Horror story help, stuck! On starting

Question

Basically a young girl (13/14) goes to stay with grandparents, turns out their not innocent they are part of a cult. they do terrible things and chant stuff. I wanna start the story off about the girl first?? Help please. Thanks, the story has to have suspense in

Answer 1

Sherry S. gives a perspective that writers must know if they are writing suspense:  You plan the outcome; your readers/viewers anticipate it.  That's much like a surprise party or special present or waiting to find out whether you passed the class (o.k., that's not a good example of suspense).  If they guess the outcome; try another plot.

 

That's a lot like that very precisely-timed silence (called a "pregnant pause") that either makes or breaks a good joke -- too long, and the listener gets bored and distracted; too short, and the punch line is ruined.

 

I remember reading that "The Lone Ranger" had 11 episodes aired on old-time radio before they needed to "back-fill" a story about how he became the Lone Ranger when ambushed by the Cavendish Gang at Bryant's gap -- that's when they introduced that new character, Tonto.

 

Have you decided how your main character will be rescued??  That's got to be unexpected, too.

 

One other idea -- most videos (and lots of writing) starts off as an outline -- called "story boards."  If you have 10 scenes (cartoon style) you can change them easily before you get actors and spend money making your movie.  With a written story, it may be hard, but write only a few, very short action-dialog items and modify them before you write anything!  For example, this could become a 500 word story:

      Jill climbed slowly up a hill

      Jill looked all around

      After an hour, Jill saw Jack

      Jack laughed as Jill fell down the hill

Answer 2

Try to think of things you want to happen in the story later & create a frame of reference for the girl from her past. For example, she has a beloved teddy bear as a child and then the grandparents have some sort of ritual they do with stuffed animals. That's not a great example, but this is a trait I've seen in stories I've read recently.