🦇 9 tips for writing spine-chilling horror 

1. 1:08 tap into own fears 2. 2:56 make perspective close. Make the story relatable. 3. 4:15 don’t overplay violence and gore. Takes emphasis off the writing itself 4. 5:18 do good research. 5. 6:38 use fear of unknown 6. 7:01 pace the book in different ways to create paranoia. 7. 8:00 keep a consistent theme 8. 9:21 don’t over emphasize one scare, keep the plot close and high quality. Don’t give it all up for one climax. 9. 9:52 make your ending powerful Hope this helps 🤗

Why small acts of violence, in my opinion, are more effective is because most of the time it’s something the reader can relate to on a small level. We’ve all caught our nail on something before and know the specific feeling related to that, so we could imagine how it would feel to have your nail ripped off, whereas we really have no idea what it would feel like to be decapitated.

I feel like a book about overthinking would be amazing

I started writing a 1960s horror comedy for the sheer enjoyment of the campiness, but once the basic plot was out on paper I realized there was very little horror theming, just a cool spooky aesthetic and a half-baked mystery 😅 I think I'm teetering in the middle of the horror and comedy aspects, and not fully indulging in either. I'm super glad I found your video because it's helped push me to dig deeper into the broader theme of fear in this story! 🖤🦇

Painful moments over gore and death is worse because the person has to feel the sensation of getting their fingernails being ripped off... we can relate to pain and imagine pain we've never felt which is more unsettling that gore and death.

One of the best horror writers of all time, H.P. Lovecraft said that fear is the most powerful emotion in humans and specifically, fear of the unknown. So the fact you mentioned that speaks volumes of your knowledge. Plus, you were fun to watch 😉 Great tips!

Im writing a sorry about a group of teens who summoned the spirit of a serial killer with supernatural abilities. This really helped!

1) 1:08 2) 2:53 3) 4:11 4) 5:15 5) 6:30 6) 6:56 7) 7:56 8) 9:12 9) 9:42

this list is so cool - I'm honestly a massive scaredy cat in books so I avoid horror for the most part but now I want to analyze all the different elements of my fear and speculate story scenarios 🤔

I'm currently writing a horror/western collection. I agree with you on all of these points. One tip I picked up early on was to make every monster count. From Godzilla to Babadook, we remember good monster's because they are manifestations of a greater theme. This is the first video I've seen of yours and I look forward to checking more out.

Watched a lot of advices on how to write scary before going there myself next month and I find this one underrated. I related to it so much and I think it's not just about taste in writing/reading horror but because i share your way to apprehend / comprehend fear itself. This was a treat to watch, thank you!

I'm currently writing a fantasy horror story but since I'm going through a big case of writer's block I'm just writing down individual scenes that I plan to eventually tie together in a more cohesive timeline. My most recent scene involved the MC sneaking into a camp to get some supplies, only to be met with an undead creature that was being kept secret within the camp. The first version was okay but it felt a bit distant. Like I described everything that happened but it didn't feel personal enough. Then remembering the "Five senses" technique, I rewrote the scene but kept visual descriptors at a bare minimum. Now I talked about how cold the night was, the errie quiet as the MC snuck about, making her own footsteps sound far louder than they actually were. I talked about even after escaping the creature, the scent of decay still remained in the MC's mind hours after the fact. I highly recommend you try this trick.

thanks for this video. I've never really been proud of the horror I've written before but with these tips in mind and working them into the story, I'm much more satisfied with my writings. thank you so much.

thank you so much !!!😃🥰 I've been writing my story for almost 2 years and ran out of ideas, now I have tons of ideas, my story is about this doll, she created her own mystical world, its the world of dolls, I can't wait to publish it.

Horror comedy to me is the equivalent of sweet and spicy to taste. The absolute best combination.

Honestly the point about subtle vs visceral violence is so important for the shock factor you're going for. For example there was this scene in a certain game where the protagonist finds out the group that caught her are cannibals, in the game the cannibalistic aspect is presented as casual shock, she wakes up and the men are just casually chopping off a man's arm, while in the series she's talking with the leader, and then slowly she sees there's a single ear almost innocently lying on the floor, all this after receiving a plate with "deer" meat on it (in the game she actually eats it), and that's when the horror realization kicks in for real, she has been cocky and aggressive all this time but now? Now she's **scared**. The show made that revelation scene much more powerful to me as an expectator, but the game's execution was great as well.

