Everyday Canvas

Elements of Horror for Nov. 1----and Nov. 2 Prompt

Prompt: What elements can a writer use to make his work in the horror genre scary?

The best works in the horror genre force the reader to pay attention to every word written or said; therefore, the economy in wording and the clarity of expression are the most important elements the same as they are in most genres.

The other genre-specific elements for horror are:

• Fear :          Fear is best used when implied rather than pointed out mostly through foreshadowing, and the most important of all fears is the fear of dying, especially for characters the readers empathize with when they are in situations where they face death or when they can be hurt physically or emotionally. A good horror writer can easily spin the element of fear into anyone, any object, event, or idea.

• Mood:           Establishing the mood is very important and is closely related to fear. To see how the mood can be established, I suggest watching the beginning of Hitchcock’s Birds and seeing how the dark, clouds and other components of the day forewarn what is to come.

• Suspense:           Suspense is the result of fear and keeps the reader waiting on edge for something or other to happen, dependent on what happened earlier. Suspense provides the hook for the reader to keep on reading.

• Mystery:           Mystery is another hook. Mystery is leaving something unexplained but through foreshadowing keeping the interest of the reader until the climax when the mystery is solved. Mystery in a horror story may be accomplished by leaving some things out to the reader’s imagination.

• Surprise:           Sudden surprises may add to or enlarge the original fear idea. Most surprises come at the end of a long suspense, in an unexpected way. For example, a man running away from a serial killer escapes into the woods to be attacked by a pack of wolves.

• Pictures and props:           This means the imagery or symbols, such as a graveyard, a haunted house, props for killing knives, chainsaws, guns or any object made into something other than its original intent.

• Characters:           Killers, ghosts, demons, vampires, monsters, masked beings, and other entities imagined by the writer.

Prompt: Make a list of 10 things that make you smile.


I smile when I think of these things:

1. My background and those who have been important in my life
2. That my mind and body are still working
3. That I wake up each morning and I am still breathing and so is my husband
4. My two sons and daughter-in-law and extended families
5. Everything that I can do & WdC
6. The way answers for difficulties come to me
7. The beauty of the earth and nature
8. That all my needs are taken care of
9. That I can be of help to someone, sometimes
10. Everything else good or bad because anything that happens reminds us that we are alive.