or ghoul is, setting clear boundaries and rules makes them more believable – and terrifying. Disregarding such guidance, authors gamble with crafting tales where limits don’t exist, thereby weakening the thrill and eroding the mystery.

To maintain credibility within your eerie world, understanding Gothic Literature principles can help guide you in crafting those supernatural laws that keep readers engaged and scared stiff at what might lurk around the next corner – following rules even when dealing with entities that break all others.

In summing up these frightful tips: don’t rely solely on gore to get under skin; instead build dread through atmosphere and expectation while adhering strictly to internal logic governing paranormal elements for maximum spine-tingling effect.

Engaging Your Audience Through Fear

Knowing your audience for your horror story is like having a roadmap in the dark, spooky woods of storytelling. Different groups clutch their blankets tighter at different kinds of scares. For kids, think less gore and more “Boo.” Adult narratives? They can handle the deep end of fear.

Tailoring narrative to audience fears isn’t just smart; it’s essential. With kids, you want to dial down the intensity. It’s about creating shadows that might be monsters but turn out to be nothing—until they aren’t. Adults, though? They’re ready for a rollercoaster that dips into existential dread and psychological twists capable of keeping them up at night.

This approach isn’t just guesswork; statistics back it up as crucial since varying thresholds for fear and anxiety exist between age groups. Crafting stories with this knowledge lets you hit right where it counts—their heartstrings (or their adrenaline glands).

To master this art, consider diving deeper into horror fiction fundamentals on Wikipedia. Here you’ll find everything from Gothic literature roots to modern-day terror tactics used by greats like Stephen King and H.P Lovecraft—a perfect starting point or refresher on how horror plays with our minds.

The bottom line: Whether crafting a chilling tale for wide-eyed youngsters or concocting a nightmare fuel saga for adults, knowing who sits around your campfire makes all the difference in delivering those delicious shivers down spines effectively.

Setting Clear Stakes in Your Story

Making stakes obvious from the get-go isn’t just a good idea; it’s your lifeline to keeping readers glued to their seats, biting off their nails as they flip each page. Why? Because if your audience doesn’t know what’s at risk, why should they care?

Engaging an audience with clear stakes means drawing a line in the sand right where your characters stand. This method lays out the potential losses and gains, captivating readers while forming the essence of character drive and narrative progression.

A horror story thrives on its ability to play ping-pong with the reader’s emotions. When you make stakes obvious in a story, you’re essentially setting up those emotional spikes – hope against fear, relief against dread. For instance, knowing that our main character must save their haunted house from demolition adds layers of tension and urgency to every creaking door and ghostly whisper.

To engage audiences effectively requires more than just high stakes; it demands clarity about these stakes early on. Without this understanding, even the most beautifully crafted haunted mansion or ghastly specter can fall flat because readers won’t grasp why they should care.

In crafting a good horror story or any engaging narrative for that matter), balance is key. Yes, aim high with what’s at risk – think life-and-death situations or sanity hanging by a thread – but remember subtlety can amplify impact too.

King’s words ring true, especially in storytelling. It’s about pacing—letting the tension build before hitting them with the climax. This way, you keep your audience hooked until the very end.

Make the stakes clear early on to keep readers hooked. It’s not just about high risks but showing why they matter for a gripping horror story.

FAQs in Relation to Techniques for Writing Horror

To chill and thrill, writers often use suspense, surprise twists, unsettling atmosphere, vivid descriptions of fear-inducing scenes, and relatable characters facing unimaginable terrors.

Create a gripping plot with unpredictable turns. Infuse it with dread-filled atmospheres. Craft real-feeling characters who react believably to the horrors they face.

Horrors thrive on descriptive imagery, metaphorical comparisons to evoke fear or disgust, short sentences for shock value, and deliberate pacing to build tension.

The core elements include a menacing setting; a chilling atmosphere; supernatural or human antagonists; vulnerable protagonists; sudden shocks or prolonged suspense.

Diving into horror writing takes guts. Having delved into the art of horror writing, you’ve mastered creating bone-chilling atmospheres and weaving suspense that ensnares readers.

Remember: Atmosphere is everything. A well-crafted setting pulls readers in. Building tension keeps them there, hanging on every word.

Create antagonists with depth; they’re scarier when we understand them—just a bit. Tap into psychological fears for that personal touch of terror.

Avoid clichés like the plague. They dull your scares faster than a light in a dark room.

Kick off with clear stakes; let your audience know what’s at risk early on. This binds them to your characters’ fates, driving engagement and fear alike.

In sum, mastering these elements can elevate your stories from mere shadows in the night to nightmares remembered long after dawn breaks.

How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror

Learn how to write a horror story, with insights from Stephen King, John Carpenter, the script opening for The Exorcist, and more, and discover ideas for telling a more chilling tale.

• Post author By Jordan
• 71 Comments on How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror

Learning how to write horror is a useful for any writer. The genre contains storytelling elements that are useful beyond it. Read a concise guide to horror. We explore what horror is, key elements of horror, plus tips and quotes from masters of horror film and fiction.

What is horror? Elements of horror

The horror genre is speculative or fantastical fiction that evokes fear, suspense, and dread.

Horror often gives readers or viewers the sense of relief by the end of the story.

Stephen King calls this ‘reintegration’. Writes King in his non-fiction book on horror, Danse Macabre (1981), about the release from terror in reintegration:

For now, the worst has been faced and it wasn’t so bad at all. There was that magic moment of reintegration and safety at the end, that same feeling that comes when the roller coaster stops at the end of its run and you get off with your best girl, both of you whole and unhurt. I believe it’s this feeling of reintegration, arising from a field specializing in death, fear, and monstrosity, that makes the danse macabre so rewarding and magical … that, and the boundless ability of the human imagination to create endless dreamworlds and then put them to work. Stephen King, Dance Macabre (1981), p. 27 (Kindle version)

A brief history of the horror genre

Horror, like most genres, has evolved substantially.

Modern horror stories’ precursors were Gothic tales, stretching back to the 1700s. Even stretching beyond that, into gory myths and legends such as Grimm’s folktales.

In early Gothic fiction, the horrifying aspects (such as ghostly apparitions) tended to stem from characters’ tortured psyches. For example, the ghostly shenanigans in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898). It was often ambiguous whether or not supernatural events depicted were real or imagined by a typically unreliable, tortured narrator.

More modern horror turned increasingly towards ‘psychological horror’. Here, the source of horror is more interior. Or else an external monster or supernatural figure is no figment but completely real.

See Noël Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror : Or, Paradoxes of the Heart for further interesting information on the genres history, as well as Stephen King’s Danse Macabre.

8 elements of horror

Eight recurring elements in classic and contemporary horror, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to the contemporary horror films of Ari Aster, are:

• Suspense (the anticipation of terror or bad things). Horror builds suspense by evoking our fear of the known (for example, fear of the dark). Also fear of the unknown (what could be lurking in said dark).
• Fear. The genre plays with primal fears such as fear of injury, accident, evil, our mistakes, whether evil faces accountability (see Thomas Fahy’s The Philosophy of Horror for more on the philosophy of horror and moral questions horror asks).
• Atmosphere. Horror relies extensively on the emotional effects of atmosphere. Just think of the claustrophobic atmosphere of the ship, the aliens’ human-hunting paradise, in the Alien film franchise.
• Vulnerability. The horror genre plays with our vulnerability, makes us remember it. Horror often asks ‘what if the other is overtly or insidiously malevolent? In asking this, it reminds us of the values of both caution and courage.
• Survival . Many horror subgenres explore themes of survival, from zombie horror to slasher films. Like tragedy, survival stories explore the rippling-out consequences of making ‘the wrong choice’.
• The Supernatural. Horror stories also plumb the unseen and unknown, terrors our physics, beliefs and assumptions can’t always explain.
• Psychological terror. Horror typically manipulates the perceptions of readers/viewers (and characters) to create a sense of unease. ‘What’s thumping under that locked cellar door?’
• The monstrous. Whether actual monsters or the monstrous possible in ordinary human behavior, horror explores the dark and what terrifies or disgusts.

Further elements and themes that appear often include death, the demonic, isolation, madness, grief and revenge.

What does horror offer readers/viewers?

In The Philosophy of Horror (2010), Thomas Fahy compares horror to a reluctant skydiving trip taken with friends, referencing King’s concept of reintegration, the ‘return to safety’:

In many ways, the horror genre promises a similar experience [to skydiving]: The anticipation of terror, the mixture of fear and exhilaration as events unfold, the opportunity to confront the unpredictable and dangerous, the promise of relative safety (both in the context of a darkened theater and through a narrative structure that lasts a finite amount of time and/or number of pages), and the feeling of relief and regained control when it’s over. Thomas Fahy (Ed.), ‘Introduction’, The Philosophy of Horror (2010).

Horror also appeals to the pleasures of repetition. The darkly amusing absurdity and existentialism of how characters are bumped off one by one in a slasher film, for example.

Audiences also flock to horror for tension (produced by suspense, fear, shock, terror, gore and other common elements), personal relevance (the way horror explores themes we can relate to), and the pleasure of the surreal or unreality.

What do you love about the horror genre? Tell us in the comments!

How to write horror: 10 tips (plus examples and quotes)

Explore ten ideas on how to write a horror story:

Jump scares and sudden gore might punctuate the story, but if they appear every page they risk becoming predictable.

Who in your ensemble will your reader or viewer want to survive or triumph over horrifying events, and why?

Often horror flips between everyday fears (a young couple’s fears about becoming parents, for example) and a symbolic, scarier level.

Great horror stories often live on in reader/viewer debate about what ‘really’ happened. They reward rewatching.

Horror stories make terrifying events (such as an author being abducted by a homicidal superfan in King’s Misery ) seem plausible. We believe their worlds.

Who can forget the infamous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho ? Horror often scares us where we think we’re safest.

Play with multiple layers and levels of fear – fear of the known, unknown, of real monsters and the make-believe monsters of perception.

What will create that feeling that something’s just a little off, unexpected?

Some horror subgenres (e.g. splatterpunk or slasher horror) go all-out on gore. Violence isn’t the only way to unsettle your reader, though. Play with the fear of the unseen – imagination can supply the possibilities.

Focusing solely on scaring readers may end up with a story that is more style and provocation than substance. Think about character and story arcs, using setting to create tone and atmosphere, other elements that make up good stories .

Pace the big horror scares for suspense

Let’s explore each of the preceding ideas on how to write horror. First: Pacing.

As in suspense, pacing is everything in horror. Good pacing allows the build-up, ebb and flow of tension.

See how the script for the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist (adapted from William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name) begins? Not with immediate, obvious demonic possession, but the suspense of an archaeological dig. There are no jump scares, and no gore – just quiet unease.

GET YOUR FREE GUIDE TO SCENE STRUCTURE

Read a guide to writing scenes with purpose that move your story forward.

Pacing in horror-writing example: Slow-building tension in The Exorcist

EXTERIOR- IRAQ- EXCATVATION SITE- NINEVEH- DAY Pickaxes and shovels weld into the air as hundreds of excavators tear at the desert. The camera pans around the area where hundreds of Iraqi workmen dig for ancient finds. […] YOUNG BOY (In Iraqi language) They’ve found something… small pieces. MERRIN (In Iraqi language) Where? The Exorcist screenplay. Source: Script Slug

This is a long way – geographically and tonally – from a young girl walking backwards downstairs or her head turning around like an owl’s.

A seemingly innocent archaeological dig turns into something more sinister. A link is implied between the statue of a demon unearthed in the dig and two dogs starting to fight:

EXTERIOR – IRAQ- NINEVEH- DAY […] The old man walks up the rocky mound and sees a huge statue of the demon Pazuzu, which has the head of the small rock he earlier found. He climbs to a higher point to get a closer look. When he reaches the highest point he looks at the statue dead on. He then turns his head as we hear rocks falling and sees a guard standing behind him. He then turns again when he hears two dogs savagely attacking each other. The noise is something of an evil nature. He looks again at the statue and we are then presented with a classic stand off side view of the old man and the statue as the noises rage on. We then fade to the sun slowly setting as the noises lower in volume. The Exorcist screenplay. Source: Script Slug

The suspense in this opening builds up a sense of something horrifying being unleashed on the world unwittingly.

Use characterization to make readers care

Great horror stories may use stock character types, flat arcs. For example, in slasher films where some characters’ main purpose is to die in some creative, absurd way.

Yet subtler horror writing uses characterization to make the reader care.

Part of the truly horrifying aspect of The Exorcist , for example, is knowing that an innocent child is possessed. Tormented by evil through no fault of her own.

The care is palpable in her mother Chris’ (Ellen Burstyn) horror and anxiety in reaction. Empathy is a natural response to having an unwell child (and ‘unwell’ is putting it mildly, in this case).

We empathize with characters grappling with dark forces beyond their control. Life tests everyone with destructive or painful experiences at some point in time. The sense of powerlessness (and tenacity that emerges through that) is a testament to the human spirit, to perseverance.

A horror story itself may have a bleaker reading, of course. Yet we struggle on with the intrepid heroines in their attempts to overcome.

Three horror character archetypes that make us care

In Danse Macabre , Stephen King discusses three common character archetypes in horror and Gothic fiction:

• The Thing – for example, Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , which expresses pain at having been created.
• The Vampire – often represented as suffering eternal life/return (similar in this regard to ghosts and poltergeists).
• The Werewolf – a horror character who transforms, typically against their will and usually with great suffering, into a beast.

King explores examples of these three horror archetypes from books and films such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal psychological horror film, Psycho (1960).

Writes King:

It doesn’t end with the Thing, the Vampire, and the Werewolf; there are other bogeys out there in the shadows as well. But these three account of a large bloc of modern horror fiction. King, Danse Macarbre, p. 96.

Why horror character archetypes make us care

Horror lovers care about ‘the thing’ archetype often because ‘the thing’, the monster, is misunderstood or blameless for its creation. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, who bargains with his creator for release and freedom.

‘The vampire’ is often a relatable figure because of the inevitable loneliness of eternal life. The vampire is imprisoned by limitations such as not being allowed the rest of death (or even natural pleasures such as sunlight – as glamorous as it might be to sparkle like Stephenie Meyer’s diamante vamps).

King writes about the werewolf and how it represents human duality. The respectable public persona or façade, on one hand, and a world of hidden, private horror on the other. A duality many who carry private trauma can relate to.

Each archetype is relatable on some level. This empathic element makes one care for (or at least understand) the monstrous and inhuman in more literary horror stories. Evil (though some don’t like to admit it) has a face and a backstory, a history of becoming, most of the time.

Read more about how to create characters readers can picture and care about in our complete guide to character creation .

Make the known scary (not just the unknown)

Many horror movies tap into the terror of the known, the common human experience, and not only absurd (but campy and fun) nightmares like clowns hiding in stormwater drains.

Common, relatable parts of familiar human experience to mine for horror and terror include:

• Birth and death (e.g. Rosemary’s Baby )
• Loss and grief (e.g. Hereditary )
• Childhood fears (e.g. It )
• Loss of control (e.g. An American Werewolf in London )
• Ritual and community (e.g. Midsommar )
• Exploring the unknown (e.g. Alien )

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan writes in the script for the 2000 film Unbreakable:

Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here. That’s – that’s just an awful feeling.

Often, it is this mundane, relatable element of horror – such as the horror of not having a place in the world – that supplies the psychological or inner aspect.

For example, a bereaved family’s struggle with an occult family history (the outer horror) provides the figurative, metaphorical means to explore the painful reality of grief and intergenerational trauma (inner horror) in Ari Aster’s psychological horror film, Hereditary .

Don’t feel you have to explain everything

Although King’s concept of ‘reintegration’ applies in many horror stories where a sunnier ending promises relief, many modern horror narratives eschew tidy resolution.

It’s a classic ploy in horror series, for example, for there to be troubling alarm bells at the end, inferring that a persistent terror lives on. For example, the jump scare at the end of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) [warning: implied violence, spoilers].

The shock comes through the juxtaposition of an ‘everyone’s safe at last moment’ and terror striking from inside the house without warning, undoing the sense of resolution attained. The main character having woken from the dreams where the bulk of terrifying events occur adds to this false sense of security.

There is no graphic gore or violence. The scene doesn’t show or tell every detail. Instead, the audience has to interpret the event and what it implies about the the status of the conflict between the main characters and the supernatural villain, Freddy Krueger – whether it is truly over.

Play with the terror of plausibility

What is most terrifying is often what is plausible. For example, the crazed fan who abducts her favorite author in Stephen King’s Misery (1987), for hobbling instead of autographs. Celebrity stalking is a well-documented modern cultural phenomenon. It is hard to eyeroll at after John Lennon.

Why is plausibility worth thinking about when exploring how to write horror?

• Suspension of disbelief. If events in a horror story seem plausible (at least for the horror world created), the audience is less inclined to roll their eyes and groan, ‘That would never happen’.
• Relatability . A novel and film such as The Exorcist plays on the natural fear many have that loved ones will fall unwell or depart, in body, spirit or mind.
• Tension and unpredictability: It is more tense and unpredictable when everything is ‘normal’ to start. Ruptures in the fabric of this normalcy create tension, the sense ‘anything could happen’ (that sense requires the bedrock of plausibility first ).

Scare horror audiences when they least expect

Like that jump scare in the final scene of A Nightmare on Elm Street , horror often scares the shoes off us when we least expect it.

Take, for example, the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), where Marion Crane is attacked in the shower.

The shower, usually associated with privacy, relaxation, is nothing like an abandoned side street, dark wood at night, or other traditionally ‘creepy’ setting. This coupled with the intensity of Hitchcock’s shots – the raised hand clutching a knife – creates a chilling scene.

Horror mastery lies in a push and pull, lulling your audience into a false sense of security, then pulling the rug out from under them when they least expect it. Tweet This

Get fresh weekly writing tips, polls and more

Join 14000+ subscribers for weekly writing ideas and insights.

Deepen the story with layers of fear

Horror, like other fantastical genres, deals in layers and dualities. In fantasy fiction , we often have a primary world and a secondary one. In horror, the duality is often an internal horror doing a ‘danse macabre’ with an external one.

Says horror filmmaking veteran John Carpenter in conversation with Vulture :

There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don’t understand. Internal is the human heart. Simon Abrams, ‘The Soft-Spoken John Carpenter on How He Chooses Projects and His Box-Office Failures’, July 6 2011.

In a story using the ‘werewolf’ archetype, for example, the rational, untransformed side of a protagonist may fear the revelation of their monstrous side, the consequences this would have for their daily life (whether they are a literal werewolf or this is figurative). Transformed, the werewolf, like the ‘elephant man’, may experience the external horror and fear of others’ revulsion or animosity (which then feeds the internal, in a vicious cycle).

Having both internal and external conflicts in a horror story moves horror beyond simple disgust and shock tactics. The audience can connect deeper with characters, the cycles of violence they endure or triumph over.

Tapping into common fears for horror writing

If the point of horror writing (and horror elements in other genres such as paranormal romance) is to arouse fear, shock or disgust, think of the things people are most commonly afraid of.

Live Science places an interest choice at number one : The dentist. It’s true that you can feel powerless when you’re in the dentist’s chair. Couple this with the pain of certain dental procedures and it’s plain to see why a malevolent dentist is the stuff of horror nightmares.

Making readers scared creates tension and increases the pace of your story. Even so there should be a reason for making readers fearful.

Here are some of the most common fears people have:

• Fear of animals (dogs, snakes, sharks, mythical creatures such as the deep sea-dwelling kraken)
• Fear of flying (film producers combined the previous fear and this other common fear to make the spoof horror movie Snakes on a Plane)
• The dark – one of the most fundamental fears of the unfamiliar
• Perilous heights
• Other people and their often unknown desires or intentions
• Ugly or disorienting environments

Think of how common fears can be evoked in your horror fiction. Some are more often exploited in horror writing than others. A less precise fear (such as the fear of certain spaces) will let you tell the horror story you want with fewer specified must-haves.

Add subtler hints of something wrong

Returning to core elements of horror – fear, suspense, and atmosphere – how do you make horror scary even when Freddy isn’t dragging anyone through a solid wood door?

Tone and atmosphere emerge in the subtle hints and clues something is wrong.

Hints and signs of horrors to come could include:

• Unsettling sounds. Dripping, humming, chanting, singing, banging, knocking, drumming. What are sounds that imply trouble and the ghastly unknown coming to visit?
• Creepy imagery. What are images and signs that suggest comfort (for example, a lamp burning in a window to signal someone’s home)? Blow those candles out, play with the unhomely.
• Unsettling change. Changes in light, a companion’s tone, a pet’s behavior. Small harbingers of trouble add tension.
• Missing objects. What is not continuous in a way that unsettles and defies expectations? For example, in the reboot of Twin Peaks , an attempt to go home again leads to the dread of everything being different, that sense of ‘you can’t go home again’.
• Discomforting communication. Sometimes horror hinges on a repeated word or phrase (‘Candyman’), or someone saying something creepily unexpected.

The above are just a few ways to imply that something is very wrong.

Balance gore with the unseen (subgenre depending)

Gore in horror has the capability to shock, disgust, make your audience squeamish. Yet a relentless gore-fest may quickly desensitize readers or viewers to the element of surprise.

How much gore you include in a horror will of course depend on your subgenre and story scenario. Slasher stories and subgenres such as splatterpunk (a horror subgenre characterized by extreme violence) will have audiences who demand gore and may lament something tame.

Reasons to balance gore with the terror of the unseen, otherwise:

• Maintaining tension. Periods of calm between violent scenes create suspense, nervous tension for when there’ll be blood again.
• Deepening the story. Great stories with broad appeal take more than blood and guts – meaningful character arcs and genuine scares and horrifying scenes can coexist.
• Artful storytelling. Relying on inference, plot twists, atmosphere, tension for fright and shock is arguably more artful than leaping straight for shock-value. Critical succcesses in the horror genre often don’t rely solely on the cheapest, easiest scares. The story often earns them by building plausibility or deeper symbolic and metaphorical resonance.

Tell a good story first, scare readers second

That last idea boils down to this: Focus on telling a good story, first.

If your sole focus is how most you can shock and manipulate your audience, some may critique this as cheap exploitation.

Some authors – deliberate provocateurs – may wear that label as a badge of pride, of course. Careers are sometimes made in attracting controversy, even bans and censorship for extreme shock value.

Yet the stories that endure often make excellent uses of all the parts of storytelling and encapsulate some of the qualities that make storytelling universal – humanity, insight, the empathy and truth-finding that imagining and exploring ‘dreamworlds’ offers.

Are you writing horror? Join the Now Novel critique community for free and get perks such as longer critique submissions, weekly editorial feedback and story planning tools when you upgrade to The Process.

Now Novel has been invaluable in helping me learn about the craft of novel writing. The feedback has been encouraging, insightful and useful. I’m sure I wouldn’t have got as far as I have without the support of Jordan and the writers in the groups. Highly recommend to anyone seeking help, support or encouragement with their first or next novel. – Oliver

Related Posts:

• Showing vs telling: 'Show don't tell' in narration
• How do you write a story using three-act structure?
• How to write the middle of a story: 9 tips
• Tags horror fiction

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

71 replies on “How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror”

[…] Similarly, the always awesome Now Novel blog has 6 Terrific tips on How to write a horror story that are worth a look. The most important piece of info there, in my opinion is # 5: Write scary […]

Great and helpful post. Its difficult to find helpful, informative posts on horror writing. Thanks.

It’s a pleasure, Alice. I’m glad you found this helpful.

I agree with Alice. This was very useful. Thanks, Bridget.

It’s a pleasure, Melissa, thanks for reading.

