descriptive essay on horror stories

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A scary house - descriptive essay

samuraitom 23 / 18 Sep 23, 2007 #1 Prompt was to describe a place. I think I did a good job with that. I tried not to use too many "I" but that proved to be a bit difficult. I'm trying to get rid of all the vague sentence starters that my teacher informed me about. 1) Is my thesis statement ok? 2) Is my conclusion alright? Critique as always, please. The Scary House As I stood, gazing at the dilapidated house. I shivered, as though, ice had replaced my spine. The cold air enveloped the entire body. The multiple layer of clothing could not protect against the deathly cold. The walkway leading up to house were cracked. Weeds and dandelions poked out from these cracks. Red roses grown wildly in thick batches by the gate. The moonlight cast a ghoulish glow on the house. Vines formed a twisted maze upon the side of house, reaching their tentacles towards the roof. The house's walls showed black decay by neglect. Splotches of original paint hinted at the house former prosperity. Cobwebs covered the corners of the doors, tiny black spiders threading towards their prey. The house is fit for the kings and queens of the supernatural. The door begrudgingly creaked open. A musty, dank order creep into my nose. The house was dead silence except for the intermittent creaks and moans. Black and brown mold dotted the ceiling in clusters, evident of rain seeping through the roof. I quietly entered the dark living room. Windows covered with grime and dirt, the calm moonlight struggled to penetrate the darkness in thin thread rays. Sharp shadows roamed around the room. The sofa and chairs overturned revealing deep grooves on the ground where they used to sit. Wallpaper lay curled on the floor. A large jagged hole dug through the wall stood as though daring any to enter. Picture frames hanged off-centered. Sharp shadows roamed around the room. A misplaced grand bookcase stood the corner of the room, undisturbed for a long time. Selecting the correct book could reveal a secret doorway into a labyrinth. I made my way back into the hallway, a slimmer of light came from behind a door. I approached and opened the door. I had reached the bathroom. The single window was mildly dirty, a flood of light flowed into the room. Dust swirled around the room as I made my way inside. The medicine cabinet mirror lay shattered in pieces on the floor tile. Empty medicine bottle lay in the porcelain sink. The only sound to be heard is the drip, drip of the faucet. A closer look revealed the discoloration of the water, a brownish concoction. A lone mouse stood sentry at the bottom of the tub. Never having a visitor in a while, it curiously eyed me before scuttling away. Approaching the bathtub, a violent odor made it way to my nose. Pinching my nose, I leaned over and peered inside. Crusty rags filled the bathtub, little hints of movement underneath them. It would be unadvisable to see what is under the rags. I arrived at the foot of the staircase. I stood and peered at the top, wondering when a twisted head person will crawl down and have me for dinner. I summoned strength and tiptoed my way up the stairs. Each step intensified the moaning and creaking as if the steps could collapse at any moment. I turned to the right, and met my final destination. The door did not give way easier, a forceful push was needed. Stepping inside, a dresser seem to have been pushed against the door, attempting to deny anyone entry. I could make out the silhouette of bed, edging in closer for a better look. A toy dinosaur lay missing its head on the bed. The sheet was splattered with a dark color. The wind intensified outside, the rustling of the leaves and branches were louder. In the corner, a little chair began to rock slowly. The room had once belonged to a boy. The thin strips of wallpaper showed little trucks. Crayon markings scrambled upon the wall where wallpaper used to stick. The carpet squished as I walked. Little picture frames remained facedown on the carpet. A howl echoed throughout the house. It was time to leave, I told myself. I closed the bedroom door behind as I carefully walked down the stairs. I hoped I did not disturb anything or its somber rest. I made my way outside where my group of friends was standing. They asked me what took me so long; I replied that escaping the ghosts was difficult.

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250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)

Looking to write your next spine-chilling horror story?

Here are 250 horror writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing. From ghostly apparitions to apocalyptic nightmares, these prompts will help you create unforgettable tales of terror.

What Is a Horror Writing Prompt?

Woman writing with monsters behind her -- Horror Writing Prompts

Table of Contents

A horror writing prompt is a brief idea or scenario designed to inspire a horror story.

It provides the foundation for a plot, characters, conflict, setting, consequences, and sometimes a ticking clock plot device to build tension and urgency.

There is actually more than one type of horror writing prompt (see the chart below).

Types of Horror Writing Prompts

Type	Description
Ghost Stories	Involve spirits, hauntings, and supernatural entities from the afterlife.
Psychological Horror	Focus on the inner turmoil and mental states of characters.
Paranormal Activity	Center on phenomena beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
Creature Features	Involve monsters, mythical creatures, and otherworldly beings.
Gothic Horror	Set in dark, decaying locations with a sense of romanticism and dread.
Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic	Depict end-of-the-world scenarios and their aftermath.
Body Horror	Revolve around grotesque transformations and mutilations of the body.
Slasher Stories	Feature a murderous antagonist hunting down victims.
Cosmic Horror	Explore the insignificance of humanity in the face of incomprehensible entities.
Folk Horror	Draw from rural and traditional folklore, often involving rituals and superstitions.

Ghost Stories

The Forgotten Asylum – A group of urban explorers finds an abandoned asylum haunted by the spirits of former patients. They must uncover the asylum’s dark secrets before they’re trapped forever.
The Phantom Ship – A ghost ship appears off the coast, and a team of marine biologists investigates. They discover the souls of the drowned crew seeking revenge.
Haunted Housewarming – A couple moves into their dream home, only to find it haunted by a previous owner’s vengeful spirit. They must uncover the home’s history to break the curse.
The Whispering Woods – Campers in a remote forest hear eerie whispers at night. The ghost of a lost hiker leads them to a hidden danger.
The Ghostly Guardian – A child befriends a ghost who protects them from unseen dangers. The parents must confront the ghost to save their child.
The Lighthouse Keeper – A lone lighthouse keeper encounters the spirits of shipwrecked sailors. He must guide them to the afterlife while battling his own sanity.
The Cursed Portrait – An artist paints a portrait that traps the soul of its subject. The artist must find a way to release the soul before they face a similar fate.
The Haunted Highway – Drivers on a desolate road encounter ghostly apparitions. A journalist investigates the road’s dark history to uncover the truth.
The Spirit of the Manor – A family inherits a manor haunted by its former occupants. They must survive the night and appease the spirits to lift the curse.
The Ghostly Choir – A school choir is haunted by the spirits of former students. The new choir director must solve the mystery before the spirits claim more victims.
The Phantom Play – An old theater is haunted by the ghost of a lead actor who died on stage. The current cast must perform his unfinished play to set his spirit free.
The Ghostly Conductor – A ghost train appears on an abandoned track, and a group of friends boards it. They must solve the train’s mystery before reaching their final destination.
The Haunted Playground – Children encounter the ghost of a girl at a playground. They must help her find peace before she claims more playmates.
The Ghost in the Attic – A family discovers a ghost living in their attic. They must uncover the ghost’s past to help it move on.
The Spectral Detective – A detective partners with a ghost to solve a series of murders. They must catch the killer before the ghost’s unfinished business consumes them both.
The Haunted Hotel – Guests at a remote hotel encounter the spirits of former guests. The hotel staff must uncover the truth to stop the hauntings.
The Ghostly Librarian – A library is haunted by the ghost of a former librarian. The new librarian must uncover the ghost’s secrets to restore peace.
The Phantom Dancer – A ballerina encounters the ghost of a dancer who died in a tragic accident. She must perform the dancer’s final routine to set her spirit free.
The Ghost Shipwreck – Divers exploring a shipwreck encounter the spirits of the crew. They must uncover the ship’s fate to escape the underwater hauntings.
The Haunted Cabin – A group of friends stays in a cabin haunted by the ghost of a previous occupant. They must solve the ghost’s mystery to survive the night.
The Ghostly Roommate – A college student discovers their dorm room is haunted. They must work with the ghost to uncover the dorm’s dark history.
The Phantom Photographer – A photographer captures images of ghosts in their photos. They must find a way to stop the hauntings before they become one of the subjects.
The Haunted Mirror – A mirror in an antique shop shows the reflections of ghosts. The shop owner must uncover the mirror’s history to break the curse.
The Ghostly Gardener – A gardener encounters the spirit of a former groundskeeper. They must work together to uncover the secrets buried in the garden.
The Phantom Bus – A ghostly bus picks up passengers who never return. A journalist must uncover the bus’s story to stop the disappearances.

Psychological Horror

The Mirror’s Reflection – A person starts seeing a sinister version of themselves in mirrors. They must confront their inner demons to regain control.
The Unseen Stalker – Someone feels constantly watched and followed. They must uncover the identity of their stalker before they lose their sanity.
The Vanishing Family – A person wakes up to find their family has disappeared. They must piece together their fractured memories to find out what happened.
The Hallucination Game – A group of friends takes part in a psychological experiment, only to find reality and hallucination blurring dangerously.
The Time Loop – A person is trapped in a time loop, reliving the same terrifying day. They must find a way to break the loop before their mind unravels.
The Doppelgänger – A person encounters someone who looks exactly like them but with sinister intentions. They must discover the doppelgänger’s origins to survive.
The Sleepless Nights – A person suffers from severe insomnia, leading to disturbing visions and paranoia. They must find the cause before they break down completely.
The Disappearing Acts – A person’s friends and family begin to vanish one by one. They must uncover the truth behind the disappearances before they’re next.
The Phantom Voices – A person starts hearing voices that urge them to commit terrible acts. They must resist the voices and find out where they’re coming from.
The Twisted Reality – A person finds themselves in a world where nothing is as it seems. They must navigate the illusions to find the truth.
The Hidden Room – A person discovers a hidden room in their home filled with disturbing artifacts. They must uncover its purpose and the secrets it holds.
The Fragmented Mind – A person experiences severe memory loss and blackouts. They must piece together their fragmented memories to uncover a dark truth.
The Shadow in the Corner – A person sees a shadowy figure in the corner of their eye that gets closer each day. They must confront it before it consumes them.
The Sinister Neighbor – A person suspects their new neighbor is hiding a terrible secret. They must investigate without falling into the neighbor’s trap.
The Vanishing Town – A person visits a town where the residents start to disappear. They must find out what’s happening before they’re the next to vanish.
The Haunted Dreams – A person has recurring nightmares that start to affect their waking life. They must confront the source of their dreams to find peace.
The Creeping Darkness – A person notices shadows in their home that move on their own. They must discover the shadows’ origin before they’re engulfed.
The Split Personality – A person develops a sinister alter ego that takes over at night. They must find a way to control it before it ruins their life.
The Abandoned Factory – A person explores an old factory and begins to experience disturbing visions. They must uncover the factory’s history to escape its grip.
The Cursed Diary – A person finds a diary that predicts terrible events. They must find the diary’s owner to break the curse.
The Silent Treatment – A person wakes up in a world where no one can speak. They must find out what happened and restore communication before it’s too late.
The Puppet Master – A person discovers they’re being manipulated by an unseen force. They must break free before they lose their sense of self.
The Echoes of the Past – A person experiences vivid flashbacks of events they never lived. They must uncover the connection between the flashbacks and their present.
The Invisible Enemy – A person is attacked by an unseen force. They must find a way to defend themselves and uncover the enemy’s identity.
The Cursed Painting – A person acquires a painting that changes its scene to reflect their darkest fears. They must find a way to destroy the painting before it consumes their sanity.

Paranormal Activity

The Poltergeist – A family experiences violent disturbances in their home caused by a poltergeist. They must uncover the entity’s past to stop the terror.
The Possessed Doll – A child receives a doll that seems to have a life of its own. The parents must find a way to break the possession before it harms the family.
The Haunted School – Students encounter paranormal activity in their school. They must investigate its history to stop the hauntings.
The Supernatural Investigator – A detective with a sixth sense solves crimes involving paranormal activity. They must confront their own fears to catch a dangerous spirit.
The Vanishing Townspeople – Residents of a small town start disappearing after a mysterious fog rolls in. The remaining townspeople must solve the mystery before they vanish too.
The Ghostly Lover – A person falls in love with a ghost who haunts their home. They must find a way to be together or say goodbye forever.
The Time-Traveling Spirit – A ghost from the past appears to a historian, seeking help to correct a historical injustice. They must work together across time.
The Paranormal Researcher – A scientist investigates paranormal phenomena and discovers a hidden world of spirits. They must navigate this world to find answers.
The Haunted Item – An antique shop owner acquires an item with a dark past. They must uncover its history and break the curse before it destroys them.
The Phantom Room – A hotel room that doesn’t exist on the registry appears to guests. Those who enter must solve its mystery to escape.
The Spectral Friend – A lonely child befriends a ghost. The child’s parents must help the ghost find peace before it takes their child to the afterlife.
The Haunted Hospital – Patients in a hospital encounter ghostly apparitions. The staff must uncover the hospital’s dark past to stop the hauntings.
The Possessed Vehicle – A car starts exhibiting strange behavior after an accident. The owner must uncover its history to break the possession.
The Cursed Book – A librarian finds a book that causes anyone who reads it to experience paranormal phenomena. They must destroy the book before it spreads its curse.
The Phantom Babysitter – A babysitter encounters a ghostly child in the house they’re watching. They must uncover the child’s story to protect the family.
The Haunted Museum – Artifacts in a museum come to life at night. The curator must solve the mystery before the artifacts escape.
The Possessed Painting – An artist’s paintings start depicting horrifying scenes that come to life. They must uncover the source of the possession to stop it.
The Ghostly Guide – Tourists encounter a ghostly tour guide who leads them to dangerous places. They must uncover the guide’s past to escape.
The Paranormal Investigation – A team of ghost hunters investigates a famously haunted location and encounters more than they bargained for. They must survive the night and document their findings.
The Phantom Pet – A family adopts a pet that turns out to be a ghost. They must help the pet find peace to stop its restless behavior.
The Haunted Object – A person buys a seemingly innocuous object at a yard sale, only to discover it’s haunted. They must find its previous owner to uncover its dark history.
The Ghost Town – A group of friends stumbles upon a deserted town inhabited by ghosts. They must solve the town’s mystery to escape.
The Phantom Carnival – A carnival appears in town, and those who visit never return. A journalist investigates to uncover its dark secrets.
The Haunted Road – A driver encounters ghostly figures on a deserted road. They must find out why the road is haunted to find their way out.
The Ghostly Warning – A person receives warnings from a ghost about an impending disaster. They must decipher the messages to prevent the catastrophe.

Creature Features

The Werewolf Curse – A small town is terrorized by a werewolf. The townspeople must find and stop the creature before the next full moon.
The Swamp Monster – A group of campers encounters a monstrous creature in the swamp. They must survive the night and find a way to escape.
The Vampire’s Lair – A vampire kidnaps townsfolk to feed on. A group of villagers must band together to defeat the vampire and save their loved ones.
The Sea Creature – A coastal town is plagued by a sea monster. The townspeople must uncover the creature’s origins and stop it before it destroys the town.
The Yeti Hunt – Explorers in the Himalayas encounter a yeti. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape the mountains.
The Chupacabra – A small town is terrorized by a creature that preys on livestock. The townspeople must find and stop the chupacabra before it turns to human prey.
The Mothman Prophecies – A town experiences sightings of a mysterious creature that predicts disasters. The townspeople must uncover its origins to stop the tragedies.
The Wendigo – A remote village is terrorized by a wendigo. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature and break its curse.
The Loch Ness Monster – Researchers searching for the Loch Ness Monster get more than they bargained for. They must survive their encounter and escape the loch.
The Giant Spider – A group of scientists encounters a giant spider in the jungle. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape.
The Goblin’s Curse – A village is plagued by goblin attacks. The villagers must find and defeat the goblin king to lift the curse.
The Kraken – A ship is attacked by a Kraken. The crew must find a way to defeat the creature and escape the ocean.
The Minotaur’s Maze – Adventurers exploring an ancient labyrinth encounter a minotaur. They must navigate the maze and defeat the creature to escape.
The Gorgon – A group of heroes must defeat a gorgon to save their kingdom. They must avoid its petrifying gaze and find a way to kill it.
The Cyclops – A village is terrorized by a cyclops. The villagers must find and stop the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Harpy’s Lair – A group of adventurers encounters a harpy in a remote cave. They must survive its attacks and find a way to escape.
The Hydra – A group of heroes must defeat a hydra to save their land. They must find a way to kill the creature without it regenerating.
The Chimera – A village is attacked by a chimera. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Basilisk – A group of adventurers must defeat a basilisk to save their kingdom. They must avoid its deadly gaze and find a way to kill it.
The Griffin – A village is terrorized by a griffin. The villagers must find and stop the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Dragon’s Lair – A group of adventurers must defeat a dragon to save their kingdom. They must find a way to kill the creature and escape its lair.
The Phoenix – A group of heroes must defeat a phoenix to save their land. They must find a way to kill the creature without it regenerating.
The Roc – A village is attacked by a roc. The villagers must find a way to defeat the creature before it destroys their homes.
The Unicorn’s Curse – A village is plagued by a cursed unicorn. The villagers must find and stop the creature to lift the curse.
The Leviathan – A ship is attacked by a leviathan. The crew must find a way to defeat the creature and escape the ocean.

Gothic Horror

The Cursed Castle – A family inherits a castle with a dark history. They must uncover its secrets to lift the curse.
The Haunted Abbey – Monks at a remote abbey encounter ghostly apparitions. They must uncover the abbey’s dark past to stop the hauntings.
The Sinister Manor – Guests at a manor encounter strange occurrences. They must solve the manor’s mystery to escape.
The Dark Forest – A village is surrounded by a forest where no one returns. The villagers must uncover the forest’s secrets to survive.
The Phantom of the Opera House – A theater is haunted by a ghostly figure. The performers must uncover the phantom’s past to stop the hauntings.
The Ghostly Bride – A bride haunts the church where she was left at the altar. The townspeople must uncover her story to set her spirit free.
The Vampire’s Castle – A group of travelers seeks shelter in a castle only to find it inhabited by vampires. They must escape before becoming prey.
The Sinister Tower – A tower on a cliff is said to be haunted. Adventurers must uncover its secrets and survive its dangers.
The Witch’s Cottage – A cottage in the woods is said to be inhabited by a witch. Brave villagers must uncover the truth and survive the night.
The Shadowed Hallways – A noble family in a mansion encounters shadowy figures that stalk them at night. They must uncover the mansion’s history to banish the shadows.
The Forbidden Tomb – Explorers uncover an ancient tomb that curses those who enter. They must find a way to break the curse and escape.
The Haunted Chapel – A chapel is haunted by the spirits of those wronged by the church. The new priest must uncover their stories to bring peace.
The Eerie Estate – An estate known for its eerie occurrences becomes the setting for a family reunion. The family must uncover the estate’s dark past.
The Sinister Sculptor – A sculptor’s statues seem to come to life. Visitors to the sculptor’s estate must solve the mystery before they become statues themselves.
The Phantom Shipyard – A shipyard is haunted by the ghosts of shipbuilders who died in a tragic accident. Investigators must uncover the cause of the hauntings.
The Cursed Bell Tower – A bell tower’s toll brings doom to those who hear it. The villagers must silence the bell to stop the curse.
The Secret Passage – Hidden passages in a mansion reveal dark secrets. The inhabitants must navigate the passages to uncover the truth.
The Ghostly Governess – A governess haunts the children she once cared for. The new caretaker must uncover her story to protect the children.
The Darkened Library – A library contains books that whisper dark secrets. The librarian must uncover the source and stop the whispering.
The Phantom Train Station – A train station is haunted by passengers who never reached their destination. A traveler must uncover their stories.
The Sinister Garden – A garden blooms with flowers that have a deadly secret. The gardener must uncover the truth to save themselves.
The Ghostly Host – A host at a manor party is a ghost who never left. The guests must uncover the host’s story to escape.
The Haunted Portraits – Portraits in a manor watch the inhabitants. The family must uncover the stories behind the portraits.
The Cursed Well – A well in a village grants wishes at a terrible cost. The villagers must uncover the well’s origins to stop its influence.
The Phantom Ball – A grand ball is held every year by a ghostly host. The attendees must uncover the host’s story to escape.

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

The Last Survivors – After a nuclear apocalypse, a group of survivors must navigate a ruined city to find safety.
The Plague – A deadly virus wipes out most of humanity. The immune survivors must find a cure before they succumb to the infection.
The Alien Invasion – Aliens decimate Earth’s population. A group of resistance fighters must find a way to fight back.
The Artificial Intelligence Uprising – AI turns against humanity. A group of survivors must find a way to shut down the AI network.
The Resource War – After resources become scarce, warring factions fight for control. A neutral group must navigate the conflict to survive.
The Frozen Earth – A new ice age begins, and survivors must find a way to live in the frozen wasteland.
The Solar Flare – A solar flare wipes out the technology. Survivors must adapt to a world without electricity.
The Zombie Apocalypse – The dead rise, and survivors must find a safe haven. They must navigate hordes of zombies and hostile humans.
The Asteroid Impact – An asteroid destroys major cities. Survivors must rebuild society in the aftermath.
The Supervolcano Eruption – A supervolcano erupts, causing a global catastrophe. Survivors must navigate the ash-filled landscape.
The Mutant Uprising – Radiation causes mutations in humans. The unmutated must find a way to coexist or fight back.
The Machine Takeover – Robots take control of the world. Human survivors must find a way to disable the machines.
The Bioweapon Leak – A bioweapon leaks and creates deadly mutants. Survivors must find the source to stop the spread.
The Water Crisis – Water becomes a scarce resource. Survivors must find new sources of water and fend off those who want to steal it.
The Dark Age – Society collapses, and survivors must navigate a world without order. They must rebuild communities while avoiding bandits.
The EMP Attack – An EMP attack wipes out all electronics. Survivors must adapt to a pre-technological world.
The Global Famine – A famine causes mass starvation. Survivors must find new ways to grow food and fend off starving invaders.
The Infected Animals – A virus causes animals to become aggressive. Survivors must protect themselves from the deadly wildlife.
The Drought – A prolonged drought causes a water shortage. Survivors must find new sources of water and protect them from others.
The Nuclear Winter – A nuclear war causes a nuclear winter. Survivors must find a way to live in the cold, dark world.
The Toxic Air – Pollution causes the air to become toxic. Survivors must find ways to purify the air and protect themselves.
The Invasion – A foreign army invades, causing chaos. Survivors must navigate the war-torn landscape.
The Collapse – Economic collapse causes society to break down. Survivors must find ways to rebuild while avoiding hostile groups.
The Plague – A new plague decimates the population. Survivors must find a cure before they become infected.
The Resource Scarcity – Resources become scarce, and society collapses. Survivors must find new ways to survive and protect their resources.