2:46 I swear someone at my work laughed at this exact moment LOL (I'm wearing earphones btw)

I have to write a scary short story first school so thank you for this!

I came up with an idea for a story of a little girl who is locked in her basement and her dad abuses her every day in there however, she sees him as a monster or a demon. From the perspective of the reader, it will seem like a monster is attacking her. At the end of the story, it will be revealed that the monster or demon was her father the entire time and she will never escape him.

I'm trying to write a horror story for myself, and so this is really helpful! Also, one of my favorite writers is Lindsay Currie. ❤

I actually find horror novels a lot scarier than horror movies. Don't get me wrong, a good horror movie can definitely scare me. But in books, you're more like inside the character's head, and that's where the real horror is. Take The Shining for example. I found the book WAY scarier than the movie. And it had some scenes that were really unsettling in the book, but in the movie they really wouldn't have been. Only Stephen King can make a fire extinguisher scary. Or that scene where the little kid is playing in the haunted playground, and he feels something in the (I think it was) jungle gym with him, but he never sees it, we never see it, it's never described explicitly, and he's terrified and trying to get away from it as fast as possible. That unease, it would have been difficult to convey in the movie, but it was done really well in the book. A horror story in book form can do a lot more to get into your head than a movie can, in my opinion. I dislike the slasher genre, largely because I think it's just gross, personally, but also and more importantly because I feel horror is more psychological. I think a lot of the fear is taken away when it's so in-your-face. Then it may be shocking, but it's not like... real horror. In my opinion. Some of the horror movies that have really scared me, they're more psychological and you don't really see much of the actual "monster". Like The Changeling (1980). Or Noroi (2005). In The Changeling, you only actually see the ghost boy a couple times. So when he does appear, and the WAY in which he appears, it's much more terrifying than if he's just in your face for half the movie. And Noroi... well, I don't even know how to explain that movie satisfactorily, you just have to watch it. It's amazing. But anyway, to wrap up what I'm trying to say, horror is a lot more what you FEEL than what you SEE. If it's too visual, if it's too explained and obvious and in-your-face, it's less scary. Horror movies can be terrifying, but horror novels can be much more so in my opinion because they get much more inside your head and you're feeling it all rather than seeing it with your eyes.

Great video. working on writing a short horror story and I've been looking for different tips for it!

Can you do a full video of other references like “biting down on a rusty nail.” that was such a good example. 😂

Another direction that ghost stories can hit us from, is fear of the past -- fear of past misdeeds having an unpaid price, that gets demanded in the present day. (Cryptid/monster stories can do this as well: "The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Graham Jones is a great example, but the Hellboy story "Drums of the Dead" has stuck with me since reading it for the same reason.)

Thanks for the advice, I took away a lot from this. But please don't apologize for speeking with your hands, its commendable

I hope you do more videos for Halloween this year - it's not easy to get great horror writing advice in particular and this is very helpful ;)

I came here to get advice for writing my horror short story, it is about a group of teens stumbling upon an animalistic predator that knows how to make traps and can accurately reason where the protagonists are going and actively drives them away from where they should be going to get out alive.

Be realistic in scenes. If you would die in real life don't let them live when they should not. Fear can be used in different ways in horror also. I write mostly horror myself.

smaller acts of violence are more relatable and we get scared because we CAN see that happening to us. I could accidentally have my fingernail pulled of. In fact, if the girl that does my nails is to be trusted, it happens to more people than you'd think. But being decapitated or cut in half? The chances of that ever happening to me are probably close to 0, so it does not even have me concerned, let alone scared.

This video earned a sub. Im writing for my life to get published, and am sitting frustratingly at ~26k words. Going to be diving in for more research and hope somehow I can get away with my first publication being a novella since i vehemently believe the story doesnt *need* more 🤷🏻‍♂️ Thanks for the uploads!

I read about a pair of pit bulls owned by a family for 8 years, who killed the son and daughter and put the wife in the hospital. I love dogs, and I just can't wrap my head around how you could love an animal for 8 years and have it literally destroy your family and children. Dying by dog bites is also a really bad way to go. I think I really have to explore that fear more (especially as someone who loves Rottweilers.)

