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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30553
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30553
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Start with introspection. Your friends said some things you wrote were creepy; so it sounds like you did not even think so until they told you so.

What was creepy about it? Do you write cold-blooded characters well? Do you write scenes of blood and guts well? Do you write emotional devastation well? Are you good at brutal rape scenes? Or is it a feeling of dread? or supernatural presence?

You are writing something that gives them the creeps, and it is always a good thing to be able to write **_something_** that evokes a visceral feeling, but you need to focus and figure out a type of scene (or more than one) that you are naturally good it.

You want to build on that foundation; in an escalating manner, and (as Stephen King says) build yourself a kind, sweet, normal kind of character, somebody the reader can identify with, the girl next door, and then put her in the cooker. A small bit to start, a frightening but ultimately forgettable incident (like a car wreck, or being present for a bank robbery, but horror type). Then another, and another.

A horror story is like any other in the sense that the first act moves from normal to a clear problem, the problem escalates and the hero fails to stop it, then a key is found and after more losses the hero finally prevails after giving their all; or gives their all and fails, and the problem laughs and moves on to its next victim.

The villain can be personified, or environmental (e.g. cancer, poverty, mental illness, trapped, etc).

You need to start with generalizing whatever it is you are doing right, and stop doing it by chance or accident and start doing it on purpose.

Original score: 1