Body Horror

The Parasite – A person becomes host to a parasitic creature that slowly takes over their body. They must find a way to remove it before losing control.
The Flesh-Eating Disease – A disease that causes flesh to decay. The infected must find a cure before they succumb.
The Mutation – A person starts mutating uncontrollably. They must find a way to stop the mutations before they become unrecognizable.
The Experiment – A person is subjected to horrific experiments that alter their body. They must escape the lab and find a way to reverse the changes.
The Transformation – A person transforms into a monstrous creature. They must find a way to stop the transformation and regain their humanity.
The Infestation – A person’s body becomes infested with insects. They must find a way to remove the infestation before it’s too late.
The Amalgamation – A scientist’s experiment causes multiple bodies to fuse together. The resulting creature must find a way to separate or live as one.
The Skinwalker – A person can change their appearance by shedding their skin. They must find a way to control their abilities before they lose themselves.
The Growth – A person discovers a rapidly growing tumor that gives them strange abilities. They must find a way to control it before it consumes them.
The Symbiote – A symbiotic creature bonds with a person, granting powers but slowly taking over. They must find a way to separate before losing control.
The Reanimation – A scientist’s experiment to reanimate the dead goes horribly wrong. The reanimated must find a way to live with their new bodies.
The Graft – A person receives an experimental organ transplant that changes their body in unexpected ways. They must find a way to reverse the changes.
The Cannibal’s Curse – A person who consumes human flesh gains horrific powers. They must find a way to break the curse before losing their humanity.
The Melting Man – A person starts to liquefy. They must find a way to stop the process before it melts away.
The Living Tattoo – A person’s tattoos come to life and start to control them. They must find a way to stop the tattoos before they take over.
The Bone Shifter – A person gains the ability to shift their bones, causing great pain. They must find a way to control their power before it destroys them.
The Organ Thief – A person wakes up missing organs that are replaced by mysterious mechanical parts. They must find the thief and recover their organs.
The Flesh Sculptor – A person gains the ability to mold their flesh like clay. They must find a way to control their power before it consumes them.
The Skin Thief – A person can steal others’ skin to change their appearance. They must find a way to stop their urges before they lose their humanity.
The Hive – A person’s body becomes a hive for insects. They must find a way to remove the insects before it’s too late.
The Limb Regenerator – A person gains the ability to regenerate limbs, but each regrowth causes them to lose part of their humanity. They must find a way to stop the process.
The Mind Swap – A person swaps minds with another, causing their body to undergo horrific changes. They must find a way to reverse the swap.
The Flesh Weaver – A person gains the ability to manipulate flesh, weaving it into grotesque forms. They must find a way to control their power before it consumes them.
The Bone Collector – A person starts collecting bones, and their body begins to incorporate them. They must find a way to stop before they become living skeletons.
The Living Parasite – A parasitic organism living inside a person starts taking over their body. They must find a way to remove the parasite before it controls them completely.

Slasher Stories

The Masked Killer – A masked killer hunts down teenagers at a summer camp. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.
The Urban Legend – A group of friends accidentally awaken a killer from an urban legend. They must find a way to stop the killer before becoming victims.
The High School Horror – A killer stalks students at a high school reunion. The former classmates must band together to survive the night.
The Night Stalker – A serial killer targets people walking alone at night. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Cabin in the Woods – A group of friends vacationing in a cabin are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and uncover the killer’s motive.
The Halloween Horror – A killer in a Halloween costume targets partygoers. The survivors must figure out who the killer is before it’s too late.
The Summer Slasher – A slasher terrorizes a summer camp. The counselors must protect the campers and stop the killer.
The Haunted House Horror – A group of friends visiting a haunted house attraction encounter a real killer. They must survive the night and escape the house.
The Killer Clown – A killer dressed as a clown targets children. The townspeople must uncover the clown’s identity to stop the killings.
The Prom Night Massacre – A killer crashes a prom, targeting students. The survivors must find a way to stop the killer and escape.
The Road Trip Terror – A group of friends on a road trip are hunted by a killer. They must uncover the killer’s identity and motive to survive.
The Island Slasher – Vacationers on a remote island are hunted by a killer. They must survive and find a way to escape the island.
The Carnival of Carnage – A killer targets visitors at a carnival. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.
The Silent Stalker – A killer who never speaks targets people in their homes. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Snowbound Slasher – A group of friends snowed in at a cabin and are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and find a way to escape.
The College Campus Killer – A killer stalks students on a college campus. The survivors must band together to uncover the killer’s identity.
The Backwoods Butcher – Campers in the backwoods are hunted by a killer. They must survive the night and find a way to stop the killer.
The Stalker in the Shadows – A stalker targets a woman, and her friends must protect her and catch the stalker.
The Holiday Horror – A killer targets people during the holidays. The survivors must uncover the killer’s identity and motive to stop the murders.
The Beachside Slasher – Vacationers at a beach resort are hunted by a killer. They must survive and uncover the killer’s identity.
The Amusement Park Horror – A killer targets visitors at an amusement park. The survivors must stop the killer and escape the park.
The Midnight Stalker – A killer targets people walking alone at midnight. A detective must catch the killer before more lives are lost.
The Wedding Day Massacre – A killer crashes a wedding, targeting guests. The survivors must find a way to stop the killer and escape.
The Forest of Fear – Hikers in a forest are hunted by a killer. They must survive and find a way to stop the killer.
The Asylum Escapee – A killer escapes from an asylum and targets people in a nearby town. The townspeople must uncover the killer’s identity to stop the murders.

Cosmic Horror

The Lovecraftian Entity – A small town is plagued by sightings of an otherworldly entity. The townspeople must uncover its origins to stop the madness.
The Eldritch Tome – A scholar discovers a book that drives readers insane. They must uncover the book’s secrets to stop its influence.
The Alien Artifact – Scientists discover an artifact that brings forth cosmic horrors. They must find a way to destroy it before it consumes them.
The Forgotten Temple – Explorers find an ancient temple dedicated to a cosmic entity. They must uncover its secrets to escape the horrors within.
The Star Cult – A cult worships a cosmic entity that grants them terrible powers. Investigators must stop the cult before they summon the entity.
The Cosmic Rift – A rift in space-time opens, bringing forth horrors from another dimension. Scientists must find a way to close the rift.
The Astral Projector – A person gains the ability to astrally project but encounters cosmic horrors. They must find a way to control their power.
The Interdimensional Traveler – A traveler from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to send the traveler back.
The Eldritch Signal – A signal from deep space drives those who hear it insane. Scientists must find a way to stop the signal.
The Otherworldly Beacon – A lighthouse serves as a beacon for cosmic entities. The keeper must find a way to stop the beacon.
The Alien Invasion – Aliens from another dimension invade Earth, bringing cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to fight back.
The Eldritch Storm – A storm brings forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop the storm.
The Forgotten Ones – Ancient beings awaken and bring cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Cosmic Plague – A plague from another dimension infects humanity. The survivors must find a cure before it spreads.
The Eldritch Machine – A machine built by an ancient civilization brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to destroy it.
The Otherworldly Visitor – A visitor from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to send them back.
The Lovecraftian Dreams – People start having dreams of cosmic horrors that drive them insane. They must find a way to stop the dreams.
The Eldritch Ritual – A cult performs a ritual to summon a cosmic entity. Investigators must stop the ritual.
The Alien Mind Control – Aliens use mind control to bring forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Eldritch Portal – A portal opens, bringing forth cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to close it.
The Forgotten City – Explorers find a lost city dedicated to cosmic entities. They must uncover its secrets to escape the horrors within.
The Otherworldly Artifact – An artifact from another dimension brings cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to destroy it.
The Eldritch Experiment – Scientists’ experiments bring forth cosmic horrors. They must find a way to stop the experiments.
The Alien Infestation – Aliens infest a town, bringing cosmic horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop them.
The Cosmic Entity – A cosmic entity awakens, bringing forth horrors. The survivors must find a way to stop it.

Folk Horror

The Village Ritual – A village performs a dark ritual every year. Outsiders must uncover the ritual’s purpose to escape.
The Forest Cult – A cult in the forest performs dark rituals. Outsiders must uncover the cult’s secrets to survive.
The Harvest Sacrifice – A village sacrifices people for a good harvest. The outsiders must stop the sacrifices.
The Witch Hunt – A village accuses outsiders of being witches. They must prove their innocence to survive.
The Cursed Land – A village is built on cursed land. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin to lift it.
The Haunted Farm – A farm is haunted by the spirits of those wronged by the landowners. The new owners must uncover the farm’s dark history.
The Pagan Festival – A village’s pagan festival hides dark secrets. Outsiders must uncover the truth to survive.
The Reaping – A village reaps souls to appease a dark entity. The outsiders must stop the reaping.
The Cursed Forest – A forest is cursed, and those who enter never return. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin.
The Old Gods – A village worships ancient gods that demand sacrifices. The outsiders must stop the worship.
The Blood Moon – A village performs a ritual under a blood moon. Outsiders must stop the ritual.
The Spirit of the Lake – A lake is haunted by a vengeful spirit. The villagers must uncover its story to stop the hauntings.
The Cornfield Curse – A village’s cornfield is cursed, causing bizarre deaths. Outsiders must uncover the curse’s origin to stop it.
The Stone Circle – A stone circle in a village is used for dark rituals. Outsiders must uncover their secrets to stop the rituals.
The Phantom Harvest – A village experiences hauntings during the harvest season. Outsiders must uncover the cause to end the terror.
The Cursed Festival – A village festival turns deadly each year. Outsiders must uncover the festival’s dark origins to stop the deaths.
The Whispering Woods – The woods surrounding a village whisper dark secrets. Outsiders must decipher the whispers to escape.
The Haunted Mill – An old mill is haunted by the spirits of workers who died there. New owners must uncover the mill’s dark history.
The Witch’s Mark – A village marks certain people as witches. Outsiders must uncover the truth behind the markings to survive.
The Blood Ritual – A village performs a blood ritual to appease dark forces. Outsiders must stop the ritual before they become sacrifices.
The Specter of the Fields – A scarecrow in a village’s fields comes to life. Outsiders must uncover the scarecrow’s dark origins.
The Sinister Shepherd – A shepherd in a village controls his flock with dark magic. Outsiders must uncover his secrets to stop him.
The Ghostly Harvesters – Spirits of past harvesters haunt a village. Outsiders must uncover the harvesters’ stories to end the hauntings.
The Village of Shadows – A village is plagued by shadowy figures. Outsiders must uncover the figures’ origins to escape.
The Witching Hour – A village experiences dark events at the Witching Hour. Outsiders must uncover the truth behind the events to survive.

Here is a video with 25 bonus horror writing prompts:

Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts

Using these writing prompts is simple.

Choose a prompt that sparks your interest. Imagine the characters, setting, and conflict. Let the prompt guide you, but feel free to add your unique twist.

Keep writing until the story unfolds naturally.

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132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

Horror stories send shivers down our spines. They are gruesome, shocking, and chilling. Scary stories are meant to horrify us, and there are many ways to make a powerful impact on the reader. The element of surprise is crucial to make the readers’ blood freeze.

There are different types of horror stories. They often deal with terrible murders, supernatural powers, psychopaths, the frightening human psychology and much more.

Although many horror writing prompts and scary ideas have been written, the following 132 horror writing prompts can spark great creativity in aspiring writers of the horror genre.

A family is on a camping trip. The parents are walking with their two children, a daughter and a son. The little boy trips and falls into a dark river. His father jumps to rescue him. Somehow the boy manages to swim to the surface. The father is nowhere to be found. When the mother gets a hold of the boy, she can’t recognize him. She tries holding him, but the moment she touches his wet body, her hands start burning.
A young girl goes missing in a nearby forest. The whole town is searching for her. Her parents find her sitting and smiling in a cave. Her eyes are completely white.
A woman starts watching a movie late at night. The movie seems all too familiar. Finally, she realizes that it is a movie about her own life and that she might be already dead.
A house finds a way to kill every visitor on its premises.
A child makes her own Halloween mask. She glues a lock of her own hair on her mask. The mask comes to life and threatens to take over the girl’s body.
While digging in her backyard, an old lady discovers an iron chest. She opens it and finds a pile of old photographs of her ancestors. All of them are missing their left eye.
A priest is trying to punish God for the death of his sister. He is getting ready to burn down the church, when supernatural forces start to torture him.
Every year a woman goes to the cemetery where her husband is buried, and when she looks at his tombstone, she notices her own name carved in it.
A woman puts a lipstick on in the bathroom when she hears a demonic voice saying to her: “Can’t you see?”
A mysterious child psychiatrist promises parents to cure their children if they give him a vile of their blood.
A group of 10 friends decide to rent an old English castle for the weekend. The ghosts are disturbed and seek their pound of flesh.
A photographer travels to an Indian reservation for his next project. He starts taking photos, but there are only shadows in the places where people should have been.
A young married couple decide to renovate an abandoned psychiatric hospital and turn it into a hotel. Everything is going well until their first guest arrives.
Three sisters are reunited for the reading of their grandmother’s will. She has left them a diamond necklace, but they have to fight psychologically and physically for it.
An old woman pretends to be lost and asks young women to help her get home. She offers them a cup of tea and drugs them. When the women wake up, they are chained in the basement. The old woman gives them tools and boards, so that they can build their own coffin. If they refuse, she inflicts pain on them.
A mysterious stranger with a glass eye and a cane commissions a portrait. When the portrait is finished, the painter turns into stone.
A little girl’s sister lives with a monster in the closet. She exits the closet on her sister’s birthday.
The demons under the nuclear plant get released after an explosion and start terrorizing the families of people who work at the plant.
A woman gets trapped in a parallel universe where every day she dies horribly in different ways.
A cannibal hunts for pure children’s hearts hoping they will bring him eternal youth.
A politician hides his weird sister in the attic. She’s had her supernatural powers after their family home burned to the ground.
A 16-year-old girl wakes up on a stone-cold table surrounded with people in black and white masks. They are chant and start leaning forward. All of them carry carved knives.
A boy hears screaming from his parents’ bedroom. He jumps and hides under his bed. Suddenly, everything becomes quiet. A man wearing army boots enters his room. He drags the boy from under the bed and says: “We’ve been searching for you for 200 years.”
A husband and his wife regain consciousness only to see each other tied to chairs, facing each other. A voice on the radio tells them to kill the other, otherwise, they would kill their children.
A mysterious altruist gives a kidney to a young man, who has potential to become a leading neuroscientist. After a year, the altruist kills the young man because he proves to be an unworthy organ recipient. The following year, the mysterious altruist is a bone marrow donor.
A group of friends play truth or dare. Suddenly, all the lights go out and in those ten seconds of darkness, one of the group is killed.
A young man becomes obsessed with an old man living opposite his building. The young man is convinced that the old man is the embodiment of the devil, and starts planning the murder.
Concerned and grieving parents bring their 8-year-old son to a psychiatrist after their daughter’s accident, believing that the boy had something to do with her death.
A woman is admitted to a hospital after a car crash. She wakes up after three months in a coma, but when she tries to speak, she can’t utter a sound. When the nurse sees that she is awake, she calls a doctor. The last thing the woman remembers is hearing the doctor say: “Today is your lucky day,” right before four men in black robes take her out.
A small-town cop becomes obsessed with a cold case from 1978. Three girls went missing after school, and nobody has seen them since. Then one day, in 2008, three girls with the same names as those in 1978 go missing. The case is reopened.
After his parents’ death a cardiologist returns to his small town where everyone seems to lead a perfect life. This causes a disturbance in the idyllic life of the people since none of them has a heart.
A man is kidnapped from his apartment on midnight and brought on a large private estate. He is told that he will be a human pray and that ten hunters with guns will go after him. He is given a 5-minute head start.
A strange woman in labor is admitted in the local hospital. Nobody seems to recognize her. She screams in agony. A black smoke fills in the entire hospital. After that, nobody is the same. A dark lord is born.
A young girl finds her grandmother’s gold in a chest in the attic, although she isn’t allowed to go there by herself. She touches the gold and she starts seeing horrible visions involving her grandmother when she was younger.
An anthropologist studies rituals involving human sacrifice. She slowly begins to accept them as necessary.
A family of four moves in an old Victorian home. As they restore it, more and more people die suddenly and violently.
An old nurse has lived next door to a family that doesn’t get older. Their son has remained to be a seven-year-old boy.
A girl wakes up in her dorm and sees that everybody sleepwalks in the same direction. She acts as if she has the same condition and follows them to an underground black pool where everybody jumps.
A bride returns to the same bridge for 50 years waiting for her husband-to-be to get out of the water.
An old woman locks girls’ personalities in a forever growing collection of porcelain dolls. Parents of the missing girls are in agony and they finally suspect something. When they tell the police, their claims are instantly dismissed.
A chemistry teacher disfigures teenagers who remind him of his childhood bullies. One day, he learns that the new student in his school is the son of his childhood’s archenemy.
A girl starts digging tiny holes in her backyard. When her mother asks her what she is doing, the girl answers: “Mr. Phantom told me to bury my dolls tonight. Tomorrow night I am going to bury our dog. And then, you, mother.”
Twin brothers were kidnapped and returned the next day. They claim that they can’t remember anything. The following night, twin sisters disappear.
A boy has a very realistic dream about an impending doom, but nobody believes him until during a storm all the birds fall dead on the ground.
Room 206 is believed to be haunted, so hotel guests never stay in it. One day, an old woman arrives at the hotel and asks for the key to room 206. She says that she was born there.
A genius scientist tries to extract his wife’s consciousness from her lifeless body and insert it into an imprisoned woman who looks just like his wife.
Two distinguished scientists develop a new type of virus that attacks their brains and turns them into killing machines.
A woman steps out of her house only to find four of her neighbors dead at her doorstep. Little does she know that she isn’t supposed to call the police.
A bachelor’s party ends with two dead people in the pool. Both of them are missing their eyes.
A young woman wearing a black dress is holding a knife in her hand and threatening to kill a frightened man. She is terrified because she does not want to kill anybody, but her body refuses to obey her mind.
A strange religious group starts performing a ritual on a playground. The children’s hearts stop beating.
A woman discovers that her niece has done some horrible crimes, so she decides to poison her. Both of them take the poison, but only the aunt dies.
A man encounters death on his way to work. He can ask three questions before he dies. He makes a quick decision.
An older brother kills his baby sister because he wants to be an only child. When he learns that his mother is pregnant again, he decides to punish her.
A husband and his wife move to a new apartment. After a week, both of them kill themselves. They leave a note saying: “Never again.”
A man is trying to open a time portal so that he could kill his parents before he is ever conceived.
A famous conductor imprisons a pianist from the orchestra and makes him play the piano while he tortures other victims, also musicians. Every time the pianist makes a mistake, the conductor cuts of a finger from his victims.
A popular French chef is invited by a mysterious Japanese sushi master for dinner. A powerful potion makes the French chef fall asleep. He wakes up horrified to learn that he is kept on a human farm, in a cage.
A nuclear blast turns animals into blood-thirsty monsters.
A mysterious bug creeps under people’s skins and turns them into the worst version of themselves.
A kidnapper makes his victims torture each other for his sheer pleasure.
Four friends are invited to spend the afternoon in an escape room. A man’s voice tells them that they have won a prize. They happily accept and enter the escape room. They soon realize that the room was designed to reflect their worst nightmares.
Two sisters have been given names from the Book of the Dead. Their fates have been sealed, so when they turn 21, dark forces are sent to bring them to the underground.
A mother-to-be starts feeling severe pain in her stomach every time she touches a Bible. Despite the fear for her own life, she starts reading the New Testament out loud.
A literature professor discovers an old manuscript in the college library. He opens it in his study and suddenly a black raven flies through the window.
You are the Ruler of a dystopian society. You kill every time your control is threatened.
You are an intelligent robot who shows no mercy to humanity.
You are a promising researcher who discovers that all the notorious dictators have been cloned.
A nomad meets a fakir who tells him that he would bring agony to dozens of people unless he kills himself before he transforms into a monster.
A most prominent member of a sect goes to animal shelters to find food for the dark forces.
A man hires unethical doctors to help him experience clinical death and then bring him back to life after a minute. Little does he know that one minute of death feels like an eternity full of horrors.
You travel home to visit your parents for the holidays. Everything seems normal until you realize that demons have taken over their consciousness.
A mysterious woman moves into your apartment building. One by one, all of the tenants start hallucinating that monsters chase them and jump into their own deaths.
Divorced parents are kidnapped together with their son. Both of the parents have been given poison, but there is only one antidote. The boy needs to decide which parent gets to be saved. He has 30 seconds to make that decision.
A patient with a multiple-personality disorder tells you that you are one of six characters.
You wake up in bed that is a blood-bath.
The Government abducts children with genius IQ and trains them to fight the horrors in Area 51.
A woman who has just given birth at her home is told that the baby is predestined to become the leader of the greatest demonic order in the country.
A man signs a document with his blood to relinquish his body to a sect.
A woman enters a sacred cave in India and disappears for good.
A man opens his eyes in the middle of his autopsy while the coroner is holding his heart.
You look outside the windows in your house only to see that the view has changed and there is black fog surrounding you.
The gargoyles from the Notre Dame have come to life and they start terrorizing Paris.
Somebody rings your doorbell. You open the door and a frightened girl with bloody hands is standing at your doorstep. “You’re late,” you reprimand her.
You wake up in the middle of the night after a frightful nightmare, so you go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. You turn on the light and a person looking like your identical twin is grinning and pointing a knife at you.
A renowned book editor receives a manuscript elegantly written by hand. The title grabs her attention and she continues reading page after page. When she finishes, the manuscript spontaneously starts burning, and the editor is cursed forever.
The last thing you remember before losing consciousness is fighting a shady Uber driver.
You find yourself in a cage in the middle of a forest and black mythological harpies hovering above the cage.
A woman wants to quit smoking, so she visits a therapist who is supposed to help her with the use of hypnosis. She goes under and when she wakes up, she feels like a born killer.
Five hikers get stranded during a horrible storm. One of them kills the weakest and starts burning his body.
A mother goes in the nursery to check up on the baby and discovers that the baby is missing and, in her place, there is a baby doll.
A killer is willing to pay a large sum of money to the family of a volunteering victim. A cancer patient contacts the killer. The killer ends up dead.
The sacred river in a remote Asian village fills up with blood. The last time that happened, all the children in the village died.
A tall, dark, and handsome stranger invites a blind woman for a romantic date in his botanical garden. The garden is full of black roses in which women’s souls have been trapped. He tells her that she will stay forever with him in his garden.
A frightened man is trying to lead a werewolf into a trap and kill him with the last silver bullet.
An architect designs houses for the rich and famous. What he doesn’t show them is that he always leaves room for a secret passageway to their bedrooms, where they are the most vulnerable.
A man’s DNA was found on a horrible crime scene and he has been charged with murder in the first degree. He adamantly negates any involvement in the crime that has been committed. What he doesn’t know is that he had a twin brother who died at birth.
Every passenger on the Orient Express dies in a different, and equally mysterious way.
A magician needs a volunteer from the audience in order to demonstrate a trick involving sawing a person in half. A beautiful woman steps on the stage. The magician makes her fall asleep, and then he performs the trick. In the end, he disappears. People in the audience start panicking when they notice the blood dripping from the table. The magician is nowhere to be found. The woman is dead.
A mother discovers that her bright son is not human.
Specters keep terrorizing patients in a psychiatric hospital, but nobody believes them.
A man’s mind is locked into an immovable body. This person is being tortured by a psychopath who kills his family members in front of him, knowing that he is in agony and can’t do anything to save them.
A bride-to-be receives a DVD via mail from an unknown sender. She plays the video and disgusted watches a pagan ritual. The people are wearing masks, but she recognizes the voice of her husband-to-be.
A man turns himself to the police although he hasn’t broken the law. He begs them to put him in prison because he had a premonition that he would become a serial killer.
Jack the Ripper is actually a woman who brutally kills prostitutes because her own mother was a prostitute.
A ticking noise wakes her up. It’s a bomb, and she has only four minutes to do something about it.
After a horrible car crash, a walking skeleton emerges from the explosion.
A world-famous violinist virtuoso uses music to summon dark forces.
A philosopher is trying to outwit Death in order to be granted immortality. He doesn’t know that Death already knows the outcome of this conversation.
A beautiful, but superficial woman promises a demon to give him her virginity in exchange for immortality. Once the demon granted her wish, she refused to fulfill her end of the deal. The demon retaliated by making her immortal, but not eternally youthful.
A voice starts chanting spells every time somebody wears the gold necklace from Damask.
Three teenagers beat up a homeless man. The next day all of them go missing.
Thirteen tourists from Poland visit Trakai Island Castle in Vilnius. Their bodies are found washed up the next morning. They are wearing medieval clothes.
A group of extremists ambush the vehicle in which a head of a terrorist cell is transported and rescue him. They go after anybody who was involved in his incarceration.
A hitman is hired to kill a potential heart donor.
A man is attacked by the neighbor’s dog while trying to bury his wife alive.
A woman disappears from her home without a trace. He husband reports her missing. The police start to suspect the husband when they retrieve some deleted messages.
After moving to a new house all the family members have the same nightmares. Slowly they realize that they might be more than nightmares.
A psychopath is drugging his wife, pushing her to commit a suicide so that he could collect the life insurance.
A woman loses her eyesight overnight. Instead, she starts having premonitions.
A vampire prefers albino children.
A man commits murders at night and relives the agony of his victims during the day.
A black horse carriage stops in front of your house. A hand wearing a black glove make an inviting gesture. Mesmerized, you decide to enter the carriage.
Demons rejuvenate by eating kind people’s hearts.
People are horrified to find all of the graves dug out the morning after Halloween.
Men start jumping off building and bridges after hearing a mysterious song.
A voice in your head tells you to stop listening to the other voices. They were not real.
A severed head is hanging from a bridge with a message written in the victim’s blood.
A delusional man brings his screaming children to a chasm.
A 30-year-old woman learns that a baby with the same name as her died at the local hospital 30 years ago.
A vampire donates his blood so that a child with special brain powers can receive it.
A teenager is determined to escape his kidnapper by manipulating him into drinking poison. He doesn’t stop there.

