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Ninety-five percent of the time, what you don't see is scarier than what you do see. Think about The Blair Witch Project, even though it's a movie. You never see the villain. That ending STILL giv...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:00Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4081 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T01:58:10Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4081 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Ninety-five percent of the time, what you don't see is scarier than what you do see. Think about _The Blair Witch Project,_ even though it's a movie. You never see the villain. That ending STILL gives me nightmares. Think about Voldemort and the Death Eaters rousing fear and suspicion among the wizarding world, even before his return at the end of _Goblet of Fire_. You could never be sure if someone was Imperiused... or a Death Eater... or just dotty. The fear of the unknown adds an extra layer of terror to any antagonist, so hold back your reveal as long as you can. When the protagonist is facing an enemy and doesn't even know what it is, or if "it" is a "them" or a "who" or a "what" or "how big," that's one less facet your hero can prepare for, one more surprise on the antagonist's side, and that much less control your hero has.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2011-09-28T17:05:29Z (about 13 years ago)
Original score: 12