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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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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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How To Start A Horror Story [+3 Great Examples]

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”

Horror is a genre of writing that requires readers to be hooked throughout. If your audience isn’t properly immersed in what they’re reading, there’s no chance of them feeling scared, uneasy or any other sensation you’re looking for after all. Because of this, having a strong start to your book is vital. Join us at What We Reading as we present some of the best techniques on how to start a horror story, as well as some seriously spooky examples to set you on your path! 

Determine Your Fear Factor 

The goal of your horror story is to scare your readers. 

It sounds like an obvious place to begin, but it should be at the centre of your attention every time you write. Horror is a genre that explores fear. This can come in a variety of ways such as revulsion or the uneasy sensation that comes with suspense and tension. However, lots of new and inexperienced writers feel this is achieved through shock value. Kickstart proceedings with something outrageously gorey or supernatural and let the adrenaline coast through to the end. 

But horror fans are savvy to shock value these days. Having a constant supply of action ruins the flow and pace of a story and begins to feel cheap before long. Instead, the best horror writers know when to evoke fear in a reader and, crucially, why they are doing it. 

Knowing what type of horror subgenre you’re going to primarily operate in is a great way of ensuring your fear factor is front and centre from the get-go. For example, in S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence , the opening scene features protagonist Claire Kovalik having visions of her dead mother. Whilst more violent horror aspects are explored later on, this helps establish the book first and foremost as a tension-packed supernatural story. 

Set The Tone 

On the subject of themes, it’s good to introduce your tone to the reader right from the very start of a horror story. Not only does this give them a flavour of your writing style, storytelling and characterisation, but also a sense of the central themes at play. 

For example, is the story one of enduring hope, or entirely nihilistic? Do your main characters live to see the sun coming up, or do they fall victim to whatever baddies you have in store? Naturally, you don’t want to spell out exactly how things are going to pan out in the first chapter. However, your opening acts can serve as a great precursor to what readers can expect going forward. 

In Get Out the plot is laid out by following a black man as he mercilessly stalked through a street. The use of the ‘Run Rabbit Run’ song helps to create tension, instantly showcasing the core theme of racial prejudice that is carried throughout. 

Introduce The Main Character

As we mentioned above, attempting to scare readers through an array of objectively scary occurrences but without any context behind them isn’t how you make a book memorable. Instead, you need there to be a relationship between the characters and the scares so that audiences can see things through. 

Something like a dead cat is naturally horrifying to see, but the potency of such an image is amped up to another level if it is the same cat your main character buried and had nightmares about during their childhood, as an example. By making these sorts of connections, you demonstrate not only your ability as a writer to weave together scares with context, but also tie these scares with the development of characters. 

Hook The Audience

One of the best strategies for how to start a horror story effectively is by introducing a character from the get-go. It isn’t always a vital component in other genres, but in the world of horror having a character to visualise and connect with is essential. 

You should also establish things like atmosphere, imagery and descriptions. Even in a slow-burning horror book, you’ll want to grab the audience’s attention with a setting, character or event that rewards their attention from the get-go. 

It’s important to remember the start of a book is almost a guarantee to a reader in terms of what the story is going to be about, who the characters are, where it’s taking place, what the threats are, where the threats are coming from as well as what some of the core themes and messages at play are going to be. 

Check Out All The Horror Subgenres In Fiction

Don’t Reveal All 

We just mentioned how vital it is to hook a reader at the beginning of your story. But, you might be wondering: how much should you reveal in your opening act? Do you reveal the monster in the opening exchanges so readers can understand and appreciate its scares, or keep it hidden in the shadows so that the unknown makes it even more terrifying? 

Ultimately, there is no definitive answer to this question. 

If you don’t show a villain or threat, it should at least be hinted at. The reader should be able to get a sense of the monster and its characters, even if it isn’t explicitly described from the off. Is it a very physical monster such as a knife-wielding serial killer, or a paranormal or biological threat, for example? Suspense can be built by hinting at these things and then, subtly, tying them to the main character. 

Examples Of How To Start A Horror Story 

We can reel off the best strategies and techniques horror writers can use to kickstart their story, but sometimes seeing them in practice is the best way of learning and inspiring. With that in mind, we’ve picked out some of our favourite examples of the best horror book openings for you to compare: 

The Haunting Of Hill House – Shirley Jackson

“No living organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House , not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Check Out The Best Books Like The Haunting Of Hill House

The Shining – Stephen King

“Jack Torrance thought: Officious little prick .

Ullman stood five-five, and when he moved, it was with the prissy speed that seemed to be the exclusive domain of all small plump men. The part in his hair was exact, and his dark suit was sober but comforting. I am a man you can bring your problems to, that suit said to the paying customer. To the hired help it spoke more curtly: This had better be good, you. There was a red carnation in the lapel, perhaps so that no one on the street would mistake Stuart Ullman for the local undertaker.”

Interview With The Vampire – Anne Rice

“I see—” said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window. For a long time, he stood there against the dim light from Divisadero Street and the passing beams of traffic. The boy could see the furnishings of the room more clearly now, the round oak table, the chairs. A wash basin hung on one wall with a mirror. He set his briefcase on the table and waited. 

“But how much tape do you have with you?” asked the vampire, turning now so the boy could see his profile. “Enough for the story of a life?”

Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).

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How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror

Learn how to write a horror story, with insights from Stephen King, John Carpenter, the script opening for The Exorcist, and more, and discover ideas for telling a more chilling tale.

• Post author By Jordan
• 71 Comments on How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror

Learning how to write horror is a useful for any writer. The genre contains storytelling elements that are useful beyond it. Read a concise guide to horror. We explore what horror is, key elements of horror, plus tips and quotes from masters of horror film and fiction.

What is horror? Elements of horror

The horror genre is speculative or fantastical fiction that evokes fear, suspense, and dread.

Horror often gives readers or viewers the sense of relief by the end of the story.

Stephen King calls this ‘reintegration’. Writes King in his non-fiction book on horror, Danse Macabre (1981), about the release from terror in reintegration:

For now, the worst has been faced and it wasn’t so bad at all. There was that magic moment of reintegration and safety at the end, that same feeling that comes when the roller coaster stops at the end of its run and you get off with your best girl, both of you whole and unhurt. I believe it’s this feeling of reintegration, arising from a field specializing in death, fear, and monstrosity, that makes the danse macabre so rewarding and magical … that, and the boundless ability of the human imagination to create endless dreamworlds and then put them to work. Stephen King, Dance Macabre (1981), p. 27 (Kindle version)

A brief history of the horror genre

Horror, like most genres, has evolved substantially.

Modern horror stories’ precursors were Gothic tales, stretching back to the 1700s. Even stretching beyond that, into gory myths and legends such as Grimm’s folktales.

In early Gothic fiction, the horrifying aspects (such as ghostly apparitions) tended to stem from characters’ tortured psyches. For example, the ghostly shenanigans in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898). It was often ambiguous whether or not supernatural events depicted were real or imagined by a typically unreliable, tortured narrator.

More modern horror turned increasingly towards ‘psychological horror’. Here, the source of horror is more interior. Or else an external monster or supernatural figure is no figment but completely real.

See Noël Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror : Or, Paradoxes of the Heart for further interesting information on the genres history, as well as Stephen King’s Danse Macabre.

8 elements of horror

Eight recurring elements in classic and contemporary horror, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to the contemporary horror films of Ari Aster, are:

• Suspense (the anticipation of terror or bad things). Horror builds suspense by evoking our fear of the known (for example, fear of the dark). Also fear of the unknown (what could be lurking in said dark).
• Fear. The genre plays with primal fears such as fear of injury, accident, evil, our mistakes, whether evil faces accountability (see Thomas Fahy’s The Philosophy of Horror for more on the philosophy of horror and moral questions horror asks).
• Atmosphere. Horror relies extensively on the emotional effects of atmosphere. Just think of the claustrophobic atmosphere of the ship, the aliens’ human-hunting paradise, in the Alien film franchise.
• Vulnerability. The horror genre plays with our vulnerability, makes us remember it. Horror often asks ‘what if the other is overtly or insidiously malevolent? In asking this, it reminds us of the values of both caution and courage.
• Survival . Many horror subgenres explore themes of survival, from zombie horror to slasher films. Like tragedy, survival stories explore the rippling-out consequences of making ‘the wrong choice’.
• The Supernatural. Horror stories also plumb the unseen and unknown, terrors our physics, beliefs and assumptions can’t always explain.
• Psychological terror. Horror typically manipulates the perceptions of readers/viewers (and characters) to create a sense of unease. ‘What’s thumping under that locked cellar door?’
• The monstrous. Whether actual monsters or the monstrous possible in ordinary human behavior, horror explores the dark and what terrifies or disgusts.

Further elements and themes that appear often include death, the demonic, isolation, madness, grief and revenge.

What does horror offer readers/viewers?

In The Philosophy of Horror (2010), Thomas Fahy compares horror to a reluctant skydiving trip taken with friends, referencing King’s concept of reintegration, the ‘return to safety’:

In many ways, the horror genre promises a similar experience [to skydiving]: The anticipation of terror, the mixture of fear and exhilaration as events unfold, the opportunity to confront the unpredictable and dangerous, the promise of relative safety (both in the context of a darkened theater and through a narrative structure that lasts a finite amount of time and/or number of pages), and the feeling of relief and regained control when it’s over. Thomas Fahy (Ed.), ‘Introduction’, The Philosophy of Horror (2010).

Horror also appeals to the pleasures of repetition. The darkly amusing absurdity and existentialism of how characters are bumped off one by one in a slasher film, for example.

Audiences also flock to horror for tension (produced by suspense, fear, shock, terror, gore and other common elements), personal relevance (the way horror explores themes we can relate to), and the pleasure of the surreal or unreality.

What do you love about the horror genre? Tell us in the comments!

How to write horror: 10 tips (plus examples and quotes)

Explore ten ideas on how to write a horror story:

Jump scares and sudden gore might punctuate the story, but if they appear every page they risk becoming predictable.

Who in your ensemble will your reader or viewer want to survive or triumph over horrifying events, and why?

Often horror flips between everyday fears (a young couple’s fears about becoming parents, for example) and a symbolic, scarier level.

Great horror stories often live on in reader/viewer debate about what ‘really’ happened. They reward rewatching.

Horror stories make terrifying events (such as an author being abducted by a homicidal superfan in King’s Misery ) seem plausible. We believe their worlds.

Who can forget the infamous shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho ? Horror often scares us where we think we’re safest.

Play with multiple layers and levels of fear – fear of the known, unknown, of real monsters and the make-believe monsters of perception.

What will create that feeling that something’s just a little off, unexpected?

Some horror subgenres (e.g. splatterpunk or slasher horror) go all-out on gore. Violence isn’t the only way to unsettle your reader, though. Play with the fear of the unseen – imagination can supply the possibilities.

Focusing solely on scaring readers may end up with a story that is more style and provocation than substance. Think about character and story arcs, using setting to create tone and atmosphere, other elements that make up good stories .

Pace the big horror scares for suspense

Let’s explore each of the preceding ideas on how to write horror. First: Pacing.

As in suspense, pacing is everything in horror. Good pacing allows the build-up, ebb and flow of tension.

See how the script for the classic 1973 horror film The Exorcist (adapted from William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of the same name) begins? Not with immediate, obvious demonic possession, but the suspense of an archaeological dig. There are no jump scares, and no gore – just quiet unease.

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Pacing in horror-writing example: Slow-building tension in The Exorcist

EXTERIOR- IRAQ- EXCATVATION SITE- NINEVEH- DAY Pickaxes and shovels weld into the air as hundreds of excavators tear at the desert. The camera pans around the area where hundreds of Iraqi workmen dig for ancient finds. […] YOUNG BOY (In Iraqi language) They’ve found something… small pieces. MERRIN (In Iraqi language) Where? The Exorcist screenplay. Source: Script Slug

This is a long way – geographically and tonally – from a young girl walking backwards downstairs or her head turning around like an owl’s.

A seemingly innocent archaeological dig turns into something more sinister. A link is implied between the statue of a demon unearthed in the dig and two dogs starting to fight:

EXTERIOR – IRAQ- NINEVEH- DAY […] The old man walks up the rocky mound and sees a huge statue of the demon Pazuzu, which has the head of the small rock he earlier found. He climbs to a higher point to get a closer look. When he reaches the highest point he looks at the statue dead on. He then turns his head as we hear rocks falling and sees a guard standing behind him. He then turns again when he hears two dogs savagely attacking each other. The noise is something of an evil nature. He looks again at the statue and we are then presented with a classic stand off side view of the old man and the statue as the noises rage on. We then fade to the sun slowly setting as the noises lower in volume. The Exorcist screenplay. Source: Script Slug

The suspense in this opening builds up a sense of something horrifying being unleashed on the world unwittingly.

Use characterization to make readers care

Great horror stories may use stock character types, flat arcs. For example, in slasher films where some characters’ main purpose is to die in some creative, absurd way.

Yet subtler horror writing uses characterization to make the reader care.

Part of the truly horrifying aspect of The Exorcist , for example, is knowing that an innocent child is possessed. Tormented by evil through no fault of her own.

The care is palpable in her mother Chris’ (Ellen Burstyn) horror and anxiety in reaction. Empathy is a natural response to having an unwell child (and ‘unwell’ is putting it mildly, in this case).

We empathize with characters grappling with dark forces beyond their control. Life tests everyone with destructive or painful experiences at some point in time. The sense of powerlessness (and tenacity that emerges through that) is a testament to the human spirit, to perseverance.

A horror story itself may have a bleaker reading, of course. Yet we struggle on with the intrepid heroines in their attempts to overcome.

Three horror character archetypes that make us care

In Danse Macabre , Stephen King discusses three common character archetypes in horror and Gothic fiction:

• The Thing – for example, Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , which expresses pain at having been created.
• The Vampire – often represented as suffering eternal life/return (similar in this regard to ghosts and poltergeists).
• The Werewolf – a horror character who transforms, typically against their will and usually with great suffering, into a beast.

King explores examples of these three horror archetypes from books and films such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal psychological horror film, Psycho (1960).

Writes King:

It doesn’t end with the Thing, the Vampire, and the Werewolf; there are other bogeys out there in the shadows as well. But these three account of a large bloc of modern horror fiction. King, Danse Macarbre, p. 96.

Why horror character archetypes make us care

Horror lovers care about ‘the thing’ archetype often because ‘the thing’, the monster, is misunderstood or blameless for its creation. Think of Frankenstein’s monster, who bargains with his creator for release and freedom.

‘The vampire’ is often a relatable figure because of the inevitable loneliness of eternal life. The vampire is imprisoned by limitations such as not being allowed the rest of death (or even natural pleasures such as sunlight – as glamorous as it might be to sparkle like Stephenie Meyer’s diamante vamps).

King writes about the werewolf and how it represents human duality. The respectable public persona or façade, on one hand, and a world of hidden, private horror on the other. A duality many who carry private trauma can relate to.

Each archetype is relatable on some level. This empathic element makes one care for (or at least understand) the monstrous and inhuman in more literary horror stories. Evil (though some don’t like to admit it) has a face and a backstory, a history of becoming, most of the time.

Read more about how to create characters readers can picture and care about in our complete guide to character creation .

Make the known scary (not just the unknown)

Many horror movies tap into the terror of the known, the common human experience, and not only absurd (but campy and fun) nightmares like clowns hiding in stormwater drains.

Common, relatable parts of familiar human experience to mine for horror and terror include:

• Birth and death (e.g. Rosemary’s Baby )
• Loss and grief (e.g. Hereditary )
• Childhood fears (e.g. It )
• Loss of control (e.g. An American Werewolf in London )
• Ritual and community (e.g. Midsommar )
• Exploring the unknown (e.g. Alien )

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan writes in the script for the 2000 film Unbreakable:

Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here. That’s – that’s just an awful feeling.

Often, it is this mundane, relatable element of horror – such as the horror of not having a place in the world – that supplies the psychological or inner aspect.

For example, a bereaved family’s struggle with an occult family history (the outer horror) provides the figurative, metaphorical means to explore the painful reality of grief and intergenerational trauma (inner horror) in Ari Aster’s psychological horror film, Hereditary .

Don’t feel you have to explain everything

Although King’s concept of ‘reintegration’ applies in many horror stories where a sunnier ending promises relief, many modern horror narratives eschew tidy resolution.

It’s a classic ploy in horror series, for example, for there to be troubling alarm bells at the end, inferring that a persistent terror lives on. For example, the jump scare at the end of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) [warning: implied violence, spoilers].

The shock comes through the juxtaposition of an ‘everyone’s safe at last moment’ and terror striking from inside the house without warning, undoing the sense of resolution attained. The main character having woken from the dreams where the bulk of terrifying events occur adds to this false sense of security.

There is no graphic gore or violence. The scene doesn’t show or tell every detail. Instead, the audience has to interpret the event and what it implies about the the status of the conflict between the main characters and the supernatural villain, Freddy Krueger – whether it is truly over.

Play with the terror of plausibility

What is most terrifying is often what is plausible. For example, the crazed fan who abducts her favorite author in Stephen King’s Misery (1987), for hobbling instead of autographs. Celebrity stalking is a well-documented modern cultural phenomenon. It is hard to eyeroll at after John Lennon.

Why is plausibility worth thinking about when exploring how to write horror?

• Suspension of disbelief. If events in a horror story seem plausible (at least for the horror world created), the audience is less inclined to roll their eyes and groan, ‘That would never happen’.
• Relatability . A novel and film such as The Exorcist plays on the natural fear many have that loved ones will fall unwell or depart, in body, spirit or mind.
• Tension and unpredictability: It is more tense and unpredictable when everything is ‘normal’ to start. Ruptures in the fabric of this normalcy create tension, the sense ‘anything could happen’ (that sense requires the bedrock of plausibility first ).

Scare horror audiences when they least expect

Like that jump scare in the final scene of A Nightmare on Elm Street , horror often scares the shoes off us when we least expect it.

Take, for example, the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), where Marion Crane is attacked in the shower.

The shower, usually associated with privacy, relaxation, is nothing like an abandoned side street, dark wood at night, or other traditionally ‘creepy’ setting. This coupled with the intensity of Hitchcock’s shots – the raised hand clutching a knife – creates a chilling scene.

Horror mastery lies in a push and pull, lulling your audience into a false sense of security, then pulling the rug out from under them when they least expect it. Tweet This

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Deepen the story with layers of fear

Horror, like other fantastical genres, deals in layers and dualities. In fantasy fiction , we often have a primary world and a secondary one. In horror, the duality is often an internal horror doing a ‘danse macabre’ with an external one.

Says horror filmmaking veteran John Carpenter in conversation with Vulture :

There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don’t understand. Internal is the human heart. Simon Abrams, ‘The Soft-Spoken John Carpenter on How He Chooses Projects and His Box-Office Failures’, July 6 2011.

In a story using the ‘werewolf’ archetype, for example, the rational, untransformed side of a protagonist may fear the revelation of their monstrous side, the consequences this would have for their daily life (whether they are a literal werewolf or this is figurative). Transformed, the werewolf, like the ‘elephant man’, may experience the external horror and fear of others’ revulsion or animosity (which then feeds the internal, in a vicious cycle).

