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132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

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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, frightening human psychology, and much more.

Horror Writing Prompts List

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 into 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 decides 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 a young woman 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 it 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 by people in black and white masks. They 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 the 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 went missing. The case is reopened.

Scary story ideas for a psychological horror

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 at midnight and brought to a large private estate. He is told that he will be a human prey 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 to 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 into 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 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, the twin sisters disappear.
A boy has a very realistic dream about 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 developed 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.

Free Small decorative ghost in white cape hanging on tree sprig on blurred background in autumn park during holiday celebration in daylight Stock Photo

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 can 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 as 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 skin 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 will 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 are chasing them and jump to 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 bloodbath.

Free Man Wearing Black Mask And Hoodie Jacket Stock Photo

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

Horror story ideas about a serial killer

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.

Scary story ideas and horror story writing prompts

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 the 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 suicide so that he can 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 makes 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 buildings 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.

If you want to streamline the horror novel creation process, you can also generate a custom book template with AI:

Final Words

Write a good horror story with scary story ideas

The 132 scary story ideas will help you take a deep dive into the human psyche. These horror story prompts will make you a seasoned writer and help you captivate readers. So, get ready to write a good horror story with unique writing prompts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s take a look at the following questions and answers:

What is a good way to start horror writing prompts?

To grab readers’ attention, craft the beginning of your horror story around an active scene featuring characters in the thick of an action. Introduce the central conflict and sprinkle tantalizing hints of danger or the unknown, such as clues about an accident or murder, to create an air of suspense and intrigue.

What are some good scary story ideas?

Effective horror story ideas delve into innate human fears and weaknesses. These fears can manifest as physical threats like monsters or ghosts or as psychological anxieties such as uncertainty or the unraveling of reality.

How can I start writing unique horror stories?

To craft a spine-tingling horror story, delve into the emotions that haunt your audience. Fear thrives in the unknown and the unforeseen, so weave these aspects seamlessly into your narrative. Craft a haunting atmosphere or chilling plot through vivid descriptions that linger in the reader’s mind. Gradually intensify the tension to keep them captivated and quivering on the brink of terror.

Is it easy to write on scary story prompts?

If you’re a horror enthusiast, you likely have some scary story ideas for your own screenplay. However, crafting effective horror stories isn’t straightforward. To truly scare your audience, your scary story must connect with their most primal fears.

What are cliches to avoid while writing scary story ideas?

To create effective horror stories, don’t rely solely on common tropes like haunted houses or creepy children. Instead, find unique angles or reinterpretations to keep your readers engaged in your scary story. Avoid overused scary story ideas unless you can add a novel twist. Remember that the goal of a horror story is to surprise and disturb the audience, making it crucial to avoid predictability and create an unsettling experience for your readers.

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Jun 20, 2022

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

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Savannah Cordova

Savannah is a senior editor with Reedsy and a published writer whose work has appeared on Slate, Kirkus, and BookTrib. Her short fiction has appeared in the Owl Canyon Press anthology, "No Bars and a Dead Battery".

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

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

1. Start with a fear factor

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

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

Instinctive fears

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

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

Monsters and supernatural entities

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

Societal tensions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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First person POV

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

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

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

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

Third person POV

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

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

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

Unreliable narrators

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

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

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

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

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

Not to twist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11 responses

Sawan says:

04/11/2018 – 19:34

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

↪️ dilinger john replied:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

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

↪️ Shane C replied:

28/09/2019 – 21:15

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

Annabelle says:

21/05/2019 – 01:51

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

↪️ Andrew replied:

31/10/2019 – 20:23

what is it?

NAVEEN says:

29/07/2019 – 15:22

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

Bobette Bryan says:

27/08/2019 – 19:09

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

↪️ smr replied:

03/01/2020 – 13:25

what the hell ??

↪️ John Brown replied:

16/01/2020 – 02:28

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

John Brown says:

16/01/2020 – 02:27

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

Comments are currently closed.

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250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)

Looking to write your next spine-chilling horror story?

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

What Is a Horror Writing Prompt?