As always, an insightful and helpful post, especially regarding the distinction between terror and horror. Love the SK quote! 🙂

Thank you! Thanks for reading. It is a good quote, isn’t it?

Im 11 and working on a horror story with 100 or more pages. this is very helpful. 🙂

I’m impressed, Ethan. Keep going! I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂

Okay, I’m EXACTLY the same age and also working on a horror novel!! I already have 241 pages, though.

Update* im now 13 yayayayyaa owo I lost the pages and have then finished writing a script for something i cant loose. SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS

Omg hey Ethan and Malachi I’m twelve (right in the middle IG) and working on novels that are going to be between 100 and 300 pages! Good luck guys 😀

Great article. You helped me realise that the short I was working on is actually a novel. Not sure how mind you, but thanks all the same. I’ll sign up now.

Thanks, Gareth! Glad to help.

The article is useful, except for the last part, which totally messed up the beauty of the article. It’s POINTLESS trying to differentiate two things that are mostly used interchangeably. Moreover, Terry Heller’s point makes the whole sense, SENSELESS, because her definition of terror and horror are actually the same except for the subjects to where such emotion is concerned about. Terror is one’s fear for oneself, and horror is one’s fear for others? Are you kidding me? Both can be subjected to either oneself or to others. Dictionaries and encyclopedias never indicate that horror is what one fears for others alone, because it can be for oneself, too. If Terry cannot differentiate two things, which are not really meant to be differentiated because they are the ultimate synonym for each other, then she doesn’t have to make such an effort. She’s making everyone a fool.

Thank you for your engaging response. You raise valid points, and sometimes academic treatments of subjects do over-complicate matters. In light of your comment I’m updating the post since I see now that the distinction isn’t perhaps particularly useful here.

Thanks for the tips. Writing a horror novel for my 1st NaNoWriMo project. This was extremely helpful 🙂

I’m really glad to hear that, Ashley. I hope NaNoWriMo is going well.

I am 12 and have been working on horror since I was 7! So exited to actually get some good info! Thanks!

It’s a pleasure, Aurelia. It’s great that you’re already so committed to your love of writing, keep it up.

Thanks! I am exited to do Nanowrimo and I am am hoping to write a long novel this November. This really helped and extra thanks to the helpful comment!

It’s a pleasure! I hope your NaNoWriMo is going very well.

This has given me more quality advice on the genre than a three year creative writing degree. Best start reading the stuff first then! Thank you.

Thank you, Neil, high praise indeed. Good luck with your horror book!

… How does one get rid of writers block? My brain always blanks out when I try and start writing. So annoying! >:c

Sometimes listening to songs with a creepy tone helps

Great advice, Allee. I love listening to music while I work myself.

My advice is to literally just write what comes into your brain, it doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not, that’s what first drafts are for, as long as you’re writing in some shape of form, be it poor or good quality, it’s practice

Thank you. … My brain is weird. Just now, I’ve been shaken out of my sleep by an intense dream. Seriously. I don’t know what goes on up there, but it’s mad.

Good advice! Maya Angelou said similar about her writing process. Here are some additional tips on moving past a block: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/banish-writers-block/

I’m so happy I ran across this article. I’ve read from more than one story editor that the horror genre is the most difficult genre to master.

I’m glad to hear that, JP. All genres have their challenges but I’d say the best, best, best approach is to read widely in said genre (and others). Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, if Stephen King can’t terrify or horrify, he’ll gross us out. And he says he’s not proud. In other words, he’ll stoop to the disgust level if he can’t get the others. But this is precisely the problem with the “gross” or “disgusting.” Disgust is not fear. When we are disgusted, we know TOO much. When we are horrified, there is always something we DON’T know. I’m amazed he doesn’t know that. An autopsy gives us disgust because nothing is held back from the viewer. It is not frightening. No one believes, for example, that the body is going to get up from the autopsy table and start attacking the doctor. But if I walk into the autopsy room all by myself and see a dead body on a table, turn away from the body to shut the door, turn back to it, notice it gone, and then have the lights start dimming? Yes. Now I am scared. Why? Simply because I don’t know certain things. I don’t know why the body has suddenly disappeared. I don’t know how a dead person could have moved. I don’t know where the body is right now. I don’t know if that body (if it is actually alive) has good or bad intentions toward me. I don’t know who is dimming the lights and why. It is so much easier to disgust the reader than to horrify him. It takes more cleverness to hold back information from the character and the reader than to let everything gush forth in blood and guts. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, for example, there is more fear to be found in the inscrutable nightly crying of the butler’s wife than in many of our modern horror films put together. Why is she crying? Why only at night? Why is she doing looking out of the window into the dark each night? The source of fear is in the unknown.

Ultimately, King does know and it is a show vs tell metaphor. You have to read his biographical On Writing because no one explains it correctly. Terror is the psychological aspect of the story. Horror is the stories physical manifestation of the terror. Disgust is the actions of horror. Showing the actions of horror kills all suspense immediately. I like to explain it to my students and listeners as if Terror and Horror are the brake and Disgust is the gas. It’s like the old story of the escaped lunatic with a hook were a young couple go out on a date. While driving to Make Out Lane there is a report on the radio about an escaped killer with a hook running around killing people that the only the girl hears. As the girl and boy are making out she sees a shadow and the boyfriend sees nothing. Then there is the screeching sound on the outside of the car. That’s terror. The boyfriend gets out and inspects his car in the dense fog. The girl loses sight of the boy as he walks toward the rear, building on the terror. There is another screech along her door, terrorizing her. She calls out the boys name and he doesn’t respond, building on the terror, possibly toward horror if the boy doesn’t return. Then he does. He leaps into the car and jerks it into reverse and pulls away from the scene at mach-5. When they arrive back at her house, they find a hook dangling from the passenger door handle, the horror. King describes this little story as the perfect short horror story. However, in some later versions of the story the girl jumps in the driver’s seat and pulls off without the boy. When she gets to her home she finds a bloody hook dangling from the door with a bit of gut on it, leaving the girl and the audience disgusted. as the tension and suspense are deflated.

This is very helpful. My 8th grade English teacher is holding a contest for writing a short (750 to 3,000 word) horror story, so I am researching the elements of horror and how to incorporate them into my work. This article is by far one of the more helpful ones I have found in finding ways to create fear, shock or disgust in the mind of the reader. Thank you!

Hi Margaret,

Thank you for this feedback. I’m glad to hear you found this article useful. I hope you won the contest 🙂

“…his skin distinctly yellowish in colour.” Far from being exemplary in any way, this is actually terrible, hack writing. If something is “yellowish,” it cannot be “distinctly” so. It’s either distinctly yellow, or “yellowish.” Likewise, “in color” is flabby and redundant. Could the skin be “yellowish” in shape or size? Could it be “yellowish” in cost or weight? This page is distinctly whiteish in color. See how weak and flabby that is?

To be fair, there is a lot of good information on this page. But Clive Barker is a dreadful writer, and should never be cited as an exemplar of good prose.

Hi Sharkio, you raise a very good point. I second your edit of just saying ‘yellowish’ and cutting in colour and am tempted to add a note on not taking the letter of his prose as exemplary, but rather the spirit 🙂 I agree that although the atmosphere and tone are there, the prose is weak in places. There’s also the question, though, of whether we can/should apply ‘literary’ standards to genre fic where these and other ‘sins’ are more widely accepted 🙂 Thanks for the thoughtful engagement with this detail.

Are you crazy? There is no writer at the top of their game as Barker was in the 70-90s. His influence is on everything today.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, H Duane 🙂 Just goes to show that everyone has different preferences. He is regarded as one of the modern masters of horror. I suppose genre fiction readers might also be more forgiving of certain stylistic choices than literary readers.

Some good tips after writing 2 love stories and a mystery now I am trying for some horrer story and this will help me such a good information

Thanks, Sidhu. That’s an interesting genre leap, but many horrors do have both elements. It’s a weird trope to me how often the romantic leads are the first to go in slasher flicks. You’d think writers would keep them to add romantic tension to the mix. I hope your story’s coming along well.

I just finished writing my first horror script/ screenplay… I checked this list just to see if I maybe left elements out that I should include or if I was on the right track and I’m proud to report that my script has it all… Once my film finally sees the light of day, I hope all horror fans are satisfied…

Hi Timothy, I hope so too! Best of luck with the next steps, please update us about what comes of it.

I am attempting to write a horror story where the main character is possessed and is writing in a diary like format as it occurs, and begins committing murders, how do I accurately capture the descent into madness?

Hi Evan, thank you for sharing that. It’s an interesting challenge. I would suggest a shift in style and tone in his writing. For example, perhaps they use stranger metaphors, repeat themselves more, their sentences become more fragmented, there’s the occasional odd word by itself on a line, lines or sentences that don’t make complete semantic sense but have an eerie undertone (I think of the classic phrase ‘The owls are not what they seem’ in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks).

I hope this helps! Good luck.

Thank you, this was very useful. I appreciate your enthusiasm and encouragement.

It’s my pleasure, Evan, glad to help. Have a great week.

Wow this was really helpful thanks

I’m glad to hear that, Rene. Thank you for the feedback!

I wanted to write a psychological thriller story for a youtube channel. I am glad I found help from here. Thank You.

It’s a pleasure, Suyasha! Thank you for reading and good luck creating your story for YouTube.

I appreciate the reference to ’cause and effect’ for any level of villainy. The more complex the villain, the more interesting the story. Anything that steps out of the dark and says, “Hi, I’m evil. I’m here to destroy everything for no apparent reason,” flattens the scene. I think your point about motivation is key to getting people engaged in the fantasy. I think that this will heighten the tension in my current story. Thank you.

Hi Deborah, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Agreed, a complex villain also tends to be less predictable which inherently builds more suspense, as (compared to a Bond villain, for example), they’re more textured and unknowable, less of a trope or archetype. I’m glad you found these ideas helpful to your current story, good luck as you proceed further!

Totally agree with you Joseph Pedulla. You summed it up perfectly! Gross is not scary. I like scary. Stephen King is talked about all the time like the all-time best horror writer. I have tried reading some of his work and I find it mind-numbingly boring. I like the story to move along; don’t give me a whole bunch of description!! Read Darren Shan’s ‘The Cirque Du Freak Series.’ Absolutely amazing!

Thank you. I appreciate the elaboration on each hint. I also think your arguments make sense AND can be helpful to many indie-authors & startup writers alike.

Thank you for your feedback, Andre. I’m glad you found our article helpful!

Was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!

Please see also my blog, Getting to Know the 4 Incredible Authors of Horror Fiction

Hope this will help,

Thank you, Joab. Thanks for sharing your horror writing blog.

[…] How to Write a Horror Story: 6 Terrific Tips […]

This is quite interesting and I can see how it relates to film more readily than to a novel – perhaps due to the many film examples and the visual quality of the ‘jump scare’, etc. I can see that film examples are very useful, however, I’m having trouble relating this to crafting words on a page as opposed to images on a screen.

Hi Rachel, thank you so much for this useful feedback. It’s interesting how much film and narrative fiction have influenced each other in this specific genre, but this is useful to me – I will work in more examples from horror lit in an additional section when I have a moment. Thanks for helping me make this article better and for reading.

Interesting! I may add some horror prompts to Craft Challenge. You did forget to mention the terror of never finishing a book, missing tons of errors, writing something right after someone else does it, and getting your book idea stolen 😉 Although I suppose they’re preferable to a gruesome death, or drowning, or grasshoppers (don’t judge me) 🕷️🪓🩸

I’m now trying to remember which of those fears horror authors’ writer characters (e.g. in Misery ) have 🙂 I’m going to have to have a look at that. OK, I’m with you on the grasshoppers. My aunt lives near the mountain and they get these very angry-looking green ones my aunt calls ‘Green [redacted]s’ 😉

Also please do, I’ll also think up some horror prompts to share as well (another section for this article in version 2.1).

Oh, I forgot one! The fear of every critique starting with “I don’t like this genre.” 😳

Haha I love that, Margriet. A relatable fear, I would say.

How much room for humor do you think there is in the horror genre? Do you think you could write a horror novel that has a high percentage of humor Vs. horror/gore and still call it a horror novel?

This is a great question, Scott. I really am not a horror expert myself (sometimes I write far out of my comfort zone here which requires a little more research). But if I think of Tim Curry’s performance as It , for example, how he fills the character with this wild humor and characterization that made many prefer the original to the remake, I would say horror has as much capacity for humor as you want it to have. Comedy horror is a thing, with zombie spoofs and the like produced, so you could always market a comedy horror title in both categories. I think part of the natural crossover is that jump scares, campy villainous dialogue, or see-it-coming-from-a-mile tropes often make audiences laugh, too.

I’m working on one to it’s very wierd and it’s called Toony and The Ink Machine Yes I know kind of ripoff of Bendy and The ink machine.

Fabulous title, Silas! Wishing you the best with the writing process.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest

VIDEO COURSE

Finish your draft in our 3-month master class. Sign up now to watch a free lesson!

Learn How to Write a Novel

Finish your draft in our 3-month master class. Enroll now for daily lessons, weekly critique, and live events. Your first lesson is free!

Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Jun 20, 2022

How to Write a Horror Story: 7 Tips for Writing Horror

In our era of highly commercialized crime and thriller novels, it may seem like zeitgeist-defining horror books are a thing of the past. Indeed, Stephen King was once the perennial bestselling author in the world, and children in the 90s devoured Goosebumps books like The Blob devoured, well, everything.

But let’s not forget there’s a huge base of horror fans today, desperate for their next fix . So if you’re hoping to become the next Crown Prince of Dread, your dream can still come true! Here are seven steps to writing truly chilling horror:

1. Start with a fear factor

2. pick a horror story subgenre, 3. let readers experience the stakes, 4. create suspense through point of view, 5. consider plot twists to surprise your audience, 6. put your characters in compelling danger, 7. use your imagination.

The most important part of any horror story is naturally going to be its fear factor . People don’t read horror for easy entertainment; they read it to be titillated and terrorized. That said, here are a few elements you can use to seriously scare the pants off your reader.

Instinctive fears

Fears that have some sort of logical or biological foundation are often the most potent in horror. Darkness, heights, snakes, and spiders — all these are extremely common phobias rooted in instinct. As a result, they tend to be very effective at frightening readers.

This is especially true when terror befalls innocent characters apropos of nothing: a killer traps them in their house for no apparent reason, or they’re suddenly mugged by a stranger with a revolver. As horror writer Karen Woodward says, “The beating undead heart of horror is the knowledge that bad things happen to good people.”

Monsters and supernatural entities

These stretch beyond the realm of logic and into the realm of the “uncanny,” as Freud called it. We all know that vampires , werewolves, and ghosts aren’t real, but that doesn’t mean they can’t shake us to our core. In fact, it’s the very uncertainty they arouse that makes them so sinister: what if monsters are really out there, we’ve just never seen them? This fear is one of the most prevalent in horror, but if you decide to write in this vein, your story has to be pretty convincing.

Societal tensions

Another great means of scaring people is to tap into societal tensions and concerns — a tactic especially prevalent in horror movies. Just in recent memory, Get Out tackles the idea of underlying racism in modern America, The Babadook examines mental health, and It Follows is about the stigma of casual sex. However, societal tensions can also easily be embodied in the pages of a horror story, as in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery .

The right atmosphere for your story depends on what kind of horror you want to write. To use cinematic examples again, are you going for more Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Silence of the Lambs? The tone and atmosphere of your story will hang upon its subgenre.

• Thriller-horror employs psychological fear, often occurring near the beginning of horror stories before very much has happened
• Gross-out horror involves vivid descriptions of spurting blood, hacked-up flesh, and gouged-out organs in order to shock the reader; think gore movies of the 70s
• Classic horror harks back to the Gothic (or Southern Gothic ) genre, with spooky settings and bone-chilling characters like those of Dracula and Frankenstein
• Terror provokes a feeling of all-pervasive dread, which can either serve as the climax of your story or be sustained throughout

It’s also possible to combine subgenres, especially as your story progress. You might begin with a sense of thrilling psychological horror, then move into gothic undertones, which culminates in utter terror.

But no matter what type of horror you’re working with, it should be deeply potent for your reader — and yourself! “If you manage to creep yourself out with your own writing, it's usually a pretty good sign that you're onto something,” editor Harrison Demchick says.

PRO-TIP : Ever wanted to find out which book genre  you  are? Take our 1-minute quiz below to see! 

Which book genre are you?

Find out here! Takes one minute.

In order for readers to truly thrill at your horror story, you need to make them aware of the stakes. Clearly establish the main problem or motivation for your character(s) , and what they have to lose if they don’t figure it out. These stakes and motivations might involve: 

Survival. The most basic objective of characters in any horror story is to survive. However, there are nuances that accompany that goal. Perhaps their objective isn't just to stay alive, but to defeat their murderous nemesis while doing it — whether that’s another person, an evil spirit, or even themselves, if it’s a Jekyll and Hyde-type scenario.

Protecting loved ones. The more people the protagonist has to keep safe, the higher the stakes. Many horrific tales peak with a threat of death not to the main character, but to one or several of their loved ones (as in Phantom of the Opera or Red Dragon ).

Cracking unsolved mysteries. Because some horror stories aren’t about escaping peril in the present, but rather about uncovering the terrors of the past. This especially true in subgenres like cosmic horror , which have to do with the great mysteries of the universe, often involving ancient history.

Again, as with atmosphere, you can always merge different kinds of stakes. For instance, you might have a character trying to solve some mysterious murders that happened years ago, only to find out that they’re the next target!

The main thing to remember when it comes to horror — especially horror stories — is that straightforward stakes tend to have the greatest impact. Says author Chuck Wendig, of his perfect recipe for horror: “Plain stakes, stabbed hard through the breastbone.”

Bonus tip! Need help conjuring stakes and suspense? Try reading some masterfully crafted true crime — which can be even scarier than bone fide horror, since it actually happened.

Your reader should feel a kinship with your main character, such that when the stakes are high, they feel their own heart start to beat faster. This can be achieved through either first person or third person limited point of view. (When writing horror, you’ll want to avoid third person omniscient, which can distance your reader and lessen their investment in the story.)

We'll get into only the major POV's to consider in this post, but if you want a full point of view masterclass, check out our free course below.

FREE COURSE

Understanding Point of View

Learn to master different POVs and choose the best for your story.

First person POV

Speaking of beating hearts, for a great example of first person narration in horror, look no further than The Tell-Tale Heart . Many of Poe’s stories involve deranged first-person narrators ( The Black Cat , The Cask of Amontillado ) but none are more notorious than this one, in which the main character is driven to murder his elderly housemate. Notice Poe’s chilling use of first person POV from the very first lines of the story:

It’s true! Yes, I have been ill, very ill. But why do you say that I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Indeed, the illness only made my mind, my feelings, my senses stronger… I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!

First person POV is excellent for hooking your reader at the beginning, and keeping them in suspense throughout your story. However, it might be too intense for longer, more intricate pieces, and may be difficult to execute if you’re trying to conceal something from your readers.

It’s also worth thinking about the implications of first person, past tense POV in a horror story — it suggests they’ve lived to tell the tale, which might ruin your dramatic ending. Therefore if you do decide to use first person narration, you should probably keep it in present tense.

Third person POV

If you find yourself struggling to make first person POV work, consider a third person limited perspective instead. This kind of narration is often used in longer-form horror, popularized by the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz . Look how it’s used here in King’s 1974 novel Carrie , in the description of its eponymous character:

Carrie stood among [the other girls] stolidly, a frog among swans. She was a chunky girl with pimples on her neck and back and buttocks, her wet hair completely without color… She looked the part of the sacrificial goat, the constant butt, believer in left-handed monkey wrenches, perpetual foul-up, and she was.

This narration paints an intimate picture of the character, while still allowing the freedom for commentary in a way that first person narration doesn’t as much. Third person limited narration also works well for building to a certain atmosphere, rather than jumping right into it, as Poe’s narrator does — which is part of why third person is better for lengthier pieces. (See more of King's masterful use of POV to wrack up tension in our Guide to King! )

Unreliable narrators

Alternately, if you’re committed to having a first person narrator but you don’t want to reveal everything to your readers, an unreliable narrator could be your perfect solution! Many mystery and thriller novels employ unreliable narration in order to work up to a big twist without giving away too much. So whether or not you’ll want an unreliable narrator probably depends on how you end your story: straight down the line or with a twist.

Plot twists are exciting, memorable, and help bring previous uncertainty into focus, releasing tension by revealing the truth. However, they’re also notoriously difficult to come up with , and extremely tricky to pull off — you have to carefully hint at a twist, while making sure it’s not too predictable or clichéd.

So: to twist or not to twist? That is the question. 

Big plot twists in horror writing tend to follow the beaten path: the victim turns out to be the killer, the person who we thought was dead isn’t really, or — worst of all — it was all in their head the whole time! But keep in mind that small, subtle plot twists can be just as (if not more) effective.

Take William Faulkner’s short story A Rose for Emily . After Emily dies, the villagers discover the corpse of a long-vanished traveler in one of her spare beds — along with a strand of silver hair. While the discovery of the body might be gruesome, it’s the presence of Emily’s hair (suggesting she enjoyed cuddling with a cadaver) that really haunts you.

Not to twist

The ending of your story doesn't have to come out of left field to shock and horrify readers. The classic horror approach leaves the reader in suspense as to precisely what will happen, then concludes with a violent showdown (think slasher films).

In this approach, while the showdown itself might not be a surprise, the scenes leading up to it build tension and anticipation for the climax. That way, when the big moment does arrive, it still packs a dramatic punch.

“A horror novel, like any story, is about a character or characters trying to achieve a goal based upon their individual wants and needs,” says Demchick. “If you let concept overwhelm character, you'll lose much of what makes horror as engaging as it can be.”

To scare your characters, you need to have a solid understanding of their psyche. Filling out a character profile template is a great start to fleshing out believable characters, so give ours a try.

FREE RESOURCE

Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

As you write, you need to stay conscious of basic storytelling techniques and not get carried away with the drama of horror. It might help, before you begin, to answer these questions about your characters and plot:

• What fear or struggle must your protagonist overcome?
• What decision do they make to put them in this situation?
• How will they defeat or escape their adversary, if at all?
• What are the ultimate consequences of their actions?

This will help you create a basic outline for your horror story, which you can embellish to create atmosphere and suspense. In plot-driven genre stories, a thorough outline and emotionally resonant elements are vital for keeping your reader invested.

A great horror story balances drama with realism and suspense with relief, even with the occasional stroke of humor. Gillian Flynn is the master of this technique — as seen in this excerpt from her horror story The Grownup , wherein the narrator is scheming how to capitalize on her “spiritual cleansing” services:

I could go into business for myself, and when people asked me, “What do you do?” I’d say, I’m an entrepreneur in that haughty way entrepreneurs had. Maybe Susan and I would become friends. Maybe she’d invite me to a book club. I’d sit by a fire and nibble on Brie and say, I’m a small business owner, an entrepreneur, if you will.

In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to think about overused trends in horror and make sure your story’s not “been there, done that.” For instance, the “vampire romance” plot is a dead horse with no one left to beat it after all the Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and True Blood hype.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use certain elements of popular trends in your writing. You just have to put a spin on it and make it your own!

For example, zombie horror was already a well-worn genre when Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out in 2009. But by setting it in the regency era and featuring Jane Austen’s well-loved characters, he created a brilliant original work and carved out a brand new audience for zombie fiction. You can also pay homage to well-known horror tropes, like the Duffer brothers of Stranger Things   did for Stephen King and Steven Spielberg — and which savvy audiences are sure to appreciate.

