🦇 9 tips for writing spine-chilling horror

NEW: 8 more tips for writing immersive horror

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happy halloween!! this week i figured i would delve a little deeper into my horror obsession and share 9 general tips for writing scary, effective, and memorable horror stories.

✨ more of my writing advice:

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[DopeSoap]

1. 1:08 tap into own fears
2. 2:56 make perspective close. Make the story relatable.
3. 4:15 don’t overplay violence and gore. Takes emphasis off the writing itself
4. 5:18 do good research.
5. 6:38 use fear of unknown
6. 7:01 pace the book in different ways to create paranoia.
7. 8:00 keep a consistent theme
8. 9:21 don’t over emphasize one scare, keep the plot close and high quality. Don’t give it all up for one climax.
9. 9:52 make your ending powerful

Hope this helps 🤗

[adalieeudora]

Why small acts of violence, in my opinion, are more effective is because most of the time it’s something the reader can relate to on a small level. We’ve all caught our nail on something before and know the specific feeling related to that, so we could imagine how it would feel to have your nail ripped off, whereas we really have no idea what it would feel like to be decapitated.

[julissaguzman]

I feel like a book about overthinking would be amazing

[fizzycherrycola]

I started writing a 1960s horror comedy for the sheer enjoyment of the campiness, but once the basic plot was out on paper I realized there was very little horror theming, just a cool spooky aesthetic and a half-baked mystery 😅
I think I'm teetering in the middle of the horror and comedy aspects, and not fully indulging in either.
I'm super glad I found your video because it's helped push me to dig deeper into the broader theme of fear in this story! 🖤🦇

[ChrisArtsTube]

Painful moments over gore and death is worse because the person has to feel the sensation of getting their fingernails being ripped off... we can relate to pain and imagine pain we've never felt which is more unsettling that gore and death.

[entyty]

1) 1:08
2) 2:53
3) 4:11
4) 5:15
5) 6:30
6) 6:56
7) 7:56
8) 9:12
9) 9:42

[justincroteau]

One of the best horror writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft said that fear is the most powerful emotion in humans and specifically, fear of the unknown. So the fact you mentioned that speaks volumes of your knowledge. Plus, you were fun to watch 😉
Great tips!

[MrMetallidude]

I used to study film and though I am rusty, you touch upon some key elements my teachers talked about. Dread, for instance, is one of the best tools to use. And also to make the audience question their own sanity and get "afraid" of their own shadow. Also breaking expectations is key. Building uup to the scare is fine, but it's more effective when the audience has their guards down. Good video.

[AryaLumpyhead]

I'm currently writing a horror/western collection. I agree with you on all of these points. One tip I picked up early on was to make every monster count. From Godzilla to Babadook, we remember good monster's because they are manifestations of a greater theme. This is the first video I've seen of yours and I look forward to checking more out.

[dearrivarie]

this list is so cool - I'm honestly a massive scaredy cat in books so I avoid horror for the most part but now I want to analyze all the different elements of my fear and speculate story scenarios 🤔

[JDnotMD]

Watched a lot of advices on how to write scary before going there myself next month and I find this one underrated. I related to it so much and I think it's not just about taste in writing/reading horror but because i share your way to apprehend / comprehend fear itself. This was a treat to watch, thank you!

[NOAHVISION]

thanks for this video. I've never really been proud of the horror I've written before but with these tips in mind and working them into the story, I'm much more satisfied with my writings. thank you so much.

[philliparnesen]

Horror comedy to me is the equivalent of sweet and spicy to taste. The absolute best combination.

[kayleeamburgey]

thank you so much !!!😃🥰 I've been writing my story for almost 2 years and ran out of ideas, now I have tons of ideas, my story is about this doll, she created her own mystical world, its the world of dolls, I can't wait to publish it.

[KhronicallyNostalgic]

I have to write a scary short story first school so thank you for this!

[poormeart]

2:46 I swear someone at my work laughed at this exact moment LOL (I'm wearing earphones btw)

[troyjohnson]

I came here to get advice for writing my horror short story, it is about a group of teens stumbling upon an animalistic predator that knows how to make traps and can accurately reason where the protagonists are going and actively drives them away from where they should be going to get out alive.

[rizzierizriz]

Honestly the point about subtle vs visceral violence is so important for the shock factor you're going for. For example there was this scene in a certain game where the protagonist finds out the group that caught her are cannibals, in the game the cannibalistic aspect is presented as casual shock, she wakes up and the men are just casually chopping off a man's arm, while in the series she's talking with the leader, and then slowly she sees there's a single ear almost innocently lying on the floor, all this after receiving a plate with "deer" meat on it (in the game she actually eats it), and that's when the horror realization kicks in for real, she has been cocky and aggressive all this time but now? Now she's **scared**. The show made that revelation scene much more powerful to me as an expectator, but the game's execution was great as well.

[LuthienAlexandra]

smaller acts of violence are more relatable and we get scared because we CAN see that happening to us. I could accidentally have my fingernail pulled of. In fact, if the girl that does my nails is to be trusted, it happens to more people than you'd think. But being decapitated or cut in half? The chances of that ever happening to me are probably close to 0, so it does not even have me concerned, let alone scared.

[FuzzyTrekkie]

I'm currently writing a fantasy horror story but since I'm going through a big case of writer's block I'm just writing down individual scenes that I plan to eventually tie together in a more cohesive timeline.

My most recent scene involved the MC sneaking into a camp to get some supplies, only to be met with an undead creature that was being kept secret within the camp. The first version was okay but it felt a bit distant. Like I described everything that happened but it didn't feel personal enough. Then remembering the "Five senses" technique, I rewrote the scene but kept visual descriptors at a bare minimum. Now I talked about how cold the night was, the errie quiet as the MC snuck about, making her own footsteps sound far louder than they actually were. I talked about even after escaping the creature, the scent of decay still remained in the MC's mind hours after the fact.

I highly recommend you try this trick.