It can be tricky to write a horror scene. Often, your great idea falls flat and just isn’t scary when your type it out.
To set up a truly frightening scene, it is critical that you establish your character’s vulnerability. To achieve this, utilize devices that suggest danger, such as darkness, cobwebs, and deserted buildings, to build tension. By doing so, when the horror finally does take place, its impact will be greatly amplified.
Perhaps your character is visiting a strange foreign land like Jonathan Harker in Brad Stoker’s Dracula. It is dark and cold. There are bats flying around and lightning in the air.
This is an environment that represents danger for the character. Something could attack your character. Maybe they will get lost. Perhaps they are heading into danger just by travelling to Dracula’s castle.
Once you have established that your character is vulnerable, it only takes the suggestion of danger to create a scary scene.
In the scene above, if a lone man were to come walking out of the darkness we would immediately assume he is dangerous.
Now imagine your character walking down a pleasant country road on a sunny day. A lone man comes walking down the road, but he is not scary. We, most likely, assume they are on friendly terms and will greet one another.
Place Your Character in a Dangerous Location
An obvious way to make your character vulnerable is to put them in an unfamiliar place. The stranger the better. If your character doesn’t know the rules of this place, they won’t know how to behave. They could inadvertently do something that invites danger.
Your location doesn’t have to be some far-away place; somewhere that is unknown to the character will cause apprehension.
Ask yourself where the danger will come from. Describe how the character could be harmed while in this situation. You don’t have to have events unfold this way; this is just making the suggestion.
To provide a hint of danger, you could describe a hypothetical situation where your character dies or is badly hurt. You don’t have to put this in your story, you just have to be clear in your mind.
Also, consider where they might get help when the danger comes. If help is far away, the character is more vulnerable than if help is close by. If the only help available is an unreliable person, then your character is even more vulnerable.
Another aspect of vulnerability is the possible escape routes your character may take. Where can they run to? If they have to escape through a confusing maze, literally or figuratively, it will amp up the tension.
Learn how to Build Tension here
Limit Your Character’s Visibility
Limiting visibility is a classic way to make the character more feel vulnerable. Much of our sense of comfort comes from being able to see what’s around us. As long as we know what is there, we don’t need to fear it. But turn out the lights, and we become like a child that is afraid of the dark.
It isn’t the darkness that frightens us, it is the unknown. Things that we don’t control and may want to harm us.
When you place your character in a dark room, there is a suggestion that there may be something in it that could become a threat. By playing on this, you increase the sense of vulnerability in your character and the reader.
Darkness isn’t the only way to limit visibility. Mist and fog have served this purpose very well, especially in movies or games like the Silent Hill series.
In this scenario, someone has to explore a town that is covered in fog. They need to find something in the town, but they are surrounded by dense fog and visibility is low.
The thought that something vicious may materialise out of the fog at any minute can easily keep the reader on edge.
Another trick is to have your character lose their glasses. While they feel around on the ground trying to find them, anything could be standing over them.
This works especially well if your character is in a location they are unfamiliar with.
You can also make a character vulnerable through invisible threats like ghosts and demons. This amps up the vulnerability because a ghost can strike anywhere.
Once your character knows that a ghost is after them, it is now up to the ghost when it attacks. There isn’t anything the character can do to provoke or avoid it. This creates the perfect sense of vulnerability that you can play with in a lot of ways.
Remove the Boundaries That Protect Your Character
Physical boundaries give us a sense of comfort. We can hide behind them and they protect us. As long as there is a sturdy wall, anything that is outside cannot get in.
Taking away these barriers is a great way of making your character vulnerable.
Suppose your character is alone in a house and they hear a strange noise from outside. Should they leave the relative safety of solid brick walls and investigate?
Boundaries don’t have to be practical either. If you are camping in a tent at night, the tent walls don’t provide much protection from danger, but they feel like they do.
It is the feeling that is important to your story. You create the feeling of a boundary and then you take it away.
That tent might not do much to stop a bear attack, but that doesn’t mean you are willing to leave your tent in the middle of the night. The feeling of security it provides is more important than its ability to stop a knife-wielding maniac.
This is also obvious when you consider a child hiding under his or her bed sheets. What are bed sheets going to do against the boogie man? But they are enough to make the child feel safe.
To set up your scene, you could suggest that the sheets might be taken away, then have your character hear a strange noise in the dark. Now you have the right sense of vulnerability.
Click Here to read about Horror Concepts
Your Character has no Back-Up
Another source of vulnerability is the knowledge that no one is coming to help you.
Most people are more confident when they are in a crowd, so put your character in a place where there is no one else around.
Make it so their friends and family can’t reach them, and if they are in trouble, help won’t be able to arrive in time.
Isolation is a primal fear, and for good reason. Throughout history, we have always survived in groups. To be alone was to be prey.
Hunters who moved by themselves could end up getting eaten by a tiger. There is strength in numbers and, if we don’t have the numbers, then we are vulnerable.
Sometimes you may not want to place your character in an isolated area but you can still achieve a form of isolation.
If your character is surrounded by people who are not competent to do a dangerous task it can leave your character vulnerable. Even more so if they are openly hostile towards your character.
Imagine a group of prisoners forced to work together to escape a prison overrun with zombies. They don’t trust each other but they have to rely on each other. Your character is not alone in this situation, but they are isolated.
Another way to use isolation is to have a force that only your character can see. It doesn’t matter how many people are around if no one else is aware of the danger.
The main thing is to separate your character from anyone who can save them. There is no backup coming when things go bad. Your character is alone and they are vulnerable.