It certainly feels sometimes like all the good horror stories have already been written, making your own ideas seem  trite. But don’t forget that new horror comes out all the time, and it only takes one great idea to be a hit! So try not to stress out about it, and remember: just by having read through this guide, you’re already that much closer to becoming a literary graveyard smash .

11 responses

Sawan says:

04/11/2018 – 19:34

Thank you so much for writing this article. I am currently writing a short horror story. Sometimes when I write a horror scene, I get really terrified, but after some days it all feels shitty.

↪️ dilinger john replied:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

it happens with everyone don't stress over it and pass your work to someone who will review it. you are a writer and can not be a critic at the same time.

↪️ Shane C replied:

28/09/2019 – 21:15

Sawan -- been writing for 22 years... NEVER judge your own work. You write it -- finish it off -- then have some friends that enjoy horror and reading read your work and give you honest critique. Record their critique or take accurate notes. Repeat this with several friends (but only those you can trust not to try to steal your work, Creative Commons and/or Registered Mail can be your best friend BEFORE this stage). Pick the best one you like, that makes the most sense -- but if several people say "blah blah blah should have happened," or a really close variation throughout reader opinions... Go with it! I know most people hate that, feels like butchering your art (I know I hate it), but use it anyway. It'll likely be more widely received... Just a few pointers.

Annabelle says:

21/05/2019 – 01:51

This is awesome I love this! I’m writing my own horror novel too.🙂

↪️ Andrew replied:

31/10/2019 – 20:23

what is it?

NAVEEN says:

29/07/2019 – 15:22

i am at the age of sixteen and i decided to write a horror story. thanks a lot!!

Bobette Bryan says:

27/08/2019 – 19:09

Ghosts are real. I've seen many in my lifetime and have had some very terrifying experiences with some.

↪️ smr replied:

03/01/2020 – 13:25

what the hell ??

↪️ John Brown replied:

16/01/2020 – 02:28

Me too! And I think it actually helps with writing horror stories, because you have more experience than most.

John Brown says:

16/01/2020 – 02:27

I’m 14 and I love writing horror novels, but I usually freak my self out too much to keep writing... 😕

Comments are currently closed.

Continue reading

Recommended posts from the Reedsy Blog

Man vs Nature: The Most Compelling Conflict in Writing

What is man vs nature? Learn all about this timeless conflict with examples of man vs nature in books, television, and film.

The Redemption Arc: Definition, Examples, and Writing Tips

Learn what it takes to redeem a character with these examples and writing tips.

How Many Sentences Are in a Paragraph?

From fiction to nonfiction works, the length of a paragraph varies depending on its purpose. Here's everything you need to know.

Narrative Structure: Definition, Examples, and Writing Tips

What's the difference between story structure and narrative structure? And how do you choose the right narrative structure for you novel?

What is the Proust Questionnaire? 22 Questions to Write Better Characters

Inspired by Marcel Proust, check out the questionnaire that will help your characters remember things past.

What is Pathos? Definition and Examples in Literature

Pathos is a literary device that uses language to evoke an emotional response, typically to connect readers with the characters in a story.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

Bring your stories to life

Our free writing app lets you set writing goals and track your progress, so you can finally write that book!

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

• Announcements
• In the News
• Publications & Blogs
• Rankings & Awards
• Events & Spaces

Frights and Fiction: How Columbia Teaches Horror in Creative Writing

With the work of early trail-blazing authors such as Bram Stroker, Mary Shelley, and more recently Stephen King, the horror genre has carved its own path in the literary world for centuries. “Even though horror writing is sometimes dismissed as so-called ‘genre writing,’ we know at Columbia that when it’s done well, horror writing can be just as literary as any other kind of writing,” says Tony Trigilio , Professor of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago. 

We asked some of our faculty about the importance of horror in Columbia’s curriculum, and for some of their frightening favorites. 

Kathie Bergquist , adjunct faculty, English & Creative Writing  

"I'm glad Columbia embraces genre writing such as horror; writing and reading horror stories tunes developing writers into the use of pacing, narrative tensions, and suspense, which are useful for all prose (and script) writers. It doesn't hurt that there's also a seemingly insatiable appetite for scary stories in books, movies, and television. When it comes to reading scary stuff, I love the eerie and uncanny more than slasher or shock horror. 

A good haunted house story will get me every time, which is why I strongly recommended Jac Jemc's creepy novel, 'The Grip of It,' which is as much a contemporary psychological thriller as it is a classic haunted house story in the tradition of Shirley Jackson."

Richard Chwedyk , adjunct faculty, English & Creative Writing  

"Horror is an important element of our education because if we know ourselves fully, we must recognize and acknowledge what we fear. I get closest to this topic in my teaching when my classes discuss something like 'Beowulf.' We may not know much about Anglo-Saxons who lived 1,500 years ago, but we know what they were afraid of — monsters, like Grendel, attacking the heart and social center of their world. In 'Frankenstein' the monster is a reflection of Victor's inner turmoil, his alienation and abandonment, manifest in the form of a creature. We shall know these people by their monsters, as they would know us by ours. Literature and the arts allow us to examine this aspect of human experience without risking (usually) being torn from limb to limb."

Devon Polderman, adjunct faculty, English & Creative Writing  

"A couple of more contemporary writers who are bringing some new ideas to short story horror include Kelly Link and Maria Carmen Machado — both write outside of horror, too. Also, and I'm thinking of him because he just passed, Peter Straub's 'Ghost Story' is an excellent horror novel, published in 1979."

Polderman says Columbia's horror writing class is a popular choice among students every spring semester, as are most of the college's commercial fiction classes, such as Fantasy Writing, Young Adult Fiction, and Science Fiction Writing.

Katrina Kemble, adjunct faculty, English & Creative Writing  

"One of my favorite novels to read and discuss at Columbia College is Mary Shelley’s 'Frankenstein.' Frankenstein explores feelings of loneliness, loss, grief, and fear and helps us come to understand some of these emotions within ourselves. Gothic literature offers us an opportunity to explore some of the darker emotions we may feel and allows us to connect more deeply with the human experience."

Tony Trigilio , Professor, English & Creative Writing  

"I’m very happy that we give serious attention at Columbia to the horror genre. Even though horror writing is sometimes dismissed as so-called 'genre writing,' we know at Columbia that when it’s done well, horror writing can be just as literary as any other kind of writing. I’m proud that our curriculum is open-minded enough to welcome horror writing alongside all other kinds of literary writing in our creative writing workshops. Good writing is good writing—no matter what the genre. I know that not all schools approach writing this way, but I’m grateful that we do."

Trigilio is in the process of finishing book four of a multi-volume, hybrid poetry/prose experiment in autobiography based on the 1966–1971 ABC gothic soap opera,  Dark Shadows . His series, published by BlazeVOX Books , is crafted into verse or literary prose, with one sentence for each of the 1,225 episodes of the show.

Brendan Riley , Associate Professor, English & Creative Writing  

"Horror gives us room to tangle with the dark side of life, to ask questions about who we are, and thrill at the subversive. It also gives us crucial information about how to recognize and fend off vampires, werewolves, and zombies. 

Teaching about horror at Columbia has been a treat! As we examine and discuss popular texts like zombie films, we open doors to conversations about philosophy, art, ethics, community, and life itself. We also get a bit of insight into who we might be when the undead come knocking."

Riley's five horror recommendations: 

• The Boys from County Hell (Irish vampire movie with really interesting vampires) 
• “The Autumnal” (horror comic about a malevolent forest spirit) 
• Slaxx (low budget comedy horror movie about demonic jeans) 
• “Lake of Darkness” (1920s Chicago serial killer novel w/ a hint of Lovecrafty goodness) 
• [REC] (Spanish found-footage zombie movie that's pretty dang scary) 

Recent News

• Columbia Holds Sixth Annual Hip-Hop Festival
• 5 Questions with Columbia Alum and Trustee Staci R. Collins Jackson
• Anchor and Reporter Paige Barnes ’21 Found Stories Worth Telling at Columbia
• Make Columbia Part of Your Holiday Season: Watch Alum Movies and Shows 
• Fashion Design Alum Shaquita Reed ’18 Expresses Herself Using Different Mediums

Horror Story Writing: 9 Tips for Writing Horror Fiction

Key Takeaways:

• Create Relatable Characters
• Observe People’s Fears
• Leverage News Stories
• Incorporate Family Themes
• Use Fear to Drive Choices
• Evoke Impending Doom
• Employ Darkness as a Theme
• Explore Loss of Control
• Add Depth to Your Horror Plot

When I first started writing , I didn’t set out to be a horror genre writer.

I’ll admit I always loved genre fiction the most, and it still holds true.

Action, adventure, fantasy, science fiction, and yes, horror, but the latter in smaller doses.

Perhaps it was too many sleepless nights with the covers pulled up over my head after watching a scary movie on TV that kept me from fully embracing it at a young age.

But somewhere in my early teens, I discovered that the best way to dispel the ideas of the unknowns lurking in the dark was to embrace them .

To create them myself. I could control them, shape them to be whatever I wanted, and in doing so, discover the means to defeat them.

Horror movies and novels went from scary to exciting almost overnight, and I found my voice well suited to telling stories about otherwise ordinary people battling the extraordinary and supernatural. And the more I shared my ideas with others, the more I heard the same kind of response.

It wasn’t the monsters that they gravitated towards – it was the people and the struggles, both inner and outer, that they had to overcome in order to defeat those monsters.

It’s the human condition that draws in horror lovers and the catharsis that comes with putting a name or face to our own fears. Like our protagonists , we may not always win, but just facing the unknown is enough of a victory in and of itself.

So if you find yourself writing a horror novel , short story, screenplay, or short film for the first time or the hundredth time, you need to know that it takes more than scares and monsters to craft a good horror story.

During a conversation with Konn Lavery on the All Outta Bubblegum Radio Show , we discussed great tips for writing horror stories. The following are our best tips for horror story writing!

Tips for Horror Story Writing: Table of Contents

If you’d rather watch the tips than read them, check out the video below!

This video was made by me using Pictory’s AI video editing software .

How Do I Write a Horror Story?

1. create relatable characters.

A great horror story is a character-driven piece.

First, you get a sense of that person, then you start to relate to them, and finally, you put yourself in their shoes.

I find that isolation is key in this regard.

Explore the idea of your main character(s) being cut off from the world in some way during their adventure – this could be:

• Physically – such as in a remote location or trapped inside a building or losing their means of communication
• Mentally – such as having a break from reality or struggling with internal flaws, shortcomings, or inner demons and being unable to connect with others.

That way, when the scares begin, there’s nowhere to turn for help. The struggle becomes more personal and internal, and by default, more real. Then ask yourself:

• What would I do in this situation?
• How would I cope?
• Would I be able to keep it together?

If you can relate to your character(s), then your audience will as well.

2. Observe People’s Fears

Find out what scares others. Start small and work your way up.

Think about and notice what little things scare people, such as phobias, which can be rational (such as fear of heights) or irrational (such as fear of cats).

Consider also what they say they don’t like because dislikes tend to lead to fear for many people. In addition, a lot of our negative emotions, such as anger or hate, come from that initial concept of fear, trickling all the way down to distaste.

The people around you will spark ideas that you may not have thought of before, both in what they do and what they say and especially in what scares them and how they cope with that fear.

3. Watch the News

The news is filled with frightening images and stories on a daily basis, from the local level to the global.

Whether it’s a small-town deviant preying on one or two people or a dictator bent on world domination, there’s always something both topical and frightening in each news cycle.

Use these real-life news stories as inspiration for your own horror story!

Just remember to temper your stories by gauging public interest. If there’s something that’s dominated headlines for a long time, people might be sick of hearing it by the time you craft a story around it.

So can you do something different?

Can you take it in a different direction or give it a unique spin?

If you simply rehash the news, even unintentionally, then your audience might just roll their eyes and lose interest before they’ve even started reading. Make it fresh!

4. Use the Theme of Family

Most people can relate to the theme of family.

Regardless of good or bad relations with those close to us, most people love their families (or at the very least stay connected with them in some way).

The biggest fear for most of those people is that something bad should happen to their loved ones. Remember, family is more than just blood relations – for many, it’s the friends and colleagues that surround us daily. The people we hold dear.

So imagine a scenario where your family is in danger and how you (that is, your protagonist) would react.

What range of feelings would you go through?

What lengths would you go to to keep them safe or get them to safety?

At what point would fear give way to anger or protective instincts?

These are all questions you can project onto your main character(s) as they face the danger that threatens their world.

5. Use Fear to Drive Choices

Fear drives a lot of our choices in real life.

Fear of losing a job, fear of debt, fear of safety for our kids, fear of bad grades, fear of bullies, fear of crime… the list goes on.

Regardless of what stage of life you may be in, there is always something to fear, and the choices we make daily reflect on how we cope with that feeling. And let’s face it, some cope better than others.

While that can be a difficult reality to get over, we can use our fears in our written work to both motivate and hold back our characters as something to either give into or overcome. The choices are limitless.

6. Evoke Impending Doom

To build on the previous tip, but in a slightly different capacity, one irrational fear shared by many is the feeling that sooner or later, luck runs out and things will turn for the worse.

One way to use this in your horror stories is to foreshadow what might happen. Give words to the worst-case scenario as a driver for both the characters and the story.

That way, the reader and characters both will spend the story wondering if that other shoe will ever drop. Whether or not it does is up to you, but as Hitchcock once famously said,

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Alfred Hitchcock

RELATED: Read all about how to write a great monster here!

7. Use the Theme of Darkness

It’s often good to use the idea of darkness in some way – a primal feeling we all share.

It’s funny when you think about it in our modern context because, what is darkness?

It’s just the absence of light. In and of itself, it’s not a scary thing, but it’s what the darkness represents that frightens us to this day.

What’s in the dark? Is it just a pile of clothes, or is it someone actually sitting there, watching us sleep?

Is it an empty room, or is there an unspeakable terror lurking just outside the field of vision?

Tap into that primal caveman fear of the unknown that’s been passed down to us on a genetic level since we first huddled in our caves for fear of being eaten, and use it to your best advantage in your horror stories.

8. Use Loss of Control

Now, more than ever, we rely on technology and others around us for everything from food to heat to transportation and entertainment.

But what if you have no one to rely on but yourself?

Explore this idea with your characters – being cut off and having to face the unknown without help or technology or even a decent skill set.

We all feel in control thanks to the conveniences of the modern world, but what if you take those conveniences away?

Are you still in control?

There’s a universal horror theme at play here, with which most people can relate because, though we’re not facing monsters or aliens in real life, all the daily challenges that we go through come down to our own abilities and willingness to face them.

And face them head-on.

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Add Depth !

Great horror writing is more than just jump scares and gore.

Not to take away anything from good slasher fiction, which arguably peaked in the 80s, but it’s also what created a stigma around horror in general.

It’s good to shock your audience, but you need depth to keep them interested in the entire story.

Really dive into the complexity of emotions that your characters undergo over the course of the plot.

Write against type.

Avoid cliches.

Give us twists and surprises that subvert expectations more than just conjure up cheap scares!

Explore the genre in ways others haven’t considered, and flex your creative muscles!

Bonus tip: Go to horror or pop culture conventions to motivate yourself to write more stories for your readers!

Conventions are a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded authors and fans alike, make new friends, share ideas, and get a handle on the current trends, expectations, likes, and dislikes of your core audience and the industry as a whole.

And it’s a great way to showcase your work and introduce new fans to your horror novels and stories!

Check Out My Horror Novel, Iron Dogs

Set in 1873 New Mexico, my novel, Iron Dogs , tells the story of six outlaws on the run who find themselves trapped in an abandoned town with a nightmarish creature that seemingly can’t be killed.

A stoic leader, a loyal blacksmith, a rebellious youth, a regretful bandit, a drunk trapper, and an injured comrade, each at odds with the others and fighting for their own survival as much as for the group.

And on the other side of that coin lie merciless bounty hunters, desperate cannibals, and an unstoppable force that preys on them all at will.

An otherwise classic Western turned on its ear to present a horror story unlike any other.

Available on Amazon as an ebook and author-narrated audiobook !

Final Thoughts

Writing great horror stories can be rich and rewarding.

You have the opportunity to take a premise built around simple drama or action and create something that’s at once complex and truly unique. And the best part is, you can scare your readers while doing it!

Horror writers know that great horror is about facing fear, and if the protagonist can do it, so can you, both a reader and a writer. So be inventive, be creative, and have fun.

Give us characters, situations, or creatures we haven’t seen before, but never lose sight of the humanity at the core of your story.

Make us feel more than just fear – make us care. Do that, and you’ll craft a great story, horror or otherwise!

And, if you’re having difficulty coming up with exciting plot points or descriptive characters, try using artificial intelligence (AI) story generator software programs!

These are fantastic at helping writers get through periods of writer’s block and find their creativity again!

Common Questions (FAQs)

How do you start a horror story.

The key to starting a successful horror story is to create a feeling of dread in your reader. You can do this by establishing a dark and suspenseful atmosphere from the very beginning. Begin by setting the scene, introducing your characters , and giving readers a sense of what’s at stake. Then, raise the stakes by adding details that make the situation even more frightening. Be sure to keep the tension high throughout the story so that readers are constantly on edge, waiting to see what will happen next!

What are the 5 elements of horror?

The 5 elements of horror are suspense, fear, violence, gore, and the supernatural. These elements are used to create an atmosphere of horror and terror . Suspense builds tension and keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Fear is used to invoke feelings of dread and terror. Violence is used to shock and repulse the reader. Gore is used when describing graphic and bloody scenes. The supernatural is used to create a sense of unease and horror. These elements are essential for creating a successful horror novel or short story .

What are some creepy names?

There are many ways to create creepy character names for a horror story . One approach is to choose names reminiscent of classic horror authors or stories that sound like they could belong to sinister or dangerous people. For example, you might use names like “Bram” or “Raven” for your characters. Another approach is to choose names that are unusual or out of the ordinary or that have dwindled in popularity. For example, names such as “Aldous” or “Coralena”, which were fairly popular once, or more exotic names such as “Anubis” or “Kali,” who are also well known in other cultures.

What makes a story scary?

The author must tap into our deepest fears to create a realistic horror story. Whether it is fear of the dark, fear of heights, or fear of spiders, horror stories exploit our primal instinct to survive. By playing on our natural fears, horror stories can create a world of suspense and terror. In addition, horror stories often rely on jump scares , unexpected noises, or gore to startle readers and heighten the sense of fear.

What are story elements that belong in a horror story?

The first element is a strong story structure . A horror story should have a clear beginning, middle, and end, with each section building on the last to create a sense of suspense and tension. The second element is well-developed characters. The reader should be able to empathize with the protagonist and understand their motivations. Otherwise, it will be difficult to care about their fate. The third element is a sense of rising action . The story should gradually become more and more suspenseful, leading up to a dramatic climax . Finally, the falling action should provide some resolution , but leave enough unanswered questions to keep the reader thinking after they’ve finished the story.

All Outta Bubblegum Radio Show #8 with Konn Lavery

Listen to the show at All Outta Bubblegum on Sound Sugar Radio – Episode 8

On today’s show, I was joined by Konn Lavery .

Konn is a Canadian author whose work has been recognized by Edmonton’s top five bestseller charts and by reviewers such as Readers’ Favorite , Literary Titan , and The Wishing Shelf Awards . His work has also been curated into the Edmonton Public Library’s Capital Press collection.

He started writing stories at a young age while being homeschooled. After graduating from graphic design college, he began professionally pursuing his writing with his first release, Reality . He continues to write in the thriller, horror, and fantasy genres.

His literary work is balanced alongside his graphic design and website development business.

Konn’s visual communication skills have been transcribed into the formatting and artwork found within his publications, supporting his transmedia storytelling fascination. The previous works have also included musical scores primarily composed by Konn with occasional collaborators, also found within his audiobooks.

Selected Links from the Episode – Writing for Horror

Connect with Konn Lavery : Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Bookbub | Website | Podcast | Amazon | Patreon

3 Underrated Horror Movies

Check out these fantastic horror movies that you may not have seen before!

30 Days of Night

Event horizon.

If you’re hoping to create your own horror story, check out my list of fantastic scary story prompts to get started!

Love the horror genre? Check out these other helpful articles!

Horror vs. Thriller: What’s the Difference For Movies & Books?

25+ Ways to Brainstorm Movie Ideas

How to Write a Story with Three-Act Structure [with Examples!]

The 40+ Best Horror Gifts for Horror Movie Fans

Filmmaker, Author, Actor and Story Consultant

Neil Chase is an award-winning, produced screenwriter, independent filmmaker, professional actor, and author of the horror-western novel Iron Dogs. His latest feature film is an apocalyptic thriller called Spin The Wheel.

Neil has been featured on Celtx, No Film School, Script Revolution, Raindance, The Write Practice, Lifewire, and MSN.com, and his work has won awards from Script Summit, ScreamFest, FilmQuest and Cinequest (among others).

Neil believes that all writers have the potential to create great work. His passion is helping writers find their voice and develop their skills so that they can create stories that are entertaining and meaningful. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, he's here to help!

Similar Posts

What Is a Writing Coach? (And How Can One Help You?)

The Monster Archetype [In-Depth Guide With 15+ Examples!]

How to Write Classical Heroes in Literature: 9 Tips for Writers

How to Write a Story Outline: 9 Easy Steps for Creative Writers

The Story Behind the Horror Novel Iron Dogs [by Neil Chase]

How Long is a Short Story? [Word Count Guide for 2024]

• Pingback: Carrie: The Homecoming Horror Movie – 10th Collection
• Pingback: Something Wicked This Way Comes – A Dark Fantasy Film – Forum Theatre | Accessible, affordable, and entertaining theater | DC metro area
• Pingback: The Many Works Of Junji Ito: A Master Of Horror – Tagari.com
• Pingback: Lara Croft: Uncovering The Myths And Secrets Of Her Father’s Mysterious Death – AdventureFilm
• Pingback: Exploring The Evidence: Is Chucky In Ready Player One? – AdventureFilm
• Pingback: The Impact Of Stephen King On Filmmaking – Zksnyder.com
• Pingback: Is Stephen King Nice? – Zksnyder.com

I need your tutorials to enable me to begin my first horror novel with success.

Hi Emmanuel – is there any particular topic you’d like me to write about here on the blog? Happy to do so if there is. Otherwise, you can always book a time with me for a 1:1 consult: https://neilchasefilm.com/story-consultant/

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

How to Write Horror: 8 Crucial Components to Terrify and Delight

by Sarah Gribble | 0 comments

Free Book Planning Course!  Sign up for our 3-part book planning course and make your book writing easy . It expires soon, though, so don’t wait.  Sign up here before the deadline!

The horror genre might call to mind slasher films or other monster movies your teenage friends made you watch at night to scare you out of your wits. But horror is more than a shock fest. Scary stories have the ability to reveal the human condition in ways many other genres cannot. Today let's look at how to write horror.

Types of stories

We're continuing our series on how to write each of the nine types of stories , based on values. Values are defined by what a character wants or needs most in a story. Story types can defy genre boundaries which are often more about reader expectations and specific tropes, but the two often work together to create a satisfying reader experience.

Here are the six value scales with the plot types they tend to fall into:

• Survival from Nature > Life vs. Death
• Survival from Others > Life vs. Fate Worse than Death
• Love/Community > Love vs. Hate
• Esteem > Accomplishment vs. Failure
• Personal Growth > Maturity vs. Immaturity
• Transcendence > Right vs. Wrong

With that in mind, let's delve into how to write a horror book or story.

What is horror?

Horror is a genre of literature or film that wants to evoke fear, shock, and suspense. Characters battle for their life versus a fate worse than death.