Having both internal and external conflicts in a horror story moves horror beyond simple disgust and shock tactics. The audience can connect deeper with characters, the cycles of violence they endure or triumph over.

Tapping into common fears for horror writing

If the point of horror writing (and horror elements in other genres such as paranormal romance) is to arouse fear, shock or disgust, think of the things people are most commonly afraid of.

Live Science places an interest choice at number one : The dentist. It’s true that you can feel powerless when you’re in the dentist’s chair. Couple this with the pain of certain dental procedures and it’s plain to see why a malevolent dentist is the stuff of horror nightmares.

Making readers scared creates tension and increases the pace of your story. Even so there should be a reason for making readers fearful.

Here are some of the most common fears people have:

• Fear of animals (dogs, snakes, sharks, mythical creatures such as the deep sea-dwelling kraken)
• Fear of flying (film producers combined the previous fear and this other common fear to make the spoof horror movie Snakes on a Plane)
• The dark – one of the most fundamental fears of the unfamiliar
• Perilous heights
• Other people and their often unknown desires or intentions
• Ugly or disorienting environments

Think of how common fears can be evoked in your horror fiction. Some are more often exploited in horror writing than others. A less precise fear (such as the fear of certain spaces) will let you tell the horror story you want with fewer specified must-haves.

Add subtler hints of something wrong

Returning to core elements of horror – fear, suspense, and atmosphere – how do you make horror scary even when Freddy isn’t dragging anyone through a solid wood door?

Tone and atmosphere emerge in the subtle hints and clues something is wrong.

Hints and signs of horrors to come could include:

• Unsettling sounds. Dripping, humming, chanting, singing, banging, knocking, drumming. What are sounds that imply trouble and the ghastly unknown coming to visit?
• Creepy imagery. What are images and signs that suggest comfort (for example, a lamp burning in a window to signal someone’s home)? Blow those candles out, play with the unhomely.
• Unsettling change. Changes in light, a companion’s tone, a pet’s behavior. Small harbingers of trouble add tension.
• Missing objects. What is not continuous in a way that unsettles and defies expectations? For example, in the reboot of Twin Peaks , an attempt to go home again leads to the dread of everything being different, that sense of ‘you can’t go home again’.
• Discomforting communication. Sometimes horror hinges on a repeated word or phrase (‘Candyman’), or someone saying something creepily unexpected.

The above are just a few ways to imply that something is very wrong.

Balance gore with the unseen (subgenre depending)

Gore in horror has the capability to shock, disgust, make your audience squeamish. Yet a relentless gore-fest may quickly desensitize readers or viewers to the element of surprise.

How much gore you include in a horror will of course depend on your subgenre and story scenario. Slasher stories and subgenres such as splatterpunk (a horror subgenre characterized by extreme violence) will have audiences who demand gore and may lament something tame.

Reasons to balance gore with the terror of the unseen, otherwise:

• Maintaining tension. Periods of calm between violent scenes create suspense, nervous tension for when there’ll be blood again.
• Deepening the story. Great stories with broad appeal take more than blood and guts – meaningful character arcs and genuine scares and horrifying scenes can coexist.
• Artful storytelling. Relying on inference, plot twists, atmosphere, tension for fright and shock is arguably more artful than leaping straight for shock-value. Critical succcesses in the horror genre often don’t rely solely on the cheapest, easiest scares. The story often earns them by building plausibility or deeper symbolic and metaphorical resonance.

Tell a good story first, scare readers second

That last idea boils down to this: Focus on telling a good story, first.

If your sole focus is how most you can shock and manipulate your audience, some may critique this as cheap exploitation.

Some authors – deliberate provocateurs – may wear that label as a badge of pride, of course. Careers are sometimes made in attracting controversy, even bans and censorship for extreme shock value.

Yet the stories that endure often make excellent uses of all the parts of storytelling and encapsulate some of the qualities that make storytelling universal – humanity, insight, the empathy and truth-finding that imagining and exploring ‘dreamworlds’ offers.

Are you writing horror? Join the Now Novel critique community for free and get perks such as longer critique submissions, weekly editorial feedback and story planning tools when you upgrade to The Process.

Now Novel has been invaluable in helping me learn about the craft of novel writing. The feedback has been encouraging, insightful and useful. I’m sure I wouldn’t have got as far as I have without the support of Jordan and the writers in the groups. Highly recommend to anyone seeking help, support or encouragement with their first or next novel. – Oliver

Related Posts:

• Showing vs telling: 'Show don't tell' in narration
• How do you write a story using three-act structure?
• How do you write a dystopian story? 5 tips
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Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

71 replies on “How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror”

[…] Similarly, the always awesome Now Novel blog has 6 Terrific tips on How to write a horror story that are worth a look. The most important piece of info there, in my opinion is # 5: Write scary […]

Great and helpful post. Its difficult to find helpful, informative posts on horror writing. Thanks.

It’s a pleasure, Alice. I’m glad you found this helpful.

I agree with Alice. This was very useful. Thanks, Bridget.

It’s a pleasure, Melissa, thanks for reading.

As always, an insightful and helpful post, especially regarding the distinction between terror and horror. Love the SK quote! 🙂

Thank you! Thanks for reading. It is a good quote, isn’t it?

Im 11 and working on a horror story with 100 or more pages. this is very helpful. 🙂

I’m impressed, Ethan. Keep going! I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂

Okay, I’m EXACTLY the same age and also working on a horror novel!! I already have 241 pages, though.

Update* im now 13 yayayayyaa owo I lost the pages and have then finished writing a script for something i cant loose. SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS

Omg hey Ethan and Malachi I’m twelve (right in the middle IG) and working on novels that are going to be between 100 and 300 pages! Good luck guys 😀

Great article. You helped me realise that the short I was working on is actually a novel. Not sure how mind you, but thanks all the same. I’ll sign up now.

Thanks, Gareth! Glad to help.

The article is useful, except for the last part, which totally messed up the beauty of the article. It’s POINTLESS trying to differentiate two things that are mostly used interchangeably. Moreover, Terry Heller’s point makes the whole sense, SENSELESS, because her definition of terror and horror are actually the same except for the subjects to where such emotion is concerned about. Terror is one’s fear for oneself, and horror is one’s fear for others? Are you kidding me? Both can be subjected to either oneself or to others. Dictionaries and encyclopedias never indicate that horror is what one fears for others alone, because it can be for oneself, too. If Terry cannot differentiate two things, which are not really meant to be differentiated because they are the ultimate synonym for each other, then she doesn’t have to make such an effort. She’s making everyone a fool.

Thank you for your engaging response. You raise valid points, and sometimes academic treatments of subjects do over-complicate matters. In light of your comment I’m updating the post since I see now that the distinction isn’t perhaps particularly useful here.

Thanks for the tips. Writing a horror novel for my 1st NaNoWriMo project. This was extremely helpful 🙂

I’m really glad to hear that, Ashley. I hope NaNoWriMo is going well.

I am 12 and have been working on horror since I was 7! So exited to actually get some good info! Thanks!

It’s a pleasure, Aurelia. It’s great that you’re already so committed to your love of writing, keep it up.

Thanks! I am exited to do Nanowrimo and I am am hoping to write a long novel this November. This really helped and extra thanks to the helpful comment!

It’s a pleasure! I hope your NaNoWriMo is going very well.

This has given me more quality advice on the genre than a three year creative writing degree. Best start reading the stuff first then! Thank you.

Thank you, Neil, high praise indeed. Good luck with your horror book!

… How does one get rid of writers block? My brain always blanks out when I try and start writing. So annoying! >:c

Sometimes listening to songs with a creepy tone helps

Great advice, Allee. I love listening to music while I work myself.

My advice is to literally just write what comes into your brain, it doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not, that’s what first drafts are for, as long as you’re writing in some shape of form, be it poor or good quality, it’s practice

Thank you. … My brain is weird. Just now, I’ve been shaken out of my sleep by an intense dream. Seriously. I don’t know what goes on up there, but it’s mad.

Good advice! Maya Angelou said similar about her writing process. Here are some additional tips on moving past a block: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/banish-writers-block/

I’m so happy I ran across this article. I’ve read from more than one story editor that the horror genre is the most difficult genre to master.

I’m glad to hear that, JP. All genres have their challenges but I’d say the best, best, best approach is to read widely in said genre (and others). Thanks for the feedback!

Yeah, if Stephen King can’t terrify or horrify, he’ll gross us out. And he says he’s not proud. In other words, he’ll stoop to the disgust level if he can’t get the others. But this is precisely the problem with the “gross” or “disgusting.” Disgust is not fear. When we are disgusted, we know TOO much. When we are horrified, there is always something we DON’T know. I’m amazed he doesn’t know that. An autopsy gives us disgust because nothing is held back from the viewer. It is not frightening. No one believes, for example, that the body is going to get up from the autopsy table and start attacking the doctor. But if I walk into the autopsy room all by myself and see a dead body on a table, turn away from the body to shut the door, turn back to it, notice it gone, and then have the lights start dimming? Yes. Now I am scared. Why? Simply because I don’t know certain things. I don’t know why the body has suddenly disappeared. I don’t know how a dead person could have moved. I don’t know where the body is right now. I don’t know if that body (if it is actually alive) has good or bad intentions toward me. I don’t know who is dimming the lights and why. It is so much easier to disgust the reader than to horrify him. It takes more cleverness to hold back information from the character and the reader than to let everything gush forth in blood and guts. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, for example, there is more fear to be found in the inscrutable nightly crying of the butler’s wife than in many of our modern horror films put together. Why is she crying? Why only at night? Why is she doing looking out of the window into the dark each night? The source of fear is in the unknown.

Ultimately, King does know and it is a show vs tell metaphor. You have to read his biographical On Writing because no one explains it correctly. Terror is the psychological aspect of the story. Horror is the stories physical manifestation of the terror. Disgust is the actions of horror. Showing the actions of horror kills all suspense immediately. I like to explain it to my students and listeners as if Terror and Horror are the brake and Disgust is the gas. It’s like the old story of the escaped lunatic with a hook were a young couple go out on a date. While driving to Make Out Lane there is a report on the radio about an escaped killer with a hook running around killing people that the only the girl hears. As the girl and boy are making out she sees a shadow and the boyfriend sees nothing. Then there is the screeching sound on the outside of the car. That’s terror. The boyfriend gets out and inspects his car in the dense fog. The girl loses sight of the boy as he walks toward the rear, building on the terror. There is another screech along her door, terrorizing her. She calls out the boys name and he doesn’t respond, building on the terror, possibly toward horror if the boy doesn’t return. Then he does. He leaps into the car and jerks it into reverse and pulls away from the scene at mach-5. When they arrive back at her house, they find a hook dangling from the passenger door handle, the horror. King describes this little story as the perfect short horror story. However, in some later versions of the story the girl jumps in the driver’s seat and pulls off without the boy. When she gets to her home she finds a bloody hook dangling from the door with a bit of gut on it, leaving the girl and the audience disgusted. as the tension and suspense are deflated.

This is very helpful. My 8th grade English teacher is holding a contest for writing a short (750 to 3,000 word) horror story, so I am researching the elements of horror and how to incorporate them into my work. This article is by far one of the more helpful ones I have found in finding ways to create fear, shock or disgust in the mind of the reader. Thank you!

Hi Margaret,

Thank you for this feedback. I’m glad to hear you found this article useful. I hope you won the contest 🙂

“…his skin distinctly yellowish in colour.” Far from being exemplary in any way, this is actually terrible, hack writing. If something is “yellowish,” it cannot be “distinctly” so. It’s either distinctly yellow, or “yellowish.” Likewise, “in color” is flabby and redundant. Could the skin be “yellowish” in shape or size? Could it be “yellowish” in cost or weight? This page is distinctly whiteish in color. See how weak and flabby that is?

To be fair, there is a lot of good information on this page. But Clive Barker is a dreadful writer, and should never be cited as an exemplar of good prose.

Hi Sharkio, you raise a very good point. I second your edit of just saying ‘yellowish’ and cutting in colour and am tempted to add a note on not taking the letter of his prose as exemplary, but rather the spirit 🙂 I agree that although the atmosphere and tone are there, the prose is weak in places. There’s also the question, though, of whether we can/should apply ‘literary’ standards to genre fic where these and other ‘sins’ are more widely accepted 🙂 Thanks for the thoughtful engagement with this detail.

Are you crazy? There is no writer at the top of their game as Barker was in the 70-90s. His influence is on everything today.

Thanks for sharing your perspective, H Duane 🙂 Just goes to show that everyone has different preferences. He is regarded as one of the modern masters of horror. I suppose genre fiction readers might also be more forgiving of certain stylistic choices than literary readers.

Some good tips after writing 2 love stories and a mystery now I am trying for some horrer story and this will help me such a good information

Thanks, Sidhu. That’s an interesting genre leap, but many horrors do have both elements. It’s a weird trope to me how often the romantic leads are the first to go in slasher flicks. You’d think writers would keep them to add romantic tension to the mix. I hope your story’s coming along well.

I just finished writing my first horror script/ screenplay… I checked this list just to see if I maybe left elements out that I should include or if I was on the right track and I’m proud to report that my script has it all… Once my film finally sees the light of day, I hope all horror fans are satisfied…

Hi Timothy, I hope so too! Best of luck with the next steps, please update us about what comes of it.

I am attempting to write a horror story where the main character is possessed and is writing in a diary like format as it occurs, and begins committing murders, how do I accurately capture the descent into madness?

Hi Evan, thank you for sharing that. It’s an interesting challenge. I would suggest a shift in style and tone in his writing. For example, perhaps they use stranger metaphors, repeat themselves more, their sentences become more fragmented, there’s the occasional odd word by itself on a line, lines or sentences that don’t make complete semantic sense but have an eerie undertone (I think of the classic phrase ‘The owls are not what they seem’ in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks).

I hope this helps! Good luck.

Thank you, this was very useful. I appreciate your enthusiasm and encouragement.

It’s my pleasure, Evan, glad to help. Have a great week.

Wow this was really helpful thanks

I’m glad to hear that, Rene. Thank you for the feedback!

I wanted to write a psychological thriller story for a youtube channel. I am glad I found help from here. Thank You.

It’s a pleasure, Suyasha! Thank you for reading and good luck creating your story for YouTube.

I appreciate the reference to ’cause and effect’ for any level of villainy. The more complex the villain, the more interesting the story. Anything that steps out of the dark and says, “Hi, I’m evil. I’m here to destroy everything for no apparent reason,” flattens the scene. I think your point about motivation is key to getting people engaged in the fantasy. I think that this will heighten the tension in my current story. Thank you.

Hi Deborah, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Agreed, a complex villain also tends to be less predictable which inherently builds more suspense, as (compared to a Bond villain, for example), they’re more textured and unknowable, less of a trope or archetype. I’m glad you found these ideas helpful to your current story, good luck as you proceed further!

Totally agree with you Joseph Pedulla. You summed it up perfectly! Gross is not scary. I like scary. Stephen King is talked about all the time like the all-time best horror writer. I have tried reading some of his work and I find it mind-numbingly boring. I like the story to move along; don’t give me a whole bunch of description!! Read Darren Shan’s ‘The Cirque Du Freak Series.’ Absolutely amazing!

Thank you. I appreciate the elaboration on each hint. I also think your arguments make sense AND can be helpful to many indie-authors & startup writers alike.

Thank you for your feedback, Andre. I’m glad you found our article helpful!

Was looking for some takes regarding this topic and I found your article quite informative. It has given me a fresh perspective on the topic tackled. Thanks!

Please see also my blog, Getting to Know the 4 Incredible Authors of Horror Fiction

Hope this will help,

Thank you, Joab. Thanks for sharing your horror writing blog.

[…] How to Write a Horror Story: 6 Terrific Tips […]

This is quite interesting and I can see how it relates to film more readily than to a novel – perhaps due to the many film examples and the visual quality of the ‘jump scare’, etc. I can see that film examples are very useful, however, I’m having trouble relating this to crafting words on a page as opposed to images on a screen.

Hi Rachel, thank you so much for this useful feedback. It’s interesting how much film and narrative fiction have influenced each other in this specific genre, but this is useful to me – I will work in more examples from horror lit in an additional section when I have a moment. Thanks for helping me make this article better and for reading.

Interesting! I may add some horror prompts to Craft Challenge. You did forget to mention the terror of never finishing a book, missing tons of errors, writing something right after someone else does it, and getting your book idea stolen 😉 Although I suppose they’re preferable to a gruesome death, or drowning, or grasshoppers (don’t judge me) 🕷️🪓🩸

I’m now trying to remember which of those fears horror authors’ writer characters (e.g. in Misery ) have 🙂 I’m going to have to have a look at that. OK, I’m with you on the grasshoppers. My aunt lives near the mountain and they get these very angry-looking green ones my aunt calls ‘Green [redacted]s’ 😉

Also please do, I’ll also think up some horror prompts to share as well (another section for this article in version 2.1).

Oh, I forgot one! The fear of every critique starting with “I don’t like this genre.” 😳

Haha I love that, Margriet. A relatable fear, I would say.

How much room for humor do you think there is in the horror genre? Do you think you could write a horror novel that has a high percentage of humor Vs. horror/gore and still call it a horror novel?

This is a great question, Scott. I really am not a horror expert myself (sometimes I write far out of my comfort zone here which requires a little more research). But if I think of Tim Curry’s performance as It , for example, how he fills the character with this wild humor and characterization that made many prefer the original to the remake, I would say horror has as much capacity for humor as you want it to have. Comedy horror is a thing, with zombie spoofs and the like produced, so you could always market a comedy horror title in both categories. I think part of the natural crossover is that jump scares, campy villainous dialogue, or see-it-coming-from-a-mile tropes often make audiences laugh, too.

I’m working on one to it’s very wierd and it’s called Toony and The Ink Machine Yes I know kind of ripoff of Bendy and The ink machine.

Fabulous title, Silas! Wishing you the best with the writing process.

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• Scriptwriting

How to Write Horror — Horror Writing Tips for Fiction & Film

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S o, you want to learn how to write a good horror story? Whether you want to know how to write a horror movie or how to write a horror book, the four steps outlined in this guide will get you started on the appropriate course of action and help you to align your creative goals. Writing horror isn’t all that different from writing for other genres, but it does require the right mindset and a creepy destination to work towards. Before we jump into the first of our four steps, let’s begin with a primer.

How to write horror

Before you get started.

The steps outlined in this ‘how to write horror’ guide assume that you already have a grasp over the fundamentals of writing. If you do not yet understand the basic mechanics of prose, screenwriting , or storytelling, then you might not get everything you need out of this guide. Luckily, we have a litany of informative resources that can bring you up to speed on everything you need to know.

If you intend to tell the  horror story  you have in mind as a screenplay, then the best way to fast track your screenwriting education might be to read through some of the  best screenwriting books  or to enroll in one of the  best online screenwriting courses .

Our guide to writing great scenes  is another good place to start, and our  glossary of screenwriting vocabulary  is a great resource if you encounter any unfamiliar terminology. When you’re ready to start writing, you can get going for free in  StudioBinder’s screenwriting software .