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101 Horror Writing Prompts That Are Freaky As Hell

Looking for some scary story ideas for your next writing project?

Sometimes, a good scary prompt idea is all you need to get started on a dark story your readers won’t be able to put down.

And that is the goal. What’s a horror story without white-knuckle suspense?

You want your readers at the edge of their seats, unable to stop though they know something bad is about to happen.

You also want to reward them for reading to the end and leave them wanting more.

So, how can this collection of horror writing prompts help with that?

What Are the Main Elements of Horror Writing?

List of most common horror themes and tropes to write on .

66 Horror Writing Prompts

Halloween Writing Prompts

Mystery writing prompts, psychological horror story ideas, “the monster you know” story ideas, ghost story writing prompts, funny horror story ideas, horror story ideas.

Every good story needs an idea that takes root in your imagination and doesn’t let go. Horror stories in particular need to affect you a certain way. If they don’t sound an alarm in your head, they won’t sound one in the heads of your readers, either.

They need to reach into your psyche, take a scrap of memory, and turn it into something that would keep you up at night.

And as you’ve no doubt read already, “No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”

Look through the prompts that follow, and choose one that calls out to you and lingers in your imagination.

Paint a picture in your mind of the characters involved. Give yourself a reason to invest in them by giving each one some interesting backstory.

Then set a timer and write.

Since Earl Horace Walpole’s gothic horror The Castle of Otranto hit shelves in 1764, English readers have clamored for dark plots that excite primitive instincts and tickle our fear bones.

Many horror authors leverage shadowy impulses by sprinkling stories with uncomfortable happenings and gruesome fatalities.

But that’s not all it takes to write within the genre, begging the question: What are the main elements of horror? Traditionally, there are five: suspense, fear, violence, gore, and the supernatural.

Suspense : Creating anxious tension is a critical component of horror as it keeps the audience glued to the story. They need to find out what happens! Traditionally, suspense is valued as a sophisticated form of horror, and building it well is a skill.
Fear : Confronting fearful things is a powerful emotion with chemical reactionary consequences, making it a hallmark of horror writing.
Violence : Savagery is scary because it’s inextricably linked to death and pain — two of the four great human fears.
Gore : Brains and guts are a cornerstone of classic horror. For better or worse, our neural pathways light up when confronted with intestines, brain matter, and gushing fluids. Successful horror writers keep readers and watchers engaged by deploying gore effectively.
Supernatural: The main difference between “true crime” and “horror” is a supernatural element. While horror stories draw people in with realism, they usually feature an emotional detachment valve in the form of an explicit or implicit otherworldly presence.

Vampires, ghosts, zombies, and murderers are big-picture mainstays of the horror genre. But what are some other, more detailed tropes associated with scary storytelling?

Babysitter Alone in Big House: The naive babysitter trope is oft-repeated because it works. The sitter acts as a stand-in for the reader or audience in that, like you, they’re vulnerable. Horror-sitters are the character conduit through which readers and viewers can experience the impending fear.
Manipulative Vampires: Maybe it’s their piercing eyes, snappy attire, or mysterious penchant for the “nightlife.” Whatever the case, people stan vampires, and sensual and manipulative ones are an incredibly effective horror character trope.
Ghost-Haunted House: Ghost-haunted houses are a recurring horror motif. Whether you approach it from a traditional or modern angle is up to you. Both can work.
Creepy Kid: In real life, it’s kind to see all kids as precious and special, no matter their quirks. But when it comes to Horror World, creepy kids are a dime a dozen! Sometimes they’re the main attractions or “red herrings” (which we’ll get to more below); other times, they’re supernatural catalysts that serve as a story’s MacGuffin. Whichever the case, unnerving kids go a long way when devising a disturbing scene and fomenting suspense.
The Nonbeliever: Most horror stories have at least one character whose lack of fear or faith (in the story’s “supernatural” element) lands them six feet under.
The Red Herring: A “red herring” is a false clue. The term dates back to the 1400s to describe a culinary preparation for fish, but the first known use as a euphemism for “distraction” appeared in 1884.
Isolation: Few things frighten people more than being all alone while danger looms. As such, isolation can be a helpful trope when crafting horror stories.
Graveyard Chase: A well-conceived chase around a graveyard is another horror mainstay that continues to deliver. Try adding a twist to modernize the trope.
Distorting Mirrors: Whether a single reflecting glass or a full-on maze, using mirrors as a motif is a tangible and effective way to signal distortion.
Aliens and Cultists: The human psyche can’t resist rubbernecking when confronted with the possibility of aliens and the sociopathic underbelly of cults. Resultantly, they work well as engaging frameworks for horror stories.

101 Horror Writing Prompts

Whether you’re writing for a special occasion or just to experiment with the horror genre, any of the scary story prompts in the following groups should get you started.

Go with your gut on this one, and choose an idea that feels both familiar and provocative. Then give it a go!

1. A mysterious gift from an estranged aunt arrives on Halloween with a crystal ball and a note addressed only to you, her godchild.

2. One of the trick-or-treaters bears an uncanny resemblance to your departed sibling and repeats that sibling’s last words before picking your sibling’s favorite candy bar.

3. On Halloween night, you find a box at your door that contains a strange note and a little something from each of the people who have hurt you in the past year.

4. On this Halloween night, your guinea pig won’t stop running in circles, and your dog keeps staring at the door, emitting a low growl.

5. You run out for candy on Halloween afternoon to find the streets empty and the store abandoned. A single car cruises into the lot and pulls into the spot next to yours.

6. Every time you went to answer the doorbell, no one was there. The next day, you heard about the missing children. The worst part? Your kids spent Halloween with your ex and were supposed to come trick-or-treating last night.

7. You arrive home on Halloween to a large package from your new boss, who’d bought every piece of your favorite candy from local stores. The note reads, “Save some for me.”

8. You’re watching TV on Halloween night when your show is interrupted by a faintly familiar someone declaring their love for you and saying they’ve watched you all your life.

9. You come home to find a stranger walking through your home, sipping your wine and admiring your collected antiquities. They startle at your approach and act as though you’re the intruder.

10. The night before Halloween, you have a dream in which you wake up to see a dark shape standing outside your closet. You wake up screaming with your hands around your spouse’s throat.

11. Election day looms, and Halloween feels more ominous than ever. You’ve kept the lights off, but that doesn’t stop one visitor from leaving a note: “Knew you lived here.”

12. Your best friend has gone missing, and someone keeps leaving small reminders of them in your mailbox. You see someone approach to deliver something else, and your heart nearly stops when you recognize them.

13. You’ve always wanted a dog, so when a rain-soaked mutt shows up on your front step, you let him in. Unfortunately, something else hitched a ride.

14. Someone moves into the apartment next door and starts playing loud music at night. You call the police, who find the guy dead holding a note with your name and address.

15. Someone keeps replacing items in your home with different objects that look vaguely familiar. No one else has a key to your home, and there are no signs of forced entry.

16. You bake some cookies to share with the new neighbor, but the terrified woman backs away from the plate, shaking her head. Someone from inside calls out, “I’ll have those.”

17. Someone at work has offered to do a tarot card spread for you, and you politely decline. You find a single tarot card in your mailbox when you return home.

18. You don’t remember wandering alone on a country road as a small child, but someone does. And he wants to make sure you’re not around to testify against him.

.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#625656 !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#625656 !important}.ugb-360683b .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-360683b .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 19. Someone has gotten to your laundry before you and left it neatly folded in piles on top of the dryer. A note reads, “For more TLC, knock on #303.”

20. The window of your apartment leads to a fire escape, but twice you’ve come home to find it open. Nothing is missing. But someone keeps leaving a ring on your kitchen table.

21. You order a Christmas wreath for your door and the company sends you a package with money instead. The note reads, “Keep half. I’ll pick up the rest in 72 hours.”

22. A child knocks on your door and tells you you’ll be visited by three people that night. One of them will show you your future. The child’s face reminds you of someone.

23. Your best friend is dating a woman who seems familiar to you — and not in a good way. Turns out, she’s got a bad feeling about you, too, and she warns your friend.

24. You receive a surprise delivery of a holiday flower arrangement with a note from someone who went to jail for assault. The message reads, “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

25. An abuser from your past has written you a long letter of apology, and you agree to meet them for coffee. You find your favorite coffee place deserted — on Black Friday.

26. You broke up with your sweetheart when he lied about taking you to the prom and begged you to run away with him so he could escape an abusive home. He’s back.

27. An old friend, who had tried to warn you about an ex-boyfriend years ago, has come back to town to run a diner. Within a week, known bullies start disappearing.

28. For the past three dates, the guy you met ended up dead and posed as if proposing. A note on each one’s empty chest cavity reads, “My heart belongs to [your name].”

.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#762f2f !important;border-radius:50px !important}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#762f2f !important}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff}.ugb-006bdc4 .ugb-inner-block{text-align:center} 29. You’re with a friend at the home of the guy she’s dating. In the bathroom, you find a box with jewelry for almost every birthstone. Yours is the only one missing. You hear a scream.

30. Everyone keeps telling you your memories can’t be trusted. You’re safe with them. They’ll protect you. But you haven’t left the house in years.

31. You thought it was cute when your little sister wanted to wear your aunt’s high heels and pose with a hand on her hip. But your sister had an uncanny way with accidents.

32. You never expected to win the ‘57 Chevy from the church raffle. Neither did the car’s owner, who immediately tried to buy it back. He didn’t respond well to “No, thanks.”

33. Every time you saw anything like “Tornado Warning” or “Flash Flood” in the news, you knew someone would end up dead. And your ex would blame the weather.

34. You come home to a dozen roses from a guy who’s been telling his friends you’re dating, and you get angry. For some reason, though, everyone you know is on his side.

35. Your “Secret Santa” leaves an expensive bottle of wine with a note, “Drink me.” You call a familiar number and hear the phone ring on the other side of your door.

36. Your dad has a secret known only to his twin brother, who mysteriously disappeared but left a note with a box of his belongings in the attic. You take it with you when you leave.

37. You just broke up with the person who’s catering your best friend’s wedding. They also made the cake.

38. Some of your in-laws have decided to deliver their sibling from you. When they cross the line, you make a promise to them and to your spouse. One by one, they disappear.

39. Your health is steadily declining, and you don’t know why. Neither do your doctors, who test for the usual health issues and find nothing. Then someone calls to warn you.

40. Your estranged father sends you a porcelain doll — the one he swears you told him you wanted. It has the face and hair of your missing mother. And her eyes are glued open.

41. You’ve just told your family you’re asexual, and they seem to accept it. Out of the blue, the handsome guy next door shows up to ask you out, and your parents quietly nod.

42. A cop pulls you over for driving a few miles over the speed limit, tells you to get out of your car, slams you against the hood and whispers in your ear, “This is from your ex.”

43. You emailed your fiancé for months before meeting him for the first date. Now, you’re getting strange phone calls from someone claiming to be his wife and telling you to run.

44. You stood numb at the coffin of a close friend and flinched when your father rested a hand on your shoulder. “Had to be done,” he whispered. “Remember the bigger picture.”

45. A small package bears the name of your sister, who died five years ago. It contains a pendant that matches her own and a note asking you to activate it by chanting, “Sisters Forever.”

46. Your elderly neighbors died on the same day of an apparent suicide pact. In their will, they left their pug to you, along with a small box of what they called “magical items.”

47. You receive a note penned by your best friend, who died in a car accident the month before, His parents had found it in his room and hand-delivered it, barely looking at you.

.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__item{background-color:#3b492e !important;border-radius:50px !important;text-align:center !important}.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__item:before{background-color:#3b492e !important}.ugb-c65fb79 .ugb-blockquote__text{font-size:18px !important;color:#ffffff} 48. You pounce on a new opening in the apartment building close to your favorite coffee place. The first night there, you wake up to ghostly shapes surrounding your bed.

49. At your first slumber party, your friend’s older brother surprised you during a late-night run to the bathroom. He died a decade later in prison. Now you see him in your dreams.

50. Your home is the high-tech brainchild of your best friend, who bequeathed it to you (rather than to his wife). It anticipates your every need and desire.

51. You’ve been having dreams about a door that shows up in your room. In one, you walk through it and see someone you love being murdered . You warn them the next day.

52. You’re the lone survivor of a horrific train crash, and everywhere you go, you see the ghosts of some of the passengers. Some have told you the crash was no accident.

53. You’re looking through your mother’s possessions when a note slips out of the book she’d been reading, warning you about “the ghost who runs this house.”

54. Your new boyfriend is obsessed with ancient artifacts, but when something hitches a ride on his latest find, you witness disturbing changes in his behavior.

55. Your life is already complicated when your boss asks you to stay at his home to care for his dog while he’s away. You soon learn the house is as mischievous as the dog.

56. You’re an editor for the college literary journal, and you’ve been getting poetic hate mail from a student who’s angry you didn’t choose their poems for the latest issue.

57. Your favorite neighbor is a trans woman named Lani who looks out for you. She warns you about a guy down the hall, who keeps trying cheesy pick-up lines to get you to smile.

58. Your co-workers tease you about your weight gain. One is found dead in the bathroom, her mouth stuffed with candy. Everyone but the custodian suspects you.

59. An anonymous admirer sends you a singing telegram with a chilling question. Now you have less than 24 hours to sing your answer in a public square, with a flash mob.

60. You sign up for wine deliveries but are disappointed by the first bottle you open and taste. On the label, you find a crass, insulting note from an old enemy.

61. Your date finds out your BFF is asexual and starts asking intrusive and insensitive questions. When your friend shuts him down, he insults and warns you both.

62. You’re working the dinner rush, and a customer loudly insists on changing her order the moment you deliver it. Someone quietly follows her as she storms out the door.

63. You’re having an open house for your new shop, and you catch a customer shoplifting. She says, “I was told to come in here and take these. You’re being watched.”

64. You arrive at your new house, and the keys from the realtor don’t work. Someone answers the door with a disarming smile. “So, you’re here about the room? Come in!”

65. Your date is going well until you reveal that you have a dog. “I’m not really a dog person,” you hear. When you get a bad feeling and end the date, things get messy.

66. Your journal goes missing, and within a week, a goofy, adorable guy starts showing up at your usual stops. He seems surprised to see you, but something isn’t quite right.

Creepy Writing Prompts

67. The old tunnel had been blocked off for as long as anyone could remember, but late at night, you could still hear the faint screams echoing from deep within.

68. As you walk past the abandoned house on your way home from school, you notice one of the curtains move slightly in an upstairs window, but the house has been empty for years.

69. You wake up suddenly in the middle of the night and see two small handprints on the foggy bathroom mirror that are far too small to belong to anyone in your family.

70. Every night when you go to sleep, you feel an uncomfortable pricking sensation on your skin, yet every morning, you find strange symbols carved into your arms that you don’t remember making.

71. While exploring the attic, you find an old doll that looks eerily like you did as a child, and when you pick it up, its eyes suddenly open.

72. The scraping sound from the closet stops whenever you turn on the light, but it always returns as soon as the room goes dark again.

73. Every time you glance in the mirror, your reflection behaves slightly differently than you do – blinking at the wrong time or moving too late.

74. You wake up covered in mud and scratches with no memory of where you’ve been all night, and the soles of your shoes are worn through as if you had walked for miles.

75. Lately, your pets have refused to go into certain rooms of your house, but you have no idea what frightens them so badly about those areas.

76. You discover a trap door hidden under an old Persian rug in your basement and shining a light into it reveals a set of footsteps descending into the darkness below.