What does that mean? A fate worse than death can mean everything from experiencing embarrassment to paralyzing fear to pain to a loss of innocence.

There are many types of horror fiction sub-genres, ranging from psychological horror to horror comedy to cosmic horror, to slashers and body horror. Horror stories often (but don't have to) have supernatural horror elements, such as ghosts, monsters, vampires, and witches.

Common techniques used to create horror include jump scares, gore, unexpected twists, isolation, and eerie sound effects. Writing horror successfully requires an understanding of human psychology and the ability to create tension and suspense through careful pacing and narrative structure.

Horror isn't just about gore or terror, however. Many horror stories include societal, environmental, or psychological themes.

To write effective horror stories, authors must be able to craft believable characters that audiences can sympathize with as well as build suspense through cleverly crafted plots.

An Example of Master Horror Fiction: Poe

Edgar Allan Poe's story “The Tell Tale Heart” is a story most of us read in school. If you haven't read it or you need a refresher, read it for free on Guttenberg .

“The Tell Tale Heart”   is narrated by an unreliable, unnamed narrator who is confessing to a murder, while simultaneously trying to prove he's not insane. He's killed an old man, whom he supposedly loved, because the man's eye creeped him out. The police show up, and he's calm and collected until he thinks he can hear the old man's heart beating under the floor boards. The beating gets louder until the man confesses to the police, begging them to make the noise stop.

This story packs all the elements of horror into around 2,000 words. The unreliable narrator gives readers a sense of unease and ambiguity throughout the story. Is the man actually mad or is there something supernatural happening?

We have fear, both from the narrator (that creepy eye) and from the old man, who is blind and suspects someone is watching him. We have a murder with dismemberment. We have isolation, as the old man is alone, but the narrator also complains of being scared in the dark night by himself.

Most of all, though, we are on the life vs. fate worse than death scale. The narrator is scared of being seen as insane, which is worse than death for him and is the cause of his confession. He still ends up arrested for the murder, though, which is also a fate worse than death.

What Makes a Good Horror Story?

What makes a good horror story is the ability to tap into our deepest fears and deliver them in a captivating way. Even if you don't consider yourself a horror writer, practicing a few short stories in this genre can help you understand human fear and the way it motivates action.

Setting and atmosphere

A good horror story should start off slow, introducing the characters and setting of the story before slowly building up tension as the horror begins to unfold. The setting of horror stories is often mundane and familiar initially—a summer camp, a basement, a house—but turns sinister as the story progresses.

The more the reader or audience can relate to the setting, the scarier it will be when the protagonist encounters anything spooky. Use sensory details to build the atmosphere. Old houses or rundown buildings and impending bad weather are common in horror stories.

• Bram Stoker's Dracula begins with Jonathan Harker arriving at Dracula's castle, which is isolated, rundown, and surrounded by fog.
• Movies like  The Conjuring  and  Poltergeist  (and a ton of others) start by a family moving into a new house.
• Midsommar begins in a seemingly idyllic community.
• A lot of horror—like The Shining— uses an impending storm to indicate coming doom. The crescendo of the storm culminates in the climax.

Believable character

Characters should be relatable and sympathetic so that readers can connect with them on an emotional level. Readers need to care about what happens to them in order for the horror to be effective. Develop their backstories and motivations, so that when terrible things happen to them, it feels like a genuine tragedy.

• The Mist by Stephen King opens with a man cleaning up his property after a weird storm. We're introduced to the entire family and a neighbor and have a chance to learn the dynamics there before any of the true action happens.
• Danny in  The Shining is a rather lonely little boy who has an alcoholic for a father. The reader can't help but want to protect him. His mother is hoping the move to the Overlook will cure their family. This broken family makes Jack's devolution more horrifying and tragic.

Fleshed out antagonist

The antagonist should be well-crafted and have both human qualities and monstrous ones; this will help create a sense of dread in readers as they don’t know what to expect from the villain. Ensure that your antagonist is well-rounded and has their/its own motivations, even if that motivation is something as simple as eating or breeding.

• The antagonist in the movie Species  starts off as an alien-human hybrid lab experiment. Her core motivation is procreation and because of how she was treated by her captors in her backstory, any human sympathy she might have had is nullified in her quest.
• In  The Creature from the Black Lagoon , Gillman just wants people to leave his territory and to be left alone (preferably with Kay, who he's rather smitten with).
• In Stephen King's  Misery , Annie Wilkes wants to save her favorite author (and maybe keep him around a bit longer than necessary initially), then desperately wants to save her beloved book series.
• Hannibal Lector is a culturally refined, brilliant, manipulative cannibal who held a prestigious place in his profession and prefers to eat the rude. In later stories, we discover he was traumatized as a child.

Foreshadowing

Use subtle hints or clues that something scary is about to happen. Foreshadowing can create a sense of anticipation and dread in the audience. Some common elements of foreshadowing in horror include: mysteriously locked doors, getting a chill for seemingly no reason, something being where a character didn't think they left it, hearing a strange noise, being warned off by the locals, or learning early on of a historic tragic event.

• In  The Shining , we're told if there's a snowstorm no one would be able to get to the hotel. Jack is also warned by the hotel owner that the former caretaker killed his family before taking his own life.
• In  The Haunting of Hill House , Eleanor receives warnings in the form of signs reading “Dare” and “Evil” and someone telling her she will be sorry the gate was ever opened. (In the Netflix series based on this book, there are ghosts hidden in corners and out of focus in many scenes.)

No help in sight

As your story progresses, your characters can't simply call the police or go to a neighbor for help. If that were the case, the horror would be over in a few minutes and the story would end. It should look increasingly doubtful that your characters will escape their situation. Isolation—physical or psychological/emotional—is a common way to achieve this.

• Nick Cutter's The Troop places a boy scout troop on a remote island with only one adult. When the adult is removed from the storyline, the boys are left on their own to battle a parasitic outbreak.
• Stephen King's The Shining takes place at a remote hotel during the offseason and gets worse when a blizzard traps the Torrances.
• Most R.L. Stine books feature children who aren't physically isolated from others, but the adults don't believe them and therefore aren't going to help.
• Zoje Stage's Baby Teeth features parents who can't control their nightmare child. The help they do receive doesn't work.
• In  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , any hope of help is dashed as the main character slowly realizes everyone in town is the enemy.

Deeper themes and ideas

Horror can be a powerful tool for exploring deeper themes and ideas. Use your writing to explore issues like mortality, identity, and the human condition. Don't just rely on jump scares and gore, but instead use horror to tell a compelling story with something to say.

• Most vampire stories are about addiction and/or the rich literally sucking the life out of the poor.
• The 2022 movie  Smile  is about the “contagious” nature of trauma and generational trauma.
• Stories like The Blob ,  Resident Evil ,  Frankenstein , and Mira Grant's Parasitology   series warn about science gone wrong.

Effective pacing

Effective horror requires careful pacing. You don't want to reveal too much too soon, but you also don't want to drag things out for too long. Use pacing to build tension and create a sense of urgency.

Keep your readers guessing and eager to find out what happens next. But don't exhaust them; every scene shouldn't be one of terror. In fact, the jump scares and ghost sightings aren't how you scare your readers. The more important part of horror is when you slow down and give your reader room to explore and get comfortable. Then you pull out the monster.

• A man runs in and says someone disappeared in the mist. (Faster.)
• Everyone agrees to stay put for a while. Things calm for a moment. (Slower.)
• Then they go to the back to fix something, and a man is pulled away by giant tentacles. (Faster.)
• When they tell everyone what happened there are a multitude of reactions, but the point is there is no immediate threat for a while from the monsters. (Slower.)
• Someone decides to lead a group of people outside and they are killed quickly. (Faster.) etc.

See how we're not seeing the monsters every scene? This gives us as readers (and the characters) time to imagine what the monsters look like, what their motivations are, and to try to come up with a way out. These slower scenes also give us time for some other elements of story, like backstory, tension, and subplots.

Twists, shocks, ambiguity, and everlasting evil

A good horror story should either end with an unexpected plot twist or shock that will leave readers stunned yet satisfied or with an ambiguous ending where the reader is left unsettled because they aren't positive what happens to the main character.

• In Ania Ahlborn's  The Shuddering , we're left with imagining what happened to the main character and his dog.
• In Dahl's  The Witches , the reader is left with the image of the boy/mouse and his grandmother bouncing around the world eradicating witches. We don't know how long they will live (ambiguity), there are still witches, even if they did defeat the specific antagonists for the book (evil still exists), and the boy remains a mouse (twist and shock).
• Every horror movie in a franchise normally ends with the antagonist making an appearance even though they're supposed to be dead and defeated by the protagonist.
• In Shirley Jackson's  The Lottery , we know exactly what happens, but we have no idea  why this stoning ritual is part of this society. We don't even know when or where this society exists.

How to Write Horror: Lean Into the Fear Factor

Fear is the crucial element in horror story writing. As a genre, horror writing leaves you plenty of room to explore themes and subplots that really dive into the dark fears of your readers—and that creates an emotional experience for your target audience. Even common fears and ordinary situations can turn dark in the hands of a master horror writer.

Dive into your biggest fears to find your best horror ideas. Then share them with us!

Want more horror prompts? Check out our 20 Spine-tingling Horror Story Prompts here.

What fears do you find most compelling in horror? Tell us in the comments .

Today, tap into that story value of life versus a fate worse than death. Set the timer for 15 minutes and make a list of fears you or a potential character might have and then create a scene where they realize their worst fears are coming true.

Share your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop here , and leave feedback for a few other writers. Not a member? Join us here . 

Sarah Gribble

Sarah Gribble is the author of dozens of short stories that explore uncomfortable situations, basic fears, and the general awe and fascination of the unknown. She just released Surviving Death , her first novel, and is currently working on her next book.

Follow her on Instagram or join her email list for free scares.

Work with Sarah Gribble?

Bestselling author with over five years of coaching experience. Sarah Gribble specializes in working with Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Horror, Speculative Fiction, and Thriller books. Sound like a good fit for you?

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Submit Comment

Join over 450,000 readers who are saying YES to practice. You’ll also get a free copy of our eBook 14 Prompts :

Popular Resources

Book Writing Tips & Guides Creativity & Inspiration Tips Writing Prompts Grammar & Vocab Resources Best Book Writing Software ProWritingAid Review Writing Teacher Resources Publisher Rocket Review Scrivener Review Gifts for Writers

Books By Our Writers

You've got it! Just us where to send your guide.

Enter your email to get our free 10-step guide to becoming a writer.

You've got it! Just us where to send your book.

Enter your first name and email to get our free book, 14 Prompts.

Want to Get Published?

Enter your email to get our free interactive checklist to writing and publishing a book.

Helping Writers Become Authors

Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.

• Start Here!
• Story Structure Database
• Outlining Your Novel
• Story Structure
• Character Arcs
• Archetypal Characters
• Scene Structure
• Common Writing Mistakes
• Storytelling According to Marvel
• K.M. Weiland Site

Genre Tips: How to Write Horror

As you may remember, I crafted the series around the five major genres to which I felt I could bring value (those being  Fantasy ,  Romance ,  Historical ,  Mystery , and  Literary ). One major genre I did not feel qualified to write about, simply because I don’t read or watch much of it, is Horror. In response to my mentioning this in the series’ opening post, Horror aficionado Oliver Fox stepped up to go deep in a guest post on this popular genre.

Today, I’m happy to share with you  a thought-provoking and thorough examination of this archetypal genre. 

In the post, Oliver talks about  important tips and tricks for structure and theme in Horror, as well as the symbolic “character triad” of the Haunted House, the Average Joe, and the Monster.

Keep reading for more!

Horror may be the least understood and most maligned genre. It is usually portrayed as revelry in violence, gore, and nihilism, and thus something immoral—perhaps even wicked. Or horror stories are thought of as loose narratives punctuated by a series of jump-scares. Sadly, these are accurate portrayals of many stories that have become mainstream in the horror genre. However, it’s worth considering whether glorying in the darkest human tendencies is necessary or even desirable in horror.

My aim is to determine the essence of horror and explore it using stories that provoke our deepest fears without relying on our reactions to surprises, deformity, and death. I believe great horror aims for more lingering types of fear brought about by experiences of the Uncanny and the Unknown, unsettling us and filling us with dread. Thus, equipped with a more nuanced understanding of horror, this article will explore how to write horror.

Now that we have a better idea of what isn’t necessary to horror, let’s consider what the genre’s essential qualities are and how to write horror using the Big Three of storytelling as our guides: Character, Plot, and Theme.

3 Tips for How to Write Horror

Character triad in horror: the haunted house, the average joe, and the monster.

The Haunted House

In this article, I’m treating the setting as a character , which isn’t unprecedented; the idea of setting as character has existed for a while. Like a human character, a setting that is a character has a past with consequences that linger into the present. Through an understanding of the setting’s past and present, we get hints how it might interact with the characters within—what it might “do” to them in the future.

The archetypal horror setting is the Haunted House. The setting doesn’t have to be a literal house—it could be anything: a derelict research lab, a stranded spaceship, or an arctic research facility. What’s most important are a few key features.

The Haunted House must be:

• Disempowering
• Evoke a sense of Lingering Dread because of some terrible past events that occurred there—although often that past isn’t immediately apparent.

The horror setting is haunted by its past, perhaps metaphorically (in that there are still hints and vestiges of said past) or perhaps literally (by something monstrous tethered to it, actively stalking its corridors).

For Example: In the film Alien, there are two Haunted Houses. The first is the planet where the Nostromo ’s crew lands to investigate the source of a signal. There, they discover a collection of unsettling tableaux: a crashed spaceship, within it a fossilized humanoid alien, and a room full of large, leathery eggs. Nothing is actively stalking the setting, but the Nostromo ’s crew can tell this was the site of some horrific event. While on the planet, one of the crew members foolishly tinkers with the eggs and becomes host to a parasite which injects him with an embryo. Soon the embryo gestates, bursts from the unfortunate crewman, and begins actively haunting the Nostromo , picking off the crew one by one.

Alien (1979), 20th Century Fox.

The Average Joe/Jane

In many genres, the protagonist is someone extraordinary , whether in capabilities or because of some special origin and destiny. However, this trope doesn’t work for horror. In horror, the protagonist ought to be exceptional only in a lack of any capabilities or resources. This is to emphasize their vulnerability as they navigate the Haunted House and face the Monster, increasing the audience’s concern for their safety. Think about it: a story about Thor going up against a Japanese ghost girl inspires zero tension, no matter how spooky the ghost is. To build tension, we need to be acutely aware of the protagonist’s helplessness.

For Example: In the book and film Rosemary’s Baby, Rosemary is a young stay-at-home wife pregnant with her first child. Rosemary has recently moved into a new building where she knows no one. Virtually everyone marginalizes and disenfranchises her: her new neighbors gaslight her whenever she raises concerns about strange goings on, her doctor insists she ignore her instincts about her pregnancy, and even her husband abuses her. Rosemary is disempowered in every way imaginable and has no one to turn to when she realizes she and her child are at the center of a cultic conspiracy. With the odds stacked against Rosemary, we can’t help but fear for her safety.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Paramount Pictures.

The Monster

The Monster is the central figure in all horror stories. According to horror philosopher Noel Carroll, a horrific monster is anything outside the natural order.

It is unnatural because it is a:

• Fusion of opposites (eg., vampires, who are simultaneously dead and alive).
• Fission. This indicates oddly paired or sequenced elements (e.g., werewolves, who are humans most of the time but can change into creatures capable of indiscriminately murdering loved ones).
• Formlessness . These are misshapen (even shapeless) creatures, which break down our established categories (e.g., a sentient blob or mist consuming everything in its path).

But Monsters can’t be just unnatural; they must also be morally impure deviants. Deviant Monsters willfully upend moral values by indulging in harmful taboos, such as acts of violence toward the self and others. Such moral monsters are the perverse mirror image of a hero. Just as heroes represent an idealized vision of humanity who sacrifice their own desires for the needs of others, deviant monsters are vicious in every way, sacrificing the needs of others for their own desires.

For Example: One film that features a Monster in which all three categories are combined into one terrifying creature is The Thing . The Thing is a fusion of opposites: an alien virus that perfectly replicates the infected host at the cellular level, so the resultant hybrid organism is convinced it is still whatever it was originally… until the dormant virus feels threatened. That leads us to fission. The Thing usually appears as a perfect doppelgänger of the organism it has infected, but if it fears it has been found out, it will rip apart the host and repurpose body parts as weapons or extra limbs so it can escape. Third, when the Thing dismantles its host, the person’s appearance becomes misshapen to the point of formlessness. Finally, the Thing is morally impure because it inflicts violence on its victims at every level of their being by invading their bodies, destroying them, and co-opting their constituent parts to serve its own purposes.

The Thing (1982), Universal Pictures.

Story Structure in Horror: Tension-Release Cycles

When writing horror, the temptation is to dive headlong into the action, to throw the Average Joe into the Haunted House straight away and cut loose the Monster. However, the audience needs time to connect with the protagonist, to unravel steadily the mystery of the setting’s dreadful past, to wonder what kind of monster lurks just out of sight. That may all sound counterintuitive, but consider this: if you don’t know the characters well enough to care about them, are you going to worry when a Monster stalking them from the shadows of the Haunted House? If we know all the gruesome details about the setting’s past from the get-go, it’s like working a puzzle with detailed instructions on hand; we won’t get the sensation of dawning comprehension—we don’t experience the chilling realization, “Oh, _______ happened in this room. This place was for _______!” If we are familiar with the Monster too early on—its appearance, methods, and intentions—it is demoted to the status of a typical villain.

To create tension, skilled horror writers set up the expectation of something terrible happening while ensuring the audience can’t predict when it will happen. The buildup to a scare is as important as the scare itself. Let the audience do the work of building tension for you during the long, quiet moments by filling these stretches with false threats: moving shadows, deceptive images in mirrored surfaces, background noises, etc.

Okay, so build tension, then let all heck loose and keep it coming nonstop , right? Nope! Just as it is essential for tension to build to a breaking point in horror, so too should we ensure the audience is given time to recuperate and catch their breath before introducing the next scare. Otherwise, you risk exhausting them until they are emotionally spent by the time you reach the final confrontation with the Monster.

For Example: Stephen King’s IT brilliantly shows each aspect of the tension-release cycle in horror. The story opens by introducing each member of the Loser’s Club, giving you time to get to know them enough that you care about their safety. We then see a brief encounter with the monster, IT—just enough that we have some sense of what he’s done, but not to where we fully understand the extent of ITs intent and capabilities. Then we move on to the next member of the Loser’s Club. This cycle occurs for each character, creating emotional peaks and valleys. The setup for a new character’s story functions as the emotional valley for the previous character’s tension-release cycle.

Theme in Horror: Facing the Monsters Within

Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)

For me, all these elements come together to suggest that horror, at its best, holds up a mirror to the audience, helping them consider a central thematic question: what is monstrous within themselves and how can they overcome that monstrousness?

The horror protagonist is ordinary, as are we, allowing us to  empathize with them. They become our avatar. The Haunted House represents self-reflection, a place wherein we feel alienated, isolated, and disempowered because we are alone with ourselves. The Monster is an embodiment of the worst aspects of ourselves, the things we keep hidden from the rest of the world out of shame; these are our darkest desires run amok, haunting our conscience.

If we apply this theory at every level while designing our Horror story, we can create a truly rich narrative. For example:

• The Average Joe character is haunted by a deep moral flaw and/or selfish past action (or failure to act)  that they find monstrous about themselves.
• Both the Haunted House and the Monster evoke that flaw, embodying it so the protagonist cannot ignore them.
• The story climaxes when the Average Joe enters the Haunted House and faces the Monster who embodies their own flaw.
• The ending tells us something about the destructive nature of the moral flaw the Monster embodies, or at least the danger of waiting too long to face it.

For Example: The Twilight Zone episode “ The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is a masterclass of the horror model described above. Strange things happen in a quiet, isolated suburb, prompting a little boy to draw comparisons between the strange events and a story he’d read about alien invaders. Some of the other citizens buy into the boy’s alien invasion theory and, fueled by old personal grudges, begin accusing one another of being alien monsters. The accusations devolve the situation into an all-out witch-hunt; the citizens of the neighborhood commit atrocities against those they fear are monsters. The theme that unfolds can be described as: “When we ignore our prejudice for too long, that prejudice grows into outright fear, then hatred—a hatred which demonizes others to where we can justify even the most evil actions taken against them until we become something demonic ourselves.” This terrifying premise unfolds with no jump scares and few depictions of violence.

The Twilight Zone (195-64), CBS.

Contrary to popular belief, great horror stories are not just exercises in violence, gross-outs, and gore. At their best, they are apt, timely, and frightening social commentaries and self-reflections filtered through the lens of metaphor. True horror might even be the most moral genre, thanks to its uncompromising depiction of monstrous evil as horrifying. I hope you find this article insightful, interesting, and helpful as you write your own horror stories!

Previous Posts in This Series:

• How to Write Fantasy
• How to Write Romance
• How to Write Historical Fiction
• How to Write Mystery
• How to Write Literary Fiction

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever written in the horror genre? What are your thoughts on how to write horror? Tell me in the comments!

References and Further Reading

• Monsters Within . . . “The Horrific, Moral, and Transcendental”   by D. Breyers
• Monsters Within . . . “Victorian Horror Novels”   by J. Cognard-Black
• Christian Horror: On the Compatibility of a Biblical Worldview and the Horror Genre by M. Duran
• Supernatural Horror in Literature . by H.P. Lovecraft
• Horror Protagonists – How Ordinary Characters Make Scarier Games – Extra Credits by J. Portnow
• The Beast Macabre – What Makes a Monster Scary? – Extra Credits by J. Portnow
• Shiver with Anticipation – How Horror Games Create Tension Cycles – Extra Credits by J. Portnow
• Places of Horror – The Secrets of Scary Settings – Extra Credits by J. Portnow
• The Twilight Zone – What Do We Fear? | Video Essay by Screened
• Monsters Within . . . “Psychological Horror Films” by E.O. Williams

Sign Up Today

Related Posts

Oliver Fox earned his BA in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis (’15) and his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans (’21). He has worked as an editorial assistant for The Pinch literary journal (’16) and as a manuscript analyst for The Spun Yarn . He is a regular contributor to Writers Write and the author of The Fantasy Workbook .

what no audio file? I really enjoy listening to those…

Glad you enjoy the audio versions! But, no, not today. I don’t record audio for guest posts. I think it would be weird to have my voice for other people’s words. 🙂

Thanks for sharing with us today, Oliver!

Thank you for the opportunity to share, Katie!

Excellent summary — thank you Oliver.

This really does bring horror together, to show how the monster is only the second-most-important part of it. The classic complaint against weak horror is “Yes, an okay threat, but it didn’t make me care about the *people* in it,” and people who dislike it write it off as all chills and no character. The characters have to be the center of it.

So “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” captures it perfectly. In the best horror, the greatest terror isn’t the “monster” — it’s what people will do to escape it.

Thank you, Ken!

I agree–without an empathetic protagonist to root for, Horror stories devolve into a weird betting game about who will survive the longest.

That really sums it up — and we’ve all seen stories or crowds where fans *did* devolve into that.

This was great! Thank you! I am not a horror reader, but I do love Victorian Gothic literature, which is the predecessor of modern horror, and the reason I love it is because it tends toward all the excellence that you pointed out as good horror; strong sense of morality, an exploration of the darkness within people, the fact that it is normal (well, normal Victorian) people facing down the monsterous and depravity (sometimes -often- their own), the atmosphere….

