Key ingredients of a killer horror novel

Writing a good horror novel is about more than just giving readers a few jumps. Here are some key elements to writing a killer horror novel.

Characters

First of all, you need realistic characters so readers will identify with them. Many horror stories will involve some sort of supernatural elements, so having ordinary, down-to-earth characters will emphasize the unreal nature of their situation.

Readers need to feel some sort of emotion towards a character and have an investment in their fate, good or bad.

Fear

Sounds like a given, but a horror novel needs to scare its readers, but how do you do this? Often an over-reliance on gore and violence. Very often the most effective fear is the fear of the unknown.

There is nothing more terrifying than the feeling of helplessness. That’s why authors will often using dark or supernatural powers to engender fear in their readers. They put characters in a position of not knowing what to do or what they’re dealing with.

Storyline

Like any form of fiction, a horror novel needs to have a good story. Authors can play about a bit with reality and use fantasy and supernatural elements, but the story must have its internal logic. There are some well-worn horror storylines that imaginative authors will try to subvert and bring a fresh take on, but you must always remember, first and foremost, to tell a good story.

Nail the ending

It doesn’t have to be a happy one, but it does have to be memorable. Don’t cop out and put it all down to a bad dream by one of the main characters. A great ending will take a reader’s breath away and leave them wanting more.

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The books that scared the top horror writers

Horror writers make their living out of creating gruesome and frightening characters and scenarios, but do they ever get scared? It seems that many of them do and although a lot of famous horror writers have drawn inspiration from classic horror novels, they have also confessed to being spooked by them.

Here are a few examples:

Anne Rice

Best known as the author of Interview with the Vampire, Rice also wrote the Vampire Chronicle series of books, so is well-versed in the genre. However, she confessed to not being able to finish perhaps the most famous vampire novel of them all – Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Rice told The Guardian in 2019: “This so scared, so shocked, so horrified me, that I abandoned the book and took it back to the library. I have not, to this day, read Dracula in its entirety.”

Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood is every bit the psychological horror-thriller the title suggests, but its author Ruth Ware isn’t immune to the frights herself. The book that most gave Ware the chills was Shirley Jackson’s classic The Haunting of Hill House. Ware says: “It has one of the best and most unsettling opening paragraphs I’ve ever read. It sets the tone for a book in which Jackson rarely gives the reader a moment’s respite – what begins with a creeping sense of unease, mounts eventually to sheer terror.”

Stephen King

You would think that the master of modern horror writing would not get scared, but he confesses to struggling to settle down at night after reading one particular book. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters forced King to admit that “Several sleepless nights are guaranteed.” Scaring Stephen King is one huge seal of approval.

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