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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/39358
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I already feel right out of the gate that this is going to be a naive question, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

I know that writing horror does not guarantee that you're particularly good at it, and that it takes talent, practice, and study in order to write anything effectively, including a good scare. And I also know that if there were a magic formula out there in the world that people could take and just write the most effective fiction ever from having taken it, everyone would have by now. I get it.

Having said that...I have scoured the Internet for tips and tricks on writing horror, and they all say the same thing: rudimentary, broad-stroked, open-ended, mostly unhelpful articles and lists about "know what scares people" or "get in the mind of your reader." Not to discredit some of the articles, or the people writing them, people need them for a reason, sure (I'm not so good as to say I didn't need them myself sometimes). But I'm tired of seeing the same duplicate lists all over the Internet that don't have examples or any real guidance toward application.

I know psychology doesn't have an answer for literally everything, but I've been going to it of late to try and apply it as much as possible to my writing. I genuinely feel if I understand some of the mental and psychological motivations/underpinnings/what have you of a character, or the decisions they make, I can make them more believable (the jury is still out). So I guess my question is, at the risk of being severely disappointed:

Is there any advice or guidance anyone on the site could give me, ideally someone with a better grasp on psychology and science than I do, on how to effectively scare people with my writing? Forget things like style, I'm talking like proven methods that irrefutably scare people or creep them out?

I realize a lot of horror is subjective: some people hate spiders, others love them; some people are terrified of slasher movies, others think they're not worth their yawns, etc. I'm leaning more towards, say, infrasound, which is at least proven to make people feel uncomfortable. That's not psychological, per se, but it's something more or less provable by science, which is my point. The closest I've come are articles like, "Top 10 Psychological Hacks to Make Anyone Do What You Want Them To," or "How To Trick Someone Into Loving You," click-bait-y stuff like that. But I figured if there were some articles out there like that drifting about, surely there might be someone else out there with wisdom on this particular subject.

I can try to refine the question later, if I need to. Really, any advice would be greatly appreciated, something that isn't, "Check your pacing," or some other stylistic question I've already read a million times before. Please and thank you.

Original score: 5