Review: ‘Writing Scary Scenes’ by Rayne Hall

Rayne Hall kindly sent me a free copy of this ebook, in exchange for an honest review. I read this guide alongside editing one of my own novels, and found it very useful in helping me ‘big up’ the fear factor.

As the title suggests, this book is all about writing scary scenes and could serve as a valuable guide for many writers. Split into twenty-six chapters, (all of which cover different aspects of fear, scene-setting, techniques and devices), it’s really easy to find the information that you’re looking for. One of the things I loved most about this book was the number of examples that Hall gives in almost every chapter; these really illustrated her points, showing the effects of such devices that she mentions (euphonics, senses, body language etc.)

As I was reading through the chapters, I found myself nodding quite a lot, and this is because the majority of the stuff that Hall writes about makes logical sense. However, sometimes I felt like there was a little too much ‘logical sense’ in places; some of her points seemed a little obvious to me, and over-explained.

The first chapter (Flavours of Fear) is probably my favourite. Not only does Hall list the different types of fear (unease, suspense, apprehension etc.) but she gives an in-depth explanation of each, along with examples of how to portray these particular ‘flavours’ of fear. This is something that I found very useful when editing my own manuscript, as it made me think more about what type of fear I was attempting to insinuate, and therefore made me look more carefully at word choices, particularly the verbs that I was using.

Another favourite chapter of mine is Chapter Three (What Lurks Behind That Door?) which looks at the power of psychological fear (and how to create psychological tricks) as well as exploring ways to heighten suspense further. Here, I found the inclusion of examples (from Hall’s imagination, and other books) particularly helpful.

In Chapter Twenty-Three, I felt that Hall made a valuable point; that it is essential to have the correct balance of fear and humour in any novel. Too many a time, I’ve read books that are so heavy on the fear, that I’ve felt exhausted (and rather depressed!). Having a lighter undertone, or just a few seconds of humour, or a slightly twisted, but comical, scene can really improve so many manuscripts. Maintaining the correct balance of fear and humour is so important.

The power of euphonics (in creating fear and suspense) isn’t something that I’d really thought about before, but it really does make sense. And I found the chapter dedicated to euphonics very useful. Normally, I just concentrate on cacophony and euphony in my own writing, but Hall further breaks these down, revealing how different sounds (particularly types of vowel sounds) create different levels of fear within readers. And, when you read the example verbs provided, it really does make sense and work!

‘Writing Scary Scenes’ goes into such detail, supplying readers with so many different techniques and ideas that it seems like almost the ‘perfect’ guide. And, Hall shows how these devices can be adapted into almost any genre.

However, there was one part that did annoy me: Chapter Twenty-Six (The Wimp Effect). I just didn’t agree. Hall lists several actions that can apparently make the characters come across as ‘wusses’, such as hesitating, shrugging, having visceral responses to minor triggers, tears etc… I just did not agree at all with that part. For me, characters have to have moments of indecisiveness, they have to show weaknesses and make the wrong decisions sometimes—it’s what makes them relatable to readers, in my opinion. I like characters to have flaws and to show weaknesses (okay, not all the time, but every now and again). It makes them seem real. It’s the really tough, ‘I’m so hard’ characters that annoy me the most—the ones who seem so strong that they don’t seem human, even when they’re supposed to be! And besides, sure, there could be some people like that, but every real person really does have flaws.

One danger of relying on this book too much when writing your own scary scenes could be that you end up cramming in too many techniques; Hall does warn about this in several places, but I just feel that these devices need to be used even more sparingly than she suggests (or in clever combinations), else I believe the prose will become description-heavy with massive sensory-overloads.

Overall, this is a really good guide to writing scary scenes, that I’m sure I’ll be delving into every now and again.

Madeline’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars