creep factor

im-basic-but-ur-the-bitch  asked:

Hello, friend. I was wondering if you had any advice on adding a creep factor to a story? I'm trying to make a novella I'm writing creepy without it being obviously so. Like, you know how some things are unnerving and you can't explain why? I want it sort of like that.

Congrats, @im-basic-but-ur-the-bitch​, your ask has been selected for one of my Long Posts™!

TWO THINGS TO ADD THAT EXTRA CREEP FACTOR IN YOUR STORIES

Hello, friend! The thing about writing with “creep factor“ is the fact that different things creep different people out. A person who might be terrified of old porcelain dolls is can be completely unfazed by masked murderers and vice versa.

Keep this in mind whenever you write scary stories, so that you know that it’s not going to scare EVERYONE. This will help make sure that you’re not overwhelmed or daunted by making your story eerie, since you know that it’s not going to please all of the people that read it.

With that said, let’s launch into two things that will make your scary story even scarier.

1. Setting

Setting is key when it comes to making your story extra creepy; a story set in an abandoned mental asylum during a midnight storm is way scarier than a story set in a pretty garden on a sunny day.

However, the setting of your story doesn’t have to be the classic cemetery or haunted mansion. In fact, those settings in scary/eerie stories are so predictable that they’re almost cliche by this point.

Don’t be afraid to spice up your setting! A part of your story that could make it eerie is that it’s set in a place that isn’t normally scary but can be under certain conditions.

For example, a nursery school is a nice, fun place with happy children, colorful walls and pictures, and arts and crafts. However, it becomes an entirely different place if you’re locked in at night and there are children laughing despite the fact that the last students left over eight hours ago.

Places that seem benevolent during the day transform at night or during a storm, when the shadows stretch across the walls and manipulate what you see.

What places make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up whenever you’re there? What places only freak you out under certain conditions?

In this case with writing, I encourage you to draw upon your own feelings. What factors would make a seemingly harmless room turn into a horrorshow? If you get the chills reading over your story, chances are that your readers will too.

Here are some settings/things that personally creep me out and perhaps will creep you guys out, too:

- Long, dark hallways

- Antique mirrors

- Forests at night

- Abandoned paths

- Literally any fucking abandoned place like highkey get me the fuck out of there

- A room that’s empty except for a creepy thing sitting in the center like a doll or something

- Being alone in dark houses, even if that house is your own

- Living room with the lights off, nothing illuminating it except the TV that’s showing static

- Stuffed animals that have been mutilated

- Footprints belonging to no one

- Disembodied voices

- fucking SCAMPERING like holy shit on those let’s plays I shit my pants whenever I hear a little kid/animal/whatever the fuck skittering around somewhere behind me

- Breathing that isn’t your own

- Old mansions that creak in the wind

- Cemeteries, especially when you’re standing over a grave and expect hands to reach up and grab your ankle

- Deserted streets and alleyways

- Dead end streets lit but nothing but street lamps

- Empty parks at night

- Houses lit only by candlelight

- Normal rooms but you know someone has died in there/ there have been hauntings in there before

- Things looking through the window, especially humanoids with glowing eyes

- Footsteps running toward you in the dark

2. Company

Sometimes, the people within the story can be the deciding factor on it being creepy. This includes both the villains, the heroes, and the morally ambiguous peeps in between.

Some people are creepier than others, and some people are unsettled by different things, and once again you should choose what best fits your story and what creeps you out the most. Would you be more scared of an axe-wielding man in a mask standing at the end of your hallway or two black-eyed little girls holding hands.

Here are some people/characteristics about people and creatures that would personally freak me out and may freak you out, too:

- Large, empty eyes

-Open/gaping mouths

- Contorted bodies

- Fast skittering and crawling instead of walking

- Stringy hair

- Sallow, shriveled faces

- Sharp teeth

- White eyes/ no eyes/ completely black eyes

- Basically look at the illustrations of any “Scary stories to tell in the dark” book and you’ll get what I mean

- Suspicious/eerie dialogue

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HOPE THIS HELPED!

Holy shit I’m writing this at night and just had to go get up and close my door because it’s behind me and I was afraid something was going to creep up and pounce on me. Thanks guys.