creative writing prompts scary

132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

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

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

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

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

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101 Horror Writing Prompts That Are Freaky As Hell

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Are the Main Elements of Horror Writing?

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

66 Horror Writing Prompts

Halloween Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then set a timer and write.

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

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

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

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

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

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

101 Horror Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creepy Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spooky Writing Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Do You Come Up with Horror Ideas?

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

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

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

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

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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101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

28. A priest is a vampire.

29. A woman wakes up with no eyes.

30. A man wakes up with no mouth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

39. Kidnappers abduct the child of a vampire.

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

41. A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

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

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

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

45. Suburbia is actually purgatory.

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

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

48. An old shipwreck washes ashore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

62. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

69. Something ancient rises from an old pond.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleep well and keep writing.

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

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

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

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Home / Book Writing / Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started

Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started

Horror writers get their ideas from a number of sources. Whether it be from a seemingly innocent interaction at the grocery store or a terrifying nightmare that just won't go away, there's no shortage of horror story ideas. But sometimes, you just need a little nudge to get the terror flowing. And that's just what you'll get in this article with these horror writing prompts.

Ingredients for a good horror story.
Horror story writing prompts.
Vetting your horror story idea.

How to Write a Good Horror Story
Serial Killer Writing Prompts
Ghost Story Horror Prompts
Monster Horror Writing Prompts
Psychological Horror Story Prompts
Halloween Writing Prompts
Science Fiction Horror Story Prompts
Mystery Writing Prompts
Test Your Horror Idea

Like most umbrella terms for major genres, “horror” covers a whole range of different styles, tropes, and subject matter. Psychological horror and slasher horror are two examples that lie near opposite ends of the spectrum. That said, there are certain things that horror readers expect from stories, no matter what subgenre.

As you can probably guess, these expectations aren't about feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Horror readers want to be scared . Some of them want to be grossed out and scared. They want to deal with fear from the safety of their couch or bed. They want to feel the hairs on the back of their neck prickle as the hulking monster stalks the unwitting character or the malevolent spirit stands next to the sleeping woman.

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But to do this effectively, the reader has to care about the character . Like all stories, horror tales are about humans. Most often, they’re about good people who find themselves in bad situations. So make sure to include a character arc and a good number of round characters .

Additionally, horror readers like to be surprised . While not every horror story needs a plot twist, you'll find that many of them have one (or more).

Keep these factors in mind as we go through this article and explore the prompts that can help you write a great horror story. And if you're suffering from writer's block , the following prompts can certainly help.

Horror Story Prompts

Horror stories don't necessarily have to fit into a subgenre. Any of the following ideas will make for a scary story.

1. A woman is convinced demonic possession is real, and only she can tell who is possessed. The only way to send the demons back to hell is to kill the person.

2. A little boy shows up at an adult character's house. He knows things about the adult that he's never told anyone. And he wants help killing someone.

3. A woman comes home to find that her house has been ransacked. The only thing that's missing is the positive pregnancy test she just took the day before.

4. As part of his job, a law enforcement officer investigates a dark website about demonic killers. Strange things start to happen as the investigation proceeds.

5. A teenager comes back home to his small mountain town after being away at camp. But he finds that everyone is acting strange and all the birds are gone.

6. A character finds that her social media has been hacked, and all her pictures have been expertly altered to make it look like she's dead.

7. There's a new scary movie out. The main character goes to the special midnight showing, but something terrible happens in the middle of the movie, and many of the audience members now have a taste for human flesh.

8. A small town is tormented by a supernatural force. It turns out that many of the people in the town helped cover up a horrible murder. Someone is seeking revenge from beyond the grave.

9. A man wins the lottery and starts living the high life. He breaks up with his old girlfriend for a new one. But the new one ends up dead, and he's the main suspect.

10. A bully terrorizes a small town, until the people have had enough. What they don't realize is the town bully is well-versed in the dark arts.

11. A girl who loves writing horror stories finds herself dealing with a crazy religious group that thinks what she does is immoral.

12. A couple of burglars break into a house only to find that they've been set up. The house is a mess of traps designed to torture the two burglars.

13. An amusement park worker finds that something sinister is going on behind the scenes.

14. A character attends a party in which an ancient ritual will be performed. He doesn't believe in the ritual, but he's in for a horrible surprise.

15. A new phone app that young people are using gives them powers to do amazing things. But with too much use, the app takes control of them.

Slasher horror movies are popular for a reason, and the same goes for books. Sometimes the scariest horror fiction involves something that can happen in real life.

16. Write a story set in the old west, where people are being brutally murdered. It's made to look like Native Americans are doing it, but the local sheriff suspects otherwise.

17. A killer is targeting police officers. The city is on edge, and a detective has a personal stake in catching the killer. But the killer soon targets her loved ones.

18. The main character thinks his neighbor is a serial killer. But we soon find out that the main character is the killer, and he's trying to set up his neighbor to take the fall.

19. A group of young people shows up at a camp three years after several people are murdered there. But these young people have come for revenge against the killer.

20. A man feels compelled to kill people he doesn't know. He soon figures out that someone is manipulating him with the dark arts.

Whether we're talking about Stephen King, Peter Straub, or any number of other great horror writers, ghosts and ghouls make for great horror fiction.

21. The staff of a mortuary start dying off through unexplained means. It turns out they've been stealing from their clients, and their dead family members are trying to right the wrongs.

22. A child is convinced his house is haunted. He tries to tell his mother about it but finds that she can no longer hear or see him. It's like he never existed.

23. A story about a haunting convinces people that ghosts are trying to kill them. Anyone who hears the story starts experiencing strange things. People say it's all in their heads, but it might be real.

24. A young couple driving cross-country finds a little girl. She tells them her story as they take her to the nearest police station. But when they get there, she's gone.

25. Explore the implications of an old man who goes out of his way to make ghosts so he'll have company after he dies.

Hulking monsters that go bump in the night are common staples of the horror genre. These prompts should lend you some monstrous inspiration.

26. An experiment gone wrong releases a virus that turns certain dog breeds into demonic killing machines.

27. A fracking company accidentally releases something huge and horrific from under the surface of the earth.

28. Vampires exist, but they're far more brutal, ugly, and harder to kill than lore suggests. And they've suddenly been released from their containment spell.

29. There's something strange about the neighbors who've just moved into the house. They say they have dogs, but the main character has only ever seen evidence of these huge dogs during full moons.

30. A horror writer is desperate for ideas. She steals a cursed item that is supposed to give her inspiration. But instead, it makes the monsters of her imagination come to life.

Not every horror story idea has to do with visible monsters or killers. Psychological horror uses the human psyche to ratchet up the fear factor for ultimate screams.

31. A young reporter's Twitter account is hacked. She keeps getting strange and threatening messages. Soon, she comes home to find her cat dead. Someone is messing with her, and she needs to find out why.

32. A man with a mysterious past has finally found some peace. But someone who he thought was dead shows up from his past.

33. This creepy story takes place over the course of a single night, in which campers are taunted by beings in the forest that pit the campers against each other.

34. Two coworkers are forced to spend the night in a dilapidated hotel. But it's a night that never ends, and they're both convinced there's something seriously wrong with the other.

35. A social media influencer live-streams a crime spree. It turns out the whole thing is faked, but the people who go out to stop him don't know that.

We couldn't mention horror stories without talking about Halloween. These prompts are all Halloween-themed.

36. As Halloween night gets into full swing, the power to the entire city goes out. And there's something in the dark that's powerful and ruthless.

37. A family who loves Halloween decides to take their haunted house a step further by stealing some dead bodies from the local morgue. But they choose the wrong morgue, because these bodies aren't all the way dead.

38. A town that has been haunted by a brutal killer on Halloween for years is on edge. A kid playing a prank dresses up as the killer and gets shot. Chaos ensues as neighbors turn against each other.

39. The main character wakes up on Halloween morning to find herself in a dilapidated version of her town. And all the people are mysteriously gone. But it seems she's not alone.

40. A cult leader convinces his followers to kill themselves on Halloween night. But some of the characters try to escape. The cult leader won't allow that to happen.

Mixing common science fiction themes with tried-and-true horror themes can make for a great story.

41. A mission to Mars is thrown off track as one of the astronauts becomes sick with a mysterious and deformative virus.

42. Strange ball-shaped objects suddenly appear all over Earth. People who come near them start acting very strange.

43. While testing a new weapon, the US Government accidentally opens a portal to another dimension. And the creatures of that dimension don't like humans.

44. In the not-too-distant future, the Earth is infested with killer plants and deformed beasts that keep getting better at killing humans.

45. A scientist opens a time portal, but he lets the wrong person use it. He must trip through time to right the wrongs done by the antagonist.

Mystery and horror often go hand-in-hand. So if you like intrigue with your terror, pick a horror prompt from below to get the creative juices flowing.

46. There's a killer terrorizing an American colony in the eighteenth century. But as the main characters get closer to the culprit, they suspect there's something inhuman at work.

47. A Sherlock Holmes-like character uses his skills to make criminals pay for their crimes . . . with their lives.

48. A woman decides to take self-defense classes. But someone from the class follows her home and tries to convince her she's in danger.

49. A group of people is locked in a house together. They must figure out why they've each been chosen, or else they'll die by morning.

50. A man takes it upon himself to do what the police can't: find out who is abducting children in his town. But what he finds is a conspiracy involving powerful people in a dark cult.

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While practicing your craft with these prompts is a worthy time investment, you may have an idea for a full-length novel. If so, it's best to do a bit of research to ensure that the idea is commercially viable . And the easiest way to do this is with Publisher Rocket .

You can think of the information you get from Publisher Rocket as the foundation for your horror writing career . You get insights directly from Amazon on:

Keywords – Metadata to position your book on Amazon.
Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
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Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

How to write an adventure story, parts of a book [from cover to cover], how to write a whodunit, sell more books on amazon, amazon kindle rankings e-book.

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159+ Horror Story Prompts – Unleash Your Scary Stories

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: September 5, 2022 - Last updated: January 2, 2024

Categories Writing , Inspiration , Storytelling

Are you a horror enthusiast with a passion for writing? Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ve put together 159 spine-chilling horror story prompts to help unleash your creativity and keep your readers on edge. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned writer, our carefully curated prompts, sorted by genre, will turn your creative gears.

Dive into these prompts and start crafting your terrifying tale today! With our help, you’ll be able to engage and thrill your audience through captivating narratives and haunting horror elements.

Key Takeaways

Discover 159 creative writing prompts to inspire gripping horror stories
Experience prompts tailored for different sub-genres within the horror realm
Unleash your creativity and captivate readers with spine-chilling tales

25 General Horror Writing Prompts

Here are 25 intriguing horror writing prompts to spark your imagination:

Haunted Places

Your family moves into a new home, only to find out it’s haunted by the ghost of a previous occupant.
A group of teenagers dares each other to stay overnight in a haunted house.
Inheriting your deceased grandmother’s house, you find a haunted music box.
Your group of friends discovers their beach hotel is haunted during their vacation.
Settling into your new home, your family realizes they’re not alone.

Mysterious Encounters

You and your friends go camping in the woods, but a mysterious killer begins stalking you.
Alone at home, you hear strange noises coming from within the house.
While driving home from work, your car breaks down late at night in a dark, isolated area.
On Halloween night, a creepy child dressed in a clown outfit shows up at the door of your babysitting gig.
Investigating odd noises in your attic, you make a horrifying discovery.

Supernatural Experiences

You and your friends decide to play with an Ouija board, accidentally summoning a demonic presence.
Strange occurrences begin happening when you discover that your children have been playing with a voodoo doll.
Living alone, an elderly woman notices objects in her house mysteriously moving independently.
Following a car accident, you start having nightmares of your death.
You stumble upon disturbing rituals at an abandoned temple on a Mexican vacation.