I’m so glad you enjoyed the article, Grace!

You’re exactly right: Victorian Gothic literature is such an important forbear of contemporary Horror, along with many classic Folktales and Fairytales (believe it or not).

Wow! Thank you for your insights! I didn’t realize how complex horror could be. The Thing is one of my favorite movies, but I always thought of it more as dark scifi. I can see now how it totally fits into the horror genre. I love that episode of Twilight Zone too.

I’m so glad you found the article insightful; thank you for reading it!

Some have suggested that Horror is the oldest genre, so it makes sense that proverbial “well” goes as deep as it does.

Great post on horror! I hadn’t thought about it that deeply before. Intriguing!

Thank you, Eric–I’m grateful you found the article intriguing. 🙂

I never thought of horror as a genre that Christians were allowed to read. Although I still may not like it, I now understand that it has the potential for good. Thank you Oliver!

Thank you for sharing, Christopher!

I’m delighted that the article shed a new light on Horror for you, giving you a fresh perspective on its potential.

I once assumed there could be no such thing as Christian horror, simply because one assumes if there was a demon, a Christian protagonist would make the like the Apostles and exorcise it. Similar to how most horror movies would be short if characters had a gun and/or a cell phone 🙂

But! In high school I stumbled across some of Frank Peretti’s horror novels, and he added a twist. The novels are written from a Christian POV, and the situations usually involved a town threatened by the machinations of demon-aligned people. You sometimes see the story from the POV of the demons influencing people, people who may or may not be “bad” but just “susceptible.” For example, in one case the state of “Complacency” is personified by a titular demon who attaches itself to a non-villainous character.

The recurring characters in the novels are a squad of angels, who patrol the towns where the stories are set. They are ready to kick butt and take names, but they can’t do anything until they have a sufficient “prayer cover” to intervene. However, the human protagonists, if Christian, may not be aware there’s evil afoot.

Other characters may be atheists or ex-Christians. All of them struggle with flaws, fears, or a need for atonement in some cases. And all of them have to twig to the evil conspiracy and get on the same page before the angels can get their “prayer cover.” Note Paul’s exhortations to pray for government leaders if you want to live a peaceable life, so the coverage conceit works.

Just another data point for horror as a vehicle for exploring moral themes. Good horror scenarios often test faith, they test virtue. Someone — da Vinci? Einstein? Once said “adversity introduces a man to himself.” Horror is as good a crucible as any for exploring that idea.

I read Peretti’s novels and never considered them to be horror, just clear images of the actual battle between Good and Evil.

Hey, Jamie– thank you for sharing!

It sounds like I might need to check out Peretti’s work. 🙂

I don’t usually comment on the posts but I felt compelled to respond your comment. Not to regurgitate what Oliver said, but there is a lot of potential for religious horror. “The Exorcist” is the obvious answer, as are most of those types of movies. You have the priest (or some other morally-focused character) who’s trying to lead the right life. Maybe they have a dark past or sins they’re atoning for. They’re faced with a monster/demon who represents everything they’re fighting against. Maybe they become possessed themselves. In “The Exorcist” the priest commits suicide to save the daughter and prevent himself succumbing to the same sins. You could even write a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde type story where the main character struggles to maintain their own morality (a character I’m developing is doing just that). Just as the main character must choose to be moral no matter what, we have a moral obligation to do the same. I’m not religious but I definitely see potential for some interesting stories.

I totally agree, Chris–“The Exorcist” is peak example of what Horror is at its finest.

Thank you for this! I’m working on my first novel and it’s horror. Since it’s my favorite genre in books and on the screen, it just made sense. Plus, I feel there are a lot of horror authors who are really working to make horror more accepted, and I think it’s working. I’m referring to the literary successes of Sylvia Moreno-Garcia and Stephen Graham Jones. I’m hoping horror as a genre will become less and less maligned over time.

Thank you for reading, Michelle!

Best of luck on your novel–and may you join the ranks of such authors in bringing a deeper appreciation of Horror to the wider world. 🙂

Well said. Your points on great horror and examples are spot on and provide excellent templates for future works. Thank you!

Thank you for reading, James!

I hope the insights you gathered from this article serve you well as you approach writing future works.

Thank you for such a spooky yet inspiring post. I read a few books that are bordering on horror, but not terrifying and won’t keep you awake at night. Some of Daphne du Maurier’s novels, such as Rebecca and House on the Strand are scary, but I realize they don’t actually qualify. When I was a teen, I picked up a copy of Stephen King’s “Carrie” and didn’t realize it was horror. Somehow when I got to the end and read of the girl unleashing her fury on the town, I was puzzled. Back then I didn’t recognize any obvious hints of what was to come. I wonder what your opinion is on that particular novel. I watched the movie “The Shining,” which was pretty creepy. I wonder how King’s novels compare with his books.

Hi, Coco, I’ll be honest–I’m a late-comer to King’s work, so I have focused on the high points of his career to get caught up: I’ve read Salem’s Lot, The Night Shift, and the Shining so far. Carrie is next on my list, though! And, if you enjoyed the film version of The Shining, the book is still definitely worth checking out as the two stories share little in common. The movie is creepy for sure, but the book is an enthralling, heart-wrenching look at the effects of addiction, generally, and alcoholism, specifically.

Ooh I love this! And thank you for providing a reading list. Writer’s Digest has “How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction,” which has essays by Ray Bradbury and Dean Koontz, among others.

For this post I especially liked the point about monsters as representatives of “Chaos” as opposed to Logos , the natural order of things. And you’re describing the kind of horror I do appreciate, and elements I want to incorporate in certain stories I have rattling around in the attic of my brain. Instead of gory nihilism, good horror like the kind you describe here can be … inspiring, oddly enough. It’s often about Light struggling against Darkness, and a test of virtues, and I appreciate you showing how to do justice to such a story.

Hi, Jamie, I think you are spot on that, “good horror can be inspiring”–especially for stories wherein the protagonist prevails over the source of Horror. I mean, what’s more inspiring than an Average Jane facing and overcoming the Monster embodying her greatest fears and deepest vices, right?

Thank you for this post, Oliver. I’ve never been a fan of horror, but I realize now that it’s because I never understood the genre. Thank you for this insightful, interesting, and helpful article! I enjoyed it!

Hi, Joan–thank you for taking time check out the article despite not being a Horror fan. I’m delighted the article afforded you a deeper understanding of Horror. And I’m right there with you: the more I learn about the underlying symbolism of a particular genre, the more I come to appreciate it!

I think I agree that perhaps horror scares us because we fear what we might be capable of under the right (or wrong) set of circumstances. I recently finished two short stories with a sort of morality compass theme, one a haunted statue-type figure and the other a ruined building which resurrects itself to lure someone inside – surprisingly the protagonist in both survive and I wonder if this is classified as horror. The protagonists both go through a journey of self discovery, but are not harmed and neither is anyone else on the contrary several people are saved though the paranormal is in stong evidence in both stories.

Hi, Sylvia,

You summed it up, beautifully: “…perhaps horror scares us because we fear what we might be capable of under the right (or wrong) set of circumstances.”

Horror is so unsettling because it shows us characters confronted with the gap between their self-conception/public persona and how they act when desperate and alone. And this forces us to consider how wide that same gap might be within ourselves.

Thanks so much, K.M.

I enjoyed this piece. Horror is treated like the embarrassing step child sometimes when it’s really the crazed aunt in the attic who was locked up for telling uncomfortable truths. I liked the concept of the haunted house as just as much of a character as the villain and the hero. Rich vein to mine.

“Horror is treated like the embarrassing stepchild sometimes when it’s really the crazed aunt in the attic who was locked up for telling uncomfortable truths.”

Wow! That’s a brilliant and powerful quote, sir. I’m going to be reflecting on that for some time.

This is great. Whether I’m reading a book, watching a movie, or just waking from a bad dream, I keep asking myself what makes it scary. This is the best explanation I have found so far.

That’s an essential question to ask if we want to be great Horror writers. It reminds me of a quote from Henry James:

“A writer should strive to be someone on whom nothing is lost.”

Thank you, Oliver. This was helpful. You made horror fiction approachable. In effect, my appreciation of horror fiction is constantly increasing. Specially when you realize is more than just the monster.

Hi, Ingmar,

Thank you for your kind words. 🙂

Approachability is what I strive for!

Thanks for sharing this. I loved it and now have some revisions to do in my MS.

Thank you, Alice. 🙂

Happy revising!

Sometimes horror stories hide in other genres. “Alien”, as mentioned above, is a haunted house movie disguised as science fiction – but so is “The Terminator”, a classic creature feature in which the undead monster can be fought off, outran, even taken out for a time… but never stops coming.

Hi, Andrew, I never thought of “The Terminator” as an undead creature feature, but I can absolutely see it now that you mention it! The Terminator could even be interpreted as a modern take on Frankenstein’s monster, more specifically.

Oliver has the essence of the genre but does not have a real feel of the bitter backdrop of a great horror tale. As I was reading this article, I suspected that I was Olivers worst nightmare, and that turns out to be true. Before I start saying other things “Oliver” knows what he is talking about, he gives useful information, and I would recommend this post. But…. And there is a huge “but” here. He is young and handsome. Well educated. Seems to me a nice fellow. A talented writer. Capable. So, what is my problem? You ask? There is no problem. It is just that horror needs an edge. Ghost stories have been done before. Please never let us never see another zombie or vampire novel. Lol- they have all been done to death. Perhaps you ask my credentials for this criticism. Perhaps editing four horror fiction magazines for thirty years may suffice. The “new” is all that is wished for. The “Different” merges sometimes. Worked with twilight (lol- I turned that down). Daybreakers, warm bodies. My apologies, Oliver, for this but I must turn down writers every week. You meant well and gave good advice.

Thank you for your professional insights as an editor, sir! I have no doubt you’re right that editors often get the same cut-and-paste horror stories, and that we writers need to work hard to ensure we aren’t just educated in the genre’s tropes, we also need to find fresh premises and a fresh approach to writing them.

Thats the thing Oliver, you have it spot on, “the fresh premise”. To a certain extent you can ignore all else. If we get a haunted house story it doesn’t get by the boy on the desk. It could be the best haunted house tale ever, but it never gets to a “reader” the same applies to vampire tales. (Only two printed in four mags over the last five years one because it was a social vampire (narcissism)). The other was a genetic strain of vampirism created for interstellar space travel as they are immortal. We printed a zombie tale a couple of years ago about “Health, social care and housing for zombies during an epidemic”. Very clever. Should the local council provide homes for Zombies? Do they need help from carers? What are the sanitary implications? Should they be allowed pets? We are a caring society after all. I do not mean to suggest that there cannot be a good tale about Vampires, Zombies or a haunted house just that it has been done so often that to horror readers it is very dated and dull. To keep a magazine, especially a print magazine running today, it has to be clever and new all the time. Sorry for lecturing. It is something I feel passionate about.

Thank you for this insightful series and tips! I wonder about the fairytale genre. Do you talk about it anywhere? It is the most archetypal one and digging deep in the realm of the inconscious. I’ve always been fascinated by it, without being able to put words on my impressions. But I realize I most naturally write with symbols and events that have a marvelous feel to them, even when they seem prosaic.

I haven’t talked about it specifically in this series, but it would fall under the umbrella genre of Fantasy, which I do talk about here .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Novel Outlining
• Storytelling Lessons From Marvel

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Write Your Best Book

Check out my latest novel!

( affiliate link )

Free E-Book

Subscribe to Blog Updates

Subscribe to blog posts rss, sign up for k.m. weiland’s e-letter and get a free e-book, love helping writers become authors.

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2016 · Helping Writers Become Authors · Built by Varick Design

Writing Advice & Epic Fiction

19 Current Resources for Horror Fiction Writers

Because of its long and bloody history, and its mass appeal, it’s not easy to break new ground in the Horror genre.

New horror writers must be aware of the numerous tropes, themes, and key storytelling elements that have haunted horror authors for centuries.

People want to read fresh new stories, not the same old tropes that have been beaten to death.

This is intended to be a resource guide for Horror Writers. With this you will know how to write terrifying stories that claw into the hearts (and brains) of your readers:

What is Horror?

“I do not love men: I love what devours them.” – André Gide

Horror is, above all other things, about evoking feelings of fear or dread.

It does not have to have thrills and “jump scares.” It does not have to be about monsters, demons, and evil deities.

You could have a horror about a cubicle employee, filled with dread about a wave of downsizing that he knows is coming .

Horror is a Genre. But it Also Transcends Genre.

You can have horror elements in almost any story or piece of writing.

Anything from the terrifying beating scenes in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to the teenage dread of death in The Fault in Our Stars can be considered horror.

Most great novels have at least one scene that I would firmly classify as “Horror.”

When you understand how to write horror, you’ll find a use for it in almost every story you write.

19 Resources That Will Make You a Better Horror Writer

There are only two ways (that I know of that) to become a better writer:

• Write more.

So, this list is broken up into two chunks: resources that specifically focus on improving your horror writing abilities…

…and resources for reading some of the best, contemporary horror fiction out there right now.

The former will directly improve your writing abilities. The latter will show you what the market is currently looking for – and, if you read widely enough, you might find a niche that hasn’t been filled yet.

In this list you will find:

• Horror podcasts
• Online Horror fiction collections
• Publications looking for Horror Authors
• And various other Horror blogs, websites, etc.  

Resources for Writing Better Horror

1. the writing excuses podcast.

I strongly recommend the episodes from Seasons 3 – 10. 

These are great authors, slightly geeky, and most of them are successful. They have great interviews, great editing, and it’s just a pleasure to listen and learn from them … especially the earlier seasons.

One of the creators of the Writing Excuses podcast, Dan Wells , found his success as a Horror Writer.

Notable episodes:

• What Makes a Good Monster?
• The Horror Genre as an Element

2. How to Avoid the Old Horror Cliches

Sick of the same ol’ vampires and boogiemen?

Afraid that you, yourself, might be using old horror cliches ?

This quick article from Writer’s Digest will give you a few tips on avoiding them. Mostly, the advice boils down to “read more” and “understand why common horror themes are common.”

3. Tips to Get Your Horror Novel Published

Want to get published?

Heading to a big publishing house is no longer the only way. Self-publishing works.

Here’s how horror author Todd Keisling self-published and grew his audience through word of mouth, and broke out as a horror author.

Everything on this page is extremely valuable insight, particularly for newer authors.

4. Lovecraft’s Essay on the Rules of Writing Horror

One of my favorite horror authors. (Except for the blatant racism).

H.P. Lovecraft may not be a master of Horror by today’s standards, but his work paved the way for so much that is great about the genre. Here is his essay on the rules of writing horror , or what he calls “weird fiction.”

If you haven’t heard of Lovecraft, he was the king of Eldritch Horror (ancient evils, old ones, and the idea that simply seeing something so evil could drive a man mad).

5. 11 Tips from 11 Horror Writers

LitReactor put together a collection of quotes from some notable Horror Authors.

This is a quick, inspiring read that might give you that extra little nudge if you feel like your story isn’t quite “horrifying” enough.  

6. An Interview With Stephen King

Here’s a 25-minute interview with one of the masters of horror , Stephen King.

King is a strangely humble genius, and his advice is crucial to newer authors. If you’re looking for something to read, King is amazing at creating horrifying villains .

7. Screenplays: Horror Writing Advice for Film

Even if you don’t write screenplays, you’ve probably been inspired by the great horror movies.

This is an excellent blog post that will remind you of a few important elements to creating a great Horror story. Of course, it’s directed at the film crowd, but the ideas work for every writer.

It covers structure, emotions, atmosphere – and where to start with your writing.

8. What One Horror Author Wishes He Knew as a Beginner

Horror author Tim Waggoner has over 50 published novels, and has earned the Bram Stoker Award for Horror.

In this interview , he breaks down everything- everything -he wishes he knew as a beginner, including…

• Why you MUST do something different with your tropes
• Why Horror fictions needs an emotional core (and how to find yours)
• How Horror isn’t about monsters, it’s about internalized fears

This article is incredible for new horror authors.

9. Elements of a Good Horror Story

What makes great horror fiction?

Horror Writer C. M. Humphries outlines the 5 elements he likes to see in a Horror story, and talks about how writers can create those elements.

10. Why People Love Horror

If you’re a horror writer, who is your audience? Why do they want to be terrified?

This article from the Nerdist muses on what kind makes people fall in love with Horror.

11. A Handful of Links for Horror Writers

Aptly named “ Really Useful Links for Horror Writers ,” this one is a quick aggregate of some of the most popular horror writing tips on the web.

My biggest gripe with the list is the 25 Horror Writing Tips from Chuck Wendig. There’s something about his blogging style that I find frustratingly unenjoyable. He has so much personality… but it’s not for me.

12. Dehumanization and Monsters (A Literary Look at Horror)

Want to elevate your horror stories to the next level?

Want to go beyond simple jump scares and frightening plots?

Here’s a fantastic, literary look at monstrosity in literature , and what really gets the human psyche sucked into horror stories. Read this, and you’ll have a few new ideas on how to sink your writing teeth into readers’ minds long after they finish your books.

Best Places to Read, Listen to, or Publish Horror Fiction Online

13. nightmare magazine.

Nightmare Magazine is consistently high-quality horror. They have tons of Horror short stories for free – you can even listen to some of them via Podcast.

These are new horror stories told by professional authors. Most of them also deal with social justice issues in a tangential way.

14. Apex Magazine

Another professional-grade magazine that made it into the Digital Age.

Apex is a little different than everything else on this list – they print “ science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mash-ups of all three.”

However, they’ve showcased some rising names in Horror, so I figured they belong here.  You can read many of these stories online for free .

15. Weird Tales Radio

“Your fortnightly fix,” of horror, weird, and magic.

Weird Tales is a folklore show about … well, about the Weird. Paranormal, haunted, and with just the right amount of melodrama.

16. r/NoSleep

Reddit is one of the best time waster’s on the internet.

But it’s also a great place for people to share their writing.

One of the best subreddits for horror? A little place called r/NoSleep. Many of the more popular posts have gone on to publish books. It’s kind of like a crucible for writers.

Here, you’ll find stories ranging from several hundred words… to several hundred pages.

17. Spine-tingling Podcasts (via Vox)

Vox curated a list of their favorite horror podcasts to get you in the mood for Halloween.

Many of these are one-off podcasts, so you can think of them as campfire stories, rather than “serious literature.”

18. Even More Spine-tingling Podcasts

Just in case you’re starving for more Horror Podcasts…

Player.FM updates their list pretty regularly.

From this list: I’m a big fan of Last Podcast on the Left . They take horrifying serial killers and other weird stories and they add a comical spin… because the reality is terrifying.

19. CreepyPasta

Creepy Pasta is a blanket term for creepy internet folktales (that is, folktales that spread through the internet, instead of around the campfire).

If you’ve ever heard of the Slender Man , it’s probably because of Creepy Pasta.

There are numerous places to read Creepy Pasta – and I highly recommend it. These are some of the best Horror Micro-fiction stories around. Try starting with CreepyPasta.com or the CreepyPasta Wiki .

Conclusion: …at the Mountains of Madness…

Whether you just like reading it…

Or you’ve got demons that can only be exorcised by putting them on a page…

Horror is one of the most rewarding genres in fiction. Hopefully, with these resources, you will have at least 19 more reasons to go and explore that which terrifies.

Read Next: The 13 Best YouTube Channels for Writers

More Articles

How to Choose the Right Novel Software – Interview with Katja Kaine from The Novel Factory 

The daily routine of a full-time author, 4 thoughts on “19 current resources for horror fiction writers”.

Bookmarked this. Thank you!

Pingback: The 3 Vital Keys to Every Great Horror Story | P. S. Hoffman

Pingback: 21 Writing Tips from My Last 21 Drafts | P. S. Hoffman

This is an excellent resource. Thank you!

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

Additional menu

The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

Writing In The Dark. Horror Writing Tips With Tim Waggoner

posted on October 26, 2020

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:07:57 — 55.2MB)

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

How do you write your darkness without drowning in it? How do you write an original horror story while still respecting the tropes of the genre? Why are horror writers the nicest people around?!

Tim Waggoner gives some craft tips for writing horror, as well as thoughts on the current publishing and TV/film environment.

In the intro, Bookwire's report on audience behavior in the age of ebooks, audiobooks, and podcasts [ Publishing Perspectives ]; positive report on the ebook market during COVID19 [ Written Word Media ]; and library digital subscription and borrowing is up [ The Guardian ]; Google Play introduces promo codes ; R eflections on the end of the general trade concept from Mike Shatzkin and what a possible big publishing merger might bring; The end of the summer blockbuster and a changing model for the film industry, which is reflected in the indie author business model [ Kristine Kathryn Rusch ].

Plus, my solo episode on Walk Your Own Race: Lessons Learned from Walking a 50km Ultra-Marathon , and photos from my 6-day pilgrimage at Instagram @jfpennauthor . Don't miss the Halloween special on Books and Travel, Life-Obsessed: Cemeteries, Graveyards, and Ossuaries with Loren Rhoads .

Do you need help finding an editor, book cover designer, or someone to do your book marketing? Find a curated list of vetted professionals at the Reedsy marketplace, along with free training on writing, self-publishing, and book marketing. Check it out at  www.TheCreativePenn.com/reedsy

Tim Waggoner is the best selling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of over 50 novels and 7 short story collections across dark fantasy and horror, as well as writing tie-ins. He's also a professor of creative writing at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. His latest book for authors is Writing in the Dark , on the craft of writing horror fiction.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript below.

• How exploring our darkness means we don’t have to be afraid of it
• Why it’s important not to re-traumatize yourself when writing
• The variety that exists within the horror genre
• Ideas for elevating horror writing
• Finding empathy for your villains
• How to be original while using horror tropes
• The future of horror in the publishing marketplace
• Writing movie and television tie-in books

You can find Tim Waggoner at TimWaggoner.com and on Twitter @timwaggoner

Transcript of Interview with Tim Waggoner

Joanna: Tim Waggoner is the best selling and Bram Stoker award-winning author of over 50 novels and 7 short story collections across dark fantasy and horror, as well as writing tie-ins. He's also a professor of creative writing at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. And his latest book for authors is Writing in the Dark on the craft of writing horror fiction.

Welcome, Tim.

Tim: Well, thanks for having me.

Joanna: It's great to have you on the show.

To start off, tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing as well as why you decided to focus on horror.

Tim: I'm not so sure I got into either, it's just they were kind of a natural outgrowth of myself. I had been interested in all kinds of scary things since I was little. One of the first movies I remember watching was ‘Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman' and I was probably 3 or 4. My mom and dad were watching it with me back when just these things would show up on TV occasionally.

You couldn't choose them like you can now. And why they let a 4-year-old watch this thing I don't know. But I was absolutely fascinated with this movie. And I've been fascinated with monsters ever since.

In terms of writing, it's the same thing. I used to make up stories all the time, mostly they would be tiny little impromptu plays with people I'd be playing with, friends and such, or maybe with the toys and action figures I'd have around. Sometimes for hours, I'd make up these little stories and act them out.

So as time went by, it was natural that these two things I think would blend together and have me end up writing horror. I find horror to be a wonderful blank canvas because, in the shadows, you can imagine anything could be there. And I think it lends itself to fiction for that reason.

Joanna: It is interesting that your parents let you watch scary movies like that. I think ‘E.T.' was my first scary movie. And I remember hiding behind the couch. I must have been 7 or 8, I think when ‘E.T.' came out. So it started really early for you.

