There’s something delicious about creeping along a dark hallway with a character, feeling their terror as they grip their kid’s baseball bat with sweaty fingers. Something woke them from a deep sleep. Something is not quite right. It could be the tree scratching against the window. It could be the cat.

But we know it’s neither of those things, don’t we? We know something terrible is waiting in the shadows, something with ripping claws and teeth.

Something hungry.

Keep on reading to know how to write a horror story and create anticipation and suspense in your next book!

You know that abandoned house at the end of your block? You know the one. It sits in shadows even on the brightest of days. Birds don’t even land in the yard, have you noticed? I’d tell you the key to a kickass horror novel is hidden in its depths, but that would be cruel and it might get you killed.

There are a lot of resources for horror writers that aren’t located in the bowels of a haunted house, you’ll be happy to know. Let me lay out a few. And if you want to go hunting for the key later, well, that’s not my problem.

Just beware the thing that lives under the stairs, okay?

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