What makes a story scary

If you can arouse that kind of empathy, your readers will follow you and your story almost anywhere. Next, you need to create something to be feared. This is your monster. Whatever it is, it needs to terrible enough to arouse fear in the reader. This relates back to your characters. That keeps them immersed in the story. Shock is another factor that makes for a good horror novel, when used well.

In , Stephen King gave us a creepy clown in a sewer with his novel IT. Comfort zone, demolished! The Pennywise sewer scene from that novel — and the whole idea behind it — pulls us way outside of our comfort zone.

We like to think of sewers and storm drains as harmless components of neighborhood infrastructure. Innocuous and predictable. This is a key component that makes for a good horror novel. You have to pull readers into the dark. You can shock your readers in many ways. All you have to do is take something the reader knows and understands, and present it in some new way. Find the dark side of it. Twist it up. Pervert it.

The answer of course, is that it varies. Different people are afraid of different things. But there are some things that most people fear, and you can use them to write a good horror novel. You can tap into universal terrors. Many people fear the dark, on some level and at some point in their lives. It starts early. They can feature supernatural elements such as ghosts, witches, or vampires, or they can address more realistic psychological fears. Gothic: horror novels that focus specifically on death.

Paranormal: horror novels involving ghost stories or supernatural horror events that do not exist within the context of scientific explanation…. A good story is about something the audience decides is interesting or important. A great story often does both by using storytelling to make important news interesting. The public is exceptionally diverse.

A lot can make a horror movie good or fun, except jump scares. Jump scares are cheap and not fun at all. Sadly, most of modern horror films rely solely on that. Horror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Literary historian J. My apologies.

I do appreciate each and every comment. Atmosphere Let's say you want to create an atmosphere that cultivates fear. Here are a few things to keep in mind. Wind lashing the trees. But perhaps you don't want to cultivate an atmosphere of fear. Perhaps you want the reader to feel safe. When I was a kid sometimes I'd hide around a corner and try to scare my mom yes, she put up with a lot! In that case you want everything to seem as safe and normal as possible. Cringe Good point! To me, though, that's scary but also very, very , creepy.

Set the Stakes: Get Your Readers To Identify With Your Main Character Make your reader emotionally invested in your protagonist and they will be afraid for them when they accept a bet to spend the night, alone, in a haunted house.

Talia writes: Make your characters relatable, likeable and give them a personal stake in the outcome. No one is afraid for the red shirt guy who dies on Star Trek, but they care about what happens to Spock. Very true. Also, on the subject of getting your readers to relate to your character, Michael Hauge teaches that there are 5 ways to do this: a. Make your character sympathetic. Make your character funny.

Make your character likable. Put your character in jeopardy. Make your character powerful.