How to Write Horror for Children

Reading was not something that came easily to me in elementary school. I was way behind the rest of the class and dreaded it when the teacher would call on me to read out loud. Becoming a good reader seemed like something that was such hard work and way over my head. I avoided reading unless I was forced to.

Things changed in 4th grade when I received my first Goosebumps book at a Christmas Yankee Swap at school. It was The Girl Who Cried Monster and it had me hooked. I spent all my free time forcing myself to sound out the words and get through each page because I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

After finishing The Girl Who Cried Monster, I was ready for more. I went to the library in search of more Goosebumps books. I asked for the Goosebumps boxed sets for Christmas and my birthday.

R.L Stine’s writing style captured my imagination and turned me into a lifelong reader. I wouldn’t have improved my reading skills as quickly as I did, had I not received that first Goosebumps book. I might not have ever developed an interest in creating my own stories, had I not been inspired by his at a young age.

So when I saw a YouTube Ad for R.L. Stine’s Masterclass on writing, I signed up immediately. The opportunity was too valuable to pass up to learn from someone who inspired me so much and has my dream career. R.L Stine has written more than 300 books with T.V. and movie adaptations for many of them.

Here are 17 lessons from R.L. Stine’s Masterclass

1. Make your characters the same age or slightly older than your ideal readers. Most of R.L Stine's Goosebumps characters are 11 or 12 years old. If you make your characters too old or young, your reader won’t be able to identify with them and will lose interest fast.
2. End each chapter on a cliffhanger Make the reader say “and then what?” They can be fake scares. Like someone grabs the main character from behind at the end of the chapter. In the next chapter, it turns out to be their friend. The important thing is that you keep the reader moving from chapter to chapter. R.L Stine suggests having a mix of fake scares and real scares to keep the story going.
3. Plan your ending first so that you can start figuring out how to fool your reader from the start of the book.
4. Make normal locations scary like the backyard or school. Kids will relate to this a lot more than a story that takes place in a castle in Europe.
5. Pick out details that will bring the setting to life. For example, the kids are in the woods and hear a howling. There’s only a small sliver of the moon showing the trees, illuminating the dirt path that the kids are walking down.
6. 6. Create tension by slowing things down. A child can feel that they’re not alone in the basement, then they can hear a noise followed by seeing glowing eyes in the dark. The longer you can build the anticipation, the scarier the story will be.
7. Anything can be a monster. It Came From Beneath the Sink was about a sponge. You can take any inanimate object and make it do horrible things. The possibilities are endless.
8. Dialogue should reveal something about the characters or be foreshadowing of something that is going to happen. It has to reveal something the reader didn’t know before. Dialogue simply for the sake of dialogue will bore kids.
9. Don’t talk about technology in your book because it changes so quickly. R.L Stine made this mistake early on when he had his character using a Walkman.
10. Kid characters don’t talk in complete sentences the way adults would. Remember this when writing dialogue.
11. Try mixing horror with humor to make the story less terrifying for children. It’s good to mix in normal life to break up the horror.
12. You want the reader to identify with the main character and become part of the book. That’s why it’s okay not to do a lot of characterization in Children’s books. This helps the kids put themselves in the storyline. Don’t make them special. The more generic they are the more kids will identify with them. Average kids are more vulnerable and can get into more trouble.
13. The more trouble you get your protagonist into, the more fun your story will be and the more satisfying the ending will be.
14. When creating character names, do a google search for the most popular baby names. This way there’s a good chance that your reader will be excited to see their own name in a book or the name of someone they know from school.
15. Always be looking for ideas. R.L Stine saw a sign in the Halloween section at Walmart that said “mostly ghostly”. He used that as a book title that later became a movie.
16. Say yes to everything when you’re first starting out. R.L Stine wrote bazooka joe bubble gum jokes and G.I. Joe comic books. He used every experience to improve his craft.
17. School visits are a unique opportunity for children’s authors to promote their books. Kids can learn about your book and tell their parents and friends about it.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed R.L. Stine’s Masterclass. He presents writing in such a straightforward way, that it really makes you believe that you can write a book too. He even provides 20 story ideas at the end of the class to get you started with the brainstorming process.

My 3 favorites from the list are:

• A scene from a nightmare comes true the next day.
• While reading a scary book, you realize that you’re a character in it.
• Someone is living in your mirror

I’m excited to take one of these ideas and flesh it out into a fully formed horror story for kids. It might turn out horrible but that’s okay. The important thing is to keep trying new things and never stop learning. You never know, my simple little book could make a difference in a kid’s life, just like The Girl Who Cried Monster did for me.

This story was originally published on Medium.