Set the scene

Settings are so important to creating tension. Graveyards, old houses, dentist offices, they all get our emotions going because we immediately associate those places with bad things.

But it doesn't just have to be a scary place. It can be how you describe it. Use gross words to describe the details to evoke unsavory emotions. Even a field of flowers can be scary. "The wind blew waves across the field of roses like a sea of blood." It's how you describe it that counts.

The stakes

Fear is only possible when your audience knows what could go wrong. So, find something to threaten them with. What is the worst thing that could happen right now? Find that thing and lay it on the table for your audience to see like a gun at a poker table.

The Quiet Place does this so well in many scenes. But one example in particular is a nail turned upward on a staircase. A monster that hunts by sound is chasing a pregnant mother (which is already scary) and the audience knows a nail is sticking up on the stairs. Boom. The stakes are set. The writers have now threatened the audience with a nail in the foot. It's especially harrowing because the item is so small but has such devastating consequences.

I set the stakes in my story when Autumn enters a haunted house with her friends. Very early on Autumn starts to fear what could happen if a ghost attacks her friends. I've now laid the stakes out in front of the audience.

Point your gun at something and hover your finger over the trigger.

But Nick, how do I make the audience fear for my character when they know I have no intention of killing them?

There are other ways to harm a character. Psychological trauma is a popular one. Madness, trauma, confusion, or maybe the loss of an ability.

Identify the stakes and dangle them in front of your audience.

Take away safety

Most horror films take place at night for one very simple reason. Things hide in the dark. We fear what we can't see.

We get scared when we feel vulnerable. A great way to instill fear is to take away the thing that makes us feel safe. So take away sight, or a weapon, or ability.

Drag it out

A great way to build tension is to drag out the mystery. Reveal only pieces of the mystery slowly.

Imagine a man hasn't seen his wife in a week. But one day a large box appears on his doorstep. He brings the box inside.

But he sets it aside for later since he's on a phone call. But soon a putrid smell begins to fill the room. So he checks the fridge for rotten eggs. But he could have sworn the eggs were fine when he bought them yesterday.

Then he hears a dripping noise. He checks everywhere but eventually narrows it down to the box dripping something onto the floor. It was raining earlier so that could be it.

Then he notices a note taped to the box....

“OPEN THE DAMN BOX ALREADY!!!!” You might be saying.

Without saying anything your audience is already imagining all of the horrible things that could be in the box.

Tension is created when you present a mystery and reveal it slowly. Which leads to my next point.

Keep your horror in the mind

Your audience’s imagination is far more terrifying than anything you could describe. So be vague.

Beat around the bush a little. If you have a monster, don't reveal the details until the end.

What it looks like doesn't matter as much as how it's appearance makes the character feel. So focus on that part. And be vague with your horrific descriptions.

Sometimes the scariest parts of a monster are the sounds you hear when it's near. Or the aftermath of its arrival. Like hearing a dog suddenly stop barking. Or maybe the Ring camera goes off “there’s a person at your back door”. Then, going outside to see blood. We never see a monster, but we see what it's capable of.

As soon as you identify something, it's immediately less scary.

Use the senses

Sight, smell, sound, touch, taste... these are simple ways to capture a readers imagination. Gurgling noises, rotten smells, sour tastes, cold rooms. Our senses are how we experience the world. Use them to bring your scene to life.

Personally, I like to juxtapose ugly things with mundane things.

Like the flower is the color of freshly cut meat. Or the corpse collapsed in the water like a bundle of wet towels.

Your audience probably doesn't know what a dead body feels like. But they do know what it towels feel like.

Think of specific senses. Like the coppery smell of ozone before a storm, the taste of iron in the back of your throat when you have a nose bleed, or the tickle of a spider crawling up your spine.

Repetition

Tick...tick...tick... This can happen in two ways. The first includes repeating a sound or smell or something that happens over and over and over getting worse and worse. Eventually it drives the character to madness. Like a dripping faucet or a beating heart in the floorboards.

Edgar Allan Poe is well known for his use of repetition. The raven, the pit and the pendulum, the tell tale heart...

The second way involves creating like a calling card of sorts. If your monster or villain has a certain smell, or has a catch phrase, or whistles, use that to introduce them every time. But first, associate that thing with a horrific event.

Maybe a girl watched her family die, all while smelling lavender and honey. Then later, she smells lavender and honey and immediately the audience is reminded of the original scene.

Real life is often scarier than fantasy

This one's simple. Sure, a spooky ghost haunting a home is frightening. But the audience knows your creature is fantasy. So we're a bit safe. So try to throw real world threats in with them.

Like yes there's a ghost, but maybe the owner of the house is a creepy old man who doesn't like kids invading his home. Or maybe a person is making blood sacrifices to the ghost to give it strength.

Q&A

“How should horror stories end”

Every story should have a point where there is no going back. A moment where there is no returning to the world we left at the beginning. And the only hope is some semblance of peace. Our characters aren't the same and they never will be. I like a story where at the climax I think “there's no way this story ends happily” Even if it does have a happy ending, it isn't the one you envisioned in the beginning.

“How do you balance horror with narrative.”

I think horror is a tool to push the narrative. If you need your character to learn new information, use horror to reveal it. If a character needs to make a tough decision, shroud the emotion of that decision in horror. You can use horror to avoid exposition. Instead of just explaining the scary history of a setting, make the setting scary and riddled with unsettling scenes.

“How do you build a magic system for horror?”

I like to ground it in something real. For me, I grounded it in the belief that the soul is just energy. And energy cannot be created or destroyed. I based my magic in actual beliefs of the paranormal. Like the Stone Tape theory is a real thing.

But for horror it's important that your magic isn't too powerful. It needs a limit, so you can take it away when you want to build tension.

“Why are fingernails so creepy?”

I don't know. But they are.

“WHATS IN THE BOX?”

😈

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