Woman writing with monsters behind her -- Horror Writing Prompts

Table of Contents

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

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

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

Types of Horror Writing Prompts

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

Ghost Stories

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

Psychological Horror

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

Paranormal Activity

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

Creature Features

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

Gothic Horror

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

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

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

Body Horror

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

Slasher Stories

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

Cosmic Horror

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

Folk Horror

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

Here is a video with 25 bonus horror writing prompts:

Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts

Using these writing prompts is simple.

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

Keep writing until the story unfolds naturally.

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How to Write a Horror Story: 12 Tips for Writing a Horror Story

August 23, 2024
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What is the horror genre, what are the types of horror stories, what are the characteristics of a good horror story, what are some common horror themes, 1.read other horror stories, 2.ensure your setting creates the mood, 3.isolation, 4.incorporate real-world horror and mortal peril, 5.find out what scares you, 6.complete your characters, 7.put it in real-life context, 8.personalize the stakes, 9. joyful moments increase the tension, 10.maintain the secret of the antagonist, 11.jumpscares do not make a horror story, act 1: setting up the situation, act 2: rising tension, act 3: the climax, we also recommend.

I am one of those horror story readers who will stare at the story for a long time before mustering the courage to read it.

Now I can imagine what state of mind the writer will be in to produce such a horrific piece. If you are a writer, consider incorporating darker themes into your work, especially if you enjoy writing speculative fiction.

Now, we will explain how to write a horror story to you. This can be your next best-selling thing if you read with rapt attention. Horror is thriving now more than romance!

Horror is a genre intended to make the audience feel fear, dread, disgust, and unease.

Horror films focus on powerful emotions by depicting the uncomfortable and horrific, as opposed to thrillers, which prioritize mystery and suspense.

The horror genre is built upon ancient myths and stories about monsters, malevolent spirits, the afterlife, and the occult. The English ballad Beowulf, Homer’s Odyssey, and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex are some of the oldest known horror stories.

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Paranormal horror – Paranormal horror refers to unexplained happenings that violate natural laws.
Body horror – Graphic depictions of gore and mutilation of the body.
Supernatural horror – Stories concerning supernatural dread frequently include undefinable beings, ghosts, demons, cursed relics, and paranormal activity.
Monster horror – Monster horror stories revolve around horrific monsters and creatures such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, and aliens.
Zombie horror – Stories about zombies or zombie apocalypse scenarios.
Cosmic horror – Threats from wicked cosmic entities that humans don’t understand.
Psychological horror – Terror arising from the mind, perception, and sanity of characters.
Survival horror – In survival horror, people are stranded in an isolated place and must flee a deadly menace.
Slasher horror – Serial killers use horrific ways to stalk and kill their victims.

While not limited to these genres, horror novels are among the most popular.

Strong tone and mood: The setting, words, and visuals immediately establish a tense, unpleasant, and horrifying atmosphere.

Tension and suspense: Leaving spectators wondering what will happen next. Building suspense with mystery and thrill.

Vulnerable characters: Characters who are sympathetic persons who the spectator can empathize with and be concerned about as danger approaches.

Creative monsters and villains: Unique, terrifying opponents who provide a genuine threat without coming across as cheesy or artificial.

The blurring of reality makes it impossible to determine what is genuine and what is not, leaving the viewer wondering what is going on.

The purpose of gradual reveal is to withhold just enough information to pique the reader’s interest and encourage them to continue reading in search of solutions.

Images intended to shock, repel, or instill terror are considered disturbing imagery. This style of picture includes horrific death scenes.

Dread themes include darkness, pain, illness, loneliness, craziness, and death, all of which are prevalent human anxieties and phobias.

Shocking twists are revelations that cause the plot to take an unexpected turn.

Stephen King is a master of horror for a reason. When you read his book, you will notice that he expertly covers all of these qualities.

These are some of the themes that have been popular over the years;

The haunted house, Serial killers, Cursed objects, Man-eating monsters, Evil children, Zombies, Torture devices, Creepy small towns and basement, Demonic possession, Mad scientists, Ancient curses, Sinister cults, Haunted asylums, Ghost ships/vehicles, Evil dolls/toys, Ancient burial grounds, etc.