Thank you so much for this video! I’m currently writing a rough draft and this helped me a lot! :)

Too many movies rely on jump scares and that goes into books as well. I try to implement scares that are based on a shocking or horrific revelation, The Walking Dead Telltale series did an amazing job with one where SPOILER they found out the people that were giving them shelter were cannibals. They found a missing friend tied up in a room with his legs cut off ahhh! That inspired a story I wrote which was especially creepy. Other examples are a character accidentally saying something that clues in protagonist that they're the killer, maybe the protagonist realizes THEY are the killer, or a something they thought was just a dream actually happened. That sort of psychological play is what I loooove not only cuz of shock but also messing with expectations especially if you make it like something different was going to play out.

Thankyou so much for these points coz I'm trying new concept for my stories 🙌❤️

Thank you for this!

i’m writing a book about a girl who gets possessed by a ghost after moving to the bronx from new jersey. this really helped!

I think simplicity is best when writing horror and violence in a realistic fashion. Most death and violence in real life is quick and sloppy, kinda gritty. Sometimes it’s slow but clean, or it’s quick, and messy. Most people don’t get tortured to death, and it makes for predictable writing. My best tip is make your descriptions simple but violent for the murder during the act. Especially from the killers perspective, less is more. Here’s an example I wrote (hopefully it gets my point across): “I sat over her watching the life slowly fade. I saw the light flicker in her eyes and thought, she looked so beautiful.”

I needed some advice to write a scary character and even though this is for horror stories I still find it helpful, thanks

Just by watching one video from your channel, I know I’m going to enjoy other videos of yours, so I’m subscribed to up you now! Thank you! 😊

This was really useful! Thanks.

You have NEVER given me useless information!

As a kid that is into horror, I struggle to not make my horror stories gruesome because my parents would whip out the holy cross lol. This helps.

I agree the more the monster is revealed the less tension its presence can carry. Most monster horror starts with very little known of the thing and gradually unveils its form but that's sort of the opposite of what should happen. Like a movie needs to get more tense as you approach the resolution, not less. The ideal monster might be something like a monster which grows and transmutes behind a closed door. Its growls can be heard, it can even be felt when it shakes the house, maybe it emits a putrid stench, but as it grows the percentage of its mass that can be seen through the keyhole decreases over time. It should only become more enigmatic

extremely benefcial and good advices, thanks so much Lynn. +1 Subscriber

Thanks for the video!

For my ELA class I'm writing a horror story so this really helped so thank you❤

If you’re looking into fears, The Magnus Archives really digs into it. It’s a couple seasons in when the really interesting stuff is revealed, but the entire podcast literally REVOLVES around fear.

Im using this for a writing comp great help👍

I've written an action horror novel where the protagonist is an assassin working for a cult. He doesn't struggle with cosmic monstrosities or demons. The horror comes from both his childhood trauma (evil haunted him and no one believed him) and the realisation that HE is the most dangerous entity in the book. Other than that, I lean into vivid action scenes, towering monsters and a wraith-like cult leader operating behind the scenes. I want the book to be fun-frightening, like 'Evil Dead 2'.

Thank you! I have an English writing contest and this helped a lot!

I’m writing a short horror/suspense story about a submarine stuck at the bottom of the ocean, and there is a mystery involved as to why - (input science machine that was at the bottom of the ocean) stopped working, and the suspense of the character walking around on the sea floor trying to get his sub working again and solve the issues that arise. (As well as some maybe leviathan class creatures that will be hopefully implemented in a way to create suspense and foreshadowing). Thanks for these tips! As this story heavily draws on the fear of the unknown/darkness.

Thanks so much! I'm currently trying my hardest to write a book called "The Scapegoat". I'm really excited to release it in a few years from now!

Thanks. I'll be sure to incorporate these into my channel

I just linked this video to my blog. I hope it gets you some well-deserved views!

I totally agree with the small acts of violence point because even after seeing stuff like Dredd 2012 and Midsommer, i still believe that the bottle scene in Pan’s Labyrinth is the most violent and difficult to watch thing I’ve seen in a movie.

I really enjoyed this video thanks

I’m so fucking excited to write this!!! So it’s going to be a short story were it starts off a silly little classic hero vs villain tale but woah, twist, the protagonist is the sidekick of the hero!…but that’s not the real twist. The entire world is just a made up world by the “hero” and they can control everyone and everything that happens. The protagonist tries to reveal this, but the hero only resets the world, over and over in an infinite loop. The ending is it becoming so close to an end but in reality the hero was just toying and seeing how it would play out. The world resets, and the hero is left to be adored and perfect in their own world. The protagonist forgets all about everything and…it’s the same as the beginning. It’s all about lack of control.

