Halloween Themed Writing
Since Halloween is finally around the corner, it’s the season to create ghost stories. Here are some spooky writing prompts to inspire your next fear-packed horror!
It is common for people to share scary stories with friends or family to celebrate the holiday. Ultimately, Halloween is a great opportunity for writers to explore the horror genre.
Just like every writing genre, horror has its own technique. Typically, the first thought that comes to mind when thinking of horror is something along the lines of blood, violence, and a lot of screaming.
While this is normally involved in horror stories, there are certain techniques horror writers use that truly define this genre. Read more about the convention of horror writing before starting.
Know the genre? Skip to the writing prompts.
Horror Writing Core Values
What horror authors come to your mind? Stephan King? Bram Stoker? Mary Shelley? Shirley Jackson? Ann Rice? What do these author have in common with their storytelling style?
Let’s talk about the conventions of horror. As a writer, you need to make a story that creates fear through suspense. In conclusion, a ghost story that scares and sticks with you has a story that builds.
Your horror stories need to create tension and desperation for your characters. Additionally, your characters need to be worthy of empathy from your readers. If your readers care for your characters, they will be more invested in your story.
According to Storygrid’s article “Horror Genre: Stories of Life and Damnation against Uncanny, Supernatural and Ambiguous Monsters,” there are actually four core values in the framework that make up a horror story. They are the core needs, values, emotions, and events for your characters.
- Core need: Safety
“The protagonist wants to defeat the monster to save others and themselves.”
- Core Value: Damnation to life
“Horror stories show readers the need for safety, spanning life and damnation and the gradations in between, including injury, illness, unconsciousness, and death.”
- Core Emotion: Fear
“The reader should feel the core emotion of fear. Readers choose horror stories to experience the thrill of courage in the face of fear in a life and death situation, without the actual danger.”
- Core Events: Victim at the mercy of the monster
“The climax of the Horror genre is when the victim summons their courage and slays the monster or sacrifices themselves to preserve the lives of others. (…) The protagonist must face their fears or suffer damnation.”
So, it’s time to get into the activity. Use these writing prompts to practice horror. What better time of year to work on spooky stories than just before Halloween?
How to use these Prompts
When attempting horror, you need to ensure your story has the following elements: isolation from help, characters’ disempowerment, and lingering dread for future attacks. With the utilization of all three, your reader will be enticed and on edge.
Additionally, it is very important to consider just how you are introducing your characters to the “monster.” To be sure, there are many different types of monsters, either living, deceased, human, or other.
If your characters are interacting with a monster whose origin is inconceivable to the location and context you put your characters in, the reader will disengage. They will be thrown out of your story due to the lack of validity.
Of course, this is creative writing. But that doesn’t mean you can’t create a story that will terrify readers. If you want to do this, your story has to be believable/logical to your reader.
Ultimately, your reader will actually empathize with your characters and root for their escape. Also, your reader will easily place themselves into the story, adding to their fear.
In conclusion, use these horror writing prompts to practice creating stories that build suspense and terrify your reader.
Horror Writing Prompts
Pick one of the prompts below. Draw inspiration from it. Include pieces of it in your own story. Set a timer for twenty minutes and create a terrifying story.
Remember, you want to delay the ending. What that means is don’t reveal the monster’s full strength right away. Don’t remove all the elements that are keeping your characters safe too quickly. Let the realization of isolation kick in bit by bit.
Suspense leads to dreaded fear, and that is what makes a horror story memorable. It is taking the reader by surprise. Additionally, your story does not reveal too much information at any given time or at all.
Since the prompt time is quite short, you want to jump straight into the action from the first sentence.
What are you waiting for? Get spooky!
- Nightly screaming has emanated from the abandoned house, right next to her grandmother’s.
- At once, the sound of their footsteps doubled.
- “If you have to look back, please, please, don’t look at its eyes.”
- As the lights shut off, the smell of morning breath and stuck food unpleasantly blew into his nostrils.
- The old lady didn’t smile, but she wasn’t unpleasant either. Her hair looks like it would cut your hand if you ran it through.
- The road was playing tricks on them. It seemed to present figures near their car who vanished each time they turned their heads.
- A new disease is infecting your friend. They look like death, and they’ve asked you to take care of them.
- Finally, summer was back. And their new friend was so nice and generous. To be spending three full months on his remote island! What could go wrong?
- “Why do you do that? You know, I get super tense and stiff when I mention that day. I feel it in my bones that you’re stopping yourself from running out that door.”
- The rats have all eaten a radioactive chemical. Their bodies burn through any material, and they’re hungry!
- Your boss asks you to meet them in their hotel room to talk about your latest sale. You’re nervous about the location, but he sure looks really happy to offer you a drink.
- In the window, the ship’s captain could see a faint neon light getting closer. The ocean breathed the Diamond back and forth while a bright ray of ultraviolet light was streaming above them.
- A new age cast of monsters inhabits the sewers of the big city. Mutated goblins, witches, vampires, and werewolves.
- Run for your lives, the biggest hurricane is coming. Oh, wait, you can’t run. You were pronounced paralyzed just last night.
- “And if the cats are now roaring like lions and the dogs can howl, we humans might start losing language too. Revert to our uncivil ways. Do what we must to survive this.”
- The door opened. But not fully. It seemed to be tiptoeing its movement. Sally’s breathing was even louder than the door as it continued to move. Whoever pushed it was nowhere to be seen.
- An abandoned car is said to be haunted by its drowned owner. His hat, they say, still sits on the driver’s seat. It was time. They were grown now. They could face anything.
- Just as she feared. The feeling of many tiny legs crawling up her body, up her neck, was warranted. Many tiny legs were crawling up as she looked in the mirror.
- They shut the door, and he heard it lock. How could he not? He was hardly able to sit down in such a small space. Hopefully, they wouldn’t stay mad long. He might just pass out before they do.
- So she said no to you, and you killed her. But, she couldn’t be the one who keeps lighting your house on fire when you fall asleep. Right?
Conclusion
Writing prompts are fun to do alone, with friends, peers, or students. It is common for October to be full of horror movies. How about trying an audiobook or a horror story?
Halloween is a great time to read spooky stories as well. Check out my blog post for more recommendations:
If you are interested in finding more knowledge on writing horror, check out these articles: