“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.”
—Robert Bloch
As we approach the spooky season, I have found myself exploring humanity’s fascination with fear. Since the beginning of mankind, humans have been scaring one another. According to Margee Kerr, a sociologist who studies fear, humans scare each other for a lot of different reasons—”to build group unity, to prepare kids for life in the scary world and to control behavior.” It is only in the last couple of centuries that humanity’s perspective on fear has shifted and we’ve begun seeking scary experiences for fun rather than necessity.
We have seen the rise of horror as a genre in and of itself. Famous novelist’s, such as Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, have dedicated their careers to scaring the masses of people who have read their works. People line up outside of movie theaters to see films such as The Conjuring, Insidious, It, etc. We have even created an entire commercial holiday dedicated to being scared.
There is no denying it. People love to be scared.
The question then becomes, how do we, as writers, incorporate fear into our work? Scaring people is not an easy job. Between video games, movies and the instant gratification of the constant news cycle, people living in today’s world are surrounded by horrifying images all the time.
If you truly want to scare your audience, it is important to consider the following tips.
- Bad things happen to good people.
Stephen King is a master when it comes to developing complex, likable characters. I recently saw It in theaters and I was amazed by the amount of character development each kid went through as the story progressed. You saw a piece of your adolescent self-shining through in each of the character. It is because you like them so much that when King puts them into danger, you feel a sudden intense spike of fear. You don’t want anything bad to happen to these kids because you see yourself in them
That is the genius of Stephen King’s writing. You grow attached to his characters because they are, for the most part, good people. If something awful can happen to them then something awful can happen to anyone. If something awful can happen to anyone then something awful can happen to you.
- Your protagonist needs to make mistakes. Big ones. Mistakes that put their life on the line.
It is important that your protagonist makes bad decisions and I’m not talking about refusing to eat their vegetables. Like in the first Scream movie, the protagonist ran outside to escape the psycho killer only to run into another killer outside. Your characters should never catch a break.
If you’re anything like me, if the power went out and I heard mysterious sounds outside, I could call 911, grab the nearest baseball bat and lock myself in my house. However, your victim should go out and face the danger, but it is important that you give them a credible reason for doing so. Maybe the victim has a dog that they left outside and they can’t bear the thought of leaving their pet behind. Whatever the reason is, it is important that your character has a valid reason for putting him or herself into danger.
- Write about what personally terrifies you.
There is no one you know more about than yourself. Utilize this when your writing! Going back to Stephen King’s It, when approaching this story, King wanted to incorporate every monster that had scared him as a kid. Because he had experienced a genuine fear of clowns, the character of Pennywise is that much more terrifying.
It can also be beneficial to play on primal fears. Most people are afraid of the unknown and the dark. Use this to your advantage. I love subtle horror so I find it particularly horrifying when there’s a slight twist in what is normal. You walk into your house and everything is moved just a few inches over. Your car keys keep disappearing and you find them later in a place you know you couldn’t have put them. You hear voices coming from your children’s bedroom and you walk down the hall anticipating getting on to your children for not being in bed only to find them both fast asleep.
Horror is not only blood and guts. You want to be creative.
I hope that these tips were helpful as you move forward into a new project this Halloween season. Don’t be afraid to utilize elements of horror. Most importantly, remember to never turn out the light!