12 Tips for Writing a Horror Story

Read a plethora of previously published works in the genre you intend to write in. Discover how horror literary greats such as Shirley Jackson, Clive Barker, and Stephen King created suspense, atmosphere, and terror.

Take notes on excellent techniques that you could use in your own horror stories. Being aware of what works will help you avoid bland cliches.

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Your descriptions of the place and setting establish an eerie tone from the first page. Use your eyes, ears, nose, and other senses to create an ominous and frightful atmosphere.

Placing characters in inaccessible or isolated environments can make them feel more vulnerable to paranormal or psychological threats. Give the environment its personality, one that interacts with and has a sinister influence on the characters.

While typical real-world catastrophes have a greater impact, monsters can nonetheless be terrifying. Stephen King frequently combines psychological issues such as broken families, abuse, addiction, and loss with supernatural elements to ground the horror.

Even though they are heightened in fiction, the most frightening stories incorporate real-world threats. Readers are more disturbed by visceral, real-life tragedies because they appear to be more likely to occur than fanciful beings.

Consider your own darkest anxieties and fears. What genuinely scares you? Incorporating personal anxiety into your horror writing helps heighten the suspense. For example, you could use your fear of going insane to create stories about characters who lose their sense of reality or become insane.

Draw inspiration from your nightmares, both awake and sleeping, to delve deeper into your psyche.

This is another tip to write a terrifying horror story.

Poor character development can ruin an otherwise terrifying plot. For the story to have true depth, the spectator must be invested in the characters’ outcomes. Make time to develop distinct, likable personas.

Give each character unique motives, characteristics, advantages, and weaknesses. Give them the look of actual people so that the spectator is invested in their survival while they face awful events.

While horror stories may contain other world elements, they have a greater impact when set in a credible real-world environment. Allow your characters to react naturally, with all of the shock, uncertainty, and denial that real people would have.

The terrifying impression is heightened when the bizarre is juxtaposed with the realities of daily existence. Reducing the number of supernatural elements in your narrative makes it more credible, increasing the suspense.

See also: How to Write in Third Person Point of View: 12 Tips for Writing in Third-Person Point of View

Horror stories are simple to dismiss, but when individuals we care about are in danger, we get absorbed in their situation. Establish emotional links between characters early on so that we can truly feel sorry for them later.

Threats may attempt to exploit their shortcomings or qualities in some way. Personalized stakes provide depth and intensity to a horror story.

Horror is traditionally a depressing genre, but you can highlight the darkest portions of your story by incorporating moments of levity, optimism, or genuine human interactions. Show characters, after a traumatic occurrence, clinging to hope or positive memories to keep themselves emotionally afloat.

Before presenting the next surprise or threat, brief periods of peace appear to urge the reader to relax.

The unknown is the cause of the most terror. Give only hints about the nature and origin of supernatural entities or villains in your story. Limit their visibility to brief, shadowy appearances.

The less readers comprehend the situation, the more something truly terrible will loom large in their imaginations. Let the audience’s greatest worries fill up the gaps in their ideas.

Cheap jump scares with unexpected movements or loud noises are insufficient to build a gripping story. When utilized wisely, these can provide a little shock value every now and then.

Real dread is created by keeping the atmosphere tense, putting characters in danger, and capitalizing on our primordial fears. Readers will be left with an unnerving sensation of psychological dread long after the first impact of a jump scare has passed. Never use them as a crutch.

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Plot Structure of Horror Stories

The Hidden Monster: Strange occurrences and warning indications indicate the presence of a terrifying threat. Make the audience wonder.

Presenting the characters: Describe the persons, their connections, and any vulnerabilities or anxieties that could be exploited against them later. Make sure they are engaging to the audience.

The Inciting Incident: An occurrence that starts the conflict and leads the heroes into dangerous situations or the threat’s path. The point beyond which no return is possible.

Monster’s first appearance with the characters confirms its terrifying nature or skills. Keeps surprises until a later time.

The Turning Point: An event that escalates the peril and leaves the characters vulnerable to the monster/threat at the halfway point. Raises the stakes.