Now, we’re ready to jump into step one of our how to write horror guide. But, be warned, if you don’t already have a basic story concept in mind, you should consider that Step Zero.

There’s no concrete way to generate story ideas, but you can always look to creative writing prompts  and  indie films to kickstart inspiration .

HOW TO WRITE A HORROR MOVIE

Step 1: research and study.

Writing horror often begins by consuming great horror . We look to the stories of the past when crafting the stories of the present. Someone who has never read a horror novel or seen a horror film is going to have a much harder time writing horror than someone who is a voracious consumer of horror stories. By watching and reading, you can pick up plenty of tips for writing scary stories.

Before writing your opening line, be sure to do your research. It can be worthwhile to explore all manner of horror media. But for the purposes of this step, it’s best to focus in on the type of material you wish to create.

If you want to learn how to write a horror novel, then read as many horror novels as you can get your hands on. Our list of the  greatest horror films  ever made is a good place to conduct your research if you plan to write a horror screenplay. You can also check out our rundown of  underrated horror films for even more research.

Here are tips on how to write horror from the master himself, Stephen King. And, while you're at it, might as well catch up on the best Stephen King movies and TV based on his work!

How to write good horror  •  Stephen King offers horror writing tips

It’s important to go beyond simply reading and watching horror and to begin to analyze the material. Drill down into why certain decisions were made by the writer and try to figure out why certain elements work or don’t work. It can often be worthwhile to explore material you consider bad as well as what you consider good, so you can learn what not to do.

Check out our analysis of Midsommar   below for an example of how you can break down and explore the horror films that inspire you. You can also download the Midsommar script as a PDF to analyze the writing directly. You should check out our Best Horror Scripts post for more iconic script PDFs.

How to Write Horror  •   Read Full Midsommar Script

When consuming material to learn how to write a horror story, pay particular attention to the pacing and structure of the stories you’re inspired by. For example, if the style you find yourself most drawn to is slow-burn horror, then you might want to aim for a much slower pace than average with your story as well, but the build-up will become even more important.

Horror story writing

Step 2: decide your type of horror.

So, you’ve decided you’re writing horror, congratulations, you’ve settled on a genre. Now, it’s time to pick your sub-genre (s) and to decide on the specific avenue of horror to explore. There are many horror sub-genres to choose from. Just take a look at our ultimate guide to movie genres for quick rundown. And, check out the video below to see horror sub-genres ranked.

Ranking subgenres for inspiration  •  Horror story writing

Keep in mind that genres and subgenres can be mixed and matched in a multitude of combinations. For example, The Witch blends together the horror and historical fiction genres. From Dusk Till Dawn fuses action, crime-thriller, and vampire elements. And Shaun of the Dead fuses the horror and comedy genres by way of the zombie subgenre.

Our video essay below offers insights into Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s creative process. Check out our ranking of Edgar Wright’s entire filmography if you want even more.

How Edgar Wright writes and directs his movies  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Step Two is also the time to decide on the specific avenue you will exploit when writing horror. By “avenue of horror,” we mean the primary source(s) of tension and scares. Witches? Zombies? Cosmic horror? Body Horror ? Social Horror? These are all different avenues that your horror story can take on, and just like with genres and sub-genres, mixing and matching is encouraged.

A horror story that exploits kills and gore as its avenue of horror will be written in a much different manner than one that focuses on a sense of creeping dread and leaves more to the viewer or reader’s imagination.

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Step 3: Mine your fears and phobias 

You have decided on your genre and your avenue of horror, now it’s time to get more specific and drill deeper. For Step Three, go beyond asking what makes a story scary and instead figure out what makes your story frightening.

Depending on what you chose in Step Two, this might already be baked into your sub-genre and avenue of horror. For example, the home invasion sub-genre by nature mines a very real phobia that many people share.

The best home invasion films

However, if you chose to go with the zombie subgenre for example, you may need to work a little harder to discover what it is about your story that will scare audiences. Zombies on their own certainly hold the potential to be frightening, but audience overexposure to them throughout the years has gone a long way to lessen the scary impact they once had.

For examples of how to do it right, check out our rundown of the best zombie films ever made . And, for a different yet equally effective take on the sub-genre, check out our list of the  best zombie comedies .

How to write a horror story  •  Exploit common phobias

The above video breaks down the statistics surrounding a number of phobias. One common piece of writerly wisdom is “write what you know.” When writing in the horror genre, we can tweak that advice to, “write what scares you.” Mine your own fears and phobias when crafting your horror story; there are sure to be others out there who get creeped out by the same things.

This is also the step where you should try to discover your X-factor. What is it that sets your story apart from similar horror stories? If the answer is “nothing really,” then it might be time to take your concept back to the drawing board.

How to write a horror story

Step 4: keep your audience in mind.

From this point on, you are ready to start writing your horror story. Much of the writing process will be carried out in the same way as you would write a story in any other genre. But there are a few extra considerations. Put all that research you did in step one to work and ensure that your prose or screenwriting is well balanced and doles out the scares at a good pace.

You will want to find a good middle ground between sacrificing story and character development and going too long without something to keep your audience creeped out.

Narrative pacing is important in every genre, but horror writers also need to worry about pacing their scares, similar to how someone writing an action film needs to deliberately pace out their big action sequences.

How to write a horror story  •  Keep pacing in mind

Decide on who your target audience is from the jump and keep them in mind while you write. There can be a significant difference between horror aimed at teens vs. horror aimed at a mature audience. In film, this can mean the difference between shooting for a PG-13 rating instead of an R rating.

In fiction, this decision might manifest as a plan to market directly toward the young-adult crowd. Horror aimed at children, like Frankenweenie or The Nightmare Before Christmas , is drastically different from other types of horror aimed at older audiences.

Use your target audience as a guiding star that informs all of your narrative decisions as you write. Now, it’s time to put everything you just learned about how to write good horror stories to use.

The Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made 

If you are stuck on step one and looking to find some inspiration, our list of the greatest horror films ever made is a great place to look. You are sure to find something to get your creative juices flowing within this lengthy list. Writing great horror starts with consuming great horror, coming up next.

Up Next: Best Horror Movies of All Time →

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The Ultimate Guide for Beginners: How to Start Writing Horror Stories

by Horror Tree · Published August 27, 2021 · Updated August 18, 2021

Horror is a creative writing or storytelling genre that seeks to tap into the reader’s emotions and instill fear in them. Although horror stories are often classed with the broad category of thrillers, not all horror stories are thrillers or have a thriller structure. Classic horror fiction stories – expressed as a film, short story, novel, or novella – that tap into topics known to frighten most people. Some of these topics are ghosts, vampires, werewolves, serial killers, zombies, murderers, and reliably “fear of the unknown.”

Horror stories have become very popular over the years, which has become a downside for this niche. There are now several horror movies and books that recycle old content and do it in uncreative manners. However, when horror stories are correctly executed, they can thrill the audience, and they also make commentary on human conditions. 

Components of an excellent horror story 

There are four major components of an exciting horror story:

• Fear: this is an obvious one. If it doesn’t have an element of fear, then it cannot be a horror story. However, it may be more challenging than you think it is to create a story that’s genuinely terrifying for adults to read. Doing this rests on the ability of the writer to create tension. Although we all have our different fears, to create a genuinely terrifying horror story, you must be able to create fear from something that your audience would never expect or suspect to create that kind of emotion. That’s the secret to a successful horror story. 
• Revulsion: another attribute of an excellent horror story is its ability to make readers feel disgusted. There are examples of successful horror story franchises such as Saw that have used this element of disgust to devastating effect. 
• Surprise: creating surprises is essential for a horror story. When people face an idea or concept that they are not familiar with, they’re likely to struggle with comprehending it. Since it is something unknown to them, the most typical first reaction that they will show is fear. This is what makes surprise a practical element for horror stories to instill fear in the readers. 
• Terror: this is the next level of fear. Terror combines all of the elements mentioned above and adds another extremely potent ingredient: the human imagination. The combination of fear, revulsion, surprise, and imagination is terrifying. Sometimes, a simple suggestion of evil is all that it takes to portray something very terrifying in the human mind. 

Tips for writing a horror story

Now that you understand the different components of a horror story, here are a few tips from  essay help UK  write a successful horror story:

1. Use common fears

The fear factor of a horror story is the most crucial part of the story. People who read horror don’t do it because they want easy entertainment. On the contrary, they want to be terrorized and titillated. Here are some elements that you can employ to achieve this:

• Instinctive fears  

These fears have some biological or logical foundation. They are the most potent way to create horrors. Darkness, heights, spiders, and snakes are common phobias from people’s instincts, so they are usually effective for frightening readers. 

Instinctive fears are even more effective when innocent characters are the recipients of the terror. 

• Supernatural beings or monsters

This element goes past logic. For instance, it is common knowledge that ghosts, vampires, and werewolves are not real, but they still get to shake people to their core. The uncertainty that these creatures create is why they are so sinister. People start to wonder whether these monsters exist, but they just haven’t seen them. This creates fear of the unknown in them, which is a prevalent feature of horror stories. 

2. Create the right atmosphere

The type of horror story that you are writing will determine what the right atmosphere is or should be. The atmosphere or tone in your story will depend to a large extent on its subgenre:

• Thriller horror uses psychological fear, which starts close to the beginning of the story before much has happened. 
• Gross-out horror includes vivid descriptions involving gouged-out organs, hacked-up flesh, and spurting blood to shock and terrify the reader. 
• Classic horror traces its way back to the Southern Gothic or Gothic genre with bone-chilling characters and spooky settings similar to Dracula and Frankenstein. 
• Terror provokes a feeling of dread for the reader, and this can either be the climax or peak of the story, or it may be sustained throughout the story.

Subgenres can also be combined, especially as the story progresses. For example, you can start with a thrilling psychological horror before moving to the gothic undertones. 

3. Make sure the stakes are obvious

Your readers must be aware of the stakes to make them thrilled as they read through. Make it clear and obvious what the stakes are from the onset. Establish the problem for the character and what’s at stake if they fail. Your motivation or stakes may be:

• Survival: all horror story characters seek survival. That’s the basic objective, but this goal has some nuances that come with it. So, the purpose might be more than just being alive. It may be to defeat the enemy while trying to survive. 
• Protecting loved ones: the stakes are higher when the protagonists have many people to keep alive. Some horror stories and movies peak when there are threats of death to the loved one of the main character. 
• Solving mysteries: horror stories may not always be about escaping a present danger. It can also be about solving past terrors.

Conclusion 

Horror stories are fascinating to read, but they are not as easy to write. Creating fear in the hearts of people reading your story takes a lot of skill. 

Author Bio Thomas Jackson is a professional freelance content writer and an active member of several writing clubs in New York. He also works for  professional writing services , where he provides  dissertation proofreading service  and  essay writing service reviews . He has written several songs since he was a child. He gets inspiration from the live concerts he does in front of close friends and family members. 

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The Horror Tree is a resource for horror authors which was created in 2011. The main goal when starting the site was to include all of the latest horror anthologies and publishers that are taking paying submissions. A resource useful for both new and experienced publishers alike looking for an outlet for their written material!

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How to Write a Scary Story

by Emily Wenstrom | 55 comments

I love Halloween. The creepy movies, ghost stories, the crisp fall air, the pumpkins. And who doesn’t love to get dressed up and hit the town for night? But there’s nothing like a horrifying story to get in your head—and get you in the spirit. Here are four tips on how to write a scary story.

4 Tips on How to Write a Scary Story

What makes a good scary story ? Is it details that evoke the fear factor? The element of surprise or suspense?

Maybe the supernatural elements like ghosts or vampires will set your spooky story apart. Whatever key elements you chose to include in your scary story, here are a few pointers on how to write a scary story to get you started.

(And to see our complete guide on writing a short story, click here .)

1. Explore what scares you.

Story ideas can come from anywhere, but for a scary story, start with one of your greatest fears—not to be confused with things generically considered scary. Whether it’s something trivial like clowns or fear of heights or something traumatic like losing a child, the best stories start with something personal.

So what real world fears scare you ? Explore it and take that absolute fear to its darkest place. Now, how do you get your readers there with you?

2. Identify your main character

A strong main character in a horror story draws readers into their experience and makes them feel the fear. This stands true whether you’re telling the story from the perspective of the protagonist or a true villain.

Personally, my favorite horror characters are often the ones that can’t be trusted.

As you choose or develop your main character, consider what makes them vulnerable to the fear you're exploring. How are they uniquely built to have to face that fear in the scariest scenes of your story? 

3. Work the suspense

Hitchcock wasn’t one of the greats for nothing. The soul of a good horror story isn’t the terrifying killer, it’s the fear of what the killer is going to do. A good horror story exposes just enough for the reader to know something isn’t right, but not enough for readers to know why until the end.

Suspense stories set up conditions where the reader knows something is going to happen. Sometimes they do it with foreshadowing. Othertimes it might be through a creepy setting or some creepier element. Look for ways to draw out that tension.

4. Warning: Avoid the tropes

Like any genre, horror has its tropes. Every single one of them comes creeping out of the woodwork this time of year, too. But I think we’ve all seen enough dumb teen girls make bad choices that end with them murdered by a serial killer. Don’t give in to the tropes!

When using horror motifs, like any story, find your own unique take.

Now go embrace the season! Start with these guidelines and see where your imagination takes you—soon you’ll have a bone-chillingly haunting story on your hands.

What tips do you have on how to write a scary story? Share in the comments .

Emily Wenstrom

By day, Emily Wenstrom, is the editor of short story website wordhaus , author social media coach, and freelance content marketing specialist . By early-early morning, she is E. J. Wenstrom , a sci-fi and fantasy author whose first novel Mud will release in March 2016.

55 Comments

I love writing horror! Here’s something I use to help me: watch TONS of scary movies and read TONS of horror novels! This is where you learn what to do as well as what NOT to do. And you explore many story lines that can inspire you!

Great idea to put you in the right mood 🙂

I agree, lots of reading in any genre of one’s choosing builds a knowledge base of what good writing is made of.

I am terrible at writing horror. I admit that freely. My skills lie in other areas, so I can’t really offer any tips.

I did ponder some fears: darkness, house creaks when you’re alone, something happening to my children, break-ins, bees.

I combined several of these I to this practice(fun to write, even though it is pretty cliche!):

It comes in the dark, hiding among the shadows. It creeps through empty rooms, and the floorboards creak and groan. She laughs to herself, hearing the sounds. The house only makes those noises when her husband is out of town.

It continues to slink along the walls, drawing ever closing to the children’s rooms. She feels a chill she can’t explain and contemplates adjusting the thermostat. She decides not to. Wouldn’t want to disturb the kids, sleeping so soundly. They’re obviously not bothered by the cold.

It reaches the bedroom door of the youngest child and stealthily enters. A quiet gasp and then nothing.

You had me at “the house only makes those noises when her husband is out of town.” I swear my place does this.

I don’t know, that’s not so cliche. Sounds like an original twist on a universal fear. I like it.

Thank you! You’re very kind!

Wow, amazing story. Had me at the edge of my seat for sure!

I love reading horror, I love watching scary movies and shows about the paranormal and while I put up a fearless act in front of anyone who’s watching, my brain usually quickly succumbs to a fearful paranoia induced by whatever was going on in the book/movie. It’s an unsettling feeling, yet one I tend to seek every now and then for reasons beyond me. Seeing what a scardy cat I can – if only internally – be, I often wonder why I keep coming back for more.

I find it’s mostly because normally I am not scared of much. I have fears, of course, but those are mostly ambiguous, fears I can rationalize and deal with or ignore. So getting scared the “good ol’ jump scary shivers down your spine-y” way every now and then feels somewhat refreshing I guess. The thrill it brings along with the creepy feeling that takes root deep within you, racing you heartbeat as if it’s the F1 season already, is just something only a good horror can deliver for me.

Let me watch one episode of Ghost Adventures and the second I lay down to sleep I’m going to overanalyze every strange sound that stirs in the dark, desolate room, even though I know if there were ghosts here, they probably would have started a party earlier in the twenty years I’ve lived here. Just re-reading Suzuki Koji’s Dark waters makes me stare suspiciously at the tap when I pour water down my glass, expecting slimy hair – or worse – to follow suit. Just few days ago my friend brought me his collection of the Nickelodeon classic – Are you afraid of the dark? I thought: “Hey! My favorite show growing up! Surely I won’t be scared after watching thi – oh well, never mind” *hides under her bed.,..with the boogeyman*

Ridiculously enough, never am I more scared than right after indulging in my guilty horror pleasures. Suddenly everything becomes a 100% more scarier. It’s probably why I have never even thought about writing a horror story – I might as well scare myself to death with the paranoia itself before even finishing the story :’D

I’m such a scaredy-cat I can’t watch horror movies. They give me unspeakable, apocalyptic nightmares. I do watch the paranormal shows, then sit around all night imagining noises. I don’t know if I could write horror either.

You are beautiful, my darling. You remind me of the inner workings of a lock: every curve of your figure, every delicate bend, fits together perfectly into something so much more than its parts, but that is even more stunning because of their elegance. You glint like alabaster in the moonlight, a marble temple to your own divinity. Your dark eyes are endless, seeing into mysteries I cannot yet comprehend. How wise you must be. Your smile stretches from ear to ear, ever cheerful. You will never be sad again, this I know. Here, let me interlock your fingers with mine and look at you. You are just as lovely now as the day we first met. It has taken me so long to find you again, my love. And I promise we will never again be parted. In the morning the pastor will find the earth disturbed and will think nothing of it. He is a careless man. He will call the gravedigger to fill the opening back up and that will be the end of it. No one will ever think to look for me. We will hold each other forever my darling, here in our home beneath the ground.

It made my heart ache at the end. Losing someone that you love is a devastating thing that rips your heart out. When I think that I might lose my brother or my parents, that fear can be crippling, and I can feel depressed just thinking about it. Whoever you have lost, EndlessExposition, I pray that God will heal your heart.

Very Edgar Allen Poe-ish. Romantic and creepy. Good job!

Horror can be especially disturbing when its laced with love, as in this piece. Nice work.

This somewhat reminds me of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. Love it!

That definitely gave me the creeps. I’m impressed at how nervous the sinister voice and imagery (smile stretches from ear to ear especially weird) made me feel while reading it!

One of my greatest fears crept out in my main character: being raped. I’ve never had to face the possibility of being raped before, but I know things like that happen, so when I walk to my car in the dark, notice a creepy guy watching me, or get asked personal questions by a complete stranger (that’s happened and every guy that slaps eyes on a woman for the first time and asks for her number and if she has a boyfriend needs a knucklesandwich), that fear can sneak into my mind. That’s why I’m an extremely cautious person. I don’t trust easily, and I try never to be alone with a guy I don’t trust. Anyway, my main character actually deals with a situation where she’s almost raped. So in a way, she’s really facing something I fear.

I think writing stories and letting our characters work through some of our fears is a valid approach. The reader can see the world through your eyes and your perceptions, and experience things thet thought they knew in a totally different way. As for you, the writing may help you understand and cope with your fears.

