Greetings everypony! I am currently working on an idea for a story that chronicles my OCs camping in the woods and getting attacked by a fierce and ominous creature and I want to make sure I do this story/genre justice considering I've never really written anything of this type before. Would any of you out there happen to have any tips or advice to offer me with regards to writing horror/thriller/mystery fics? I will accept any and all tips I can get, but some of my main concerns are as follows:

• Setting up the OCs: I understand that incorporating an OC's entire backstory/scope of personality generally should not be a main focus behind these types of stories, but considering the average reader would not be too familiar with them, exactly how much of a background into my OCs would be appropriate?
• Choice of perspective: At this moment, I am thinking that third-person perspective would be better since I would like to focus on each character equally rather than viewing it entirely from one person; then again, I've listened to several Creepypastas that use the first-person perspective rather effectively, but what do you guys think? Also, how would one use either perspective to effectively tell the story?
• Cliches to avoid: As a relatively beginner fanfic writer, I feel like I am naturally drawn to including certain cliches in my stories, regardless of the subject matter, because I believe such tropes are recognizable and therefore popular. I was curious to know if there were any cliches related to this subject matter that I should avoid when writing my story? (I cannot think of any off the top of my head since I typically don't read/watch many scary and horror stories/movies)

I apologize if this thread seems a bit lengthy, but I am genuinely curious to hear what you have to say on the subject so that I can better develop my writing skills on this site. Thanks!

J.D. (John Darkblaze)