I wrote this article a number of years ago and thought I'd share it here for my visitors who are thinking of diving in to uncharted waters and want to tackle writing a scary short story
Everyone likes a good spine-tingler. Even the squeamish who shy away from the horror genre, still like to read or watch the occasional thriller. The technique for writing fiction that best whips up the adrenalin in your reader is the same whether the story is characterized as horror, thriller or action/adventure.
The first thing you need to know before you can be effective at evoking fear in your reader or film viewer is this: You must know yourself. Specifically, you must know how you respond to fear. Think about the last time you felt terror or fearful anticipation of some impending doom.
It could have been something as mundane as an exam you didn't cram hard enough for. Or that time you thought you heard someone moving around in your living room while you were alone in your house and in bed. Maybe you were unfortunate enough to be in the path of a tornado or hurricane.
You know how you felt. Your heart palpitates. Your breath catches. You begin to shake. Your thoughts become confused. Maybe you become dizzy or your knees knock. I literally hear and feel my heart pumping and vibrating in my rib cage. My vision begins to swim and my hands shake.
But then after you realize the danger is over or was only a figment of your imagination the deep breaths of relief and the rush that ensues is something you never forget. Now have your character go through this process. Build it slowly as he or she responds to various stimuli.
That brings us to the next vital ingredient. You must create circumstances, stimuli, that will tantalize and tease the adrenal gland into pumping out the survival booster juice, adrenalin, that has people jumping up trees to escape the snapping jaws of a wolf or has even been known to give a mother super human strength to lift a car off her child.
There are three ways of doing this.
The first method is to introduce an element of the unknown. People are afraid of the dark because they don't know what is lurking there. A sudden noise in the dark evokes myriad of images in our minds as to the cause. Therefore keep your reader, along with the character, guessing as to the source of the imminent danger until the monster (whether it be man, beast or force of nature) is revealed moments before the fateful attack.
The second method involves introducing the source of terror right from the beginning, but only to the reader. The character is kept ignorant about what might be waiting in the dark or around the corner but is terrified by circumstances like unexplained creepy sounds, or the discovery of recently murdered or mutilated bodies, or the sight of vague silhouettes and blurs flitting by in the distance.
The third method is to have the character and the reader know from the first page or if it's a script, the first scene sequence, what form the monster takes. But you have to make sure it is sufficiently horrific and powerful that it will engender fear in the most stalwart or skilled of human characters. Even here there are unknown quantities. Where will the enemy strike next? Will the tornado shift direction as you try to drive out of its path. The monster must be near invincible; the serial killer should easily out-smart the detectives.
The common thread in these methods is the element of the unknown and the awful power for death or destruction the antagonist can bring; the possibility that you can lose everything that matters to you. Remember, build the tension and terror slowly and if you can be creative enough to include a twist at the end, all the better.
Good luck and happy writing.
To see how I put these tips into action, you can download my ebook:
"Tales From The Portal". Please write a review and 'like' my book.
Tomatoes are delicious and actually a fruit not a vegetable by virtue of growing above the ground and having seeds on the inside. I love their sweetness and have always been a fan of tomato paste, tomato sauce, salsa, and ketchup. They're a great source of immunity boosting vitamin C. But, there is another reason why I eat a boat load of them: tomatoes are very low in carbs. I am a diabetic, so watching sugar intake is a full-time job. One large tomato has only 5 net carbs. That's just awesome for me. So many of the foods I love are high in carbs. As a transplanted Brit, I love my fish and chips. Sadly, potato is banned from my diet since it is 100% starch which turns to sugar quickly in the blood stream. I can still eat the fish, but steamed or grilled rather than battered and fried. Still love fish though. Another staple of the those from the Uk is bread.
They say we'll eat anything on a sandwich. I used to eat crisps (potato chips) on bread ... with butter ... yum!. Now bread is off limits. I really hate diabetes.
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