Scary stories have to be scary. It is not about adding terror or horror scenes to cause that sensation in the reader, but rather something more subtle to achieve that suffocating atmosphere that makes you fear what is to come. However, achieving this is not easy, and not all writers who set out to do it achieve it.
Therefore, here we want to give you some keys to achieving that goal and being able to write scary stories. Do you want to know how? Take a look at the tips we can give you to do it. Shall we start?
Differences between fear, terror and horror
Before going on to give you the keys to writing scary stories, it is important that you know the difference between the words fear, terror and horror.
According to Spanish dictionary, the terror is something like a very intense fear. For its part, horror is not so much a fear, but more an intense feeling. In other words, terror can be due to fear, but that feeling can also come from another source.
And fear? As defined by the Royal Spanish Academy, it is:
"Anguishing disturbance of mood due to real or imagined risk or harm." Therefore, we could say that it is a feeling of anguish but mild, since when it becomes intense you enter into pure terror.
Tips for writing scary stories
If you have been bitten by the bug and want to write a story, a novel or a script based on fear, then here we are going to leave you some tips that could come in handy to understand how you should write it and thus become a professional of the genre.
Know the genre
When you want to write a type of genre before you must document yourself. And that means reading already established authors who create scary stories. Thus, we can recommend Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer with his "The Mountain of Souls", Edgar Allan Poe with his "The Black Cat", or even one of Bram Stoker's best-known films, "Dracula".
You are not going to be the best in the morning, but if you write and at the same time read about this genre you will begin to realize what the keys are and the fine thread that keeps you from going from fear to terror.
Another author who knows how to write fear very well is Stephen King.
Types of fear
Psychological fear, gothic, gore, morbid… The truth is that there are many types of fear, such as terror. But sometimes we do not pay attention to these and we see fear as something generic, and it is terror that we subdivide into different types. Fear can come in many forms. It can be a real fear or an unreal one (a fantasy or an invention of the protagonist). It could be a pathological fear, a phobia. But there can also be social, physical fear, fear of some element of everyday life, of animals...
The important thing when writing scary stories is to know what is the main fear of the story, because that way you can focus on a narrative that goes directly to it, and not going around or offering different types of fear (which will only make the story not believable).
It has to be real
Speaking of credibility. If you really want a reader to empathize with the protagonist and the story, to get fully involved, you have to make sure that it has real features. Regardless of whether you are dealing with a fantastic or paranormal story, It is necessary for the person to feel it as something that can really happen. That makes you think and doubt whether what is being said is real or not.
Let's give you an example. Do you remember The Shining? The main character, the father, has a very solid construction that gives context to his personality. And as a consequence of this, his behavior makes the rest of the family live in fear in his flesh. What can be real? Yes, it can be.
Another example, a haunted house. For a family to not know anything about it when the Internet is huge and everyone knows how to search would be strange, right? No matter how much of a bargain you think that purchase is. Therefore, it no longer attracts as much attention and even becomes implausible. Now, if even knowing that it is haunted, they enter wanting to take advantage of that house, and then they get consequences, things change, don't you think?
Atmosphere and tension
If you want to create a good scary story, unless you have a limitation on the number of words or pages, We recommend that you start softly and gradually create an atmosphere and increasing tension to distress the reader. In other words, you have to give a context to the story and then go deeper while leading the reader to discover what is hidden and overwhelm him with what is happening, until an outcome that provokes the fear you are focused on.
Final
Finally, you have the ending of the scary story. And here you must keep in mind that the genre is not one that has to offer a happy ending. In reality, it is more one in which doubt is sown as to whether the problem has been solved, if there are signs of it appearing again or if it has a bad ending.
Of course, you must bear in mind that You have to surprise the reader throughout the novel, but especially at the end. Because it is not good for the reader to anticipate what is going to happen (because then the story will not be funny).
As you can see, writing scary stories is not as easy as horror stories, but they are there and mastering the subtle art of being scary without being terror or horror can make you a great writer. Would you give us any more advice that you think is important? We read you in comments.