Continuing my last post on story structure for horror, I wanted to take another look at structure, this time dissecting it using the 10 steps to story structure from K.M. Weiland. Let’s first take a quick look at those steps and then see how they can be applied to horror.

1. The Hook

What is the hook in a story? It’s what reels in your fish (aka your readers). How do you hook your readers in horror? Well, you give them something horrifying. Why not start your story with a death? Or at least the suggestion that something horrible is going to happen.

2. The Inciting Event

This is the point in your story when the character first becomes connected to the conflict. In a haunted house story, this is the moment when your character arrives at the house. At first, they love the house. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and they got a great deal on it, too! Why don’t you pick out your bedroom, kids? The house is what connects your character to the haunting.

Or in a slasher, maybe it’s your character’s decision to hop in that car with the rest of their friends who’ve decided to go away to an isolated cabin for the weekend.

3. The Key Event

Ok, this one is easy to get confused with the inciting event. Where the inciting event is when the character first meets the conflict, the key event is when the character first actively engages with the conflict. Now, your character has not only moved in to the haunted house; they’ve seen the ghost.

They’re not just in the isolated slasher cabin where the killer is on the prowl. They’ve survived the killer’s first attack.

This event changes the stakes and makes everything feel a little bit more real.

4. The First Plot Point

This is a major turning point for your character. Until now, we’ve been setting the stage and raising the stakes, forcing your character out of their normal world and into the nightmare world of the main conflict. This is horror, after all. After this, there’s no easy way back to the “normal world,” and your character is forced to start reacting to their new normal.

In a haunted house story, this might be the point where they realize the house is locked, and there’s no escape. Or it might be the death of one of their family members. It might be a financial prison, as they put the house for sale and realize no one is biting; they can’t afford to go back to their old life.

In the slasher example, this could be the death of a main character, which sets the survivors on a quest for survival. Not only is the killer out there; they’re being stalked, picked off one by one. This is the moment where your character realizes everything has changed.

5. The First Half of the Second Act

This is the point in your story where your characters will react to the First Plot Point and its fallout. Following our slasher example, a main character is dead. Our other protagonists react by trying to get help, but their cell phones have no signal. They lock the doors, but they know the killer is still out there. What now? The First Half of the Second Act is that ‘what now?’ and it’ll lead us to the next big ‘what now?’ moment that is the:

6. Midpoint

This is your story’s second major plot point. It’s also another moment where everything changes…again. Your character experiences a moment of truth where they realize they can’t just keep reacting. They’ll need to act.

If the haunted house story’s first plot point was the moment they realized there was no escape, the midpoint is when they realize that even if they did escape, they’re cursed now. And that curse will follow them wherever they go. It could also be a moment where they realize the haunting isn’t just random; the ghost wants something from them, and it won’t stop until it gets what it wants. Maybe the ghost just wants peace in the afterlife. Or, maybe the ghost wants bloody vengeance. Either way, your character knows they won’t survive if they just keep reacting to the horror. They need to do something about it.

7. The Second Act of the Second Act

After the midpoint, your character will need to go on the offensive. In our slasher example, your character might come up with a clever plan to stop the killer in their tracks; they’re not going to keep running. They’re going to trap the murderer and take them out. It’s kill or be killed.

8. The Third Plot Point

This is the final major plot point, and like our other plot points, this is where everything changes…again! Whatever happens here, it’s going to bring your character to a new low.

They thought they could get the jump on the killer? Well, it backfired…horribly. Now, everyone else is dead, and your character is locked in a freezer; the killer was just toying with them. And now, they’re going to pay for going on the offensive.

In the haunted house story, this is usually the moment when the main character’s sanity is completely unraveling, and just when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, the ghost kicks things up a notch. Once again, since we’re writing horror, this often involves the deaths of other characters. Only one or two main characters are likely still alive at this point, and they’re shaken. Badly shaken, by whatever’s just happened.

9. The Climax

Well, this is what it’s all been leading up to. This is the final showdown between your villain and your hero. Your “final girl,” if you’re following that horror trope. Do they survive, or does evil triumph? That’s up to you. In horror, even surviving isn’t really a happy ending. Either way, this is where the conflict is resolved.

The survivors escape the cabin, or maybe the killer is caught/killed by the police.

The family escapes the house or lifts the curse.

10. The Resolution

If the climax was how the story wraps up the conflict, this is your character settling into their new normal world now that the conflict is resolved (or is it?). In horror, there’s often a moment of horrible realization as we hint that the evil’s not truly been vanquished, but that’s a trope you don’t have to follow.

The important question to answer for your readers is this: how is your character a different person from who they were in the beginning of the story? If this is a positive character arc, they’ve grown into a better version of themselves (if a bit traumatized). They’re tougher, stronger, able to cope with horrible situations and come out of it alive. In the beginning, they seemed meek, willing to bow to peer pressure or financial strain; that’s how they got into this mess in the first place (remember the inciting incident?). But now, this is someone you don’t want to mess with.