Three Essential Building Blocks to a Horror Story
A little guidance helps with creativity
The biggest story I had ever written before tackling my novel was 4,000 words. So going for an 85,000-word project was daunting. I tried the pantsing method as Stephen King does. Just let your creative mind flow freely and write damn it.
But.
Didn’t work.
I wrote dozens of plot holes, redundant scenes, etc. I had to burn down the first 40 pages and start over due to the mess I found myself in.
Here’s a quick rundown of how I plotted my last book and will continue to do so from now.
1) Create the Conflict
Conflict is the central driving force of any good story. As such, this is a great place to start. Make sure your story hinges on this one thing.
For a horror story, the conflict revolves around “the Monster.” Whether an actual creepy crawly, a ghost, a human killer, or even a situation, the Monster is the central antagonist of any scary tale.
So I start with creating the lore behind my Monster. What is it? Where does it come from? What does it want? How will my protagonist come into contact with it? Will my hero die/survive/have a vague ending after the encounter with it?
You don’t need to ever explain your Monster in your story, but you as the author should have a firm idea of what it is.
From here you should brainstorm a secondary conflict: your protagonist’s inner battles. Are they insecure? Afraid of failure? Buried in debt?
Physical monsters are only scary if they relate somehow to the personal struggles of your hero.
A great example of this is in the film adaptation of Adam Neville’s “The Ritual.” The main character Luke watched his friend die in a robbery without trying to help him. This guilt over his cowardice fuels his drive in the story to go up against the monster. So when he finally stands up to the creature, he’s also standing up to his guilt and failure to be there for his late friend.
This is where your theme and character development will come out. You may not even know what you want to say yet. But by developing the Monster and the protagonist the theme will bleed through even without you seeking it out.
2) World-building
After having a firm idea of what your monster is, develop the characters and the setting.
Decide on who your protagonist is. Basics like their age, job, and hobbies. Flesh them out. Decide what their inner demons are and how their collision with the Monster will highlight them.
The great thing about horror is you can have your protagonist end up how you want. In a romance, you really shouldn’t have your hero become a murderer at the end right? That would betray your audience’s expectations.
In horror? No limits because the audience expects a twisted ending—though happy endings can work as well.
Want your hero to be triumphant? That’s cool. Want them to die? More common in the genre. Want them to become the monster? Go right ahead.
Decide how they start and how they end, all the middle stuff can come later.
Next, come up with your supporting characters and develop them in a similar way.
Come up with your B-plot. Even in horror, you can have a romantic subplot or even a comedic one, but be careful about drifting too far from the fear factor. These extra plotlines are essential for fleshing out your characters.
Because if we don’t care about the characters there is no fear for them. We don’t care if they live or die.
Lastly, where is your story taking place? Make it an interesting setting and try to tie in some isolation to it. What kind of people (or whatever) populate the area? What is the culture/language/etc.?
The setting should work to produce physical or social isolation. Ex: Physical=cabin in the woods. Social=nobody believes the character.
3) Plot out the big eleven story beats
After having a strong idea of conflict and setting, start the actual story.
I still like to do some pantsing in my stories. The freedom to veer off into weird territory and create as I go is exhilarating. However, I need to know where I am going. Plotting the major moments of your story can help you here.
You still have the freedom to write whatever you want in between these moments as long as you are steering the story towards them. So, let’s say you want certain characters to die at the midpoint, well then it’s obvious that you don’t kill them earlier. Also, whatever happens in between, you have to maneuver that character towards their demise.
There are many different ways to plot a story, let alone a horror, but here is the one that has helped me the most:
Hook: make your very first few pages interesting. Show off the “hidden Monster” to let readers know that this is a horror. But, don’t reveal too much. One common way to do this is to show a random character encounter the Monster and die in a Prologue.
Introduce the normal world and the characters. A key aspect of this part is to show the real world and real life. That way your reader can connect and relate to your story. Then, when the horror kicks up, its all the more believable.
Inciting incident: This should occur somewhere 10-15% of the way into the story. This is the event that knocks your protagonist’s world off balance. They move into the haunted house. The killer targets them. They pick up the cursed object and now are cursed themselves.
First brush against the monster. This is where the horror kicks up a notch. The Monster should still be hidden. Reveal too much too early and all tension flies out the window. But the normal world should start looking different here. Something is wrong but the characters can still choose to ignore it.
The turning point, entering the world of monsters. Now shit is real. People may start dying here. The stakes get raised. The nature of the horror can no longer be denied. Tension needs to rise.
Enemies close in: Amplify the horror. Encounters get more intense. Hope seems lost.
First confrontation: Your hero decides to do something. To fight against the Monster. They fail and things get worse.
Dark night of the soul: Having failed, all hope is now lost. This should be one of the darkest parts of the story.
Realization/Inspiration: The hero realizes an important truth or gets inspired to take action one last time. They rally their strength for one last fight.
Preparation for the last fight.
Climax: The final showdown with the Monster. Reveal crazy truths here. Kill more characters. The stakes need to be extremely high at this point. You can kill your hero here. Or, they can win. Or, they themselves can become evil.
Denouement: Show the fallout and impact of what has happened. If your hero is alive, show how they’ve been changed. Finally, give one last hint that evil never truly dies.
There you go. Three easy ways to begin building your scary story. Create the Monster and the protagonist. Build up the characters and the setting. Plot out the major eleven story beats. Then, just start writing and see what happens.