Mastering the Macabre: 5 Essential Tips for Aspiring Horror Writers

Writing is a skill, an art form. One misplaced word, one grammatical error, one small over sight can reduce the quality of your writing to nothing. (Well, in your own head, anyway.)

It takes time and dedication to write. This, you know. You've read the tips. Writing horror, however, comes with it's own set of challenges. When starting your journey writing horror novels, there are 5 key things that you need to consider. The rest? The spelling, the grammar, the research.. That's in your hands. One: Know your sub- genre

There are many different facets to horror, and many different avenues to go down. Without knowing which sub-genre of horror you want to write, you don't have much of a starting point. You won't know what authors to read, you won't understand how to use. your characters, what kind of research you need to do, or how you are going to build your story. There are many sub-genres to consider, but here's a brief list of the basics to give you a bit of an idea of where to start:

Body Horror Extreme Horror

Gothic Horror

Psychological Horror Splatterpunk

Supernatural Horror

Two: Give your story a common fear

We're all afraid of something, even though we pretend we're not. Clowns. Spiders. The dark. Failure. Loneliness. Relationships. Family. Anger. The whole point of the horror genre is to understand what makes people tick, understand those primal fears right down to the core and learn how to manipulate those fears in order to use them against your audience. Fear of the unkown is a powerful technique to use when writing horror, and can be done by layering question upon question over an existing plot. Draw your reader in by picking at their curiosities, then add layers of mystery by giving them a problem or a scenario that they need to understand. As they try and resolve this problem, identify what could make them fearful and use this against them. They might try to back away, but if the initial problem is tantalising enough, they won't give up so easily. Unless wanted to add another layer of mystery of course, to keep them interested. These ebbs and flows will also improve the pacing of your story, allowing it to be more digestible and interesting for your reader.

Three: Make your villain relatable

How many times have you watched ANY kind of movie, and though that the villains motivations were spot on, even though you didn't like the actions they took? Loads, right? And did it make you question yourself a little bit? That's the point. In horror, this is an especially good technique to use to heighten tension. Let's say you have a character that cuts up women while they're still alive. These women bullied him in high school, there might have been a separate tragedy in his past or something more to his back story to give him motivation. An audience that can relate to someone committing these horrible acts is likely to question their own motivations as well. It's especially effective when writing psychological horror, as the intention is to disturb or unsettle the audience. Villains need to be as good as the main character. We shouldn't, but we like to see them succeed. Mia Goth makes an excellent villain in both Pearl and Infinity Pool due to the characteristics that she has, what motivates her, and how she reacts in certain situations. She often plays disturbed villains with relatable motivations, and the nuances to her character make you question whether or not you want her to succeed.

Four: Be mindful of pace

Poor pace is a common feature in bad horror writing. You don't want to give the carrot to the donkey at the very beginning, but there's only so much you can taunt the donkey before it tries to bite your hand off out of complete and utter frustration. Think about your key plot points and how you are going to incorporate your scary elements into your story. Mystery and intrigue, the desperate need for answers or to know what is coming next, are going to be the things that keep your readers turning the page.

Contrast between the build up and the action in order to make your story satisfying for your audience. It is these ebbs and flows that will get your readers hearts racing.

Five: Let your characters lead the story

It can be common when first plotting out a novel to try and fit your characters into the narrative you've built. Oftentimes, the characters, when you finally put them to paper, react in a different way than you've anticipated. Rather than try and change the character, change the scene. After all, the main characters are the ones in the driving seat, and if your plot doesn't fit your characters actions, then the plot isn't going to work. Think about it this way. We follow characters, not plot. When we are reading a book or watching a movie, we are engrossed in the life of the character. We like to know how they react to a situation, we like to know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and we use these things to see if we can try and figure out a potential twist ending.

Your characters will always be the most important thing in your story, so it's super important to make sure they lead. If they don't, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and flesh them out a little bit more, as you won't have a story unless you truly understand everything about your main guy. If there are any tips that you think I've missed, let me know in the comments section below!