Take the scariness up a notch each time, until the protagonist is ready to be scared to death or needs to run away (perhaps only to have the spirit pursue it). How do I make my horror story memorable for the reader? Add in specific or unique details. Make a list of your greatest fears. While there are many lists of his greatest horror stories. Words like “horrified,” “horror-struck,” “petrified,” “panic-stricken,” “appalled,” “witless” and “aghast” will do; however, representing the signs of a protagonist's fears are even better. Many horror writers choose to take a normal, everyday situation, and make it scary by adding unsettling characters or events. Read more. She teaches college writing and ESL courses and has several years experience tutoring all ages in English, ESL and literature. Description is one of the four main forms of discourse, according to … ", only to have some other twist added later, such as mistaken identity or a twin. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. I asked Google how to write a good story and then this popped up. 54898 3.7 /5. ", "Specific and on-point information, well-presented. How to Write Urban Fiction Novels . "It's all very helpful to me, especially since I'm 12 and trying to create my own horror story. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. Or, you could reveal the guilty one at the beginning, so that reader is like "I can't wait for him to die! There are 19 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. registered in England (Company No 02017289) with its registered office at 26 Red Lion Depends on what the horror is. How to Describe a Storm in Writing. ", "This article give me some ideas and that idea helped me with my homework. In this way, it is open-ended without being too surprising or confusing for the reader. Or, you can even foreshadow it little by little and when it's obvious, change it to something that will cancel out the hints to the "truth". This article has 42 testimonials from our readers, earning it our reader-approved status. Roughly describe that photo, but add a bit of a twist. ", "It generally helped me. Another way you can avoid cliches is to focus more on creating a disturbed or unsettled state of mind for your character, rather than images of gore or pools of blood. So, the story plays with Howard's perception of reality and indicates that maybe he did hallucinate the finger. Twists can include a sudden realization, discovery, or final scare. Creating a vocabulary for your character that fits their personality and perspective will only add to their believability as a character. Conditions. Have plot twists everywhere! ", "I'm actually trying to learn for an exam. Thank you for this, "Though it did name a couple of obvious things I've heard over and over again, I liked the part about the three, "It was very good to have this article, as it helped me to write more interesting stories and get good marks in, "It helped me so much. This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD. Focus on creating a story that feels personally terrifying to you. Each of these differentiated activity sheets comes with a picture of a mysterious location and prompt questions which help children to focus on their senses, how the setting makes them feel and how they can include imagery in their writing. In both stories, horror or terror is created through a combination of shock and dread, using elements that are possibly supernatural (a moving human finger) and elements that are psychologically disturbing (a young girl alone with two men). In fiction writing, authors bring characters to life and create imaginative settings through descriptive writing—using vivid details, figurative language, and sensory information to paint a picture for readers. A character’s speech or dialect can also distinguish a character on the page, and make them stand out more to the reader. It can be as long or as short as you need to tell a good story. In Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates establishes the main character, a young girl named Connie, by providing scenes of her daily life and then zooms in on one fateful day, when two men pull up in a car while Connie is at home all alone. We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. Descriptive writing practice - Spooky stories, The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson - Polish glossary, wordsearch and activities, AQA GCSE Paper 1 Q 3 Structure - find features and analyse for effect - using short video, Simplified version of 'A Christmas Carol' - with key quotes in full and illustrations. In order to create conflict in a character’s life, you need to introduce a danger or threat to the character, whether it's a moving finger, two men in a car, a mystical monkey’s paw or a murderous clown. This type of fear is great for slow tension-building and psychological horror stories. This article gave me a lot of ideas! Get out your thesaurus and replace any redundant word use with synonyms to avoid using the same words or phrases over and over again in the story. Perhaps she has “droplets of sweat” on her forehead, her knees are “knocking,” or she is “trembling,” “quivering,” “shuddering,” “quailing” or “quaking.” You can describe her as “transfixed” or “paralyzed” in place. Nadine holds a Master of Arts in English language and literature from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, where she led seminars as a teaching assistant. Christopher Taylor, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, advises: "The key elements of a horror story include fear, suspense, surprise, and moments of foreshadowing.". The protagonist can hear strange “clanking” sounds, or a scary character can speak in a “dark,” “steely,” “sepulchral,” “sibilant” or “guttural” voice. Like any fiction genre, horror can be mastered with the right planning, patience, and practice. “The Monkey’s Paw”, an 18th century tale by William Wymark Jacobs about three terrible wishes granted by a mystical monkey’s paw. So, when Howard does finally confront the moving finger, the reader is terrified of how the outcome is going to create a loss for Howard. ", "It was really nice and it helped me to get a perfect idea also. Did you know you can read expert answers for this article? This tension between what the reader wants for the character and what could happen or go wrong for the character will fuel the story and propel your readers through the story. Loading... Save for later. One way to write a horror story is by brainstorming things or situations that scare you. In “The Moving Finger”, King does this by having Howard freak out about the finger, then have a relatively normal conversation with his wife while listening to Jeopardy and thinking about the finger, and then attempt to avoid the finger by going for a walk. It has taught me a lot, thanks. Look at our samples of descriptive essays to understand how to write them on your own. ", "Very helpful, because it describes what to do very clearly. Think of a short title that hints at the terror in your story. How to Make a Scary Atmosphere in Writing. One of the first steps in writing a descriptive essay is to identify the thesis or the main point. A truly horrifying story establishes an eerie atmosphere right from the beginning. Neil Gaiman's take on the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty in “The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds.”, You’d be remiss not to read a horror story by arguably the master of the genre, Stephen King. ", "I found it very useful, as I had an English exam coming up and had to write a story. I would include how to make up your own scary name and the best way to come up with it. Ambiguous descriptions, such “an amorphous creature,” “hazy air,” “opaque waters,” “tenebrous valley” or “unintelligible sound” create a disturbingly unfamiliar atmosphere for the reader. Preferably, your character’s stakes should be extreme or major, such as loss of sanity, loss of innocence, loss of life, or loss of the life of someone they care about. Fear is built off of understanding the consequences of an action for a character or the risk of their actions. Using gross-out details like a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, something green and slimy landing on your arm, or a character landing in a pool of blood. King also uses other elements like a Jeopardy game and a conversation between the main character and his wife to further create a feeling of suspense and dread. Using unnatural details (or fear of the unknown or impossible) like spiders the size of bears, an attack from the living dead, or an alien claw grabbing your feet in a dark room. Where would you dread or fear being trapped in the most? This article is. Be sure to make your language use and word choice fit the voice of your character. Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. Dread works well when the reader connects deeply to the story and begins to care enough about the characters to fear something bad that is going to happen to them. 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