For my fiction writing class I have decided to write a story of a suspense and scary nature. I have been thinking a lot about what is scary and what makes a story scary. I thought opening a discussion on this subject would be beneficial and interesting.
I am a big fan of horror classics such as Edger Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. Modern tales just don’t do anything for me. The only thing I find scary about books by Steven King, for example, is the picture on the back cover. Well, that and the price tag.
What separates these classics from modern tales? I’m not sure. It could possibly be the fact that these stories took place in another time. A time where people were a thousand times more superstitious than the present.
One of my favorite scary movies is Signs directed my M Night Shamalalala. It was effective because they did not show the aliens till the very very end. Their was a scene where Mel Gibson encounters one while peeking under a door and cuts of its finger. This was a very creepy scene. What could be more scary than the unknown?
What do I find scary? Losing family/friends. Being so far in debt that I cannot afford to live. Losing my cats.
Story Plot #1: Man has lots of bills to pay and on the way to the bank to deposit his money is robbed. On his way home he learns his entire family, friends, and cats were killed in an auto accident! He…
Yawn. That obviously does not work. I suppose it could if done right, but it might be a difficult task and probably would not become the Great American Novel.
What else scares me? Disease. That one perks my eyebrow. Darkness. Ooooh, now we are getting somewhere. Perhaps getting a reader to identify with the character and doing bad things to them? I think I am on the right track now.
Story Plot #2: A character becomes infected with a disease that feeds on light. He must live in complete darkness to avoid becoming sick. The problem is that wherever he goes someone keeps producing a light of some sort, which causes him to start to wither and lose his sanity. To survive he resorts to killing people…
This isn’t bad. It still isn’t perfect obviously. It would be interesting to write from his point of view. Speaking of witch, what point of view is best for horror fiction?
Test #1: Jim cautiously walked down the dark hallway. He wanted to be sure not to walk into whatever it was he was hearing.
Test #2: I cautiously walked down the dark hallway. I did not want to stumble into whatever it was that I was hearing.
I submit that being in first person is the winner in this case. Seeing things directly through a characters mind is more compelling than seeing over his shoulder so to speak.
This brings us to another facet of writing. Telling vs. showing. It is obviously a lot more dramatic to describe how the point of a knife surfaces from beneath a man’s chest, he gurgles the blood that has reached his throat, and takes his last step before collapsing than to say: Ted was stabbed. He died.
There is a great playwright adage that is definitely pertinent to horror fiction. “Get your hero up a tree, throw stones at him, then get him down.” The cool thing about horror stories is that it can be the stone that gets the character down! How many Poe and Lovecraft stories ended with less than desirable circumstances for the hero? Quite a few.
To sum it up I will list all that we have learned:
1. Use characters and a time that fit the situation. Retelling Frankenstein or Dracula in modern times can be done, but I do not believe that they could be ever as effective.
2. Write solid characters that the readers care about. If the hero is a loser that a reader cannot identify with or care about then a reader probably will not care when said character falls and impales himself on the dull scissors he was carrying.
3. Make internal things happen to the characters that would scare a person in real life. Delving into traits of the mind such as sanity and superstition are quite effective.
4. Move suspense slowly to a boil. Actually we didn’t cover this one earlier. I just realized that it is worth mentioning.
5. Write in the first person so readers can be closer to the hero/heroine.
6. Show what happens in the story, don’t tell.
7. Don’t be afraid to be mean to the main character and definitely pile on his troubles.
8. (Related to number 7) Be descriptive in your writing. Use all five senses (even a sixth one in some cases!) But don’t overdue the gore! Leave that to Steven King…
9. Have some mystery involved in your story. Have your bad guys do things that are confusing but later make sense.
10. Don’t reveal the evil in its entirety until the very end.
As always I encourage everyone to comment. Tell me what you find scary! Tell me what I may have missed!
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wr414andmycats 
I love horror, and I love the idea of this discussion. Horror is complicated, it is a neglected genre, by neglected I mean very few people are doing it right. Although I am a fan of Stephen king he has recently been disappointing me. I would recommend Dean koontz, my personal favorites by him are Velocity and Tick-Tock, Check those out for sure. I agree with your point that good horror cannot happen instantly, as in there needs to be suspense. You have to build up to the point where the reader is almost scared to turn the page, trick them, entice them, make them feel safe just so you can take their safety from them again. What scares people. . . Not their cats dying, and not their bills, in reality these things matter, in horror they are nothing. The only times I want cats in a horror story is when they are pure evil, slurping at a pool of blood that was just discovered on the floor, or transforming into some kind of hideous beast that the reader will have nightmares about. The only time I want to hear about bills and taxes for more than a paragraph is when its a tax collector who has slowly gone insane and now is carrying a shotgun around his office, well, you get the point. People fear the unknown, more than that, people fear knowing the unknown, knowing that there is something there waiting for them in the darkness. The best perspectives are first person, and 3rd person limited, no doubt. The world needs good horror, and believe me, people crave it, they love being scared. Good luck on your short story, be bold, go where other people are afraid to go.
