This is a text version with minimal edits of an archived Instagram post from November of 2021. The advice, while perhaps clumsily worded, is still something I stand by. All ideas expressed are personal opinions based on my experience as a writer. Thanks for reading!
- Focus on descriptions. Describe the setting, the monsters (if there are any), the characters. If your character can’t see anything, describe that lack of sight. Action and dialogue are still important, but, if possible, focus more on the consequences of or reactions to those moments. Describe the wound inflicted due to a physical fight or the twisting of someone’s face when insulted.
- Diction matters. Diction in a literary sense boils down to word choice. In this case, your diction should be grotesque and unsettling, even visceral; choose words with a more negative connotation over synonyms with a more positive or neutral connotation. “Dripped” becomes “oozed” or “seeped.” “Afraid” becomes “chilled” or “revolted,” and so on. The more specific you can get, the better.
- Pacing is also important. For more suspenseful stories, a slow-paced narrative might be better, but for intense scenes, fast pacing works to convey desperation and anxiety. For these (fast-paced) moments, use short sentences with minimal detail.
- Call reality into question. There are a few different approaches you can take here. You can imply that your narrator is unreliable, or that the events they take as fact may not have happened as presented, or you can establish facts or rules about your story that might be taken for granted and then break or go against them.
- Play on your own fears. You know what they say: write what you know. If you’re afraid of something, it will be easier to convince your audience to be afraid of it, too. Building your story around a personal fear will make it much more compelling, not to mention easier to write.
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