“Hey…can you walk me to the toilet?”
How to Terrify Your Readers.
Horror is basically an exploration of our fears. Fear at its most basic is the idea that something bad is going to happen and that it is not going to be okay. That we find ourselves in an unknown situation with an uncertain and terrifying outcome. That is the core of horror. Most horror stories don’t end well, that is because if we know that something ends well, there is no reason to be afraid. Whereas the idea of something being much more likely to end badly than happy increases anxiety and fear. We know that something unpleasant is about to happen but can’t avoid it. Knowing that something bad is going to happen, not knowing exactly what that is going to be, but realizing that it is inevitable, that is one of our most primal fears.
What Horror is
How can you write horror in fictional stories? Writing horror is all about evoking a sense of fear and suspense in your readers. To do this successfully, you need to explore our social anxieties, learn to make use of the elements of horror in your story, create a haunting world and develop believable characters we care about. By building tension, using vivid imagery, and tapping into the primal fears of your readers, you can create a story that will shake them to their core.
SUMMARY
In this post, we’ll dive deeper into these aspects of writing horror, and look at techniques for crafting horror stories. This post is alive and will be added to the more I learn about this topic. Your input and additions are always welcome. Thank you.
COMMENT
Horror is an exploration of our social anxieties
ARTICLE
Horror stories are shaped by the culture they arise from. Horror reflects who we as a society are and what we are afraid of. Looking at horror, what kind of horror stories resonate and which don’t give you a good indicator of where your society is at. Whereas if you have a horror story that falls short, despite good execution doesn’t strike you at your core, perhaps it is simply exploring the wrong kind of fear.
Elements of Horror
Horror stories have to contain at least two things: fear and suspense. Just by labeling your story as horror, you tell your audience that something bad is going to happen. The fear stems from knowing that, but not knowing what it is. The more familiar the audience is with what is happening, either because they have seen it before (Remakes for example), it is too easy to figure out or you explain too much, the less frightened they will be.
Like any other genre, horror stories can be combined with various other genres or elements from those genres. Horror Comedies, Gore Horror, Romantic Horror, the options are endless. And depending on their use, they can highlight and contrast the horror in a very effective way.
Elements:
- Anxiety & Fear is the expectation (implied or explicit) that something bad and/or harmful is going to happen.
- Suspense is not knowing what is going to happen next or not knowing what is going on at all but knowing that something is coming or that something is going on.
- Surprise is when something happens that we didn’t expect to happen or can’t really prepare for, even if just instinctively (Jump Scares).
- Inevitability/Helplessness is what makes horror so terrifying. It is not just fear of harm and suspense of when it is going to happen, it is also the feeling of being unable to escape it. That even though you can see it coming from a distance, it is unshakably creeping closer until terror turns to horror, maybe even gore and eventually, hopelessness.
Horror, Terror and Gore: The Difference
Gore is everything that is upsetting to look at. Body horror falls into that category, so do grizzly deaths with a lot of blood or other disturbing, pain-inducing, or stomach-turning depictions. Watching a Zombie eat a character, that is gore. It is disturbing to watch someone being eaten alive. But since you are probably very familiar with what a Zombie is, this is not necessarily terrifying or even horrific anymore. For it to be horrific it has to have an element of unknown and lack of understanding. If your hand suddenly turns blue, then goes numb, grossly discolors until it is pitch black, and proceeds to die off while you watch, that is horrific. Because it is a horrible thing that is happening to you, which goes beyond your understanding of what is possible. Horror has an element of overwhelming almost madness like attacks on our understanding of what is possible. This includes realistically possible events, like being attacked by a spouse for instance, as long as it is something that previously didn’t seem feasible to the character (and by extension the audience). But say that the hand died off because of a new disease and the character just learned that they have it, this is then terror. Terror is the fear of something horrific happening to you, that hasn’t yet happened/isn’t yet happening. Terror is what you get when you combine intense fear with suspense.
The best horror stories combine all three elements: Gore, Horror, and Terror in an efficient mix that grabs the audience and traumatizes them to their core. But how much you use of each or if you just focus on one mainly, that is up to you and one of the ways you go about creating unique horror stories.
Uncertainty and the Unknown
Horror stories attack us in our most fundamental fears: Uncertainty and the Unknown. Both things we fear because they might bring harm and there is no way to plan for them. Therefore survival is not guaranteed.