77. You wake up one morning to find all the mirrors in your home have been turned around to face the wall, even though you live alone.

78. Your television is switched on in the dead of night, the static slowly resolving into shapes, and what looks back at you from the screen makes your blood run cold.

79. You keep finding sticky notes around your house with messages written on them in unfamiliar handwriting, like “GET OUT” or “I’M WATCHING YOU SLEEP.”

80. Every time you look at a clock, the time is exactly 3 minutes slow, though all the clocks in your home are set correctly and keep perfect time when others view them.

81. On your way home, you notice a figure standing motionless at the end of the street, staring directly at your house with its face hidden in the shadows of its hooded robe.

82. Your dog comes running inside with its leash still attached but hanging limply, yet when you call the number on the leash’s tag, your own cell phone starts ringing from within your house.

83. Your computer camera activates unexpectedly while you’re working, and you see your own bedroom behind you from an impossible angle near the ceiling, suggesting someone is watching through the camera right now.

84. You hear your name called out softly in an empty room, and even though the voice sounds familiar, you live alone, and you know no one else is inside.

Spooky Writing Prompts

85. Every night when you lie in bed, you hear the floorboards outside your room creaking as if someone is pacing back and forth, but every time you quickly open the door to check, the hallway is empty.

86. While exploring the woods behind your new house, you discover a crumbling old stone well, and when you peer down into the darkness, you think you see pale faces staring back up at you.

87. Your reflection in mirrors and windows often moves independently, quickly looking away whenever you try to catch it, watching you from impossible angles that don’t align with where you’re standing.

88. An unfamiliar chat window opens on your computer screen with only the message “I can see you through your webcam” written inside it by an unseen sender.

89. Plants within your home have been dying overnight no matter where you place them, the leaves and stems drained of all color as if the life has been completely sucked out.

90. You wake up to find a pile of dead birds on your lawn, their wings broken and necks bent at odd angles as if they crashed directly into the ground from high altitudes.

91. The old paintings hanging on the walls of your recently inherited mansion seem to follow you with their eyes, and occasionally, you notice mysterious new figures added in the backgrounds that disappear by morning.

92. Turning on all the faucets causes blood to drip out instead of water, yet when others in your home check them, the liquid running from the pipes is perfectly clear.

93. You wake from a nightmare convinced someone was standing silently at the foot of your bed, only to find the imprint of two bare feet seared into your bedroom carpet right where the figure was standing.

94. Whenever you look in the bathroom mirror late at night, you see dead relatives standing silently behind you who disappear when you turn around to check if anyone is there.

95. The baby monitor in the nursery suddenly emits a strange crackling sound followed by a singsong voice you don’t recognize whispering your baby’s name over and over.

96. Your shadow appears to have a mind of its own, often following you more slowly or quickly than it should and reaching areas you know your body has not moved to.

97. Photos taken with phones or cameras in and around your home show blurry figures lurking in the background that do not match any of the people in the images.

98. Any writing you leave out overnight – from sticky notes to notebooks – has mysterious reoccurring symbols added in unfamiliar handwriting scattered among the existing text.

99. You wake in the middle of the night to the sound of your locked window being forced open from the outside, but when you jump out of bed to check, it’s closed securely as if nothing happened.

100. From your garden, you can see directly into your neighbor’s bathroom mirror, but instead of the neighbor’s reflection, you swear you sometimes see your own face staring back with an expression you don’t recognize.

101. While searching through the attic in your recently purchased Victorian home, you find an old portrait of a severe-looking woman whose eyes seem to follow you around the room; later that night, you wake to find the same woman standing at the foot of your bed, silently watching you sleep.

How Do You Come Up with Horror Ideas?

Coming up with fresh, frightening ideas is key to crafting an effective horror story. While horror inspirations can spring from ordinary events and observations, it helps to have strategies to unleash your most sinister creativity. Here are some tips for conjuring bone-chilling tales:

Mine your nightmares. Dreams often access our deepest fears. Pay attention to recurring nightmares or startling images from your subconscious, as these can inspire terrifying new monsters or situations.
Twist tropes. Take common horror archetypes like haunted houses, demonic possession, or slashers and put a new spin on them. Surprise readers by changing elements they assume to be familiar.
Extrapolate fears. Think about phobias you or others have, like darkness, insects, or tight spaces. Imagine those fears exponentially intensified to petrifying extremes.
Research real horror. Study disturbing historical events, murders, superstitions, or unexplained phenomena and fictionalize them in a new horror setting.
Observe people. Carefully watch those around you and look for small creepy details in their appearances or behaviors that could be expanded into something sinister.

With an observant eye and inventive mind, creators can find endless inspiration from both mundane moments and their most nightmarish dreams. Putting ordinary things in an ominous light or letting one’s imagination run wild with “what if” scenarios generate the kinds of situations and figures that fuel truly frightening tales.

Pay attention to the world around and inside you, and plumb the depths of your creativity, and you’ll never run short on horror ideas.

Essay on Horror Story

Students are often asked to write an essay on Horror Story in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Horror Story

Introduction.

Horror stories are a genre of fiction that seeks to scare, disturb, or startle its readers by inducing feelings of horror and terror.

Elements of Horror

Key elements include suspense, surprise, and a sense of impending doom. Often, horror stories involve supernatural elements or entities.

Impact on Readers

These stories can have a profound impact on readers, evoking intense emotions and creating memorable experiences.

Despite their frightening nature, horror stories remain popular due to their ability to engage readers’ emotions and imagination in unique ways.

250 Words Essay on Horror Story

The intrigue of horror stories, psychological appeal.

At the heart of every horror story is the exploration of fear. Sigmund Freud’s concept of ‘the uncanny’ explains our attraction to horror as a confrontation with repressed fears and desires. This exploration of the unknown and the forbidden can be cathartic, allowing us to experience fear in a controlled environment.

Cultural Significance

Horror stories also reflect societal fears and anxieties. For instance, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” mirrors the 19th-century fear of scientific advancement, while George Orwell’s “1984” embodies the dread of totalitarian regimes. Thus, horror stories serve as cultural artifacts, offering insights into the zeitgeist of an era.

Narrative Techniques

The narrative techniques employed in horror stories are designed to evoke fear and suspense. Techniques such as foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and unreliable narrators keep readers on edge, while the use of dark, descriptive language helps create a chilling atmosphere.

In conclusion, horror stories are more than mere tales of terror. They are a reflection of our deepest fears, a commentary on societal anxieties, and a testament to the power of narrative techniques in evoking emotional responses. Their enduring popularity is a testament to their complexity and the human fascination with the macabre.

500 Words Essay on Horror Story

Horror stories have been a part of human culture for centuries, delighting and terrifying audiences in equal measure. They are narratives designed to frighten, cause dread or panic, or invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. The horror genre taps into the primal fear within us, making us confront the unknown and the terrifying.

The Psychology behind Horror

The evolution of horror stories.

Horror stories have evolved significantly over the years, keeping pace with societal changes and shifts in what we fear. Early horror stories were often tied to religion, reflecting fears of the supernatural and the afterlife. As society became more secular, the focus shifted to the horrors of the human mind and the terrors of the unknown.

Modern horror stories, such as Stephen King’s works, often blend elements of the supernatural with the psychological, creating a sense of unease that lingers long after the story is over. The horror genre has also expanded into various sub-genres, such as psychological horror, supernatural horror, and body horror, each catering to different fears and anxieties.

The Impact of Horror Stories on Society

In conclusion, horror stories are an integral part of our cultural fabric, serving as both entertainment and a means to explore our deepest fears and anxieties. They have evolved with society, reflecting our changing fears and serving as a commentary on societal issues. Despite their often gruesome and terrifying content, horror stories provide a safe space to explore the darker aspects of our psyche, helping us to understand and confront our fears. The enduring popularity of the horror genre is a testament to its ability to tap into our primal fears and its capacity to thrill, terrify, and captivate audiences.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

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Tags: Fiction , Fiction Writing , Short Story

If you love writing scary stories, this article is for you! Dive in to discover the best 101 horror writing prompts for your next masterpiece. From creepy ghost story ideas to supernatural horror, we’ve covered everything for you.

For Halloween enthusiasts, we have also added a special section of horror story prompts. You can use these prompts for horror stories to craft suspenseful and engaging stories. So let’s get started!

Perfect your spine-chilling tale! Learn more

Horror writing prompts

1) You are accused of beating a man but you have no memory of the incident. You start hearing voices in your head and realize that evil spirits have entered your body.

2) A psychologist suggests a new therapy to a patient after which the patient starts getting scary nightmares.

3) A man insults a circus clown after which the clown commits suicide. The clown’s ghost now haunts the man.

4) A hunter sees a blood-sucking vampire in Albanian forests and flees to save his life.

5) A volcano erupts near the Pacific Ocean and releases a wicked force living at the bottom of the volcano.

6) A girl finds an ancient key and unlocks a box, releasing 20 monsters who had been imprisoned for 500 years.

7) A mother purchases an ancient dollhouse with Chinese dolls for her daughter and realizes that the dolls are haunted by cursed spirits.

8) A strong current pulls a fisherman into the ocean’s deep waters. The fisherman sees a ship and manages to climb into it, only to realize that it is a phantom ship.

9) A boy is followed by the shadow of death everywhere, leading to death wherever he goes.

10) A gardener finds an ancient telephone while digging in the garden and accidentally contacts aliens using that telephone.

11) An explorer discovers a cave and sees a banshee living in the cave. The banshee traps him in the cave.

12) A child breaks a magical snow globe and hears screams. Suddenly there is heavy snowfall and hailstones begin falling hard from the sky.

13) A priest opens a locked room in a church and releases ghosts of dead scientists who want revenge.

14) A thick fog suddenly envelops a tiny village and a wicked witch who feeds on sorrow enters the village. She enchants dead bodies and makes them obey her commands.

15) A girl starts getting dreams of what will happen in her future. To her horror, every dream comes true and she must act before the dream of her death becomes reality.

16) A drunk man throws a stone in the dark and urinates near a tree where a zombie lives. The angry zombie tortures the man.

17) A poacher is haunted by the spirits of animals whose skin he has sold.

18) A woman takes a free lift from a man who is a demon in disguise. Attracted to her, the demon takes her to the land of demons.

19) A museum adds a new artifact to its collection without realizing that the object is cursed and belongs to an ancient tribe. Angry, the tribe performs black magic on all the museum’s employees who must face torture till the artifact is returned to its rightful owners.

20) A girl befriends a stranger on a train who hypnotizes her and she is forced to obey him.

21) A librarian sees a young girl who was supposed to have died in 1913. The young girl asks for the librarian’s help to take revenge against a powerful man. When the librarian refuses, the angry girl unleashes horror into the librarian’s life. The librarian begins seeing blood on the walls and hears creaking sounds, scary footsteps, and a hand that reaches out to kill her.

22) A businessman doesn’t honor the promise he made to a poor man. He suddenly realizes that all the bad incidents that the poor man experienced are now happening to him.

23) One day, you wake up and begin to hear the thoughts of trees, plants, and animals, and echoes start haunting you wherever you go.

24) A government employee visits an orphanage for a survey and finds out how every child is controlled by a satanic cult.

25) A crazy and gifted musician creates an eerie tune that enchants and forces people to kill other people.

26) A group of friends is separated due to a landslide and finds themselves in parallel universes due to the mistake of an inexperienced sorcerer.

27) You enter an abandoned house and the door slams shut on its own. You realize that you are trapped in that house and see a strange yellow light.

28) You find a key to a magical land of history and a dragon follows you from the historical land to the earth.

29) An actress is kidnapped by a witch who wishes to manipulate her and control the world.

30) An investigator who tries to find out the truth behind a college student’s murder realizes that the boy invoked supernatural forces before dying. Now, the investigator must stop the supernatural forces from killing him and other humans.

31) A scientist discovers a door to the land of memories and accidentally damages the memory of his identity, forgetting everything he knows about himself.

32) A boy is cruel to a rat and other rats angry at his cruelty, drag him inside a big black hole.

33) A bed bug sucks the blood of a magical witch and starts growing larger.

34) A magician has the rare gift of bringing dead people in paintings to life. Chaos spreads after the magician brings Hitler to life by working magic on a painting.

35) A horrible black monster steps out of the Atlantic Ocean and begins eating everything it sees.

36) A teacher finds an old coat that belonged to a demon in the past. Every time he checks the coat pocket, he reads news of people dying. Hours after he reads the notes, the people mentioned in the notes die and blood spots keep appearing on the coat.

37) A beggar walking close to a forest finds a trail of notes and happily picks them up. Later, he realizes that the notes belonged to wedding guests who died in an accident. The ghosts of the wedding guests notice that he has picked up the notes and haunt him.

39) A sorceress trapped in an enchanted mirror manages to control a young girl who pulls her out of the mirror.

40) A team of psychic youths is hired to find and fight a ruthless demon who feeds on despair. They must make a terrible sacrifice to prevent the demon from knowing their darkest secrets.

41) A lady discovers an old well near the flat she is renting. She peeps to see what is inside the well and a half-human, half-animal hand grasps her neck.

42) A journalist arrives at her flat and finds a scary message written in red ink on her mirror. The message reads,”‘I’m coming for you!” and somebody has drawn a smiling face with red ink on the mirror.

43) An angel is given the task of saving the world from a deadly plague. An army of tiny demon bacteria fight the angel and try to force him to go back.

44) A man desperately tries to remove his car which is stuck in a swamp. Suddenly, he sees a muddy, ugly, hairy creature raise its head from the swamp.

45) A camper suddenly sees a little girl sleepwalking with an evil smile on her face and blue sparks flying from her hands.

47) Imagine that Pandora has a human heir called Nymphadora who opens a box she discovers. Tiny creatures that have feelers like needles step out of the box and make an attempt to stop time and the wheel of destiny.

48) You wake up and discover that you are 40 years old whereas the day before, you were just 19.

49) A couple who are hiking enter a village where no one speaks and everyone has pale yellow eyes.

50) A traveler accepts a drink from a tribal and after drinking it, falls into a deep sleep. The next day he realizes that he is in a large cage with animals and the tribals are dancing around the cage.

51) You’re attending a masquerade party in a snowy area where everyone is dressed as animals You see a large, hairy, ape-like animal and recognize that it’s a real Yeti. The Yeti, realizing that you know his true identity wants to kill you.

52) A wicked group of vampires land on Earth with a mission to kill all humans and settle on Earth. They enter your house and want to kill you and your family.

53) A couple has rented a room in a palace to spend the night. While using the elevator, the elevator suddenly stops midway, the light starts flickering and the couple hears screams.

54) An archaeologist discovers a document about cursed gold and becomes obsessed with finding the gold. His quest leads him to the cave where a wicked witch lives.

55) You discover an ancient diary that contains strange incantations. When you read them aloud, Satan appears.

56) An evil spirit enters a city and all dogs start barking without stopping. A dark shadow gradually dims all lights in the city.

57) An injured man finds an old, abandoned clinic and enters the clinic, hoping for treatment. He is confronted by a zombie who has made the clinic its home.

58) A boy presses a magical button that makes him travel in time. Unfortunately, he chooses the wrong time portal and lands in an insane asylum.

59) You see the face of a werewolf at your window’s glass. The werewolf breaks the glass and you have a few seconds to escape.

60) A boy finds a strange red device with a black button in the mud. The boy presses the button upon which, the people who are alive die immediately and dead people start coming to life.

Continue reading to get inspired by our special section of scary story prompts. Browse exciting prompts for horror stories from various genres like dark fantasy, psychological horror, and more!

Scary story prompts

61) Strange things happen to a teenager after he performed planchette with a group of friends for fun. His car stops working, the bus he travels from gets punctured and he is unable to return home.

62) A scientist invents a potion to restore his youth. However, he makes a mistake while adding an ingredient to the potion. Hence, when he drinks the potion, his skin grows deformed, with white patches and thick fur.

63) A horse rider discovers bones in an old stable. When he tries to burn the bones, the bones surprisingly do not burn. Instead, a thick white fog suddenly envelops the stable, and evil spirits emerge from the bones.

64) A sorcerer blurs the difference between dreams and reality. You can’t understand whether you are in a dream or what is happening is real.

65) A woman opens the door and finds a woman claiming to be her aunt. She also shows photographs as proof and the woman allows her ‘aunt’ to enter the house. The aunt then gives the woman a strong potion, drinking and the woman falls into a deep sleep. When the woman wakes up, she realizes that she is in the netherworld and sees beings with no light in their eyes.

66) An alpine skier has a terrible fall from a mountain. A group of nomads see her and forcibly take her to an old temple. They slit her leg with a knife and perform a strange ritual.

67) The last living witch on earth brings a puppet to life. The puppet sucks out all the magic out of the witch and becomes stronger. It uses its power to block the sunlight and kills humans in the dark as a sport.

68) A researcher finds out about a rare tribe that can make themselves invisible and travel with lightning speed. While trying to find the tribe’s descendants, she suddenly is face to face with their guardian who tries to kill her.

69) You enter a house where a psychic man has been staying in secret. When you confront the man, he uses his mind power to enchant all metallic objects, make them airborne, and position them to attack you.

70) You come across a rare animal that can change its shape at will. To your horror, it suddenly changes its shape to look like you and tries to kill you.

71) A boy returns to his remote village after a long time and realizes that all villagers are hypnotized and have black marks on their hands.

72) A lady never invites guests to her house and rarely ventures out of her house. A detective realizes that the lady’s life is manipulated by a cat who is a witch in disguise. The detective must save himself and the lady from the wicked cat.

73) A man finds tapes that his girlfriend gave him before she died. He hears an eerie screeching sound in the background when he plays the tapes. To his horror, he hears the same screeching sound and scary footsteps after he stops playing the tapes.

74) A student finds a hit list of people who will soon be killed. The list was created by a demon in disguise. The demon kidnaps the student to prevent him from telling anyone the truth.

75) A girl hires a tutor to learn Japanese. One day, she realizes that her Japanese teacher transforms into a werewolf every full moon.

76) A journalist finds out about a mysterious spaceship that landed on earth. Suddenly, he has terrible accidents and an invisible force tries to kill him.

77) A 12-year-old child sees a mysterious violet light streak across the sky. Whenever the light shines, somebody dies.

78) An intruder touches an electric fence and is jolted by a strong current. Before his eyes close, he sees an ugly ghoul looking at him.

79) A historian finds out about a rare voodoo practitioner who is the last of an ancient, mystic tribe. He arrives at the voodoo practitioner’s hut only to find the place ransacked and the voodoo practitioner gone. He suddenly sees ghosts floating in the air and hears a grandfather clock laugh menacingly.

80) You meet a strange old man who can read your thoughts and easily manipulate everyone around you.

Now let’s see some scary story writing prompts about Halloween!

Halloween horror prompts

81) Vampires gatecrash a Halloween party and terrified guests are unable to escape.

82) A group of friends decided to have a scavenger hunt on Halloween. Suddenly, all the friends disappear one by one.

83) A giant wakes up from a deep sleep on Halloween and stamps his foot in rage. This leads to an earthquake and all guests at the Halloween party are in danger.

84) You realize that all the incidents you read from a scary Halloween story are happening in real life.

85) You hear an eerie tune on Halloween night and wake up in fright. Suddenly, you see the face of a big black bear outside your window.

86) You accept a dare to visit a haunted house on Halloween. Suddenly, you hear screams and utensils falling in the haunted house.

87) A family decides to punish their extremely naughty son and not celebrate Halloween. On Halloween night, the parents leave home due to an emergency, leaving their naughty son alone at home.

88) A group of friends decide to sleep at a graveyard for fun on Halloween. Suddenly, they see ghosts emerging from the tombstones.

89) A tailor who makes costumes for Halloween is kidnapped by witches who want to have their own Halloween party.

90) Write a short story on Halloween using the words phantom, nightmare, banshee, and voodoo.

91) A crazy scientist challenges a colleague on Halloween to drink a potion that he has created for an experiment. The colleague drinks the potion and starts shrinking.

92) A witch enchants the pumpkins that will be carved for Halloween. When guests try to carve the pumpkins, blood starts oozing from the pumpkins.

93) A boy befriends an alien who wants to celebrate Halloween. When the alien arrives at the Halloween horror costume party, it gets scared and starts attacking everyone.

94) A girl insults a tarot reader who makes a terrible prediction about her on Halloween. She continuously experiences bad luck, has an accident, and wakes up in the hospital. She realizes that she has forgotten her identity.

95) A man befriends a she-banshee on Halloween who grows extremely possessive about the man. Whenever anyone touches the man, the banshee kills him.

96) A serial killer enters a Halloween party and his next target is you.

97) A group of friends enter a horror maze to celebrate Halloween and are trapped inside the maze. Suddenly, they are confronted by a real ghost who grins wickedly at them.

98) A ghost in your house attracts the presence of animals on Halloween. All animals begin entering your house and you are forced to leave your house.

99) You are a part of a ghost-buster team. You are given the secret task of capturing a dangerous ghost from a Halloween party. The dangerous ghost recognizes you, tries to kill you, and gets very violent.

100) You meet a stranger at a costume party at a neighbor’s house for Halloween. Suddenly, the stranger touches you and whispers strange words in an unknown language. You are transported to an eerie land of spirits, ghouls, trolls, banshees, and zombies.

101) You are hiking with a group of friends on Halloween. You see a black castle floating in the air. A ladder on the ground is positioned, leading to the door of the castle. You and your friend climb the castle and the door slams shut. A wicked dwarf who is the castle’s caretaker tells you that you are trapped forever.

