The horror genre extends back to ancient folktales centered around witches, evil spirits, and all manner of bad, creepy, eerie things. Whether you draw inspiration from folklore or from legendary horror writers like Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King, you can find many great reference points for how to write horror stories and screenplays.

Horror is a genre of storytelling that taps into the emotion of fear. Horror writing is sometimes categorized within the broader category of thrillers, but not all horror follows the thriller structure. Classic horror fiction—whether expressed as a novel, novella, short story, or film—will tap into topics that reliably frighten most humans. Common topics include ghosts, werewolves, vampires, zombies, serial killers, murderers, and the fear of the unknown, even death.

These horror tropes can often devolve into clichés. A downside of horror’s popularity is that many horror books and movies recycle old content in uncreative ways, but when properly executed, horror stories can thrill audiences and even often commentary on the human condition and psyche. But a type of horror I want to discuss with you all today, is the elements and effects of historical horror. It's rarely, if ever done. Historical horror sadly is never explored because people have a hard time connecting the two genres together. Horror is not all visceral gore, blood, guts. What truly ascends the craft is to take a dip into the honey pot of the human mind and really toy with reality. They view it as this for two reasons:

1. History is boring.
2. Horror within history cannot be scary because depending on the era, life was mundane.

Which of course is not true. I will take you through these steps to help you reassure that meshing historical and horror together is a delicious little tea to be stewed!

At its best, the horror story taps into our fears by combining the ordinary with the shocking, the unnatural, and the grotesque. Many horror stories place their main character in relatable settings such as a new house, a summer camp, a sleepover, a hotel stay, or a camping trip. The relatability of these settings primes the audience for future terror. But those are cliche, why not take yourself to 1300s France during the Black Plague? Or an uncharted land in the Mayan islands? Maybe you want to write about the hardships of the struggling Roman Empire, and insert Greek Gods or scary Scandinavian tales?

The more the protagonist’s point of view reflects that of the audience, the scarier it will be when the protagonist encounters moments of terror. For instance, it’s scarier when a young family in a new house encounters a slasher than when a robot in outer space encounters a slasher. Why? Because most of us know what it’s like to move into a new house. None of us know what it’s like to be a robot in outer space.

Believe it or not, many authors believe that the closest companion to writing horror is writing comedy. The two genres are related because both horror and comedy rely on subverting familiar situations. In comedy, the familiar is subverted by something absurd and incongruous. In horror, the familiar is subverted by something grotesque and threatening. Audience reactions to horror books and comedy routines come from the same place: delighted surprise at how a normal setting was subverted. Horror focuses on not only fear, but to secretly unlock that subconscious within your skull that drives most of what freaks you out. Is it vampires? Demons? Ghosts? A clown? Snakes? A psycho? Or something more darker, more sinister that lurking under neath the water? It can be anything.

What is historical horror? If you ask some people, it’s a growing sub-genre of horror. If you ask others, you’ll get a blank-eyed stare. 

There’s debate: is it even a thing? What makes a book horror? What makes it historical?

Because there is such debate, however, we need to start with some definitions. Some of these definitions you may agree with, some of which you may not. Opinions vary. But its important. Very. This falls into my inspiration for my medieval horror novel, Between Two Souls.

I have been asked a lot about that specific book. Fully, I wanted to aim for more of a religious based demonic\gothic style because simply those types of imagery are utterly creepy to me. The Black Plague was a devastating time in 14th century Europe, with a staggering one million deaths overall, which in 1348 Northern France, where the book is set was mind blowing at the time. People covered in bloody boils, sores, throwing up, losing their minds, chilling right? Simply the story follows a fallen knight named Marquis de Bordeaux, who finds an orphaned young girl in a rustic farmhouse. She appears to be some sort of witch\angel\seer, and he has to guide her to Paris on a mission through a depraved blackened land, fighting terrifying monsters, demons, and Gods.

This kind of story is most likely to meet the approval of fans of historical fiction, as they tend to like books that are directly and deeply historical.

Horror novels that are centered around a specific true-life historical event aren’t as common as you might think. Dan Simmons’ The Terror, his well-known account of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin, is the poster child for this sub-genre. But if you start looking for more books like this, you come up short pretty quickly. Not many exist.

