Poe uses his excellent prose and narrative style to write fictional tales of suspense. You will do the same. I will walk you through the process of pre-writing then leave you to write your story. The first thing you’ve got to determine is what kind of scary or suspenseful story are you going to write. Will it be a supernatural thriller, or a suspenseful murder mystery, will there be ghosts, or an insane asylum? You now have an idea for your story. The last bit of prewriting to do is to create a brief outline. This is a short story; it will be a maximum of two pages single spaced. Use the basic elements of plot to create your outline.
- Rising action
- Falling action
- Protagonist (person who moves the plot forward; many of Poe’s protagonists were murderers)
- Antagonist (the force which works against the protagonist)