I’m working on something very similar and exercise the same kind of caution.. at times I feel like I should be writing something lighter and more hopeful, rather than being further drawn into the fear, but maybe it’s how we create writing at its most powerful. Totally agree with you re the knucklesandwich!! 🙂

Can’t resist a horror prompt, especially when it digs into my own fears …

“Oh my! I’ll call the exterminator first thing in the morning, dear. How awful that that happened to you!” Mrs. Ketchens stood on her stoop and made a sour face at her visitor.

“It’s really, OK, Mrs. Ketchens. I shouldn’t have bothered you with this tonight. I can just run to the store and pick up some mousetraps,” Jarrod said, feeling embarrassed.

“Nonsense, young man. There is no reason at all that my tenants should have to put up with an infestation. Right there in the — in the shed, was it?”

Jarrod looked at his shoe laces as he replied, “Yes, I saw it in the shed.”

“Right there in the shed! Imagine! And how many did you say you saw?” Mrs. Ketchens looked at Jarrod over her wire rims.

“Well, um, just the one. I’m sorry, Mrs. Ketchens. I REALLY shouldn’t have told you about this. It’s no big deal.” Jarrod was squirming under the old lady’s glare, and he felt like she was beginning to ridicule him.

“Whether it was one or one THOUSAND, it is I who should apologize, Mr. Harris. No, we’ll get this all cleared up in the morning. In the meantime,” Ketchens said as she clutched his cold hand, “I insist that you let me make it up to you with a cup of tea.”

She tugged Jarrod across the threshold with surprising force, and she closed the door behind him before he could protest.

“Well … hehe … maybe just a quick cup.” The room was warm in the glow of the fireplace.

“Splendid!” Mrs. Ketchens delighted. “I already have the pot near a boil. Have a seat there on the sofa by the fire, and I’ll fetch us some cups.”

Jarrod felt like an intruder in his landlady’s home, but he was the one who had ran to her when he found a silly mouse in an outbuilding. Same stupid phobia that had haunted him his whole life.

He had to humor the old coot now, so he settled onto the sofa, kicking up a puff of dust. He could hear Mrs. Ketchens rattling dishes in the next room, and she emerged from the darkness after a couple of minutes.

“Here we go, dear.” She carried a dingy platter with cups, a creamer, and a sugar bowl to the coffee table near the fire.

By the flickering light, Mrs. Ketchens poured boiling water from the copper kettle into the cups, causing the tea bags inside to bob up and down, pulling at the strings that flopped over the brims.

“There, now. Just a few minutes and we’ll have some soothing tea to take our minds off that unpleasantness at your house,” the old lady promised. “How do you take it? Milk? Sugar?”

“Um, no, black is fine.” Jarrod just wanted to get this over with.

After some stilted talk about the weather and plenty of awkward silence, Mrs. Ketchens moved to the table once again and bobbed the tea bags up and down a few times.

“Oh, that’s so nice!” she called out and then carried the steaming cups to the couch and handed one to Jarrod. “Here you go, dear. Enjoy!”

“Thank you, Mrs. Ketchens,” Jarrod replied as he wrapped his fingers around the cup.

A few sips in, Jarrod had to admit that he was feeling better. Maybe that Ketchens knew what she was doing after all.

Just as that thought rolled down his throat, Mrs. Ketchens exclaimed, “I’m so rude sometimes!”

She hopped up and clicked on a floor lamp to right of the mantel that Jarrod had not even noticed by the firelight. Then she lifted her tea bag from his cup to make her point: “I didn’t even ask you if you preferred chocolate or vanilla!”

The old lady was holding not a tea bag, but a squirming brown mouse, crying out now in pain from the scalding water.

Horrified, Jarrod looked into his own cup just in time to see a red-eyed, white rodent head break the surface of his “tea,” and it screamed.

And so did Jarrod.

Auuughhh! Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that’s horror. Ugh. *shudders*. I’ll be in the corner, shaking. (Excellent job.)

That was horrible! (In a good way).

Ew ew ew! That just makes me cringe. Nice work.

Love this, had to stop myself from skipping to end just to kill the suspense.

Double ick, with cold shivers. Fabulous!

Thanks for the comments. Gotta go change the traps now. 🙂

I loved the suspense you built up in this, with the awkwardness and the use of light to reveal the story’s elements. Must confess I was expecting far worse than a cup of mouse tea but am v relieved I’ll still be able to sleep tonight! 🙂

that was a nice caramel “verminilla” macchiato latte…..at the end

your profile picture makes u like like a complete faggot

I’ve been posting bits of a short story that has scary images. This story is scary in a metaphysical, “we are all always creating our own heaven or hell” way. I will post the next bit now. To recap, Yvonne, nice wife, and Preston, mean husband, die in a fiery crash. Preston wakes up in a dark, demonic place by the side of a black lake. A guy I have tried very hard to depict as scary is trying to get Preston into a rowboat. Then Yvonne finds herself on a pristine, untouched mountain top where the snow is not cold, and there are friendly human-like beings with mirror eyes there to greet her. She has just convinced them to let her know what happened to Preston, and they have opened a hole in the snow. Down below, Yvonne has caught a glimpse of Preston, sleeping on a bed of flames.

Yvonne’s reaction was automatic. There was no thought involved, just a reflex to rescue someone she loved from a horrible fate. She knelt in front of the one in the brown robe, clasped her hands together, and turned up her face in supplication. She prayed to this being as, during life, she had prayed to God. “Please, I beg you! Please let Preston come up here with us! You don’t understand him the way I do! Please, please, let him come here!” The wrinkled face frowned, and the mirrored eyes, which had reflected the sky and clouds, went dark, as if a light had been switched off.

Sobbing, Yvonne did not give up. “Please, I’m begging you, give him a chance! He’s a good man! He was only mean to me because he didn’t love me, and I pressured him to marry me and stay with me! I used the kids to make him feel trapped! I loved him so much I couldn’t let him go! Can’t you see how good he is? He was just unhappy! Please don’t punish him for that! Please, please, just let him come up here for a little while. You’ll see he really belongs here!. Please, please!

Yvonne could no longer see the face inside the hood of the brown robe. There was a dark emptiness where previously she had clearly seen a face. She looked down to see what was happening to Preston, and was relieved to see that he had floated up off of the flames, and was slowly floating up towards the clouds and mountain top. She could not see the means of his ascension, yet he remained perfectly and evenly prone, as if lying on an invisible platform, that brought him slowly to the rim of the hole in the snow. Preston levitated, still asleep, a few feet above the hole. The edge of the hole became misty and the hole shrank a little. In a few moments, the hole was gone and the unseen force set Preston gently on the new, powdery white snow.

As his body touched the new snow, Preston’s eyes opened wide, and he took in a sharp gulp of air. Yvonne knelt down to hold him, but he pushed her away and screamed. His eyes were open wide, and he began thrashing and rolling around. His movements were so violent, she couldn’t get close to him. Preston shrieked unintelligible high, piercing, primal screams. Yvonne ran around him, trying to see what was happening. “Preston!”, she yelled over his screaming. “What is going on? What is happening to you?”

Preston continued writhing and screaming, and managed to turn his head to look directly at Yvonne. “I’m burning!” He cried out, “Help me, I’m burning. HELP ME, Oh God, HELP ME!” He didn’t say any more, and continued shrieking and wailing. Feeling sick, Yvonne finally grasped that the snow, which had been neither hot nor cold for her, was in fact an inferno of agony for Preston.

She ran back to the robed figure, who had not moved the entire time. The face had not returned, and she still could only make out blackness and empty space instead of any type of visage. She fell back on her knees and begged, “Send him back! I didn’t know! I didn’t know it would hurt him! Please send him back to where he was! I’ll never ask again, I swear! She screamed louder than Preston, and fell forward on the ground. She looked up and begged, “Please, please, please, please, please….” Finally, the hole in the snow reopened, and Preston descended as slowly and evenly as he had ascended. The flames far below were still there, and he was on course to be set down gently on the pyre. Preston was halfway back when the hole abruptly closed, yet Yvonne could still hear his screams, growing fainter.

This is not the end, there is one more scene.

Interesting concept — thanks for sharing!

I love the way you use dialect in your story to tell so much about Yvonne’s feelings towards her husband – she’s instantly such a lovable character. Also this piece created some great imagery for me ‘and the mirrored eyes, which had reflected the sky and clouds, went dark, as if a light had been switched off’. When do we get to read the next scene? 🙂

Sidney, thank you for the feedback. I put installments on The Write Practice when the days assignment will fit the next scene in the story.

When I was looking at my fears the thing that stood out the most wasn’t the thing I feared but rather the anxiety that accompanied it. So this got me thinking of those days as a child when you couldn’t sleep because of the monster under the bed (I must admit that even at age 22 I still sometimes get that feeling when i get out of bed at night). I know this isn’t much but this is what I came up with. __________________

Help mommy daddy Help! the scratching, make it stop can’t you hear it Make It stop!

Help mommy daddy Help! It’s under my bed hiding, waiting Find It! Find It!

Help mommy daddy Help! the breath, I can smell it rotten, stinks Kill It!

Quickly mommy daddy Quickly! It’s crawling out coming to get me Save me!

Hurry mommy daddy Hurry! getting closer, sniffing claws reaching, No No Save me!

Please mommy daddy Please! scared, Save me teeth, biting, No No Too Late! Save me

Brilliantly captures that feeling I think we can all relate to from all those years ago.

Thanks for the comment. Happy that it captured anything since it’s so different from my usual style.

Mine always hid in the wardrobe! This just totally took me back in time.

To be honest mine always stood beside my bed. Which was really creepy since I could only fall asleep if I was lying on my side. Thanks for the comment!

My deepest fears include being alone forever, invisible to the ones I love, and most of all, unworthy of love. When I started thinking how this could apply to the horror genre or how these fears could inspire a story. My idea was about a young woman who’s cursed. Anyone she falls in love with meets some kind of terrible unfortunate ending, so she swears off love and becomes a recluse. But then one day she meets someone who relentlessly pursues her and she gives in. But soon after they get together weird things start happening, so they join together to figure out how to break the curse. Or whatever.

I’m not quite sure if this falls along the lines of what the prompt’s asking, but at least it got me thinking. 😛

Your idea just got me thinking too – thanks for sharing! 🙂

So this is my first time actually posting in a prompt and its a bit late only read this tonight but here goes. My biggest fear is probably the loss of a loved one. So not sure if this is horror per se but for me its terrifying thought

Dana decided to take a long walk. The weather outside wasn’t particularly summery, it was cool but not chill, just mild enough to be refreshing. She felt as if she had walked for sometime and decided she might like to sit down. Suddenly she was feeling light headed, to her convenience she had stopped just by a bench. As it turned out this was her favourite bench, the spot her mother had always brought her for their Sunday afternoon picnics, she must bring Anya someday. She loved this spot it overlooked the pond, they had always made sure to bring extra bread rolls to feed the ducks. It was so beautiful until they filled it in and turned it into a skate part after the poor baby had drowned.

Confusion, crashed in. Followed quickly by reality. She fell backwards into Jonathan’s arms. Suddenly aware of where she was, her coat still in her hand she had fallen into him. He was holding her as if she might shatter into a million pieces if he let her go, at that moment she felt as if that were true.

“Darling did you hear me – darling talk to me”, his voice was desperate, lonely, pleading for her to return to her role as The Supporter. How could she? What was there left to support. The structure she held up was – he said it again ” Its our Anya… they found her… she’s… Anya’s gone”. Her reality began fading once more.

Hi, well done for posting – I’m too scared to dream up and write something fearful, knowing I’ll have nightmares for a week if I dwell on anything even remotely creepy! I found reading this a bit confusing and had to reread a couple of times, then wondered whether you’d created the sense of confusion deliberately. It’s definitely surreal. 🙂

I locked the doors, dead bolted them, went and got a glass of water then repeated the process. I was alone. He had promised me it wouldn’t ever happen– that I’d never be completely alone, but now look at where we are. I sat down on the floor in the laundry room. I couldn’t bring myself to go up the stairs to the bedroom. I couldn’t even step foot in there. Not after what happened in there.

Honestly, what scares me most is my own mind. I’ve been known to come up with disturbing thoughts, and my dreams are horrors on a whole other level, so this is my practice:

The darkness loomed overhead, as the moon slipped behind clouds, but that was normal, and Emma simply smiled as she looked out her screened window. It was raining again. Everybody always said it wasn’t healthy to stay up so late, but she loved the night-time so much. She glanced over to her digital alarm clock; three thirty-seven am. She should probably go to sleep soon, but the insomnia, and her racing mind kept her up.

“You really should go to bed you know.” Emma froze. Everybody was asleep, weren’t they? That didn’t sound like either of her parents’ voices either. Slowly, she turned her head to look at her door, scared to see who it was. Her vision blurred and went black. She blinked until it came into focus. There was nobody there. “Really, what are you so scared of? Monsters? They don’t exist. It’s just me here.” The voice paused and why did it feel like it was smiling? “And I am, after all, you.”

It didn’t make any sense. The disembodied voice the blurring vision- and why wouldn’t her eyes come into focus completely? “No, go away. I don’t want you here.” She muttered.

“Darling,” it drew out the word lovingly. “I can’t just go away, when I’m inside your head.”

“No…” Emma protested, starting to get desperate. Everytime it showed up, bad things happened. “I’m not crazy.” It laughed as she tried to cover her ears. “I’M NOT CRAZY!!!”

The screams seemed to dissolve into the night, but across the hall, her mother woke up. She ran to her daughters room, only to find a monster. Sitting on her bed, the thing had bloodshot eyes, and a malicious grin. Shadows surrounded it, and she took a step back.

“Who are you, and what have you done with our daughter?!” The woman demanded. The creature looked up at her, and she froze. That looked like-

“What, don’t you recognize me? Your poor daughter, not even recognized by her own family. Between that instant and the next, the creature leapt.

David woke to find his wife clawed to death in the hall, and his daughter sleeping peacefully in her room.

Sometimes the worst monster is what’s inside our minds.

good advice

That’s funny because when I read the suggestion that I should write down my fears, I was like “No, because someone might be watching and use them to mess with me!” and then I realized, well, that’s one of them there.

…People Hide Who They Are…

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Lucy. She was not like any other ordinary girl, she was quiet and never slept at night. Her parents got really worried when she turned 11. She still continued to never talk or sleep. She now only wore black and red clothing with spiky boots, necklaces, and bracelets. Lucy’s parents got really worried and eventually sent her to a foster home.

When Lucy arrived at the foster care center she went straight up to her room there and stayed there. Lucy put her bags on the bed and started unpacking her things. She opened up a dresser drawer and placed her black jeans and leggings there. Opening up the second drawer with her shirts in her hand, she placed them there. She looked on the top of the dresser and found a jewelry box . Lucy decided to put her necklaces and bracelets there.

Lucy looked around and found a book about Fallen Angels on the top of the bed frame. She started reading the book that night and found it very interesting. The book had a huge impact on her and she wanted to become a Fallen Angel. Everything that the book described the Angels looked like, matched her and her interests. Lucy began a project.

The project consisted of becoming a Fallen Angel. The book told her exactly what the Angels do and when. On a certain week during the year called Cheshvan is when the Angels do something bad. The Angels kill at least 12 people during that week at night when no one can see them. Lucy was fascinated at this. She always knew she was bad, but she never knew she was willing to kill to become something she wanted to be. Cheshvan was only 3 weeks away and she had to prepare.

She got as many books she could find about Fallen angels and Cheshvan. Once she had at least 5 books she began reading and reading. It had now been at least a week and a half. Lucy had almost everything she needed except for a certain necklace or ring. This was a Archangel necklace and ring, she had to have at least one or the other. She began sneaking out at night to go looking around town for a antique shop.

The first night she went out looking she found one antique shop right around the block. The doors were unlocked and the employee was no where to be found. Lucy then saw the sign “Fallen/Archangel Jewelry.” She was pleased to have found it so quick. She walked over and saw that the necklace and ring were locked in a glass case and locked in. When she made sure no one was around, she smashed the glass and grabbed the necklace, then ran.

When she got back into the Foster Center she went straight to her room and started reading again. The 5 books were very interesting to her. Lucy had now put on the necklace and began a list of whom she should kill. The first 2 shouldn’t be hard she thought with a smile. She wrote them down:

After she wrote those 2 down she began thinking again. She didn’t know anyone in the Foster home so she just wrote down:

05. Kid (8 kids)

11. Mistress 1.

12. Mistress 2.

After Lucy wrote these names she felt good about herself. Opening up a drawer she placed the paper in there.

Another week and a half had passed. It was now Cheshvan. Lucy waited till 11:02pm to start killing. Deciding to only kill her parents tonight, but she knew they stayed up late. “If they saw me who would they tell, they’ll be dead.” she thought with a wide smile on her face. She snuck out the window. Lucy ran to her house and peeked into the windows. They were watching a movie on the couch. “This should be easier that I thought, all I have to do is show my face and slit their throats.” Lucy laugh slightly at her amazing thought. She walked through the back door.

She walked through the kitchen and grabbed the biggest knife. Then walked right in front of the television grinning. Her parents were astonished at this. They were so shocked to scream or even move. Lucy walked behind the couch and counted down, “3…2…1…Dead.” Taking the knife slicing through the thin skin on their necks. Her parents within minutes bled out and were dead. Lucy enjoyed this more than she thought, she laughed all the way back to the Foster Center.

It was now Tuesday. The mistress 1. came in and talked quietly to Lucy. Lucy listened to the mistress and how she was telling her about how her parents were murdered. Lucy just sat there with a straight face. Once the mistress left Lucy was pleased that her work had been noticed. She then thought, “I’ll be even happier tomorrow after I kill 4 kids tonight.”

It was now 11:04pm. She had taken the knife from her parents house and hid it in the drawer. Lucy decided to kill 4 kids on the other side of the building so nobody would suspect her tomorrow. She walked quietly out of the room, down the stairs, and into the room with the 4 girls. Lucy came in closely. She cut off the first girls head, then slit the second girls throat, then with the third girl slit her throat as well, and then last but not least the cut off the fourth girls head.

It was now Wednesday and Lucy woke up to everyone sleeping. This time no one came in to talk to her. She was once again pleased with herself and her killing skills. Lucy decided not to kill again for a couple of days even though she now loved becoming something else other than a human. Deciding not to kill till friday was a type of punishment for her, but it had to be done.

It was now Friday, it was time to kill. No one would be expecting a killing of 5 people tonight. Lucy had already killed 6 people, tonight would make it 11 people. She waited till 11:05pm to begin to kill. But tonight would have a twist. She wasn’t going to kill just kids. Lucy was going to kill 4 kids and 1 mistress.

It was now 11:05pm. She was more ready than ever. She walked out of the room silently and went for 4 boys to kill. She walked into the room where the boys were, and slit their throats one by one. But, she did this quickly so they wouldn’t scream. When she was done with them she went to the mistress’s room. This time she woke up the mistress softly and counted down, “3…2…1…Dead.” Before Lucy killed her, she let the mistress see her face. Her work was done for that night.

Saturday morning was the last day of Cheshvan. Lucy had to make her last kill tonight so she could become a Fallen Angel. She was excited for this last night. The necklace was placed around her neck still. Her knife was in her drawer waiting for the moment to feel the flesh across the blade. All of a sudden Lucy heard screaming and it was loud. She didn’t bother to open the door. All that she could do was smile as big as she could.

