Best horror writing tips

Woven · Sep 19, 2008

Hello! I am not a horror writer, per se, but there is definite horror in my writing just by the nature of the story. It involves demons. I have good and bad demons in my story. I'm having the most fun with the evil ones.

I found last night while writing a particularly gruesome scene, my own face was contorting as I wrote. My poor children kept coming in to ask me questions and sometimes backed up when they saw my face.

Are there any tips for writing gruesome scenes? Mood? Words that can be overused? Words that are particularly power-packed?

I like to keep my sentences and paragraphs short in action scenes.

I'm looking for any advice, really.

And maybe just heads to bounce things off.

Aschenbach · Sep 19, 2008

I am not sure exactly what effect you want to achieve with your gruesome scenes. If you want to give your reader a gut punch, make them wince and gibber, then take a look at Brett Easton Ellis's "American Psycho".

Even though my rational brain tells me that novel is a satire, the violence still upsets me because it is humans doing stuff to humans, and is plausible. You could write the most horribly violent scene but if it involved imaginary creatures, it wouldn't really get to me.

Wolvel · Sep 19, 2008

Woven said:
I'm looking for any advice, really. And maybe just heads to bounce things off.

Well you could have your demons bouce things off your characters heads. :ROFL:

rsmccoy · Sep 20, 2008

Best advice I can give is to not shy away from it. If you, or the story itself, requires a gruesome scene, then dive in the deep end. If you cringe away from it, the section will fail because it won't feel true to the reader.

If you can't dive in, then perhaps you shouldn't be writing the scene. As most people so, I have many aspects of my personality. Some are not too pleasant and I try to keep them locked up. When I write a violent or gruesome scene, I let that part of me out. When I write a scene with violence, I feel violent, when I write a tear jerking scene, I usually tear up. If you don;t feel it, I doubt your reader will.

Woven · Sep 20, 2008

Good advice all around.

I'm particularly struggling with a section that occurs on Halloween night. The demon is inside a teenage girl's head and makes her hallucinate. She sees and feels bugs (maggots, spiders, and generic bugs). Here are the problems I'm having:

I've never put my hand in a bowl of maggots so I don't know what they feel like. I've used words like writhing, squriming and slimy.

Spiders- to say she saw spiders isn't enough. What about spiders is creepy? Again, I'm not going to willingly touch one. I'm struggling to find words to describe why I myself can't stand them.

Bugs- point blank, this is the hardest one for me. She has bugs crawling in her hair. They can't be lice because you can't see lice and these need to be big bugs. She's likely not going to be able to identify the exact bug, so I have to pretty much say "bugs" and it just doesn't pack enough punch.

Here's a bug example: (The Charlie character is a demon himself, but the first person voice doesn't know that)

No sooner had I relaxed than something tickled my head. I reached up to scratch it. The skin behind my ears itched and I batted at them. A small black bug dropped to my lap. I reached up and frantically scratched my head, furiously throwing my hair around. Bugs scurried out and over my lap and over Charlie’s lap. I screamed and hopped off the couch, all the while scrubbing my head upside down, trying to free myself of the bugs. I could feel them crawling into my shirt. I was about to strip my shirt off in the crowded basement when Charlie grabbed my hands and leaned down to whisper to me over my hysteria.

comradebunny · Sep 20, 2008

One suggestion I have is to decide exactly what type of bug and spider you will be using. Find a bug that also has a creepy sound or peculiar odor (I wish I was in my classroom becasue I have this great bug book with some of the strangest bugs in it). That way you can use all of the senses in the hallucination. When a spider crawls on you, it has a soft, delicate touch. That is, until you realize what it is and go into "get it off me" panic mode. Sorry for rambling. I'll look through some stuff and see if I can get you some better ideas.

HoraceJames · Sep 20, 2008

I think you're lacking detail. e.g.: the crunch-pop-smoosh of smashing a large insect against the side of your face, the needle-like jab of their feet into your skin, their smell (cockroaches definitely smell) etc. A fairly effective method of squeezing the fear factor out of a small creature is to put it in a mouth (directly or via food) or some other usually arthropod-free orifice. For research, try popping a large spider in your mouth and you may have a better appreciation of its scarier attributes.

