If you hadn’t noticed my social media posts, blog post, vlog, etc – I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month and, you probably guessed it because its why you’re here, I’m writing horror. I noticed pretty quickly in my NaNoWriMo preparation, there’s not a lot of NaNo peeps talking about horror writing. If you are also writing horror, for NaNo or otherwise, here are some great resources and tips for plotting, planning, and writing the scary stuff.
Save the Cat Writes a Novel – Monster in the House Beat Sheet
Save the Cat is the go to for plotting for a lot of people – myself included. The first thing I do when writing anything longer than a novella is grab this book and flip to the genre beat sheet I want to work with. From there, I put each beat on a piece of paper or index card as well as certain notes about that beat. This is the framework or formula for my novel outline.
Theme
I used to be in the camp of people that believed theme was unnecessary. “Why can’t a story just be a story?” But then I realized that even the stories I felt like were “just good stories” had themes to them and that is what made them cohesive and memorable. So yes, your story needs a theme.
A way that I find theme is to think about what scares me. What really unnerves me down to my bones and guts and 2am staring at the ceiling in silent panic – then ask myself why. From there, themes blossom like existential dread developing into the thanatophobia of a small child who has just experienced the death of a loved one for the first time and knows that if they don’t get the fuck out of this house that their ancestral trauma and curses will seep further into their blood only to pass on like a virus…ahem…you get the idea.
Go with what you know – your own terror and the reason you need therapy.
Character Creation Questions
I know some people like long character questionnaires and the like for their story bibles but I just can’t get into all that. For me, just a few basic things help me get into the head of my characters and generate the side characters I need.
- I can’t remember who said it, I will come back and edit this if I recall it but someone really clever once said that horror is taking what someone loves most in the world and turning it against them. So figure out your character’s desire/motivation/love.
- Flaws. No one wants a Mary Sue – not even for a Final Girl. Give your characers flaws, make them fatal flaws if you’re feeling frisky. Sometimes these flaws can be “wounds” or trauma they have experienced and not healed, recovered, or let go of. Sometimes they are false beliefs about themselves or how the world works.
- Note how they emotionally respond to horror and stress. I like to consider the 4 F’s. Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn. How does my character react?
- Threaten them as well as the people they love – this means side characters. Some side characters will come to you naturally. Others are passing through – for these I learned a trick from GMing TTRPGs: Have a list of names ready. Just some random names that fit your setting. This helps keep from freezing up when writing.
Setting
This is a quick one. Use all of your senses. Even if you just have a character enter a new room or place for a scene and all you do in your first draft is list a color, smell, sound, and what the air feels like, do it. Developing these senses and how your character reacts to them will help create a more immersive and realistic setting for your readers to enjoy or be terrified by.
Fun Shit to Procrastinate With
If you want to dabble with other non-writing things that may or may not help you write your novel or story, you could create a mood board, a playlist, or a word count tracker with rewards. I like to do these to prep then promptly forget I made them when I start writing. It can help me remember what I made my characters look like if I fan cast them with certain actors on my mood board – what was that character’s eye color again? A quick google search for Ryan Reynolds reminds me that they are hazel. My kid watching The Lego Movie for the fiftieth time and “Everything is Awesome!” is seeping into my brain – turn on that writing play list so I can write this gorey murder scene (though, to be fair, Everything is Awesome would make a fantastic horror soundtrack addition).
Do You NaNoWriMo?
Wanna join in the fun and cheer each other on? My NaNo link.
Also consider joining the Creepsville discord, we have a writing channel and a bunch of other weirdos participating in writing horror novels this month.