Far more common is the novel that’s set in a previous era but isn’t tied to a singular true event. Many novels fall into this category, where history is an anchor that the author may touch upon throughout the telling but otherwise projects no constraints on the tale. One or two real people may appear in the story, but their actions are not factual. Another way to think of it is that history is providing the setting, but not the plot. You could argue that The Fervor falls in this category: it starts with a specific event (the explosion of a Japanese fu-go, or fire balloon, near Bly, Oregon, which killed one adult and five children) but after that, the events are largely imagined.  

What’s the difference between historical horror and alternate history? Let’s say you decide to introduce a horde of Sasquatch into the Battle of Little Big Horn. Aren’t you changing history? Yes, you are, and while there are plenty of people who consider all historical horror to be alternate history, I would argue that it has more to do with whether the outcome deviates from history: if Germany won World War II, for example (The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick). But again, this sort of thing is a quibble. You need to think about the expectations of readers of this sub-genre and whether your story is going to meet them or cause them to want to throw your book out the window. 

Horror is starting to die off slowly so why not spice it up a bit?

A tasty horror story needs an emotional core to be successful. This is what will give your story weight and make it feel real to the audience.

Your emotional core can be based on any number of fears or anxieties, but it needs to be something that you are passionate about. If you don't care about your story's emotional core, then the audience won't either. You can't have it just be jump scare after jumpscare, or a creepy figure in the distance at every turn. Too many people, in movies mainly, subject history in a false way, trying to connect old witchcraftian methods for a poorly loose backstory of why the demon is terrorizing this family. I'll be honest, its a shitty way of telling a story and grinds my gears. (Pun intended).

Finding your horror story's emotional core can be tricky, but it is essential to the success of your tale. What kind of message are you trying to convey to the audience and what emotional journey are you characters taking throughout the story? For example, yes, Between Two Souls, is frightening with all manner of creature, but it's also heavily based on real life and the horrors a poo, troubled man encounters while trying to live in a plague ridden world. Marquis is a complex character. At first you hate him. He's rude, he's crass, he's inappropriate, he cares only for himself and will kill anyone to get what he wants. But! He has morals. He has ambitions and goals. He meets a homosexual priest, whom he slowly views as a friend despite their different religious qualms. He feels he needs to protect the young girl because he views her as his own daughter. His lands were stolen from him unjustly and he wants to take them back. All in all, he's a man walking a road to his demise, but gets a second chance. That right there, is what makes the horror more real, what makes the emotions and drives the audience to relate to your protagonist even more.

A great horror story is a character-driven piece.

First, you get a sense of that person, then you start to relate to them, and finally, you put yourself in their shoes.

I find that isolation is key in this regard.

Explore the idea of your main character(s) being cut off from the world in some way during their adventure – this could be:

• Physically – such as in a remote location or trapped inside a building or losing their means of communication
• Mentally – such as having a break from reality or struggling with internal flaws, shortcomings, or inner demons and being unable to connect with others.

That way, when the scares begin, there’s nowhere to turn for help. The struggle becomes more personal and internal, and by default, more real. Then ask yourself:

• What would I do in this situation?
• How would I cope?
• Would I be able to keep it together?

I cannot stress this enough. Horror is a very difficult genre to write in book form. You have to use enough vocabulary to chill, scare, and freak out your reader enough that it has them looking over there shoulder. It's easier with movies to do this, because we can see it visually. In books you just have words. But words are one of the most powerful things we posses. Words not only can not only be used to convey emotions in the strongest way possible, but they can also invoke a beautiful sense of fear within thyself. Not every thing that is horror has to be obvious, stakes, endings, the whole lot. You can twist a story, not every story has to be about the guy who defeats a demon and saves his family from living in a haunted house. Not every ending has to be as dramatic as The Conjuring. You can stick with realist views. The stakes could be more intricate and weaved more throughly. With Marquis, he tries all he can to save not only his own skin from redemption, save the girl, and the world, and still, ultimately he falters, being sent to hell and be damned. Even though he gets a second chance, you can play around with different pathways to take your characters, theme, plot, etc. That is what will excel your horror above others, is if you take the story in an unexpected direction: heart ache, pity, gut wrenching terror.

Your horror story should be scary for more than one reason! Psychological terrors are another common subgenre of horror writing which focuses on an ordinary character who undergoes a disturbing transformation into someone evil and deranged after facing stressors in their lives, has inner demons, or reality is shifted for them in their own mind. The focus here isn’t necessarily on what's happening around them but how they react to what happens as well as coping with loss or guilt feelings.

Horror stories are often more than just entertainment – there not just there to make your adrenaline run, your blood go cold, or send chills up your spine. they can be a way for writers to explore the dark side of human nature.