Tim: Yes, it did. And my parents allowed me to read all kinds of horror comic books, and never censored anything that I read, didn't worry about it too much. And I'm not really sure why. I know my dad was big into science fiction and fantasy, not so much horror. But I think that because of that he was a lot more tolerant of just letting us read whatever we wanted as opposed to monitoring what we read and watched.

Joanna: I think that's interesting. I'm happily child-free, but I do feel like there's a bit of a taboo of letting children read horror. Because you're a professor of creative writing, you teach young people, obviously not little kids.

Do you encourage people to read whatever they're interested in at any age, or do you think that the way horror is now portrayed that it should be for older people?

Tim: I guess it depends on the level of horror because horror is like a buffet. There are so many different choices available. I think that because, especially with the internet, people can access some pretty extreme horror if they want to.

Children who are 18 or whatever, or at least below their teens, preteens, I think that parents should probably be a little more careful about what they read or what material that they're consuming. But otherwise no, I think it's pretty healthy for people to just graze and sample all kinds of things and then see what speaks to them. And different things will speak to you at different times in your life.

Joanna: I think you're right. In my experience, horror writers are some of the nicest people out there and I love your title Writing in the Dark .

Why is writing our darkness on the page so important?

Tim: My wife is not a horror fan at all. But she loves to go to horror conventions for that reason. She says horror people are the nicest people that she's ever met. And I had a student ask me once she said, ‘You seem so pleasant, how can you write the kind of things that you do?' And I looked at her and I said, ‘What do you think keeps me so pleasant?'

There's something to be said for getting out all kinds of things that are in us.

In a lot of ways, writing our darkness allows us to map it and explore it.

And when you do that, it doesn't have as much power over you. You're not afraid to think things that might be considered dark or you're not afraid to kind of confront whatever kind of negativity might be inside you. It loses its power in a lot of ways.

I think it's a catharsis, that kind of exorcism, through entertainment, which I think really makes a huge difference. I can't imagine what I'd been like if I didn't write those kinds of stuff.

Joanna: You've written a lot of books and I haven't written as many as you, but I've forgotten what I've put into books. But it's almost like once you've written it, it's gone. It's out of your head. Do you have that same experience?

Tim: Yes, I do. And it's weird sometimes when you find yourself accidentally repeating, and you don't realize that you used kind of a story structure, situation, or character type in a book before just because you don't remember. It's also weird answering questions about books.

I remember when I first started going to conventions, and listening to writers on panels, and they say something like, ‘I don't really remember writing that book.' And I'd think, ‘How in the world could anybody not remember writing a book?' And I don't remember a lot of the stuff that was in my book, so people will ask me a question about it, I'm like, ‘Yeah, sure. Yeah, I meant to do that.' I have no memory of doing that.

Joanna: That actually makes me feel better. I'm glad to hear you say that.

Tim: I think it's really normal.

Joanna: The question on writing darkness is how do we stop ourselves from self-censoring? Sometimes we might be thinking something and we're like, ‘I want to put that in a story. But what if my mom reads it? Or what if my wife reads it? Or what if my kid reads it at some point and they think that I'm some terrible person?'

How do we write the darkness but equally, be really truthful?

Tim: One advantage we have is that the people who love us won't change their reading habits just because they love us. So your family, unless they already love it they probably won't read the stuff that you write, they will support you in it. But it's just like any other profession, your family doesn't follow you to work and watch you the entire time you're at work.

They'll listen to you tell stories about it, and maybe proud of you because of what you do. But they don't experience it the same way that either your customers or your clients or in our case our readers do. I feel perfectly free to put anything at all about my family and friends in my work, disguise it a little bit, but I don't worry about them reading it.

My oldest daughter tried to read one of my books and she got to a scene I'd written when she was very little. But she's probably 20 or so when she decided to read it. And she got to a scene that was set in a park that she used to go to when she was a child, and it happens to be one of the most extreme scenes I've ever written. And she just stopped reading at that point. She's like, “I'm done.”

I asked her if it changed the way that she looked at me and she said, “Not really, because I know it's just imagining and you're my dad, but I don't want to read that stuff.” So, I don't really worry about it too much.

I do think about disguising it to a certain degree just in case. And also because I want to have the freedom to treat it fictionally. I don't want to just like write an essay. I want to be able to take an event, or an idea, or a character and make it my own.

Joanna: I agree. And another question that people have asked me is what if you fictionalized something that did happen to you, and or a situation where you were terrified, it might not be the serial killer or whatever, but something happened like the park you mentioned, maybe the terror of your child being out there in the world, it can make you scared, right? But what if you write things and you feel like perhaps you're trapped in that darkness?

I think the question was from someone who really felt like, ‘I don't want to dwell on my dark past.'

Tim: That could be a real concern. Years ago, I was teaching a workshop at a literary center and it was about writing personal horror, horror drawn from our own lives. And I was much younger, and I had not been teaching workshops like this. There were a number of adults there, but there were also a couple of young teenage girls that were there.

One of them, when it came time to do an exercise, she wrote about terrible abuse that she had suffered. And we did our best to talk to her and try to get her some help afterward and such. But what I learned from this is that you can't just pour things that happened to us onto the page necessarily, and have it be cathartic in a way that creates a positive reading experience, entertainment experience for somebody.

You really need to be able to find ways to channel that. And if you have dark things in your life that are too hard to deal with for whatever reasons, you don't have to traumatize yourself to create art. There's no need to hurt yourself to do this.

It's okay to use your imagining, it's okay to go ahead and very obliquely kind of glance at something that happened to you. So maybe there was a time when a parent was very verbally abusive to you, you don't have to write that scene word for word. You can write a scene where your character is getting dressed down by a supervisor at work, and maybe draw a little bit on some of those emotions.

But you don't have to wallow in your own darkness. Because for a lot of people, that would be re-traumatizing yourself and not only does that not make good art, it's not healthy for you as an individual.

Joanna: I think that's right. And I consider myself very lucky as a person, I've had a really great life, but I like some dark stuff.

Is there a personality you think that would be drawn to horror, and the darker side, even when life has been rosy?

Tim: My life has been pretty much the same. Although when I talk to my wife and say that, ‘My life has been without any kind of problem.' She's, like, ‘Seriously?' Sometimes I think our lives seem normal to us where they don't necessarily seem normal to people looking in from the outside.

But I think that there's a tendency to see whatever is not normal. The first thing I'll notice about anything is any kind of deviation of it. I'll notice the piece of lint on a shirt before I'll notice the shirt or the color really, I'd see the lint first. It kind of drives my wife crazy sometimes because she'll talk about, ‘Let's do this.' And I'll immediately think of all the things that could go wrong if we don't plan for them, or it just pops into my head.

I think a lot of people who are attracted to horror, it's on some level because it's not that we see the world in dark ways. It's just that we see the things that just strike us as out of place or not normal. And even if it doesn't provoke any kind of anxiety, it starts to stimulate your imagination. You wonder why is it like this and what could have caused it? What might be done to fix it?

I also think there's a wonderful delight and surprise that you don't quite know what's going to happen in a horror story. Not the same way that you might in the stories that follow, if not a predictable pattern, but kind of a safer pattern like in a mystery where you know that even though all the bad things might occur to your protagonist, order's going to be restored in the end and the mystery is going to be solved.

In horror, you don't quite know what's going to happen. I think that people who also like maybe I can't stand going on amusement park rides, especially rollercoasters and stuff. If they put like a steering wheel in the first car and let me drive it I might be okay. I cannot stand being at the mercy of that. But some people love those kind of adrenaline rushes and I think those kind of people are attracted to horror too.

Joanna: I think the important thing to mention to people listening in if they don't read horror is how vast the genre is. I read mostly aspects of the supernatural in horror. My favorite Stephen King book is The Stand and to me, the aspect that draws me the most is the supernatural angle. The fact that it has a plague that wipes out most of humanity, to me is a small point beyond the kind of more supernatural battle of good and evil, which is the horror I like.

What are some of the sub-genres of horror that people might think of?

Tim: There's supernatural horror, like you spoke of, which I think a lot of people imagine when they think of horror. There's the psychological horror of somebody just as a human being who is trying to harm other people.

Certainly, in horror film people love slasher movies and for them, that's what horror is all about. There's psychological horror where the horror can come from misperceptions people have or things that are happening inside them that they can't quite control.

There's dark fantasy, which is where the horror element is there, but reality is a lot more bendable in the way that it isn't a fantasy . A lot of Clive Barker's novels are like that. There's cosmic horror , which is the idea that the entire universe itself might be malign on some level, and that if we were to glimpse what was going on behind the scenes, it would be too much for us.

There's a lot of horror that just is existential and like, what is the meaning? What do we mean? There's science fiction blends with horror as well, super popular. I mean, if The Stand didn't have the supernatural aspect, it would definitely be a science fiction kind of horror.

So really, horror is one of the elements that can fit with any other type of story, even a category romance as long as it turns out happily in the end, it could be a certain amount of horrific along the way. And certainly, a number of adventure and horror stories or dark stories have a romantic element in them at any rate. I think horror is not just broad, but it's super versatile too.

Joanna: I think it's interesting because I feel like because so many horror novels can be standalone, that it also lends itself to literary writing, in that the prize-winning, you are a prize-winning author, award-winning author. When I read some of these Bram Stoker award-winning books, to me, it moves into literature and much more than some of the other genre fiction categories to me. And obviously, you're a professor of writing.

Where do you think horror is lifted into literature?

Tim: I think that since horror stories have been around for so long in literature, I think that they were already baked into what people consider literature, as opposed to newer things like mysteries and science fiction. It was a long tradition of folklore, and legends, and myths that have horrific elements.

Even a writer like Poe was considered literary. When you go back and read his stuff and if a lot of it was just written in today's language, I don't know if people would think of it as literary just to kind of plots that he has and things like that. So I think a lot of it, like I said, it's just baked into sort of the canon of what people consider good literature.

Science fiction, I think has caught up pretty well in some ways. And I think that crime writing, mystery writing, maybe not category mysteries, but more like crime writing and suspense writing is gaining literary acceptance too.

And I think the fact that horror can deal with the darkness in people's lives or the darkness of life, that sets itself up for literary themes in a lot of ways . Because you don't really think of literary fiction as being happy and fun, and chocolates that we might just eat for fun one after the other. When you think of it as dealing with more heavy and weighty subjects, and I think horror is already primed to do that.

Joanna: That's a good point. So I did want to ask you, because I find this fascinating, so what does make an award-winning horror story beyond something that might be not award-winning? And you obviously read a lot and you write a lot, and I know this is such a hard question.

How do we lift our writing up to an award-winning level?

Tim: I think a big way is to be concerned with the way it's presented. The style of it, the way the story is told, not so much to try to write in a way that's not normal for you, but in a way that is attempting something different or new for you, stretching yourself to a certain degree.

Probably the same with the concepts that you use too, if you're just writing a story about a vampire, and the vampire is the same as a million vampires that we've seen before in movies and read about in books. There's probably no kind of real, the least obvious, artistic approach to that because you're not doing anything new with it, you're not trying to say anything new about it.

I think that it helps to think about the way you're telling the story. And then what are you trying to say that's new or different in this particular story? It doesn't mean that stories that are entertainment-based and might just have a normal vampire in it that everybody's familiar with it, not that there's anything wrong with those. But I think the stories that tend to get recognized for awards, it's a matter of elevated craft and then also elevated ideas or things.

Joanna: Absolutely. I love getting the Bram Stoker nomination email and I will often go and buy a ton of them and read them. I've found so many good books that way. And really interesting stories and original stories.

On the other side of that, what are some of the biggest mistakes that writers make when they write horror?

Tim: This happens for beginning writers of all kinds really, is that we take in so many more stories through visual media, in most of those movies and TV shows, maybe thousands upon thousands of hours more than we actually read. And I think because of that, a lot of people when they write, try to recreate the experience of watching visual media.

It's very different, visual media. The audience is passive receivers of all this information that is just given to us. And when we read, what we're doing is we're decoding information from marks on a page and creating a reality inside our heads. It's much more participatory.

Those two ways of approaching communicating stories are very different. And so, when somebody sits down to write and they're just emulating visual media, it's all just movement and sound. And it's all very detached as if we're not in anybody's head, we don't know what anybody's thinking or feeling. And because of this, it's just flat and lifeless.

And especially for horror, because horror happens inside a person. I'll tell people if you imagine a monster hanging out in the middle of a field and it's alone, there's no worry. It's just a monster hanging out. It's only a monster when somebody is there to perceive it and be threatened by it and consider it monstrous.

We really need to be, to at least some degree, in our characters and showing what these characters are experiencing, putting readers into their heads. And I think that when you try to write it from the detached point of view of a passive observer, like in visual media, I think that's a huge mistake.

Joanna: So going deeper into the character who's experiencing whatever the horror is, but also going into the antagonist. I'm thinking of The Stand again because I'm listening to it on audiobook. It's so long. But the voices of the characters are so different and the bad characters versus the good characters as such. It's being in these characters that make it come to life.

Tim: It's difficult to write from the perspective of somebody who's ‘bad' because it's tempting to just make them a stereotypical villain that are just evil because they're evil. And even if they are, it's a supernatural thing. And you are in the head, or at least we get to hear the supernatural entity speak. There's that same kind of temptation to make them just cartoonish kind of versions of evil.

The more that you can personify evil to a certain degree, if you're not going to have it just be like in the Lord of the Rings , where it's a force off-stage. Sauron's never really on stage at all. But if you are going to personify it, I think it helps to give it a little bit of personality somehow.

If you're going to be writing maybe more human-based characters that are bad, I think that you have to find some level of sympathy with them and empathy with them. It's one of the hardest things for me to do as a writer. In one of the books I had out not long ago called The Forever House , I decided I would take a character who was a pedophile. And he never has and he never does in the entire book ever harm a child, his whole character is fighting against this impulse that he has.

But in order to write about it, I had to get into this person's head so doing some research and just trying to be empathetic. And instead of focusing on what his obsession was, I just tried to focus on somebody who was wanting to do the right thing, and having to fight something that he recognized, was battered himself, was evil on himself.

Trying to find a level of some kind of connection or empathy. I think that if you're writing a human villain, even if they're doing terrible, terrible things, if you can find the part of them that is still human in them, I think that allows you to be able to write from inside their heads.

Joanna: I've got to say, in my thrillers, I really enjoy writing the villains who want to destroy the world, and always trying to come up with new ways to destroy the world, which is fun. And I mean, clearly, that's quite different to my ‘good characters,' but I actually think I have much more fun with the bad guys who just generally blow a lot of things up. So that's thriller, I guess. But it is a fascinating challenge.

You mentioned visual media and the fact that we consume so much visual media. And, for example, I really do want to write a zombie book at some point. But when I think zombie, in my head I might think of the White Walkers in ‘The Game of Thrones' TV show, or I might think of ‘The Walking Dead.' And that's what comes off in my head.

Now also, I've read Jonathan Maberry's books, Rot & Ruin and some of World War Z and all those, and then I think, ‘How on earth could I write anything original that would have a zombie in?'

How do we take the tropes of horror and come up with something that actually might be original?

Tim: There's all kinds of ways to do it. One way is to reverse it. My zombie novel The Way of All Flesh , the way I came up with a different premise was to have the zombies actually think that they're human or seem like they're human, and not realize that they're dead.

My main character is trying to figure out what's going on where to everybody else, they seem like zombies. So I just kind of spun it around, what if zombies didn't think they were zombies?

Other things you can do is you can mix and match different kinds of images. Zombies for a long time were slow and so then they got made fast, which changed things. Maybe you change the way that they've presented. I think it was in the movie of ‘World War Z,' they made them bird-like in the way they moved and clack their teeth and such.

Or you can make yours a cat-like, they're dead but they still have cat-like reflexes and behaviors. There's all kinds of things that you can do to just make things different. You just change the paradigm of it.

Another way is to try to figure out what lies at the heart of a trope, and then create something that embodies that that might not be obvious.

And the examples whenever I talk about this in workshops are characters like Jason from ‘Friday the 13th.' If you look at Jason, and if you think about it, he's nothing more than the Grim Reaper.

The Grim Reaper has a skull, which is a white face that does not move, for all intents and purposes it's kind of featureless. Jason has his hockey mask. The Grim Reaper is in a monochromatic robe and Jason's in a monochromatic sort of outfit. And the Grim Reaper wields a scythe and Jason has a great, big machete that he wields. So he's just the bringer of death. That's the silent bringer of death that comes. And we can't stop. It just comes when it comes.

Freddy Krueger is Satan. He's a demonic character, he's associated with fire, he torments people. His life glove is like a trident in his face, even if you look at it, the way he's done is almost like sort of a cartoonish depiction of a devil. And so he would be like the tormentor from another world.

If you can figure out a trope and what lies at its core, you can basically put a new set of clothes on it. And what's nice about that is then it has all the impact of the core nature of that trope without any of the baggage of it. So we don't have the cartoon devils in our heads when we watch Freddy Krueger, we don't have cartoon Grim Reapers in our heads when we watch Jason.

So getting to the core of a trope and then kind of building your own sort of shell around that or a way to express it. You can also take something like the way a vampire feeds on people, you can turn that around to whatever vampire feeds other people as opposed to draining from them. What if it gives people something? What if there's an exchange instead of just it being one way?

You don't even have to call your character the monster vampire at that point, and give it a different name, it doesn't matter. By doing that, it was, again, you don't have all the baggage of the vampire trope, but you have the power that lies at the heart of that trope.

So those are the kind of things I usually tell people in terms of trying to find something that is, like, really powerful and kind of new for your own horror.

Joanna: Those are some great ideas there. And then I guess the other thing would be lots of visual media is that people associate horror with the action as you say, so his high body count, thus, it must be horror.

How do we take action and plot beyond blood and death?

Tim: If you have a character…and you could have more than one, but we'll just talk about one. If you have a character and you think about what are the impacts of these events on this character, how is the character reacting? What is the emotional psychic damage are they taking? Where is the these events pushing them? Is it pushing them to their limit? What is their limit? What happens if they go beyond their limit?

Those are the guideposts you can use on a story. As opposed to this person dies, that person dies, the monster does this, the monster does that. All of those things are fun, but then what happens to the character.

So it's really about, in a lot of ways, describing not a character's growth, but almost a character's whatever the opposite would be, the breaking down of a character, to see what then the character may or may not do at the end.

‘Midsommer' is a good example of this, because that's what really happens to those characters. And by the end, we don't know which way the story's going to go really, until that very, very last image that we finally see after this character has been broken down all the way by these events, what the events overall… It's almost like a math problem where you have a sum total at the end, although maybe I guess it's a problem of subtraction, just seeing what's left of the character afterwards. But doing stuff like that, focusing on the character, the effect on the character as opposed to the body count.

Joanna: Absolutely. And then I want to ask what you think of the current publishing environment for horror writers. I feel like within genre that I read, these particularly supernatural ones, I do read a lot from particular small press publishers, but it almost feels like many of the big publishers might not go anywhere near horror. But then, on the other hand, there's loads of what I would call horror on Netflix.

What do you think of the current publishing environment for horror?

Tim: I do think that larger publishers are maybe tentatively, but they are stepping back into horror to a certain degree. Tor Books has created their ‘Nightfire' imprint, which is dedicated toward horror. And even though with COVID the publishing industry has kind of ground to a halt, right before that publishers were starting to say, ‘We'd like to see some horror.'

One of my books, Night Tears , that came out from ‘Angry Robot' a few years ago, is being re-released with a more horror type cover. So I think publishers are starting to realize that there's a market out there for this. And I do think a lot of it is from streaming media such as things like the ‘The Haunting of Hill House' on Netflix, in more kind of elevated horror movies like ‘Midsommer,' get out the deals of social issues and things where I think there's just a greater awareness not only the popularity of horror, but the potential for what it could cover.

One of the big benefits too for the streaming media is that the series can be, if you have enough time, they release the entire series at once. So you can experience it like a novel, which is a very different viewing experience from anything we've had before.

I was speaking with Mike Flanagan who created and wrote ‘The Haunting of Hill House' mini-series, right before we started to do it. We were talking about how this media now allows you basically to create the equivalent of a novel in visual form, and you get much more of a focus on character that way than you would maybe in an hour and a half movie.

So I think that overall, it's really hard to say what publishing is going to do. Hopefully, once COVID blows over and things get back to some semblance of normality, or whatever the new normal is, it's hard to say horror is going to keep growing in popularity the way it was for a while, but the small press will always be there.

It's what's wonderful about the way people consume media these days is that we can get whatever we want. We don't need the big companies to be able to distribute it to us. The small press has always been the dark beating heart of horror, and it's going to continue to be the dark beating heart of horror regardless of what the big publishers do.

Joanna: What about independent authors because many of my audience are indies, I'm an indie, I know a lot of indie horror writers, many of whom I think did have contracts a while back and then moved into indie when things really changed in the publishing industry, but are now doing really well because there's such a voracious order for their genre. When you talk to people is that something you're seeing in the community as well?

Tim: Nobody cares where your story comes from, they only care that it's good . And I do this, I'm sure most people do this, at least horror fans, is that I pick up books because of word of mouth. Somebody will talk about how great it is and it's somebody whose opinion I respect, so I check it out.

Or I see somebody through social media, I read their post or maybe I'll see them in a video that they produced. And if they sound like an interesting person, I want to go and check out their books. The technology has also allowed the individual to do for themselves so much of what we needed larger companies to do for us once upon a time.

The ability of an artist to go directly to his or her audience, I think it's immense. I think there's a lot of opportunity in probably all genres, but it seems like in horror especially I think that just there's so many rabid fans looking for good stuff that they'll go anywhere the good stuff is.

Joanna: I agree. And then I wanted to ask you, because when I was looking at all your books, you've got lots of these media tie-in. So, franchises like ‘Alien,' and ‘Resident Evil,' and ‘Supernatural'.

How did you get into doing media tie-in books? And what part do they play in your author business?

Tim: Oh, when I was very young, because I'm 56, so when I was very young, there was no way to watch anything on demand. The only time you ever got to see stuff was when it was broadcast and it may not be rerun. And so the only way to kind of get more experience of your favorite characters would be through comic book versions or book versions.

So I would read those and I would always be interested in reading novelizations because that allowed the writer to put us into the heads of the characters we saw on screen and to develop the story in more detail. And I was always interested in that part.

As time went on, I was interested in seeing what would it be like to work with a given set of parameters to tell a story. And also because just one of the things I try to do in my writing career is try as many different things as I can think of, I think one way to kind of at least maximize your chances for success is to try a lot of different things and to see what might work well for you or what might just kind of ring true for an audience.

So, I started approaching editors after I'd published a little bit because you need to have it published ahead of time before you can get a tie-in gig. And once I got into them, it was interesting because I started out in college as an acting major before I switched over to English and education, which were my true loves.

But one of the things about media tie-ins is it's like being an actor. It's like you're given a script and you've got to interpret the role or being maybe a scriptwriter on a TV show where you're giving characters in a basic setting, but you have to come up with a new episode. And it just stretches a lot of different kinds of creative muscles for me.

Sometimes it stretches different stylistic muscles if I have to write something that's more action adventure oriented or something that might be more fantasy or science fiction oriented. And it also makes a nice change of pace from the darkest horror too because I don't have to go into the same kind of internal places inside myself in order to write it.

Joanna: If people want to do that kind of writing, I feel like there's maybe a bit of fan-fiction in there as well, like if people know the series really, really well, and they love them, and they're also writing, is that something that, as you said, people need evidence of publication. Is that the type of thing that's still open to writers?

Tim: I've never had an editor that ever cared that I knew anything about a property that I was going to write for.

Joanna: Oh, really? How interesting.

Tim: They're happy if you do, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that you can write a book. They want to know that you can write a novel successfully from beginning, middle, and end, that you've already done, that it's already been published.

