Less is More

A Stephen King novel is about 100,000 words or so. Yeah, he's the king of fright all right, but that doesn't mean you need to use thousands of words to evoke emotion in your reader. More doesn't always mean better. Sometimes a few carefully chosen sentences can do the trick. Here are some creepy examples . . . 

I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy there’s somebody on my bed.”

 ~ Juan J Ruiz

The grinning face stared at me from the darkness beyond my bedroom window. I live on the 14th floor.

~ bentreflection

Working the night shift alone tonight. There is a face in the cellar staring at the security camera.

~ hctet

You start to drift off into a comfortable sleep when you hear your name being whispered. You live alone.

~ anonymous_abc

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.

~ Scry67

You hear your mom calling you into the kitchen. As you are heading down the stairs you hear a whisper from the closet saying “Don’t go down there honey, I heard it too.”

~ comparativelysane

So, which one creeped you out the most? As a mom, I'm going with the last one. This works for other genres, though, as well. Ernest Hemingway penned a six word dramatic story that's stuck with me for decades . . .

For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

The point is if you choose your words wisely, you cut straight to a reader's heart. That should be the bullseye for every writer.

If you'd like to read more or are game to try your hand at a few of your own, check out Two Sentence Stories. Their submission guidelines are here.