: Re: When someone sees something frightening, how can I make it obvious without sounding cliche? I write a lot of horror, and I notice that my characters use "Oh my God!" when they're frightened

@Sue2132873

Vote Up Vote Down

Try writing their thoughts of the moment, and how their body reacts (ex: heart beating fast). Also keep in mind that there are 3 ways a character can react to a scary event. Everyone's different so it depends on the personality you gave them. 1. The runner; 2. The fighter; 3. Frozen in spot.

For example the thoughts of a runner might be “I don’t wanna die, I don’t wanna die!! I need to hide! Omg omg it’s right behind me."

A fighter might sound like “Hah! You don’t scare me! Do you think that bloody knife can stop me from taking you down?”

And the frozen in spot is panicking in their mind because they can’t move their body.

Like I said above, it depends on their personality. Also your story will sound even scarier if you add more description and less dialogue. "Oh my god!” isn’t enough. Hope this helped a bit.

Good luck with your story! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

(0)

Login to post a comment!