W​riting Horror Stories That Sell

Many readers think of pulp fiction monsters such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies when you mention horror writing. However, modern tales of terror can take their rightful place next to any other genre when it comes to the quality of the writing.

Reading horror novels can even help you improve as a writer, as they bring together some of the most important elements in writing and will teach you a thing or two about the importance of empathy in your stories.

When you’re starting your career as a horror writer, gaining an understanding of the past, present, and possible future of the genre, will help you and inspire you to produce original work.

Reading horror books in many different styles will help you avoid reproducing overused story types and themes. You need to have a good grasp of what was popular in the past and which stories might be popular in future.

Horror fiction can teach you to write with empathy. Your stories won’t work if your readers don’t feel a connection to your characters.

Stephen King, the master of terror, says horror writing is more effective if the characters are likable and we can get readers to care about them. King prefers to write about nice people who face adversity and come out on top in the end, like the children in It who finally defeat the monster when they’re adults. It’s also evident throughout the story that they care about each other—as children and later as adults.

In horror books, creating empathy with the characters often involves putting normal people into abnormal circumstances. The idea is to make your readers feel that they’re watching one of their own family members or friends in trouble, by creating multi-layered characters that they can connect with.

Horror fiction will also teach you good pacing. The books are usually fast-paced and the tension accelerates quickly, which will give you an understanding of how to keep your story moving.

King says creating terror is one of the key elements of a good horror story. It’s that feeling you get when the lights go out and you feel something just behind you, or you hear something move, but there is nothing there when you turn around. It’s crucial to slowly build the suspense to the moment of the big scare.

Stephen King’s stories always start with the ordinary and normal, which then makes the later abnormal behavior of the characters, or creepy events, even more noticeable.

King builds the terror by focusing on the ordinary as the tension accelerates—the toy boat falls down a sewer and the reader sees an overturned tricycle next to the gutter.

Keeping the following tips in mind will help you produce the best horror stories.

Use Your Own Fears to Scare Your Readers

You will produce your best (and scariest!) stories if you write from your own fears and experience. Even everyday experiences that are a little out of the ordinary, might help you produce the creepiest horror fiction.

A strong emotional core with well-developed characters, is especially important for horror writing, because of its internal nature. The true horror will always happen within the characters.

You can develop your story’s emotional core by depicting your characters’ experience of the terrifying events and by identifying closely with their viewpoints. The emotional core is stronger when characters have a personal connection to the terror, as in Shirley Jackson’s story, The Lottery, where the pagan cult is part of the community.

Most people can relate to a fear of the unknown. It causes us anxiety when we don’t have control over the outcome of a situation. In horror books, we’re also scared by what we don’t know. Will we survive an apocalypse and will the world even get back to normal?

By only giving readers bits of the storyline, you leave them mostly in the dark, which creates tension. It’s essential to provide your readers with small clues leading to the bigger picture. Who is the killer? What caused the virus?

It is possible to be successful at horror writing, even though it is a competitive market. These days you can even get your books into the hands of your readers through self-publishing or by publishing on web platforms.

Before you get even close to the publishing stage, you can improve your chances of success by honing your craft and learning from those writers who came before you.