 I look pretty shaggy. I know. Now that I'm an author, I thought I should go for a more, uh, grown-up look. More distinguished, if you will. That is why, and it's definitely not because I'm having a quarter-life... crisis. The point is, I'm no longer boy. I am now man. Well, shaken. My name's Cam, and welcome back to another video. I make lots of videos about writing and books, so if you're into that kind of thing... Over the last couple of years, I've steered away from flat-out giving writing advice on my channel, because despite this new look, I'm not a professor. I'm not an expert. With that said, I do want to do a bit of a mini series of videos discussing writing tips that I personally have found pretty valuable. Writing tips and advice that have helped me in all of the different genres. And for the first video on the series, I thought we would start with horror, because I'm currently working on an anthology of horror short stories, so it just kind of fits. How does that sound? Cool, moving on. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given when I started writing horror was to make this scarce more than just... Oh no! I might die! Oh my god! Now, let's get something straight. The fear of death is one of the most universally shared human experiences. It sucks, but that's how it is. In a way, isn't that kind of nice, though? Knowing that we all have that in common? Just the thought that we're all in that together, you know? That we're all going to die one day. But it's about more than that, right? I mean, when I feel the existential dread creeping in, it's not like I'm particularly scared of the actual dying bit, necessarily. I'm not even thinking so much about whether it's going to hurt or not when I die. What I'm thinking about, and the thing that truly chills me, the really scary part about death as a concept, to me, is that after I die, that's it. The absence of everything. Complete and utter oblivion. Non-existence. You just got chills, didn't you? That's what I'm talking about. What a fun video. What a fun video where we're making today. When I write horror, dying or death is scary for the characters, because of course it is. It's literally in our biological programming to avoid death as like a top priority. But I do try to dig a bit deeper too. What is it about dying that the protagonist is really scared of? Maybe they are scared that they won't be remembered. Or even worse, maybe they're scared that people will be happy that they're gone. What consequence of dying are they afraid of? Now, this probably isn't as important with like short stories, because in most cases, you don't really need to dig that deep. But for longer horror novels where you need the reader to be emotionally invested in the characters, I feel like it's kind of necessary. When I wrote my short story for the local haunts anthology, I wanted to write a fun little campfire horror. Something spooky and bloody and kind of fun about quite literally a group of tourists sitting around a campfire. But although it is a really quick and simple read, I did try to also add some subtle hints about the protagonist having a history of being in an abusive relationship. And the reason I did that, even though it was such a short story, is because I feel like it added depth to that character. It made the danger and the struggle feel just that bit more high stakes, you know? And ultimately, that character's history kind of tied in with her mental state as the story came to a close. So yeah, that tip has been really great for me. Make the characters scared of more than just dying. I've read so many horrors where the situation has been spooky. The monster or the villain has been, you know, terrifying, but the whole situation, the whole scene still hasn't managed to, like, get me. And what I've found is that in most cases, it's the location. Make the setting part of the horror has been really great advice for me. Because I've written scary scenes before where I felt like it was, you know, just okay. But when I went back and added something to the location, like a locked door or a dark room at the end of the hallway, it actually ended up making that scene, like, ten times better. It doesn't really matter if that dark room down the end of the hallway is important to the story or not, as long as the reader is suspicious of it. Obviously, you don't want to chuck in too much stuff that doesn't have any importance to the story. But it is okay every now and then to add stuff that will make the reader, you know, anxious. The scariest horrors I've ever experienced in film and book have had locations that were almost villains in themselves. Houses that look different every time you turn around, or exits that don't seem to be where you remember them being. That stuff, that's the stuff that gets me. I always try to make the setting complement the horror that I'm writing, even if there's nothing supernatural happening. For example, I'm working on a short story at the moment that is based entirely off of my own claustrophobia. And you would be surprised just how spooky you can make a small, very plain space sound. If that space is unfamiliar to the character that is in it. Okay, so this one definitely depends on the type of horror that you're writing, but I found it fun nonetheless. Give the protagonist a fake win. A