The Essential Guide To Writing Horror Stories

What makes a horror story truly terrifying? Build suspense, create fear, and keep readers hooked with this essential guide to writing horror.

The Essential Guide To Writing Horror Stories

Myths, monsters, mummies, and murderers. Ghosts, ghouls, and graveyards. Dragons, darkness, and the deep. Mist, fog, water, and ice. Seemingly normal human beings. Strangers. Time itself. Horror can lurk in all of them. And that’s just a short list.

A good writer can turn anything into a horror story, including wallpaper. Love them or hate them, horror stories are as old as time. They will always have a place on the shelves of the Library of Mankind. They can be unsettling stories with a subtle twist at the end that you can’t quite forget. Or stomach-churning gore-fests that make you sleep with the light on. The level of horror depends entirely on the writer and the reader.

The Basics Of Writing Horror

A. Characters

Horror is about terrible things happening to people, whether they are good or bad. Granted, readers are more likely to sympathise with the goodie than the baddie. But, as in any story, readers need to care about the characters. If they can’t connect with them, the horror won’t hold as much power as it could.

Writing Tip: When writing horror, it can be easy to fall back on stereotypes. Try to avoid this as much as possible.

Examples of good characters in horror:

In the book, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, every character has a reason to be suspected of murder. Each also has a past that makes them a potential victim.
In the movie, Prisoners, a good man becomes a source of horror. The ambiguous ending makes us question the line between good and evil. Even after the film ends, it’s hard to forget what the man has done.

B. The Plot And The Stakes

The plot depends on the kind of horror you want to write. But don’t rely on the usual tricks. Some of the scariest stories are also the most subtle. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and The Small House by Phillipa Gregory are good examples. Cut to the bone, horror is often about survival, protecting loved ones, or solving a mystery. The story might involve a past death, a strange creature, the secrets of the universe, or a haunted house. Make readers feel as if they are experiencing the danger and fear alongside the characters. These stakes might include:

Losing their minds.
Being lost and never found.
Being unable to tell what is real and what is imagined.
Turning into another form.
Dying a horrible death.

Writing Tip: An axe-wielding murderer chasing a group of young adults through the woods at night is an old horror cliché. So is the group splitting up when they should stay together! We’ve seen these scenes many times, so try something different. As the examples below show, some of the best horror comes near the end of a book, or even in the last line. A good twist can change how readers see the whole story. Look for horror in small things and ordinary events that take an unexpected turn. Starting at the end and working backwards may be the best way to plot a horror book.

Examples:

C. Point Of View

First-person and third-person are the most common POVs in writing horror. You can also use a limited or omniscient point of view. A limited point of view means readers only know what the character knows. This can build tension because readers share the character’s doubts and fears. Third-person omniscient gives the narrator a wider view. It can reveal things that the characters don’t know. Second person and an unreliable narrator can also work well.

Examples:

First Person POV – The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, and Misery by Stephen King
Third Person Limited – The Shining by Stephen King, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Third Person Omniscient – Carrie by Stephen King
Second Person – We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Unreliable Narrator – The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Choose Your Fear

Horror can take many forms. The type you choose depends on the kind of fear you want to subject your characters and readers to.

1. Psychological Horror

The human mind is a fragile thing, and it can often be easily manipulated. Gaslighting, propaganda, extremist beliefs that play on a person’s insecurities, and bullying can all be used to control others. The end results can include anxiety, panic attacks, complex post-traumatic stress, cognitive distortions, dissociation, co-dependency, agoraphobia, paranoia, fractured and distorted realities, and even an inescapable descent into madness.

Writing Tip: Psychological horror focuses on fear in the mind. It might come from what a character thinks is happening or from what another person does to frighten them. Research into emotional abuse, manipulation, and mental health will help you find ideas for your story.

Example:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is infamous for the psychological horror it inflicts on both its characters and its readers. The book makes readers question their own sense of reality. Its footnotes, blank spaces, and unusual layout reflect the characters’ fear as they explore a place that keeps changing.

2. Supernatural Horror

You can’t write a guide to supernatural horror without mentioning Stephen King. The supernatural is King’s go-to choice of horror, and Pet Sematary is often called his best supernatural horror.

Writing Tip: Look for ideas in the world beyond our own. Think about life after death, ghosts, the undead, and those who live ‘beyond the veil’. You can also explore the rites and beliefs of different religions. These can all inspire characters, settings, and plots.

Examples:

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

3. Body Horror

Body horror is grotesquely fascinating, disturbing, and often hard to watch or read. It explores what happens when our bodies change, break down, or turn against us. Bodies may change shape, become something other than human, or be invaded by something else. Body horror can explore our fears about ageing, illness, beauty, and losing control of our own bodies. In body horror, there is only one monster. You.

Writing Tip: Consider the point of your book. Are you writing to make a point or simply scare people with a gore-fest? You might write about the dangers of changing the human body, the fear of being taken over by a virus or alien, or the horror of having surgery without consent. You could also explore why a character wants to change their body into something no longer human. If you’re exploring these themes, the trick is to get your point across without becoming preachy.

Examples:

4. Found-Footage Horror

‘Is this real?’ That’s the question found-footage horror makes readers ask as they move from unease to outright terror. Found footage can take the form of letters, handwritten notes, floor plans, bills of sale, sketches, diary entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, photographs, and more. As a writer, you can have fun deciding which pieces to include and what each one reveals. If you do it well, readers may start to believe the events really happened.

Writing Tip: Early found-footage novels begin with a prologue that explains how the material came into the author’s hands. Think about how you introduce these documents. Your choice could help shape the plot.

Examples:

The Blair Witch Project (film)
Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie
Devolution by Max Brooks
The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp

5. Gothic Horror

Gothic horror and Gothic romance share the same foundations. Both use dark settings, secrets, fear, the macabre, and a sense of unease. Romance often ends with a happy-ever-after. Horror, on the other hand, has no happy ending, romantic or otherwise. Gothic novels need old, decaying houses, haunted estates, gloomy forests, the past haunting the present unrelentingly, and families hiding dark secrets. A bridegroom might change after the wedding, or a family might hide something terrible behind closed doors. Trauma, madness, and moral taboos are the main elements.

Writing Tip: Avoiding clichés in this genre can be difficult. After all, they are the reason readers enjoy the books. Build doubt and distrust in ever growing amounts as the plot unfolds. Let readers question what they see and wonder who they can trust.

Examples:

Crimson Peak (film)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Writing horror, especially a story with a twist, can be a lot of fun. As with all writing, write what you love to read. Read as many books as you can in your chosen sub-genre, too. Study how other writers build fear, create tension, and surprise their readers.

The Last Word

The best horror stories put believable characters in frightening situations. Give your characters problems they don’t expect, then make them fight to survive. Build suspense, raise the stakes, and keep readers guessing. If you can make readers feel afraid for your characters, they’ll want to keep turning the pages. Write horror that entertains, unsettles, and stays with readers long after they finish the story.

If you’d like to learn how to write a great horror novel, sign up for one of the rich and in-depth courses that Writers Write offers and get your writing career off to a great start.

The Essential Guide To Writing Horror Stories