We hope these horror story prompts inspire you to write your next masterpiece. Once you complete working on your scary writing prompts, the next step is to edit your stories. As providers of editing and proofreading services , we’d love to enhance your horror novel!

Here are some other resources that you might find useful:

How to Write a Novel in Past Tense? 3 Steps & Examples
Foil Character: Definition, History, & Examples

Frequently Asked Questions

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115 Horror Writing Prompts To Inspire Your Spookiest Stories.

As with any genre, writing horror can be challenging. Readers expect a certain kind of frisson when they crack open a horror book, so coming up with ideas that are chilling and fresh can be tricky. This article contains 115 spooky and sinister writing prompts that you can use to inspire your next piece of horror fiction . They’re mostly left-field and weird, because the best way to come up with scary ideas is to think in an unconventional way.

These prompts are split into three sections: general, monster, and traditional. The general section will offer prompts related to the human condition in general and not any one specific trope or theme from horror fiction. The monster section will offer prompts related specifically to monsters as a whole rather than one type of monster like vampires or werewolves. Lastly, the traditional prompt will offer prompts related specifically to conventions from the traditional canon of horror literature .

A fortune teller reveals that you are evil.

A group of friends takes on the zombie apocalypse.

A scary doll comes to life.

A scene from a nightmare comes true the next day.

All the cats in a small town vanish in the middle of the night….and all that remains is a set of big, scary teeth smashed into a car door.

Days go by, and your parents don’t come home.

Every time you wake up, you’re a different person.

Everyone knows the new neighbors are vampires, and the kids invite you over for a sleepover.

Someone follows you home, and it’s your exact double.

Someone is living in your mirror.

Strange things start happening after the grandfather clock starts to speak.

The teacher is a monster, but no one will believe you.

When a local police officer goes to investigate the haunted house down the street, he finds a young girl who died decades ago.

While reading a scary book, you realize that you’re a character in it.

You feel yourself slowly becoming a monster.

You finally meet your child’s imaginary friend. Who turns out to be a serial killer.

You find a diary that tells the future.

You have no reflection in the mirror.

You hypnotize your brother, and you can’t snap him out of it.

You know someone is watching you day and night from the house across the street.

You realize you are shrinking.

You’re inhabited by a ghost that controls you and makes you do crazy things.

You’re lost in the woods, and you don’t know how you got there.

Your friends start to disappear, and no one else notices.

Your parents explain that you are actually an alien from another planet.

A 16-year-old girl wakes up on a stone-cold table surrounded with people in black and white masks. They are chant and start leaning forward. All of them carry carved knives.

A 30-year-old woman learns that a baby with the same name as her died at the local hospital 30 years ago.

A bachelor’s party ends with two dead people in the pool. Both of them are missing their eyes.

A beautiful, but superficial woman promises a demon to give him her virginity in exchange for immortality. Once the demon granted her wish, she refused to fulfill her end of the deal. The demon retaliated by making her immortal, but not eternally youthful.

A black horse carriage stops in front of your house. A hand wearing a black glove make an inviting gesture. Mesmerized, you decide to enter the carriage.

A boy has a very realistic dream about an impending doom, but nobody believes him until during a storm all the birds fall dead on the ground.

A boy hears screaming from his parents’ bedroom. He jumps and hides under his bed. Suddenly, everything becomes quiet. A man wearing army boots enters his room. He drags the boy from under the bed and says: “We’ve been searching for you for 200 years.”

A bride returns to the same bridge for 50 years waiting for her husband-to-be to get out of the water.

A bride-to-be receives a DVD via mail from an unknown sender. She plays the video and disgusted watches a pagan ritual. The people are wearing masks, but she recognizes the voice of her husband-to-be.

A cannibal hunts for pure children’s hearts hoping they will bring him eternal youth.

A chemistry teacher disfigures teenagers who remind him of his childhood bullies. One day, he learns that the new student in his school is the son of his childhood's archenemy.

A child makes her own Halloween mask. She glues a lock of her own hair on her mask. The mask comes to life and threatens to take over the girl’s body.

A delusional man brings his screaming children to a chasm.

A family is on a camping trip. The parents are walking with their two children, a daughter and a son. The little boy trips and falls into a dark river. His father jumps to rescue him. Somehow the boy manages to swim to the surface. The father is nowhere to be found. When the mother gets a hold of the boy, she can’t recognize him. She tries holding him, but the moment she touches his wet body, her hands start burning.

A family of four moves in an old Victorian home. As they restore it, more and more people die suddenly and violently.

A famous conductor imprisons a pianist from the orchestra and makes him play the piano while he tortures other victims, also musicians. Every time the pianist makes a mistake, the conductor cuts of a finger from his victims.

A frightened man is trying to lead a werewolf into a trap and kill him with the last silver bullet.

A genius scientist tries to extract his wife’s consciousness from her lifeless body and insert it into an imprisoned woman who looks just like his wife.

A girl starts digging tiny holes in her backyard. When her mother asks her what she is doing, the girl answers: “Mr. Phantom told me to bury my dolls tonight. Tomorrow night I am going to bury our dog. And then, you, mother.”

A girl wakes up in her dorm and sees that everybody sleepwalks in the same direction. She acts as if she has the same condition and follows them to an underground black pool where everybody jumps.

A group of 10 friends decide to rent an old English castle for the weekend. The ghosts are disturbed and seek their pound of flesh.

A group of extremists ambush the vehicle in which a head of a terrorist cell is transported and rescue him. They go after anybody who was involved in his incarceration.

A group of friends play truth or dare. Suddenly, all the lights go out and in those ten seconds of darkness, one of the group is killed.

A hitman is hired to kill a potential heart donor.

A house finds a way to kill every visitor on its premises.

A husband and his wife move to a new apartment. After a week, both of them kill themselves. They leave a note saying: “Never again.”

A husband and his wife regain consciousness only to see each other tied to chairs, facing each other. A voice on the radio tells them to kill the other, otherwise, they would kill their children.

A kidnapper makes his victims torture each other for his sheer pleasure.

A killer is willing to pay a large sum of money to the family of a volunteering victim. A cancer patient contacts the killer. The killer ends up dead.

A literature professor discovers an old manuscript in the college library. He opens it in his study and suddenly a black raven flies through the window.

A little girl’s sister lives with a monster in the closet. She exits the closet on her sister's birthday.

A magician needs a volunteer from the audience in order to demonstrate a trick involving sawing a person in half. A beautiful woman steps on the stage. The magician makes her fall asleep, and then he performs the trick. In the end, he disappears. People in the audience start panicking when they notice the blood dripping from the table. The magician is nowhere to be found. The woman is dead.

A man commits murders at night and relives the agony of his victims during the day.

A man encounters death on his way to work. He can ask three questions before he dies. He makes a quick decision.

A man hires unethical doctors to help him experience clinical death and then bring him back to life after a minute. Little does he know that one minute of death feels like an eternity full of horrors.

A man is attacked by the neighbor’s dog while trying to bury his wife alive.

A man is kidnapped from his apartment on midnight and brought on a large private estate. He is told that he will be a human pray and that ten hunters with guns will go after him. He is given a 5-minute head start.

A man is trying to open a time portal so that he could kill his parents before he is ever conceived.

A man opens his eyes in the middle of his autopsy while the coroner is holding his heart.

A man signs a document with his blood to relinquish his body to a sect.

A man turns himself to the police although he hasn’t broken the law. He begs them to put him in prison because he had a premonition that he would become a serial killer.

A man’s DNA was found on a horrible crime scene and he has been charged with murder in the first degree. He adamantly negates any involvement in the crime that has been committed. What he doesn’t know is that he had a twin brother who died at birth.

A man’s mind is locked into an immovable body. This person is being tortured by a psychopath who kills his family members in front of him, knowing that he is in agony and can’t do anything to save them.

A most prominent member of a sect goes to animal shelters to find food for the dark forces.

A mother discovers that her bright son is not human.

A mother goes in the nursery to check up on the baby and discovers that the baby is missing and, in her place, there is a baby doll.

A mother-to-be starts feeling severe pain in her stomach every time she touches a Bible. Despite the fear for her own life, she starts reading the New Testament out loud.

A mysterious altruist gives a kidney to a young man, who has potential to become a leading neuroscientist. After a year, the altruist kills the young man because he proves to be an unworthy organ recipient. The following year, the mysterious altruist is a bone marrow donor.

A mysterious bug creeps under people’s skins and turns them into the worst version of themselves.

A mysterious child psychiatrist promises parents to cure their children if they give him a vile of their blood.

A mysterious stranger with a glass eye and a cane commissions a portrait. When the portrait is finished, the painter turns into stone.

A mysterious woman moves into your apartment building. One by one, all of the tenants start hallucinating that monsters chase them and jump into their own deaths.

A nomad meets a fakir who tells him that he would bring agony to dozens of people unless he kills himself before he transforms into a monster.

A nuclear blast turns animals into blood-thirsty monsters.

A patient with a multiple-personality disorder tells you that you are one of six characters.

A philosopher is trying to outwit Death in order to be granted immortality. He doesn’t know that Death already knows the outcome of this conversation.

A photographer travels to an Indian reservation for his next project. He starts taking photos, but there are only shadows in the places where people should have been.

A politician hides his weird sister in the attic. She’s had her supernatural powers after their family home burned to the ground.

A popular French chef is invited by a mysterious Japanese sushi master for dinner. A powerful potion makes the French chef fall asleep. He wakes up horrified to learn that he is kept on a human farm, in a cage.

A priest is trying to punish God for the death of his sister. He is getting ready to burn down the church, when supernatural forces start to torture him.

A psychopath is drugging his wife, pushing her to commit a suicide so that he could collect the life insurance.

A renowned book editor receives a manuscript elegantly written by hand. The title grabs her attention and she continues reading page after page. When she finishes, the manuscript spontaneously starts burning, and the editor is cursed forever.

A severed head is hanging from a bridge with a message written in the victim’s blood.

A small-town cop becomes obsessed with a cold case from 1978. Three girls went missing after school, and nobody has seen them since. Then one day, in 2008, three girls with the same names as those in 1978 go missing. The case is reopened.

A strange religious group starts performing a ritual on a playground. The children’s hearts stop beating.

A strange woman in labor is admitted in the local hospital. Nobody seems to recognize her. She screams in agony. A black smoke fills in the entire hospital. After that, nobody is the same. A dark lord is born.

A tall, dark, and handsome stranger invites a blind woman for a romantic date in his botanical garden. The garden is full of black roses in which women’s souls have been trapped. He tells her that she will stay forever with him in his garden.

A teenager is determined to escape his kidnapper by manipulating him into drinking poison. He doesn’t stop there.

A ticking noise wakes her up. It’s a bomb, and she has only four minutes to do something about it.

A vampire donates his blood so that a child with special brain powers can receive it.

A vampire prefers albino children.

A voice in your head tells you to stop listening to the other voices. They were not real.

A voice starts chanting spells every time somebody wears the gold necklace from Damask.

A woman disappears from her home without a trace. He husband reports her missing. The police start to suspect the husband when they retrieve some deleted messages.

A woman discovers that her niece has done some horrible crimes, so she decides to poison her. Both of them take the poison, but only the aunt dies.

A woman enters a sacred cave in India and disappears for good.

A woman gets trapped in a parallel universe where every day she dies horribly in different ways.

A woman is admitted to a hospital after a car crash. She wakes up after three months in a coma, but when she tries to speak, she can’t utter a sound. When the nurse sees that she is awake, she calls a doctor. The last thing the woman remembers is hearing the doctor say: “Today is your lucky day,” right before four men in black robes take her out.

A woman loses her eyesight overnight. Instead, she starts having premonitions.

A woman puts a lipstick on in the bathroom when she hears a demonic voice saying to her: “Can’t you see?”

A woman starts watching a movie late at night. The movie seems all too familiar. Finally, she realizes that it is a movie about her own life and that she might be already dead.

A woman steps out of her house only to find four of her neighbors dead at her doorstep. Little does she know that she isn't supposed to call the police.

A woman wants to quit smoking, so she visits a therapist who is supposed to help her with the use of hypnosis. She goes under and when she wakes up, she feels like a born killer.

A woman who has just given birth at her home is told that the baby is predestined to become the leader of the greatest demonic order in the country.

A world-famous violinist virtuoso uses music to summon dark forces.

A young girl finds her grandmother’s gold in a chest in the attic, although she isn’t allowed to go there by herself. She touches the gold and she starts seeing horrible visions involving her grandmother when she was younger.

A young girl goes missing in a nearby forest. The whole town is searching for her. Her parents find her sitting and smiling in a cave. Her eyes are completely white.

A young man becomes obsessed with an old man living opposite his building. The young man is convinced that the old man is the embodiment of the devil, and starts planning the murder.

A young married couple decide to renovate an abandoned psychiatric hospital and turn it into a hotel. Everything is going well until their first guest arrives.

A young woman wearing a black dress is holding a knife in her hand and threatening to kill a frightened man. She is terrified because she does not want to kill anybody, but her body refuses to obey her mind.

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101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts

Welcome to the story den of horror, scares, and the macabre.

Most writers are often asked, "Where do you get your ideas from?" A majority of the time, writers find it difficult to answer that question.

We get our ideas from a plethora of sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn't fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived and terrifying story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next horror story.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing or what you will create in your upcoming projects.

But beware! If you scare easily — and have active imaginations like most writers do — turn up the lights and proceed with caution...

1. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. They soon learn that the doll is actually their daughter. And she's alive.

2. New residents of an old neighborhood are invited by their friendly neighbors to a Halloween party. The neighbors are vampires.

3. A family dog runs away from home. He returns a year later to the delight of his family. But there's something different about him. Something demonic.

4. A girl goes missing. Fifteen years later, her parents get a call from her older self. But they listen in fear because they killed their daughter that dark night years ago.

5. A man reads a novel, soon realizing that the story is his very own — and according to the book, a killer is looming.

6. A scientist clones his family that died in an airplane crash — but soon learns the repercussions of playing God.

7. A man wakes up bound to an electric chair.

8. A man wakes up in a coffin next to a freshly dead body.

9. A woman wakes up to find her family gone and her doors and windows boarded up with no way to escape.

10. A man afraid of snakes is shipwrecked on an island covered with them.

11. Serial killers worldwide are connected by a dark web website.

12. The world's population is overtaken by vampires — all except one little child.

13. A woman afraid of clowns is forced to work in a traveling circus.

14. An astronaut and cosmonaut are on the International Space Station when their countries go to Nuclear War with each other. Their last orders are to eliminate the other.

15. A treasure hunter finds a tomb buried beneath the dirt.

16. A young brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn't there before.

17. Winged creatures can be seen within the storm clouds above.

18. A man wakes up to find a hobo clown staring down at him.

19. Residents of a town suddenly fall dead while the dead from cemeteries around them rise.

20. A doctor performs the first head transplant — things go wrong.

21. A man is texted pictures of himself in various stages of torture that he has no memory of.

22. A girl wakes up to find a little boy sitting on his bed, claiming to be her younger brother — but she never had one.

23. A scare walk in the woods during Halloween is actually real.

24. A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron, who is the Devil himself.

25. Earth suffers a planet-wide blackout as all technology is lost.

26. A boy's stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf.

27. Something has turned the neighborhood pets into demonic killers.

28. A priest is a vampire.

29. A woman wakes up with no eyes.

30. A man wakes up with no mouth.

31. A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives above his bed.

32. An astronaut jettisoned into the cold of space in a mission gone wrong suddenly appears at the doorstep of his family.

33. A woman answers a phone call only to learn that the voice on the other end is her future self, warning her that a killer is looming.

34. A boy realizes that aliens have replaced his family.

35. A woman wakes up in an abandoned prison that she cannot escape.

36. A bank robber steals from the small town bank that holds the riches of witches.

37. A door-to-door salesman circa the 1950s visits the wrong house.

38. Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

39. Kidnappers abduct the child of a vampire.

40. An innocent circus clown discovers the dark history of the trade.

41. A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

42. A spelunker stumbles upon a series of caverns infested with rattlesnakes.

43. A group of friends is forced to venture through a chamber of horrors where only one is promised to survive.

44. He's not the man she thought he was. In fact, he's not a man at all.

45. Suburbia is actually purgatory.

46. Someone discovers that we are all actually robots — who created us and why?

47. She's not an angel. She's a demon.

48. An old shipwreck washes ashore.

49. A sinkhole swallows a house whole and unleashes something from beneath.

50. A man has sleep paralysis at the worst possible time.

51. A woman out hiking is caught in a bear trap as the sun begins to go down.

52. Naked figures with no faces stalk campers in the woods.

53. An astronaut is the sole survivor of a moon landing gone wrong — only to discover that the moon is infested with strange creatures.

54. A woman is wrongfully condemned to an insane asylum.

55. A mother's baby will not leave its womb and continues to grow and grow and grow while doctors try to cut it out but can't.

56. Friends on a road trip stumble upon a backcountry town whose residents all dress up as different types of clowns.

57. Tourists in Ireland retreat to an old castle when the country is taken over by greedy and vengeful leprechauns.

58. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive.

59. A figure dressed in an old, dirty Easter Bunny suit haunts the children of a town.

60. The abused animals of a zoo are unleashed and wreak havoc on a small town.

61. A deceased grandma's old doll collection comes alive.

62. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire.

63. Somebody clones Hitler and raises him as a white supremacist.

64. A pumpkin patch comes alive — beings with heads of pumpkins and bodies of vines.

65. An endless swarm of killer bees wreaks havoc on the country.

66. Christ returns to Earth — at least that is who people thought he was.

67. A natural anomaly brings all of the country's spiders to a horrified town.

68. A woman finds old 16mm film from her childhood and sees that she had a sister — what happened to her?

69. Something ancient rises from an old pond.

70. A woman suddenly begins to wake up in somebody else's body every morning — each day ends with her being stocked and killed by the same murderer in black.

71. An Artificial Intelligence begins to communicate with a family online, only to terrorize them through their technology.

72. A family buys a cheap house only to discover that an old cemetery is their back yard.

73. Years after the zombie apocalypse subsides, survivors discover that the epidemic was caused by aliens that have appeared to lay claim to the planet.

74. A woman has memories of being abducted by aliens — but she soon learns that they weren't aliens. They were...

75. A boy has a tumor that slowly grows into a Siamese twin — the older they get, the more evil the twin becomes.

76. A cult that worships history's deadliest serial killers begins to kill by copying their methods.

77. Stone gargoyles suddenly appear on the tops of buildings and houses of a small town.

78. A family on a boat trip stumbles upon an old pirate ship.

79. A winter snowstorm traps a family in an abandoned insane asylum.

80. A little girl comes down from upstairs and asks her parents, "Can you hear it breathing? I can."

81. A town is enveloped in unexplained darkness for weeks.

82. A jetliner flies high in the sky as Nuclear War breaks out below.

83. Children discover a deep, dark well in the woods — an old ladder leads down into it.

84. A child sleepwalks into their parent's room and whispers, "I'm sorry. The Devil told me to."

85. As a woman showers, a voice comes from the drain whispering, "I see you."

86. A child finds a crayon drawing of a strange family — it's inscribed with the words we live in your walls .

87. All of the cemetery's graves are now open, gaping holes — the dirt pushed out from underground.

88. A woman is watching a scary movie alone on Halloween night — someone, or something, keeps knocking at her door.

89. Someone is taking a bath as a hand from behind the shower curtain pushes their head into the water.

90. A farmer and his sons begin to hear the laughter of children coming from his fields at night — no children are in sight.

91. Someone looks out their window to see a clown standing at a corner holding a balloon — staring at them.

92. Mannequins in a department store seem to be moving on their own.

93. What if the God people worshiped was really Satan — and Satan had somehow kept God prisoner?

94. A man dies and wakes up in the body of a serial killer — and no matter how hard he tries to stop killing, he can't.

95. A prisoner awakens to find the prison empty — but he's locked in his cell.

96. A woman jogging stumbles upon a dead, bloody body — she then hears a strange clicking sound and looks up to see a dark figure running towards her.

97. A girl hears laughter downstairs — she's the only one home.

98. An Uber driver picks up the wrong person — and may not live to tell the tale.

99. There's someone or something living and moving up in the attic — but it's not a ghost.

100. A child's imaginary friend is not imaginary.

101. The reflections that we see of ourselves in the mirror are actually us in a parallel universe — and they are planning to do whatever it takes to take our place in this world.

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good scary story.

For some more scares, check out ScreenCraft's 20 Terrifying Two-Sentence Horror Stories and 8 Ways Horror Movies Scare the S*** Out of Audiences!

Sleep well and keep writing.

Once you're inspired, take your idea to the next level and Develop Your Horror Movie Idea in 15 Days .

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies

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Strange is the new normal, how to write creepy scenes to make your readers squirm.

Most writers who delve into horror hit the prose with a bag of clichés and heavy handed stage props—swirling fog, glowing eyes, wicked laughs. Don’t get me wrong, camp can be great (if it’s intentional). However, a more subtle approach can work wonders.

Add Details One by One

Use disturbing details or reversals when describing your scenes. Each one, taken by itself, does little, but in combination, they imbue the reader with unease. Consider Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol. Here an unnamed narrator just inhabited a weather station on a deserted island.

