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could be the sisters next door who are rumored to be witches, or a carnival owner who owns a bizarre carousel. One caveatyour threat must be believable and must be able to sustain the entire story. The threat must seem indestructible, so that the story builds in tension and suspense.

As indestructible as the threat seems, it will have a limitation. For instance, vampires cower at the sight of crosses and can be killed with a stake through the heart. There are antidotes against witches' spells. Werewolves can be killed with a stake through the heart. The carnival operator in Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" was conquered by faith.

It's not necessary for your hero to overcome the dark threat completely. He may emerge superior at the end of the story, but it's also okay to leave some doubts in the reader's mind. Author William F. Nolan calls this the "echo effect." He says, "A good horror tale must leave the reader with something to think about beyond what is obvious in the story on the surface."

For example, were the sisters next door really witches, or was it just something the neighborhood kids' imagined?

Next to character, the most important element of horror is atmosphere. It's not necessary to resort to blood and gore to create an atmosphere of terror. Stephen King refers to this as "going for the gross-out."

Withholding information is effective in adding tension, the unknown causes spines to tingle.

* Horror is not synonymous with disgust.

* Suspense is far more than curiosity.

Another element of horror fiction is atmosphere. To create your atmosphere, begin with the most basic elements of settingtime and place. When and where will your story take place? Ordinary settings work just as well as haunted castles. No matter what setting you choose, be sure the details are specific and believable. Avoid modifiers like "foreboding," "gloomy," and "dark." Show the atmosphere as your hero moves through the setting. Use concrete nouns and strong verbs. Include details about the lighting, weather, sounds, and other sensory descriptions. In Stephen King's The Shining, he spent one hundred pages establishing his character development without moving the characters into the haunted hotel.

Once the reader understands what motivates the characters, it's easier to take him to that scary place. Shirley Jackson uses a detached point of view to describe what on the surface appears to be an ordinary town gathering in "The Lottery." As the story progresses, she uses specific details to gradually build tension. The reader sees boys making a pile of rocks, the wooden box, and a black mark on a piece of paper. Jackson never diverts from the scene to revert to a character's stream of consciousness thoughts to show what their thinking and feeling. The language in the story is unemotional. The characters' emotions are shown through their actions.

In "The Raven" the words Poe selected created its atmosphere. By using words with long vowels (like stone, root, and nevermore) he created a gloomy setting without resorting to modifiers. He often used lighting and sound effects to increase tension. The repeated swinging of the pendulum throughout "The Pit and the Pendulum" was another technique he employed to build suspense. William F. Nolan wrote, "A terror tale must be layered with one effect built over another. It must achieve a cumulative effect, just as with music, a good symphony builds in intensity. Terror then, must be carefully orchestrated and each sentence would take the reader deeper into the scene."

Learn more about this author, R. M. Ziegler.
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