That is one of the reasons why it is very hard to write truly horrifying stories while using familiar concepts. It takes extreme skill to make Zombie stories still terrifying. Not necessarily gory, but to make them frightening is hard. Because the concept has become too familiar to audiences. They know how Zombies work, they often have a plan for how they would go about surviving a Zombie attack, compiled while consuming endless amounts of Zombie stories. A similar problem comes from remakes. It is a lot harder to make Freddy terrifying if viewers already know who Freddy is, how he kills, and why. That is why these horror characters become iconic to the point where the audience starts rooting for them instead of the “good” characters. It’s because they are so familiar that all the terror we once felt is gone and been replaced with a sense of familiarity. It’s like: “Oh, there’s Freddy, I know that guy. How you’ve been, man? Still, as ugly as ever I see.”
Leave the reveal of what is going on to the very end of the story or don’t tell the reader at all, leaving them with ambiguity and questions.
TECHNIQUE
The scariest thing is something we don’t understand and can’t defend against. Because it is:
- Seemingly unstoppable
- Inescapable (can’t hide from it or escape it)
- Without a clear or understandable motive (Don’t know what it wants)
- Cannot be communicated or negotiated with
- Able to attack at any moment and from anywhere
- The threat of pain, death, loss
Subverting the Rules of Horror
Don’t give rules that say how to survive like:
- Don’t make any noise (A Quiet Place)
- Don’t Look (Bird Box)
- Don’t Sleep (Nightmare on Elm Street)
We know that those characters who ignore those rules are characters that will die and we don’t root for them. One way to subvert this is by having those rules, but not telling the reader what those rules are. Instead, they get to find out alongside the characters, who usually have to learn the hard way what not to do.
The World
To terrify means to throw the reader into an unknown world and not tell them the rules of that world. That is how you create the same terror in the reader as the character is experiencing. Of course, the reader will want to know the rules of the world, but they will have to learn them the hard way. Through trial and error by the protagonist – with horrific consequences for getting it wrong.
Having an unfamiliar setting
By introducing the readers to an unfamiliar setting, it creates a sense of unease because they don’t know what can or will happen. But how do you create an unfamiliar setting when your story plays in normal settings like schools or the like?
- Don’t rush to explain the setting to the reader (only show don’t tell)
- Take an unusual perspective (something not or hardly done before)
- Change the rules of what can and can not happen (but don’t tell the reader the rules)
- Take what is safe about this setting and slowly deteriorate it
Creating a horror setting: A place we don’t understand, that we can’t control and that keeps changing the rules.
Take regular non-scary, maybe even save locations and turn them into scary places.
TECHNIQUE
Characters
For horror stories to be really effective the readers need to care about the characters. Once we are bonded to the characters we care about what it is they stand to lose. To make horror effective you should focus on the personal loss and the effects on the characters. This is not some spectacle that happens to some random characters, this is the devastation that happens to people we care deeply about.
Horror is a close viewpoint. Usually, we are either inside the character’s head, first-person narration, or we are standing right behind them. You need this proximity to make the reader feel as threatened as the characters are.
First Person Narrative can help create a sense of being attacked. Whereas Third Person close to Character Narrative allows you to let the reader know something is coming that the character can’t see. And as silent observers, they are forced to watch helplessly what happens to the character.
We start by setting up a bond with the characters. We get to know them, their routine, their family and friends, their pets. We know what matters to them and what struggles they are dealing with. At this point, the horror that is coming for them is still unseen, a lingering presence at most. We do this so that we can make what happens next personal. So that when the horror becomes unmistakably present, we care about the characters. But more so, we understand what they feel, because we feel it too.
You shouldn’t think of horror characters as different than other characters. If anything, you should think of horror characters as characters you love, that have horrible shit happen to them. The reason why you want your readers to really love your characters and care about them is not just because it makes what happens to them more terrifying to watch, but also to balance out some of the disturbing things. Most likely you have that one or even a couple of horror movies that you thought were brilliant but which you are never ever going to watch again. The reason is that they disturbed you in your core. You think of them and you see the disturbing and even gross imagery that made them so effective. If you are going to use gross elements to unsettle, having characters that are so loveable is an extremely effective contrast. It allows your reader/viewer to latch onto the positive feelings your story invoked and that ties them better than disturbing them in the most masterful way ever could.
Smart Characters
If it is uncertainty and the unknown that creates fear, making the audience feel like they know best or that the characters are idiots ruins the effect. What is true for most stories is especially relevant for horror, you want the reader to think and feel like the characters do.
Ideally, your reader will come to the same conclusions about what is best to do as your characters do. Or they feel just as clueless and disturbed as your characters do. If that is the case, characters making dumb decisions don’t annoy your readers, it heightens the horror. Because the reader, having the information that they had at the time, would have done the same thing.
