The art of raising goose bumps is not so easy as you need to elicit fear in your readers through your writing. It takes more than tortured souls and terrifying groans to write a ghost story. Read these tips if you are all set to inspire nightmares.
1. Fear of the unknown
Anything that remains unknown can instil fear in us. People are scared of death because they do not know what happens after death. Darkness scares us as anything can be hiding in the dark. In other words, we fear what we cannot understand. So, when you write your ghost story, withhold information. By withholding information, you are piquing the curiosity and imagination of your readers. For example, you can leave the climax of your story vague by offering only a few words of explanation. Another technique you can use is to limit the use of trope words. If you are always mentioning vampires or ghosts, then you are making it predictable for the readers to predict. Do not attach a label to your entity; this way, you produce doubt in the minds of your readers. They will become uncomfortable and it is easier to scare them.
2. Build fear gradually
Fear must be built gradually in your readers’ minds. If you present your scariest scenes right in the beginning, then you won’t get the desired effect. What you should do is slowly take your readers from their comfort zone to a world of terror. Always remember to save the best for the last. This slow transition makes it easier to create fright your readers.
3. Use the ‘suspend your disbelief’ strategy
Everybody knows that ghosts are not real. But you need to write in such a manner that they suspend their disbelief and go along with the flow of your writing. Your plot should sound sensible and plausible. First of all, you should describe the setting to build up your atmosphere. Do not include ridiculous places and events. If you are planning to introduce a weird incident, make sure there’s a logical reason for it. But do not give away all details; instead a few clues will do. Secondly, you should flesh out your characters by giving them a personality. Make them struggle and develop their personalities by adding some quirks to their characterization. Thirdly, try using first person narratives in your story. This makes your reader easily identify with the plot. After all, your aim is to instil unbridled terror in your readers!
4. Use emotions
When writing a ghost story, you should use emotions to draw your readers. Fear is not the only emotion that matters. You should try enhancing the element of terror by using other emotions like anger or depression or positive emotions. When you show a ray of hope and replace it with something awful, then the contrast can be unsettling. For the best emotional impact, you should develop well-rounded personalities.
5. Play with the plot
Do you want to write a great ghost story? Then you should come up with something unique. The dark and stormy night plot may not always work. Make your ghost story memorable by providing a killer ending sentence. As your readers read the last sentence, it will probably leave a lasting impression on their minds. For example, “In hell he lived, in hell he walked amidst the furiously raging embers of the dead souls, leaving everything dead and rotting in his gait – only to return.”
Image credit: Kevin Dooley on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0
I’m Smitha Abraham. I love traveling in my flights of imagination and use these flights to craft short stories and poetry. I am a budding writer from India. My passions are reading, creative writing, listening to music, learning new languages, meeting new people, getting acquainted with different cultures and traveling. Authors like Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, genres like magic realism, historical romance, and writing styles that are imaginative and flow effortlessly fascinate me. I love to unwind with a book curled up on a sofa or by gazing at the stars by the sea shore. I am a nature lover and spending time admiring the sunset and sunrise is relaxing for me.