The Pursuit: The opponent is currently pursuing the heroes extremely aggressively. It gives out a constant sensation of danger as the threat approaches.

First Failed Confrontation: The First Failed Confrontation occurs when a hero or heroes seek to stop a threat but are unable to do so due to a variety of factors. Makes them more desperate.

All Is Lost – This is a horrifying period in the story where the heroes appear lost and powerless. The threat will prevail.

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Victory: The heroes get together, resolve their disagreements, and figure out how to finally defeat the menace.

Final Confrontation: The heroes must confront and defeat the menace, or face the repercussions of their heroic failure.

Death: The demise, usually of the threat itself. To make for a depressing ending, one or more characters may die, or there may be some form of psychological death.

The Fallout: Explain how the characters and the planet as a whole were affected and transformed. Evil might still lurk, awaiting a sequel.

Even if a horror story has more than simply these elements, I hope this inspires you to start writing your own horror story.

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

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

How to write horror

Before you get started.

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

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

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

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

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

HOW TO WRITE A HORROR MOVIE

Step 1: research and study.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midsommar Script Teardown - Full Script Download App Tie-In - StudioBinder

How to Write Horror • Read Full Midsommar Script

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

Horror story writing

Step 2: decide your type of horror.

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

Ranking subgenres for inspiration • Horror story writing

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

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

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

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

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

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Step 3: Mine your fears and phobias

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

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

The best home invasion films

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

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

How to write a horror story • Exploit common phobias

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

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

How to write a horror story

Step 4: keep your audience in mind.

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

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

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

How to write a horror story • Keep pacing in mind

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

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

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

The Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made

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

Up Next: Best Horror Movies of All Time →

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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.

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].”

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.

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.

How to write a horror story: Telling tales of terror

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

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

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

What is horror? Elements of horror

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

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

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

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

A brief history of the horror genre

Horror, like most genres, has evolved substantially.

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

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

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

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

Jordan Peele on how to write a horror story - go where you shouldn't

8 elements of horror

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

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

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

What does horror offer readers/viewers?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Explore ten ideas on how to write a horror story:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pace the big horror scares for suspense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use characterization to make readers care

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three horror character archetypes that make us care

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

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

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

Writes King:

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

Why horror character archetypes make us care

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

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

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

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

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

Wes Craven quote - what's great about the horror genre

Make the known scary (not just the unknown)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to write a horror story - infographic

Don’t feel you have to explain everything

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

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

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

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

Play with the terror of plausibility

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

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

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

Scare horror audiences when they least expect

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

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

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

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

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Deepen the story with layers of fear

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

Says horror filmmaking veteran John Carpenter in conversation with Vulture :

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

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

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

Tapping into common fears for horror writing

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

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

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

Here are some of the most common fears people have:

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

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

How to write horror - infographic | Now Novel

Add subtler hints of something wrong

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

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

Hints and signs of horrors to come could include:

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

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

Balance gore with the unseen (subgenre depending)

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

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

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

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

Tell a good story first, scare readers second

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks, Gareth! Glad to help.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes listening to songs with a creepy tone helps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi Margaret,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I hope this helps! Good luck.

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

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

Wow this was really helpful thanks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope this will help,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 Tips For Writing A Great Horror Story

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

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

2. Establish the familiar

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

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

3. Use subtle foreshadowing

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

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

4. Consider pacing

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

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

5. Tap into your reader’s imagination

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

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

6. Suffocate with tight spaces

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

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

7. Think like a child

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

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

8. Disorient reality

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

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

Source for image: Pexels

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

How to Write a Horror Story

Last Updated: May 7, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,111,739 times.

Horror stories can be as fun to write as they are to read. A good horror story can gross you out, terrify you, or haunt your dreams. Horror stories depend on the reader believing in the story enough to be scared, disturbed, or disgusted. However, they can be tricky to write well. Like any fiction genre, horror can be mastered with the right planning, patience, and practice.

Sample Stories

Understanding the Horror Genre

Step 1 Be aware of the subjective nature of the horror story.

