Workshop: Writing Young Adult Horror & Monster Thrillers

​This high-energy workshop focuses on crafting pulse-pounding Young Adult horror and monster thrillers using a strategic narrative structure inspired by high-heat erotica—except instead of intimacy, we escalate with kill scenes, creature reveals, and supernatural chaos.

​What You’ll Learn: How to build a “Big Bang” opening—a shocking first scene that hooks teen readers instantly. Designing a monster/killer/demon as a recurring “climax engine”—each scene escalating fear, tension, or gore. Mapping horror beats using the Romance Outline’s skeleton: from attraction to obsession, swap for tension to terror. Creating Three Escalating Encounters (e.g., 3 kills, 3 hauntings, 3 battles) as structural drivers. Using Tropperator to define genre expectations (YA horror tropes, monster lore, teenage dynamics). Building toward a HFN (Hope For Now) or a cliffhanger ending that sets up the next book in a thrilling series. Worldbuilding tips for YA horror settings: schools, towns, cursed places, underground lairs.

​Bonus: Learn how to adapt Sudowrite’s tools—especially Outline, Brainstorm, and Write Cards—to simulate the pacing of a horror franchise, perfect for short novels or serialized reads.