Woven · Sep 20, 2008

Excellent! I am in the right place. You both have wonderful ideas, thank you!

Captain Howdy · Sep 21, 2008

Here's a good word for ya: skitter/skittered/skittering

Aschenbach · Sep 21, 2008

Woven said:
Spiders- to say she saw spiders isn't enough. What about spiders is creepy? Again, I'm not going to willingly touch one. I'm struggling to find words to describe why I myself can't stand them.

What scares me about spiders - size. Small ones don't bother me, but when you have one nearly as big as your hand, with a furry fat body and those long, spindly legs with too many joints...ugh. They can sit there completely still, and then suddenly shoot across the carpet with that flickery sort of scuttling they do. They don't look like they belong on earth. In fact they probably arrived here from an alien planet. You can look in to the face of any mammal and at least imagine what they are thinking or feeling. Spiders are so alien looking, you can't tell what they are thinking (not that I imagine they do much thinking!).

Haggis · Sep 21, 2008

I have nothing useful to add, but I have to tell you that while I was reading this thread, a spider scooted up my keyboard, then dove somewhere down between the keys. My hope is that I type enough letters here that I'm squishing him.

Woven · Sep 21, 2008

Haggis said:
I have nothing useful to add, but I have to tell you that while I was reading this thread, a spider scooted up my keyboard, then dove somewhere down between the keys. My hope is that I type enough letters here that I'm squishing him.

Oh, ew!! There's something to put in my novel.

Blech! I can hear the sounds of the spider being squished beneath your clicking keys.

Haggis · Sep 21, 2008

Little bugger hasn't come out yet. No spider juice either. I wonder if he has friends in there.

Woven · Sep 21, 2008

Aschenbach said:
What scares me about spiders - size. Small ones don't bother me, but when you have one nearly as big as your hand, with a furry fat body and those long, spindly legs with too many joints...ugh. They can sit there completely still, and then suddenly shoot across the carpet with that flickery sort of scuttling they do. They don't look like they belong on earth. In fact they probably arrived here from an alien planet. You can look in to the face of any mammal and at least imagine what they are thinking or feeling. Spiders are so alien looking, you can't tell what they are thinking (not that I imagine they do much thinking!).

Excellent starting point! This has jogged my brain.

Woven · Sep 21, 2008

Haggis said:
Little bugger hasn't come out yet. No spider juice either. I wonder if he has friends in there.

She's too busy laying eggs.

Haggis · Sep 21, 2008

Woven said:
She's too busy laying eggs.

comradebunny · Sep 21, 2008

I remember watching something on the discovery channel that might be of some use. A girl was in a plane crash in South America somewhere in the rainforest. She had to walk out. While she did, some type of flies laid eggs in her arms. They grew into bumps, which eventually burst forth with maggots.

That could be a great twist for the hallucination. Suddenly, her arms begin to grow itchy bumps. Soon, they begin to ooze as they begin to break open. Maggots begin dripping from her arms. That would freak me out.

Woven · Sep 22, 2008

comradebunny said:
I remember watching something on the discovery channel that might be of some use. A girl was in a plane crash in South America somewhere in the rainforest. She had to walk out. While she did, some type of flies laid eggs in her arms. They grew into bumps, which eventually burst forth with maggots.

That could be a great twist for the hallucination. Suddenly, her arms begin to grow itchy bumps. Soon, they begin to ooze as they begin to break open. Maggots begin dripping from her arms. That would freak me out.

Another excellent suggestion. Thanks so much!

BarbaraKE · Sep 24, 2008

Woven said:
I've never put my hand in a bowl of maggots so I don't know what they feel like. I've used words like writhing, squriming and slimy.

Writhing and squirming are good but maggots, in and of themselves, are not slimy. And they're very soft so when you plunge your hand into a bowl full of them, you will crush a bunch of them and have squished maggot all over your hand.