Unsettling Situations

Waking up in a hospital, you have no memory of how you got there or what happened to you.
You find out that your identical twin sister has been locked away in an asylum and decide to switch places with her.
As layoffs loom at work, your colleagues start dying in mysterious accidents.
Trying on clothes in a dressing room, you realize you’re not the only one present.
Your regular poker game is disrupted when you realize one of your friends has been replaced by an impostor.

Survival and Escape

After being stranded on an island, your group of survivors becomes the prey of cannibals.
Returning from war, you discover sinister counterparts have taken the place of your family members.
Driven by financial desperation, you agree to participate in a dangerous medical experiment.
Performing maintenance on an old elevator, you find yourself trapped overnight with terrifying company.
You start receiving terrifying phone calls and strange gifts at your doorstep.

25 Horror Screenplay Ideas

Let these ideas spark your creativity as you dive into the eerie world of horror writing:

Curses and Transformations

Imagine a small town where a mysterious curse transforms townsfolk into animals under the cover of darkness.
Picture an evil witch transforming people into frogs, forcing them to race against time to break the spell.

Ghosts and Spirits

Picture a woman tormented by the spirit of her deceased sister, who relentlessly attempts to end her life.
Think of a family moving into their dream home only to discover it’s inhabited by vengeful ghosts.
Visualize a woman pursued by her abusive ex-lover returned from the afterlife.
Consider friends visiting a haunted house, unaware of the frightening spirits awaiting them inside.
A family moves into a new house, only to find they’re being watched by an unseen presence.

Demonic and Otherworldly Entities

Envision a group of friends camping in the woods, stalked and hunted by ravenous werewolves.
Contemplate a young girl possessed by a malevolent demon, striking terror and death in her community.
Ponder a man who gradually realizes his wife has been replaced by an extraterrestrial being.
Envision a mother’s fight to protect her children from a nightmarish creature hiding in their closet.
In the midst of an eclipse, vampires emerge to feast upon unsuspecting humans.
A detective uncovers a shocking truth: werewolves have committed a string of grisly murders.

Apocalyptic and Unnatural Threats

Zombies and the undead.

Imagine a zombie invasion during a couple’s Caribbean getaway.
A twisted scientist creates a serum that turns its victims into undead zombies and unleashes it on the world.
On Halloween night, the dead rise as zombies to roam the Earth.

Paranormal and Psychic Phenomena

A woman is tormented by sinister, phantom-like children.
People fall victim to demonic possession through everyday technology.
A man, subjected to cruel experiments, channels newfound psychic powers to exact revenge.

Terrifying Encounters and Survival

Haunting encounters.

Teenagers partying in a deserted warehouse get trapped, facing dire consequences.
Kids at summer camp discover the staff members are aliens with a sinister plan.
As teens roam through an abandoned asylum, they begin to vanish one by one.

Cultural and Exotic Horrors

An American family vacationing in Japan unwittingly stumbles upon paranormal Yakuza activity.

Wilderness and Isolation

While hiking in the mountains, a group of friends must find their way back before darkness falls.
A brave sibling must protect their younger sister during a home invasion.

Let these ideas guide you in crafting your own terrifying tales. Enjoy the spine-chilling writing process!

37 Science Fiction Horror Prompts

Immerse yourself in these spine-chilling science fiction horror scenarios:

Space Horrors

Envision a space expedition going horribly wrong when the crew realizes they’re not alone on their ship.
Consider a woman astronaut haunted by a ghost from her past that she thought she left behind.
Visualize a cursed alien object causing gruesome deaths to whoever touches it.
Picture people trapped in a deadly maze on a faraway exoplanet created by a lunatic.
Contemplate astronauts on a deep space mission finding a hidden creature aboard their ship.
Envision a woman waking from cryogenic sleep to find she’s the last person on earth.
Reflect on a woman realizing her perfect life is an illusion created by an AI brain implant.
Contemplate a family vacation in space ruined by an alien creature stalking them.
Envision a woman with someone else’s still-beating heart inside her chest after surgery.

Time and Dimensional Anomalies

Imagine friends using a time machine and ending up in a parallel universe where menacing creatures are hunting them.
Think about a girl with psychic abilities accidentally opening a portal, unleashing terror upon her town.
Imagine friends uncovering an evil alien entity behind strange disappearances near their hometown.
Think about scientists accidentally opening a door to another dimension while working on a top-secret project.
Imagine a man stuck in a deadly time loop, living the same day over and over.
Ponder women drawn to an alien after a strange invasion, but is it just a physical attraction or something more sinister?

Alien Invasions and Encounters

Ponder an alien invasion taking over a small town, leaving a group of teens to save the day.
Reflect on a virus turning humans into zombies, with survivors fighting for their lives in a world of ruin.
Ponder a student’s terrifying hallucinations of an alien invasion caused by mysterious pills.
Consider mysterious disappearances in a town, with aliens as a possible culprit.
Picture an alien invasion forcing humanity underground, and someone venturing back to the surface only to find something far more horrifying.
Envision a distant future where humanity is at war with an advanced alien species, changing the course of human evolution .
Imagine a silent spacecraft appearing over a city, its intent unknown, sparking fear and fascination worldwide.

Futuristic Dystopias

Think about a mad scientist experimenting on people to create the perfect human.
Visualize an eclipse leaving everyone blind, except for one person.
Picture a future with a hive mind connecting everyone, and a woman hearing voices that aren’t her own.
Ponder a dark secret hidden by corporations ruling a world without democracy.
Consider an environmental disaster forcing humanity to live in a dome city ruled by a tyrannical government.
Visualize a world with cloning, and a woman realizing her identity isn’t what she thought.
Reflect on a small town terrorized by a killer who’s not quite human.
Contemplate scientists resurrecting extinct animals, only to create something far more dangerous instead.
Reflect on a man who suspects he may have started a zombie outbreak after a suspicious virus appears.

Psychological and Supernatural Terrors

Envision a boy discovering a mysterious door in the forest that takes him to an unwelcoming world.
Contemplate a girl who starts seeing unseen creatures after making a wish on a shooting star.
Consider a world controlled by AI, where a man starts to question his own memories.
Visualize a woman haunted by nightmares that turn out to be real, discovering she’s not the only one suffering from them.
Imagine a woman exploring lucid dreaming, later realizing she’s not the only one inside her mind.
Think about friends playing an augmented reality game with deadly stakes against a mysterious opponent.

27 Halloween Night Horror Prompts

As you delve into the world of horror writing, set the stage by using these chilling Halloween night prompts to unleash your creativity. Remember, on Halloween, the barrier between worlds becomes thin, so embrace the eerie occurrences that lurk in the shadows.

Haunted and Cursed Locations

Picture yourself and your friends gathered around a bonfire, sharing ghost stories. As one tells a tale about a cursed house nearby, you suddenly realize you’re standing in front of that very house.
A dare leads a group of teenagers to spend Halloween night in a haunted graveyard, only to discover they are not the only ones there.
Exploring an abandoned mental asylum with friends on Halloween, you hear strange noises coming from a cell.
After moving into a new home, paranormal happenings plague your family’s first Halloween.
An unexplainable force draws you to an abandoned house on Halloween night.
Curious teens follow your town’s haunted history, only to realize they are being watched by an evil presence.

Terrifying Encounters

A quiet Halloween night spent home alone becomes terrifying when you hear someone break in. As you hide under the bed, the intruder is already in the room with you.
Walking home from work, you notice a man following you. Your pace quickens, but so does his – and he’s always right behind you.
Trick-or-treating with friends, you encounter a seemingly abandoned house with its lights on and voices inside.
Playing basketball alone on Halloween, a mysterious clown approaches you on the street.
A chilling phone call from an unknown number threatens you on Halloween night.
Taking an alley shortcut, you notice something odd in a dumpster.
Babysitting on Halloween, unexplainable events occur while you’re alone with the children.
As you trick-or-treat, a masked man follows your every step.
Lying in bed, the slow approach of footsteps up the stairs on Halloween night fills you with dread.
A power outage causes uneasy knocking on apartment doors during Halloween night.

Supernatural and Mysterious Events

Driving home from a Halloween party, your family hits a deer on the road – except it’s more than just an ordinary deer.
Babysitting on Halloween night, the power goes out and you hear strange noises coming from upstairs.
Cleaning up after a party, you discover a hidden door in your basement that leads into darkness.
A remote cabin trip with friends for Halloween quickly becomes a nightmare with no connection to the outside world.
Discovering an old box in the attic, the contents send shivers down your spine.
Finding an ancient book on Halloween, a young boy unknowingly releases malevolent forces.
Desiring adventure, a group of teens leaves a Halloween party to stumble upon a forbidden place.
On Halloween, a haunting text message arrives from an unknown sender during a midnight horror movie.
First Halloween in a new home, you begin to realize your family isn’t alone.
As you set up for a Halloween party, lurking shadows indicate you are being watched by something malevolent.

These prompts will help you explore the spine-chilling world of horror stories, invoking spine-chilling fright and fueling your writing on Halloween night.

18 Haunted House Horror Prompts

Imagine your protagonist moving into a new home, only to find that their sanctuary is disrupted by paranormal forces. These 18 haunted house horror prompts will craft a chilling tale to keep your readers on edge.

Ghostly Encounters

Unwelcome Occupant : You and your family move into a new home, only to realize it’s haunted by a former resident.
Spiteful Spirit : A haunted fixer-upper reveals the vengeful ghost of a former owner.
Malicious Phantom : Your family moves in, only to find a malevolent spirit already residing in the house.
Ghostly Messenger : A tormented girl receives cryptic messages from a ghost.
Terrifying Twins : Expecting twins, you worry that one is possessed by a demon.
Mother’s Nightmare : Strange scratches on your daughter’s body make you think she’s possessed by a demonic entity.
Haunted Marriage : Your relationship is tested when your new home turns out to be haunted.
Ghostly Visions : After moving into a new home, you suddenly gain the ability to see spirits.
Unexpected Roommate : Moving into your first house together, you and your partner quickly realize something unseen shares the living space.

Demonic and Supernatural Threats

Nightmare Hauntings : A mysterious figure tormenting your dreams puts your family in danger.
Demonic Husband : Strange symbols in your home make you suspect demonic possession of your spouse.
Portal to Darkness : Your new home connects to a demonic realm through a mysterious entrance.
Dark Communication : Your son starts speaking in tongues and behaving strangely, making you think he’s talking to demons.

Mysteries and Dark Secrets

Deadly Dare : Friends stay overnight in a haunted house for a dare, only to discover the danger is real.
Dark Secret : Unbeknownst to them, your family moves into a house with a history of brutal murders by the owner’s son.
Mirror Menace : Suspicion of your husband’s infidelity grows as you notice another woman’s reflection in the mirrors.
Eerie Sounds : Unusual noises emanate from your home’s attic.
Hidden Horrors : You find remnants of a gruesome past concealed in your new home’s walls.

These prompts will help you explore the haunted house setting through various eerie scenarios, involving ghosts, demons, and chilling discoveries—all in a friendly, second-person point of view. Dive into your story, harness the fear, and captivate your audience with these spine-tingling ideas.

17 Paranormal Activity Horror Prompts

Haunting and possessions.

Consider a woman haunted by a ghost that desperately needs to communicate something important.
Think about a woman discovering her son is possessed by an evil demon.
A family moves into a new house already inhabited by ghosts seeking company.
Your mother becomes possessed by an evil spirit, endangering everyone in her life.
An exorcism goes haywire, unleashing a horde of demons into the world.
A family is visited by the ghost of their young child, who tragically passed away.

Dark Forces and Evil Entities

A woman discovers her supernatural abilities and uses them to stop a force of darkness from enveloping the world.
An evil witch curses a village, turning all its inhabitants into various animals overnight.
Two young girls learn they possess witchcraft powers and must stand against a wicked sorcerer.
Unfriendly angels begin to descend from heaven with ominous intentions.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride into your town, bringing death, destruction, and chaos.