Christopher Taylor, Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, advises: "The key elements of a horror story include fear, suspense, surprise, and moments of foreshadowing ."

Step 2 Read several different types of horror stories.

“The Monkey’s Paw”, an 18th century tale by William Wymark Jacobs about three terrible wishes granted by a mystical monkey’s paw.
“The Tell-Tale Heart”, master horror writer Edgar Allan Poe’s psychologically disturbing short story of murder and haunting.
Neil Gaiman's take on the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty in “The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds.” [3] X Research source
You’d be remiss not to read a horror story by arguably the master of the genre, Stephen King. He has written over 200 short stories and uses many different techniques to scare his readers. While there are many lists of his greatest horror stories [4] X Research source , read “The Moving Finger” or “The Children of the Corn” to get a sense of King’s style.
Contemporary writer Joyce Carol Oates also has a famous horror story called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” that uses psychological terror to great effect. [5] X Research source
Modern non-standard horror, like Stephen Milhauser’s “The White Glove,” uses the horror genre to tell a coming-of-age story.

Step 3 Analyze the horror story examples.

In King’s “The Moving Finger”, King takes a premise: a man who thinks he sees and hears a moving human finger scratching a wall in his bathroom and then follows the man closely over the span of a short period of time as he tries to avoid the finger, until he is forced to confront his fear of the finger. King also uses other elements like a Jeopardy game and a conversation between the main character and his wife to further create a feeling of suspense and dread.
In Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, Oates establishes the main character, a young girl named Connie, by providing scenes of her daily life and then zooms in on one fateful day, when two men pull up in a car while Connie is at home all alone. Oates uses dialogue to create a sense of dread and allows the reader to experience Connie’s growing sense of fear of the threat of these men.
In both stories, horror or terror is created through a combination of shock and dread, using elements that are possibly supernatural (a moving human finger) and elements that are psychologically disturbing (a young girl alone with two men).

Generating Story Ideas

Step 1 Think about what scares you or revolts you the most.

Make a list of your greatest fears. Then, think about how you would react if you were trapped or forced to confront these fears.
You could also take a poll of what scares your family, friends, or partners the most. Get some subjective ideas of horror.

Step 2 Take an ordinary situation and create something horrifying.

Use your imagination to create a horrifying spin on a normal, everyday activity or scene.

Step 3 Use setting to limit or trap your characters in the story.

Think about what kind of confined spaces scare you. Where would you dread or fear being trapped in the most?
Trap your character in a confined space like a cellar, a coffin, an abandoned hospital, an island, or an abandoned town. This will create an immediate conflict or threat to the character and set your story up with immediate tension or suspense.

Step 4 Let your characters restrict their own movements.

Shock: the simplest way to scare the reader is to create shock with a twist ending, a sudden image of gore or a quick moment of terror. However, creating fear through shock can lead to cheap scares and if used too much, can become predictable or less likely to scare the reader.
Paranoia: the sense that something is not quite right, which can unnerve the reader, make them doubt their own surroundings, and when used to its full effect, make the reader doubt even their own beliefs or ideas of the world. This type of fear is great for slow tension-building and psychological horror stories.
Dread: this type of fear is the horrible sense that something bad is going to happen. Dread works well when the reader connects deeply to the story and begins to care enough about the characters to fear something bad that is going to happen to them. Inspiring dread in a reader is tricky as the story will need to do a lot of work to keep the reader engaged and involved, but it is a powerful type of fear.
Balance intense negative emotions with intense emotions of wonder or positivity. [8] X Research source

Step 6 Use horrifying details to create horror or terror in your reader.

Using gross-out details like a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, something green and slimy landing on your arm, or a character landing in a pool of blood.
Using unnatural details (or fear of the unknown or impossible) like spiders the size of bears, an attack from the living dead, or an alien claw grabbing your feet in a dark room.
Using terrifying psychological details like a character who comes home to another version of him or herself, or a character who experiences paralyzing nightmares which then affect their sense of reality.

Horror relies on eliciting emotions from the reader. "I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out."

