Genre Guide — Horror
Genre Guide — Horror

Supernatural Horror Beat Sheet

Export All to RTF Copy All to Clipboard Section Your Notes Introduction of Protagonist (Approx. 0-2,000 words): Introduce the protagonist, highlighting their connection to the supernatural, their vulnerabilities, and the ordinary world that is about to be disrupted by horrifying events. Dig Deeper The protagonist, perhaps a skeptic with a hidden psychic ability, a descendant of a long line of witches, or someone who unwittingly stumbles upon a gateway to the supernatural, is introduced in a world that initially appears ordinary. Their everyday life, their relationships, and any relevant backstory are established, along with any personal baggage or emotional vulnerabilities...

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Psychological Horror Beat Sheet

Export All to RTF Copy All to Clipboard Section Your Notes Introduction of Protagonist (Approx. 0-2,000 words): Introduce the protagonist, highlighting their psychological state, their vulnerabilities, and the seemingly ordinary world that is about to become a nightmare. Dig Deeper The protagonist, a seemingly ordinary individual with a hidden trauma, a fragile mental state, or a predisposition to paranoia, is introduced in a world that initially appears mundane and safe. Their everyday life, their relationships, and any relevant backstory are established, along with any psychological vulnerabilities or anxieties that may contribute to their descent into madness. The Unraveling (Approx. 2,000-5,000...

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Zombie Beat Sheet

Export All to RTF Copy All to Clipboard Section Your Notes Outbreak (Approx. 0-2,000 words): Introduce the protagonist as the world descends into chaos, depicting the initial outbreak of the zombie virus and its rapid spread through society. Dig Deeper The story opens with the protagonist, a college student cramming for finals, a overworked doctor pulling a double shift, or a single parent juggling a hectic schedule, completely unaware of the impending chaos. News reports initially dismiss the strange occurrences as isolated incidents, but the protagonist soon witnesses firsthand the horrifying transformation of people into flesh-eating monsters, the panic that...

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Horror Story Builder

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. 

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Horror Blueprint

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. 

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Should I Write Horror?

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.  

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Horror Guide

No matter the subgenre, all horror shares an overarching theme: fear. Whether it’s splatterpunk, serial killer, supernatural, or anything else, every book in this genre is a spine-tingler. You can never go wrong in ramping up the fear factor, and the good guys don’t always have to win. And where there’s not fear, there’s tension. Every horror reader wants tension. They want to be concerned for the safety — and often sanity — of the characters. You need to make those characters relatable and then put them on a path to destruction. Like every thriller has a ticking clock, every...

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