While not every reader is a horror fan, plenty love to be scared. A good fright gives us the same natural high we get from running, completing a difficult task, or having banging sex. It’s addictive, but it’s not easy to give someone that kick vicariously through prose.
In a guest post on Janice Hardy’s blog, Bonnie Randall offers some suggestions for ways you can get under your readers’ skins. She says the following elements can help you craft a good fright:
- Things that look normal are not normal. “Such concepts mess with our sense of security,” Randall says.
- There’s something “off” about a familiar person or object. “You can’t quite put your finger on these ones—they are effervescent, visible only out of the corner of your eye,” Randall writes. “These notions—the familiar not being familiar, the normal being abnormal—they upend our sense of trust, and when we suddenly cannot rely on something we know to be true, the thrill of fear is there.”
- There’s a suspenseful atmosphere. “When crafting a scary story, anticipation isn’t quite enough,” Randall advises. “You also want to generate and maintain a sense of dread.”
- People or objects are the opposite of what they seem. “Mess with beliefs. Challenge values. It is scary, after all, to come to terms with the fact that your doctor, your mother, your religion, has actually been out to get you all along,” Randall says. Or that you must pair up with that which is foul—a Ouija Board, a Hannibal, a demon—in order to attain the (noble) goal you seek.”
- The demons are relatable. “It is truly horrifying to realize that we can actually relate—empathically—to a monster,” Randall explains. “You don’t want the evil to become some sort of tragic hero…but you do want to leverage elements of tragedy in order to build that sympathy and create that sense of disorientation within the reader.”