It’s now 11:01. Her last kill awaits down the hall in bed. Lucy grabbed the knife and opened the door. To her surprise the mistress that she was coming to kill was standing in the doorway. Lucy was not frightened until the mistress with dark baggy eyes pulled out a gun and brought it to Lucy’s chest. In a matter of 4 seconds the mistress pulled the trigger. But the mistress was a Fallen Angel and Lucy was her last kill for Cheshvan.

This is true I swear: These creepypastas were made years ago when I was very young, and they are old, terribly cliché and outdated. I keep them posted only because some people still enjoy reading these, and they remain a fond memory for many. Whether you’re reading these for laughs, or because you legitimately like them, I hope you enjoy!

Poképark Wii to me was one of those games I picked up once, powered through, then never touched again. It’s fun and amusing the first round, but after a while the mini-games and running to and fro get a tad bit stale. I personally found it a bit amusing how every Pokémon you make friends with always asks you to play with them again some time later on.

Especially Mew.

That thing must’ve been one of the single most frustrating bosses I’ve ever fought in my gaming life. To think such a simple game would have something so frustrating to end it off still boggles my mind. I sure wasn’t going to re-challenge it for fun any time soon. When you think about it, it’s really no wonder Mew is stuck up alone on that Sky Pavilion with no friends.

Somewhere along the line the pleas of the Pokémon for me to return must have gotten to me, since recently I found a desire to play the game once more. When I turned the game on, I had figured I wouldn’t be playing for very long. I’d just run around and talk to a few Pokémon until I got bored and quit, then never look at the game again for another year.

Pikachu pranced around on the loading screen, and I couldn’t help but grin. I had to give credit: This game was adorable. I mentally concluded I’d visit all the main attractions at all the zones to start off. I was dropped off at the Poképark Entrance, which was a bit strange. There wasn’t really any reason for me to have gone there the last time I saved, but alas, just a few extra seconds for me to run. I powered through the trail abusing the dash ability.

The forest around the trail seemed… Odd, though. It seemed a bit more dark than normal. There weren’t that many trees, and what few there was were dead and shriveled. The path I was walking on seemed to be made of ash too. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and make it to Meadow Zone. Except, when I did, I almost wished I was back at the Entrance.

The Meadow Zone laid in ruins. There wasn’t a living tree, plant, or anything green in sight. The landscape was barren and grey, as well was the sky, with a few columns of smoke spiraling out of the cracked ground. A few oddly shaped stones were here and there, and scattered about were what appeared to be… corpses? I took a few steps forward, but was confronted by a wonderful sight: Mew.

“Oh, you’re finally back! We’ve been waiting for you for a long time.” I didn’t know what it meant by “we”, considering there wasn’t a living thing in sight for miles. “Hey, wanna play a game?” I pondered whether to choose yes or not, considering I didn’t feel like going through the pain of battling it all over again. Then considering the current situation, I selected yes, and if it came to worst and I had to fight it then I’d just shut this accursed game off and never let it see the light of day again.

It giggled, then replied with, “Think you can win?” It paused, seemingly to let that statement settle in, then spoke once more, “Meet me at Venasaur’s old attraction!” Then flew off. I started to dash off after it, then realized something:

What the heck is going on here.

I had a feeling this would probably be the best moment to shut this game off than to see what was in store, but… Curiosity got the better of me. I continued my chase.

I didn’t reach very far until I was stopped by a cut scene as I neared the first corpse in my path: a Buneary. It shook, then rose off the ground. It stared at me with white, soulless eyes, its blood matted fur covered in dirt, grime, and gaping gashes. Then the abomination spoke, “Will you play with me?” I selected no, not really wanting to play with… whatever it was. It looked genuinely distressed, and persisted, “But… we just wanted to play with you… It’s been so long…”

It slowly, almost painfully, crawled towards my Pikachu, then began to attack it. Or, look more like it was trying to murder it than attack it. I fought back in self-defense with an Iron Tail to the face, and promptly sliced its head in half. It fell to the ground, a pile of flesh. It took me a moment for it to set in that I just killed a Pokémon. I calmly backed away from the crime scene, and continued my trek on chasing after the Mew as I was before.

As I sped along, other corpses began to rise, although most I just knocked out of the way and into the river while dashing through. I reached Venasaur’s attraction, to instead find Chikorita standing in the middle of the platform. It wasn’t a zombie like the previous animated corpses, but looked as if it had gone through the apocalypse and back. It looked it’d been cut up and beat down mercilessly, the only discernible feature being its uncharacteristically grey eyes. “Help me.” was the only thing it said.

I turned around to find the Mew right behind me, which giggled and asked, “Ready to play?” It showed the basic instructions, swing on the vine, jump as far as you can, the whole package. Except when it came time to pick my character, Pikachu was the only one available, although it still had the sad animation playing as if you couldn’t select it.

The game play was normal, except for the fact Pikachu wasn’t swinging on a vine. Instead there was a Tropius hanging from the branch, with its intestines falling out of its mouth. Pikachu clung to the intestines, although looked as if it would rather give up and drop down immediately instead of being forced to hold onto that. I wouldn’t blame it. I swung the “vine” back and forth, and when I felt I had enough momentum, let go.

Pikachu soared across the track, and landed just short of where the Mew stood waiting. On the after screen, Pikachu slumped onto the ground defeated, as apparently I hadn’t broke the top current record. Mew giggled and spun around in the background, apparently thrilled that I lost. There were no Pokémon to be gloomy with me or cheer with Mew, as at the moment, they were all dead corpses. When asked if I would like to replay the attraction, I selected “No” without a doubt.

Back in the over world, Mew and Chikorita were still there. Except after a few seconds, Chikorita disappeared. “You lost.” Mew informed me, “Although they aren’t your friend anymore anyways… You left them, remember?” Mew giggled, “Let’s play some more! Meet me at the Iceberg Zone!” And with that, flew off, presumably towards the mentioned zone.

I wasn’t really feeling up to hanging out in the Meadow Zone any longer, so I ran as fast as I could to the Meeting Place with a pack of zombies trailing behind me. When I arrived, I saw it had been spared no mercy. The huge tree house that used to stand in the center was now a pile of twigs and broken planks, crushed by a gigantic boulder, a few bodies trapped underneath as well. The gates to the other Zones and all other structures were torn or burned down as well.

Thankfully as I walked around here, the dead didn’t rise to life and chase me. Because of this though, this place seemed more like a desolate graveyard. It actually made me feel a little gloomy, so I pressed on to the Beach Zone. Of course the Drifblim at the Drifblim stop were nowhere to be seen, so I had to walk by foot everywhere.

The beach was no better off than anywhere else. The stark white sand contrasted with the depressing grey sky. The water had bodies floating in it, tainting parts of the ocean red. The palm trees drooped low to the ground, as if the smallest gust of wind would bowl them over. There were zombies here just as in the Meadow Zone, still after my throat.

I let one of the zombies reach Pikachu and defeat him, just to see what would happen. A Corphish clawed and pounded at Pikachu with no mercy, until he fell over, unmoving. “How do you like being used and left behind?” It spoke, then crawled off. Pikachu laid in a pool of his own life blood for a minute, which then melted into two, three, four… It ended with me restarting the Wii. Thankfully I restarted at the same spot on the beach as where I was last, this time alive and breathing.

After taking measure to maul a Corphish, I sprinted across the beach to where the Lapras resided. Its skin was cracked and rotten, with some nasty looking liquid oozing out. Its shell was decayed and weathered, barely recognizable. Its head hung low, and for a brief moment, I thought it was dead just like the other Pokémon. As I approached though, a cut scene triggered, and it raised its head to speak,

“…You’ve come back, have you? A little too late for that, I’m afraid… Since you’ve cared enough to arrive, though, might as well try to fix what can be saved…” It bowed it’s head once more, and Pikachu hopped onto its back, a little unenthusiastic about the procedure. It sailed towards the Iceberg Zone, although I couldn’t help but wonder if the Lapras would actually make it that far.

When the screen faded to black, a few speech bubbles popped up in the darkness, presumably from the Lapras,

“…When they attack you, they don’t mean it. They’re just sad, angry, restless, frustrated… They just want things back to normal… We all do…”

After which, we reached our destination. At the new Zone, the ice was cracked and broken in several areas, making it difficult to maneuver through. The living dead here were frostbitten, almost like they’d been frozen alive. The huge snow Piplup and igloos were in shambles. The ice tree was broken too, many Pokémon impaled on its spikes. After several frustrating minutes of maneuvering through the tricky landscape, I made it to what used to be Empoleon’s attraction.

This time, Piplup was there to greet me, beat up beyond all belief and still adorning grey eyes. “Help me.” once again being the only words it spoke. Mew then floated down and asked, “Ready to play?”. Pikachu was still the only Pokémon I could select.

Thankfully this attraction wasn’t as grotesque as the previous. Pikachu slid down the icy ramp to the goal as normal, although the ice was cracked from several large stones in numerous areas, making it difficult to traverse. Constantly slipping on several patches of blood from the Pokémon crushed underneath the boulders didn’t help either. Eventually I made it to the goal, with probably the slowest record possible.

Piplup disappeared just as Chikorita had. “You lost.” Mew told me once more, “Although they aren’t your friend anymore anyways… You left them, remember?” Mew paused to giggle once again, “Let’s play some more! Meet me at the Lava Zone!” And then, was gone.

I painfully made my way back to Lapras, and was actually thankful to board its horrid figure than remain in the broken icy landscape. Once we made it back to the Beach Zone, however, the Lapras washed up onto the sand and laid stark still. It wouldn’t stir again so matter how much I tried talking to it, or hitting it with a lightning bolt. Personally, never visiting the Iceberg Zone again didn’t upset me very much.

After much running and zombie chasing, I found myself in the Cavern Zone. Most of the tunnels were caved in by piles of boulders. Many of the rocks had decaying hands from crushed Pokémon reaching out from underneath, feebly grasping for Pikachu. I made caution to avoid getting caught by one of the hands.

Eventually after some aimless wandering, I found where the hot spring used to be. The water was even more sickly green than usual, with some vile substances floating around in it I’d rather not know about.

The Snorlax was still asleep in the middle of the springs too. Except its hands, feet, and other parts of its body that were submerged under the acid-like water were morphed into a melted clump of goo. Pus oozed out of its empty eye sockets, mouth, and through several cracks running along its wrinkly skin. It looked more like a fleshy, rotting tub of goo than a Pokémon.

The thing that disturbed me the most though was the fact it was still breathing.

I wasn’t eager to join Snorlax, so I continued my trek through the cave. There wasn’t any further sign of life, except the occasional straggling Zubat or two that still wanted me dead. I finally made it to the gate that lead into the Lava Zone, but as I approached the mine cart that lead into it Mawile walked up behind me.

She looked pale and bruised, although not enough to be a zombie. Vines grew around the snake-mouth attached to her head like a muzzle, keeping it clamped shut. The snake-mouth looked infected and swollen, with blood seeping out of its tightly shut mouth. “What are you doing here..?” She spoke, then glanced at the mine cart, then back to Pikachu with a look of understanding, “…Going alone is suicide.”

Pikachu and Mawile hopped into the mine cart, and it slowly started rolling past the gate. When the screen faded to black though, speech bubbles started popping up, presumably from the Mawile,

“Things have changed since you left us. Without you nobody was able to keep Mew in check. Then it fell. And when it fell, we all fell down with it. You can’t change what damage has already been done, and there’s no further damage to prevent. Why don’t you save yourself while you still can?”

Afterwards, we arrived in the Lava Zone. Many places were still caved in. Parts of the ground were cracked, lava bubbling up from underneath. The undead here were melting as they walked. Their skin bubbled and dripped off their bones, collecting in pools on the floor. Skeletons and skulls littered the floor, presumably from Pokémon that had completely melted away. There were several zombie Pokémon here, and some of them managed to reach Pikachu. Whenever one did though, Mawile helped fight them off, acting sort of like a body guard.

After some wandering, a cut scene triggered when we neared the edge of a large pit. The camera panned over the edge to view dozens, maybe even hundreds, or corpses filling up the hole. The bodies were melded and morphed into each other, creating an unidentifiable mass of flesh.

Pikachu stood near the edge of the pit, and Mawile walked up towards him, “This is where we stored all the bodies that didn’t have a grave. Eventually there were so many bodies, all the lava that was previously in the pit was soaked up by them.” She put a hand on Pikachu’s shoulder, “Don’t be one of them.”

Some traveling and slaying later, we found Blaziken’s attraction. Charmander was here this time, worn down and grey eyed, pleading with, “Help me.” Except when Mew asked if I was ready to play, Mawile stepped in front of Pikachu with, “I am.” On the character selection screen, Mawile was the only one I was able to select.

Mawile stood on the cliff looking over the lava, adjacent from the other cliff where Mew floated with the canon. Lava filled the crater between the two cliffs, molten hands reaching out from the depths that tried to grasp for Mawile and Mew.

The canon fired. Instead of boulders though, skulls and bones flew out towards Mawile. I swung and she easily blocked them with her snake-mouth. Progressively, though, more and more larger skeletons were being fired more frequently, and more than once Mawile was knocked down before I could react in time. At the end, I was just 500 points short of the goal.

Instead of a “You lost” screen, Mew fired another skull, which knocked out Mawile. This time though, she didn’t get up. It left the attraction game and went back to Pikachu. Charmander disappeared as per protocol, alongside Mew’s, “You lost. Although they aren’t your friend anymore anyways… You left them, remember?” This time, I felt more like Mew’s words were directed towards Mawile, who was laying on the ground in front of the attraction, unmoving. Mew giggled, “Let’s play again! Meet me at the Haunted Zone!” And then fled.

I walked over to Mawile and tried speaking to her, and was faintly surprised when she actually responded, “Leave now… Don’t come back.” I tried speaking to her again, and she actually said something different, “Please… Save yourself…” Again, “…” Once more just to make sure she had nothing else important to say,

“You know, when you left… everyone missed you. I missed you.

Everyone still misses you.”

With that, Mawile stopped breathing, and became unresponsive regardless of how much I tried talking to her again. This was the first death in this game so far that actually genuinely upset me. Figuring there wasn’t much point in trying to bring the dead back to life, especially considering she’d probably turn into a zombie that would try to kill me, I left. The travel back out of the Lava and Cavern zones was a bit more challenging than entering, Pikachu dying on several occasions without a body guard, but eventually I made it out.

The Haunted Zone was desolate and decrypted. All statues and things that once stood were torn down and broken. Unusual rocks and boulders were here too, just as the other Zones. The mansion itself had holes in its roof, and it looked like several rooms had been burned down.

The main thing I noticed as I walked outside the mansion was there were no Pokémon in sight: dead or alive. It was a little relieving to be able to walk at normal pace without threat of being mauled.

Inside, it appeared to be more of an abandoned mansion than one that was haunted. Moonlight filtered through holes in the roof. The walls and floor were cracked, and several doors were burned and furniture broken. As I surveyed the area, I would catch glimpses of ghostly Pokémon at the outskirts of the screen or turning corners at the end of hallways. Of course whenever I tried to chase after them, they were gone.

Mew didn’t appear at Dusknoir’s attraction, so I assumed I was supposed to go to Rotom’s. When I went into the underground lab, I found Mew floating there. This time there wasn’t another one of Pikachu’s old friends there to be put at stake. I walked up to speak to Mew, who laughed, not giggled, and asked once more, “Ready to play?”

Pikachu was once again my only option. He stood in the middle of the room, ready to fight off the ghosts that would soon start pouring in. When the first ghost appeared though, it was an actual spirit, not a ghost type like normal. It was a Buneary like the one in the Meadow Zone. I shot the ghost Buneary, and immediately another ghost appeared, this time a Corphish. A ton of Pokémon, mainly ones I had seen as zombies, were flying in. Three of the most noticeable ghosts that caught my attention were the Lapras, Snorlax, and Mawile. It took all I could to fend them off. There were too many though, and in almost no time at all, they captured Pikachu.

“You lost. Although, they aren’t your friends anymore anyways… You left them, remember?” This time, I knew Mew meant all the Pokémon in the Poképark when he spoke. “…It’s time for you to go.” Mew than proceeded to fly off, to who knows where.

Without any sense of direction, I wandered around aimlessly, not sure what to do next. I was expecting some sort of grand ending more than a Pokémon telling me off. I felt like there was something more, so I headed out to the last zone I hadn’t ventured to yet: The Granite Zone.

This place was even more damaged than the other zones, if that were possible. The ancient ruins were in, well, ruins. Columns and structures were broken and scattered all about, and it didn’t help it was already damaged before whatever happened tore down the land. The undead were easy to fend off, and before I knew it, I was in the Flower Zone.

The grass and flowers here were grey and wilted, trying to thrive on the few sparse rays of sunshine filtering through the heavy clouds. There weren’t any dead bodies here. The only colorful, living thing was the Gracidea Flower, and the beaten-but-breathing Shaymin standing next to it. “This flower is our symbol of salvation… it’s the only thing I have left to live for.” It informed me.

I walked over to where Rayquaza’s attraction once was to find Chikorita, Piplup, Charmander, and Mew in front of it. As I approached them, Pikachu’s three old friends surrounded him. From each, a Water Gun, Razor Leaf, and Flamethrower were simultaneously fired at him. Pikachu tottered, then fell over on his side into the decaying foliage, not breathing. “You should’ve ran while you still could.” Mew teased, giggling.

The screen faded to black, then back, and I found myself on the Sky Pavilion. The floating ruins in the sky looked as if it was broken into a million shards, and pieced back together haphazardly. There was dense fog, making it difficult to see after a few feet. Everything visible though was grey, rugged, and devastated, including Pikachu. I walked around, trying to trigger something, but nothing happened. Eventually though, I found Mew floating among the rubble, and spoke to it,

“…When you first came here, you did everything you could to repair the Sky Prism, to save the Poképark.” Mew turned around to face away from Pikachu here, “…I broke the Sky Prism in the first place, so someone would come here, and be my friend. You promised you would be my friend. That was all I ever wanted, just one friend, just one…”

Mew turned back around, and several blue shards started to fly around him. “But you left. You left me, you left everyone, and never returned. So I broke the Sky Prism, and made sure no one recovered it, so the Sky Pavilion would crash down on everyone…” Mew started to fly off, with a few parting words spoken for the final time, “You lost. Although, I’m not your friend anymore anyways… You left me, remember?”

Before he left though, he turned to say one more thing, “Have fun enduring the loneliness I had to suffer. This is my park now.” And finally flew off the screen, into the fog.

I chased after him, but only ran into the edge of the floating ruins, and would’ve tumbled right over had there not been an invisible wall to save me. I ran all around the Sky Pavilion multiple times, until I pretty much had an entire map of the place mentally programmed into my brain and knew where I was going, despite the fog. Eventually, I gave up at finding anything or a way out.

Turning the game off and resetting could never get me out of that cursed place. Every time I got bored and played that game just to see if something would happen, I’d always still be stuck at that place, lost in the fog for eternity. Sometimes though, Mew would drop by and pay me a visit. But every time I spoke to him, he would always say the same words,

“I won.”