Mysterious and Deadly Threats

Imagine you and your friends go camping and find yourselves hunted by a mysterious and possibly non-human creature.
A group of friends is stalked by a killer who knows their darkest secrets and deepest fears.
A psychic girl foresees her own death but is powerless to stop it, adding to her fear.
People begin to inexplicably and spontaneously combust around you, with no discernible cause.
A rampant wave of demonic possessions starts affecting your community, turning loved ones against each other.

Unexplained and Terrifying Events

A family vacationing in a secluded cabin starts to encounter unexplainable events.

10 Plot Twists for Horror Stories

Ready to take your horror stories to the next level? Here are 10 plot twists that can add a frightfully unexpected twist to your sinister tales.

Unending nightmare : Your protagonist wakes up and realizes they’re caught in a never-ending bad dream.
Hidden family secrets : Your protagonist’s nemesis turns out to be their long-lost twin sibling.
Extraterrestrial encounters : The menacing creature is actually an alien from another world.
Ghosts with a purpose : The spirits haunting your protagonist are time-travelers from the future , trying to avert a catastrophe.
Reincarnated nemesis : Your protagonist discovers they are the reincarnation of the villain they despise.
Psychic revelations : Your protagonist realizes they have psychic powers and have been experiencing visions of future atrocities.
Supernatural portal : The seemingly ordinary small town setting is actually a gateway to the underworld.
Demonic doll : The murderer is an evil doll that springs to life under the cover of darkness.
Purgatory prisoner : Your protagonist has been dead all along and is trapped in purgatory.
Reader revelation : In the end, the reader realizes they are the true culprit in the story.

Sprinkle these plot twists into your horror writings to frighten your readers, weaving magic and torture into your stories for unforgettable moments of terror.

The Structure of a Great Horror Story

The attention-grabber.

A compelling horror story begins with an element that captivates the reader’s interest. This initial intrigue should evoke fear without giving away too many details. Your goal is to entice the reader to continue.

The Tension Builder

Having captured the reader’s interest, building suspense through eerie descriptions and tension-filled narratives is essential. Keep details vague to maintain an air of mystery , allowing the reader’s imagination to run wild.

The Chilling Moment

At some point, you ought to deliver an unforgettable scare. This is when your tension-building pays off. The chilling moment should be surprising yet consistent with the story’s context. An out-of-context scare might feel contrived and undermine its impact.

The Unraveling

Finally, it’s time to bring the story towards its conclusion. Provide some clarity while leaving a hint of ambiguity. This keeps the reader on edge even after they’ve finished reading.

Keep these guidelines in mind, and you’ll be well-equipped to craft an enthralling horror story. Focus on maintaining mystery, building suspense, and striking at the perfect moment. Happy writing!

The Potential Weakness of a Horror Story

As a writer, you want your horror story to be frightening enough to captivate your readers and not so horrifying that it repels them. To find the ideal balance, it’s crucial to know who your audience is and what scares them.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula when it comes to fear. Different people are frightened by different things. Horror elements such as blood and gore aren’t always the most effective; sometimes, stories that tap into our deepest fears are more terrifying. For instance, a story about a mother losing her child in a store could evoke more dread than one involving a murderous monster.

One major challenge of crafting a compelling horror story is avoiding predictability. To keep your readers engaged, consider subverting their expectations and taking your story in surprising directions. This approach not only keeps them guessing but also maintains suspense throughout.

In the world of horror, striking a balance between being too scary and not scary enough is critical. By understanding your audience and exploring their fears, you can tailor your story accordingly. Ensuring unpredictability and capitalizing on deeply-rooted fears can significantly help elevate your story. Following these guidelines, you’ll be on the right track to create a chilling horror tale that leaves your audience suitably spooked.

What Are Common Horror Writing Themes

The world beyond our understanding.

A classic horror theme involves supernatural elements. This could mean ghosts, vampires, witches, zombies, or other beings that evoke fear. Incorporating the supernatural into your story can create spine-chilling moments for your readers to enjoy.

Menace Behind The Mask

Serial killers attract attention in horror stories as well. These characters often suffer from mental illness, making them unpredictable and frightening. By targeting specific victims, these killers bring a sense of personal dread for readers. Consider having a serial killer as your story’s main antagonist if you want to delve into gruesome aspects of human nature.

Alone in The Dark

Isolation is a powerful theme in horror, as it allows fear to fester and grow. When characters find themselves cut off from society, voluntary or not, situations can spiral out of control quickly. To increase tension in your story, have your characters confront their nightmares in isolation.

The End of The World

Apocalyptic scenarios are yet another classic horror staple. These can involve a zombie outbreak, an environmental catastrophe, or any other event that brings society to its knees. If your goal is to craft a harrowing story, consider setting it during or after a cataclysmic event.

Terror in Our Flesh

Body horror focuses on grotesque mutations, excessive gore, and horrifying physical changes. Although graphic in nature, body horror can also incorporate scares and suspense. For a blood-curdling tale, experiment with body horror elements.

Incorporating aspects such as population growth, psychological horror, and terrifying clowns can add an extra layer to these themes. Remember, whether you choose one of these themes or create something entirely original, the most crucial aspect is writing a story that piques your interest while keeping a friendly tone and maintaining a second-person point of view.

What Makes a Character Terrifying

Understanding their desires.

Firstly, it’s important to determine what your character wants. Their goals should be sinister and harmful to others. Whether it’s a simple desire to inflict pain or a complex plan to conquer the world, ensure that their intentions send shivers down your readers’ spines.

The Extent of Their Actions

Next, consider the lengths your character is willing to go to achieve their goals. Are they prepared to kill, torture, or maim? The more gruesome and ruthless their methods, the more terrified your readers will become. Looking at classic horror villains like Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers, you can see that their lack of mercy in inflicting pain on others is what makes them so scary.

Victims : The types of victims your character targets can also add to their degree of terror. For example, do they prey on innocent people or focus on those with specific traits?
Best friend : If your character has a best friend or close ally, explore how their relationship influences their actions and motivations. Consider how this bond can add depth or twists to the story and enhance the frightening aspects of your character.

Uncovering Their Motivations

After identifying your character’s sinister objectives and the extreme methods they’re willing to employ, seek to understand the reasons behind their desires. Was their drive initiated by a past tragedy or the concealment of a dark secret? By comprehending their motives, you can create a truly believable and terrifying character.

In conclusion, a well-rounded and multi-dimensional character with malevolent motives can truly strike fear into the hearts of readers. Utilize these suggestions to craft a spine-chilling horror story, making sure to let your creativity and imagination run free.

Fate and Coincidence in Horror Story Writing

In your journey as a horror writer, you might realize that blending fate and coincidence plays a crucial role in making your stories spine-chilling. When characters face continuous misfortune, readers can’t help but feel a sense of dread. So, how can you make the coincidences in your story plausible and avoid making them seem forced? Here are a few tips to help you seamlessly integrate fate and coincidence into your tale.

Firstly, remember that not all coincidences need an explanation. Sometimes, leaving them unexplained is better. A neatly knit story where everything is explicitly connected can feel contrived and unbelievable. Embracing mystery can add suspense to your spine-tingling narrative.

However, avoid certain coincidences altogether to maintain reader engagement. For instance, if two unrelated characters coincidentally meet on the street or a character discovers vital information purely by chance instead of through their efforts, it may seem unconvincing or like cheating.

To ensure that every event has a purpose and avoid contrived coincidences, ask yourself why a specific incident is happening and how it will impact the characters and plot. If you can’t find a satisfactory answer, consider reevaluating that scene.

By heeding these tips, you can make coincidences believable and enhance suspense instead of diminishing it. Strive to maintain an air of mystery while ensuring that each event serves its purpose. With a little effort, you can craft spine-tingling horror stories that will leave your readers captivated and wanting more.

Entangled love in horror

In the realm of horror films, the inclusion of love as a central theme can create a compelling contrast that heightens the emotional stakes of a story.

This juxtaposition of love in a horror story often deepens the reader’s connection to the main characters and makes their journey through fear and horror even more poignant.

Whether it’s a psychological thriller in which the protagonist must save a loved one from strange and evil forces or a supernatural horror in which love is the only solace in a world of darkness, the element of love adds a unique dimension to scary story ideas.

Love can be the driving force that pushes characters to face their deepest fears, resulting in an unforgettable and impactful horror story.

When horror writers weave these threads together, they create not just good horror stories but narratives that resonate on a deeply human level, combining the thrill of fear with the warmth of love.

Choose a Catchy Title

If you’ve gathered a wealth of story ideas and are ready to bring your spooky tale to life, the next crucial step is finding the perfect title to capture the essence of your story.

We invite you to explore our specially crafted guide at Brilliantio’s Horror Story Titles , where you’ll discover 34 unique ideas on how to name your horror story effectively.

This resource is designed to help you brainstorm and select a title that not only intrigues your readers but also gives a glimpse of the chilling adventure they’re about to embark upon.

A compelling title can make all the difference in drawing readers into the world you’ve created, so be sure to take advantage of this valuable tool in your storytelling journey.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can i start writing a frightening tale.

Choose a setting: a haunted house, a creepy forest, or an old mansion.
Develop your main character(s): give them a strong backstory, fears, and strengths.
Identify the source of horror: a ghost, a monster, or a mysterious villain.
Create tension and suspense: use descriptive language to keep readers on edge.

What elements create an excellent creepy romance?

Dark and alluring atmosphere: gothic, mysterious, and eerie.
Forbidden love: star-crossed lovers or love triangles.
A menacing or supernatural element: a vampire, ghost, or werewolf.
High emotional stakes: danger, betrayal, lost love.

Are there short horror movie ideas suitable for students?

A cursed object: an old book, a painting, or a music box.
A hidden secret: a forbidden room or an undiscovered basement.
A group of friends’ ghost hunting expedition turns dire.
Attending a party unaware of the host’s sinister intentions.

How should I approach writing a 500-word scary story?

Focus on one main event, setting, or character.
Utilize a simple and compelling plot.
Use concise descriptions to create an eerie atmosphere.
Leave readers wanting more with a twist ending.

What intriguing concepts can I use for body horror?

Transformation: becoming a monster or a grotesque creature.
Disfigurement: a character waking up with altered physical features.
Parasitic takeover: the protagonist’s body gradually taken over.
Cloning or doppelgangers: exploring dark counterparts.

How can I make my chilling tale stand out?

Subvert clichés : twist typical horror tropes to surprise readers.
Focus on psychological terror : dive deeper into characters’ minds.
Blend genres : combine horror with mystery, romance, or sci-fi.
Incorporate folklore or legends : introduce lesser-known myths or legends.

20 Spine-tingling Horror Story Prompts

by Sue Weems | 1 comment

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We've been looking at the nine types of stories, and next up is horror—survival stories where a character is facing a fate worse than death. What's worse than death? Fear. We hope today's horror story prompts will inspire some truly terrifying tales.

Nine Types of Stories and The Horror Story

We've been studying the nine types of stories based on what humans value most in real life ( full guide here ). Today, we're going to practice another type of story where the character must survive other people, beings, or forces. In horror (like its siblings mystery and thriller), the character teeters between their life and a fate worse than death.

The fate worse than death in horror is paralyzing terror, fear, and dread. Horror wants to scare, to shock, to terrify, and sometimes even to repulse readers or audiences. It delves deep into the human psyche to look at what scares us and why, as well as to examine the limits of human depravity (Hannibal Lector, anyone?).

The horror genre spans a host of sub-genres from psychological horror (like the film Psycho or any number of Stephen King's novels) to monster horror (like Dracula ) to paranormal (like The Exorcist ) or even gothic horror (like the stories by Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft).

All of the prompts below can be adjusted to your particular favorite type of horror, by carefully selecting details in the execution. Love gore horror? Amp up the blood in scenes. Love the more psychological aspects? Include details that keep the characters and audience off-balance. The common denominator is fear. Use it to your advantage.

Horror Story Prompts

Here are some prompt ideas for your own creepy story—try one or all of them—if you dare!

