Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A truly horrifying story establishes an eerie atmosphere right from the beginning. An
effective writer will send signals to the reader that the story will be scary and
depressing using such vocabulary as gloomy, somber, dreary, forbidding and
creepy. You can also ascribe scary characteristics to inanimate objects to heighten
the mood. Buildings can appear intimidating and a forest can look menacing.
A tale is even scarier when readers can see, hear, touch, taste and smell things in the
story. A place can exude an acrid, pungent or choking stench. The protagonist
can hear strange clanking sounds or a scary character can speak in a dark,
steely, sepulchral, sibilant or guttural voice. Use hues such as pitch-black
and ebony to describe things that are dark. A drink or item of food can taste sour,
fetid, foul or rancid. Objects can feel slimy or grimy.
H. P. Lovecraft, a famous American horror novelist, wrote that the strongest kind of
fear is fear of the unknown. A writer can increase fear in a reader by not giving away
every detail of a monster, ghost or place. Establishing something as mysterious builds
suspense, as the reader fills in the blanks with his own imagination and desires to
continue reading to find out more. Ambiguous descriptions, such an amorphous
creature, hazy air, opaque waters, tenebrous valley or unintelligible sound
create a disturbingly unfamiliar atmosphere for the reader.
A scary story needs a protagonist frightened out of her wits. Words like horrified,
horror-struck, petrified, panic-stricken, appalled, witless and aghast will do;
however, representing the signs of a protagonist fears are even better. Perhaps she
has droplets of sweat on her forehead, her knees are knocking or she is
trembling, quivering, shuddering, quailing or quaking. You can describe her
as transfixed or paralyzed in place.
Meaning
Example sentence
arrest
verb
assailant
noun
armed and
dangerous
adjective
back-up
noun
bail
noun
baton (night
stick)
noun
book someone
verb
break into
verb
burglar
noun
cell
noun
convict
noun
cop/copper
noun
criminal record
noun
crime scene
noun
cruiser (squad
car)
noun
police car
(in) custody
noun
DUI/DWI
detective
noun
do time
verb + noun
domestic
dispute
adjective + noun
argument/trouble in the
home(often leads to violence)
escape
verb
felony
noun
fine
noun
fingerprints
noun
firearms
noun
gang
noun
guilty
adjective
handcuffs
noun
innocent
adjective
intruder
noun
jail (prison)
noun
misdemeanor
noun
noise complaint
noun
partner noun
patrol (on
patrol)
verb
perpetrator
noun
pickpocket
noun
pistol
noun
pursuit
noun
radar
noun/adjective
robbery
noun
speeding ticket
noun
steal
verb
street crime
noun
thief
noun
walkie-talkie
noun
wanted
adjective
witness
verb
young offender
(juvenile
delinquent)
noun
Types of crime
Crime
Definition
abduction/kidnapping
armed robbery
arson
assault
attempted murder
burglary,
breaking and entering
child abuse
domestic violence