forum I need help with a psychological horror plot.

Started December 26, 2018 by @itsyourboylouis

tune

So I've always wanted to create a psychological story that you like need to think about for a long time, sort of like the Sixth Sense or the Shining. Any kind of help would be great. Thanks!

Start with the end of the puzzle and work your way backwards. Knowing where you want to end up will let you get hecka complex and vague in the middle

Thanks! That helps a lot. :)

I'm not quite an expert, but as a fan of psychological horror, I find it really helpful to study and take note of aspects from series/movies/books of this genre and what they do well. It can be really hard to write for this genre, as it is one that certainly requires a lot of thought, but you'll find that it isn't too hard to find a premise and build off of it if you give yourself the time to brainstorm and use your resources. Perhaps you could put together a note/document with aspects you enjoyed from psychological horror movies/books. Don't be afraid to reference! Some of your best growth can come when you are inspired by others.

I agree to take inspiration from others. What I would recommend as well would be to get lots of prompts, write a couple of short stories to give you some ideas of where you want to go with it. I did this and ended up with a plot that follows a young girl brought up by her cannibal parents in a small village in England. She starts to question the morals behind the families eating habits and the chaos it brings to their everyday life. I'm not sure what is going to happen now but I'd like to create a house kind of like H.H.Holmes' hotel where its almost impossible to escape and her parents are keeping all of their children their as they plan to eat them as bringing other people to their house becomes too risky. I think this could be really suspenseful and intense but it needs more development. My point is that that plot idea came from 2 writing prompts that sparked my interest that actually had nothing to do with the subject matter of my story but just got my brain into the writing mindset.