This is one of the areas where horror writing mingles with mainstream. Many of these stories are published in 'literary' magazines, and some 'literary' stories with a horror feel to them appear in the small press. It's a productive cross-over, and one that new horror writers can exploit. In horror fiction, the only way to make your reader feel a personal fear, and understand the theme of your story, is to make the story matter to your central character. You must create an interesting character who is more than a mere victim, so that when the horror affects them, we care.
Victims make boring characters.
Make the story relevant to your character's inner motivations. In The Mainstream , Royle's character experiences a nightmare journey while travelling down the M1. All the images, ideas and emotions that you write, will have a purpose, and can be linked to this theme, directly or symbolically. Many horror stories rely more on a mood, than they do on drama and plot. Recent debate in the horror field has shown a consensus which says that plot is a device to offer an easy soap-opera style ride to readers.