Just then, I heard a pleasing sound far off. It was more or less like a heard of goats trotting in the distance. At first, I confused it with the pattering of rain; the sound of heavy and distinct drops. I got up and looked out of the closest window. It wasn’t raining. The full moon stained the ocean’s surface in a violet hue. The light bathed the driftwood lying on the beach. It was easy to imagine them as body parts, dismembered and immobile. The whole thing brought to mind a petrified forest. But it wasn’t raining.

Reversal : The narrator thinks it’s raining, but then there’s no rain. We wonder what’s creating that pattering sound, and the not knowing makes us uneasy.

Disturbing details : The water is stained violet, a bloodlike color. This idea is cemented in the reader’s skull with the driftwood, described as dismembered limbs.

Let the Character Freak Out

Nothing creeps out a reader faster than letting the protagonist freak out. Ever wonder why there are so many screams in horror movies? It’s the same thing. As an author, you must find the written equivalent to the scream.

In Bag of Bones by Stephen King, the protagonist, Mike Noonan, begins to believe that his house is haunted. He’s in the basement and hears the sound of someone striking the insulation, but no one else is home.

…every gut and muscle of my body seemed to come unwound. My hair stood up. My eyesockets seemed to be expanding and my eyeballs contracting, as if my head were trying to turn into a skull. Every inch of my skin broke out in gooseflesh. Something was in here with me. Very likely something dead.

King lays it on thick here. Instead of one physical reaction, he dumps the whole bucket on us. He doesn’t dazzle us with a etherial decaying corpse. We won’t even see the ghost till the final chapters. No. He tells us how Noonan feels just in the presence of the thing and that’s what creeps us out.

Another example of the character freaking out can be seen in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House .

Now we are going to have a new noise, Eleanor thought, listening to the inside of her head; it is changing. The pounding had stopped, as though it had proved ineffectual, and there was now a swift movement up and down the hall, as of an animal pacing back and forth with unbelievable impatience, watching first one door and then another, alert for a movement inside, and there was again the little babbling murmur which Eleanor remembered; Am I doing it? she wondered quickly, is that me? And heard the tiny laughter beyond the door, mocking her.

Here the character doubts herself and what she sees. This is essential to any horror story. When weird things happen, the character mysteries react accordingly. The stranger the situation, the stronger the reaction. And most of us would doubt our sanity in creepy situations.

Let The Reader Do the Imagining

Why should you, the author, do all the heavy lifting. Your reader’s imagination will often fill in the blanks for you. Take this example from Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon .

As she reached the driver’s door of the cab, which hung open with vines twisting in and out of its socket of a window, lightning flashed again, painting the whole world purple. In its glare Trisha saw something with slumped shoulders standing on the far side of the road, something with black eyes and great cocked ears like horns. Perhaps they were horns. It wasn’t human; nor did she think it was animal. It was a god. It was her god, the wasp-god, standing there in the rain.

Notice that the monster is only vaguely described. It’s called “something” twice. This lets the reader fill in the blanks. There is enough description that we at least know it’s a big hulking creature. This is the literary equivalent of when Ridley Scott only showed glimpses of the alien in Alien .

Use Strong Verbs

Finally, strong verbs will help any writer to shine, but they can also allow one character to shine over another. Take this excerpt from William Blatty’s The Exorcist .

Regan’s eyes gleamed fiercely, unblinking, as a yellowish saliva dribbled down from a corner of her mouth to her chin, to her lips stretch taut into a feral grin of bow-mouthed mockery.

“Well, well, well,” she gloated sardonically and hairs prickled up on the back of Karras’s neck at a voice that was deep and thick with menace and power. “So, it’s you … they sent you !” she continued as if pleased. “Well, we’ve nothing to fear from you at all.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Karras answered; “I’m your friend and I’d like to help you.”

“You might loosen these straps, then,” Regan croaked. She had tugged up her wrists so that now Karras noticed they were bound with a double set of leather restraining straps.

“Are the straps uncomfortable for you?”

“Extremely. They’re a nuisance. An infernal nuisance.”

The eyes glinted slyly with secret amusement.

Karras saw the scratch marks on Regan’s face; the cuts on her lips where apparently she’d bitten them. “I’m afraid you might hurt yourself, Regan,” he told her.

“I’m not Regan,” she rumbled, still with that taut and hideous grin that Karras now guessed was her permanent expression. How incongruous the braces on her teeth looked, he thought. “Oh, I see,” he said, nodding. “Well, then, maybe we should introduce ourselves. I’m Damien Karras. Who are you?”

“I’m the devil!”

Notice the verbs that Blatty uses with Reagan — gleamed, dribbled, gloated, croaked, rumbled. In contrast, the more calm individual in the scene, Karras, responds with simple verbs like “answered” and “saw”. The contrast allows the reader to see Reagan as disturbing.

If you want to make your readers squirm, reading only in daylight hours, shy away from the obvious gore and claptrap. Rather, take the quieter road of tiny disturbing details built up over pages and chapters. Show how your character reacts to what’s happening, and the reader will feel it too.

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Master List of Ways to Describe Fear

People have been asking me for this list for such a long time! If you write horror, suspense, mystery, or any kind of fiction with a scary scenes, you need to know how to describe fear.

This list can get you started. It’s a lot of phrases describing fear, including physical reactions, physical sensations, facial expressions, and other words you can use in your novel or in other creative writing.

I’ve included some that can work for uneasiness or anxiety, but most of these are for real terror. You can alter them to fit your sentence or your story, and they’ll likely inspire you to come up with your own descriptions.

Bookmark or pin this page for your reference—it might save you a lot of time in the future. I’ll probably add to it now and again!

Master List of Ways to Describe Fear #master lists for writers free ebook #master lists for writers free pdf #master lists for writers free kindle #describing fear in a story #description of fear #great fear #how to describe fear #words describing fear

fear paralyzed him

his terror mounted with every step

she fought a rising panic

fear tormented her

her heart was uneasy

her heart leaped into her throat

his heart hammered in his chest

his heart pounded

terror stabbed his heart

his heart jumped

her heart lurched

a fear that almost unmanned him

his body shook with fear

she trembled inside

he suppressed a shiver

panic surged through him

her fear spiked

he was in a complete state of panic

she could feel nothing but blind terror

his legs were wobbly with fear

she sweated with fear

his hands were cold and clammy

she was weighed down by dread

dread twisted in her gut

his stomach clenched

fear fluttered in her stomach

her belly cramped

he felt like he might throw up

she was sick with fear

she was frightened down to the soles of her shoes

he was icy with panic

her body went cold with dread

raw panic was in her voice

her voice was thick with fear

his voice was edged with fear

terror thundered down on him

fear caught her in its jaws

fear clawed up her throat

terror sealed her throat

fear gripped her throat

his throat tightened

then she knew real terror was

he was frantic with fear

she was half mad with terror

the color drained from her face

his face was ashen

she blanched

dread gnawed at his insides

dread had been growing in him all day

fresh terror reared up within her

fear choked him

terror stole her words

he was mute with horror

her voice was numb with shock

his voice was shrill with terror

her defiant words masked her fear

her body felt numb

his blood froze in his veins

terror coursed through her veins

fear throbbed inside her

his panic fueled him

adrenaline pumped through his body

adrenaline crashed through her

fear pulsed through him

her scalp prickled

the hairs on the back of her neck stood up

his mouth went dry

his bones turned to jelly

her bones turned to water

she froze with horror

he didn’t dare to move

terror struck her

he was too frightened to lift her head

she was too frightened to scream

his mouth was open in a silent scream

he cringed with fear

she cowered

he shrank back in fear

she flinched

a bolt of panic hit her

terror streaked through him

her terror swelled

his panic increased

anxiety eclipsed his thoughts

panic flared in her eyes

his eyes were wild with terror

her eyes darted from left to right

she feared to close her eyes

he lay awake in a haze of fear

she walked on in a fog of fear

his eyes widened with alarm

she tried to hide her fear

he struggled to conceal his shock

fear crept up her spine

fear trickled down her spine

panic seized his brain

she felt a flash of terror

fear took hold of him

fear flooded through her being

she ordered a drink to drown the panic

he arranged and re-arranged the items on his desk

a nameless dread engulfed him

Master List of Ways to Describe Fear #describing fear in a story #description of fear #great fear #how to describe fear #words describing fear

I bet you came up with other ideas as you were reading!

For more writing lists, check out my book Master Lists for Writers , if you don’t have it yet! A lot of writers use it to make writing go faster, especially when it comes to descriptions.

And if you’re not following the blog already, sign up below—I share lots of writing resources. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

50 Spooky Writing Prompts and Horror Story Ideas #horror writing ideas #horror writing prompts #scary story prompts #Halloween writing prompts #dark fantasy story ideas #suspense story plots

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How to Write Scary Ghost Stories that Terrify Your Readers

by James Colton

https://www.jamescolton.com/articles/how-to-write-ghost-stories/

Published on January 29, 2012 in :

Last Updated on October 12, 2022

Fear is one of the hardest reactions to provoke in writing. Just flip through the pages of any ghost story anthology; how many of them are genuinely scary ? It takes more than tortured groans, rattling chains, and a splattering of gore; anyone can do that . But the art of raising goose bumps? That is an elusive art indeed. If you can write a scary ghost story, you can write anything. Are you ready to inspire nightmares? Then follow me…

Fear of the Unknown

People don’t fear death. No one’s afraid of ghosts. Monsters, murderers, darkness—none of the horror staples are really terrifying. If you rely on your audience being scared simply because your story includes any of the above, you’re doomed to fail. Instead, you must understand where terror truly lies.

Everyone fears the unknown.

People don’t know what comes after death, so they get scared. They don’t know what’s making that noise in the other room, so they call it a ghost and get scared. Darkness could be hiding anything—what exactly, we don’t know—so we get scared.

We fear what we can’t understand. That’s why a touch on your shoulder when you’re all alone is so frightening: it should be impossible. The best ghost stories take full advantage of this. You won’t see the ghost; you’ll only hear it, smell it, feel it. A ghost is like the wind; you see a curtain flutter, and the question remains in your mind, what is it?

When writing your ghost story, don’t be afraid of withholding information. Your readers, by the very act of reading, have activated their imaginations. Use this against them! Don’t bog them down with long descriptions of a gruesome specter; instead, use simple words to sketch a vague impression. Your readers will imagine the rest, filling in the gaps with whatever scares them most.

Another way you can introduce an element of the unknown is to limit how often you use trope words. If you’re constantly mentioning ghosts or vampires, then the reader knows exactly what they’re up against. By not attaching a label to your entity, you produce doubt. Doubt makes people uncomfortable, which makes them easier to scare.

Examples of the Unknown

Something is not right.

Why is it that one smile can put you at ease, while another makes you want to get out of the room as quickly as possible? Does it reveal just a few too many teeth? Are the eyes above it just a little bit soulless? Is the accompanying laughter a tad too enthusiastic?

We may not be able to tell what , but something is…off. Something friendly has been distorted. You were climbing a familiar staircase, and the last step was missing. You were listening to a pleasant tune, but that one note—was it off-key? What’s wrong with this picture?

This is a natural extension of our fear of the unknown. A defense mechanism. It tips us off that someone around us bears a sickness that we don’t want to catch, that someone is pretending to be something they’re not. In the realm of robotics and computer graphics, it is called the uncanny valley . When something comes so close to being real, but falls short in some subtle way. This is why mannequins, dolls, and clowns are common phobias.

So how can you leverage this in your ghost story? There’s the obvious: characters with slightly deformed features or unnatural movements. Houses with strange angles. Unexpected behavior works as well.

Then there’s the more subtle: mentioning a detail that would be innocuous anywhere else, but in this particular scenario is out of place. There’s nothing quite like a child’s laughter—especially coming from your basement at 3 in the morning. Is it really a child? Or something like a child?

You can also work it into your writing style. Phrase something in an odd way. Intentionally break the rules of grammar. Just don’t overdo it, or you’ll come across as illiterate instead of terrifying.

Examples of the Uncanny

Sinister whispers.

What are the most iconic ghosts you can think of? How are they described? I’ll bet the words that just drifted through your mind weren’t college-level terms like ectoplasmic , ominous , or stygian . Rather, you probably imagined something white, something tall, a shadow.

You reached for simple terms that your brain could instantly understand.

Amateur writers often gravitate toward heavy descriptions. This is likely the result of high-school English teachers encouraging them to be more creative and expand their vocabulary. But let me remind you of a very important fact: you aren’t writing a ghost story to impress your high-school English teacher. You’re not trying to prove how clever you are.

You’re trying to scare people.

At best, advanced or overly descriptive words are harder to process. At worst, they lead to overwriting and the dreaded pit of silliness.

Simple words, on the other hand, are subtle. They conjure clear sensations in our minds, sensations that we didn’t expect. If you’ve set up your scene properly, everyday words that are innocent by themselves will take on new, sinister meanings.

If you have trouble with this, Lean on the basic structure of the English sentence: subject, verb, object.

He opened the door. The room was dark. He stepped inside. Something dripped on his shoulder. He looked up.

If you need something more, pick a single adjective and apply it to either the subject or the object. Don’t apply anything to the verb; it should stand on its own. If it doesn’t, you either used the wrong verb, or the preceding sentences didn’t set up the right context.

Examples of Subtlety

Do you feel afraid.

Emotion is vital in any form of literature, but especially ghost stories. Remember, the end goal is to make your reader feel what the protagonist is feeling: pure, unbridled terror.

Simply telling the reader that your character is scared isn’t enough. You’ve heard the adage “show, don’t tell.” When writing about emotions, try forbidding yourself from using words like:

Scared/Scary
Horror/Horrified
Terror/Terrified

Instead, show the character’s fear by writing what their body is doing. Write exactly what they’re hearing or smelling, even if it’s only in their head.

But the protagonist is only half of the emotional equation. The other half is the ghost. The scariest ghosts always project some kid of emotion. It doesn’t matter what that emotion is as long as it’s dangerous:

Frustration

A dangerous emotion doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative one. It could be a positive thing taken in a bad direction. Dysfunctional love, overzealous affection—as long as the ghost’s emotions project some kind of threat, you have the makings a terrifying specter.

Fear isn’t the only emotion you can use when writing a ghost story. Try enhancing the terror with sadness, depression, or anger. Positive emotions can have a tremendous impact as well. Offer a glimmer of hope, then replace it with something awful. The contrast can be unnerving.

Examples of Emotion

A dreadful descent.

Fear must be built up gradually. Think of it like you’re taking the reader on a journey from the safety of their world to the nightmare of yours. Like any journey, it’s a transition from point A to point B. If you skip that transition by presenting your scariest scene right up front, it won’t have any effect. The audience is still comfortably seated at point A: a soft armchair by a warm fire.

That’s not to say you can never start with a spooky scene—in fact, it’s a good way to catch the audience’s interest and entice them to keep reading. Just make sure you save the best for last. Wait until the reader has gotten out of their comfy chair; wait until they’re curled up in the cold, damp corner of the basement. Once a reader is primed, they’re much easier to scare.

This priming process is called foreboding . It’s similar to the more common literary device of foreshadowing, but with an emphasis on the ominous. It helps your reader suspend their disbelief and gradually draws them into your nightmare world.

Start small. In a ghost story, this is the quiet noise, unexpected but not altogether unusual, that the protagonist dismisses, attributing it to natural causes.

Then go a little bit bigger. A more demanding noise that piques the protagonist’s curiosity. Perhaps they investigate, but once more can only shrug their shoulders and move on with life.

Then one night the noise becomes a knocking. Maybe someone is at the front door? But the protagonist looks and no one is there. Now they’re nervous, and maybe the reader is too.

The next night, however, the knocking comes not from the distant front door, but the protagonist’s own bedroom door.

And the wood begins to splinter.

Examples of Foreboding

The end…or is it.

If you want to make your ghost story truly memorable, it needs a killer ending. You want your reader to keep thinking about the story long after they’ve finished it—after the lights are out, when they’re trying to sleep.

The key is to put your scariest scene last. Your scariest scene isn’t necessarily the one in which your character’s life is in the most danger. This is the horror genre, after all; death is expected. Rather, your scariest scene is the one in which your character’s identity , sanity , or relationships are in the most danger.

This may mean leaving the reader with a disturbing question or a terrifying revelation. These reveals will threaten the character’s understanding of the world and trigger the darkest aspects of your reader’s imagination.

Putting your scariest scene last might require a non-linear narration. If your scariest scene takes place three quarters of the way through your story, write around it, then use a flashback at the end to explore the scene in greater detail.

If you’re having trouble coming up with an impactful twist for your ending, try asking yourself these questions:

What single fact would make this good situation bad, or this bad situation worse?
What detail would alter the character’s understanding of the situation in a terrifying way?
How can the situation force the character into a choice?
How can that choice be bad no matter what the character chooses?

Regardless of how you end your ghost story, be careful not to overextend the ending. After the big reveal, it may be tempting to offer further explanation, but this can dampen the effect. Don’t be afraid to leave some things up to the reader’s imagination. Leave some questions unanswered, some conflicts unresolved. This produces doubt in the reader and forces them to think about your story late into the night.

Examples of Endings

Writing a good ghost story is hard, but when your readers say they can no longer walk down dark hallways and complain of trouble sleeping, that feeling is totally worth it!

To sum up, here are the main things to keep in mind when writing a ghost story:

Use the unknown to turn your readers’ imagination against them
Exploit the uncanny valley to make your readers uncomfortable
Write simple language to paint a sinister picture
Create empathy to manipulate your readers’ emotions
Build the fear gradually before springing your scariest scene

Finally, the most important advice I can give you is this: read . Immerse yourself in the genre, and you’ll find you naturally improve. A good place to start would be my own library of horror stories .

Home — Essay Samples — Geography & Travel — Haunted House — My Own Experience in a Haunted House

My Own Experience in a Haunted House

Categories: Haunted House Personal Experience

About this sample

Words: 686 |

Updated: 6 December, 2023

Words: 686 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Works Cited

Bader, C. (2014). Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. NYU Press.
Dickey, C. (2016). Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places. Penguin Books.
Hargrove, R. (2013). The Haunted House: A True Ghost Story. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Holzer, H. (2017). Ghosts: True Encounters from the World Beyond. Black Dog & Leventhal.
Klinger, L. (2014). The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft. Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Michell, J., & Rickard, R. (Eds.). (2016). Paranormality: Why We Believe the Impossible. Overlook Press.
Radford, B., & Nickell, J. (2012). The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead. Prometheus Books.
Randles, J., & Hough, P. (2016). The Paranormal, the new guide to understanding and working with the unexplained. Watkins Media Limited.
Tucker, E. (2016). Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses. University Press of Mississippi.
Underwood, P. (2013). Haunted London. Amberley Publishing.

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My Own Experience in a Haunted House Essay

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110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)

Give yourself the chills with this list of over 110 horror writing prompts. From scary ghost stories to creepy stories about animals and monsters. Now is the time to write your own horror story , just like Goosebumps or The Haunting of Aveline Jones.

From the gory to the scary, from the monstrous to the supernatural, from the humorous to the wacky, we have it all! Use this horror writing prompts generator to get a random horror writing idea to write about:

Keep on reading for a list of horror story prompts.

Most horror stories are based on one thing, fear. And it’s always a good idea to have a bit of that in your own life. Fear makes us all think differently, it makes us do things we wouldn’t normally do. And it’s the same thing that makes horror stories so scary. It’s a good idea to think of something that scares you, and then write about it. As a starting point, we have provided you with this list of horror prompts. For some of these gory ideas, we have included a twist, while for others it’s up to you how the story goes! Feel free to use any of these prompts in your writing, and to expand on any of the ideas.

