• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Creating Dread or Terror

The deadline was tomorrow. And the writer hadn't written down a single word.

Probably not the terror and dread you're after, but it's bound to be familiar to some. Figure it's going to be different for everyone. I don't really deal in too much dread and terror however. Are you talking more straight horror stuff or the impending doom of a nation about to be crushed because the local Evil Overlord got out of the wrong side of the bed that day?

For Dread, it might just be the impending end of the world, a comrade near fatally wounded who's on the edge of death or that the character is going against all odds because the dinosaurs got out of the paddock (again). Or else it's a criminal on the run from a certain law keeper, dreading what's going to happen. I don't really have to much for it, but I suppose setting counts for a lot too. Having watched Marble Hornets, even the daytime is not safe.

For Terror, well, I figure it's the sudden and frightening appearance of a Night Lord (they're really good at terror) or a surprise attack when walking through a forest. Or the heroes being stalked by a persistent hunter that just won't quit (or the modern serial killer). And everything just keeps ratcheting up higher and higher. Terror seems to me to be where no place is safe and there's something big and bloodthirsty right round the corner so you have to run until you're exhausted and keep going even then.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I heard it said somewhere on this forum once that the difference between action and horror is the difference between taking on the Dark Lord with a powerful magic sword and taking them on with a broken deer antler.

It's helplessness.

To build up a sense of dread of terror, give the reader someone to care for and then render them helpless in the face of danger. What you do to get them out of it is what makes it action or horror. Action: the bunny kicks butt. Horror: the bunny dies a brutal death. Both endings can be satisfying in their own way.
 
I think that question of "dread" depends a lot on the author's choices. Does the reader know something the/a character does not know? How soon do they know? How long do they carry the burden of knowing throughout the narrative? Is the reader being made to feel helpless in their own omniscience?

Or, Is the dreadful experience unfolding 'in real time'? As it happens to the character, the reader must also endure?

Those are the basic mechanics of producing 'dread'. But, IMO very different reading experiences.

Between what is dread, and what is horror and action... hmmm

Well, dread is the realization. It's internalized, mental and physiological. Action is what you do when faced with danger, flight or fight, win or lose. Horror is what happens when there's a scenario or consequence worse than 'losing'.

To wit: Teenager A forgets their homework. A friend tries to help them copy from them frantically before the teacher comes in and the bell starts the school day. They can't get caught cheating. They get as far as they can and at least it's something to turn in. But, at the last minute, a bully snatches the paper and rips it to shreds. Teenager A picks up the papers, and desperately tries to tape it back together at the desk.

That's all suspenseful, and dreadful.

The bell rings, the paper is taped back together, and they line up to turn it in at the teacher's desk. A kid ahead of Teenager A forgot their homework. The teacher drags him from the line, throws boiling water on the kid, and locks him in an iron maiden for the rest of the class. The kids have to ignore his screams of agony and cries for help to focus on the lecture.

That's horrific. Is that any more or less horrific if I as a reader *knew* Teenager A was desperately trying to avoid being tortured, before I read the actual sentence?

The character, in this example, knew something before I did. That's, again, another layer of horror. I'm blindsighted, but the character expects this.

What if the narrative added the lines: "The students knew there were going to be new radical enforcement policies after summerbreak, but couldn't imagine this. And they were petrified that their parents agreed these measures were for their own good. Teenager A's own mother organized the bake sale to raise funds for "the rack". She was baking all weekend in euphoric mania at the thought of cages, chains and torture devices being bought from the history museum to the school."

That's even worse to know the additional context.
I'm made to feel as helpless and horrified as the character. What is going to happen next? This was the first 5 minutes of the school day- how is this kid going to make it home?

Conversely, dread and suspense can be hilarious. David Sedaris novels deal frequently with social awkwardness and anxiety, (not that anxiety disorders are inherently funny) but while the narrator/character is definitely stressed out, it is absolutely comedic. Mostly because it is relateable on many levels, and not necessarily life-threatening or detrimental.
 
Isn't dread far more subjective than terror?

In either case, the stakes must seem high while the prospect of avoiding or overcoming the exterior negative force must seem low.

Subjective dread: High school student Paul knows the junior/senior prom is coming up, all his friends have found dates, his mom and dad are teasing him about some girl they assume he has his eyes on, everyone expects him to take a date to the prom—but, Paul is gay, very in the closet, doesn't know any other male gay students and is very awkward on the subject of women.

