LogFAQs > #928579212

As a general rule, you need to start with something scary as a teaser -- that's why a lot of movies, for instance, have a kill in the first five minutes. After that, you introduce your characters, who have either a connection to the dead character, will be going to the place that they were killed, or otherwise interacting with the thing that killed them (be it a new app or a spooky board game). That way when things start to happen, the viewer knows to be afraid for the characters and it heightens the suspense as the characters do things without realizing what's going on.

While things depend on the kind of story you're telling, in act one characters typically don't know about what's going on and may not even know to be scared. When characters die in this act, it either goes unnoticed or the circumstances aren't known/understood.

Act two can begin with the realization that something is happening with an understanding of the threat. When characters die, the main characters usually know what to blame. The body count tends to pick up a little in act two.

By act three, you should be down to your designated survivors. While other characters may die in act three, it's usually not as haphazard and, when it's a survivor, it's always more significant. If your story has a lone survivor, this is the act where you kill off the boyfriend/girlfriend (who are we kidding, it's pretty much *always* the boyfriend who dies in the final act if the couple doesn't last to the end). If it's a slasher, this is when we get our secret killer motive or a concealed identity is revealed.
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