moment where they think they've won, or a moment where they think they're about to win. And I'm not just talking about like the very end of the story when they think that the killer is dead and then they turn around and then they turn back and the killer's gone. That's not really what I'm referring to here. I'm talking about a character that maybe thinks that they've reached the exit or the escape. Or they think that they've been saved and then... BAM! Too bad, Chad. You're still far... Ah, damn, YouTube. Now, this is admittedly a pretty tricky tip to use because if you do it wrong or if you do it lazy, you can really piss off the reader. It's difficult because you have to pull the rug out from under the reader without making them feel like they've just wasted their time. Now, the best way I've found to do this just personally is by leaving little clues. Let's say this pulling out of the rug that we're talking about is a twist, okay? They find an exit from the haunted building. They go back to that hotel. They get in the elevator to go up to their room and then the elevator doors open and they're back in the haunted building. The best way I think to do that would be to leave some clues or do some foreshadowing. Maybe after they leave the haunted building and they're on their way to the hotel, there are a few things that just seem off or wrong about the world. The reader or the watcher is thinking to themselves that something doesn't really feel right, but you just don't know for sure what it is. Personally, I would pepper details into the story that the reader either won't notice or won't understand until that twist or the pulling out of the rug actually happens. You leave some clues and then the twist happens and the reader goes, Oh my god! Again, it is really hard, but in my opinion, that's just the best way to make the fake out feel less like wasted time and more like a shocking revelation that the reader has just earned. Now, the next piece of writing advice is super basic, I know, but it was important for me to hear and that is don't go overboard with the gross stuff. When I started writing horror, I was coming at it as a fan of horror movies. The thing is, most horror movies, notice I didn't say most good horror movies, rely heavily on scaring you with visual effects. Blood, guts, boogers and arse. Capiche! While gore is fine, you just can't approach it the same way in a book as you would writing a script for a movie or a TV show. If too much of your lengthy horror novel is just blood and guts, the reader gets bored. I learned that pretty early in my writing days, but hold on, that is not me saying that I don't still like to dive headfirst into some gory scenes from time to time because I do, I know that. And sometimes I do it just for the like, the shock value. I do it. I'm guilty. Send me to... Handsome jail. It kind of goes back to the very first point that I discussed in this video and that was that I try to make the protagonist feel more than just Oh no, I think I'm going to die. Oh no, that fine-ass 10-foot vampire lady might sit on me. Oh, wouldn't that be horrible? I think horror has a lot more value when you have the characters also suffering in their mind rather than just their body. And yet that absolutely goes for slashes as well. So this one is a bit of a technical one. You're gonna have to forgive me. I'm gonna sound like a bit of a graman fascist for a minute. Build the tension with active and short sentences. This is advice that I've actually found kind of works for any genre, to be honest. When the scene is meant to be tense or suspenseful or especially if it's an action scene, I keep the sentences short and sharp. The truth is sometimes shorter is better, right ladies? Longer sentences tend to have a bit of an effect on us as readers where it kind of mellows us out. Sometimes in spite of what's actually happening in the story. But generally speaking, if the sentences are short and active, then our heart rate elevates. More things are happening in less time. The pace picks up. Example, Sam leapt from his seat startled by the three loud knocks at the basement door. There was nobody else home and he wasn't expecting any visitors, especially not so late. Compare that to the following. Three loud knocks broke the silence. Sam leapt from his seat heart racing. He was not expecting any visitors tonight, certainly not so late. I really didn't change much at all and yeah, the second example is a bit less descriptive, but I think it does a better job of making you feel how Sam might be feeling. Obviously there are levels to this and it depends on your story, but as a general rule of thumb, I like to think of it like this. If it is a tense or fast-paced scene, I focus more on what is happening rather than where or how it's happening. So there you go. There are all of my favorite pieces of writing advice that I've been given that I think has helped me with my writing when it comes to horror. Again, I'm not an expert, so if this stuff doesn't work for you, that's fine. These are things that have just personally helped me. I'm gonna be doing videos exactly like this on a bunch of different genres, so stick around if you'd like. Or don't. There's the door, buddy. As always, thanks for watching, especially if you watched this far in the video. I appreciate it. Catch ya.