A horror story taps into our fears by combining the ordinary with the shocking, the unnatural, and the grotesque.It is thrilling, terrifying and delightful at the same time.
Audiences’ reaction are delighted surprise at how the normal situation was subverted.
There are some of the critical elements to creating good horror stories.
But the most important aspect are the compelling book covers created by book cover designers. Hence you can’t deny the contribution of book cover illustrators in making your book a success.
THE ELEMENTS ARE
Read lots of horror books to understand what a horror story is like. Noted horror authors include Poe, Lovecraft, King, Shirley Jackson, Dean R. Koontz, and Robert Bloch etc.
Be authentic when writing horror stories. Write about experiences which will scare you.
When developing a character, make sure it is more human-like. The more real the character will be, the more your audience can resonate with its bad choice or misdoings.
Real can be scarier than the surreal ones. Psychological horror haunts a reader more than “jump out of the couch” ones. The Blair witch project & the Paranormal do not have gross parts, yet they’re popular.
The tone and mood should make a reader’s spine tingle before a character has made a decision. A dark or frightening tone is often pronounced.
Give every malevolent character a clear, strong motivation. So, the sinister on-goings keep readers guessing why unsettling things keep happening.
Let the character make wrong choices in blissful unawareness of their potential consequences. Acts of cruelty must have destructive rippling effects.
Know the difference between horror and terror. Terrorizing someone means intimidating someone through the use of fear. On the other hand, horror means a sense of disgust & surprise/shock.
Last but not the least, create a killer ending.
There should be a sense of dread, unease, anxiety, or foreboding. Some critics have noted that experiencing horror fiction is like reading about your worst nightmares.
After you have completed the manuscript, hand it over to book layout designer to design it into perfect horror one, if you’re thinking of self-publishing books.