They also like it if you've worked with traditional publishing because you can't just do whatever you want. There's a much higher degree of collaboration between you and the editor, and then whoever at the studio or whatever it is, who's in charge of licensed products. They have to tell you that you can do this, you can't do that. So you have to be really responsive and work well with several different people when it comes to the content.

A lot of times the deadlines are short for these things because the publishers already have, like, with a Supernatural book, they usually like Titan books get a deal to do like maybe four or five. And they've already got them all on their publishing schedule. And so, once they assign authors to them, you only have so much time because it's got to be done by a certain time.

And so the deadlines tend to be short. So they need to know that you can hit a deadline. A lot of these things, it's like not an entry-level position, I guess, would be a kind of a way to say it. It's like if you're going for a job and you've already got 5 or 10 years' experience on your resume, that would allow you to apply for certain jobs beyond the entry-level.

It helps to have already shown that you can write a novel, publish a novel, and done it a few times, and I think right now it helps to have done that in a traditional publishing field because that's where tie-ins come from. I've had somebody email me not long ago said they'd written an Alien novel and wanted to know what to do with it. And I had to explain it doesn't work that way.

Joanna: You can't do anything with that.

Tim: Right. And the person was like, ‘Oh, that's fine. I had fun doing it. So thanks for letting me know.' And that's the big difference to fan-fiction because fan-fiction is not official and because of that, you can do whatever you want. You can create all kinds of fun stories. You can create all kinds of fun relationships, you can have people from different properties meet.

I had somebody take one of my characters from a book series called Necropolis and had him meet the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock Holmes in a bit of fan-fiction. So there's a lot of constraints when you're doing it officially licensed when you're hired to do it that I don't know if a lot of people who come up through fan-fiction would enjoy really in a lot of ways.

Joanna: Interesting. Just to be clear, though, for people listening, you can't publish fan-fiction with other people's properties and so you couldn't self-publish a book that features ‘Alien Meets Resident Evil.'

Tim: Nope. The lawyers will come after you.

Joanna: You can publish it for free on some of these fan-fiction sites but you cannot publish it properly and sell it. So just to be clear for people listening, in case anyone thought we were encouraging that. But no, absolutely fascinating.

Tell us a bit more about what is in the book Writing in the Dark . It's fantastic. What else is in there?

Tim: One of the things I want to do was to write a book that would not only celebrate my love of horror and the genre, but also give back to it. I wanted to help people make horror that is not just marketable, it's not just sellable, and not just good, but it expands the genre, expands what they're able to do.

So I cover a lot of the basics about different aspects of horror, ways to make horror better, techniques and tricks to write horror . I'll cover things from like plotting to coming up with different ideas and different types of scenarios, to writing scenes and generating suspense. Delving into the psychological aspect of horror and also the physiological, I mean, people get hurt a lot in horror. And a lot of the writers aren't aware of what happens to a human body when it gets hurt.

All kinds of practical things that you need to know and some other things as well in terms of eventually marketing it and trying to sell it. Hopefully, it's a nice overview of all the stuff that I've learned from 30 years of writing and teaching, and just everything I could possibly give people to help them become better writers.

Joanna: It is excellent. And I got the eBook in preparation for this, but I have pre-ordered the print book because I'm like, ‘Okay, this is one for the shelf,' because it's got so much in it. I highly recommend Writing in the Dark , and I know people are going to love it. So tell people where they can find you and everything you do online.

Tim: The easiest places, just to go to my website, it's just TimWaggoner.com . And there is portals to everything, my social media, my blog, I have a YouTube channel where I kind of do just video blogs. All that stuff is right there. So just timwaggoner.com.

Joanna: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Tim. That was great.

Tim: Well, thanks so much for having me.

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Connect with me on social media

Sign up for your free author blueprint.

Thanks for visiting The Creative Penn!

When you think about it, the horror genre makes no sense at all. We sit and stare at pieces of paper with words on them, imagining monsters that we know are entirely made up... and that somehow makes us so scared that we have to sleep with the lights on? Seriously? Writing horror that's genuinely scary is no mean feat. If you're an aspiring horror writer (or even just an enthusiastic campfire storyteller), you might want a few pointers on how to take your stories from slightly scary to spine-chilling nightmare fuel. Here's some writing advice from horror authors, so you, too, can terrorize everyone you meet.

Of course, most general tips for writing apply to writing horror as well. Read widely. Try to write everyday. Write stories that matter to you, and ground them in real emotions. But horror comes with its own specific challenges as well. I mean, how do you know what makes something scary? How to you capture that scary thing and put it into your own writing? Are clowns truly played out as a horror trope?

Every author's process is different, and everyone has a different set of deep, dark fears. But these tips on writing horror will help you find your own method of adding fear to the world:

There are three types of terror

When you get down to it, there are only three things that can truly freak someone out. At least, according to Stephen King :

“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”

Use your own fear

Shirley Jackson believed that one is always writing, filing away little moments and snippets of dialogue for later use, "a little like the frugal housewife who carefully tucks away all the odds and ends of string beans and cold bacon and serves them up magnificently in a fancy casserole dish." She paid special attention to the things that scared her:

“I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.”

Get inside your narrator’s head

R.L. Stine frightened an entire generation of children with a very simple rule: get inside your narrator's head. If we're seeing through the eyes of a character in a scary situation, we start to feel like we are in a scary situation (also, ventriloquist dummies are universally evil). He told AdWeek :

“There’s no formula. I think you have to create a very close point of view. You have to be in the eyes of the narrator. Everything that happens, all the smells, all the sounds; then your reader starts to identify with that character and that’s what makes something really scary.”

Don’t worry about being “legitimate”

There will always be literary snobs out there to tell you that horror, like all genre fiction, is not as important or "legit" as real fiction about middle age men who cheat on their wives. Tananarive Due suggests that you stop worrying about trying to be a "legit" writer, and just write what feels right to you, even if it involves ghosts:

"...I'd had it drummed into my head in creative writing workshop courses that one could not expect to be a respected writer when writing commercial or genre books. Legitimacy has always been very important to me... Finally, though, I said the heck with all of it. I wasn't going to try to be Toni Morrison or Joyce Carol Oates, I was just going to be me, and I was going to write about the people I know..."

Take your nonsense seriously

On a similar note, you have to take your ghosties and goblins seriously, because even the goofiest of evil clowns still represents a very human fear of the unknown. Ray Bradbury thought that writing should be enjoyable, and that writers should be selective about which criticisms to listen to:

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

Go where the pain is

Anne Rice has some truly chilling advice for horror writers: go where the pain is. Write about the one thing that you can't get over, because that's where true horror lies:

“Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.”

The scariest thing is feeling out of control

For Clive Barker, horror comes from the realization that we are not in control. Excellent horror writers don't just go for gore and shock value, they remind their readers that everyday life is always right on the edge of dissolving into chaos:

“Horror fiction has traditionally dealt in taboo. It speaks of death, madness and transgression of moral and physical boundaries. It raises the dead to life and slaughters infants in their cribs; it makes monsters of household pets and begs our affection for psychos. It shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”

Just start writing and fix it later

Horror writer and poet Linda Addison suggests that you silence your inner editor for that first draft, and just let all the horrific weirdness of your subconscious flow out onto the page/screen:

"Know that even when you’re not putting words on paper/computer you’re writing. Living is writing. Everything we do feeds creativity, even in the most un-obvious ways. Don’t edit while writing first draft, just get it out. This is a rule I often struggle with because I know the quality I want, but I also know it’s important to write it from beginning to end and the editor mind doesn’t help that for me."

Tell your own story

Write in your own universe, not someone else's. Make up your own monsters. That's what Neil Gaiman does. From a podcast interview with Nerdist :

"Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you."

Keep it real (kind of)

Helen Oyeyemi's writing blends realism with magic and horror—but to her, that doesn't make her writing unrealistic. As long as the emotions are genuine, you can let go of concerns about sticking strictly to reality:

"I tend to prioritize emotional realism above the known laws of time and space, and when you do that, it's inevitable that strange things happen. Which can be quite enjoyable, I think."

• Features for Creative Writers
• Features for Work
• Features for Higher Education
• Features for Teachers
• Features for Non-Native Speakers
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

Webinar Replay: Horror Story Essentials: Turn Scattershot Scary Scenes Into Nightmare-Inducing Stories

Libby Bushill

Rachelle Ramirez

Do you want your horror story to go beyond the pages of your book and into your reader's nightmares? Are you stuck with scattershot scary scenes that don't really work together or entertain? Does you story need more moments of heightened danger, plot twists, and reversals? You're in the right place.

This Halloween, developmental editor Rachelle Ramirez from Pages & Platforms taught us the basics of the Horror Genre so you can provoke terror and a sense of dread within your readers.

Rachelle trained under Shawn Coyne of Story Grid and has edited award winning and bestselling fiction and nonfiction. She is committed to offering actionable editorial assistance for writers in all phases of their careers. Rachelle attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Masters in Creative Writing Program and has an MA in psychology from Goddard College. She is the author of An Introduction to Genre. Learn more at pagesandplatforms.com .

We host dozens of free trainings for writers about everything from book publishing to business writing. Why not browse all of our replays here ?

Click here to register for more upcoming events for writers..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Libby is ProWritingAid’s Lifecycle Marketer. When she’s not dreaming up our writing tips newsletters, she loves yoga, spending time outdoors, and trying new recipes. You’ll find Libby’s work on all things writing and grammar across the internet on writing blogs. After studying English Literature at University, she is living her dream working with words every day. Libby co-edited of The University of Reading’s A Room of Our Own project.

Get started with ProWritingAid

Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via :

Your Guide to Becoming a Horror Writer with an Online Creative Writing Degree

Written by Scott Wilson

Shocking, frightening, captivating… good works of horror fiction are both disturbing and impossible to put down. The visions of the horrendous stick with readers well after the covers have been closed. Being walled up alive in catacombs with a cask of amontillado, giving birth to a demonic child, or becoming gripped by suicidal madness after spending time in a haunted house aren’t things that can really happen to most of us. But the magic of horror is that it engages the imagination so that we believe they may.

Horror plays upon our fears to spark some deep, primeval emotions.

Most people suspect there must be something just a little bit wrong with horror writers for them to deliver such macabre visions. But horror is an ancient genre, stretching back to the fairytales told around fires long before the written word became a thing.

Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk. ~ Robert Bloch

Horror fiction is commonly crossed with other genres:

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein grew out of a competition between her, her husband Percy, and Lord Byron to see who could write the best horror story. The scientific elements of the novel place it among the first works of science fiction… and among the most frightening.

The Silence of the Lambs is the story of the FBI hunting for a serial killer… using another serial killer, with horrific tendencies in cuisine. Thomas Harris won both the Anthony Award for detective fiction and the Bram Stoker award for horror writing in one swoop.

One of the best known of all American poems owes its popularity to its dreary, depressing atmosphere. Poe’s The Raven is a classic that rhymes as it affrights readers even today.

When you put a newly minted vampire together with a crew of Safeway night stockers and turkey bowlers you get Christopher Moore’s Bloodsucking Fiends , a fiendishly funny take on tropes in horror handed down since Dracula… with a side dish of fear served up along the way.

Because of horror’s long-lasting appeal, it’s both in-demand and lucrative. You need look no further than the careers of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Anne Rice to see that having a taste for blood can lead to a taste of success.

Horror writers don’t just write novels and short stories. The genre is also popular in film and television, making scriptwriting a popular path for many horror writers.

More than many genres, horror relies on a formula. Successful horror writers must be able to develop characters the reader can empathize with, craft plots that develop genuine fear, and set a tone that evokes dread. It’s a craft that requires an education. And creative writing degrees offer exactly the kind of training that horror writers need.

What Makes Horror So Compelling for Both Readers and Writers?

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. ~ H.P. Lovecraft

Maybe it’s better not to delve too deeply into the world of id and imagination that seem to compel such fascination with the dark and sinister.

There has been plenty of psychological investigation into why exactly it is that a large percentage of readers seem to enjoy having the pants scared off them.

What psychologists have found is that works of horror stimulate the ancient fight-or-flight response. The feeling of relief the brain experiences when that response is released, by the resolution of the frightening scene of the end of the work, results in a flood of endorphins, the body’s built-in pain relief and stress reducing chemical.

Some people seem to have a greater affinity for horror than others, but fictional works of horror seem to serve as a kind of escapism for many readers. As strange as it may sound to want to dive into bleak and frightening worlds in place of the relatively benign reality we enjoy, it’s an appeal that is hardwired into us.

That means good horror writers are never going to lack for an audience.

Horror Writing Is One of the Most Popular Niches in Creative Writing

You’d be hard-pressed to find any consecutive versions of the weekly New York Times’ Fiction Best Sellers list that don’t have a horror novel or two somewhere on them. Horror novels have been a commercial sensation going back to the very earliest days of the genre.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , by Robert Louis Stevenson, sold 40,000 copies in the first six months, and more than 250,000 copies in the United States alone within 15 years.

Jekyll and Hyde also is representative of the role that horror fills in the literary market. One of the so-called penny dreadfuls, it was published as a paperback and sold for a penny as sensational fodder for the mass-market.

Horror Can Deliver Social Commentary Along With Good Scares

A new generation of Black authors and writers are taking to horror now to explore and illustrate some of the longstanding racial issues in America. They present a unique angle to what drives fear in different populations… in Jordan Peele’s Get Out , one of the most frightening moments is the approach of police sirens coming toward the Black protagonist at the end of the story.

The revealing play of social expectations and exploration of tropes of slavery through the dreadful prism of the Black experience is lending new relevance to horror as cultural commentary. And with Get Out , it also won writer Jordan Peele an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

While the mass-market appeal of horror remains, it’s also a genre that has produced works that endure. Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula, and classics by Poe and Lovecraft remain widely read even today. Writing in horror is a way for creative writers to pursue both a commercially successful career and find literary respect.

How Online Creative Writing Degrees Help Build Horror Writing Skills

For future horror writers, though, a creative writing degree offers many of the tools they need to be successful.

Even if you have a knack for coming up with haunting or horrific scenarios to spin into stories, writing is a craft that takes practice on top of talent. Few people have the discipline or the dedication to get through the hard parts alone. Stephen King, one of the most celebrated of modern horror writers, focuses on the importance of strong English skills and editing in his advice to writers. King developed many of those skills himself through an English degree.

Creative writing degrees offer not only those essential mechanical skills in writing, but also a deeper exploration of the writer’s craft. They include a number of characteristics valuable not just in horror writing, but to any writer:

• Broad reading and writing assignments for experience in multiple styles and genres
• Classes in technical skills such as character and world-building
• Networking within the literary community and developing a general understanding of the business of publishing

On top of those features, though, creative writing degrees come with elements that are particularly useful in horror writing.

A Deep Understanding of Human Psychology

We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones. ~ Stephen King

Writing good horror relies on a strong understanding on human psychology. Although psychology coursework isn’t an integral part of creative writing studies, most undergraduate college programs have required classes in psychology and the opportunity to explore it even further. Those are studies that horror writers can put to good use in developing plots that shock.

When Horror Writing Becomes High Art

The effect on readers is as shocking as that of any horror story, however. The relentless atrocities, senseless violence, and moral vacancy of the characters is accentuated by the basis in real events. It’s magnified by the pontification of the Judge, a relentless and evil force cloaked in manners and learning.

The novel continues to resonate in the canon of several different genres, but horror writers recognize McCarthy as one of their own. And the critical acclaim for Blood Meridian offers a path to literary respect and excellence that is open to any writer of horror.

Plotting for the Right Level of Suspense

Although horror does not necessarily overlap with the genre of suspense and thrillers, it still has to walk a similar tightrope to cultivate the right level of terror and relief necessary in a horror story.

Style and Storytelling Skills To Describe the Indescribable

The basis of all true cosmic horror is violation of the order of nature, and the profoundest violations are always the least concrete and describable. ~ H.P. Lovecraft

Horror writers almost universally face the challenge of describing their awful inventions in enough detail to provoke the imagination but without so much to make it banal. Horror is also among the most visual of genres, painting pictures so vivid that they seem real.

That takes exceptional writing skills. Creative writing programs develop your mastery of essential techniques for setting a tone of fear and dread. You’ll learn how to better use language to hook readers into the most frightening or disgusting scenarios.

Feedback and Fine Tuning for Tone and Storytelling

It’s hard for the average writer to understand fully how their work will land with readers. This can be a particular challenge with horror; different things are scary to different people in different ways. So getting a wide range of feedback on your writing is valuable to understand how to aim it at the audience you want to reach.

By taking a creative writing program, your work will end up in front of not just experienced instructors, but also be read and reviewed by your classmates. Fine-tuning the tone and voice in your peace to hit the terror button in all your readers takes time and revision. You’ll get the support you need on both points in a creative writing program.

While few creative writing degrees offer explicit concentrations or specializations in horror, they do come with a broad perspective on the different kinds of writing that can become great literature.

Online Creative Writing Degrees Can Make School Less Scary for Horror Writers

Whether you are plowing through long reading lists or working on the 351st draft of your final project, you’re going to be doing it by yourself whether on campus or off.

Online creative writing degrees offer you a much wider selection of different schools and programs than if you could only look closer to home. With a niche genre like horror, it can be important to find a school that has a good fit for your style. Remote studies increase those odds.

In many cases, online programs still come with some limited in-person study, usually in the form of occasional workshops or brief off-campus residencies. This can be the best of both worlds, particularly for horror writers—watching the faces of fellow students can tell you volumes about how your work is hitting.

Finding the Right Degree Level for Your Horror Writing Career

Creative writing is taught at five different levels in the college system in the United States:

• Certificate programs offer a focused approach to creative writing training that make take only a few weeks or months but zero in on specific genre or craft instruction
• Associate degrees take two years and split their coursework between general studies and basic writing skills in composition and grammar.
• Bachelor’s degrees offer four years of training in both general knowledge and liberal arts as well as reading, English, and writing topics.
• Master’s degrees are two-to-three year courses of study that focus on polishing your writing skills and preparing you and your works for professional publication.
• Doctoral degrees are five to seven year programs of study that are primarily designed to prepare graduates for teaching creative writing at the university level.

The right choice for you as a prospective horror writer will depend on factors such as:

• Your finances
• The amount of time you have to pursue a degree
• Your current skill level as a writer

The range of different educational programs in creative writing, as well as the breadth of styles and concentrations available through them, means that you can always find a good fit for whatever combination of those factors you have going on in your life:

• A high school graduate who hopes to follow in Stephen King’s footsteps may opt for an associate’s or bachelor’s degree to get started.
• A forensic pathologist with some juicy stories and a medical degree behind them might opt for a certificate to get a laser focus on getting their thoughts on paper.
• A writer who has been freelancing or working in other genres might decide to up their game through a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing, honing their skills to the highest levels in search of success.

You’ll have to pack your own vivid and horrific imaginings, but a degree in creative writing can give you all the other elements you need to become a successful horror writer.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

NPR's Book of the Day

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

Two collections of horror stories modernize the genre

Spooky season is year-round, and so are our episodes about scary stories. First up, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jeanette Winterson about The Night Side of the River , a collection of ghost stories that weaves in the liminal spaces — Metaverses, one might say — created through technology to coexist with the dead. Then, NPR's Juana Summers asks Desiree Evans and Saraciea Fennell about The Black Girl Survives in This One , an anthology of horror stories by Black writers that contend with the genre's relationship to race.

To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

Author Interviews

Author jeanette winterson 'the night side of the river,' a collection of ghost stories, black girls have the spotlight in horror anthology 'the black girl survives this one'.

Ryan Winter - Southern Storyteller, Author and Entertainer Set Lusting Bruce: The Bruce Springsteen Fan Podcast

• Music Commentary

Ryan Winter is a French Cajun author with a charming yet candid attitude, Ryan is as gregarious as his love of New Orleans and writing is reknown! New to the publishing scene but no stranger to creative writing, his first work, a children's picture book, was conceived through a dare that horror writers couldn't cross genres. Ryan and I talk about music, New Orleans and storytelling in today's episode. Find out more about Ryan here - https://www.facebook.com/RyanWinterFanPage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• More Episodes
• 2015-2023 Jesse Jackson

More by Southgate Media Group

Jake Gyllenhaal Is a Total Snob in This Wonderfully Odd Netflix Horror Comedy

It's time to admit that Gyllenhaal is at his best when he’s playing a weirdo.

The Big Picture

• Jake Gyllenhaal reunited with Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy for Netflix's satirical horror comedy, Velvet Buzzsaw .
• Gyllenhaal is a snobby art critic in Velvet Buzzsaw , which acts as a wild satire of the world of art criticism and exhibition.
• Velvet Buzzsaw is further proof that Gyllenhaal is at his best in idiosyncratic roles that allow him to tackle multiple genres at once.

Few directorial debuts within the 21st century landed with as significant of an impact as Dan Gilroy ’s terrifying thriller Nightcrawler , a creative rejuvenation of the neo-noir genre that instantly skyrocketed its writer/director’s status in the industry. In addition to proving Gilroy’s merits as a storyteller, Nightcrawler featured a tour-de-force performance from Jake Gyllenhaal , who shed his typically charismatic persona in order to play an offbeat anti-hero. Unfortunately, Nightcrawler did not not kick off an immediate collaboration between the two; Gilroy tried helming the disappointing legal thriller Roman J. Israel, Esq. , and Gyllenhaal tried his hand at a series of underwhelming commercial prospects. However, Gyllenhaal and Gilroy reunited for the bizarrely satirical Netflix horror comedy Velvet Buzzsaw .

Velvet Buzzsaw

What is 'velvet buzzsaw' about.

Set within modern day Miami, Velvet Buzzsaw is a wild satire of the world of art criticism and exhibition , and analyzes the difficult plight that modern creators face when attempting to showcase their work. Gyllenhaal stars in another offbeat role as Morf Vandewalt, a self-obsessed art critic who pursues a showcase known as the “Haze Gallery,” owned by the illustrious curator Rhodora Haze ( Rene Russo ). Morf begins a romantic relationship with Rhodora’s employee, Josephina ( Zawe Ashton ), who begins taking partially destroyed paintings and presenting them to the gallery. Although the paintings are met with the approval of the gallery’s frequent attendees, including the curator Gretchen ( Toni Collette ), the artists Piers ( John Malkovich ) and Damrish ( Daveed Diggs ), it soon becomes clear that there is a supernatural force at play. There’s a price for taking art without compensating the artists, and Morf’s world begins to turn upside down when it’s discovered that the gallery is benefitting from the uncompleted works.

While it eventually takes a more supernatural slant, Velvet Buzzsaw does a great job at realizing the world of modern art . Gilroy presents a grim reality in which pundits like Rhodora and Morf are willing to criticize and judge the work that others have poured so much effort into, and don't realize the power that they have to destroy artists’ livelihoods with a negative review. Perhaps this is Gilroy’s way of attacking his own critics, but Velvet Buzzsaw doesn’t suggest that criticism itself is a bad thing; rather, it attacks the dispassionate venom that Morf seems to have for things that he doesn’t think are worthy of exhibition. Ironically, the new paintings that Josephina presents become a hit because the majority of their observers simply don’t understand them; although they’re perceived to be “avant garde,” the paintings actually have a more sinister quality.

Guy Ritchie's Next Movie With Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal Officially Has a Release Date

While the presentation of a modern day art gallery is somewhat fancified, Velvet Buzzsaw brilliantly bridges the gap between satire and horror . Once the gallery worker Bryson ( Billy Magnussen ) disappears upon transporting a group of rare paintings to a storage facility, the film begins amping up the tension as the stolen works of art begin to “defend themselves.” It’s a unique take on the slasher genre , as it’s not just one work of art that is picking off the curators and critics; rather, the entire exhibit itself seems to be rebelling against the outsiders that attempt to distort and profit from their value.