Your readers should not know more than the characters. Instead, you want to create an experience where they, alongside the characters, have to piece together the clues that the world and the events happening, give them. Think of it as a puzzle the reader is trying to solve. Doing this means being aware of what the reader already knows. If your story is brand new in its horrific concepts, the reader should know as much as the characters do. But if you’re using familiar concepts (like Zombies), the character needs to catch up and fast. One way to do this is to have a character who is well-prepared, does all the right things, makes all the apparently right decisions – and still finds themselves completely out of their depths (just like the reader would). Another is to subvert expectations and predictability by taking a familiar concept and altering the rules (without telling the reader). Suddenly the familiar Zombie acts very differently than expected. Suddenly the Zombie is no longer familiar.
The Threat
Again, the more we know about something the less frightening it becomes. One of the most effective ways to make whatever horror your story has in store much more terrifying is to not explain what it is. Instead, you let it do what it does, without telling us what it is or why it does what it does. To show us how dangerous something is, you don’t have to tell us what it is, just what it does. A way to do this is to show the damage it has inflicted, often to a subplot character. If you want to up this approach, even more, you don’t just show us the damage the entity can create, but also make it clear that this is the entity not yet at full strength. Or you simply show us the reaction of the characters. If we meet a protagonist who is terrified of his wife, you don’t need to tell us what makes her terrifying. You just show us his reaction to her. Nothing you can say will terrify the reader more than what they come up with themselves anyway.
Show the character being terrified, but don’t explain why, instead just show their actions.
TECHNIQUE
There are two ways to bring the element of inevitability and helplessness into play when it comes to the threat of your story. First, start small and build slowly. The entity isn’t attacking right away, it lingers, somewhere in the distance. But as the story progresses it gets closer and closer, inevitably so. This unstoppable, yet somewhat slow approach builds the sense of something that can’t be stopped, even though you can see it coming. Another way to do this approach is to have it be present from the beginning, but small and only watching. But as the story progresses it grows until it is everywhere and there is no escaping from it anymore.
Second, make the entity something that isn’t to be defeated but rather something to survive. A character who can defeat the entity has power and control, and therefore hope. A character who at best can hope to survive whatever is attacking them is much more at risk. The odds of this story ending well is much more unlikely. The way a character defeats it is by knowing what it is they are fighting. If you want it to be about surviving, you don’t tell the characters (or the readers) what they are fighting and how to defeat it.
Using Contrast & Complement
Use Contrast: Mixing Genres and having tone shifts is a very effective technique to not only endear us more to the characters but also to increase the suspense. The audience knows that something bad will happen since they know it’s horror. So every page/minute of the story, nothing bad is happening and there is even light and fun mood played out, the more on their guard they are. They know that something is coming, a tone that doesn’t fit the horror they expect makes them lean forward, waiting for the bad thing to start at any moment. Using comedy, romance or other traditionally pleasant tones will also get the audience to care about the characters more because it takes the time to invest in creating realistic characters.
How to Unsettle
Something is off but you can’t tell what it is:
- Character reactions aren’t normal/seem off (something is off in the display of emotions)
- Take a concept of safety and comfort, something to strive towards, something filled with hope, and slowly deteriorate it.
- In the minute details of how the everyday routine changes (showing deterioration in action)
- Have something random but small happen (the sheep in Nightmare on Elm Street) that never gets explained and (although they don’t know this) has no function.
- Something is off but you never address it (seasons don’t make sense, technology isn’t the same, etc.)
Swarm of Kittens: Where you use negative association words (swarm) in combination with something usually pleasant (kittens).
TECHNIQUE
The Ending
If you’re looking for a happy ending, that’s not really what horror is about. Although it is of course an option. Horror is about exploring our deepest human fears. The most central is our own existential fear. That is why the best horror does not have a happy ending. Because horror in many ways is exploring the concept of death and hopelessness. The end.
One of the most effective ways to make horror stories proper scary is to have the story not turn out okay. Two of the most common approaches in this are either ambiguity or sadness.
Ambiguity is when you end the story without revealing what it was about, what exactly happened, or what will happen next. The characters have lost their fight for survival it seems, but their actual fates remain unknown. This ending is cruel and deeply unsatisfying for a reader who has just spent three hundred pages rooting for your character. And as such, it fits perfectly with the concepts of horror. The idea that things are not fair and not going to be okay.
Sadness on the other hand is defeat. Once the characters have lost either their lives, their will to live, or even their souls, the terror makes room for the tragedy of the situation to take over. Sadness is loss and hopelessness because things are only sad once there is no way of turning them around anymore. Once we have truly lost. So ending the story with complete defeat, showing the characters trying so hard and none of it mattering in the end, once again encompasses what horror is. The idea that things are not going to be okay. It ends with despair as the inevitability of the outcome becomes clear.
Creating Horror through Language
Longer sentences force the reader to go on more rapidly without break or taking a breath. It is a way to stretch out anticipation and to overwhelm the reader.
Shorter sentences make the reader breathe faster. Also, abrupt lines build tension and can have surprising/shocking effects.