Tips for Writing Horror Fiction

Writing horror fiction can be one of the most challenging things anyone can ever try. Here are some tips on how to approach the genre in an accessible and effective way.

No matter what, make sure the writing is solid. Many people already believe horror is an inferior style and will look for any excuse to say the story isn't good. Make sure the story is free of any grammatical, spelling, punctuation, or syntax errors that could take a reader out of the moment.

You need strong, identifiable characters, especially for horror. If the reader doesn't care about your characters, they won't become invested in the story. If they don't become invested in the story, they won't be scared by the story. If the reader isn't scared, you're not doing your job.

Now, defining scared - that's a challenge in and of itself. One of my favorite recent horror short stories is Being Right by Michael Marshall Smith (reprinted in the recent Summer Chills anthology edited by Stephen Jones). If you skim through the story, there are certain elements that seem pretty standard for horror: a mysterious tome, a rainy day, and an ominous voice. But those elements aren't particularly scary in the context of the story. The familiarity with the character's problem - he believes he is always right, no matter what his wife says - and how he goes about attempting to solve it is what creates the sense of unease. Dread, more than straight-forward fear, drives the story and pushes it firmly into horror.

What is scary is very subjective, so it's best to write something that scares you.

Try writing about an actual event that scared you in your life. My first horror story I ever felt comfortable sharing (long since lost, of course), involved a string of events that I'm still convinced were caused by a ghost in my house. The genuine nature of the story to me allowed me to effectively tell it to other people. Since I thought it was real, I wrote it like it was real, and that is what scared people.

Focus on one event that truly disturbed you. It doesn't even have to be in real life. It could be a scene from a movie, a line from a short story, a phrase in a song. Tap into that moment as inspiration for a story. Work the idea or concept in as the main scary moment of the story. Since it's genuine to you, it will be genuine to the reader, and add a level of believability necessary to orchestrate a good horror story.

Finally, not everything in horror needs to be about vampires, killers, and zombies; these creatures do not have to participate in or interrupt sexual activity. Cats don't have to be in every story, and every night doesn't have to be dark and stormy. Your character doesn't have to be tormented by a horrible event in the past, and most definitely doesn't have to be visited by a ghost. Can any of this happen? Sure. But they are not required for good horror writing.

I've been studying and writing original horror for years. It's hard. Very hard. Harder than any other style I've tried. But it's rewarding in the end. Fear is the hardest emotion to truly convey in writing, since there are such visual and psychological elements to it. But it's not impossible if you try to make it real.