Psychological Horror Prompts

Three college students take a final road trip during spring break of their senior year, not knowing that each of them harbors a dark secret about one of their college professors who was murdered in the fall. As revelations begin to stack up, they each begin to suspect the other.

A quiet golf community is upended after a series of grisly murders begin happening on the greens, and a golf pro's seemingly perfect life begins to unravel with each body they find. She isn't the killer, but she has a terrifying idea of who might be.

A police officer on terminal leave before retirement finds himself in a bar where he suddenly realizes the art on the walls shifts and reveals pictures of serial killers from the last twenty years. And his best friend and former partner, who is still on active duty, is there on the wall too.

A grieving daughter revisits the libraries and locations where her famous horror writer mother penned her most famous works. And finds out her mother's stories weren't quite the fiction everyone believes.

A teacher returns to teach at the school where they attended to find that their entire class is made up of the children of every bully and enemy from their life. But no one claims to remember them.

Monster Horror Prompts

A cursed siren hunts a fishing village looking for the boat and man that killed her true love.

A hoarder dies and the mother-daughter team hired to clean up the mess discover a dead body and the horror of how it all began might connect to a shape-shifting monster from their own family.

A yacht party veers off course during a summer squall and lands on an island. Their relief gives way to terror as they realize they aren’t alone and worse, they’re prey.

Radioactive scorpions escape from a lab and begin to attack a small desert town.

An experimental romance rehab resort goes into lockdown after a therapist and a participant are found dismembered and clawed to shreds on the beach. But the threat is inside the compound.

Paranormal Horror Prompts

A lonely janitor desperate for cash to pay for his mother's long-term care unearths the ghost of a bank robber in the basement of the building he cleans. The ghost offers to help him access a hidden cache of unmarked cash in exchange for a specific kind of revenge.

At summer camp, one cabin is always left empty in memory of a boy who died there twenty years earlier. This summer, he's back—but not quite himself.

A television studio where a popular 70's horror show was filmed for years is reopened unleashing a dark secret and a meddling demon hellbent on tormenting every former cast member to death.

After a hit-and-run accident, a fortune teller begins having dreams full of strange creatures who threaten to spill into her world from a parallel universe.

An alien child hacks into the video security systems of a nationwide childcare chain looking for playmates and begins to lure them into its world.

Gothic Horror Prompts

A young family has just moved into a fixer-upper in a small town, excited for a new start. But when strange symbols begin to appear on the walls along their hallway revealing town secrets, can they decipher the omens and escape or will the house be their undoing?

One fall solstice, a tormented widow who lost her husband to war opens her dilapidated ancestral home for a treasure hunt with a prize no one can refuse.

Two elderly aunts take in their troubled nephew and defend him against accusations of disappearing fiancés until a mutilated sweetheart’s body turns up in their basement.

A winery disgraced by a bad batch of wine that killed dozens years ago, reopens as a haunted house of horrors revealing that far more than the wine was buried under their dark past.

Two children separated from their parents during a hike find shelter in an old miner’s shack until the ghostly inhabitant returns, their dead parents in tow.

It's Your Turn: Terrify Us!

We hope that these prompts have given you some horror ideas for your own story. Which prompt creeps you out most and why? Tell us in the comments .

For today's creative writing prompt, choose one of the scary story ideas above. Set the timer for 15 minutes and write out one scene for the prompt. Think about the moment the character realizes that their worst fear is staring them in the face.

Share all or part of your horror story in the Pro Practice Workshop for members. Not a member yet? Check out how to join us .

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Sue Weems is a writer, teacher, and traveler with an advanced degree in (mostly fictional) revenge. When she’s not rationalizing her love for parentheses (and dramatic asides), she follows a sailor around the globe with their four children, two dogs, and an impossibly tall stack of books to read. You can read more of her writing tips on her website .

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Award-winning instructor and writer of 20+ years, book coach, and editor. Sue Weems specializes in working with Memoir, Mystery, Nonfiction, Romance, and Thriller books. Sound like a good fit for you?

My very own creepy pasta. Four friends find a way to get to Cutter’s Mill a town that does not exist. The goal is to reach the abandoned elementary school and find the little girl that can ask any one and only one question. But break any rules along the way and the Principle will release the Teacher to administer punishment: Death.

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101 Scary Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts |

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One of the main goals I have with this site is to remove potential barriers for writers and self-publishing authors. Sometimes those writing barriers come in the form of inspiration or lack thereof, so I decided to create a series of posts with genre-specific writing prompt s.

In this article, I will share 101 Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts that you are free to use as inspiration for your next project.

Check Out The Latest Horror Best Sellers on Amazon

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I’ve always been someone who suffered from lots of ideas and less than stellar follow-through, but I know there are some authors out there where all they need is a bit of inspiration and they are going to run with and create something great. So that’s my hope, that some of you will read these horror story ideas and get inspired to flush them out and create a terrifying story that has the potential to scare millions in the future.

Some people might question putting your story ideas out there for others to use, but the truth is there is no shortage of ideas out there. On top of that, if we were all given the same horror writing prompt and asked to create a story from it, not one story would be the same. We all have different skill levels, approaches, writing styles, and imagination. I know many of you can create these ideas into something better than I ever could.

Story ideas are great, and they can capture our imaginations and propel us to start and finish a project when they fully consume us. However, the execution of completing that story is where the real magic happens.

So don’t be afraid to explore any of these horror writing prompts for fear that they are public and could potentially be used by other writers. If one story idea grabs you, sit on it, let it ruminate in your mind, flush it out, tweak it, make it your own. If you go through that creative process and are still excited about it, then move onto the outlining phase, where you will truly bring these ideas to life in your own image.

I also want to give a quick warning, these writing prompts and horror story themes are meant for adults, so allowing your children to read them, is up to your discretion.

So let’s get into it- 101 Horror Story ideas, segmented loosely by their type of horror subgenre.

Article Topics

Ghost, Supernatural, & Demon Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

In this section, you will find one of the most common types of horror story, those dealing with ghost stories, the supernatural, or demons. I hope you enjoy these ghost horror story writing prompts and they inspire you to write something crazy scary. Want Some Inspiration- Check Out The Latest Ghost Best Sellers on Amazon

1. A freelance photographer is in Brazil for Carnivale. When he checks into his economy rental his health inexplicably begins to go downhill very fast. The cause lies with the spirits of visitors past.

2. Foster parents take custody of a newborn, but when they open up their home to the baby a dark force takes over the house that threatens them all.

3. An archeologist studying Aztec Ruins in Mexico starts to have visions of ancient atrocities. They become ever more real and dangerous when they start to repeat themselves all around him.

4. A cemetery groundskeeper’s run-in with a mysterious woman unlocks an ability to see the future, the trouble is everything he sees entails the death of his loved ones.

5. A priest struggles to reconcile science and his faith, the trouble is as he gets closer and closer to leaving the church, the darker events get around him.

6. A family moves into an abandoned ranch that hasn’t been lived in for years. As they get settled their animals begin to get sick and die. What they don’t realize is that once all the animals are gone, they are next.

7. A man inherits a European chateau from a rich relative he never knew existed. When he and his wife get there it quickly becomes evident something in this house never intends to let them leave.

8. A real estate developer purchases a defunct insane asylum. But everyone that enters the new bed and breakfast begins to go mad, prompting the question was it the people who brought madness to Trumbull House or vice versa.

9. A young woman is dragged to a medium as part of a bachelor party. During the reading, the medium warns the women of impending doom right before she dies.

10. A plantation owner known for the brutality with which he treated his slaves beats a young man to death after catching him with his daughter. The slave’s spirit returns seeking revenge on the man and reunion with his lost love.

11. A young girl walks into her parent’s room one-morning without saying a word looking distant, calm, and pale. Finally, matter-of-factly she speaks, “We should make the most of today because it’s our last.”

12. A young couple begins to wake up every night, at the witching hour, starting on the 1 year anniversary of their child’s death.

13. Teenagers go deep into the woods for a weekend of drinking and debauchery on an ancient Indian burial ground. One by One they disappear.

14. An undercover police officer is tasked with infiltrating a fringe demonic cult suspected of kidnapping a child. As he lives among them he participates in rituals that are meant to bring about tragic events. Suddenly he realizes they’re actually happening to friends and family in the town.

15. A born-again Christian evangelical in New Orleans try to fight remaining voodoo fringe cultural elements. When he finds voodoo dolls representing everyone in the town strung up, he abruptly cuts them down, which sets off a series of tragic disappearances.

16. A group of teens decides to spend the weekend at the site of a haunted urban legend. During their visit, they begin to realize the legend actually describes the exact events of their weekend blurring truth & legend.

Slasher Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

Everyone loves a good slasher movie, they are hard to pull off well, but when you do you have the makings of a cult hit. In this section, we will look at a few new story ideas involving slasher horror story writing prompts.

17. Plane crash survivors must live in the wilderness until they are rescued. As they set up camp one of them is found murdered. They know someone amongst them is a killer, now they have to survive while being hunted from within the group.

18. Three friends wake up trapped in a room. An unidentified voice informs them that he has each of their spouses captive. He informs them they have 24 hours to decide who lives or dies, the trick is the last alive will be granted freedom along with their spouse.

19. Strangers are sent separate job offers from a small town company. When they relocate to the town, they quickly find out that a murderer is picking them off one by one.

20. He’s a surgeon who saves lives by day and a serial killer that brutally takes them by night.

21. Campers get snowed into their cabin during a bad storm. Now they are being hunted by the only other person on the mountain.

22. A spring break trip to Cancun turns deadly for a group of tourists as a rash of murders hit the resort.

23. A mysterious stranger appears and offers a down on their luck musician anything they desire. They can enjoy this life of riches and fortune with one catch, at every concert one person in the audience will die.

24. An RV park near Yosemite becomes the latest killing site of a national serial killer on the loose, but escaping isn’t as easy as driving away.

25. A rash of abductions and murders take a small town hostage when moms from the local school start to disappear and turn up brutally mutilated.

26. A schizophrenic killer fights the voices in his head, but the only way he can temporarily quiet them is to continue to sacrifice the innocents selected by those very same voices.

27. A pre-teen child struggles with sociopathic tendencies and through her counseling, the child begins to accept her behavior isn’t normal, the trouble is this causes her to fully embrace her sadistic behavior.

28. A downtrodden homeless man who lost everything during the financial crises snaps and decides to he has nothing to lose so he will rain furry on wall street himself.

29. A disturbed man enthralled with the horrific scientific experiments conducted by Nazi doctors decides he is going to advance the science and complete the work his deranged idols started.

30. A woman’s child was kidnapped and murdered and the loss was too much for her to come back from mentally. She is now determined to dole the same pain she felt on the other families.

Scary Horror Story Ideas With a Twist

Horror stories can be widely entertaining without some kind of clever twist. But if you can pull off a spine-tingling horror story with a twist at the end that no reader saw coming, then you have a scary story that will get fans talking, which means a viral sales potential for your horror novel.

31. A woman wakes up from her coma in a strange dilapidated hospital after an accident she can’t remember. But in this hospital, the patients never seem to get better. The twist is that everyone in the hospital is already dead.

32. A small town sheriff tries to solve a series of murders before the killer takes his next victim, but the killer is always one step ahead. The Twist is that the sheriff and killer are one in the same.

33. A 1940’s psychiatric hospital performs experiments on the clinically insane. A young doctor takes umbrage at how the patients are being treated. She tries to find a way to take down the hospital and free the patients but her concerns go ignored. The twist is that the doctors are former patients that have long taken control of the hospital.

34. A vigilante killer determined to take the law into his own hands by killing society’s Degenerates. There is one thing that nobody knows, he framed each of his victims to watch their lives coming crashing down before ending them.

35. A father and his family are on the run being hunted by a drug cartel. They go off the grid and try to sneak out of the country. One by one they get separated from the group and then disappear for good. The twist is the father is the one killing them as they are the only witnesses to his crimes.

