What are some quick tips on how to write horror?

I've always been interested in the genre, and have read several horror novels, but I can't place my finger on what it is exactly that makes a book scary.

I know that there are several tricks of the trade that authors employ. For example, when producing a horror play (which I have done), a tip is to keep your audience "in the dark" for as long as possible. によって that, I mean do not allow the audience to get a good glimpse of the focal point of their fear. "Darkness is a powerful ally of terror. Something glimpsed in a corner is far もっと見る frightening than if it's fully observed" (Stephen Mallatratt, adapter of The Woman In Black for the stage).

But these are theater tips. I know nothing about 書く for horror, and I'm really curious. Anyone familiar with the genre want to give me a few pointers on creepiness?
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Just a further コメント about the Mallatratt quote: it's true in 書く as well. For horror, あなた often don't want to simply delay an explanation, but don't want to explain things at all. It's a film, granted, but the two versions of "The Haunting" are effective only so far as they just 表示する the creepy stuff and not tell us what is causing it. The original is a masterpiece of horror, for nothing is explained in the end. It's not necessary to explain, and an explanation would detract from the horror. The remake was pretty bad in comparison, with the one exception being the carved cherubs in one scene: visible in the background, they're all facing one way. The camera pans to follow another character in the ongoing conversation, but when the camera 次 pans back, all the cherubs have turned and are looking in the other direction with silent, screaming faces. How did these inanimate objects change like that? What does it signify? Nobody knows, and that's brilliant. Two TV episodes are particularly noteworthy for this sort of thing, too: the best episode of "Buffy" I ever saw was "Hush", in which the characters' voices are stolen and the episode plays out like a silent horror picture (no explanations possible), and the new Doctor Who series' "Blink", which consists entirely of action happening off camera.
harold posted 1年以上前
 Cinders posted 1年以上前
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書く 回答

harold said:
It really depends on what あなた mean によって horror, as there are typically two approaches: the things that are scary, and the things that are horrific.

scary: this gets the reader's ハート, 心 racing. One trick is to take everyday objects/surroundings and put them in situations where they become threatening in the narrative. If it's done well, those objects then become creepy to the reader in their own lives, sitting there alone at night, 読書 when they should be asleep. Use all the senses, particularly sound and its variant as touch ("She could hear the faintest scraping noise coming from outside, which was probably a 木, ツリー branch blown によって the wind...but as she listened, she noticed that it was slightly irregular, and too low on the ウォール to be the 木, ツリー in the backyard. scrape...scrape... the sound came, and as she put her ear to the ウォール she could feel something being dragged purposefully back and forth against the ウォール just on the other side. It was just on the other side, inches from her head! Now faintly she heard a low undertone, as if someone was humming as well. She pushed her ear closer, trying to hear, telling herself she was imagining it, and all the noise stopped. She listened for a few moments to the silence and started to pull away when the noise started again. But it was different. Tap. Tap. Tap. as if it knew she was there and listening!") The goal is to get the reader imagining stuff themselves, in their own environment. If the reader makes the creepy stuff their own, then they're much もっと見る likely to be scared.

Horrific: this is the horrible, rather than the pulse-pounding. This is usually invoked によって situations that go awry, rather than everyday objects または locations. It can be invoked through no-win situations ("The only way to stop the demon was to kill her, plunging the dagger in her ハート, 心 before it had fully recovered its control of her body, but as he raised the dagger, his daughter looked at him with tears streaming down her tender little face and cried 'No, daddy, please!'") または によって the スーパーナチュラル (She heard a faint noise behind her, a scuttling as she typed at the keyboard, but when she turned, there was nothing in the small room with her. She spent a few moments looking around, calling herself foolish for getting jumpy, but then she noticed her backpack. She'd left it on the bed, but now it was right on the ground behind her chair!"), but what is particularly effective in either case is to NOT explain things. As humans we have anxiety about the things that can happen to us, but we fear the unknown.

A note: because of horror films over the last 25 years, horror writers tend to be stuck on gore, eviscerations, mayhem and bloody deaths of all kinds. This, to me, actually detracts from the horror, unless your reader happens to be hematophobic.
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posted 1年以上前 
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*hehehehe* laughs scarily
1-2vampire posted 1年以上前
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same i hate gore. itss not scary its just disgusting. i 愛 creepy :D
1-2vampire posted 1年以上前
Rockster said:
Main thing to note: SUSPENSE

Almost all horrors contains a cliffhanger after every event that occurs, leaving the audience/reader guessing what will happen to the main character または not.

Aside from that, in a horror novel, they tend to make it graphic, によって that I mean they may または may not use blood imagery, but if they do, they will describe it in detail.


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posted 1年以上前 
AgentCoop said:
Keeping your audience "in the dark" is a good guideline in any medium. Your techniques for doing so will vary depending upon whether it's a play, book, movie, etc. I think prose (books and stories) are a bigger challenge because they require あなた to describe everything to the reader. The trick becomes deciding how much to share with the audience, and when to share it. I've written a couple of stories in the horror genre myself and this is a constant challenge.