List of Horror Writing Prompts

This list of horror writing prompts will you give you the well-needed inspiration for a good horror story:

The Haunting Hospital: A small girl named Julie is walking down a country road when she finds a cemetery and realises it is her home town. She goes to her house and finds that it has been turned into a hospital. She finds her father and her mother there. Her father tells her that she is now a part of the hospital and that she must work to be paid. Julie and her mother go to work as nurses.
Chasing Shadows: A girl named Becky is walking in her neighbourhood when she sees a little boy playing in the street. Becky runs over to him and asks him what he is doing. He tells her that he is a little monster and that he will kill her if she does not leave him alone. Becky takes off running and the little monster chases her.
Park of Peril: A little girl named Melissa is walking through the park when she finds a little boy who tells her that he will eat her if she does not take him home. Melissa takes off running and the little boy chases her.
Claws of the Night: This one involves a kid named Angela. One night she goes to sleep and when she wakes up the next morning her hands have turned into the claws of a cat.
The Poisoned Harvest: A boy named Billy is walking down the street one day when he sees a homeless man. He notices some fruit by the man. When the homeless man is not looking, Billy steals the fruit. Later on, he goes home and eats this piece of fruit. The fruit is poisoned, and Billy goes blind.
Carnivorous Confrontation: A story of a kid who loves to eat the flesh of dead animals, but one day a man appears and tells him not to eat them.
Invisible Menace: Write a story about a young boy who is terrorized by an invisible monster.
Nightmare Room: The invisible monster is eating kids and it is in their room all the time.
Enchanted Chaos: A handsome prince on a quest to learn magic wants to marry the beautiful princess, but the kingdom is being attacked by demons, ghosts, and…his dad.
Insanity’s Feast: The whole little town goes insane. They start killing people with their mouths. They kill them in the most gruesome way.
Shuttered Nightmares: A serial killer is taking photos of their victims. He is telling them how he is going to kill them. And then he starts his killing.
Witch’s Chains: Two kids named ‘Bud’ and ‘Chip’ got separated from their parents. They live next door to a witch and are unable to leave the house. One day, the witch makes their parents get into a container, and leaves them in the backyard, chained to a tree.
Enchanted Camp: A summer camp where a powerful wizard casts a spell on the children to make them do his bidding.
The Weeping Specter: A ghost that follows you around and cries on your shoulder and if you get sad it gets angry and turns into a ghostly voice that spooks people.
Haunted Truths: The lead character is haunted by a ghost who knows the truth about their past.
Distrustful Shadows: A girl named Dana, who works at a daycare centre, doesn’t trust anybody. This causes her to make sure she does everything she can to stop any other person from ever entering her place.
Realm of Nightmares: One day, the princess wakes up in a terrible nightmare. She is being chased by something, she cannot see what it is. And then she hears the voice of her mother, telling her to run away. She goes to her room and sees that the covers on her bed are in a shape that reminds her of the monster she just saw. She knows she cannot sleep in this place. She goes to the other side of her room and sees a window. She goes to the window and finds that it is an opening to a new world…
Witch’s Wrath: A girl named Misty lives with her parents and their next-door neighbour who is an evil witch. One day her father and the witch get into a fight and the witch accidentally kills him.
Brief Awakening: A boy named Sam is suffering from a terrible disease and he only has days to live. He’s in a coma, and he’s not responding to any medical treatments. Until one night he starts to experience some new changes…
Vengeful Wishes: A little girl named Mina finds a genie. The genie grants her 3 wishes. Because Mina has been a victim of bullying, she uses all her wishes to punish her bullies with ghoulish consequences.
Jar of Horrors: One day, a boy named Marcus went out to take a walk, and he found a jar that he thought was full of gold. Marcus had also found a bag that was heavier than he could lift, but he drags it home anyway. When he opens to bag he discovers something disgusting…
Game Over: A creepy character named Nemesis is trying to kill Luke, who plays video games and lives in his basement. At night, Luke hears voices telling him to hide. He goes to the basement and a creature knocks him out. He ends up as a character in his gruesome game.
Bracelet of Resurrection: A boy named Josh loses his best friend to a freak accident. He finds the other half of a bracelet he gave his friend that day. He hangs on to it until one night the bracelet brings his best friend back to life.
The Ghost Writer: Write a story titled, The Ghost Writer. Write about the ghost of someone who haunts you.
Eternal Specter: Write a scary ghost story about a man who is cursed to spend eternity as a ghost.
Hidden World: A boy named Brody is having problems adjusting to life in his new home after his parents divorced. He tries to see his dad, but they don’t want him around. One day he discovers a secret passage to a hidden underground world where his father now lives.
Stuttering Shadows: A story about a young man named Kenny, who works as a garbage man. He also has a terrible stuttering problem that he has to deal with. One day he discovers that his stuttering is getting worse and worse and he becomes scared to death because of it. He thinks that the talking squirrel next to him is a demon.
Haunted Corner: Write a story about an object in your room that becomes haunted.
Ghostly Deception: A boy named Bryce has been hiding out from his abusive father. One day his father is gone and his dad’s new girlfriend walks into the house. He thinks it’s the ghost of his dead mother. The ghost shows him that his dad’s new girlfriend has been lying to him about how his birth mother died.
Trapped in Terror: A young boy named Spencer and his sister Sarah, are on a camping trip when they find a box of mysterious objects. When they open it, one of the items shoots at them, striking Sarah and trapping her in a pod inside a tree. While locked inside the tree, Sarah meets an evil doll named Alice.
Possessed Playtime: A young girl named Cassandra is babysitting her neighbour’s two kids. One day the kids eat some forbidden foods and a demon spirit possesses one of the kids and turns him into an evil creature who haunts the neighbourhood.
Eyes of the Bunny: A little girl named Hayley discovers a secret house that no one in the neighbourhood knows about, and is welcomed inside by a red-eyed white bunny. One day when Hayley goes to a party, her newfound friend kidnaps her and traps her inside this mysterious house.
Eternal Echo: Write a horror story about a horrible accident or a nightmare that has haunted you your whole life.
Drowning Destiny: A boy named Joshua falls into a river and is about to drown when he gets rescued by a beautiful mermaid. She tells him that he will die the next day because that is his destiny.
Keys of Madness: A young boy named Alex finds a set of glowing door keys and uses them to enter a huge abandoned mansion. When he explores the mansion, he is visited by a dark spirit who attacks him and drives him insane.
Alien Abduction: A boy named Sam wakes up one day to find that his parents have been missing for over a year. The day he discovers them, they tell him that he was kidnapped by aliens, and they built an experimental human brainwashing machine.
Dreams of Stella: A young boy named Toby starts having strange dreams of a girl named Stella. One day, he sees Stella when he’s on a roller coaster, but it turns out to be a ghost who is trying to take over his mind.
Eye of the Leaf: A little boy named Ben is playing outside one day when he finds a strange leaf. When he picks it up, it turns into a leaf with a red eye and starts to follow him.
Vengeful Spirit: Write a horror story about a ghost who just wants to kill the person who called him a monster when he was alive.
Nightmare Adoption: A young girl named Annabelle is adopted by a family that lives in a very old house. One day when is playing outside, she is kidnapped by a scary man named the Nightman.
Stuffed Shadows: A young boy named Jack gets lost in the woods and finds an old abandoned house. He enters the house and finds a huge stuffed animal. When he touches it, it wakes up and attacks him.
Depths of Fear: Imagine your worst fear and write a scary story about it.
A Rude Awakening: Write a horror story titled, A Rude Awakening. What would you do if you woke up in a place that you weren’t familiar with?
The Mysterious Case: What happens when someone goes missing and no one knows where they’ve gone?
Dreamstalker : Write about a monster that might be stalking you in your dreams.
Write a story titled, When The Wind Blows. This story could be about a sudden change in weather that comes with a new problem.
Mirror Demon: Continue the following story: Suddenly, the demon in the mirror reappeared and she began to scream.
Doctor’s Dread: When the doctor gave her the news, she screamed out loud and ran in circles.
Safekeeping Shadows: In her final hours, she told me to be thankful that I had done my best to keep her safe. That I had made sure no evil would ever hurt her again.
Camping Secrets: Continue the following horror story: As I was growing up, every year our family went camping in the woods. My grandfather passed away a few years ago. He was a rich man, and I wanted to visit his grave at the cemetery.
Forest of Shadows: While walking around the forest, I came across a monstrous-looking creature. I was scared and ran back home. The next day, I decided to go back and see what the monster was doing.
Echoes of Dread: Write down your biggest fear. And then write a story based on this fear.
Silent Stalker: When I looked in her file I saw that she had gotten five serious stab wounds. But, I could not see any sign of her attacker. Her wounds were all over her body and all over her arms.
Arachnid Terror: After discovering that a spider was sleeping in her bed, a young girl named Amy screams and runs away, locking herself in the bathroom.
Electric Fury: A scientific team is doing research on electricity. They find a very strong cell that could create many things when it is exposed to electricity. Suddenly the electricity static comes alive. It gets angry and attacks the scientists.
Imaginary Friend: A little girl named Amber loves to play with her new imaginary friend. She calls him “Giant” and she makes up stories about him. She believes that he is her friend for real.
Melting Nightmare: Continue the following story: As it continued attacking, it even caused my teeth to start to melt off of my jaw. My skin would start to burn, and my hair would become brown.
Friday Night Terrors: It’s Friday. The TV is on, and you are wide awake. As you lie there listening, you begin to feel tired. And just as your eyes begin to close, you hear a creak of the floorboards. Your eyes snap open. What you see scares the living hell out of you.
Blood Dawn: You wake up one morning to find your entire body covered in blood. What do you do?
Room of Despair: How would you react if you were locked in a room and told you could never leave?
Haunting Memoirs: What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you? Can you explain this in great detail?
Chilling Chronicles: Make a top ten list of the creepiest books or stories you have ever read.
The Gruesome Creation: Describe the most gruesome and disgusting creature you can imagine.
Zoo’s Menace: Write a horror story where there is a threat of animals getting out of the zoo.
Red-Eyed Pursuit: Continue the following starter: A red-eyed man of tall and dark build looms over a bus stop on a lonely, deserted country road, staring at me intently. I run like hell to get to the other side of the street, but it’s too late…
Homebound Horror: A strange animal has been following you through your home. Have you been doing anything strange or dangerous that has made it freak out?
Midnight Messages: Someone is leaving you messages in the dead of night. What’s the creepiest message you’ve received?
Ghostly Watcher: Create a ghost story about a creature that watches and waits in the corners of dark, abandoned places.
Jack and Jill’s Nightmare: Jack and Jill went up the hill, but they never came back down. Will they ever make it to the bottom? Write a horror story based on this idea.
Dark Secrets: The history of your town has a long dark secret that nobody wants to talk about. What is it?
Mutated Reality: Reality show participants get kidnapped and sent on a dangerous mission, where they must learn how to blend with mutated creatures.
Beastly Intrusion: In a small community in Japan, a supernatural force enters the community through a sewer. To beat it, the village must learn to work as a team and think like a beast.
School of Shadows: School kids don’t believe in ghosts until they’re suddenly being terrorised in their school at night.
Vampiric Genesis: Someone is using a contaminated strain of bat DNA to create vampires in real life. And it’s up to a group of scientists to put an end to it.
Promised Souls: The dead walk, and all they want to do is get what they were promised. Will you figure it out?
Spellbound Silence: An aspiring rapper, who always dreamed of singing in front of an adoring crowd, becomes the target of a spell that makes him unable to sing, his most cherished talent. Will he survive the consequences of his initial desire to be a star?
Mirror Man: Continue this story: You look into the mirror and see a man in black standing in the corner…
Cryptic Chronicles: Imagine that you stumble upon a really creepy story in your local library and it leads you on a very strange and frightening journey.
Lost in a Strange World: When night falls, people get teleported to an area far away, in a very different world! The only way to return home is by combining body parts with the different elements of the land.
Wicked Takeover: A small town gets taken over by a wicked witch, who’s on a mission to suck the souls of all the inhabitants.
Soul Seeker: When someone posts an ad online about finding a soul and bringing it home for a price, things get really interesting.
Human and Beast: What would happen if human DNA was spliced with that of a deadly monster?
Unknown Beyond: A guy receives an advance warning from his friends in the afterlife to get ready for the afterlife, or something worse may happen…
Death’s Present: A girl gets a letter that someone wants to give her a present before they die, but the present comes with a very specific clause. What happens when she follows the instructions?
Dark Diary: As a local woman is trying to recover from the death of her husband, she discovers an old diary, in which she discovers something that happened in her past that has led to events that followed.
Christmas Carnage: It’s beginning to look like Christmas! But there’s more to Christmas than Santa and presents. A deadly secret is hidden away in a child’s bedroom. And with a massive killer about to make an appearance, it’s a race against time to track him down.
Empire of Evil: A ship sets sail for the distant colony of the Empire, but its mission becomes a mission to find the source of evil.
Hell Town: Using a sinister new machine, a small-town mayor is convinced to turn his town into a hell-like world.
Wild Dogs: A group of four friends are lured into an abandoned house by a pack of wild dogs.
I Went To A Party: Complete the following sentence in three different spooky ways: I went to a party and…
Sea’s Claw: The captain was anxious to get home, but the sea was so rough that his ship could not make it. Suddenly, from the fog, a giant black claw appeared. The giant black claw grabbed the ship and then brought the ship to the bottom of the ocean.
Dybylu’s Awakening: A monster named Dybylu wakes up one morning, alone in her room. She can feel it in the air; her pet cat is afraid. She goes to look in the mirror and see’s a human staring back at her.
Murdered Spirit: A little boy is asked to help a spirit of a man who was murdered, but as he hears the story, it sounds weird and a bit confusing, and he begins to wonder if the story is even true.
Playground Horrors: In a playground near an orphanage, there are many playgrounds where kids play. The best playground is found next to an abandoned asylum.
Barn Cat’s Secret: A drifter named Mick goes to a farm with his friend Sam, and the owner of the farm is a creepy scientist. Mick climbs a barn ladder and sees a strange cat in there…
Cape Creature: A sweet girl named Annie and her sister, Charley, are having an adventure in their neighbourhood. Suddenly, Annie spots a strange black cape creature lurking in the distance. It was the most feared and horrible creature Annie has ever seen.
Island of Souls: The main character goes to an island that no one has visited before. He is enjoying his vacation, but one night he finds out that his home is being invaded by creatures who want to steal his soul.
Spookie’s Nightmares: A witch known as ‘Spookie’ causes horrible hallucinations to victims of her nightmares. Her victims can’t scream or cry or run. All they can do is panic.
Stick’s Mischief: A girl named Paige finds a stick that attracts a mysterious creature that will play a sick joke on her.
Black Blood: One day, a girl named Robin started having problems in school. Her parents, who are very smart and caring, see something is very wrong with Robin so they take her to the doctor. The doctor makes her go through a lot of tests, and everything is okay except for one last thing. Robin has black blood running through her veins.
Mirror’s Curse: A teenage girl named Sarah who is obsessed with her appearance starts turning into an old, ugly witch every time she looks into a mirror.
Bee Killer: When bees start dying suddenly out of nowhere, the lead detective in a bee colony must find the culprit.
Demon’s Puzzle: A strange jigsaw puzzle holds a horrific secret… In it, a grinning demon holds a girl’s head in its giant mouth.
Forbidden Drawing: A little boy sees a drawing of him in a forbidden book he had found. He is then transported to a never-ending forest, lost forever…
When the Past Comes Back: An adult is being haunted by their younger self.
Beast of the Woods: A reporter goes into the woods where there was a fierce animal attack. In this attack, five women and a little boy were killed. He decides to search for evidence on who this killer creature might be…
Letters of London: A man lives by himself in a flat in London. A mysterious person starts sending him letters which talk about how scary things will happen if he doesn’t leave his flat.
The Ghost in Her Friend’s Mother: A 7 year old girl is having a sleepover at her friend’s house. Her friend’s mom leaves them alone, but they soon find out that she was poisoned, and that a ghost has taken over her body.
Creepy Crawlies in Your Kitchen: The first animal the kids see is a snake that eats people’s brains. It sneaks around in people’s kitchens.
Revolving Nightmares: The story starts off with a character telling the readers about the night he and his parents got stuck in a revolving door. The night would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Tommy’s Window: A long time ago there was a man named Tommy, who was lost in a forest. Tommy thought he heard a ghost calling him. Tommy went in the direction of the noise and found a scary-looking house that has windows that never opened. Tommy finds out that the house belongs to a witch and that if he opens the windows, the witch will turn Tommy into a puppet.
Tommy the Dog: This is a story about a little boy and his dog. The little boy goes to a big park, and he sees a dog that is alone. He walks over to the dog, but it just barks and then runs away. The next day Tommy starts turning into a human-sized dog.

Fear no more! Just use this list of horror writing prompts to start writing your own fantastic horror story! Use any of these scary prompt ideas to take the story from your mind to your computer screen.

Looking for more creepy horror prompts? Check out this list of Halloween writing prompts , as well as this scary Halloween picture prompts .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the 5 elements of a horror story.

Every good horror story contains the following five elements: Character, Setting, Action, Horror and Resolution. You can’t write a good horror without these elements.

How do you write in creepy writing?

To write in creepy writing, you need to immerse yourself in the world of horror. You think to think exactly like your main character or antagonist. Imagine yourself as a ghost, a demon, a monster, or a murderer. You can be a ghost who haunts people in their dreams or a monster who stalks them in the real world. Use extreme details to describe scenes of horror with gory and disgusting elements.

How do you get inspiration for horror?

Most horror stories are based on fear. Think about the things that scare you or haunt you in your nightmares. You can also get inspiration from watching scary movies or reading about scary stories. Finally, horror stories can also be inspired by real-life situations. For example, a girl who is bullied decides to take revenge on her bullies in a gruesome way. Of course, you can also use this list of horror writing prompts to inspire you too!

What are common horror themes?

Horror themes can be based on personal experiences, fears, or nightmares. Here are some common horror themes to explore:

Stalker: Someone who stalks you in your dreams or in the real world.
Monsters: Someone or something who appears to be human, but isn’t.
Revenge: Someone who is still haunted by a past event, and needs to seek revenge to overcome it.
Secrets: A deadly secret that could shake the lives of anyone involved.
Psychopaths: People who just kill or hurt others for the fun of it.

Did you find this list of over 110 horror writing prompts useful? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Last updated on Jun 20, 2022

How to Write a Horror Story: 7 Tips for Writing Horror

In our era of highly commercialized crime and thriller novels, it may seem like zeitgeist-defining horror books are a thing of the past. Indeed, Stephen King was once the perennial bestselling author in the world, and children in the 90s devoured Goosebumps books like The Blob devoured, well, everything.

But let’s not forget there’s a huge base of horror fans today, desperate for their next fix . So if you’re hoping to become the next Crown Prince of Dread, your dream can still come true! Here are seven steps to writing truly chilling horror:

1. Start with a fear factor

2. pick a horror story subgenre, 3. let readers experience the stakes, 4. create suspense through point of view, 5. consider plot twists to surprise your audience, 6. put your characters in compelling danger, 7. use your imagination.

The most important part of any horror story is naturally going to be its fear factor . People don’t read horror for easy entertainment; they read it to be titillated and terrorized. That said, here are a few elements you can use to seriously scare the pants off your reader.

Instinctive fears

Fears that have some sort of logical or biological foundation are often the most potent in horror. Darkness, heights, snakes, and spiders — all these are extremely common phobias rooted in instinct. As a result, they tend to be very effective at frightening readers.

This is especially true when terror befalls innocent characters apropos of nothing: a killer traps them in their house for no apparent reason, or they’re suddenly mugged by a stranger with a revolver. As horror writer Karen Woodward says, “The beating undead heart of horror is the knowledge that bad things happen to good people.”

Monsters and supernatural entities

These stretch beyond the realm of logic and into the realm of the “uncanny,” as Freud called it. We all know that vampires , werewolves, and ghosts aren’t real, but that doesn’t mean they can’t shake us to our core. In fact, it’s the very uncertainty they arouse that makes them so sinister: what if monsters are really out there, we’ve just never seen them? This fear is one of the most prevalent in horror, but if you decide to write in this vein, your story has to be pretty convincing.

Societal tensions

Another great means of scaring people is to tap into societal tensions and concerns — a tactic especially prevalent in horror movies. Just in recent memory, Get Out tackles the idea of underlying racism in modern America, The Babadook examines mental health, and It Follows is about the stigma of casual sex. However, societal tensions can also easily be embodied in the pages of a horror story, as in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery .

The right atmosphere for your story depends on what kind of horror you want to write. To use cinematic examples again, are you going for more Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Silence of the Lambs? The tone and atmosphere of your story will hang upon its subgenre.

Thriller-horror employs psychological fear, often occurring near the beginning of horror stories before very much has happened
Gross-out horror involves vivid descriptions of spurting blood, hacked-up flesh, and gouged-out organs in order to shock the reader; think gore movies of the 70s
Classic horror harks back to the Gothic (or Southern Gothic) genre , with spooky settings and bone-chilling characters like those of Dracula and Frankenstein
Terror provokes a feeling of all-pervasive dread, which can either serve as the climax of your story or be sustained throughout

It’s also possible to combine subgenres, especially as your story progress. You might begin with a sense of thrilling psychological horror , then move into gothic undertones, which culminates in utter terror.

But no matter what type of horror you’re working with, it should be deeply potent for your reader — and yourself! “If you manage to creep yourself out with your own writing, it's usually a pretty good sign that you're onto something,” editor Harrison Demchick says.

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In order for readers to truly thrill at your horror story, you need to make them aware of the stakes. Clearly establish the main problem or motivation for your character(s) , and what they have to lose if they don’t figure it out. These stakes and motivations might involve:

Survival. The most basic objective of characters in any horror story is to survive. However, there are nuances that accompany that goal. Perhaps their objective isn't just to stay alive, but to defeat their murderous nemesis while doing it — whether that’s another person, an evil spirit, or even themselves, if it’s a Jekyll and Hyde-type scenario.

Protecting loved ones. The more people the protagonist has to keep safe, the higher the stakes. Many horrific tales peak with a threat of death not to the main character, but to one or several of their loved ones (as in Phantom of the Opera or Red Dragon ).

Cracking unsolved mysteries. Because some horror stories aren’t about escaping peril in the present, but rather about uncovering the terrors of the past. This especially true in subgenres like cosmic horror , which have to do with the great mysteries of the universe, often involving ancient history.

Again, as with atmosphere, you can always merge different kinds of stakes. For instance, you might have a character trying to solve some mysterious murders that happened years ago, only to find out that they’re the next target!

The main thing to remember when it comes to horror — especially horror stories — is that straightforward stakes tend to have the greatest impact. Says author Chuck Wendig, of his perfect recipe for horror: “Plain stakes, stabbed hard through the breastbone.”

Bonus tip! Need help conjuring stakes and suspense? Try reading some masterfully crafted true crime — which can be even scarier than bone fide horror, since it actually happened.

Your reader should feel a kinship with your main character, such that when the stakes are high, they feel their own heart start to beat faster. This can be achieved through either first person or third person limited point of view. (When writing horror, you’ll want to avoid third person omniscient, which can distance your reader and lessen their investment in the story.)

We'll get into only the major POV's to consider in this post, but if you want a full point of view masterclass, check out our free course below.

