What makes a good horror story? Sure you could throw in some hideous monsters, fountains of blood, and things jumping out from every corner, but as classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
And writers harness that fear not by revealing horrors, but by leaving the audience hanging in anticipation of them. That is, in a state of suspense.
The most familiar examples of suspense come from horror films and mystery novels. What’s inside the haunted mansion? Which of the dinner guests is the murderer? But suspense exists beyond these genres.
Will the hero save the day? Will the couple get together in the end? And what is the dark secret that causes the main character so much pain?
The key to suspense is that it sets up a question, or several, that the audience hopes to get an answer to and delays that answer while maintaining their interest and keeping them guessing.
So what are some techniques you can use to achieve this in your own writing?
Read the full article (and do the lesson) here: https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/how-to-make-your-writing-suspenseful
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