Ok. I’m writing a scary story for English,but, I know nothing about horror. But,I started with this — I look stare at the basement door. My mother has told me to go for some box she needs labeled clothes for donations. I don’t like the basement. It’s dark,and, I hate the dark. I never go out at night. Why would I? My mom doesn’t get why I am so afraid of the dark. I tried to explain,but, she still doesn’t get it. I take a deep breath. I feel like somebody’s watching me so I turn around,but, see no one. So I turn again to look at the door. I start to open the door when I hear footsteps. Footsteps coming from… the basement! I scream and run down the hallway to the kitchen. “Mom!” I scream. I look around the kitchen but I don’t see her. “Honey, i’m here,” I spin around and see my mother behind me. She is dressed in black with eyes that are usually brown, black. I shiver, she looks so unhuman. But it’s probably because she is standing in the hallway,which, is dark. “Mom, I-” I stop. She was in the kitchen a while ago. How is she suddenly behind me? “How long have you been standing there? Weren’t you in the kitchen?”

I am a writer visiting this site for a mystery book series. My biggest fear has to be the darkness. even though i know monsters arent real they still seem to haunt me when i go to sleep. So i’m thinking…Are they really fake..? ************************************************************************************************************** Evanna woke up to the scratching on her closet door. She always heard it. Her feet touched the cold floor. Her heart was racing as she walked towards the closet. She had never done this before, but she had been having a very tiring night and just wanted it to shut up.

Inside was a dog. It was a purple poodle but it had glowing red eyes and sharp teeth. it came growling and barking at her as she screamed slamming the closet door and running through the dark house. Nobody saw her again.

As we walked into the new house, I got a strong sense that something was not right. I knew my parents wouldn’t believe me if I said something bad happened here because why would they want to listen to a 17 year old girl? Going further into the house, I started to feel very unhappy. Almost as if something was making me feel sad. I blew the feeling off and started bringing boxes into the basement. I was bringing my last box down, walking passed the cellar when I saw someone walk in there. Immediately, my heart started to race. I set the box down and made my way towards the cellar. The closer I got, the more I noticed a scent of rotting meat. “Hello?” I said in a small voice as I opened the door. As soon it opened, I saw blood all on the ground and the walls, carcasses of dead animals hanging from the ceiling. I started to feel sick, but then I felt scared. Scared of something that was in there. I bolted out of the cellar, and ran upstairs to get my mom and dad. “Mom! Dad!” I screamed, “There’s something in the cellar!” I waited a few seconds and heard nothing. “Mom!” I called out again. Still nothing. I searched all around the house, until I got to their room and heard the sounds of gushing and slurping. I opened the door and saw the most horrifying image I had ever seen before. My parents we’re being eaten alive by grotesque, animal looking humans that were painted with blood and had long black, uncombed hair. As soon as I started screaming, a hand came behind me, covered my mouth, and pulled me back.

I’ve read too many stories of when people have apparently instantly time travelled against their own will. I always got wondering what would happen if they were put in a perilous situation. I may have written for a bit longer than 15 though, lol. Horror/Thriller/Scary genres aren’t my forte either.

Fear: Chronohodophobia – The Fear of Time Travel (Primarily instantaneous Time Travel, where you have no control over it.)

—- It was a bright, shiny day in New Orleans, where a young man walks through the streets towards his brand new home. It was an absolutely beautiful home: it was multi-storied, a nice plain grey in color with many windows, a balcony surrounding the entirety of the second floor, and on top of everything, it was cheap. Rowan had no clue as to why such an elegant home was so cheap, especially in somewhere as prestigious and fun-filled as New Orleans. Rowan stuck his hands into his black jeans, tugging out the keys to his new home. He fingered through the many keys, as some were to his old apartment, his car, his mailbox, and a few more. He found the key he needed, and he stuck the key into the door’s lock. The brown haired man opened the door and walked inside himself. The home was already furnished, with decorations from the Victorian Era all over the many rooms. It looked as if someone extremely prosperous had lived there. Rowan pondered on why this person didn’t send the manor down through generations. He began to wander around his brand new home. He climbed up some stairs. He saw many artifacts on display, but he briefly forgot that the house was a museum briefly. Rowan stopped in his tracks as his mind wandered to the concept of his new home once being a museum. He completely forgot the reason why, or who the museum was for. Why would a former museum be, not only sold as a house, but cheap? This made the man a little nervous. He disregarded this feeling, and found his way to his main room where he’d sleep. He wanted to try spend a night in the home before moving in everything from his apartment. The room had an aesthetic of dark grey and white, with the bed looking just as luxurious as the rest of the home. Rowan walked towards the windows of the room and looked out, but found that he couldn’t see much of the outside world. He saw that it was covered by a multitude of cobwebs, dust, water, and dirt. He sighed, as cleaning the home would be the hardest time of his life. The light that did sneak in indicated that it was early evening. Rowan sighed, as he knew that he had yet to explore the third floor and the attic. He walked out of the bedroom and back down the stairs. Rowan took a step outside to get a breath of fresh air. The air swelled into his face as he opened the front door, and he closed it behind him. He leaned his back against the door, and looked up at the sky. “Oi,” Rowan heard a man say towards him. Rowan glanced in the man’s direction. The man was certainly older in appearance. The man hobbled towards him. “So you’re the new owner, eh? Of this…” the man drifted off, as if he didn’t know how to describe it’s elegance. “I guess freakshow would be the word.” Rowan tilted his head in visible confusion. “What do you mean by that? The house is absolutely beautiful,” Rowan spoke. “You don’t know?” The man seemed genuinely surprised. “It was Madame Lalaurie’s home once.” Rowan didn’t know who that was, but he did reply to the man. “Okay… your point is?” Rowan pushed forwards. The old man looked at him, still genuinely surprised. “She was…” the old man began, but he stopped. “Never mind, I suppose ignorance is bliss in this case. Maybe the Madame will go gentle with you.” “Does someone else live in the house right now?” “You, and who knows what else.” “Why did the home become a museum?” “You’re a youngin’, use one of your dang smartphones and internet.” “Why is it a home again?” “May I just…” the man seemed annoyed now. “Leave?” Rowan sighed. “Fine.” The old man thus departed, and Rowan pulled his phone out from his back pocket. He groaned as he realized the phone was dead. He stormed back into the manor. He went back to the room, and climbed into bed. He was admittedly tired. Curling up, he fell right asleep. *** He awoke to the noise of an ear piercing screech in the night. Panic flying through his heart, he rushed out of the bed and out into the hallway. He heard a woman’s cackle to the left of him. Slowly, Rowan inched his way towards the voices he had heard. His arms were raised in ready for a fight. He made small glances around the hallway. The artifacts were all gone, or all put away. Rowan was visibly confused now; he had done no cleaning before he stormed inside and gone to sleep. He reached the end of the hallway, where a door was cracked open. Breathing slowly, he pushed the door open a little more. What he saw was a ghastly site. Blood, internal organs, and two people. One was a much rounder, and richer looking woman. Her hands were completely bloodied. On the floor, and the one who likely screeched, was an African American man, who seemed dressed as a slave back in the eighteenth century. Rowan was visibly confused, was this something more adult than he thought? Did the home house a cult? He was extremely unsure. The woman then turned around to face in his direction. Her mouth was clean, meaning she hadn’t been eating the poor man. Well, as far as he knew, she wasn’t eating him yet. The woman stared him directly in the eyes. “So, the invader has decided to join us!” The woman exclaimed, her eyes were absolutely crazed. Her voice was raspy, yet sharp. “Who are you? Why are you in my house?” Rowan demanded, his fists still held up in preparation of a fight. The woman was not visibly armed at the moment. “Your house? Hm… no. This is my house. I am Madame Lalaurie, I suppose, your host, and now, your hunter.” “What year is it?” Rowan asked. He knew that the house was old, and that there was only one owner. “Why, it’s 1812! Even a dumb invader would know that.” Rowan froze. He had been in 2018. It was now 1812. His heart sunk as he realized that he had gone back in time. He stared at his hands in pure fear of never going home. The woman slowly made her way towards him, and before Rowan could leap away, he was pinned down, and he felt a searing pain in his stomach before everything went back. *** “Today’s chronicle, read all about it! New owner of Madame Lalaurie’s home goes missing on the first night! Brand new blood stains found in the main hallway, bedroom, other room, and walls. Second person this week! No body actually found, just like the last one!” A young man shouted, carrying many newspapers in his hands. The old man hobbled towards the man, and took one. He sighed, and gave the man his paper back.

I am definitely not good at witing horror, but here you go. I am pretty sure there a multiple errors but it’s late for me and I have a broken keyboard. She comes down the stairs that lead to the basement, experiencing a strange feeling. The lights weren’t working so she had to use a flashlight to aid her down them. At the end of the stairs where there was a turn to lead further down the basement, there was a small flickering light, a candle perhaps.There was light chuckling coming from what sounded like a man, who she assumed was her fiancé, as he was not in bed when she woke up in the middle of the night. There was a weird, sickening sound of something splashing onto the floor that made her halt in her movements There was a strong metallic stench in the air that caused her recoil back. As soon as she step down onto the basement floor, there is a squelch under her shoe. The darkness from the basement makes her panic and once more she tries the lightswitch. The faint candlelight allowed her to see movement and she swallows a scream. She wanted to run, her heart pacing as whatever horror comes closer. Once it arrives, it wears such a familiar face that she just wants to sob. “Abigail.” It speaks in a soft voice and raises its hands toward her to caress her face. The metallic stench follows it’s hands and she’s forced to look at her lover. His once white shirt was smeared with gore, causing that nauseating stench with him. She remembers earlier that day she had chosen it for him to wear to work. “Why are you down here? You aren’t supposed to be down here.” His voice gentle, as if he was speaking to a child. “I-I” She stutters, “Why-” She shuts her mouth close as she noticed how bad she was shaking. Isaac reached down to grab at her hand and held it in his. “Hey, it’s okay. There is nothing wrong. Is everything okay?” She looks up at him and shakes her head wildly, taking steps back from him, wanting to be as far as away as possible. Her back hits the wall and once more she hits the light switch, needing the reassurance of what was happening. Poor yellow lightning fills the room and she falls to the floor with no relief. Her fingers colid with a strange texture and her breath hitches. Her mind can’t process what she is looking at, shutting down. Strangely chopped organs are piled on one part of the floor, somewhat cleanly removed from their home. What looked like a heart and intestines piled near the small sink, were clean and she noted the water drops dripping from the fountain. WHen she turns her head back at her love, she realizes that the rest of the room was covered in blood and gore, painting the floor and walls. As Isaac moved to get closer to her, she notices their missing kitchen knife. As he blends down next to her on the floor, he gives her a concerned look, the same one he gives her when she’s stressed. “Are you okay?’ Suddenly filled with panic, she jerks herself away from him. She wants to sob and cling to him, hoping that it was all a bad dream. They were supposed to be planning the next big part of their life together. But with the blood coating her fiancé’s hands, she supposed that wasn’t going to happen. As her breaths became shallower, they sped up and she notices the burning from her eyes. She brings a hand up to her chest to clutch it against her poor heart. Her vision goes blurry and she lets a sob escape. Looking up at Isaac, he gives her a look of pity before he reaches down and hugs her. “Hey, it’s going to be alright. I’m not going to hurt you.” He holds her tight and she chooses to ignore the feeling of blood seeping through from where his touch was. For some reason, she didn’t want to pull away, to stay and let him comfort her. But by doing so, felt like chains keeping her in place.

I am writing a scary story at school. I am wondering if I use it right, use paranoia to disarm a reader then throw a shocking end that bring a strong psychological emotion?

I wrote my story on a word document and my story is called “ BEHIND THE WALLS OF BLACK PAINT” it’s about a girl name Aria and her brother,mom,dad. Aria moves into a new house because she in college but the college doesn’t have dorm rooms so she going to live with her family. When she gets to the house she feels like something is watching her and like weird things are happening. Aria and her brother are witnessing ghost or demons but they don’t know what it is.. Aria keeps seeing this big black shadow figure and she thinks when she try’s to go to sleep someone or something is watching her sleep… Aria brother starts to ask her questions that are kinda weird but she also ask him questions too but there’s a twist she said she will give him questions then tell him the truth about the house.. when Aria tells her brother the truth about the house he doesn’t know what to say about it but he wants to tell mom and dad.. after they were done talking about that aria heard a noise it came from the living room there was a huge mess but it a pot twist there was a shadow person right in front of there eyes so they both ran to Aria room when they got there that shadow person followed them upstairs.. they thought it was there parents but there parents weren’t home…

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• Top Picks Thursday 10-16-2014 | The Author Chronicles - […] It’s that time of year—Halloween approaches. In this season of terror, the horror genre comes into its own. April…
• How to Write A Scary Story - West Lothian Writers - […] on The Write Practice, Emily Wenstorm also has four tips on How To Write A Scary Story but hers…
• Kuriame siaubo istorijas – Kitty Writer - […] Wenstrom, Emily.  “4 Tips on How to Write a Scary Story.” <https://thewritepractice.com/get-freaky/> […]
• How to Write a Scary Story: 3 Strategies for Terrifying Scenes - […] Perhaps the most fertile ground for a scene of terror is a trusting relationship. Spend time in your story…
• Let’s Get Freaky: How to Write a Scary Story - Lacrecia’s books - […] What makes a good scary story? Here’s a few pointers on how to write a scary story to start…
• THE LANDLADY | Pearltrees - […] Then I thought: Hey! I should blog about this. That's how this post began, but it's turned into more…
• 7 Haunted Halloween Writing Prompts - […] Just like reading outside your genre is valuable to mastering the writing craft, so is writing a scary story.…

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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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Home » Blog » 132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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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Scary Story Essay

As one reads through a spine-chilling tale, have you ever found yourself captivated, unable to avert your gaze despite the creeping sensation of terror that permeates your being? If so, you’re not alone. Scary stories essays have been popular for centuries, and they tap into our deepest fears and anxieties and transport us to a world where anything is possible.

If you are struggling to develop ideas for your scary story essay, don’t worry – with the right tools and techniques, anyone can write a terrifying tale that will leave readers begging for more. Whether you are an experienced wordsmith or a fledgling novice, continue reading to acquire the knowledge necessary to pen a narrative that will ensnare your audience and leave them tossing and turning throughout the night.  Write my essays with confidence and create your spine-tingling tale today!

What is a Scary Story Essay?

A scary story essay is a narrative essay designed to frighten and unsettle the reader. It typically involves supernatural or horror elements like ghosts, monsters, or otherworldly creatures. The objective of an essay centered around a frightening narrative is to instill a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension within the reader while concurrently maintaining their attention until the very conclusion.

Some characteristics of a scary story essay include:

• An eerie or ominous tone
• Vivid descriptions of the setting, characters, and events
• A sense of foreboding or impending doom
• Suspenseful pacing and plot twists
• An unsettling or unexpected ending

Differences between a scary story essay and other types of essays

One of the key differences between a scary story essay and other types of essays is the emphasis on creating an emotional response in the reader. While most pieces are designed to inform or persuade, a scary story essay spm is intended to evoke a specific emotional reaction.

Another difference is using narrative techniques such as plot, setting, and character development. In a scary story essay, these elements are used to create a sense of tension and unease rather than simply advancing the plot or conveying information.

Elements of a Horror Story

The key elements that make up a horror story include:

 When these fundamental components are merged and executed efficiently, they coalesce to generate an overwhelming sense of dread and discomfort in the reader. For example, the creepy setting might make the reader feel like they are being watched or followed, while the vulnerable characters make them feel sympathetic and protective.

The plot and tone of the story might create a sense of dread or anticipation as the reader wonders what will happen next. And when a sudden shock or surprise does occur, it reinforces the idea that anything can happen in this world and that the characters are never truly safe.

Types of Horror Stories

Numerous horror tale classifications exist, each presenting distinctive attributes and themes. Some of the most common types include:

How to Start a Scary Story Essay (Horror Story Essay)

Tips for brainstorming ideas.

Consider the setting, characters, and plot when brainstorming ideas for your scary story essay. What kind of horror elements do you want to include? Are there any real-life fears or anxieties you want to tap into?

After formulating a rudimentary concept, endeavor to generate several plot twists or scenarios that could unfold within the established framework. Do not hesitate to allow your creative faculties to soar unrestricted and endeavor to formulate a concept that exudes individuality and unpredictability.

How to create a compelling opening that sets the mood

The opening is one of the most important parts of a scary story essay. The opening sets the tone for the entire paper and should grab the reader’s attention immediately.

Consider starting with a startling or eerie image or scene to create a compelling opening. This might be like a character stumbling through a dark forest or a haunted house looming in the distance. You could also start with a quote or dialogue that sets the mood.

Examples of effective opening lines from famous horror stories

• “The horror, the horror!” – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• “It was a dark and stormy night…” – A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” – The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Writing a Scary Story Essay

How to structure the essay for maximum impact.

To structure your scary story essay for maximum impact, consider starting with a compelling opening that sets the mood, followed by a gradual buildup of suspense and tension. The story’s climax should be the most intense and terrifying part, with a resolution that provides some closure for the reader.

Developing a well-rounded plot and characters

To develop a well-rounded plot and characters, consider the motivations and fears of your characters. What propels their actions, and what are their most profound terrors and apprehensions?

Try to create real and relatable characters, even if they are dealing with supernatural or horror elements. This will make the story feel more immersive and engaging for the reader.

How to create suspense and tension

To create suspense and tension in your scary story essay, consider using pacing and structure to build up to the climax. You can do this by gradually increasing the frequency and intensity of horror elements, such as jump scares or moments of suspense.

You can also use foreshadowing and other literary devices to hint at what’s to come while still keeping the reader guessing. Furthermore, do not hesitate to leave certain details to the reader’s imagination, which can engender an even more disconcerting feeling of terror.

Using sensory details to enhance the scary atmosphere

To enhance the scary atmosphere of your story, consider using sensory data to help the reader visualize the setting and characters. This might include descriptions of sounds, smells, textures, and visual details like lighting and shadows.

You can also use figurative language and metaphors to create a more vivid and evocative picture for the reader. For example, you might describe a character’s fear as a cold, clammy hand gripping their heart.

Scary Story Essay Examples

“the tell-tale heart” by edgar allan poe  .

“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe is a classic horror story that features a narrator who becomes obsessed with the eye of an old man, to the point of murdering him. The story is told from the perspective of the murderer, which creates an unsettling sense of intimacy and psychological tension.

“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs

“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs is another famous horror story that involves a cursed object. In this case, a family possesses a monkey’s paw that grants wishes but with terrible consequences.

Analysis of what makes these stories effective and how they can be used as inspiration.

These narratives are potent as they delve into ubiquitous dreads and trepidations, such as the fear of demise and the inscrutable. They also use literary techniques like pacing, foreshadowing, and sensory details to create a vivid and unsettling atmosphere.

As you work on your scary story essay, you can use these stories as inspiration for your plot and characters while also studying their structure and pacing to see how they create suspense and tension.