'Velvet Buzzsaw' Satirizes the Commercialization of Art

Nightcrawler is a standout debut for Gilroy because beneath its neo-noir crime elements, the film boasts a searing indictment of how the media perpetuates violence by sensationalizing lurid material. Velvet Buzzsaw incorporates a similar element of satire that indicts wealthy people from turning artwork into a commodity , even if they wouldn’t be willing to pay the artists the same respect. Despite this grim reflection of reality, Velvet Buzzsaw has such a heightened reality that it’s often hilarious . While comparisons can be made to real critics, artists, and curators, Gilroy ensures that each character is a wildly over-the-top caricature of what these roles actually are.

The superficial tone that Gilroy establishes allows the film to get even wilder in its third act. The use of the works of art brought to life as the main source of death and destruction allows Velvet Buzzsaw to get even weirder as it goes along. Although some viewers may have been put off by how utterly unlikable a majority of the main protagonists are, Gilroy gives them their comeuppance by dispatching with his pretentious cast of characters in an increasingly brutal fashion. Josephina’s demise from a malevolent source of graffiti wax is only one of the increasingly hilarious death sequences that Gilroy incorporates.

Although the film is certainly intended to start a discussion, Velvet Buzzsaw doesn’t offer a definitive solution to the issues that it addresses . It remains a grim reality that it is hard for artists to make a living, and the film’s ambiguous ending doesn’t suggest an easy solution to the disparity between creators and benefactors.

'Velvet Buzzsaw' Shows Jake Gyllenhaal at His Weirdest

While the film includes a stacked cast of veteran character actors, Velvet Buzzsaw shows that Gyllenhaal is at his best when he’s playing idiosyncratic roles . It would be very easy for Morf to be an incredibly obnoxious protagonist whose negative attitude brings the film’s pacing to a grinding halt; however, Gyllenhaal has so much fun chewing the scenery and firing off callous remarks about the art that he observes that it’s impossible to look away from him. He may be a character the audience loves to hate , but that doesn’t make him any less watchable.

While he has a very impressive resume, Gyllenhaal often does his best work in absurd genre mashups. In the years between Nightcrawler and Velvet Buzzsaw , some of his more impressive roles have been in the offbeat Western adventure The Sisters Brothers and the science fiction satire Okja . Perhaps another collaboration with Gilroy will help him once again utilize the idiosyncrasies that make him such a dynamic leading man.

Velvet Buzzsaw is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix

Screen Rant

American horror story’s rosemary’s baby sequence oddly pays off a mia farrow role from 13 years ago.

American Horror Story: Delicate — Part 2 fully embraced the show's Rosemary's Baby comparison by featuring a Mia Farrow (and Frank Sinatra) moment.

Spoilers are ahead for American Horror Story: Delicate — Part 2, Episode 8, "Little Gold Man."

• Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Delicate finally embraces comparisons to Rosemary's Baby with a Mia Farrow Easter egg.
• AHS: Murder House , the show's first season, explored a demonic pregnancy and the birth of an anti-Christ figure before Delicate .
• Farrow was a " bucket list " actor for AHS season 1, and, although she turned the part down, Delicate pays homage to Farrow's missed opportunity.

The second part of American Horror Story: Delicate is finally embracing the show's constant comparisons to Rosemary's Baby , the iconic slow-burn horror movie that stars Mia Farrow . AHS: Delicate episode 8 , "Little Gold Man," opens with a flashback to 1967 that features a surprising sequence: a conversation between a young Mia Farrow (Gaby Slape) and Frank Sinatra (Tom O'Keefe). Based on Delicate Condition , the twelfth season of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's long-running horror anthology stars frequent AHS collaborator Emma Roberts as Anna Victoria Alcott, an actress who believes something is trying to keep her from becoming pregnant.

Episode 8 of American Horror Story: Delicate sees its Mia Farrow Easter egg not only tying things together, but paying off something that could have been...

Like previous installments in the series, American Horror Story: Delicate boasts a cast of characters played by a rather eclectic ensemble of actors. First-timer Kim Kardashian plays Anna's secretive publicist, Siobhan Corbyn, while series regular Denis O'Hare plays fertility doctor Andrew Hill. After five episodes, AHS: Delicate took a mid-series break . Amid all the Satanic pacts, bloody cults, and awards shows, episode 8 of American Horror Story: Delicate sees its Mia Farrow Easter egg not only tying things together, but paying off something that could have been great 13 years ago in American Horror Story: Murder House .

American Horror Story: Delicate's Mia Farrow Character Comes After The Real Actress Passed On The Show

Mia farrow was offered a part in ahs: murder house.

The opening of episode 8 of AHS: Delicate sees Sinatra having a frank conversation with Farrow: if she doesn't stop working on Rosemary's Baby , he'll leave her. Plagued by demonic hallucinations, Farrow is visited by Siobhan. In the present, Siobhan asks Anna how much the Oscar-nominated actress wants to win. When Anna admits her desire, she wins — only to have her water break mid-speech. While the Mia Farrow Easter egg certainly highlights Delicate 's connection to Rosemary's Baby , it's great for a real-world reason too: Mia Farrow was offered a part in American Horror Story season 1 .

[American Horror Story: Murder House] also deals with a demonic pregnancy and the eventual birth of an anti-Christ figure...

American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy revealed that Farrow was a " bucket list " actor for the anthology's first season (via The Wrap ). Although Farrow turned down the part at the time, she has since admitted that it was a regretful choice . Notably, the first season, sub-titled Murder House , also deals with a demonic pregnancy and the eventual birth of an anti-Christ figure, all of which are very reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby 's ending . While the real-life Farrow has yet to join AHS , the casting of a fictionalized Mia Farrow pays homage to what could have been.

American Horror Story: Delicate Part 2 Is Already Improving On Part 1

Why american horror story season 12 featured rosemary's baby & mia farrow, ahs: delicate finally embraces the obvious horror movie comparisons.

In Rosemary's Baby , which also adapts a book, Farrow's pregnant titular character experiences increasingly unsettling visions, all while growing distrustful of those around her, from her husband to her building full of cryptic neighbors. When American Horror Story: Delicate was first announced, viewers immediately drew comparisons between the anthology series' latest effort and the 1968 horror movie. As the series has progressed, some critics have even dubbed it a modern-day remake of the Rosemary's Baby story (via Decider ). By incorporating Mia Farrow and the filming of the horror film into its plot, American Horror Story: Delicate finally owns the comparisons.

American Horror Story: Delicate — Part 2 's finale airs on April 24, 2024 on FX, and streams on Hulu the following day.

American Horror Story

American Horror Story is a Horror Anthology series created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. The franchise has seen stars like Connie Britton, Jessica Lange, Denis O'Hare, Zachary Quinto, Evan Peters, and Dylan McDermott. Each season follows a new premise and spans an array of horror genres like witches, ghosts, serial killers, and more.

Source: The Wrap , Decider

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

In the wake of an environmental collapse that is forcing humanity to shed 20% of its population, a family dinner erupts into chaos when a father's plan to enlist in the government's new euth... Read all In the wake of an environmental collapse that is forcing humanity to shed 20% of its population, a family dinner erupts into chaos when a father's plan to enlist in the government's new euthanasia program goes horribly awry. In the wake of an environmental collapse that is forcing humanity to shed 20% of its population, a family dinner erupts into chaos when a father's plan to enlist in the government's new euthanasia program goes horribly awry.

• Caitlin Cronenberg
• Michael Sparaga
• Jay Baruchel
• Emily Hampshire
• Peter Gallagher
• 1 User review

• Rachel York

• Charles York

• Ashley York

• Sanjit's wife

• Political Commentator

• Secretary-General of the U.N.

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

User reviews 1

• phoneticnachos
• Apr 21, 2024
• When will Humane be released? Powered by Alexa
• April 26, 2024 (United States)
• Official Victory Man Productions
• Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (entire film)
• Victory Man Productions
• Téléfilm Canada
• Ontario Creates
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 33 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Harper's Bazaar

All the Best Horror Movies Coming Out in 2024

Posted: March 15, 2024 | Last updated: March 19, 2024

2024 is going to be a scream. According to the docket, visionary maestro Jordan Peele will release his fourth, yet-to-be-titled horror project, Ti West will round out his Pearl trilogy with MaXXXine , the occult ’80s classic Witchboard is getting a remake, and High Tension helmer Alexandre Aja will release Never Let Go starring the gorgeous Halle Berry . Only issue is, as of publication, the aforementioned films haven’t nailed down premiere dates just yet. (Keep them on your radar and check back here.)

In the meantime, get excited for the oodles of spine-tinglers that do have solid release dates. From Sydney Sweeney ’s faith fright Immaculate to Zoё Kravitz ’s psychological chiller Blink Twice , and every Blumhouse haunt in between, the following thrillers, creature features, supernatural scares, slasher flicks, and survival tales are a horror buff’s dream nightmare. When you’re done scrolling, there’s more: Check out our scariest horror movies of all time , the best classic horror movies , and the funniest horror movies ever .

Blumhouse expands its vast library with a supernatural horror film that turns the classic swimming-pool game Marco Polo into a death wish. The narrative belongs to the Waller family, a brood of four settling into their new home, when they begin to sense that their shimmering backyard pool harbors some sort of sinister force. Kerry Condon ( The Banshees of Inisherin ) and Wyatt Russell ( Lodge 49 ) star, while Bryce McGuire (writer on 2023’s Baghead ) directs.

Destroy All Neighbors

Prog rock, a genre of music that embraces the esoteric, is admittedly not for everyone. But Josh Forbes’s homage to the genre’s glory days is for every horror buff. A mash-up of chuckles, chills, and, gore, Destroy All Neighbors sees a creatively stagnant musician named Will go on a killing spree. And aside from the bonkers tunes, there’s much to cheer for: old-school special effects, tons of splatter, and even a fun cameo from Kumail Nanjiani.

Somewhere Quiet

A Boston woman named Meg is kidnapped from a parking garage in Beacon Hill, but Olivia West Lloyd’s Somewhere Quiet isn’t interested in the salacious details of the six months Meg spent in captivity. Rather, this slow-burner is keen on the aftermath: the terrifying ways trauma manifests in Meg’s mind; the gaslighting she experiences from those around her, including her husband; and the primal fear that becomes a forever dark passenger for survivors of harrowing events.

Lisa Frankenstein

Cole Sprouse and Kathryn Newton star in this ’80s-set horror comedy written by Diablo Cody and directed by music-video alum Zelda Williams. Newton plays a high schooler with a crush on a dead guy (Sprouse) who comes back to life after a fit of mad science. Together, they unleash pandemonium. Think of it like Heathers meets Valley Girl with a Mary Shelley twist. Also featuring a rad soundtrack and saturated neons that bring to mind Lisa Frank Incorporated, the film is a gift for Valentine’s Day.

In theaters February 9 .

Out of Darkness

It’s 43,000 BCE—read: nothin’ but animal hide as clothing—and a group of early nomads are on the move. Confronted with dangers, both natural and mystical, they find themselves hunted by a demon and forced to do whatever it takes to stay alive. So you can imagine things get savage in this Stone Age survival tale. But where Andrew Cumming’s debut really shines is in its atmospheric mood and the bone-chilling attention to detail in every crunch, kill, and scream. Surround sound, for sure!

Quite possibly the freakiest thing you will lay eyes on this year, Stopmotion is nothing like the idiosyncratic wonder-worlds that spring from the mind of Wes Anderson. Rather, this psychological assault comes from puppet master Robert Morgan, telling the story of an animator terrorized by her creations. A gloriously grotesque watch, with some of the most disturbing frame-by-frame animation you’ll ever see, this one will likely sear its imagery onto the wrinkles of your brain.

In theaters February 23 .

After M3GAN, Chucky, and Annabelle, you’d think folks would have learned their lesson with cozying up to creepy toys. But apparently not yet, as the little girl in this Blumhouse offering finds herself an attic teddy named Chauncey. Little does she know this stuffie is really just a host for the imaginary friend the home’s previous tenant left behind. And now he’s full of rage.

In theaters March 8.

On the heels of her rom-com hit Anyone but You , Sydney Sweeney returns to the big screen as star and producer. This time, however, she’s promoting a psychological horror story set in an Italian convent. Immaculate unfolds through its protagonist, Cecilia, a devout nun who learns she is pregnant with a “miracle” child. Whether the seed is that of God, man, or something way worse is for us to find out come spring.

In theaters March 22.

Late Night With the Devil

Set in 1977, this refreshingly innovative take on found footage features a late-night talk show kicking off its sixth season on Halloween night and inviting one of its guests—13-year-old Lilly, the sole survivor of a Satanic mass suicide—to conjure the devil on live television. A SXSW 2023 favorite from Aussie brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes, the occult film is a nerve-frazzling nightmare that would send the ghost of Johnny Carson running.

In theaters March 22; streaming April 19.

You’ll Never Find Me

Starring Jordan Cowan and Brendan Rock, this two-handed chamber piece premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last June, where it was acquired by Shudder; and come late March, it will finally be available to stream. The story, a well-crafted tension-builder, hits its stride when a paranoid man invites a sopping-wet young woman into his RV to wait out a raging thunderstorm. The interactions and conversations that follow leave a trail of clues, lies, and hair-raising reveals.

Streaming March 22.

Mickey Mouse’s Trap

When the copyright for Steamboat Willie —the 1928 animated short in which Mickey Mouse made his debut—expired in January 2024, the House of Mouse’s iconic rodent entered public domain, and creative minds wasted no time. The villainous force behind at least two upcoming horror films , Mickey will first take lives in this indie slasher about a theme park worker who spends her 21st birthday working the late shift from hell.

In theaters March 2024.

The First Omen

Arkasha Stevenson—an episodic director whose credits include Brand New Cherry Flavor , Channel Zero , and Legion —makes her feature-film debut with a prequel to Richard Donner’s revered 1976 original Omen . Starring Servant ’s Nell Tiger Free as nun-to-be Margaret, the origin story of the devil incarnate takes place in Rome, where the young novitiate’s faith is tested when she learns the church is meddling in dark matters.

In theaters April 5.

The guys behind the new Scream franchise and Ready or Not , Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, are back, with another horror film that looks to be a blast on the docket. Abigail , a genre-blender that stars a ton of familiar faces (Melissa Barrera, Giancarlo Esposito, Dan Stevens, Alisha Weir, Kathryn Newton, and the late Angus Cloud ), features a kidnapping gone wrong, when a seemingly innocent ballerina morphs into fanged bloodsucker in a tutu, hell-bent on maiming her abductors.

In theaters April 19.

A movie about a spider attack is heading to Shudder, but this time, there’s no John Goodman in a pest-control uniform to save the day. Infested (original title: Vermin ) is a French film from Sébastien Vanicek that impressed audiences on the festival circuit last year. But if Arachnophobia was too much back in 1990, then this creature feature about a man who brings a venomous spider home on his birthday and unleashes a cluster of creepy crawlies will definitely bug you out.

Streaming April 26.

Return to Silent Hill

In 2006, Christopher Gans adapted Konami’s survival horror video game for the screen, resulting in a monster thriller starring Radha Mitchell as a mother looking for her daughter in the foggy titular town. A cult following was born, and though the fans didn’t care for the disjointed sequel from another director in 2012, they are getting hyped over this Return . Gans comes back to the world of Silent Hill , too, this time with a story about a man who ventures into the fog to find his long-lost love.

In theaters April 26.

Representation in horror is getting good. With every Jordan Peele instant classic, Julia Ducournau mind-bender, and Ryan Murphy scream, marginalized groups have gone from purged bodies to characters who matter. Here, Euphoria ’s Hunter Schafer stars in Tilman Singer’s thriller as Gretchen, a 17-year-old who moves with her family to a German resort where creepy things happen. We can’t wait to add Cuckoo to the growing list of great examples of onscreen representation .

In theaters May 3.

A Ouija board, a videotape, a cell phone, a doll—the list of portals through which evil is unleashed is never-ending. Here, malevolent forces pierce the thin veil that separates the living from the dead through a set of tarot cards. The users? A group of friends who blatantly disregard the boundaries they’re warned about. One shuffle of a cursed deck later, and each pal is confronted with his, her, or their fate.

In theaters May 10.

The Strangers: Chapter 1

The third film in the franchise, The Strangers: Chapter 1 bears striking similarities to the 2008 original. But according to Collider , this summer release is not a sequel, nor a reboot, nor a remake. Rather, it broadens the backstory and offers more information about the mythology’s characters. Chapter 1 is the first in a trilogy whose collective time range spans only a few days, and Chapter 3 will tap into the history of the original’s masked murderers.

In theaters May 17.

The Watchers

Shadowing her father, M. Night, as a writer, director, and producer on Apple TV+’s Servant , Ishana Shyamalan makes her big-screen directorial debut this summer with The Watchers . She and her dad adapted the screenplay from A.M. Shine’s 2021 novel of the same name. The narrative proper unfolds around a young artist who seeks shelter from night monsters with three strangers in Ireland, and stars Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, and Hannah Howland.

In theaters June 7.

A Quiet Place: Day One

John Krasinski, who directed the previous two Quiet Place films, returns to the series with this prequel, this time as a cowriter and coproducer. Relative newcomer Michael Sarnoski ( Pig ) is directing. Another big change? The story focuses on an entirely new cast of characters. As its title suggests, the movie is set on the first day of the alien invasion that drives the horror, and reveals the why we’ve been pondering since 2018. Stars include Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn , Alex Wolff, and Djimon Hounsou.

In theaters June 28.

A master of the slow burn, Oz Perkins returns this summer with a procedural thriller that has the potential to be something really special. Another entry on his résumé of atmospheric, psychological horror ( Gretel & Hansel , The Blackcoat’s Daughter ), Longlegs stars Maika Monroe ( It Follows , The Guest ) as Lee Harker, an FBI agent assigned to a serial killer case with ties to the occult. Costars include Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, and Blair Underwood.

In theaters July 12.

We can always count on the details surrounding an M. Night Shyamalan release to be kept under lock and key, but the master of the twist ending has dropped a couple of breadcrumbs for us to snack on while we wait for August to arrive. Trap , a no-doubt psychological thriller set in Philadelphia (like most of Shyamalan’s films), takes place at a concert and will be " “very unusual.” Josh Hartnett, Hayley Mills, and Vanessa Smythe star.

In theaters August 2.

Alien: Romulus

The Alien universe has seen its fair share of captains, but 2024 will see its most relentless auteur yet: Fede Alvarez. Known for Don’t Breathe , the brutal 2013 Evil Dead remake, and the abstract Apple TV+ series Calls , Alvarez is next to unload a cosmic nightmare in the sci-fi series originated by Ridley Scott. A well-deserved flex for the Uruguayan filmmaker, Romulus stars Cailee Spaeny , Isabela Merced, and David Johnson, and is rumored to be the darkest installment yet.

In theaters August 16.

Blink Twice

Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut has ditched its original NSFW title, Pussy Island, for a more family-friendly moniker—although we’re pretty sure the kiddos should remain with the babysitter for this movie night regardless. Blink Twice , a cocktail of genres blending elements of horror, drama, and suspense (or as its star, Channing Tatum, called it, “a crazy thriller” ), follows a tech billionaire, the waitress he whisks away to his private island, and her subsequent fight to survive.

In theaters August 23.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

It’s showtime! Well, almost. After decades of delays, the sequel to Tim Burton’s cult-classic 1988 afterlife comedy has a definitive release date. And it can’t come soon enough. Reprising his role as the crass “bio-exorcist,” Michael Keaton stars; Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara are also returning, as Lydia and Delia Deetz. Newbies include Jenna Ortega, who plays Lydia’s daughter, and Willem Dafoe, who plays a dead cop. The plot proper, however, remains shrouded in mystery.

In theaters September 6.

Speak No Evil

Too often, remakes of brilliant foreign horror films miss the mark. In 2022, Christian Tafdrup made one of the most brutally unsettling films of all time : a slow-burner about a couple whose good manners cost them everything. It’s so good that under normal circumstances, we’d tell you to ignore any impostors. But: This remake has James Watkins—who gave us Eden Lake and Black Mirror ’s “Shut Up and Dance”—in the director's chair, and James McAvoy opposite Mackenzie Davis in front of the camera. The potential here is palpable. And you can bet we’re buying a ticket.

In theaters September 13.

Behold, another notch in the Saw franchise! We can only assume that because of the positive reactions that poured in for Saw X —a pseudo prequel that centers on villain Jigsaw’s cancer diagnosis and treatment—studios are kicking this dead sawhorse for all it’s worth. Admittedly, the 10th installment did return to the true essence of the torture-porn original created by James Wan. So here’s hoping director Kevin Greutert can continue reinvigorating a franchise that was once on its last leg.

In theaters September 27.

Though 2022 breakout hit Smile is so scary, it might make you cry, learning about its sequel should make a lot of horror buffs very, very happy. Writer-director Parker Finn returns to continue his spine-chilling story about an evil entity that preys on its victims’ trauma. The plot for the sequel is still under wraps, but the cast so far includes Lukas Gage ( The White Lotus , Euphoria ) and Naomi Scott ( Aladdin , Anatomy of a Scandal ).

In theaters October 18.

One of the original Universal Classic Monsters, the Wolf Man has been reborn under many moons, but perhaps never quite like this before. Under the direction of Leigh Whannell, who cut his teeth writing for the Saw franchise with James Wan, the Blumhouse film deals with a man, his family, and the shaggy predator terrorizing them. Ryan Gosling was originally set to star, but is now an executive producer, with Christopher Abbott taking his place opposite Julia Garner.

In theaters October 25.

Robert Eggers, whose directing résumé has given us highly conceptual gems like The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, is poised to gift us another haunt come Christmas. A remake of the silent film from 1922 about a vampire who obsesses over another man’s wife, Eggers’s gothic tale stars Bill Skarsgärd (who played Pennywise in the new It films) as the Count and Lily-Rose Depp as his infatuation. Can’t wait to sink our teeth into this one.

In theaters December 25.

More for You

Gavin Newsom Issues Warning for Joe Biden

15 Overpriced Cars That Aren’t Worth the Money

Frightening map shows the best parts of the United States to withstand a nuclear apocalypse

This Social Security Spousal Rule Is Officially Finished in 2024 — But These 3 Strategies Remain

Dubai airport chaos: Emirates boss writes open letter after hundreds of thousands passengers stranded

How Do I Know If My Dog Is Happy? 12 Signs of a Happy Dog

2024 NFL mock draft: Embracing the chaos of potential smokescreens

5 Affordable High-End Used Sports Cars That Cost Less Than $40,000

Satanic Temple co-founder challenges Florida Gov DeSantis to debate on religious freedoms

’NYET’: New York Post Trolls 'Moscow' Marjorie Taylor Greene In Russian

Map reveals best places to live in the US if nuclear war breaks out

Stop Buying These 10 Unnecessary Groceries To Save Over $5,000 This Year

10 Most Trustworthy Dog Breeds, Ranked

The Coolest Car From the Year You Were Born (1945-1995)

California's Wealth and "Exit" Tax Squeezes Rich Americans Trying to Leave the State

There’s No Longer Anything Funny About DC’s Humor Dinners

LeBron claims he should have been the first unanimous MVP winner: "It was a writer from Boston, of course"

The 10 happiest places to live in the US

Closed Las Vegas Strip hotel gets new life, casino appears dead

6 Cars That Are Plummeting in Value