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)

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For setting up the OCs, I'd say little to no backstory required unless it has something to do with their situation and why they're being attacked, and even so keep it minimal. Provide a good bit of personality to make us like the characters and root for their survival but don't make it a main focus.

For perspective choice, first person would be used if a story generally revolves around a single person's psychological struggle during the story, In other words, how they're dealing with the fear of their friends as well as possibly taking on the mantle of a leader. Third person is generally used to encapsulate the emotions between multiple characters like, say if they get split up at any point and have to fend for themselves for a short period of time, and focus on everyone's individual thoughts and instincts during the attack. With what your describing, I'd say third person is the way to go, but it all depends on what you're going for.

In terms of cliches, I say all you really have to worry about is making sure your characters make logical decisions. A couple of popular tropes in horror are the familiar 'character hears a noise and goes toward it' and the 'character makes dumb decision to advance the plot'. Audiences generally become unsympathetic when a character does something dumb for the purpose of the story, so I say avoid those and you should be fine.

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This is great, I will definitely make sure to keep these things in mind. Thanks again!

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Glad to help!

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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 hope that you've read horror/thriller/mystery stories.
Watching these type of movies helps but reading will be better because you won't have translation issues.
Movies are not the same media as books so you have to be careful to not copy the wrong things.
Also this will give you ideas so you don't run into cliches without some idea.

If this is your first time with this kind of story, I would suggest doing a short story.
Why?
You can get faster feedback and there's less to fuss with.
Less to fuss with also means you have more control and can focus on what you need to do.
Also longer stories require stamina to finish.
You're going to get sick banging on the story.
It's going to be a slog.

How I choose between first person or third person depends on if I can put myself inside the shoes of the main char.
For me, that's what makes first person kinda tiring after a while. Third person is less tiring but I still cover the feelings of my main char too.

I listen to a lot of creepypastas and I know not to copy their format.
There is not enough description, and folks get ansty if you spend too much time with inner dialog.
You will need inner dialog for a story.

Speaking of description, you will need a lot of it.
Why?
Well, you'll need it to create a mood, show the reader what the area looks like and other reasons.
Also for horror, you will need decent pacing and a way to create tension. Description can help you do that.
A lot of readers read to experience different things so you want to show them your world.

Setting up the OCs

Show enough of the chars so readers have some feelings for them.

Most horror movies even the B level ones, usually spend a bit of time on the chars so you can relate to them before things go south.
Chars are very important to your story. If you use description and dialog, you can show readers what type of persons your char is without exposition.

You can write detailed backgrounds for your chars, but expect to only use a small amount of it in your story.

Cliches to avoid:
AnOrdinaryWriter is right.
Make sure your chars don't act stupid unless you've shown a reason why.
If you can show the reason, readers will be alright with a char acting strange.

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Thank you for your feedback, it definitely helps! Quick question, by inner dialog, are you referring to when a character talks or thinks to himself, or something else?

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Quick question, by inner dialog, are you referring to when a character talks or thinks to himself, or something else?

Yes.

Just don't write
He thought to himself unless your story has telepathy.