So don't be afraid to delve into the psychology of your characters and make them as complex as possible. Good horror writers often focus on the psychological horror in their stories instead of just relying on graphic imagery and gore. Blood and freaky laughing children behind you in mirrors, yes, is disgusting and scary, but to me the warping of the human mind is more effective. Technically my book, Between Two Souls on the surface is a medieval horror novel, but between the lines is actually a deep look into the psychological paranoia of humans during the 1340s in a diseased time. One great thing that I've gotten from my first real horror novel, is that it is a mind trip. Truly throughout the story, with the religious idols, scary demonic creatures, and terrible people the characters encounter on the way, it is hard to tell whether what Marquis is seeing is real or not, because, truthfully Marquis himself isn't fully of sound sane mind. He's been through a French war, his wife left him for another richer man, he had his home, his lands taken from him by the English, and he resorted to robbery. So that would change ones mind set wouldn't it, but not completely enough to discard his moral compass. There can be a balance between light moments and dark moments in horror. Not everything has to be crazy, wild, down right terrifying every ten minutes. You can have chapters where its just conversation and bonding over something, seeing a beautiful tree or river, or expressing ones feelings. It all depends on what your mood is and what you want to portray.

To build on the previous tip, but in a slightly different capacity, one irrational fear shared by many is the feeling that sooner or later, luck runs out and things will turn for the worse.

One way to use this in your horror stories is to foreshadow what might happen. Give words to the worst-case scenario as a driver for both the characters and the story.

That way, the reader and characters both will spend the story wondering if that other shoe will ever drop. Whether or not it does is up to you, but as Hitchcock once famously said: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”

It’s often good to use the idea of darkness in some way – a primal feeling we all share.

It’s funny when you think about it in our modern context because, what is darkness?

It’s just the absence of light. In and of itself, it’s not a scary thing, but it’s what the darkness represents that frightens us to this day.

What’s in the dark? Is it just a pile of clothes, or is it someone actually sitting there, watching us sleep?

Is it an empty room, or is there an unspeakable terror lurking just outside the field of vision?

Tap into that primal caveman fear of the unknown that’s been passed down to us on a genetic level since we first huddled in our caves for fear of being eaten and use it to your best advantage in your horror stories. Create a feeling of loneliness, extract the color away from something, play with your more internal fears.

Horror fiction doesn't have to rely on all fictional elements. The best medicine from your own stories in your life you can incorporate. Some great horror books deal with experiences that the writer has dealt with in their own lives, like The Crow where a man in the 19th century murders someone, hides his body under the floorboards, and can hear his heart beat for the rest of his natural life, haunting him. You too can also write horror based on your own observations of the world around you.

Drawing on personal fears, experiences and observations will make your horror story feel more real to the reader. They will be able to relate to your characters and their situation more easily.

Make sure that you are honest with your writing and that it comes from a place of sincerity. If the reader can tell that you're phoning it in, then they will lose interest fast.

We all know that horror fiction is supposed to be scary. But what makes them truly horrifying is the fear of the unknown and the dark aspects of human nature which are often hidden from view.

This is why a lot of horror stories rely on suspenseful techniques in order to create an atmosphere of fear and dread. It's not what's happening in the pages but what might happen that causes us to scream in terror.

In order to make your horror story more effective, focus on developing internal fears within your characters rather than relying too much on external threats. This will make the horror feel more personal for the reader and increase the tension levels dramatically.

Good horror writers know how to keep the horror primarily internalized. When writing horror, make sure that your characters' fears and anxieties drive them rather than external threats like monsters or serial killers constantly. Fear, dread, anxiety, fleeing, hiding, attacking.

Horror fiction is just as complex and nuanced as any other kind of fiction. Just because the horror genre is unique to all other genres doesn't meet it shouldn't follow the same story and plot rules as others. As a horror writer, make sure that you still adhere to the basics of storytelling such as having a strong plot, well-developed characters and an interesting setting.

Remember, horror isn't just about scares – it's also about telling a great story. Make sure that you focus on crafting a cohesive and satisfying narrative overall. Don't give in to cliches that are all well too often done in this genre, make something of your own, create, think, scare, and make someones blood run into ice!

With these tips in mind, you should be well on your way to writing horror stories that will send shivers down your readers' spines whether you're writing a horror novel or short story, even a poem. So get out there you aspiring horror writer and start tapping into those dark fears and hidden anxieties that make horror so congealing!