I agree with “konnerk” this is a very interesting post to think about. I live in the world of children’s books, and so I don’t think a lot about horror, or scary stories, but this post has piqued my interest. As I was reading this I thought about a fiction writing class I took a few years ago at OSU. In my little writing circle there was one writer who had this incredible story. I don’t think it was meant to be a scary story, but it certainly was a thriller and kept me engaged the entire time. Essentially the main character is locked up somewhere, and is coming out of a comma, or drugged sleep. A series of events happen after that where we has the reader begin experiencing new things as the main character does. I found this element of the story – the lack of being able to “see, smell, or touch,” the things around me – very frustrating, but very effective.
I share this to say that maybe a good element of thrillers, and horror, is the lack of senses – to some extent. As writers we obviously don’t want to leave our readers completely “blind,” but I found with this story that I WAS afraid of the things I didn’t understand, or couldn’t really “sense” in the manuscript. We as human beings like the real things in life, even if it is a fictional real thing, like a button that can melt anyone over the age of 16 if they touch it. But if that button is described as a round implement, red in nature, highly dangerous to adolescent and post adolescent homosapiens , with a curious set of four holes in it, and not to be touched – that button becomes intriguing, and mysterious.
So I would add to your awesome list, that inhibiting your readers, by putting them on unsteady and uncertain ground, adds a certain horrific, and scary nature to the story.
Thanks for the brain food this morning!
Slade
I’m not a fan of an type of horror(books or movies), but I enjoyed this post because I feel it connects to other genres of writing, drama, comedy, or just a fictional novel. The list you created at the end has such great information, #6 is awesome. “Show what happens in the story, don’t tell.” As writers we want our audience to feel what our character feels. My fears are spiders, snakes, and leprechauns. The way you show two story plots is great because it all starts like a great horror story, but really becomes boring after the domino effect of events/problems happening to the character. With everything you have listed in this post you should have an amazing writing this short story.
This is a very fun, comical and conversational voice. Your discussion was interesting and engaging. I liked your 10 points at the end and are important to those who write stories or need to know what’s important points to focus on when writing. Horror is not really a genre I would choose to read but your start to story plots seemed awesome. When thinking about my own fears I brainstormed: spiders, snakes, fires, drowning, small spaces, and heights. It’s interesting how once you start thinking about your fears that story plots and such come to you immediately about each one. I definitely like your post, the voice, and the openness of it but still helpful for your audience. I wanted to read more story plots, keep brainstorming, they were my favorite and most intriguing part of the post.
Horror is definitely a genre that is not done right very often. There is something about watching a horror movie that definitely excites the viewer, which seems to be much of a paradox. Why would someone want to watch something that is supposed to create a feeling of terror and fear? These feelings are a couple that a regular human being would not search for, rather stray from. Maybe it is because there is a screen between what is going on, and you, sitting in the theater. The average person would not enjoy watching someone’s arm get mutilated by a chainsaw 10 feet away from them, but it makes for a great scene in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I love horror, and my collection of movies gets bigger and bigger. You wrote mainly on the literature aspect of it, but the media portrayal is very invigorating as well. Just some thoughts!
These are definitely some great tips that can be applied to all different genres of literature! I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of horror in general, but it’s an undervalued genre.
Signs is a movie that I agree with you one-hundred percent! The suspense in it was a masterpiece that scares me even now! I know the scariest part for me was the part when someone at a kid’s party caught that footage…*shivers.* I still jump at that part.
I’m the world’s biggest chicken whenever anything remotely horrific is in front of me, so I can’t really help you find direction in writing for that genre… However, it sounds like you have a really solid understanding of what you need to make a successful story. I guess what it comes down to is to trust yourself – stick with what scares YOU and that will translate to the reader. I’m sure some of the best horror novelists frightened themselves late at night when they were on a roll. 🙂 and the good news is that even if your story totally flopped, I’d probably still be scared!! Haha!
Yeah I have to say, horror and I do not get along at all, but it sounds like you really do know what you’re doing! Yikes. Well, as scared as I am to hear your story, I’m also intrigued to see how it turns out. My only request, as a fellow classmate in your fiction workshop class…please don’t read your story last so there’s more of a chance that I can have happy memories when I leave class…and maybe be able to sleep afterwards ha. Great post 🙂
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