Tips for Writing a Successful Scary Story Essay

Dos and don’ts for writing a scary story essay

• Use sensory details to create a vivid and evocative atmosphere
• Build suspense and tension gradually, with a well-paced structure
• Create well-rounded and relatable characters
• Use literary devices like foreshadowing and metaphor to create a sense of foreboding

Don’t:

Rely too heavily on jump scares or gore to create horror

Neglect the importance of setting and atmosphere

Use clichés or tired tropes that have been overused in horror stories

Tips for editing and revising to improve the overall quality of the essay

When editing and revising your scary story essay, consider the pacing and structure of the story. Make sure that the buildup of tension feels natural and engaging and that the climax is both satisfying and terrifying.

It is also crucial to prioritize character progression and dialogue, ensuring each persona is distinctive and multifaceted. Ultimately, it is imperative to contemplate the all-encompassing tone and ambiance of the narrative, guaranteeing that it evokes a pervasive feeling of discomfort and foreboding from the opening sentence to the closing line.

In conclusion, writing a scary story essay can be a thrilling and rewarding experience, but it requires careful attention to detail and an understanding of what makes horror stories truly effective.

By adhering to the pointers and techniques explicated in this article, you can compose a hair-raising anecdote that will keep your readers teetering on the precipice of their seats. So why not start brainstorming ideas for your scary story essay today? With a little creativity and imagination, you can create a story that will haunt readers long after they finish reading.

Remember to focus on the key elements of horror, such as setting, characters, and plot, and use literary techniques like pacing and foreshadowing to build suspense and tension. With practice and perseverance, you can hone your writing skills and create stories that will chill and thrill readers for years.

What is a Horror Story essay?

A horror story essay is a narrative essay designed to frighten and unsettle the reader. It typically involves supernatural or horror elements like ghosts, monsters, or otherworldly creatures. A short horror story essay aims to create a sense of unease and fear in the reader and keep them engaged until the end.

How do I start a scary story essay?

To start a scary story essay, consider starting with a startling or eerie image or scene that sets the mood. You could also start with a quote or dialogue that creates a sense of foreboding. From there, gradually build tension and suspense until you reach the story’s climax.

What are some tips for writing a good scary story essay?

Some tips for writing a good scary story essay include:

• Don’t rely too heavily on jump scares or gore to create horror
• Avoid clichés or tired tropes that have been overused in horror stories

Can I use real-life experiences in my scary story essay?

Yes, you can use real-life experiences as inspiration for your scary story essay. However, be sure to use them in a way that is respectful and doesn’t exploit real-life trauma or tragedy.

How can I make my scary story essay stand out?

To make your scary story essay free stand out, try to create a unique and unexpected plot that subverts readers’ expectations. You can also use vivid and evocative language to create a more immersive atmosphere and focus on creating well-rounded and relatable characters. Lastly, do not fear to take risks and experiment with fresh concepts – the most exemplary horror tales frequently challenge conventions and surpass limitations.

Lesley Hummings

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Scaring Your Readers 101: 8 Tips For Writing A Great Horror Story

Our guest blogger shares eight tips for writing a great horror story.

There are few human emotions as primal and powerful as fear. Master horror writer H.P. Lovecraft put it best when he wrote, ‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear , and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.’

If you’re a writer wanting to master the craft of writing a horror story, here are a few tips to access your reader’s most primal fears. It’s the best way to keep them turning pages. This video about writing horror advice also covers these same points, along with practical tips to help you in the writing process.

8 Tips For Writing A Great Horror Story

1. take the time to let your reader get to know your characters.

The best way to emotionally involve your readers in your characters’ fate is to give them time to get to know the characters on a personal level. This kind of fear—that which stirs the emotions and makes us afraid that we’ll lose someone we care about deeply—is the most powerful kind. Without this empathy , the fearful events that characters experience further along in the story won’t be as harrowing to read.

2. Establish the familiar

Horror is about contrasts between the comfort of the familiar and the discomfort of the unknown. The best way to create this is to begin your story with your character in a comfortable, familiar place. This could be a place that the reader identifies with as a place of comfort, as well.

When your character is suddenly faced with the unknown, it triggers the sympathies of the reader. This happens because we’ve all been there and understand the feelings associated with moving out of a comfortable situation and into a highly uncomfortable one. Stephen King’s fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine is a great example of this. Where best to start a horror story than a Norman Rockwell-inspired small town filled with white picket fences and Mom-and Pop stores?

3. Use subtle foreshadowing

Adding foreshadowing into your narrative is another great way to create tension and fear for your readers. This technique is used by established writers in the genre and can be as simple as a shiver running down your character’s spine when passing by a locked door, or a feeling of dread when walking down a dark corridor.

The reader will know there is something important behind that locked door or within that corridor. And they’ll know it’s something that is likely to be horrific, encouraging them to turn the pages to find out what it is.

4. Consider pacing

Movie directors use pacing to ramp up the fear factor in film and this same technique can work for books, as well. In the same sense that a long, panned shot can slowly build tension, stretched, descriptive sentences are a good way to create a sense of slowly developing dread.

When you follow that with short sentences, the effect is visceral. You can even change the way your reader breathes while reading. If there is a particular scene that you want to use as a potent dose of fear, try rewriting it with pacing that evolves from slow to staccato. You’ll then see how this technique changes the level of tension you are able to build.

5. Tap into your reader’s imagination

Sometimes our greatest fears can be entirely in our imagination . It’s that shadow on the wall that seems like a human form, or the sound of the tree tapping against your window in the storm that could almost be fingernails.

Our minds have an amazing ability to play tricks on us and cause us to imagine multiple possibilities of danger that might not even be present. In this sense, remaining vague in your descriptions of monsters (of the human or non-human variety) leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination and can create an increased sense of dread.

6. Suffocate with tight spaces

The primal fear of enclosed spaces is common to the human condition. It triggers a basic evolutionary impulse to escape and makes breathing shallower. It makes the heart rate increase. In the same sense that you can use pacing in your writing to affect your reader’s heart rate, you can also use tight spaces to make your character (and your reader) afraid.

Haunted house stories use this technique often, as does the slasher genre. Think of the feeling that results as victims frantically hide in closets to escape death.

7. Think like a child

It’s no accident that some of the best horror novels involve children. Stephen King understood this and included children in several of his stories. Many of our most basic fears stem from experiences we had when we were children. Think of Batman’s fall into a well full of bats and how it haunted him enough to inspire his iconic costume.

Experiencing horror from a child’s point of view reminds us of all the fears we had as children, making them even more powerful. It also induces a sense of empathy for the character, especially for parents. This is because they immediately imagine the potential of their child living through a similar horrific experience.

8. Disorient reality

Insanity is a core fear that many people share, which is why so many horror stories are set in psychiatric hospitals or contain characters who lose their grip on reality. The simple thought of losing one’s ability to understand what’s happening around them in a disorienting, distorted reality is enough to send many thinking readers over the edge in absolute fear.

Shirley Jackson , the writer of a timeless haunted house tale, The Haunting of Hill House , puts it this way. “Fear is the relinquishment of logic, the willing relinquishing of reasonable patterns. We yield to it or we fight it, but we cannot meet it halfway”.

Source for image: Pexels

Tony is a content manager and writer from the Mississippi Delta. When not writing, you can usually find her hiking or travelling—always looking for new tales to tell.

More Horror Posts:

• Why Writers Should Know About Monsters Before They Write a Word
• 101 Horror Tropes For Writers
• Horror Masters: 3 Spooky Tips To Write Like Lovecraft, Poe, & King
• 7 Common Horror Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
• 7 Spine-Chilling Tips For Writing An Unforgettable Horror Story
• On Ghosts & How To Write About Them
• The 3 Pillars Of Horror
• 10 Ways To Kick-Start Your Horror Story

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How To Write A Horror Story Essay Example

Have you every wondered why scary movies or stories are.. well scary? What makes us jump at certain scenes, or what is it that causes those goosebumps? Well, it's actually more simple than one may think. Authors use literary elements to make horror what it is. Horror. Frightening. Scary. Creepy. Not only do authors set up scenes that make certain characters vulnerable, but they also create characters with disabilities or characteristic that make them at risk of danger. Finally, authors also set up situations where the characters are faced with the consequences of their actions, intensifying the suspense of the moment. Authors use these elements to make sure they deliver a truly frightening story to the reader.

First of all, authors create horror by making up scenes that make certain characters vulnerable. For example, the story, "The Tell-Tale Heart" is about a caretaker who is bothered by one of his client's eyes, so he makes it his job to kill him to rid himself of the eye, but is later greeted by his consequences. This story shows how a dark environment not only puts the mood and "feel" into place, but also can determine a character's fate. In the text, it's stated, "I had my head in, and I kept pushing on steadily and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped on the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up from the bed crying out, 'Who's there!'" This proves my previous statement because the key factor, the darkness, really sets the mood into place. Imagine you're in the old man's shoes. You hear the noise of the lantern, playing it off, calling it a bird's chirp or a cricket's creek, but deep down you know it's not either of those. It's something much bigger, but you don't know what it is. This is how darkness sets that frightening mood, but it's not the only factor. Noise, setting, temperature, and time can all be major factors of horror. The noise of the lantern, the creaky floorboards of the old man's room, the assumption that this all took place back in time (considering there are no mentions of modern technology) are all "contributors" to the horror genre. More evidence from this comes from "The Tell-Tale Heart" as well. This proof comes from when the killer is being interrogated by the police. He gets more and more nervous until he finally admits his deed. In the text, it's stated, "But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but they still sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:- it continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness."

Another method authors use to create horror is by creating characters that possess certain disabilities or characteristics that make him/her easy victims. In the text "The Tell-Tale Heart", it talks about the killer's motive, that being the eye of the old man. It's stated in the text, "I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture- a pale blue eye with a film over it." The characteristic given here is obviously the blue eye, which is the entire reason the killer wanted the old man dead. However, there's a bit more to account for. For example, the old man was already at a tremendous disadvantage, because he's old, and likely disable given the fact that he needs a requires someone to look after him, which was the killer's job. These characteristics add to the horror because of such an easy and victim he was made, he.

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How to Write a Ghost Story

Last Updated: June 2, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Grant Faulkner, MA . Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story, a literary magazine. Grant has published two books on writing and has been published in The New York Times and Writer’s Digest. He co-hosts Write-minded, a weekly podcast on writing and publishing, and has a M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.  This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 222,999 times.

Many people enjoy a good ghost story and writing your own can be just as enjoyable. Ghost stories generally follow the patterns of other fictional work, focusing on a character and their encounters with a challenging force or event. However, ghost stories have a close focus on evoking feelings of terror and dread, building them up into a horrifying climax. Learning some of the ideas and techniques behind good ghost stories can help you create your own terrifying tales.

Developing Your Plot

• Think about which situations meeting a ghost would be most terrifying.
• Imagine the details of the ghost and how it haunts you, noting what scares you the most.
• Try watching your favorite horror films or reading other ghost stories to get inspired.

• What locations do you find disturbing or discomforting?
• Your setting should have a feeling of isolation, cutting the main characters off from help.

• Stasis. This is the introduction to your story and it demonstrates the normal life of your characters.
• Trigger. This event is something that pushes your character out of their normal life.
• Quest. This is where your character is given a goal or something they must do.
• Surprise. This will take up the middle section of your story and will be the events along the way towards your heroes goal.
• Critical choice. Your protagonist will need to make a hard choice that demonstrates their character.
• Climax. This is the moment your story was building up to and the most dramatic moment of the story.
• Reversal. This should be the consequence to your character's critical choice or the main challenge.
• Resolution. This point is where your characters return to everyday life but are changed from the ordeal.

• Write your outline in a chronological ordering of events.
• Don't leave any gaps in the narrative for your outline.
• Try to think about each scene and examine how they work together.
• If writing an entire ghost story seems overwhelming at first, try writing a 100-word ghost story to warm up. You get 100 words to write something truly creepy and unsettling. It takes less time, and you won't have to worry as much about outlining and pacing.

• Don't rush to reveal the confrontation or climax of your ghost story.
• Building the tension of the story slowly can make the climax even more intense.

Developing Your Characters

• Try to think of why your character is in the situation they are.
• Imagine how your character would react to the events in your story.
• Try to get a clear mental picture of what your character looks like.

• Your ghost will need a reason or motive for existing and doing what they do.
• Ghosts come in different forms, being more or less physical or having different powers.

• Foils usually have different personalities than the main characters in order to highlight the individual characteristics.
• Your supporting characters should also have their own unique qualities and personalities.
• Ask yourself what relationships these characters might have with the main characters of your ghost story.

Writing Your Ghost Story

• ”The ghost appeared and I was frightened” is an example of telling the reader what's happening.
• ”The ghost appeared and my stomach tightened up in knots. I could feel my face break out in a sweat and my heart trying to leap out from my chest.” is an example of showing the reader what's happening.

• For example, “The ghost was ten feet tall and exactly as wide as the door that it came through.” is probably too direct.
• Try saying something like “The ghost was enormous, making the room suddenly feel claustrophobic and tight.”

Create stories that will light up the reader's imagination. "Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s."

• Consider ending your story in a single sentence.
• Offering too much explanation at the end of your ghost story can lessen the impact of your ending.

Community Q&A

• Think about what scares you the most and let those fears inspire your ghost story. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0
• Have a clear understanding of what and who your characters are. Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0
• Setting is an important part of your ghost story that can either enhance or detract from the feelings of terror you are trying to evoke. Thanks Helpful 4 Not Helpful 1

Tips from our Readers

• You don't have to write about a human ghost. Try writing about a ghost animal or some other supernatural being.

Things You'll Need

• Pen or pencil

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/there-are-no-rules/the-horror-genre-on-writing-horror-and-avoiding-cliches
• ↑ https://www.writers-online.co.uk/how-to-write/how-to-write-a-ghost-story/
• ↑ https://www.dailywritingtips.com/how-to-structure-a-story-the-eight-point-arc/
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/7-steps-to-creating-a-flexible-outline-for-any-story
• ↑ https://atomlearning.com/blog/6-ways-to-build-suspense-and-tension-in-writing
• ↑ https://mythcreants.com/blog/three-ways-you-can-use-description-to-mess-with-your-readers/

About This Article

To write a ghost story, start by thinking about what you find scary about ghosts. Additionally, since atmosphere plays a large part in ghost stories, imagine the creepiest location you can think of for the setting. Next, work on your story’s arc, which includes the introduction, the climactic moment, and the resolution. As you draft your story, think about what you want to show your reader and what you want to leave up to their imagination, since readers will automatically fill in details with their own mind. To learn how to finish your ghost story, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Short horror story essay 8 Models

Short horror story essay is one of the popular intimidation methods that help parents in correcting children and improving their behavior in many educational aspects.

Through this article, we will provide you with many models that talk about stories of horror and intimidation that may help or influence the behavior of children, show the goals of horror stories, and the extent of the impact of these stories on improving children’s instincts, and strengthening their personality.

Short horror story essay

The school plays an important and significant role in educating children and improving their behaviour. In a similar article that talks about horror stories, the student can learn about the dimensions of these stories, the extent of their impact and why they are used.

The student can talk about his fears and terrifying situations he went through. The teacher can take advantage of these events and try to address these fears by guiding him and talking to him, or by making him research more about the dimensions of the problem and the benefits that he benefited from despite going through a terrifying situation.

At the beginning of the article we will put several points that show the goals that must be present within the topic, and several models will be created using these points inside them, so that the articles are useful for the student in case he wants to present them to the school, or if he wants to know the aspects that he should talk about inside a similar article he talks about the horror stories and the bad situations he was exposed to.

Objectives of the article

1- To obey orders.

2- Giving up bad behavior.

3- Repressing the evil instincts that are inside every human being.

4- Controlling the child in the safety zone next to the parents.

5- Planting correct means and methods through intimidation.

Several years ago, my father told me a story about a boy  who went out without telling his family where he was going. And this was late at night. After he left, he met some children and played a little with them and enjoyed this, but because of the late time these children left him, some of them returned to their home alone, and some of them their families came to to pick them up, and he found himself alone in the end.

He decided to walk around for a while, so that he might encounter other children and continue playing with them. But after walking for a long time, he found that all the streets were empty, and it was dark everywhere, and he could no longer discern where he was, and that he was far from home and lost his way.

And whenever he tried to return from where he came, he found himself in dangerous areas with street dogs, and in order to avoid them, he kept entering other streets, until he lost the way completely. So he sat crying and did not find anyone to bring him home because all the people of the town were asleep.

The time at night was getting hard for this naughty little boy. Every minute that passes feels like it’s a long time and he’s so afraid of darkness and loneliness. And whenever he heard the sound of dogs howling, intensified in crying. And whenever he called his father, he did not come to take him, because he was far from the house and did not tell them that he was going out, and did not tell them where he was going.

Then he learned that he had made a big mistake and that his father would not come to look for him because he thought he was asleep. And he decided to try to call for help and search for any place where there are people and tell them what happened.

And he kept walking in the dark crying for a long time until he found some people, and told them his name, where he lived, and the name of the neighborhood in which he lived. Fortunately for him, they weren’t bad guys, and they brought this guy home.

The father was very angry with him for this behavior and punished him for a week for this behavior. But the boy was happy that he came home and learned the lesson well and knew that this wrong behavior was dangerous and could have lost his family for life.

While hearing this story, I was very afraid and put myself in the place of this boy, and I found myself learning from him what to do. And that I must tell my family where I am going, and watch the time, and take care of myself and not stay away from home. When I finish playing, I go home.

In the early morning, I was very careful to memorize my full name, the name of the neighborhood in which I live, the name of my mother, and the house number.

Although the story was scary for me, I learned a lot from it and had a reaction to every event that takes place in it.

Dear student, a basic form was submitted for the topic on short horror story essay, In addition to many other models such as, horror short story essay, creepy short horror story essay, a short horror story essay, short ghost story essay, short ghost story essay, scary short story essay, scary experience essay.

If you prefer to add any other topic, you can contact us through the comments of this article and we will study your request and add it as soon as possible.

horror short story essay

At the weekend I went on a trip with my friends to the forest. We took camping equipment, some food and water. The weather was nice, the trees were leafy, the birds were flying from tree to tree, the landscape was beautiful.

We wandered in the woods and ate the fruits on the trees, and as we wandered, a huge bear appeared in front of us, looked at us and prepared to attack us.

We were all very terrified, but the instructions reminded us not to run, not to scream, and to act calmly. I took out of my bag a self-defense spray bottle, which should be used in this case. But the bear left quietly and none of us were hurt.

creepy short horror story essay

I get up early and sit in the garden of the house, enjoying the fresh air, listening to the sound of birds, watching beautiful flowers and other beautiful landscapes, but yesterday something terrifying happened to me.

When I sat on the bench in the garden and was enjoying nature I felt something moving under the chair.

I quickly looked under the chair and found a large black snake.

It moves slowly, I felt very terrified and could not move, I remained frozen in my place, the snake crawled slowly and I looked at it with horror, until it moved away several meters, I called the competent authority immediately and a trained man came and caught the snake.

a short horror story essay

Last week I went with my family to the zoo, the weather was nice, and we were enjoying the nature, where there are a lot of green leafy trees and decorated with beautiful flowers and large areas that allow us to run and play, everything was beautiful.

