How to approach writing horror novels

You have this terrifying idea but don't know how to make it scary or bring it to life. That's enough to overthink your novel and writing ability.

Take a deep breath. I'm going to give you gold tips.

When approaching your horror story, think about the reason you're writing the story.

Why should you have a reason to write horror? It's just meant to scare people...

Actually...

Horror is PERSONAL. Those readers who read horror books and get scared, they're scared for a reason. The words you say can create anxiety or a worrisome feeling for a reader. How? They're thinking about something you said and creating that vision in their minds, fearing what if it COULD happen.

A gold tip for writing horror is to write about YOUR OWN fears, which most horror authors do.

Think about your fears now. Thunder, lightning, clowns, hauntings, ghost, blood, falling into a hole, quicksand, spiders, the neighbor across the street.

Also to make things more exciting, when it comes to horror you can make anything scary! Luckily, we don't have many rules in the horror fiction world so why are you limiting your imagination?

If you step outside the box and realize you can interpret your fears and worries into anything, your mind becomes open to many possibilities.

Think about the lamp in your room. How can you make it scary!?

You make this TERRIFYING. Remember there are no rules in horror fiction so ask yourselves random creepy questions about the lamp. This is what I do a lot!!!

"What if the lamp starts dripping blood"

"What if the lightbulb bust and a finger were inside."

"What if the lightbulb turned red whenever your brother walked into the room."

"What if the lamp had strange scratches carved into it."

Ask yourself the same what-ifs questions you ask when you're freaking out or uncomfortable.

Sometimes the best authors write great material by putting themselves into horror scenarios. For example, I wrote Hide and Seek back when I had an actual fear of the dark. It was so bad that I went to therapy for it years after. However, when I wrote Hide and Seek, I sat in the closet to purposely scare myself and get anxiety.

Now it has 9 million reads ;D My fear rubbed off on others lol

Not the greatest idea for others, but my fears and emotions were true and I put those into my character "Emily's" feelings. My readers liked it probably cause a lot of them could relate to that anxious feeling when in the dark.

So, you can make anything scary. It's just a matter of how much you're limiting yourself.

***

This leads to why are you writing horror.

Your story doesn't have to have a point unless you're a master at making stories without points.

However, if you want to attract your readers your story should have a lesson, point, or reason for it.

Maybe that's hard with horror but here are some examples.

My novel Hide and Seek didn't have a really great point but I do know the reason I wrote it was because I had so many fears of the dark and other things.

Some people write about ghost people who start off not knowing why they're a ghost then later to realize they were meant to help someone.

OR stories about monsters who follow people around because they did something wrong.

You're writing a horror story because______??

And don't be afraid, to be honest with your fears and emotion when writing horror. Horror is very personal and the best horror writers-some of them are telling stories from experiences or from something they fear themselves.