36. A woman travels to Haiti on a religious mission after being invited by a growing sect of Christians in the country that is trying to spread Christianity. As she there the missionary group realizes the dark forces in the village are very strong and have no plans of giving up there hold on the people. The twist is that the people who invited them to the town did so as part of a project to eradicate Christianity person by person and not to convert.

37. An environmental group is called into a small town to investigate environmental pollution in the water. As they begin their search members of the team get murdered. The horror plot twist is that the group isn’t being murdered by some corporate hired evildoers, in fact, the pollution in the water isn’t man-made at all, but a supernatural force that requires sacrifices to keep from wiping out the town. The environmental group of sacrifices offered by the townspeople.

38. A wife and her children begin to hear and experience weird occurrences in their home. The threats become more and more dangerous, and the mother struggles to keep her sanity and children safe. The plot twist in this horror writing prompt is that everything the mother is experiencing is a hoax meant to have her diagnosed as clinically insane so the husband could have custody of the children and all the money in a planned divorce.

39. Alien life forms come to earth creating mass hysteria. The large ships hover over random cities around the globe. Humanity tries to make contact with the ships but they aren’t able to. The only thing that can be heard is a high pitched frequency that seems to be jamming communications on earth. Humanity turns on itself, unleashing it’s worst on each other. The plot twist is that the ships were autonomous vehicles sent to earth to form a shield around the planet for an incoming meter strike that would have ended humanity.

40. A person is kidnapped and wakes up in a foreign town where each of the captives is hunted for sport. They must try to figure a way out before they are captured and killed. The plot twist in this horror story is that the people were actually never captured, just put into a VR simulation by the government to test the limits of peoples ability to deal with stress.

41. A big city family moves to a backwoods town due to career relocation. When they get to the town it becomes clear that something is very off with townspeople. Eventually, they figure out that the job offer was a hoax, and the town needed to call them there to harvest new DNA and organs for their population that experienced health issues due to a limited gene pool.

Monster Writing Prompts & Horror Story Ideas

This group of horror story ideas and writing prompts will focus on Monster driven story plots. You will a different type of monster in each one, so I hope it helps get the creative juices flowing.

42. A military base closes down, leaving the remnants of a small town behind. When a group of children wanders onto the base they discover something still seems to be living in the underground tunnels.

43. Hikers discover an abandoned mine that seems to go on forever. As they descend into the mine they realize they’ve crossed through a portal to an alternate dimension filled with creatures they could have never imagined.

44. Animals and children start to disappear near a Florida swamp, the small group of townspeople enters the swamp to hunt alligators they suspect are causing the issue. What they find is hiding in the green mist is far more dangerous than any alligator.

45. A group of Dungeons and Dragons players invites a new student to join the group. He is considered off and weird by most of the school but to the D&D group, he fits right in. When he becomes the new game master something unexplainable happens, the monsters and happenings in the game begin to appear and occur in real life.

46. Biologists in the rainforest of central America are looking for a rare plant said to have cancer-fighting properties. The trip turns dark when it is clear that these woods are also home to a packed with a wild pack of Chupacabras. Now they must figure out what is hunting them and how to survive.

47. An online streaming video star and crew which focuses on debunking urban legends and ghost stories go deep into the pine barons of New Jersey to debunk the New Jersey Devil myth. The only trouble is there is more truth to this myth then they ever expected. (This one is a shout out to New Jersey, there really is more to this state than the turnpike and the Jersey Shore, but I digress)

48. Three young devil worshippers are determined to make contact with the hell. But in trying to make contact with the devil, they unleash the mythical 3 headed Cerberus onto earth.

49. An Incubus is unleashed inside a maximum security female prison. Preying on the inmates while they sleep, trying to impregnate to unleash a band of demonic babies onto earth.

50. Taking a trip of a lifetime, a family travels to Africa for a safari. Wanting the most authentic trip possible they decide to go it alone but when their camp is attacked by a fabled Nandi Bear they will need every inch of guile to survive.

51. A young team of Crab fisherman leave for their long crabbing season in the artic but on their journey, they encounter far more than they expected. Their ship has apparently been spotted by what one can only describe as a Cracken like creature.

52. A small town has a rash of new illnesses come over the town’s children. The diseases can’t be explained by physicians and threaten the lives of the entire town. A small group of teens is the only children unaffected. They search for a reason and find that the cause is actually the mythical Greek disease demon Aerico. Want Some Inspiration- Check Out The Latest Vampire Best Sellers on Amazon

Alien Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

In this section of our horror story writing prompts, we will focus on horror stories driven by Alien creatures and plot lines. Enjoy these Alien focused Writing Prompts.

53. A horrible fog rolls in over a town, it will not dissipate. The townspeople aren’t allowed to leave when the rest of the country realizes any person that relocates from that town subjects their town to the same fate. The trouble is all the crops are dying, no one is allowed to enter or leave the town and the everytime someone disappears the fog gets a bit wider in diameter.

53. All the wildlife starts to die as weird weather patterns begin to occur. While this is going on new crop circles are starting to appear across the globe. Scientists point to climate change, but soon it becomes clear that the changing climate is due to Alien locust-type creatures that have tagged earth as their next stop.

54. A select group of people on the planet gain telekinetic powers. The new power is hailed as the next giant leap in human evolution. However, these new powers are actually being dictated by an alien super race that plans on using these human puppets to enslave civilization.

55. Seismic events occur around the globe in the deepest parts of the ocean. The world braces for the aftermath from the series of earthquakes, but in reality, it isn’t earthquakes at all, but an ancient alien civilization that has laid dormant in the earth’s crust that is rising up to complete its mission.

56. A series of unresolved missing person cases that have been opened for years around the United States are suddenly closed when the missing people reappear. Something has changed with these people but no one quite knows what it is. These are not the same people they were when they disappeared. They were alien abductees and now being sent back to earth to carry out their alien captures plans.

57. A small green gelatinous creature is found by a group of friends in the nearby swamp. They take the creature home as a secret pet. Within days the creature reveals itself for what it is a carnivorous alien set on feeding and multiplying.

58. A spaceship crashes into the desert. A group of people finds it and when they open it they are quickly trapped inside as the craft takes off. This is one of the multiple ships that crash landed. As the military studies them, aliens study the captives to find the easiest way to terminate the species.

59. A fleet of Alien ships come to planet earth. They speak perfect English and explain they are there to share technology and come in peace. However, the truth is they intend on harvesting and using the human race as carbon batteries.

60. One Alien child is found on the planet. Competing factions argue on what the course of action should be with her. Some want to invite her in and learn from her, others want to do experiments on her. As the planet tries to figure out just what course of action to take, the rest of the Alien species watches on, as the child was an Alien tester. Depending on how the humans treat her, will determine whether or not the aliens in search of a new planet come to live amongst us or simply exterminate us and take the planet for themselves.

61. Unexplained shadows in the sky engulf entire cities. As the occurrence continues to happen humanity becomes more and more frantic. Now the question is can the human race overcome the Alien psychological warfare and prepare for the real threat.

62. A group of townspeople begins to turn on each other in horrible ways. The first occurrence is cast aside as someone simply having a mental break down. However, when the occurrences spread, it becomes evident that something has come over the people of this once peaceful town. The cause is an Alien mental manipulation that embeds horrific visions into the people of the town of atrocities being committed by their own neighbors, friends, and family.

Zombie Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

No list of horror or scary story writing ideas would be complete without having some Zombies thrown in, so in this section, we will focus on Zombie driven horror stories.

63. A zombie plague takes over the world, but the most dangerous part of this plague is that the virus lays dormant for up to 6 months before a person changes. So now you are living amongst the confirmed zombies and possibly soon to be zombies that can change instantaneously without warning.

64. The zombie apocalypse happened years ago, but a cure is finally available. Now to bring your loved ones back you must catch them and bring them to the government determent camp for treatment. A small town pastor sets out to lead a group in his town through the red zone to find their loved ones.

65. The zombie apocalypse is in full swing, however, these undead creatures are mating with wildlife getting exponentially faster and stronger. Survival is the name of the game for this group of roaming survivors.

66. The zombie virus has taken out most of civilization, the remaining survivors are lucky to take it one day at a time. A select group of survivors has a genetic mutation that makes them impervious to the virus. However, they have to be concerned with not only the flesh-eating zombies but survivors hunting them for their blood.

67. What if the zombie virus had two paths it could take, one was to turn you into a member of the brainless undead destined to roam the world for eternity and the other was making you impervious to disease and death. The trick it the only way to know which way your body will take the mutation is to get bit.

68. There is one religious camp left in the world that the zombie plague has not yet infested. The trick is it’s on the other side of the country and a group of survivors needs to make its way there for hopes of survival, but in the meantime, it has to survive the journey.

69. In a twisted post, apocalyptic world zombies have been enslaved as pets to mock and torture. What happens when the notoriously dumb undead begins to think and figure a way out.

70. A man’s family has been compromised by the zombie plague, the government has strict rules that when anyone is infected they must be turned in for extermination immediately. The man must now hide his family while trying to get his hands on the rumored cure.

71. A zombie virus infects the U.S. Military, however, these zombies are intelligent and thus weaponized. Now society must band together to defeat them.

Writing Prompts & Horror Story Ideas with Dolls

Sometimes the scariest stories come from some of the most realistic prompts. We have all seen an entirely too creepy doll in our day, one of those that you just don’t want to look at let alone hold. Well in this section we will visit horror story writing prompts with dolls.

72. A young child inherits an attic full of her grandmother’s creepy old dolls. The child is fully engrossed by her new imaginary friends, but as bad things start to happen around the house it becomes evident that these dolls are more than inanimate toys.

73. An old religious woman buys an old doll at a flea market. When strange things begin to happen to the religious artifacts in the home it becomes clear that this is no ordinary doll.

74. A group of Voodoo dolls has an animation curse placed on them that causes them to seek out and kill their real-life counterparts.

75. A hospital gift shop doll is possessed, causing it to comes alive every night and hunt patients in the pediatric ward.

76. A next generation sex doll equipped with Artificial intelligence seeks revenge on the men that abuse her.

77. There is something extra scary about this dolls dead eyes when you look into them your darkest subconscious thoughts are unleashed into the forefront of your mind’s eye where they will ultimately drive you insane unless you act them out.

78. A child’s clown doll is possessed but no one believes them. Now they need to protect their family from the clown despite being blamed for everything that is happening.

79. A daycare is overrun by demented dolls, now the teachers must protect the children until help can arrive.

80. Futuristic robot dolls are overtaken by a demonic AI software update and begin to terrorize humanity.

81. A doll comes alive and implants on their owner. Unwilling to share her with anyone else, its only focus is eliminating her family.

82. An old doll that belonged to a young slave girl that was murdered animates itself and seeks revenge on the slave owner’s future generations.

Short Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts

Some of you may want to try your hand at horror but might want to try it in a short story format which is totally fine, and something I might do myself on a future project. While any of these horror story ideas and writing prompts can be used for a short story, in this section I will focus on writing prompts that are a little easier to pull off in a short horror story format.

83. A teen is visiting a boyfriend in another city when they have a fight and she can’t call her parents so she must spend the night in a park. The trouble is there is something hunting people in that park tonight.

84. A person is in an elevator with one other person when it gets stuck. The problem is the other person is a werewolf and will slowly change over soon if the elevator doors don’t open up soon.

85. A vampire that had gone into voluntary exile decides he no longer wants to live on animal blood alone, so one night out of the year he will revisit his hometown to dine on human blood. That night is tonight.

86. A woman is locked in her bathroom, but there is somebody in the mirror staring back at her.

87. A woman is home alone when her house is broken into, she must survive the break-in without being seen.

88. A restaurant purchased an old church building, but when the owner is putting the overnight final touches on his restaurant before grand opening tomorrow he realizes spirits that the supernatural may still own this building, not him.

89. A group of teen girls is in a broken down car in the middle of the night when a group of red necks tripping on Flaca come upon the car. Now with no way to call for help they need to survive.

