Five Quick Tips to Maximizing Your Horror Fiction

In a world where horror movies are a dime a dozen, the strange can be explained by science, and seven-year-olds are more afraid of missing out on the next violent videogame than the boogeyman, how is the up and coming Horror writer supposed to earn his bread? Let's face it; people are getting pretty hard to scare. The terror that lurks in the shadows is only a flick of a light-switch away from utter destruction.

But don't shy away just yet! Hope for Terror isn't a lost cause. The following are a few simple tricks you can use to send chills down the spines of your readers, guaranteed.

1. Define your objective: Sounds silly, right? We all know our objective; we want to scare the pants off of our reader. Still, you need to differentiate between Horror and Terror.

Horror is what you find in modern "Slasher" movies. You see blood, gore, and the worst that humanity can offer. You are moved to revulsion...you're grossed out. That discomfort is a laudable goal, but falls far short of real Terror.

Terror is that sinking feeling in the pit of your gut; the feeling where you know something unstoppable, merciless, and mind-numbingly evil is after you...and there's nothing you can do about it. This goes WAY beyond discomfort, this is the fear that gets back to the animal center of the brain. This is fear, plain and simple. So which would you rather write?

2. Keep it simple: Fear is a base emotion. It's not up there with Love or Reason or the lofty human ideals, but rather down with hunger and pain, scrabbling down in the dirt. While a story of romance may take advantage an arched and well rounded structure with parallel plotlines or copious use of beautifully constructed complex sentences, good Horror fiction is actually weakened by it.

Fear is blunt. It' meant to catch someone off-guard, stagger them, and generally be used much like a baseball bat. Sure, its presentation may be more like a stiletto between the ribs; but the ultimate realization that all is not right should come in a single crushing blow. This is the revelation that'll send your readers reeling.