How to Write Scary Ghost Stories that Terrify Your Readers Fear is one of the hardest things to provoke in writing. Just flip through the pages of any ghost story anthology; how many of them are genuinely scary? It takes more than tortured groans and rattling chains; anyone can throw gore at the reader and call it a day, but the art of raising goose bumps is an elusive one indeed. If you can write a scary ghost story, you can write anything. Are you ready to inspire nightmares? Then follow me… Fear of the Unknown People don’t fear death. No one’s afraid of ghosts. Monsters, murderers, darkness—none of the horror staples are really terrifying. If you rely on your audience being scared simply because your story includes any of the above, you’re doomed to fail. Instead, you must understand where terror truly lies. Everyone fears the unknown. People don’t know what comes after death, so they get scared. They don’t know what’s making that noise in the other room, so they call it a ghost and get scared. Darkness could be hiding anything—what exactly, we don’t know—so we get scared. Get the picture? We fear what we cannot understand. That’s why feeling a touch on your shoulder when you’re all alone is so frightening: it should be impossible. The best ghost stories take full advantage of this. You won’t see the ghost; you’ll only hear it, smell it, feel it. A ghost is like the wind; you’ll only see a curtain flutter, and the question will remain in your mind, what is it? When writing your ghost story, don’t be afraid of witholding information. Remember: your readers, by the very act of reading, have activated their imaginations. Use this against them! Don’t bog them down with long visual descriptions of a gruesome specter; I guarantee whatever you describe will not be nearly as scary as what they come up with on their own. After all, they know what frightens them most, you do not. My most extreme example of this is The Morgan House, in which the entire climax is left unclear. I offer only a few words of explanation, just enough to guide the reader’s imagination down a suitably dark path. A less severe example can be found near the end of The Room with the Dolls. A Dreadful Descent There are likely infinite ways to structure a scary story, but one thing will hold true for all of them: the fear is built up gradually. Think of it like you’re taking the reader on a journey from the safety of their world to the nightmare of yours. Like any journey, it is a transition from point A to point B. If you come out right away with your scariest scene, it won’t have any effect; the audience is still comfortably rooted in a soft armchair by a warm fire. That’s not to say you can never start with a spooky scene—in fact, it’s a good way to catch the audience’s interest and entice them to keep reading. Just make sure you save the best for last. Wait until the reader has gotten out of their comfy chair; wait until they’re curled up in the cold, damp corner of the basement. Once a reader is primed, they’re that much easier to scare. I use this steady progression of dread in The Expedition of Howard Rickson. The explorer goes from dismissing the sounds as those of his teammates to the gradual realisation that he is the only living soul in the place. Do You Believe in Ghosts? We all know your story is fictional. Ghosts aren’t real, and there’s nothing hiding under our beds. Fortunately, your audience is gracious enough to suspend their disbelief, but you have to meet them halfway. Your plot has to make sense and your characters have to behave appropriately. Give your readers enough detail (without violating the “fear of the unknown” principle) that they can immerse themselves in your world.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:09:02 +0000
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