90. A traveler is mistaken for the wrong identity and must survive a cartel hitman for the night.

91. New neighbors move next door and something strange is going on in that house. One night the disturbance spills onto the family’s property and their father must keep them alive until morning.

92. A cruise ship is run by a cult of crew members when the passengers realize they are there as a fresh crop of victims they need to survive until their next port.

93. A couple goes on a deep sea diving trip off the coast of Australia, but on one dive their crew disappears and they realize something otherworldly is in the water with them.

94. A homosexual couple is targeted in their own house by a psychopath.

95. A new family moves into a home when they start getting letters about being watched. The latest letter says all their worries will end this weekend along with their lives.

96. A woman works out overnight in a 24 hr gym. She is all alone or so she thinks, but now she needs to survive whoever is after her.

97. There is a group of newborns in the hospital, but one of them is possessed and now the question is can one nurse protect the rest of the babies until morning.

98. A late night runner hears something in the woods. She keeps running but whatever it is only getting closer. Can she survive being stalked in the night?

99. A group of kids playing with a Quiji board unlocks a nasty spirit. Now they need to survive the night until they can get help.

100. A family hears someone breaking in so they go into their panic room, but that was the plan all along, now they need to figure a way out to survive.

101. A sane person is locked in a room with other psychotic patients by accident. Now she has to survive the night until the next shift arrives.

Check out Writers Workshop on Horror on Amazon

I really hope these horror story ideas and writing prompts have gotten your creativity flowing. Pick the story ideas you like the most and start to flush them out. See if you can turn them into a full-fledged plot.

Remember a story premise is great but until you execute on it and publish it, it will never have a chance at scaring readers for generations to come.

Thanks for reading and writing!

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50 Lovecraftian horror writing prompts

February 23, 2024 by Richard Leave a Comment

50 Lovecraftian horror writing prompts can unleash terrifying tales from the most creative minds. These story ideas delve into cosmic terror and the macabre, pulling from the spine-tingling themes pioneered by H.P. Lovecraft. From unknowable alien gods to forbidden rituals, cursed artifacts, and maddening visions, these prompts offer a gateway to bloodcurdling realms where sanity unravels.

The prompts invite writers to open eldritch doors in their imaginations. Behind each door lurks an eerie premise ready to launch narratives that cause both goosebumps and existential dread. Will your story tell of a seaside town haunted by fish-like creatures from the deep? Or secretive cults that worship cyclopean ruins found in the Arctic wastes? Perhaps an ancient tome’s unseen translations peel back layers of reality to reveal chthonic domains. The possibilities for horror hide within each prompt, needing only a guiding human hand to script them into being.

From these 50 sparks of inspiration may emerge 50 uniquely disturbing tales. Cosmic nightmares that slither and skitter into the reader’s mind could linger long after the last page. So for those intrepid writers craving to manifest their own madness-inducing myths, here lie the prompts for weaving warp and weft into bloodcurdling new patterns. What eldritch epics will you inscribe upon our mortal plane by typing into existence the visions your dark dreams show you? Craft your literary spells and unearth an eon’s worth of nameless fears.

Here are 50 Lovecraftian horror writing prompts to inspire cosmic tales of creepy otherworldly madness:

An antique dealer finds a strange relic that begins giving them visions of alien geometries and places hinting at forbidden knowledge.
Explorers discover the ancient fossilized remains of a non-Euclidean creature that should not biologically exist according to science.
A remote village still worships ancient gods, performing bizarre rituals that may have awoken something from the primordial chaos.
Ghostly transmissions from a radio observatory’s long-dead owners reveal their last desperate attempts to re-orient the satellite dishes away from something mercifully unseen.
A young girl’s imaginary friend starts revealing impossible facts about an ominous glowing meteor hurtling toward earth that only she can see.
Deep sea researchers discover the sunken ruins of a cyclopean pre-human civilization intricately carved with eldritch symbols matched in no known language.
Probing deep space, astronomers detect echoes of sinister piping music permeating the cosmos in a mathematically impossible non-random pattern.
Exploring Antarctica, scientists find a miles-wide impact crater with a colossal non-human corpse chained deep in glacial ice that couldn’t possibly have evolved on earth.
Dreams plague a struggling artist showing an intricate occult ritual and strange geometry that will allow momentary perception beyond the veil of perceived reality.
A shunned mathematician obsessively studies objectively real but unseeable angles in higher spatial dimensions that theoretically intersect our own.
Salvagers exploring the wreck of a missing 19th century whaling ship discover the crew’s oddly preserved remains and logs describing something vast emerging from the ice to swallow them.
Members of an obscure occult order ritually bind themselves to an ancient one trapped for eons in burial mounds deep below the oldest forests.
Hallucinogenic plants first used in prehistoric shamanic rituals grant visions of a cyclopean city with architecture following biological principles impossible for humans to have designed.
Deep sea researchers uncover fungi-like polyps called the “Trees of Eternity” connecting vast networks between abyssal trenches. The polyps exhibit unnerving mutations near recent submarine cable crossings.
Astronomers conclude super-massive blackholes may be higher dimensional wormholes through which titanic, mercifully invisible cosmic entities ingress and egress between realms.
CIA archive documents reveal Project MK-DELTA, a failed 1970s psi-ops plan to psychically project field agents’ perceptions to ancient god-like entities residing at the edge of known space-time.
A doom cult worships strange jeweled artifacts bearing impossible carven shapes, believing they indicate the imminent return of humankind’s possibly extradimensional creators…or destroyers.
A reclusive musician unearths a musical relic enabling perception of the true formless chaos underlying all creation, but each performance risks unleashing it further.
Deep in an unexplored jungle valley, a lost civilization’s records describe their advanced science deriving energies from a baby universe contained within a crystal-like hypergeometry.
Government researchers studying a charismatic cult leader’s visions from beyond uncover unsettling truths concerning humankind’s confinement to constrained sets of dimensions powerfully favorable to certain godlike entities.
Psychic mediums channeling a deranged spirit consistently utter the same inhuman coordinates in space-time along with warnings not to go there.
An inherited watch carries faint memories of its long deceased owner and their lifelong nightmares of a cyclopean city discovered thriving somewhere beneath Antarctic ice.
Detecting encrypted satellite transmissions from unknown coordinates in Siberia, amateur ham radio operators somehow decode eldritch obscenities too maddening to transcribe.
Victorian-era artifacts once belonging to an English occult scholar and medium suggest successfully contacted entities whose descriptions definitively preclude origin on any known spatial plane.
Researchers awaken a mummified pre-human radiating tissue-decaying energy from symbols on a podium strangely immune to its effects. Translations describe the being awaiting a return to glory under auspicious astronomical alignments.
Exploring fossil beds, paleontologists unearth evidence suggesting sudden extinction events whenever the stars align to a specific sinister configuration reminiscent of mythical astronomical illustrations from the Middle Ages depicting a chained god-king.
Abandoned Cold War subterranean research facilities house machinery still emitting resonant frequencies causing hallucinations of cyclopean geometries and long-forgotten memories from aeons ago.
Researchers decode classified documents concerning occult rituals conducted under disastrous astronautical conditions to generate a visible tear in space-time through which something momentarily peered back.
A malfunctioning particle accelerator has opened micro-scale punctures allowing a minuscule amount of primordial chaos through which scientists glimpse madness before the breach seals itself.
An uncontacted Amazonian group’s shamanistic rituals exhibit uncanny psychological accuracy in predicting horrible events implying perceptual access to orthogonal timelines or adjacent universes through psychotropic plants tuned to dark quantum resonances of our reality.
A derelict spaceship found orbiting Neptune contains no crew—only transmissions implying they purposefully abandoned it and fled after detecting patterns in the cosmic microwave background too ordered to be natural, like gargantuan radar pings sweeping toward our solar system.
Long-dormant alien artifacts suddenly reactivate during astronomical alignments foretold by prophecies in forbidden occult texts to herald the awakening of their dark cosmic masters.
A species of deep sea tube worm exhibits quantum biological adaptations for metabolizing thermal emissions from hydrothermal vents to generate wormhole-like passages to other worlds or dimensions.
The fragmentary visions of mediums at a Victorian-era seance somehow continue influencing reality today, causing unpredictable spacetime anomalies at locations they described over a century ago.
Hidden government archives document attempts to develop a mythos virus—a self-spreading psychic-spiritual contagion harnessing humankind’s innate perception of the numinous for large-scale reality re-engineering.
Upon death, select powerful clerics of secret religious orders undergo a profane treatment allowing continuation of consciousness in mummified remains—awaiting awakening for a time when the stars align again.
A telecommunications magnate invests heavily in hyperspatial antenna arrays after his only daughter starts channeling messages from his long-dead wife describing our world as merely a shadow of the real one.
Deep space telemetry from an advanced alien probe depicts its discovery of gargantuan xenoforms lurking in the dark spaces between galaxies whose writhing, abyssal thoughts momentarily overload the probe’s Psychotectural firewalls.
A billionaire futurist initiates secret grief-fueled attempts to electronically reconstitute his son’s consciousness, but each digital resurrection deteriorates into madness screaming of unspeakable entities occupying unseen adjacent dimensions.
A grad student’s computational cosmological models reveal our perceived reality could plausibly exist as an elaborately constructed illusion maintained by godlike entities from an orthogonal dimension.
First exposed during military ESP experiments in the Cold War, a mysterious resonance dubbed the Black Hum underlies all space-time, and high concentrations strangely coincide both spatially and temporally with unexplained events.
Classified neuroscience research identifies the pineal gland as an organic antenna capable of tuning the brain to dark psychic resonances beyond conventional reality, knowledge first exploited by ancient esoteric traditions.
Gravimetric sensors along the San Andreas Fault detect infinitesimal, impossible fractal patterns within frequency bands evoking anxiety, dread and déjà vu—but only when measuring from subsurface epicenters where temporal progressions appear distended.
Alien transmissions intercepted from a rogue extrasolar planet reveal its intelligent saurian inhabitants panicking over their sudden receipt of data from an unknown galactic source relaying utterances in long-dead languages that should not exist.
A SETI researcher detects a star system broadcasting powerfully amplified quantum vacuum fluctuations forming what appear to be holograms of cyclopean structures observable from different angles when stellar alignments permit.
Running Hubble Deep Field images through visual pattern AIs finds evidence of large-scale galactic structures subtly influencing baryonic aggregation as if engineered—implying manipulation of our universe itself.
Analyzing relic neutrino background radiation, astronomers discover fingerprints of artificially triggered big bang events during cosmic inflation after detecting repeating time-space curvature signatures somehow encoded nonlocally across cosmic epochs.
Classified research at CERN has successfully probed higher spatial dimensions but discovered them occupied according to after-action reports from military remote viewers made to weep blood after barely glimpsing what lies on the other side.
A black ops anthropic engineering project has created shadow biospheres to statistically manipulate the landscape of reality with self-realizing mathematical prophecy fulfillment—without awareness of what ancient statistical attractors their attempts manipulate.
Deep learning algorithms reconstruct censored remote viewing reports of nonlocal perception among volunteers exposed during so-called ‘hacker tourism’ to abandoned CERN test sites; blind math proves the existence of an integral cyclopean structure mathematically implied across space-time.

And so ends this grim glimpse into 50 gateways to mind-shattering tales. May the sinister sparks find purchase in fertile imaginative soil to grow all manner of sanity-testing horror. For those who dare conjure creatures from nightmares unbound, take up arms with pen and keyboard.

Go forth to scribble scenes that shatter mortal comprehension and warp the known world into distorted shapes. Let mysteries manifest and madness take form upon the page. At this crossroads between realms lies the power to mold reality, shaping untold horrors in the style of the great Old Ones.

