Writing scary stories for children by Rachel Burge

Readers of all ages seem to be reading more scary stories and we are so pleased to share a guest post from Rachel Burge about exactly writing and reading scary stories.

Reading and Writing Scary Stories for Children

It’s widely known that reading helps children develop empathy. But did you know that fiction does more than just encourage us to see the world from different perspectives, it actually changes us on a neurological level? That’s because reading tricks our brain into believing we are part of the story, according to researchers at Emory University in America. When we feel for the characters in a book, it wires our brain to have the same sensitivity towards people in the real world.

There’s an argument that reading frightening stories helps children develop another valuable skill – emotional resilience. When reading a scary book, young people are aware that it’s not real, but at the same time, it allows them to emotionally rehearse how they might react in a similar situation. According to Marshall Duke, Professor of Psychology at Emory University, reading stories where characters ‘overcome the monster’ helps children to realise that when they come upon their own “monsters,” they will be able to overcome them too.

As many adults would agree, there’s something uniquely thrilling about reading a heart-pounding ghost story or horror novel. All good fiction has tension and suspense, but the genre takes ‘gripping’ to another level. We simply have to keep turning the pages, desperate to know whether the characters will survive the night. Reluctant young readers may find a scary book holds their attention in the way other stories don’t. It was certainly that way for me. As a teenager, I remember going straight from children’s classics to devouring Stephen King. As soon as I discovered horror, reading gripped me in a whole new way.

Of course, there are key differences between writing horror for adults and writing scary stories for children. The type and level of threat needs to be age appropriate. Crucially, the characters in a children’s story are safe by the end, and the monster vanquished. In adult books there’s often a sense of bleakness, but in children’s fiction there’s nearly always a renewed sense of hope, a feeling that the world is now a better place.

When writing scary stories for young people, I always ask myself how my characters’ lives will have improved by the end. If I’m going to put my protagonists through a terrible ordeal, it’s important to me that they should have a stronger sense of self-worth and have grown from the experience.

All of my books are set in the contemporary world, and I make sure to include everyday concerns that children can relate to, as well as supernatural ones. In Whispering Hollow, I explored the theme of change to echo my plot of dark faerie changelings. My main character, Pippa, has a fraught relationship with her older brother Jed. He’s changed so much over the past few months, that she barely recognises him. The children are also dealing with the anxiety of moving house and starting a new school. The things they face (evil faeries are living in their grandpa’s garden, and they take Jed and replace him with a changeling) brings them closer together during the story. By the end, the siblings have mended their relationship and the future looks a lot less scary.