(Don't ask me how I know this.)

The Scip · Sep 24, 2008

BarbaraKE said:
Writhing and squirming are good but maggots, in and of themselves, are not slimy. And they're very soft so when you plunge your hand into a bowl full of them, you will crush a bunch of them and have squished maggot all over your hand.

(Don't ask me how I know this.)

I can't help it...

And how do you know this?

Kerr · Sep 30, 2008

Love this whole thread. Bugs are the creepiest and you're making me think of a time when my daughter fetched her favorite polka dot blanket to wrap up in watching TV. She'd left it outside on the porch. After a moment, she did in fact brush a bug from her cheek. An earwig. An earwig isn't the creepiest of bugs, but I'd jokingly told my girls once that the bug inserted into the fellow's ear on one of the Star Trek movies was actually and earwig. Those little antennas sticking out from either side of their butts keep them from backing up or turning around once they get inside. They have to eat their way through if they're ever going to see daylight again.

So, it was an earwig. My daughter freaked, threw the bug off her straight at me. I jumped and let out a little scream, her sister on the other end of the couch did the same, the blanket went flying, earwigs went everywhere and my daughter started screaming and doing the bug dance in the middle of the room until we were all laughing so hard we were crying.

Albert Buck · Oct 9, 2008

To write good horror, just use words like 'eldritch' and 'gibbous.' (lol).

Inarticulate Babbler · Oct 15, 2008

Lovecraft had a way of making the mystery of the creepy-thing add to its horror. We're not afraid of thing-that-go-bump-in-the-night because we knows it's a mutant person-dog with sharp teeth; on the contrary, we're afraid of the things skittering through the shadows because we don't know what they are. The minute we find out, they lose some of their power. Stephen King has described the gross-out as a last-ditch effort (to be done when nothing else works).

Your kinds were afraid of the face, because they didn't know why you made it.

The unknown (screaming and wet-gurgles in the shadows) inspire more fear than the gross-out.

BarbaraKE · Oct 16, 2008

The Scip said:
I can't help it...

And how do you know this?

When I was a teenager (late 1970's), my parent's had a small combination grocery/butcher store. Beef was delivered in the form of carcasses (i.e. forequarters, hindquarters) and we cut it into the specific forms wanted (steaks, roasts, etc.)

The fat trimmings went into special barrels that were picked up every week or so by a company that rendered them down and sold the rendered fat to a makeup company where it ended up as lipstick.

These barrels were normally kept in the big cooler. But one day, after pickup, one barrel was accidently left outside. (I think they left it behind the smokehouse and we just didn't see it.) Anyway, it was out there for several days (in summer).

After we found it again, I was assigned to clean it before bringing it inside. You can guess the rest - I tried to pry out a hunk of trimmings that were clinging to the bottom and managed to plunge my hand into a big mass of maggots.

I still remember the feeling as the trimmings came loose and my hand pushed through the soft mass of maggots.

Best horror writing tips

Woven

Aschenbach

Moral Marjorie

Wolvel

Write the Damn Book!

rsmccoy

A sphincter says what?

Woven

comradebunny

"It is the rabbitt!"

HoraceJames

Woven

Captain Howdy

closer + prettier than ever

Aschenbach

Moral Marjorie

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Woven

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Woven

Woven

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

comradebunny

"It is the rabbitt!"

Woven

BarbaraKE

The Scip

...walks this way.

Kerr

I vant to bite you

Albert Buck

Inarticulate Babbler

Pissin' Everyone off, 1 at a time

BarbaraKE

Best horror writing tips

Moral Marjorie

Write the Damn Book!

A sphincter says what?

"It *is* the rabbitt!"

closer + prettier than ever

Moral Marjorie

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Evil, undead Chihuahua

"It *is* the rabbitt!"

...walks this way.

I vant to bite you

Pissin' Everyone off, 1 at a time

"It is the rabbitt!"

"It is the rabbitt!"