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How to Write Monsters that are Truly Scary
Tap into real human fears to give your give readers a chill
If you want to write compelling horror stories involving monsters, you should think about what they truly represent, and why they’re so scary and effective at sending shivers up our spines. Why have classic monsters endured in our collective psyche? Dracula was written over a century ago, and Frankenstein was written two centuries ago, but even today, we are constantly seeing new versions of those stories being made, spinoffs, parodies, and homages. Why do they endure? What are they really about?
First I will mention some basic human fears that keep us up at night, and then I will give several examples of old and new monsters, and discuss which fears they tap into to terrify us to the core.
Some may be obvious, some debatable, and perhaps some are contentious, but they are just my opinions. You may have your own opinions, but even if they differ greatly from mine, you can still benefit from learning what they mean to other people and it can still inform your writing.
If you are inventing your own monsters, choose one or two primal fears and design with them in mind. If you naively try to make your monster scary by simply giving it powerful muscles and sharp claws and rabid fangs and a thirst for…