I think what makes Stephen King’s monsters are so effective is that their qualities, abilities and weaknesses are very ambiguous and difficult to ascertain. Even outside of knowing how to defend yourself against Pennywise, TommyKnockers or the Overlook Hotel, not knowing what the they want to do, or can do, is unsettling

I don't have alot of fears for fiction but I am sort of a squeamish person, so I make up for it with gruesome and brutal events, rather than chilling events

I’m writing a story about a man who finds ruins with evidences of sacrifice to a god, and he is hunted for finding said evidence. I want to make a personal struggle with the main character, what should it be?

I love horror and I want to try and write a horror story so badly, the only problem is that I freakin suck at writing. I haven’t tried for quite awhile but I want to give it a try again now that I’m older and wiser, I just really struggle when it comes to coming up with ideas. I have always been terrified of Mascots and Animatronics, which is why FNAF will always hold a special place in my heart. The only problem is I don’t even know where to start and whenever I come up with an idea I end up scrapping it because I’m not to confident with my writing skills 🥴

WHY AM I ONLY GETTING GOOD IDEAS WHEN THE VIDEO GOES when i go to my writing table im lost im blank but when i see the video im bursting out super frikin great ideas Whyyyyy

me : hey google if i break the 3rd vertebra is it enough to kill or severaly injure some one? and how do i get away with it? My FBI agent : ...

Thq alot to u sis ...tomorrow is my exam and it really helped me alot 🌸✨...

Thank you for the video

Hey, very nice video, im currently working on a point and click decision based horror game, because when i started it seemed like it would be a fun challenge in the coding aspect, but the story is really hard to come up with. Its hard to make up everything, and its really hard to not make it obnoxious, and its more hard to not make it stale, and boring. Im trying my best here, refusing to use ChatGPT, and just trying to make it as good as i can. But its really hard😅

This will definitely help me in my horror story to prove dinosaurs can be scary

6:55 I am really picky with horror but I love Mike Flanagan! I don't find any of his works particularly scary as I am very desensitized to a lot of stuff but his horror actually has a story behind it and kept me watching. When someone is just trying to be scary but disregards the characters it makes the horror not compelling at all (an example in my opinion would be The Conjuring. I didn't find it scary and honestly was bored) I have no current horror writing experience (i'm getting started) but as an audience member I can tell you that much.

Very good tips. You should consider teaching people to write stories for video games. This video is great for Horror games. Thank you very much!

If you get an opportunity, I highly recommend all here to read Watchers by Dean Koontz. That book has essentially everything that Lynn has said here and is one of Dean Koontz' most popular and recognized horror novels. Relatable protagonists and clearly researched details and great villains/monsters and excellent prose and theme that resonates, etc. Great book, and an amazing example of what horror can and probably, in most cases, SHOULD do for readers.

I think accidental violence can be the scariest kind. Falling off a ledge, tripping down stairs, being hit by a car etc while being chased or chasing something etc. That stuff happens in real life all the time.

my way of researching how to write horror is honestly just reading stephen king lmao

Despite the fact that I’ve never made a proper story before, I’ve got multiple ideas for them in my head, so that’s why I’m learning. I’m making a story that’s inspired by the champawat tiger and other man eating big cats, as I love jaws

An excellent version of drawing the reader-listener is Current 93's adaptation of Thomas Ligotti's "I have a special plan for this world'.

My personal opinion on the violence/gore topic. For the style of horror I usually write (being slasher, with some creepypasta influence) I feel personally that the gore and violence in those genres is somewhat romanticized in the community, almost to where the stories seem to portray murder as "cool", creepypasta has this problem with a lot of the big stories, though not necessarily on purpose, so in my writing, usually I like to keep the somewhat over the top style of the gore for shock value, but I try to play more into the brutality of it, and emphasize that these acts are absolutely horrible, and not once should they be seen as "cool".

I'm used to bizarre horror, you could say a fear of the unknown but on steroids, like the 'Mystery Flesh Pit National Park' internet horror story. I understand what makes the story scary, but holy hell, how does one even think of something like that?