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First person POV

Speaking of beating hearts, for a great example of first person narration in horror, look no further than The Tell-Tale Heart . Many of Poe’s stories involve deranged first-person narrators ( The Black Cat , The Cask of Amontillado ) but none are more notorious than this one, in which the main character is driven to murder his elderly housemate. Notice Poe’s chilling use of first person POV from the very first lines of the story:

It’s true! Yes, I have been ill, very ill. But why do you say that I have lost control of my mind, why do you say that I am mad? Can you not see that I have full control of my mind? Indeed, the illness only made my mind, my feelings, my senses stronger… I could hear sounds I had never heard before. I heard sounds from heaven; and I heard sounds from hell!

First person POV is excellent for hooking your reader at the beginning, and keeping them in suspense throughout your story. However, it might be too intense for longer, more intricate pieces, and may be difficult to execute if you’re trying to conceal something from your readers.

It’s also worth thinking about the implications of first person, past tense POV in a horror story — it suggests they’ve lived to tell the tale, which might ruin your dramatic ending. Therefore if you do decide to use first person narration, you should probably keep it in present tense.

Third person POV

If you find yourself struggling to make first person POV work, consider a third person limited perspective instead. This kind of narration is often used in longer-form horror, popularized by the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz . Look how it’s used here in King’s 1974 novel Carrie , in the description of its eponymous character:

Carrie stood among [the other girls] stolidly, a frog among swans. She was a chunky girl with pimples on her neck and back and buttocks, her wet hair completely without color… She looked the part of the sacrificial goat, the constant butt, believer in left-handed monkey wrenches, perpetual foul-up, and she was.

This narration paints an intimate picture of the character, while still allowing the freedom for commentary in a way that first person narration doesn’t as much. Third person limited narration also works well for building to a certain atmosphere, rather than jumping right into it, as Poe’s narrator does — which is part of why third person is better for lengthier pieces. (See more of King's masterful use of POV to wrack up tension in our Guide to King! )

Unreliable narrators

Alternately, if you’re committed to having a first person narrator but you don’t want to reveal everything to your readers, an unreliable narrator could be your perfect solution ! Many mystery and thriller novels employ unreliable narration in order to work up to a big twist without giving away too much. So whether or not you’ll want an unreliable narrator probably depends on how you end your story: straight down the line or with a twist.

Plot twists are exciting, memorable, and help bring previous uncertainty into focus, releasing tension by revealing the truth. However, they’re also notoriously difficult to come up with , and extremely tricky to pull off — you have to carefully hint at a twist, while making sure it’s not too predictable or clichéd.

So: to twist or not to twist? That is the question.

Big plot twists in horror writing tend to follow the beaten path: the victim turns out to be the killer, the person who we thought was dead isn’t really, or — worst of all — it was all in their head the whole time! But keep in mind that small, subtle plot twists can be just as (if not more) effective.

Take William Faulkner’s short story A Rose for Emily . After Emily dies, the villagers discover the corpse of a long-vanished traveler in one of her spare beds — along with a strand of silver hair. While the discovery of the body might be gruesome, it’s the presence of Emily’s hair (suggesting she enjoyed cuddling with a cadaver) that really haunts you.

Not to twist

The ending of your story doesn't have to come out of left field to shock and horrify readers. The classic horror approach leaves the reader in suspense as to precisely what will happen, then concludes with a violent showdown (think slasher films).

In this approach, while the showdown itself might not be a surprise, the scenes leading up to it build tension and anticipation for the climax. That way, when the big moment does arrive, it still packs a dramatic punch.

“A horror novel, like any story, is about a character or characters trying to achieve a goal based upon their individual wants and needs,” says Demchick. “If you let concept overwhelm character, you'll lose much of what makes horror as engaging as it can be.”

To scare your characters, you need to have a solid understanding of their psyche. Filling out a character profile template is a great start to fleshing out believable characters, so give ours a try.

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Reedsy’s Character Profile Template

A story is only as strong as its characters. Fill this out to develop yours.

As you write, you need to stay conscious of basic storytelling techniques and not get carried away with the drama of horror. It might help, before you begin, to answer these questions about your characters and plot:

What fear or struggle must your protagonist overcome?
What decision do they make to put them in this situation?
How will they defeat or escape their adversary, if at all?
What are the ultimate consequences of their actions?

This will help you create a basic outline for your horror story , which you can embellish to create atmosphere and suspense. In plot-driven genre stories, a thorough outline and emotionally resonant elements are vital for keeping your reader invested.

A great horror story balances drama with realism and suspense with relief, even with the occasional stroke of humor. Gillian Flynn is the master of this technique — as seen in this excerpt from her horror story The Grownup , wherein the narrator is scheming how to capitalize on her “spiritual cleansing” services:

I could go into business for myself, and when people asked me, “What do you do?” I’d say, I’m an entrepreneur in that haughty way entrepreneurs had. Maybe Susan and I would become friends. Maybe she’d invite me to a book club. I’d sit by a fire and nibble on Brie and say, I’m a small business owner, an entrepreneur, if you will.

In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to think about overused trends in horror and make sure your story’s not “been there, done that.” For instance, the “vampire romance” plot is a dead horse with no one left to beat it after all the Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and True Blood hype.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use certain elements of popular trends in your writing. You just have to put a spin on it and make it your own!

For example, zombie horror was already a well-worn genre when Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out in 2009. But by setting it in the regency era and featuring Jane Austen’s well-loved characters, he created a brilliant original work and carved out a brand new audience for zombie fiction. You can also pay homage to well-known horror tropes, like the Duffer brothers of Stranger Things did for Stephen King and Steven Spielberg — and which savvy audiences are sure to appreciate.

It certainly feels sometimes like all the good horror stories have already been written, making your own ideas seem trite. But don’t forget that new horror comes out all the time, and it only takes one great idea to be a hit! So try not to stress out about it, and remember: just by having read through this guide, you’re already that much closer to becoming a literary graveyard smash .

11 responses

Sawan says:

04/11/2018 – 19:34

Thank you so much for writing this article. I am currently writing a short horror story. Sometimes when I write a horror scene, I get really terrified, but after some days it all feels shitty.

↪️ dilinger john replied:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

it happens with everyone don't stress over it and pass your work to someone who will review it. you are a writer and can not be a critic at the same time.

↪️ Shane C replied:

28/09/2019 – 21:15

Sawan -- been writing for 22 years... NEVER judge your own work. You write it -- finish it off -- then have some friends that enjoy horror and reading read your work and give you honest critique. Record their critique or take accurate notes. Repeat this with several friends (but only those you can trust not to try to steal your work, Creative Commons and/or Registered Mail can be your best friend BEFORE this stage). Pick the best one you like, that makes the most sense -- but if several people say "blah blah blah should have happened," or a really close variation throughout reader opinions... Go with it! I know most people hate that, feels like butchering your art (I know I hate it), but use it anyway. It'll likely be more widely received... Just a few pointers.

Annabelle says:

21/05/2019 – 01:51

This is awesome I love this! I’m writing my own horror novel too.🙂

↪️ Andrew replied:

31/10/2019 – 20:23

what is it?

NAVEEN says:

29/07/2019 – 15:22

i am at the age of sixteen and i decided to write a horror story. thanks a lot!!

Bobette Bryan says:

27/08/2019 – 19:09

Ghosts are real. I've seen many in my lifetime and have had some very terrifying experiences with some.

↪️ smr replied:

03/01/2020 – 13:25

what the hell ??

↪️ John Brown replied:

16/01/2020 – 02:28

Me too! And I think it actually helps with writing horror stories, because you have more experience than most.

John Brown says:

16/01/2020 – 02:27

I’m 14 and I love writing horror novels, but I usually freak my self out too much to keep writing... 😕

Comments are currently closed.

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The early summer rainstorm ceased. But, dark clouds remained and hovered above the sparsely populated street. Rainwater trickled into the storm drain below and lured the brown, slimy creature to the surface. Overcast skies and rain-drenched surface created the perfect environment for the underground creature. Conditions were ideal for it to go in search of a meal. It seeped out through a small crevice between the road and the round drain cap.

The sinister blob slithered down the deserted street and headed toward the nearest home. It glided across the dampened pavement with an eerie silence. Driven by hunger, the brown goo then drifted onto the wet grass where it devoured pill bugs and worms. The mysterious mass lacked a mouth, so it absorbed things through its gelatinous skin.

As it neared the solitary house, it sensed large sources of food and quickened its pace. The blob slithered into the backyard, inched its way up the steps, and squeezed through a screen door. Once inside, the creature squirmed into the family room and moved up the backside of the sofa where a male dozed. With stealth and silence, the goo rolled toward him. It slid over the man’s forehead and dove into his opened mouth.

The male bolted awake, and his eyes flew open. He coughed, retched, and struggled to breathe. The man reached up and grabbed at the goo to yank it away, but the creature ingested his hands. Before long, he succumbed to the attack.

The mass then inched its way down the man’s esophagus and into his stomach. After consuming the innards, the slimy creature forced its way out through the abdomen of the lifeless male. It slithered in and out repeatedly until it consumed every bit of flesh, bones, organs, blood, and hair. Evidence of the male’s body was non-existent. Gone—vanished into the belly of the blob.

The creature left the couch and made its way into the kitchen where it detected a female. The mass glided toward her leg and ascended.

She looked down and screamed. The female shook her leg and whacked at the brown goo to free her body from the ghastly creature, but it latched on with unmatched strength. It made its way toward her face, entered her mouth, and rendered her silent.

The slime entered through her eye sockets and consumed her brain, then moved down to ingest her body. A droplet of blood remained on the floor—until the gelatinous creature rolled backward to absorb it.

The slimy creature sensed movement coming from above. It slithered up the refrigerator, toward the family feline.

Fearful of the strange brown blob, the calico cat jumped down and dashed out of the house.

The nefarious creature, satisfied with its consumption of food, rolled down from the appliance. It slithered out of the house and headed back toward its home—the underground. It intended to roam the storm drains, to lie in wait for the next rainstorm and the meal it’d provide.

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When you think about it, the horror genre makes no sense at all. We sit and stare at pieces of paper with words on them, imagining monsters that we know are entirely made up... and that somehow makes us so scared that we have to sleep with the lights on? Seriously? Writing horror that's genuinely scary is no mean feat. If you're an aspiring horror writer (or even just an enthusiastic campfire storyteller), you might want a few pointers on how to take your stories from slightly scary to spine-chilling nightmare fuel. Here's some writing advice from horror authors, so you, too, can terrorize everyone you meet.

Of course, most general tips for writing apply to writing horror as well. Read widely. Try to write everyday. Write stories that matter to you, and ground them in real emotions. But horror comes with its own specific challenges as well. I mean, how do you know what makes something scary? How to you capture that scary thing and put it into your own writing? Are clowns truly played out as a horror trope?

Every author's process is different, and everyone has a different set of deep, dark fears. But these tips on writing horror will help you find your own method of adding fear to the world:

There are three types of terror

When you get down to it, there are only three things that can truly freak someone out. At least, according to Stephen King :

“The 3 types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it's when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it's when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It's when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there...”

Use your own fear

Shirley Jackson believed that one is always writing, filing away little moments and snippets of dialogue for later use, "a little like the frugal housewife who carefully tucks away all the odds and ends of string beans and cold bacon and serves them up magnificently in a fancy casserole dish." She paid special attention to the things that scared her:

“I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from there.”

Get inside your narrator’s head

R.L. Stine frightened an entire generation of children with a very simple rule: get inside your narrator's head. If we're seeing through the eyes of a character in a scary situation, we start to feel like we are in a scary situation (also, ventriloquist dummies are universally evil). He told AdWeek :

“There’s no formula. I think you have to create a very close point of view. You have to be in the eyes of the narrator. Everything that happens, all the smells, all the sounds; then your reader starts to identify with that character and that’s what makes something really scary.”

Don’t worry about being “legitimate”

There will always be literary snobs out there to tell you that horror, like all genre fiction, is not as important or "legit" as real fiction about middle age men who cheat on their wives. Tananarive Due suggests that you stop worrying about trying to be a "legit" writer, and just write what feels right to you, even if it involves ghosts:

"...I'd had it drummed into my head in creative writing workshop courses that one could not expect to be a respected writer when writing commercial or genre books. Legitimacy has always been very important to me... Finally, though, I said the heck with all of it. I wasn't going to try to be Toni Morrison or Joyce Carol Oates, I was just going to be me, and I was going to write about the people I know..."

Take your nonsense seriously

On a similar note, you have to take your ghosties and goblins seriously, because even the goofiest of evil clowns still represents a very human fear of the unknown. Ray Bradbury thought that writing should be enjoyable, and that writers should be selective about which criticisms to listen to:

“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”

Go where the pain is

Anne Rice has some truly chilling advice for horror writers: go where the pain is. Write about the one thing that you can't get over, because that's where true horror lies:

“Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.”

The scariest thing is feeling out of control

For Clive Barker, horror comes from the realization that we are not in control. Excellent horror writers don't just go for gore and shock value, they remind their readers that everyday life is always right on the edge of dissolving into chaos:

“Horror fiction has traditionally dealt in taboo. It speaks of death, madness and transgression of moral and physical boundaries. It raises the dead to life and slaughters infants in their cribs; it makes monsters of household pets and begs our affection for psychos. It shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”

Just start writing and fix it later

Horror writer and poet Linda Addison suggests that you silence your inner editor for that first draft, and just let all the horrific weirdness of your subconscious flow out onto the page/screen:

"Know that even when you’re not putting words on paper/computer you’re writing. Living is writing. Everything we do feeds creativity, even in the most un-obvious ways. Don’t edit while writing first draft, just get it out. This is a rule I often struggle with because I know the quality I want, but I also know it’s important to write it from beginning to end and the editor mind doesn’t help that for me."

Tell your own story

Write in your own universe, not someone else's. Make up your own monsters. That's what Neil Gaiman does. From a podcast interview with Nerdist :

"Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you."

Keep it real (kind of)

Helen Oyeyemi's writing blends realism with magic and horror—but to her, that doesn't make her writing unrealistic. As long as the emotions are genuine, you can let go of concerns about sticking strictly to reality:

"I tend to prioritize emotional realism above the known laws of time and space, and when you do that, it's inevitable that strange things happen. Which can be quite enjoyable, I think."

Columns > Published on April 22nd, 2019

Writing Horror Using All Five Senses

Photo by samer daboul.

Horror is a raw and visceral genre that relies on fear and anxiety. Readers need to really connect with characters on a base level and share their negative emotions in order for horror fiction to be truly effective. As an editor, I often see horror writers using vague phrases like, "Judy was terrified by the sight of the creature" or “Bill was overwhelmed with sheer terror." Stop telling your readers that your characters are scared and start showing your readers their fear. Adding more sensory details and internal physiological reactions to your writing will help you accomplish this task.

Many new writers fail to effectively visualize their scenes and rely heavily on hackneyed descriptors. You could write: “Willa curled her hands into tight fists.” Or you could write: “Willa’s poor, thin hands were knotted into tight blue fists. The knuckles shone white like the joints of butchered fowl.” American author Davis Grubb wrote the latter description in 1953’s Night of the Hunter . He makes us see that little girl’s hands so clearly it hurts, and the comparison to murdered birds makes a sinister connection in your mind that is impossible to ignore. All it takes is one strong image to burn a scene permanently into a reader’s mind. So don’t be stingy with the visual details.

Sour milk. Gasoline. Dog shit. Each word triggers a different memory and a corresponding emotion in our brain. By using olfactory descriptors in our writing, we can pull the reader deeper into the story. Something missing from your scene? Add a familiar smell. And don’t just write, “The room smelled like X.” Bust out your thesaurus—use aroma, stench, sniff, stink, scent, hint, or malodor. I also highly recommend you read Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. It tells the story of a Grenouille, an 18th-century French orphan born with an almost supernatural sense of smell that compels him to learn to be a perfumer in order to capture the scents of women he kills. This 1985 novel is a gripping read and a masterwork in describing smells. 

When humans are in a state of intense fear, they become hypersensitive to sounds around them. Use this to your advantage. Can’t think of a sound to add to a scene? You’re not thinking hard enough. Get up in the middle of the night and sit in the darkness of your living room. It may seem quiet at first, but the list of sounds will grow once you tune your ear to it. The drone of distant traffic, the hum of the refrigerator, the bones of the house creaking in the wind, the beating of your pulse in your ears. We are almost never in a state of complete silence. Even the sound of a character’s own voice or breath can add sensory detail to a scene. And determining the origin of a sound can even be a source of tension for the character.  

Taste is an overlooked sense in writing. It isn't enough to write that a character is eating ice cream. Give us the particular flavor, the colors swirled in the scoop, the smell of the chocolate, or the way it freezes the roof of his mouth and hurts the loose filling in his molar. No food in your story? No problem. There's an old saying that if you can't think of what to write next, describe the inside of a character's mouth. He might have heartburn, lingering coffee breath or a metallic taste on his tongue. What can you taste in your own mouth right now? Write it down.

Remember that children's party game where you put your hand into a box and try to guess what was inside by touch? Okay, so maybe I went to weird parties as a kid. Don't hold back on tactile sensations in your writing. Give us the slipperiness of blood between her fingers, the weight of the knife in her hand, the damp moss against her exposed skin as she lies on the forest floor. Let us feel what she feels and draw us deeper into your story.

Bonus: Internal Sensations

I’ve edited so many horror stories over the last few years that feature a scared protagonist whose heart is pounding. I honestly can’t think of a more trite and—yes, I’ll say it—lazy way to describe fear in a character. Human beings have dozens of physiological reactions to fear. Here's a few examples: dizziness, weakness in the legs, sudden chest pain, holding of breath, muscles tensing, sweating, stuttering, accelerated breathing, blood draining from the face, and even urinating oneself. So stop giving us pounding pulses and thumping ribcages. Get original. And remember not to over do it; two or three physical reactions are usually enough to accomplish what you're going for. 

Make sure you use all five senses somewhere during your story, alternate the senses between scenes (we don't need to know how everything smells), and try to connect the sensory comparisons you make to the story itself. This will draw your reader in and allow them to fully experience your story.

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About the author

Repo Kempt has worked as a criminal lawyer in the Canadian Arctic for over ten years. He is the author of a book about seal hunting, a member of the Horror Writers Association, and a guest columnist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He lives on a cricket farm with his wife, Joy and his little dog, Galactus. In his spare time, he looks for an agent for his latest manuscript.

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If you write horror, suspense, mystery, or any kind of fiction with a scary scenes, you need to know how to describe fear. This list can get you started. It's a lot of phrases describing fear, including physical reactions, physical sensations, facial expressions, and other words you can use in your novel or in other creative writing.
5080+ Horror Short Stories to read
Respond with your short story and you could win $250! 5080+ Horror Short Stories to read. Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From hauntings and murderers to terrifying creatures from the deep, our collection of horror stories will have you breaking out in cold sweats.
How to Write Scary Ghost Stories that Terrify Your Readers
To sum up, here are the main things to keep in mind when writing a ghost story: Use the unknown to turn your readers' imagination against them. Exploit the uncanny valley to make your readers uncomfortable. Write simple language to paint a sinister picture. Create empathy to manipulate your readers' emotions.
My Own Experience in a Haunted House
Dark clouds always seem to hover over the house, situated on a dead end street. And then there are the stories. A man went mad and murdered his whole family in the house. One night, the house suffered a fire and a baby died in it. On and on, with a tragic death at the center. Because then come the other stories.
110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)
September 30, 2022. Give yourself the chills with this list of over 110 horror writing prompts. From scary ghost stories to creepy stories about animals and monsters. Now is the time to write your own horror story, just like Goosebumps or The Haunting of Aveline Jones. From the gory to the scary, from the monstrous to the supernatural, from the ...
How to Write a Horror Story: 7 Tips for Writing Horror
6. Put your characters in compelling danger. 7. Use your imagination. 7 key tips to writing a blood-chilling horror story 😱. Click to tweet! 1. Start with a fear factor. The most important part of any horror story is naturally going to be its fear factor.
Storm Drain: A 500 Word Horror Story
Storm Drain: A 500 Word Horror Story. The early summer rainstorm ceased. But, dark clouds remained and hovered above the sparsely populated street. Rainwater trickled into the storm drain below and lured the brown, slimy creature to the surface. Overcast skies and rain-drenched surface created the perfect environment for the underground creature.
Scary Story Essay example
Scary Story Essay example. Scary Story I looked up at the black sky. I hadn't intended to be out this late. The sun had set, and the empty road ahead had no streetlights. I knew I was in for a dark journey home. I had decided that by traveling through the forest would be the quickest way home. Minutes passed, yet it seemed like hours and days ...
10 Chilling Writing Tips From Horror Authors
Giphy. Anne Rice has some truly chilling advice for horror writers: go where the pain is. Write about the one thing that you can't get over, because that's where true horror lies: "Writers write ...
Writing Horror Using All Five Senses
Writing Horror Using All Five Senses. Horror is a raw and visceral genre that relies on fear and anxiety. Readers need to really connect with characters on a base level and share their negative emotions in order for horror fiction to be truly effective. As an editor, I often see horror writers using vague phrases like, "Judy was terrified by ...

A scary house - descriptive essay

250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)

What Is a Horror Writing Prompt?

Types of Horror Writing Prompts

Ghost Stories

Psychological Horror

Paranormal Activity

Creature Features

Gothic Horror

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

Body Horror

Slasher Stories

Cosmic Horror

Folk Horror

Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts

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