How to Write Today's Horror

Part II: What Today's Readers Want

by David Taylor

Part 1- Suspense and keeping the reader on the edge of their seat is the number 1 necessary
ingredient in writing horror. Connected to the suspense is a shocking ending.

The question is simple: How to write awe-inspiring stories that leave readers panting and our
bank accounts swelling.

What worked for M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood in the 20s, Lovecraft in the 30s, Richard
Matheson and Ray Bradbury in the 50s, Robert Aickman in the 60s, Stephen King in the 70s,
Stephen King and Clive Barker in the 80s, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Rick McCammon and
Dan Simmons in the 90s won't necessarily frighten or entertain readers in the 2000s. What will?

During a course in "Contemporary Horror Fiction" at Moravian College in Pennsylvania, I asked

thirty-two undergraduates exactly that question.

I first asked, "What are the elements that make for a good horror story?" And then had them
explore the flip-side: "What ruins a horror story for you?"

Suspense: Keep 'Em On Edge

One result trumped all others: 97 percent of the students listed "suspense" as the primary
ingredient of a good horror story. Keep in mind that this was not a multiple-choice survey; these
students had a blank page in front of them and could have written down anything.

Virtually every student wrote something like:

• "I want to be kept on the edge of my seat."

• "True suspense keeps you glued to the book until it's finished, then you say 'Whew! ' "

• "I like stories that have constant suspense and give me ideas of how to get revenge on my
brother."

About Your End

Their comments on suspense provide a strong clue as to how to handle one of the most
challenging aspects of writing horror: providing a satisfying ending. These students preferred for
the unrelenting suspense to lead to an unexpected, even shocking ending. They wrote:

• "I want the suspense to lead to a good twist at the end."

• "A good ending is one you didn't expect."

• "A suspenseful ending is one you didn't expect and leaves you scared spitless!"
In order to be read, make sure you have tells a suspense-packed story that leads to a dynamite
ending.

Part 2 Make the Character: Someone Like Me

What surprised me about the second result was how much everyone -- students, writers, critics --
agreed on it. Believable characters are what hold a horror story together. They are the engines of
its power. In his essay "Keeping the Reader on the Edge of His Seat," Koontz, the acknowledged
"Dean of Suspense," provides this advice:

"Suspense in fiction results primarily from the reader's identification with and concern about lead
characters who are complex, convincing, and appealing."

Douglas Winter lists characterization as his second standard of excellence and quotes another
pretty good horror writer:

"You have got to love the people ... that allows horror to be possible." (Stephen King)

My students agreed: they listed believable, sympathetic characters as the second key to a good
horror story. Typical of their comments were:

• "A really good horror story for me is when the author is able to make you feel for the
characters -- their pain, fear, happiness, wanting."

• "Having believable characters is what lets me get into the story."

Part 3
Setting: A Mirror for Madness

Horror's third requirement:

A story must be anchored solidly in a believable setting. Modern readers expect the horror story
to take place in familiar surroundings that provide a mating ground for the natural and the
supernatural. Today's readers have internalized this expectation: a context of normality, a true-to-
life backdrop that accentuates the grotesque.

There was a close similarity between my students' comments and those of critics. In "Horrors: An
Introduction to Writing Horror Fiction," T.E.D. Klein, Twilight Zone Magazine's first editor,
writes that before bringing the supernatural on stage, the writer must first "establish, so
thoroughly that we can believe in it, the reality of the world."

One student put this simply as: "I've got to believe I'm there." When another student wrote, "A
good horror story needs a balance between the realistic and the bizarre," it's almost as if he had
been reading Douglas Winter: "An effective horror writer embraces the ordinary so that the
extraordinary will be heightened."
So readers and critics agree: Use of the fantastic does not excuse the horror author from the task
of conjuring up a vivid, everyday reality on the page. On the contrary, it increases the importance
of that task.

Part 4 Plot: Picking Up the Pace

Another strong preference closely related to suspense concerns pace. What should an aspiring
horror writer make of such comments as:

• "The action has to keep up. Once it lets down, it's all over for me."

• "I like it when the tone is very fast-paced reading. It's too boring when it reads slow and
feels drawn out."

• Is there a key to best-sellerdom in this student's desire for: "Concise and coherent stories
[that] are easy to read and entertaining. When reading for entertainment, one shouldn't
have to analyze a story to understand it."

Why this desire for a fast-paced, action-packed story? No doubt much could be made of the
shortened attention spans of this generation that has never known life without television and
Walkmen. And it all would be off topic. The fact is, when they pick up a horror story, these
young people want to be entertained. And that means fast-paced and suspenseful, easy on the
literary embellishment.

Part 5 More Gore: Taboo or Not Taboo?

The results here point out a distinction between literary and celluloid horror.These students
warned against too much explicitness in literature:

• "Too much gore, if not justified, ruins a story, although I like to see it on films to admire
the special effects."

Those who expressed a preference for gore and the emotion of repugnance did so with qualifiers:

• "A little gore doesn't hurt."

• "Graphic gore to a tastful point."

Copyright © 2003 David Taylor