5 Things

   Edgar Allen Poe is a mastermind when it comes to creating horror stories. He keeps readers scared and interested at the same time due to his ingenious techniques of captivating an audience. As the father to the "haunted house" referring to his work would be beneficial in writing a successful horror story.

   Five key components in Poe's work include imagery, symbolism, suspense, a perverted back story and characters with a deep and twisted background. Imagery gives the reader an idea of the setting, symbolism hints at alternate meaning which lead to foreshadow, suspense sets the tone, the back story and the characters give an extra hint of creepy. However, two things I would do differently would be to go into deeper explanation of the ending and make it more clear whether the story is a hallucination or reality.


   In order to write a successful horror story I would use many of Poe's key horror strategies. When using imagery I would create a setting with a constant gloom over it to give the readers an idea of an eerie sadness. Suspense ties into the setting of a story by creating a tone of impending doom. Symbolism is a primary factor in creating the ultimate nightmare. Often times symbolism is used to allude to an alternative meaning. For example, when using a forest or woods as a symbol it typically relates to depression and sadness. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe hints at the issue of incest. This creates a psychologically insane factor of the story, aka the perverted backstory. And this all ties into the twisted back story of the characters. The imagery, suspense, symbolism and back story are what create the characters. In order to have a successful nightmare of a horror story, intricately twisted characters must be added to keep the story going.

   In conclusion, I would turn to Edgar Allen Poe's writing strategies as guidelines when writing a horror story because after all, he is the father of hauntings.