Vanessa

I have in my mind, a moment that is scary. In my mind it is really dark, fogging and silent, but to write it seems to not reflect my thoughts.

Any tips?

Emma LB

I'm not an expert, but try and make a list of scary adjectives and objects, ones that really sound scary. Dark doesn't sound scary, but sinister does for example. A old tin isn't scary, but if this tin is making eerie noises and being pushed around by a rat, that's scarier, especially if your character (and reader) doesn't know it's just a tin can.

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Vanessa

So scary could be perceived adjectively, but is it the unknown outcome that really makes it scary?

Eiji Tunsinagi

No matter how good the adjectives are though, never use too many----or else it'll sound bad. Sometimes less description will let the reader just imagine what this scary person, place, or thing is like, an how it would scare them in particular.

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sully474

Scary is all about telling the reader how your character felt, and how they had no idea what was going on in most cases.

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Talia_Brie

This is the best tip so far. Horror is about getting the reader to empathise with the character. If the character is scared, the reader will respond to that.

Read The Shining, by Stephen King, or the beginning of Desperation. These are two examples of horror writing done really well.

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Chris

Ghost stories on the Internet tend to do a good job of freaking me out. Maybe you should check some of those out. Other than that, I agree with what everyone else has said. Read lots of Stephen King, he very good!

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Sam

Conversely, the realisation of what is going on is often the scariest part, especially if you throw in a bit more confusion after that. Lull them out of the insecurity of ignorance and into fatalistic enlightenment. Then yank them back into insecurity.

For instance, say you have someone hiding from, I don’t know, a murderer or some such. Your hero ducks into a cupboard as they hear approaching footsteps in the corridor outside. The footsteps enter the room they’re hiding in — add a nice bit about the seemingly deafening loudness of the protagonists heartbeat for an extra chill. Just as they hear the door opening again, as if the murderer has called off the search, there is a second or two of eerie silence. Suddenly the footsteps thunder towards their hiding place. They sit in the darkness awaiting the inevitable. But nothing happens. Minutes pass and they don’t know what to do. Do they risk peeking outside?

Anyway, that probably wasn’t a very good scenario, but I’ve written horror approximately zero times, so I’m hardly an authority on the matter. Regardless, I hope I got across what I intended.

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ink stained dreamer

Beating around the bush and hinting instead of a full-on description always tends to scare me more then if you give me all the details. The "fear of the unknown" principle I guess.

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Vixen

Try reading the Shining, and if your looking for adjective rich scary, try Poe. The unkown is good, as long as it's not contrived... I almost want to see what you have so far...

Vanessa

I have not yet written it, it is all in my mind, but when I have I will post it to you.