Now awake from this death-haunted reverie to once more walk familiar earth. But know the prompts await should you again wish to lift the veil and unleash the weird upon our universe. When the inky black stars align and that eldritch itch needs scratching, return and choose which gateway’s fouler path shall birth your latest abomination. The seeds are planted. Now they need only fertile minds to nurture them into blooming perversions of the cosmic blind idiot god’s design. Create, scribble, type! And weep not, for none can hear your screams beyond the pages you pen. If you enjoyed these writing prompts, there are many more on our site .

50 Horror Writing Prompts from Different Points of View: In the realm of horror fiction, perspective plays a crucial role

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13 Creative Writing Prompts for Psychological Thrillers and Horror

by Lauren du Plessis @lauren.duplessis

Get inspired for your Halloween writing projects with these warm-up exercises and ideas from pro writers

From campfire tales to creepypastas, scary stories have taken many forms over the years. While a thriller tends to have a fast pace, and horror focuses more on suspense and tone, these two genres have a lot in common, like high tension and unsettling effects.

From haunted houses to serial killers to ancient monsters, there seems to be a limitless well of ideas out there for thriller and horror writers. But if you’re looking for somewhere to start with your Halloween creative writing , we've rounded up 13 prompts shared by professional writers below .

These prompts can be used for any narrative fiction, whether you write short stories, novels, screenplays, or just about anything else .

What is a writing prompt and how do I use it?

Writing prompts are everywhere online nowadays, with sites like Pinterest and Instagram being packed with aesthetically-pleasing bullet point lists of story ideas. They provide a core concept that you can base your own original work around . Not only can this help to beat writer’s block , it can also open your creative mind .

There are many reasons why writers might turn to these exercises. Some choose to do “morning pages”, or free writing sessions to warm up, with no intention of showing the work to anyone. Others might be looking for fresh ideas during the research phase for a project they hope to work on. Finally, some might use writing prompts for fun, trying them out with friends or a workshop to find out how everyone responds differently.

Emily Barr shares her writing tips in a course on psychological thrillers, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

Halloween creative writing prompts

It’s the perfect time of year to get cozy at your desk or in a café, and lose yourself in composing a spooky story. That’s why we teamed up with some of Domestika’s writing teachers to get you started with creepy characters, scary scenery, and unsettling situations .

Our three teachers are screenwriter and indie author Mark Boutros ( @mboutroswrites ), who wrote The Craft of Character ; award-winning novelist Emily Barr ( @emily_barr ), who writes thrillers for adults and young adults; and Raquel Castro ( @raquelcastrom ), author of teen horror novels, essays, short stories, and much more.

Without further ado, find their prompts below, and start writing!

Opening sentence prompts

Let’s start with two chilling opening scenes from Mark, which could form the beginnings of a “whodunnit” or mystery thriller. Try considering what plot beats or key moments would follow, and what the end point might be.

1. Sarah searched through the final dusty box, the last of her dead mother's belongings, and while she couldn't find her mother's will, there was a photo album, and in it, several photos of her mother with a child that wasn't Sarah nor her sister, Bronagh.

2. He hadn't had any visitors for years, ever since he'd told everyone in the village exactly how he felt about how they'd treated his wife before she passed away. So who could be ringing the doorbell at this hour? He limped towards it, his slipper souls slapping against the wooden floor. He called out but nobody answered, so he opened the door forcefully, but nobody was there in the darkness, but on the doorstep, a cassette with a sticker and a nickname he hadn't heard since school, 'Stinger', written on it.

Meanwhile, Emily offers this intriguing opener...

3. I was sleeping soundly, for the first time in years, when I was woken by a bang on the door, an urgent shout, and barking dogs.

Raquel Castro's course covers how to write horror for a younger audience.

Setting and situation prompts

Here, think about your own strong opening image, then consider whether flashbacks, dialogue, or action scenes will reveal key information.

Raquel shares three imaginative exercises.

4. A certain classic horror story starts with the words “It was a dark and stormy night”. But how exactly does a “dark and stormy night” look? Describe it in as much detail as possible.

5. Imagine you are in a place where you usually feel comfortable and safe. Only now it’s totally in the dark. There’s no light that you could use. And then, you hear a noise that frightens you because it seems completely out of place there. What was that noise? What could be its source?

6. Look around your neighborhood and find a place that looks strange or eerie. Dream up (and then write) a story that could be told as the disturbing legend of that place.

7. Imagine that, near a crime scene, you find a backpack. When you open it, you sense it belongs to the criminal. Why is that? What does the backpack look like, and what’s inside it?

Emily offers the following ideas…

8. You go to visit your friend, but the person who opens the door tells you your friend moved away ten years ago. That can’t be true, because you saw them last week.

9. You’re standing at the top of a tall building, clinging on to a window frame to stop yourself falling, and you don’t know you got there.

10. You’re walking in your neighborhood, when a stranger hands you a package. You take it without thinking, and are immediately arrested.

11. You’re staying in a secluded holiday cottage by the beach. On the first morning you go out onto the terrace, and find that someone has spelt out the word MURDERER in stones on the ground. How did they know?

Finally, Mark offers these two prompts…

12. A young girl who keeps seeing a black, mangy dog every night when she looks outside the farmhouse window, ever since she overheard her parents discussing divorce.

13. A man in a broken marriage walks along a quiet beach when he finds a message in a bottle. It simply reads: Kill her.

These protagonists appear to hold dark secrets, or stand on the edge of huge discoveries. If you choose to turn one of these prompts into a story, feel free to link it in the comments below!

Craft chilling stories with these writing resources

If you’re keen to start but want a step-by-step guide to help you become a confident storyteller, check out these resources.

1. Master the tension and big reveals of horror writing for teens with this introductory course by Raquel Castro.

2. Character is key: learn about motivations, arcs, and more in this character development course by Mark Boutros.

3. To learn how to weave travel-inspired thriller narratives , discover Emily Barr’s course on psychological thrillers .

4. Unmask your fearless creativity with this Halloween-inspired Domestika courses pack .

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Picture Prompts

25 Picture Prompts for Writing Scary Stories

Photos and illustrations from The New York Times to inspire your spooky stories, poems and memoirs.

By Natalie Proulx

Happy Halloween! Do you enjoy reading, watching or listening to horror stories? What about writing them?

To celebrate the season, we’ve rounded up 25 haunting photos and illustrations from around The New York Times that you can use as prompts to write your own terrifying tales. Choose an image and then use your imagination to write a short story or a poem inspired by it — or tell us about a memory from your own life that the picture makes you think of.

You can use these images however you like, but if you need more guidance, here are four prompts, as well as articles with advice from horror writers and experts, to get you started:

Use the image as the setting for your story.

“The most important thing is the setting,” Ruth Robbins, professor of Victorian literature at Leeds Beckett University in England, said in “ How to Tell a Ghost Story .” She suggested starting with the “atmosphere” and the elements in the scene “that you may be afraid of.”

What makes the setting of the image especially eerie? What is the mood there? What are some of the creepier elements you could describe to build the atmosphere? What scary story could take place there?

Write from the point of view of a character in the image. Or write from the point of view of a character just outside of the scene who is observing it.

In his MasterClass , R.L. Stine, the author of the “Goosebumps” series, said the secret to making a story scary was a “close point of view with your main character” because then “the reader is experiencing this horror close up.” But, he warned, “you have to be very careful to keep the balance between what she’s feeling, and what she’s seeing, and what she’s thinking.”

Who is the person, or creature, you are writing about? What brought them to this scene? What are they thinking, feeling and, most important, experiencing? How can you show their fear instead of telling readers about it?

And consider the conflict: What does your character want? What is preventing them from getting it? What are they doing to try to get it?

Use the image as the starting point of your story , and then work backward.

In “ A Simple Way to Create Suspense, ” Lee Child, a thriller writer, said “we should ask or imply a question at the beginning of the story, and then we should delay the answer.” He continued: “Like the old cartoon of the big fish eating a smaller fish eating a very small fish, you’ll find out the big answer after a string of smaller drip-drip-drip answers. The big answer is parceled out slowly and parsimoniously.”

What question could be implied by the image? For example, how did this person get trapped behind the wall, and will he be able to escape? What did the woman hear that led her into the darkened hallway? What are these creatures in the haunted corn maze, and what do they want from you?

How can you build suspense in your story by revealing the answer to that question slowly, bit by bit?

Consider the image as a metaphor or symbol.

“Horror is, and always has been, in dialogue with the anxieties and fears of its time,” the author Stephen Graham Jones wrote in a guest essay for The Times Opinion section. For example, “During the Great Depression, the misery and economic strife were embodied by monsters from literature and folklore, as Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster and the mummy made their way across the movie screen.”

What real-world fears and anxieties could this image represent, whether in the world at large or in your own life? For instance, could it be a symbol for our anxiety about climate change? Or a metaphor for a challenge you are facing at school? What horror story could you tell that reflects the uncertainties we are facing in our real lives?

Scroll through the images below to find one that scares you. Then use these writers’ advice to craft your piece. Once you’ve got a draft, post the opening of your piece in the comments for others to read.

(Please keep in mind that if you choose to post in the comments, your writing should be appropriate for a general audience and observe Times commenting guidelines .)

Reaching Through the Wall

Mysterious Mansion

Subway Skeleton

Beware of Zombies

House of Terrors

Cursed Corn Maze

Creepy Clown

Shadowy Figure

Ghost Story

Monsters Come Out

Electric Shock Therapy

Witch at Night

Hallway of Horror

Skeleton Funeral

Trick-or-Treat

Michael Myers

Abandoned Library

Familial Frights

Miss Underworld

Darkened Doorway

Bates Motel

Franken-Commuter

School Spirit

In the Dark

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

Natalie Proulx joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2017 after working as an English language arts teacher and curriculum writer. More about Natalie Proulx

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WEEKLY WRITING PROMPTS

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Write a story about a future academic (or another influential person) “rediscovering” a book that, in its time, was dismissed. The book can be fictitious or real.

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Your protagonist is a writer who discovers a new favorite author. How does their writing, or even their own personality, change as the protagonist falls under the writer’s influence?

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Your teacher tasks you with writing a story based on an eavesdropped conversation. When the story is published, your subject isn’t happy.

A character overhears something at a black-tie event that puts the night in jeopardy., write a story in which someone can only hear one side of a conversation and must piece together the meaning of what they’ve heard., write a story about a child overhearing something they don’t understand., write a story in which someone is afraid of being overheard., subscribe to our prompts newsletter.

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Creative Writing Prompts

When the idea to start a weekly newsletter with writing inspiration first came to us, we decided that we wanted to do more than provide people with topics to write about. We wanted to try and help authors form a regular writing habit and also give them a place to proudly display their work. So we started the weekly Creative Writing Prompts newsletter. Since then, Prompts has grown to a community of more than 450,000 authors, complete with its own literary magazine, Prompted .

Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted on our Reedsy Prompts page.

Interested in participating in our short story contest? Sign up here for more information! Or you can check out our full Terms of Use and our FAQ page .

Why we love creative writing prompts

If you've ever sat in front of a computer or notebook and felt the urge to start creating worlds, characters, and storylines — all the while finding yourself unable to do so — then you've met the author's age-old foe: writer's block. There's nothing more frustrating than finding the time but not the words to be creative. Enter our directory! If you're ready to kick writer's block to the curb and finally get started on your short story or novel, these unique story ideas might just be your ticket.

This list of 1800+ creative writing prompts has been created by the Reedsy team to help you develop a rock-solid writing routine. As all aspiring authors know, this is the #1 challenge — and solution! — for reaching your literary goals. Feel free to filter through different genres, which include...

Dramatic — If you want to make people laugh and cry within the same story, this might be your genre.

Funny — Whether satire or slapstick, this is an opportunity to write with your funny bone.

Romance — One of the most popular commercial genres out there. Check out these story ideas out if you love writing about love.

Fantasy — The beauty of this genre is that the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

Dystopian – Explore the shadowy side of human nature and contemporary technology in dark speculative fiction.

Mystery — From whodunnits to cozy mysteries, it's time to bring out your inner detective.

Thriller and Suspense — There's nothing like a page-turner that elicits a gasp of surprise at the end.

