How to Build a Nightmare with Horror Fiction
Where is the horror story going? It seems to be back in full swing in novels, graphic novels and films. Horror fiction can, however, do things that other mediums cannot. Just what is a nightmare? It’s the kind of horror fiction that stays with you during dreams. So let’s see if you can create a horror nightmare.
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Instructions
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Start with scares. Writers like R.L. Stine, Stephen King, Clive Barker and many more understand that you start with a scare first. It doesn’t have to be completely original, but that helps. How do you scare an audience? You tap into the primal fears of people. Stephen King wrote of an alcoholic playwright losing his mind and family at the same time in “The Shining.” He told a story of a young girl going through puberty and scared to death, ending with others' deaths. You draw upon emotions when you want to scare, the emotions that stay with you.
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Step to emotions, which form the core of any fiction. Whether you are writing a literary novel, a horror screenplay or just a short story you’ve had in your head, writing emotions is one of the small secrets many writers seem to forget. Fear is the perfect emotion for horror fiction. It can be fear of the dark, fear of the bogeyman or just fear of people. Draw upon your character’s emotions, and you will win.
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Use blood and guts. So common in horror films, blood and guts are harder to use in horror fiction. However, it can be done, and done well. People don’t necessarily admit this and say, “I love blood and guts.” Myself, as a reader, cannot look away from the page when someone is being torn apart by a monster. It keeps the reader interested in your tales of vampires and werewolves. It allows you to create a nightmare for this reader.
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Use humor; you shouldn’t take your stories of ghouls and goblins too seriously. Use some humor to enliven the tale, because humor can make a reader, so used to cringing from your work, smile for a moment and get a break from the nightmare.
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Complete the nightmare. At the beginning of this story, you will be excited. It’s important with horror fiction, much like any other fiction, to complete the tale. Nightmares have a way of staying with you. Once you finish one horror nightmare, you will want to start the next. However, you may think, “It stinks,” and delete any existence of the work. There is an old story of Stephen King, a master nightmare creator, who tossed out the first pages of “Carrie,” the novel that made him famous and a millionaire, because he thought it was bad. His wife found the pages in the trash; she read them and told the great horror writer to finish the story. Remember that story the next time you don’t want to complete the nightmare.
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Tips & Warnings
You can play with dreams in horror fiction, too. Remember this nightmare will play upon the base fears of the readers, often fears they experience during dreams.
The basic fear of the dark is rather simple but hard to put to the page. If you draw on emotions, it isn’t.
Horror fiction may be back on the rise, but, like any other novel, this form is still hard to publish.