When people think of horror writers, they probably think of the creepiest person imaginable. But that’s a misconception. Writers who know how to scare their audience, know fear better than anyone else. Someone who successfully scares their audience may just be the biggest coward there is

Im going to have to make a video on this, but read "The Thing in the Basement Has Gotten Better at Mimicking People", an online horror story. It displays, above all else, that the scary part isnt what scares you in horror writing. Translating the threat the way a movie does wont give you good fiction. What this genre depends on is a theme that, only by the end, do you truly realize. It can be one sentence. It can be one page. It can be a singular thought. But find something human and break it. Make the reader question their sanity as they set down your book and stare in mindless shock. The way the Sixth Sense made you realize the one who was dead this whole time was the main character. The idea of the babadook not being the villain, but yourself for creating it, ect. Those are examples of what I mean in film, but it applies to stories as well.

Tysm ! I'm planning to write like parasite-ish horror- well technically body horror BUT PARASITE YASS

Lovecraft stumbled on something interesting: it’s not the fear of the unknown, it is the fear of the unknowable that is the ultimate fear. It is not about not knowing something and finding it out.. that’s the problem of all scary movies (including the first Alien movie sadly) as they reveal ‘something’, whatever that thing is, at the end. The true ultimate fear is: there is nothing to reveal because even if revealed you wouldn’t understand and get to know what it is.. and then, if you achieved that, the fear just never leaves. And the idea keeps visiting you. It’s similar to other emotions where we develop obsessions..

Super cute pumpkin

I have a fear of being Crazy, that everything around me might be just a my imagination, and that im actually in a Psychoatrical Hospital or something

7:00 describe the thing one way and then later subtly change the way it's described

So I'm working on the novel that's supposed to be horror with a slight romance twist in it. It's how the antagonist wins and gets the girl and the girl actually is totally chill about it, because the slasher and her have this sort of frenemies gimic going on. Something happens to the girl in middle of the story and boom, protagonist turns into a villains, and the story goes from finding out who the slasher is to taking revenge on everyone who hurt her alongside her slasher guy. I dunno how I'll adapt this idea onto paper for funsies but i just like the idea that the protagonist has just had enough shit and goes through her madness arc and is like "Y'know, fuck it, this guy was right, you all suck"

Im writing a book about flesh eating fae and i want it to be horrific and gory but i dont want it to be too much

I’m writing a story for my library’s Horror Short story contest and you have to add something about Edgar Allan Poe

I have a Halloween story idea: revenge of the Halloween scarecrow king. It’s when this young bullied boy in London gets banished and thrown into another dimension to a Halloween underworld and returns years later as a vengeful scarecrow for revenge and in search of a queen. And he wants his queen to be his childhood crush, lily Walton. he’ll stop at nothing for the ones who tormented and wronged him to get what they deserve, and for him to get lily to be his queen in his new home in the Halloween underworld. He’ll even kill his childhood bullies to keep them from interfering when word gets out in the news about a scarecrow stalker figure in town. It’s a work in progress.

I am in love 😍

I was gonna write a lockdown horror book. I've actually been in a lockdown (real one) but a person wasn't in the building It was a gun outside and someone had a gun in their backpack

I’m writing a horror book with my friends I’m the one re wording there sentences and writing it since I have quite awsome grades in literature so I need some ideas!

I’m am currently making a horror story called The Weepings, although there is a moment of gore in it

4:45 It's worse because you have a better idea of what it would feel like.

While my young adult dinosaur science fantasy novel isn’t a horror story, I wonder if I could add to horror in most monster, animal and human attack scenes. Yes, there are also monsters that aren’t dinosaurs and they play the most important role in this story.

A personal advice Make sure there is some happy moments it will make the bloody deaths of your traumatized characters waaay more impactful and shocking you need to make the audience attached to your characters that way the horror more impactful making everything scary all the time becomes boring and you loose shock value

I was a combat medic in the Army during my younger days. I pull from that when writing. I find that it lends a certain realism to my ideas because I'm drawing them from actual feelings. My plots may not be perfect but when it's time to write in the fear, I can even disgust or frighten myself when I read my own writing back to myself lol

I actually can't write at night, because I scare myself.

I fell for Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard at an early age. I long ago had to give up being bothered by an author's lack of technical knowledge.

Most Horror today is basically just murder porn with the subtext of it being disguised as innovative, intelligent, scary, and nail biting edge of your seat It's really just recycled plots and devices that are tired and boring

My English teacher boutta be scarred lol

writing a book about a group of teens accidentally killing another teen who 2 years latter mysteriously re-apears in the same town and the same school. Somehow that group of teens are the only people who notice this re-apearance.