Then we went to the animal cages and watched the animals from a distance.

But there is a person who got very close to the lion’s cage, even though there is a sign on it that says Do not go near the animal cages.

He was not satisfied with that, but he extended his hand into the cage, and the lion grabbed his hand with force, and this person was unable to rid his hand of the lion’s fangs.

The man screamed loudly from the severity of the pain, and the guard came quickly and tried to give the lion a piece of meat to leave the man’s hand, but to no avail.

The veterinarian quickly intervened and gave the lion an anesthetic injection, and the man was able to get his hand out of the cage, but it had many wounds and was taken to the hospital. It was really terrifying moments.

Short ghost story essay

There are many people who feel terrified in the dark, and my brother is very afraid of the dark and feels terrified and imagines frightening things.

So when the electricity went out and the house became dark. I went to his room quietly without feeling, and stood in front of him, making some strange sounds.

My brother jumped quickly and came out of the room saying a ghost of a ghost, but he hit the wall and cut his head and bled a lot, it was a big wound.

At that time I was telling him don’t be afraid, I am your brother, but he was very frightened. I was very sorry for him and regretted that I had caused him to feel terrified and made him crash into the wall.

And I told him I was just trying to joke with you and I wouldn’t do it again but you should train yourself not to be afraid of the dark.

A Short Scary Story Essay

Last weekend I went with my friends on a fishing trip. We chartered a fishing boat with all our fishing gear and went into the sea for a long distance, so that we could see neither the beach nor the city.

We started fishing and we were very happy because there are many fish and they are also big, and the weather was nice.

Suddenly strong winds blew and the waves rose, and the fishing boat was swinging with us over the water, up and down, and we couldn’t control it.

At this time we felt so afraid that we would drown.The fishing boat cannot withstand these bad weather conditions.

But after a while the wind calmed down a bit and we miraculously survived.

Scary short story essay

Last weekend I went with my colleagues on a school trip to one of the archaeological sites, and we had some teachers with us organizing the trip and supervising our transfers.

We entered a museum that houses great antiquities and stood listening to the tour guide talking about the history of these antiquities.

I was fascinated and listened to the tour guide with great interest, so that I did not feel the departure of my colleagues and teachers, as they left the museum and got on the bus and left this place and did not feel my absence.

When I found myself alone in the museum, I felt very afraid and searched for them all over the museum, but I could not find them, so my fear increased and my crying became louder.

Suddenly I found one of the teachers entering the museum and looking for me, so I ran towards him and grabbed his hand and felt safe.

Scary Experience Essay

At the end of the year I had a frightening experience. I went to the beach and decided to snorkel, so I bought wetsuits, put them on, and dived into the sea. But it was not what I expected and almost drowned.

I was so scared when I found myself unable to dive, and could not swim to the top.

It was a difficult situation but one of the lifeguards on the beach saw me, knew I was going to drown and ran to save me.

Therefore, I advise others to learn before we do anything that might endanger our lives.

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Locals, students to be highlighted in first Mt. Gretna International Film Festival

The 50th annual Mount Gretna Art Show will welcome a first: the Mount Gretna International Film Festival.

Mount Gretna International Film Festival will be held Sunday, Aug. 18, from 12-3 p.m. in the historic Mount Gretna Playhouse.

The film festival coincides with Mt. Gretna's most celebrated event, the Outdoor Art Show, held Aug. 17 and 18.

The Outdoor Art show has an admission fee of $15 for adults and includes admittance to the film festival. Admission fee includes parking in designated locations. No pets are permitted on the arts show grounds.

The event will celebrate emerging and established filmmakers in their shared passion for cinema as an all-encompassing art form. It is being held in honor of Michael Evan Deitzler.

Awards at the film festival were made possible because of generous gifts made in memory of Deitzler, whose dream was to start a regional film festival in the hometown that he loved

The film festival will be accepting shorts, 5-minutes or under in total running time, only. Entries must have a genre designated by the filmmaker of drama, comedy, horror or documentary/video essay.

High school and Lebanon County spotlight categories also exist for eligible applicants. Entering filmmakers must be 14 years of age or older.

Details and entry information can be found at mtgrenaarts.com

Cash prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded for best drama, best comedy, best horror, best documentary/video essay, best high school entry, hometown spotlight and best of festival. Craft awards will also be announced at the festival for best direction, best cinematography, best writing, best editing, best sound design, best acting and audience choice.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @djlarlham.

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North West reacts to mom Kim Kardashian’s ‘American Horror Story’ performance

North West weighed in on her mom Kim Kardashian's performance as Siobhan Corbyn in "American Horror Story: Delicate " in the latest episode of "The Kardashians".

After watching the premiere with Kim, Khloé Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Scott Disick and other friends, North turns towards the camera and gives her verdict.

Reader, she enjoyed it.

“I couldn't even believe it was her. She was so good," North says.

This is high praise, considering North’s past commentary on her mom’s past endeavors. On Season Four of “The Kardashians,” the 10-year-old unabashedly gave her mom’s Met Gala gown mixed reviews .

She said the dress, which featured over 50,000 freshwater pearls and 16,000 crystals, made her mom look like “a Hawaiian girl with her dress all ripped.”

“I like the pearls. I just don’t like that it comes from the dollar store,” she said, added that the diamonds also “ruined” the look.

“It’s looking, like, beachy,” she said.

Kim's family and friends agree with North's take in the "Kardashians" episode.

"I smell an Emmy," Disick says.

"That was amazing," Khloé says.

"I'm so proud of you. (It's) like really, really good," Kris says while giving Kim a hug.

Fans online had similar praise after the "American Horror Story" Season 12 premiere, and expressed pleasant surprise.

“Wait but why is Kim slaying this…” one fan  wrote .

“Kim K is giving actress for reals in AHS im shocked,” another person  wrote .

“i actually loved kim k in ahs like why did everyone assume she’s gonna be terrible,” someone else wrote.

Kim's "American Horror Story" character is a publicist for Emma Roberts' character who later unveils her witchy powers. Following the success of "American Horror Story", Kim is set to team up with Ryan Murphy in a new scripted project.

Like her mom, North also made a foray into acting by playing Simba in a  live production of the “Lion King.”

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LGBTQ+ Pride Month is starting to show its colors around the world. What to know

Pride Month is kicking off around the world with parades and festivals in cities large and small

Pride Month, the worldwide celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, kicks off Saturday with events around the globe.

But this year’s festivities in the U.S. will unfold against a backdrop of dozens of new state laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender young people.

Here are things to know about the celebrations and the politics around them.

WHY IS JUNE PRIDE MONTH?

The monthlong global celebration began with Gay Pride Week in late June 1970, a public celebration that marked the first anniversary of the violent police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn , a gay bar.

At a time when LGBTQ+ people largely kept their identity or orientation quiet, the June 28, 1969, raid sparked a series of protests and catalyzed the movement for rights .

The first pride week featured marches in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and it has grown ever since. Some events fall outside of June: Tokyo’s Rainbow Pride was in April and Rio de Janeiro has a major event in November.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.

WHAT'S BEING CELEBRATED?

Pride’s hallmark rainbow-laden parades and festivals celebrate the progress the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement has made.

In the U.S. in April, a federal appeals court ruled North Carolina and West Virginia’s refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory.

In one compromise in March, a settlement of legal challenges to a Florida law critics called “Don’t Say Gay” clarifies that teachers can have pictures on their desks of their same-sex partners and books with LGBTQ+ themes. It also says books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes can remain in campus libraries and gay-straight alliance chapters at schools need not be forced underground.

Greece this year legalized same-sex marriage , one of three dozen nations around the world to do so, and a similar law approved in Estonia in June 2023 took effect this year.

WHAT'S BEING PROTESTED?

Rights have been lost around the world, including heavy prison sentences for gay and transgender people in Iraq and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in Uganda . More than 60 countries have anti-LGBTQ+ laws, advocates say.

Tightening of those laws has contributed to the flow of people from Africa and the Middle East seeking asylum in Europe.

In recent years, Republican-controlled U.S. states have been adopting policies that target LGBTQ+ people, and particularly transgender people, in various ways.

Twenty-five states now have laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Some states have taken other actions, with laws or policies primarily keeping transgender girls and women out of bathrooms and sports competitions that align with their gender.

GOP state attorneys general have challenged a federal regulation , set to take effect in August, that would ban the bathroom bans at schools. There also have been efforts to ban or regulate drag performances .

Most of the policies are facing legal challenges.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 , leading to restrictive abortion laws in most GOP-controlled states, LGBTQ+ advocates are worried about losing ground too, said Kevin Jennings, CEO of nonprofit civil rights organization Lambda Legal. On the eve of Pride, the organization announced a $180 million fundraising goal for more lawyers to challenge anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Progress such as the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide could be lost without political and legal vigilance, Jennings said.

“Our community looks at what happened to reproductive rights thanks to the Dobbs decision two years ago and has enormous anxiety over whether we’re about to have a massive rollback of what we’ve gained in the 55 years since Stonewall,” Jennings said.

WHAT ABOUT BUSINESSES?

While big businesses from Apple to Wells Fargo sponsor events across the U.S., a pushback made ripples last year at one major discount retailer.

Target was selling Pride-themed items last June but removed some from stores and moved displays to the back of some locations after customers tipped them over and confronted workers. The company then faced additional backlash from customers who were upset the retailer gave in to people prejudiced against LGBTQ+ people.

This year, the store has said it would not carry the items at all its stores. But the company remains a major sponsor of NYC Pride.

ARE EVENTS SAFE?

Keeping the events safe is the top priority, organizers said, but there could be challenges.

The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory in May that foreign terrorist organizations could target events associated with Pride. The same month, the State Department renewed a security warning for Americans overseas , especially LGBTQ+ people and events globally.

Law enforcement officials noted ISIS sympathizers were arrested last year for attempting to attack a June 2023 Pride parade in Vienna and that ISIS messaging last year called for followers to attack “soft targets.”

The agencies say people should always watch out for threats made online, in person or by mail. People should take note if someone tries to enter a restricted area, bypass security or impersonate law enforcement and call 911 for emergencies and report threats to the FBI.

NYC Pride has a heavy security presence and works with city agencies outside the perimeter, said Sandra Perez, the event’s executive director. The group expects 50,000 people marching in its June 30 parade and more than 1.5 million people watching.

“The fight for liberation isn’t over,” Perez said. “The need to be visible and the need to be mindful of what we need to do to ensure that the future generations don’t have these struggles is really top of mind.”

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Holocaust Museums Debate What to Say About the Israel-Hamas War

Students are bringing up antisemitic tropes and asking survivors and docents: What is Palestine? Is there a genocide in Gaza?

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By Dana Goldstein and Marc Tracy

Dana Goldstein, who covers education, reported from Atlanta. Marc Tracy, who covers cultural institutions, reported from New York.

At a Holocaust museum in Atlanta, staff members had typically ended their tours by saying that many survivors of the death camps immigrated to Palestine.

But after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the guides noticed that some students would ask a simple but complicated question: Is this the Palestine that we’ve been hearing about?

So staff members at the museum, the Breman, made a few changes, according to Rabbi Joseph Prass, the museum’s education director. Now, docents explain to visitors that many Holocaust survivors found refuge in “the British Mandate of Palestine” or “the area that would become the country of Israel.”

Each year, roughly two dozen Holocaust museums in the United States teach millions of visitors — often students on field trips — about the Nazi genocide of six million Jews, a history that is fading from living memory.

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel and the ensuing war, that mission has felt especially urgent, as the number of bias incidents against Jews has risen across the country.

The Israel-Hamas war has also forced museums to confront one of the most emotional and divisive issues within the Jewish community: how to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Many Holocaust museums include the story of Israel’s founding in 1948, depicting the country as a refuge for Jewish survivors. But they often do not mention, or address only in guarded terms, a subject that increasingly interests some visitors: the Nakba, Palestinians’ term for their displacement amid Israel’s founding.

“The question is always context,” said Debórah Dwork, a Holocaust historian at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. And at these museums, she said, Israel’s founding is set in the context of the mass murder of Jews in Europe.

“The Nakba is not part of that context,” Ms. Dwork said. “It’s rarely treated, if at all.”

Many of the museums have a broader mission beyond the Holocaust: They want to raise awareness about prejudice, mass killings and human rights. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has created case studies of other atrocities, including the Ottoman genocide of Armenians, ethnic cleansing in the Ethiopian civil war and the Burmese killings of Rohingya Muslims, which the U.S. State Department considers to be a genocide.

In May, the Illinois Holocaust Museum opened a core exhibition called “Voices of Genocide,” highlighting the experiences of witnesses to mass killings in Armenia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Guatemala.

And many museums have devoted attention to non-Jewish victims of the Nazis, like the Roma, L.G.B.T.Q. people and people with disabilities, as well as to U.S. civil rights abuses like Jim Crow laws and the internment of Japanese Americans.

Now, the museums must contend with the Israel-Hamas war, and the fact that all sides invoke the Holocaust to make their case. To supporters of Israel’s war effort, there is a direct line between the antisemitism that fueled the Holocaust and the ideology of Hamas, whose attack on Israel made Oct. 7 the deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi genocide.

Others, including many young museum visitors, have heard antiwar protesters’ claims equating the Israel military campaign with genocide. And they have been steeped in social media images that show tens of thousands of Palestinians killed and millions displaced from their homes. For them, no humanitarian crisis is more pressing.

Omer Bartov, a professor of history at Brown University and a scholar of genocide, said that in the current political climate, visitors will naturally have questions about how the museums see the war in Gaza and Israel.

“If you talk about equality, dignity, human rights as the lessons that we learned from the Holocaust, when an entire regime of international law was put into place, does that apply to everyone?” he said. “Or is the Jewish state exempt from that because of its past?”

Engaging with a New Generation

Some Holocaust museums have developed plans for how to handle questions related to the Israel-Hamas war.

If visitors raise the question of genocide, Rabbi Prass said, he and other museum speakers have developed a clear response: While the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is tragic, “The term genocide? We don’t feel this is an appropriate use of the term, given the topic we talk about. It doesn’t apply.”

Some museums point visitors to the text of the United Nations Genocide Convention, which does not define the term merely as the killing of civilians from a particular national, ethnic or religious group. It requires that the killings were committed with “intent to destroy” the group.

The Illinois Holocaust Museum — founded by Holocaust survivors in Skokie, outside Chicago — prepared an eight-page guide on the Israel-Hamas war to help volunteers answer questions. The document states that Hamas was the “aggressor”; that international legal scholars have not found the war to meet the criteria for genocide; that there is “nothing antisemitic” about supporting Palestinian statehood, but there is in supporting Hamas or in chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free.”

“It’s natural that when people are processing what they’re seeing in the world, to ask questions about Israel and Gaza,” said Bernard Cherkasov, the museum’s chief executive.

He added, “The hostages not being released and the innocent Palestinians paying the ultimate price — that is a humanitarian crisis that needs to be acknowledged, no matter what labels we put on it.”

Andrew Hollinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, declined a request for an interview about how the museum was responding to the war and the claim of a genocide in Gaza. In a written statement, he said that “the museum’s primary role is educating the public about how and why the Holocaust happened, and the longstanding unchecked antisemitism that made it possible.”

Ruth Wisse, a scholar of Jewish literature and politics at Harvard, said Holocaust museums should respond to the moment by teaching students more about contemporary antisemitism, including on the left and in the Muslim world.

And museums should celebrate Israel, she said, and present its founding in 1948 at the “middle point” of their historical narrative, instead of at its culmination. This would allow the museums, she said, to depict Jewish self-determination, for the first time in two millenniums, as a potent contrast to the victimization of the Holocaust.

“If they do it that way, you would have kids who would understand the story of Israel,” she said. “They would understand its miraculous nature.”

Debating a Genocide’s Legacy

Since the Israel-Hamas war began, antisemitic images have sometimes crept into antiwar protest imagery. For instance, the star of David in the Israeli flag has sometimes been replaced by a swastika, and some pro-Palestinian activists have shared images that recall classic antisemitic propaganda , like the portrayal of the Jew as a hidden and manipulative puppet master.

And more students have mentioned antisemitic tropes they have heard, like claims that the media are controlled by Jews, according to Mallory Bubar, an education consultant for Manhattan’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.

In response, the museum published a guide to antisemitism for educators. It explains some basic facts about Jewish history — for example, that for centuries, governments limited the types of jobs Jews were allowed to do, helping to explain their prevalence as moneylenders. The guide sketches how antisemitism often takes the form of conspiracy theories about Jewish power.

But the guide, and many of the museums, do not address a question that has been fraught for decades, and has been central to the U.S. political debate over the war: At what point does anti-Israel protest veer into antisemitism? It has been a matter of fierce debate among Jews, especially between generations.

For instance, there is a divide over the phrase “never again,” long associated with remembering the Holocaust. The Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center in Cincinnati has used the phrase “never again is now” to highlight the horror of Oct. 7 and what the museum has characterized as global indifference to Jewish suffering.

Jackie Congedo, a spokeswoman for the museum, suggested in an interview that accusing Israel of genocide could itself be an antisemitic act. “It feels to me a lot like what has happened to Jews throughout history — the vilification and jumping to frame Jews as the worst possible thing in every given society,” she said.

But some Jewish pro-Palestinian groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow have used the same slogan — “never again is now” — to call attention to Palestinian suffering and push for a cease-fire, while referring to Israel’s conduct as genocidal.

Simone Zimmerman, 33, a founder of IfNotNow, recalled that on a visit years ago to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, stories of anti-Jewish laws and segregation reminded her of elements of the Palestinian experience.

“It’s unsurprising they are asking questions about parallels,” Ms. Zimmerman said of today’s young visitors to Holocaust museums. “The reason we make comparisons is not to say everything is exactly the same, but to learn from history.”

At the Illinois Holocaust Museum, Marion Deichmann, a 91-year Holocaust survivor, periodically shares her story with middle school students. As a girl, she journeyed with her mother from their native Germany to Luxembourg, and then France. Her mother was arrested in the 1942 Vél d’Hiv roundup of Jews in France and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was killed.

Ms. Deichmann has thought about how she would respond if a student compared the present war to the Holocaust.

“There is no comparison,” she would say, “with the six million Jews that were murdered in camps.”

Dana Goldstein covers education and families for The Times.  More about Dana Goldstein

Marc Tracy is a Times reporter covering arts and culture. He is based in New York. More about Marc Tracy

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

Declaring Hamas no longer capable of carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israel, President Biden said that it was time for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza  and endorsed a new plan .

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been put on the spot by Biden’s announcement outlining a proposal for a truce. Now he faces a stark choice .

The Israeli military said that its forces had advanced into central Rafah , pushing even more deeply into the southern Gaza city despite an international backlash.

In the West Bank: Since the war in Gaza began, armed Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, often accompanied by the army, have stepped up seizures of land long used by Palestinians .

A Fateful Encounter: In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist came to the aid of a desperately ill Hamas inmate. Years later, the prisoner became a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack .

Getting Relatives Out: For Americans racing to evacuate their family members from Gaza, the closure of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt — the only way out for civilians — has thrown an already complicated system into disarray .