High School — Encourage teens to let their imaginations run free.

Want to submit your own story ideas to help inspire fellow writers? Send them to us here.

After you find the perfect story idea

Finding inspiration is just one piece of the puzzle. Next, you need to refine your craft skills — and then display them to the world. We've worked hard to create resources that help you do just that! Check them out:

How to Write a Short Story That Gets Published — a free, ten-day course by Laura Mae Isaacman, a full-time editor who runs a book editing company in Brooklyn.
Best Literary Magazines of 2023 — a directory of 100+ reputable magazines that accept unsolicited submissions.
Writing Contests in 2023 — the finest contests of 2021 for fiction and non-fiction authors of short stories, poetry, essays, and more.

Beyond creative writing prompts: how to build a writing routine

While writing prompts are a great tactic to spark your creative sessions, a writer generally needs a couple more tools in their toolbelt when it comes to developing a rock-solid writing routine . To that end, here are a few more additional tips for incorporating your craft into your everyday life.

NNWT. Or, as book coach Kevin Johns calls it , “Non-Negotiable Writing Time.” This time should be scheduled into your routine, whether that’s once a day or once a week. Treat it as a serious commitment, and don’t schedule anything else during your NNWT unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Set word count goals. And make them realistic! Don’t start out with lofty goals you’re unlikely to achieve. Give some thought to how many words you think you can write a week, and start there. If you find you’re hitting your weekly or daily goals easily, keep upping the stakes as your craft time becomes more ingrained in your routine.
Talk to friends and family about the project you’re working on. Doing so means that those close to you are likely to check in about the status of your piece — which in turn keeps you more accountable.

Arm yourself against writer’s block. Writer’s block will inevitably come, no matter how much story ideas initially inspire you. So it’s best to be prepared with tips and tricks you can use to keep yourself on track before the block hits. You can find 20 solid tips here — including how to establish a relationship with your inner critic and apps that can help you defeat procrastination or lack of motivation.

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Writing Prompt Wednesdays: How Society Is Failing Our Children

by Holley Cornetto · Published May 15, 2024 · Updated May 10, 2024

Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Trapped in a building in the middle of nowhere!

Welcome to “Writing Prompt Wednesdays,” a haven where your imagination can roam free in the realms of speculative fiction. As we embark on this weekly journey, it’s thrilling to think about the untold stories waiting to be penned in the domains of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Whether you’re a seasoned author or a budding wordsmith, these prompts are your gateway to unexplored worlds and untapped potentials.

Every Wednesday, we’ll serve up a fresh, thought-provoking prompt designed to ignite your creative spark and challenge your storytelling prowess. Think of these prompts as a key, unlocking the doors to uncharted territories where your creativity is the only limit. From eerie, shadow-laden corridors of Gothic horror to the farthest reaches of interstellar space, and the mystical depths of high fantasy, our prompts are a kaleidoscope of possibilities.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to approach these prompts. They are mere stepping stones, guiding you towards the vast landscapes of your imagination. Use them to break free from writer’s block, to experiment with new ideas, or simply as a fun exercise to keep your writing skills sharp.

This week’s writing prompt:

Reading Emma E. Murray’s poem ‘“ Drowning Machine ”’ brought to mind the ways society often disappoints its young people. Children are abused, kidnapped, and killed on a daily basis, and so often these cases are never solved. This week, take out these frustrations in the form of a story. Show us the ways society disappoints children. Feel free to make a change in your writing and give the victim justice if you so desire.

If you’d like an early preview of our prompts, subscribe to our newsletter!

We list every Sunday in our newsletter in advance. If you’d like us to read over your work, please use the form below! We do get a LOT of e-mails at Horror Tree, so we can’t promise to respond, but we’ll absolutely try! If you’d like to give us the option to also include your story in next week’s prompt, be sure to include a bio and click the correct checkbox. (I suggest only doing so if this is something extremely short as if we do print it on the website most markets would think of this as a reprint moving forward and we’d rather see you get paid for your work)

About the Author
Latest Posts

Holley Cornetto was born and raised in Alabama, but now lives in New Jersey where she writes dark fantasy, horror, and weird fiction. To date, her writing appears in over a dozen magazines and anthologies. To indulge her love of books and stories, she became a librarian. She is also a writer, because the only thing better than being surrounded by stories is to create them herself. In 2021, she earned an MFA in fiction writing from Lindenwood University. She is a proud member of the Horror Writers Association.

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132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas
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.
101 Horror Writing Prompts (Scream-worthy prompts for horror stories)
4. On this Halloween night, your guinea pig won't stop running in circles, and your dog keeps staring at the door, emitting a low growl. 5. You run out for candy on Halloween afternoon to find the streets empty and the store abandoned. A single car cruises into the lot and pulls into the spot next to yours. 6.
25 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories
25 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 1 min read. Not all horror stories need to be set during Halloween. Looking for inspiration to start writing a scary story or creepy film? See these 25 creative writing prompts for writing your own horror story.
99+ Horror Prompts To Inspire Your Next Horror Stories
A long list of horror writing prompts. 1. In a quaint village, a young couple uncovers a centuries-old diary in their new home, revealing a yearly ritual that ensures the town's prosperity by sacrificing a newcomer. They realize the next ritual is tonight, and they are the chosen ones. 2.
101+ Horror Writing Prompts for Spine-Tingling Stories
Horror Writing Prompts. 1. Two coworkers working an overnight shift at a museum begin to suspect that the exhibits are coming to life and have sinister intentions. 2. A teenage girl becomes increasingly disgusted with her body and turns to a dark ritual to change her appearance. 3.
Best Horror Writing Prompts of 2023
With that in mind, here are our top ten horror writing prompts: Start your story with a character looking out of a window in the middle of the night. An apparent coincidence occurs. Write a story about a character who suspects paranormal, spiritual, or criminal causes. Write a story set in a city where the power suddenly goes out, leaving ...
110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)
September 30, 2022. Give yourself the chills with this list of over 110 horror writing prompts. From scary ghost stories to creepy stories about animals and monsters. Now is the time to write your own horror story, just like Goosebumps or The Haunting of Aveline Jones. From the gory to the scary, from the monstrous to the supernatural, from the ...
365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts
Here are 365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts to inspire your writing every day of the year. Darkness falls. Shadows lengthen. The hair on the back of your neck prickles as the last rays of light fade away. Something stirs in the darkness. You can feel unseen eyes watching, evil lurking just out of sight—the night beckons, hungry for new ...
101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts
101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts. 1. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. They soon learn that the doll is actually their daughter. And she's alive. 2. New residents of an old neighborhood are invited by their friendly neighbors to a Halloween party.
35 Horror Writing Prompts for Your Next Scary Stories
33. Your husband comes to visit you and the kids every year, on your wedding day. The problem is, he's already been dead for years. 34. You stare at your best friend's face as she lies peacefully in her coffin. Her parents come over, pat you on the shoulder, and whisper, "It had to be done.". 35.
Top 101 Bone-Chilling Horror Writing Prompts
Horror writing prompts. 1) You are accused of beating a man but you have no memory of the incident. You start hearing voices in your head and realize that evil spirits have entered your body. 2) A psychologist suggests a new therapy to a patient after which the patient starts getting scary nightmares.
Horror Writing Prompts: 50+ Ideas to Get You Started
Horror Story Prompts. Horror stories don't necessarily have to fit into a subgenre. Any of the following ideas will make for a scary story. 1. A woman is convinced demonic possession is real, and only she can tell who is possessed. The only way to send the demons back to hell is to kill the person. 2.
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Psychological Horror Prompts. After a tragic accident on his 21 st birthday, Peter gets back in touch with his estranged father via email. He flies 6000 miles to stay with him, but when he arrives he's pulled into a deadly catfishing game carried out by a wolf in sheep's clothing.
159+ Horror Story Prompts
In this article, we've put together 159 spine-chilling horror story prompts to help unleash your creativity and keep your readers on edge. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned writer, our carefully curated prompts, sorted by genre, will turn your creative gears. Dive into these prompts and start crafting your terrifying tale today!
100 Writing Prompts for Horror Short Stories
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50 Spooky Writing Prompts and Horror Story Ideas
These are all from my book 5 ,000 Writing Prompts: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More. The book has 100 additional spooky writing prompts and horror story ideas, as well as master plots and idea starters for all kinds of writing. If you are easily scared and have an over-active imagination, just skip this one.
20 Spine-tingling Horror Story Prompts
For today's creative writing prompt, choose one of the scary story ideas above. Set the timer for 15 minutes and write out one scene for the prompt. Think about the moment the character realizes that their worst fear is staring them in the face. Share all or part of your horror story in the Pro Practice Workshop for members. Not a member yet?
101 Scary Horror Story Ideas and Writing Prompts
Prompt Me Horror & Thriller: Creative Writing Workbook & Journal (Prompt Me Series) Prime Eligible: Buy Now: N/A: Roll-A-Prompt Writing Journal: Horror Edition ... The plot twist in this horror writing prompt is that everything the mother is experiencing is a hoax meant to have her diagnosed as clinically insane so the husband could have ...
100 slasher horror writing prompts
Here are 100 slasher horror writing prompts to help spark killer ideas for gory, thrilling tales: A group of teens trick-or-treating on Halloween night are stalked by a serial killer in a creepy mask carrying a machete. Camp counselors start disappearing one by one from a remote summer camp stalked by a vengeful killer with a hook for a hand.
50 Lovecraftian horror writing prompts
The possibilities for horror hide within each prompt, needing only a guiding human hand to script them into being. From these 50 sparks of inspiration may emerge 50 uniquely disturbing tales. Cosmic nightmares that slither and skitter into the reader's mind could linger long after the last page.
13 Creative Writing Prompts for Psychological Thrillers and Horror
Halloween creative writing prompts It's the perfect time of year to get cozy at your desk or in a café, and lose yourself in composing a spooky story. That's why we teamed up with some of Domestika's writing teachers to get you started with creepy characters, scary scenery, and unsettling situations .
Halloween Writing Prompts
25 Picture Prompts for Writing Scary Stories. Photos and illustrations from The New York Times to inspire your spooky stories, poems and memoirs. Share full article. 184.
1800+ Creative Writing Prompts To Inspire You Right Now
Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted ...
Writing Prompt Wednesdays: How Society Is Failing Our Children
Writing Prompt Wednesdays: Trapped in a building in the middle of nowhere! ... Every Wednesday, we'll serve up a fresh, thought-provoking prompt designed to ignite your creative spark and challenge your storytelling prowess. Think of these prompts as a key, unlocking the doors to uncharted territories where your creativity is the only limit ...

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132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

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110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)

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159+ Horror Story Prompts – Unleash Your Scary Stories

Key Takeaways

25 General Horror Writing Prompts

Haunted Places

Mysterious Encounters

Supernatural Experiences

Unsettling Situations

Survival and Escape

25 Horror Screenplay Ideas

Curses and Transformations

Ghosts and Spirits

Demonic and Otherworldly Entities

Apocalyptic and Unnatural Threats

Paranormal and Psychic Phenomena

Terrifying Encounters and Survival

Cultural and Exotic Horrors

Wilderness and Isolation

37 Science Fiction Horror Prompts

Space Horrors

Time and Dimensional Anomalies

Alien Invasions and Encounters

Futuristic Dystopias

Psychological and Supernatural Terrors

27 Halloween Night Horror Prompts

Haunted and Cursed Locations

Terrifying Encounters

Supernatural and Mysterious Events

18 Haunted House Horror Prompts

Ghostly Encounters

Demonic and Supernatural Threats

Mysteries and Dark Secrets

17 Paranormal Activity Horror Prompts

Dark Forces and Evil Entities

Mysterious and Deadly Threats

Unexplained and Terrifying Events

10 Plot Twists for Horror Stories

The Structure of a Great Horror Story

The Tension Builder

The Chilling Moment

The Unraveling

The Potential Weakness of a Horror Story