Heh, but that scenario can be a little different. Maybe Paul is not gay, just shy and awkward around girls. Like Harry Potter. Or maybe he is not "out" at school but knows one other guy who he "thinks" is gay, who doesn't appear to have a date for the prom, and he has determined that he'll come out at the event by bringing another boy...if only he can get over his fear of rejection. But what if that other student isn't gay, after all?

I don't think dread requires an actual exterior threat. The threat can be very subjective, a perception of danger that might not exist or might not be precisely what the character believes or fears it will be. Dread can be intermingled with other desires, even positive desires, like Harry Potter wanting to go to the Yule Ball with Cho Chang. The prospect of failure or rejection circles that desire, building a sense of dread leading up to the actual asking. This is Frodo wanting to destroy the One Ring while protecting his friends from its dangers: "I know what I must do, it's just that I'm afraid to do it."

This is dread for the character; but, what about the reader?

The reader can feel dread through identification with the character's sense of dread, but this isn't required for every scenario. The character might be ignorant of what must be done and the prospect of failure or danger in the future. The reader might know these things—or at least, have a general sense of what's coming—while the character does not. GRRM does this sort of thing well. For instance, we readers were treated to the image of Jaime throwing Bran from that tower window, so the prospect of Sansa having a happily-ever-after (or, any other Stark, for that matter) were lowered for us early in the first book. Perhaps this early dread was fairly low key—are the Starks going to swing into action, heroically?—but multiple causes for that dread were added throughout the first book.
 

Chessie2

Staff
Article Team
Fear is an emotion, so this is all about creating an emotional environment for your reader. I think uncertainty and suspense are the biggest things to gift your reader when it comes to creating terror/dread. They need to not be sure if things are going to be okay (well, they WILL be, but you never know right?).
 

pmmg

Myth Weaver
My prom situation was just dreadful. My solution was to get dumped and skip it....but its years later now, I'm not hurt...

Have to agree with the 5th one again (and well, all of the above really), and my suggestions would be along the same lines. Get me sucked into the story, make me feel some type of empathy with the characters, let me relate to their situation and why it may be awful for them, and I may dread with them. I am currently reading 'Warbreaker' by Mr. Sanderson. In it a young girl is surprisingly subbed in to be wife of the God King, and so she goes through a very dreadful process of having to come to grips with this new reality, but I must say, for me, I am not feeling it. It ought to be dreadful, she is in a world of change, she is treated rudely, she is unprepared and everything about it seems awful, but Me the reader...Meh...get on with the story please. I think Mr. Sanderson failed for me cause this comes really early in the story and I do not care yet, so he failed to make me care, and so I do not quite feel her dread. I can understand it, but I've not internalized any empathy yet. I think feelings like dread or terror work best if they have had to time to develop in the story, and come at a place when I feel like I am there with the characters.
 

K.S. Crooks

Maester
I think it first starts with having the reader are for the character. It needs to matter what happens to them. After you could try small doses of our primal fears in certain places. Things like darkness, wilderness, small creatures with many legs, the open ocean. Things such as this have an ingrained psychological meaning to us to beware. Expressing the lack of knowledge of the situation for the character can make the reader feel the same. Perhaps examine the work of someone who you feel creates dread or terror in their work. When does their story make you feel dread.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
I've been looking into horror recently.

The thing I looked at talked about terror, horror, and the uncanny. Terror is the fear you feel knowing that something is about to happen. Horror is what you feel after something has happened. And the uncanny is the state of wrongness you feel when looking at something that's off. Different works in the genre rely on a different mix of the three. A story about a serial killer might rely on terror. A story about the last survivor of the zombie apocalypse might rely on horror. A story where kids are forced to kill each other might rely on both. And all of those might use elements of the creepy and uncanny to support those feelings.
 
Depending on what context it is used in, terror is a very effective tool for storytelling. I will straight up admit being a JRPG enthusiast over the years that if the story is well-written, I have strong feelings of dread about what events may fall upon the heroes in the final dungeon. In the end, it boils down to how well the events of the adventure have been laid out for us as the reader. To a degree, the intensity of the stakes at hand play a part in creating that atmosphere. If I don't feel like there is something important enough for the MC to lose if he fails his quest, I tend to get bored of the story rather quickly.
 
Top