BTW, have あなた checked out "On Writing" によって Stephen King?
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posted 1年以上前 
ellie_bellie135 said:
Instead of going all out on gore. I find it scarier ifyou go for もっと見る erery....not sure if I spelt that right but anyway......
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posted 1年以上前 
twilight0girl said:
be disturbing.like for example,stephen kings the mist is about a man,his wife,and his son.he goes to a local store to buy some 食 suplies after a big storm.thats when an old man runs in screaming about a mist that took john lee and killed him.so the mist comes and traps them all in the market.but many people think they can walk out like its a normal mist,but its not.one man ties string around his waist but when the people in the store pull/tug on the yarn to reel him back in they drag back only his corpse.without the 上, ページのトップへ half.but the man and his son escape the market and the mist.but he brings along his son another woman and an elderly couple.they drive miles away in a car when they gas is gone mr.drayton (the main character) takes the womans gun and shots the couple in the backseat,the woman,and his son,but their isnt an extra bullet to kill himself.so he walks outside to let the monsters in the mist kill him.but when he hears some thing its the army.not monsters/aliens from the mist.thats when he relizes that if he waited a few もっと見る mineuts he wouldnt have needed to kill his son and friends.thus the story being twisted and horribly disturbing.and make sure too be discriptive
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posted 1年以上前 
_Blackhearts_xx said:
well when i write horrors, i think of things that are scary, that always scare people and i think back to horror films that had things that where getting people scared shittles, it just gives me an idea of what i shud put in it, also あなた could put sme common fears in your writing, によって that i mean things that people are scared of, genrally :)
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posted 1年以上前 
LilyRoeScott said:
Write in detail and use alot of rememable quotes. (sorry, never read または writen a horror story but I've been working on it)
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 Write in detail and use alot of rememable quotes. (sorry, never read または writen a horror story but I've been working on it)
posted 1年以上前 
mrsblack_1089 said:
I really agree with the first quote あなた have によって Stephen Mallatratt. あなた could do something like, 'And then she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a dark, looming shadow in the corner of the room. The silver daggar he held in his hand glinted off the moonlight.' I've never written horror before, but always make it suspensful. Remember it doesn't have to be TOO gorey; あなた don't want to freak your audience out haha. But make sure it's a little creepy, and describe locations and appearances with great detail. Like make sure to describe the scar on the killer's face that makes him look even もっと見る threatening, または to describe his underground torture chamber with lots of details, like, say, 'The chamber had a heavy metal door with at least 6 different locks. A bloodstained 表, テーブル in the corner held weapons of all shapes and sizes. There was a red-stained shovel propped up in the corner, and another 表, テーブル held some duct-tape, some rope, and an assortment of items that he must have confescated from his victims' pockets.' And (since I am inexperianced) if nothing I 発言しました here works, try 読書 a Stephen King または James Patterson novel. (My friend read Stephen King and she 発言しました it was the sickest, creepiest, and most disgusting book she'd ever read.)
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posted 1年以上前 
1-2vampire said:
well, i feel that yu should always build up to the fear the person's feeling, and 'build up' to the POW that will give yu a spine-tingling read. I'm not good at 書く horror, but yu may also need a LOT of discription, unless in first person and the character so scared they dont know what to do, i no im not good at 書く horror, hell im not good at 書く FULL STOP!
But heres and example if yu want, (1st person)

The creaking on the stairs got louder, louder until I could take it no more, I ran to the stair case and looked up. Nothing. Nothing but the dust that filled the air.
I went back to my chair, ハート, 心 pounding in my chest, picked up my book and started to read.
Then a knock on the door, I sighed, put down the book and got up to answer it. The door knocked again, もっと見る loud and frantic this time.
"I'm coming!" I called, then went to open the old creaky door, it swung open before my hand touched the door knob, and banged on the wall.
No one was there but a chilly breeze had started to form, lifting my hair and lacy night gown.
I pulled it down and slammed the door shut, breathing heavily. Rap rap rap, the window sounded, the creaking of the stairs giving me a shiver down my spine, an eerie air swirled around the room, a cackling laugh came from the broken TV. I started gasping in short, sharp breaths as something touched my shoulder, caressed it, even.
As an automatic relfelx, I spun round.
A horrible blue man with a twisted face, sharp teeth and the features you'd find in a horror film was snarling at me, his filthy, overgrown fingernails sliding down my throat, his eyes the colour of coal.
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out, I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't 移動する as the horrible man started to caress my cheek, then he went down to my neck again, and ran his finger across it. A sharp pain, then nothing.

It's cr*p and random, I know, I was just bored :D
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posted 1年以上前 
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Actually, I rather liked it. The only thing that bothred me was the "features you'd find in a horror film" - that feels like a cop-out. But the rest of it was quite suspenseful.
harold posted 1年以上前
OneFoggyNight said:
Heres a few things thatI'd like to read in a horror book sometimes

Mystery
Suspense
Murder
Contact with the dead
scary,predictive dreams
scary sounds (like, themain character hears ascream または something)
Idiotic Police
lots and LOTS of tears
a special occasion (ex, christmas, birthday, prom, wedding, 日付 ect ect)
MURDER on the occasion
Blood(and LOTS of it)
Completely horrific murders (see the Jack the Ripper's 5th murder for ideas)

Oh, and dont go overboard with the murders.As in,dontputlike 5 in every chapter.Put like...one in every 4-10 chapter (depending on the length of the book) and make them random,unexpected, and mysteruous.And especially suspnsfull (btw, thedeferince between mystery and suspense isthat suspense has a distant, almost unbelievealbe guess,that is contasntly pushed aside and cant is hardto put your fingeronexactlywhat itis and ,mystery doesnt haveit to that extent)for example, have something in atleast 3-4 murders that themain character identifies as "familiar", but really cant think ofwhat.




Btw, excuse the bad spaces,please.My spacebar canbe evul sometimes.

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posted 1年以上前 
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