How to Write 1,000-Word Horror Stories

Scare your readers with a thousand words.

Writing short horror stories is a lot of fun. After all, you get to tell scary, creepy tales without having to go to the lengths of writing a full novel. Short stories, despite their minimal length, can be just as effective, engaging and meaningful for readers as their longer counterparts.

But what about short horror stories with a limit of some kind? I previously wrote a blog post on How to Write Two-Sentence Horror Stories (you’ll find this at the bottom), in which I offer a simple guide to creating scary stories made up of just two sentences. In this one, I’m going to look at much longer horror stories that have more of a fixed limit in place: a total word count of 1,000.

If you want to pick up a few hints and tips for writing 1,000-word horror stories, you’re reading the right article! Let’s dive in and get started.

Why 1,000 Words?

A few years ago, I wrote some short horror stories with no limits on length. Each of them is several thousand words long, and I enjoyed writing them without restrictions. I feel that each story is as long as needs be.

While writing these, I came across some two-sentence horror stories online and tried writing some of my own. I liked the challenge of writing stories with just two sentences and thought it was both fun and creative.

The thing is, I wasn’t satisfied. I had two formats I enjoyed: regular short stories thousands of words long with no restrictions and extremely short stories made up of just two sentences. I wanted a third format, something that would be a sort of balance of the other two.

Then I realised that when I had been writing short horror stories, I’d never had a specific word requirement in place. I wanted stories in this new third format to be longer than the two-sentence ones, but a bit shorter than the regular short stories.

The solution was obvious: writing horror stories exactly 1,000 words in length. This seemed like a great middle option to go for: it’s a lot longer than just two sentences and shorter than regular short stories with no word limit.

With 1,000 words, I have a decent amount of room to develop and tell the story, though since there’s a strict word count in place, I have to keep things in check. I can’t waffle or go into too much detail; there’s only space for the words that matter the most.

Structure and the Element of Horror

I’m not going to talk about writing horror stories in general because there’s no need. If you want to do this, all you have to do is put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard!) and write. I’m a great believer in the idea that when it comes to writing fiction, you make the rules.

To write a horror story that’s made up of 1,000 words, you need to have an idea but this idea needs to be concise. After all, you have a limited number of words to work with, so you can’t inject too many ideas, plots or characters into your story.

The most important thing to think about when writing 1,000-word horror stories is structure. Specifically, you need to consider the element of horror, namely where this is going to be used and how often it will feature.

What I really like about the 1,000-word limit is that it can help the story build tension. Readers know the story is going to be of a fixed length and that sooner or later, it’s going to be scary in some way.

If there’s no element of horror early on, readers know it will come eventually. As the story progresses, the reader should be anticipating something happening. Since the story is short, the horror element is never too far away.

My own 1,000-word horror stories vary in how they approach the element of horror. In some, it’s evident throughout, whereas in others, it only makes itself known towards the end.

In ‘The Ticket to Reality’ (Flashes of Fright: Volume II), there’s nothing related to horror until the very end of the story. Even then, I don’t elaborate much on what happens, leaving it for the reader to think about the consequence of the main character’s action and the terrifying situation he’s now landed himself in.

‘Seawash Manor’ (Flashes of Fright) is an example of a 1,000-word story where there are instances of horror throughout. There’s a plot to this haunted house story, but the scary goings-on start right away as opposed to near the end.

Dealing With the Word Count Requirement

What I find myself doing a lot of the time is going over the 1,000-word limit and cutting the word count down by removing superfluous words. Occasionally, the opposite will happen: I’ll be reaching the end of the story and will still a considerable number of words from 1,000.

As any writer will tell you, removing words can be a trivial task, but sometimes you struggle to justify a word’s removal and find it hard to reduce your word count. Normally there’s no word count requirement in place, but when there is one, you have to be brutal and merciless when getting rid of words!

This is why when writing 1,000-word horror stories, I suggest aiming for a word count that’s lower than 1,000. Going for 950 is a good idea. Why? Because this leaves you enough room to add a few extra sentences and details when you’re in the editing phase.

I’m the type of writer who always wants to add words to a story. When editing any type of creative writing, the word count inevitably goes up. It does go down, though this is an exception rather than the norm.

The point is that for me, the best approach is to write slightly fewer than 1,000 words and then spruce the story up with a few more sentences and the odd descriptive word here and there to make it reach the word requirement.

Writing slightly over 1,000 words then cutting down might be the best practice for you. Everyone’s different and there’s no right or wrong way to go about writing 1,000-word horror stories. If you decide to write some of your own, you’ll find your own best method sooner or later.

Learn How to Be Concise With the Story Elements

When putting together a horror story that’s 1,000 words long, you have to be concise. There simply isn’t enough breathing space for you to be as detailed as you might normally be or for you to have as many plots and characters as you might like.

Personally, I find it easier to come up with a bare-bones plot and expand it as I’m writing the story. This is similar to how I aim for a word count of less than 1,000 and leave myself some room to add more words later on.

I find this approach works better for me. When writing 1,000-word horror stories, I don’t want to be burdened by a complex plot, an excess of characters and an abundance of loose ends to tie up. I want as few things as possible, but still enough that I can tell a decent story.

With 1,000-word horror stories, it’s all about keeping things simple, direct and to the point. You can still tell a story with depth, but you have to obey the word count requirement. (Having said this, two of my 1,000-word horror stories actually don’t meet the requirement! It’s for creative reasons though.)

Summary

1,000 words is a great length for a short horror story. Any sort of fixed word requirement can encourage you to be creative and tell stories in a way you didn’t think you could do. With a thousand words, you can tell a story that’s short yet still effective and memorable.

When writing 1,000-word horror stories of your own, follow the tips I’ve listed above and see how the writing process works for you. Let your imagination run riot, but don’t let it use up more than a thousand words!

Want to read some of my 1,000-word horror stories? Download Flashes of Fright and Flashes of Fright: Volume II. Also, check out my blog post How to Write Two-Sentence Horror Stories.