Genre Guide — Horror

For this exercise, you should have a document open where you can write. Now copy the text in the box and paste it into that document. This will be the blueprint  for your story. You'll fill it in as you go through the exercise and end up with a basic outline for your horror novel. You may also want to post your story outline in the forums to get some ideas from other forum members. 

Please note that there are a number of horror novels that don't follow this blueprint exactly, and almost none of them follow it perfectly. If your book will still be terrifying and interest readers without one of these pieces, or with some of them done differently or in a different order, feel free to do your own thing. This blueprint is just so that you can understand the basic format that your readers will expect from the genre. 

Remember to read the articles in the Essentials section. These cover all the essential skills you’ll need as a self-published author. They are not just for beginners either. They go in depth on how to successfully write, publish, and market your own books.

Do you love creating a gruesome and diabolical villain? Are you sure there is something twisted, something wrong in our world, just below the surface? Then you should be writing horror. If you read a lot of it, you already know the tropes to use, the cliches to avoid, and the basic structures it follows. If you haven't read much horror, go read a dozen of them. If you are hooked and want to write them, read a few dozen more and then come back.