6 Tips to Improve Your Scary Story

1. 6 Tips
to Improve Your
Scary Story

3. Tailor your story for
your audience. Find the
best formula for each.
1
Age?
Region?
Education?
Income?
Culture?
Ethnicity?
Gender?

4. Age?
Region?
Education?
Income?
Culture?
Ethnicity?
Gender?
Evil Creature?
Psychopath?
Supernatural Power?
Religion or Mythology?
Supernatural Power?
Inescapable?
Loss of Identity?

5. The best reactions happen under
the fittest formula

6. Use suspense to cultivate fear,
Not surprise
2

7. Suspense is related to conflict
Audience enjoy uncertainty

8. Tap into
common human fears
3

9. Think about what people commonly fear
Hospital, elevator, knife, height, death...
Use these elements to launch your imagination

10. 4
Shroud your Antagonist in Mystery. The unknown is the mother of
all fears.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887618516300469

11. Leave some
mysteries
unanswered.

12. Leave some
mysteries
unanswered.
It’s spookier that way

13. 5
Learn from the masters

14. The Masters
There are many authors/filmmakers/poets to draw inspiration from

15. Ridley Scott

16. Ridley Scott
Most famous for the creation of the Alien monster movie franchise

17. He is most famous for the
creation of the
Alien monster movie franchise

18. Ridley Scott
His stories always incorporate themes of meaning,
what is our purpose in life? Concepts that
people struggle with and fear on a regular basis.

19. Ridley Scott
Utilizes core
human fears such
as darkness to
increase suspense

20. Make sure your story has some
element of instinctual human fear
(darkness, heights, animals) to
which most people can relate.

21. Stephen king

22. Stephen King
Has written dozens of horror and thriller novels that have been adapted
into famous films and tv series

23. Stephen King
Always incorporates relatable
themes and human fears that
keeps the reader/viewer engaged

24. R.L. Stine

25. R.L. Stine
Has written many children's novels and stories designed to expose kids
to elements of horror and thrillers without scarring them for life

26. R.L. Stine
Understands that every good horror story needs some type of twist or
surprise to release the reader/viewers tension

27. Stories to Consider

29. A woman is trapped handcuffed to a bed after her lover suffers a heart
attack

30. Fear and threat doesn’t have to come from a personified entity

32. A widowed mother deals with the
chaos that comes with raising a
hyperactive and aggressive child

33. Something as innocent as
motherhood can come with its own
elements of horror

35. A great white shark terrorizes a
string of beaches of the coast of a
small town in Maine

36. Not directly seeing the threat itself
makes it all the more terrifying. The
fear of the unknown is greater than
that of a shark.

37. Things

38. Be Mean! Especially Towards
the Protagonists!
6

39. Make the Protagonists
go through absurd &
crazy situations
For Example:
Sara rushes into a hotel to find help because
she was being chased by a maniac with a knife.
Sara: “Hey! There is A MAN CHASING ME
with a knife and I need some help!”
Receptionist: “Sure, I will help you DIE!”

40. Make Them Feel The
Pain!!!
For Example:
Sara runs for her life after her experience
with the receptionist.
The receptionist jumps out from behind the
desk and slices Her throat.
The desk receptionist turns around and says:
Receptionist: “Nobody told the silly ol’ girl to
run into my house! Muahahahahaha!”
Sara sees a chance to escape this horrific
madness and runs away with her neck pouring
blood all over her clothes and hands.

41. Credits:
Kilgarron - Flickr
H.R. Geiger
Jennifer Kent
Ralph Mcquarie
Rob Reiner