Writing Horror Story tips/hints, and what you like about it. [E]

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR=dimgray]Hello everyone. I want to tart writing in different genre's. Currently I want to write a gorrror story. But one thing, I don't know the mechanics of one that well.

So I'm going to ask...

What are some good tips about writing the horror/thriller genre? What's your favorite type of horror story, and possibly our favorite writer of horror? (Stephen King, Dean Koontz...)[/COLOR]

[COLOR=Blue]AS for me I like the psychological type. When I'd watch Neon Genesis Evangelion, I loved the way they made your psyche think. I don't read horror myself so I don't like many writers. But from movies, Stephen King is my fav.[/COLOR]

[Squall]

You really shouldn't "tart" any stories, friend of mine. Haha, alright, but seriously:

Horror stories, while not being incredibley complicated, have become extremly diverse and stem from all parts of the writing spectrum. To name a few...

Bram Stoker wrote what I call the classic horror story. Though not particularly terrifying to today's youth, Dracula was, in its time, horrifying. It defied moral boundries of the time and introduced a haunting, yet attractive (one of the greatest points of the novel) new antagonist. The book taught horror writers several important lessons:

-Suspense may be enhanced by using journal format, because the reader is lured, first into accepting its believability more readily, and second into acknowledging that the journal may stop, the writer may die at any time.

-It's okay to let the reader feel that s/he doesn't know everything.

-The antagonist may have found a way to function in society.

Another fantastic horror writer with an entirely different idea on how to write is HP Lovecraft. In describing his work, some of my colleagues and I have said that HP Lovecraft's work is as scary as the reader is morally "good". He's a fantastic writer, making horrible, terrifying things disturbing to the very core. I mean, anyone can write about a demon's repulsive charred features, but it took HP Lovecraft to come and make it really disturbing, to call it a mockery of human life. I highly recommend you read some of his short stories, he's a fantastically talented writer.

I refuse to speak of Stephen King, or "Gorror" stories, simply because, in either subject, I've yet to see something very good.

My own advice: I'd look through dreams, where our most intimate demons reside, for inspiration.

Anyway, hope that helps.