You can use Freytag’s pyramid [10] X Research source to create an outline, which begins with exposition of the setting and life or day of the character(s), moves into the conflict of the character (a severed finger in the bathroom, two men in a car), shifts upward into rising action where the character tries to solve or work against the conflict but meets several complications or roadblocks, reaches the climax, and then falls downward with falling action, into the resolution where the character is changed, shifted (or in the case of some horror), meets a terrifying death.
Think of a short title that hints at the terror in your story.

Developing the Characters

Step 1 Make your reader care about or identify with your main character.

Determine the age and occupation of your character.
Determine the marital status or relationship status of your character.
Determine how they view the world (cynical, skeptical, anxious, happy-go-lucky, satisfied, settled).
Add in specific or unique details. Make your character feel distinct with a certain character trait or tick (a hairstyle, a scar) or a mark of their appearance (an item of clothing, a piece of jewellery, a pipe or cane). A character’s speech or dialect can also distinguish a character on the page, and make them stand out more to the reader.
Once your readers identify with a character, the character becomes a bit like their child. They will empathize with the character’s conflict and root for them to overcome their conflict, while also realizing that this rarely happens.
This tension between what the reader wants for the character and what could happen or go wrong for the character will fuel the story and propel your readers through the story.

Step 2 Be prepared for bad things to happen to your character.

In order to create conflict in a character’s life, you need to introduce a danger or threat to the character, whether it's a moving finger, two men in a car, a mystical monkey’s paw or a murderous clown.
For example, in King’s “The Moving Finger”, the main character, Howard, is a middle-aged man who enjoys watching Jeopardy, has a comfortable relationship with his wife, and seems to live a decent middle class life. But King does not let the reader get too comfortable in Howard's normal existence as he introduces a scratching sound in Howard's bathroom. The discovery of the finger in the bathroom, and Howard's subsequent attempts to avoid it, remove it, or destroy it, creates a story where a seemingly normal, likeable man’s life is interrupted by the unknown or the unreal.

Step 3 Allow your characters to make mistakes or bad decisions.

Its important to create enough motivation for the character so their bad decision feels justifiable and not merely stupid or unbelievable. An attractive young babysitter who responds to a masked killer by running not to the telephone to call the police but outside into the deep, dark woods is not only a stupid character move, it also feels unbelievable to the reader or viewer.
But if you have your character make a justifiable, though flawed, decision in response to a threat, your reader will be more willing to believe and root for that character.
For example, in King’s “The Moving Finger”, Howard initially decides not to tell his wife about the finger in the bathroom because he believes he may be hallucinating or confusing the scratching noise for a mouse or animal caught in the bathroom. The story justifies Howard's decision not to tell anyone about the finger by playing off what most people who tell themselves if they witnessed a strange or bizarre event: it wasn't real, or I'm just seeing things.
The story then justifies Howard's reaction by allowing his wife to go into the bathroom and not comment about seeing a moving finger by the toilet. So, the story plays with Howard's perception of reality and indicates that maybe he did hallucinate the finger.

Step 4 Make the stakes for the character clear and extreme.

Fear is built off of understanding the consequences of an action for a character or the risk of their actions. So if your character decides to confront a clown in the attic or two men in a car, the reader will need to be aware of what the character could lose as a result of this decision. Preferably, your character’s stakes should be extreme or major, such as loss of sanity, loss of innocence, loss of life, or loss of the life of someone they care about.
In the case of King’s story, the main character is afraid that if he confronts the finger, he may risk losing his sanity. The stakes of the character in the story are very high and very clear to the reader. So, when Howard does finally confront the moving finger, the reader is terrified of how the outcome is going to create a loss for Howard.

Creating a Horrific Climax and a Twist Ending

Step 1 Manipulate the reader but do not confuse them.

Hint at the horrific climax of the story by providing small clues or details, such as the label on a bottle that will later come in handy for the main character, a sound or voice in a room that will later become an indication of an unnatural presence, or even a loaded gun in a pillow that may later go off or be used by the main character.
Build tension by alternating from tense or bizarre moments to quiet moments where your character can take a breath in a scene, calm down, and feel safe again. Then, amp up the tension by re-engaging the character in the conflict and then making the conflict feel even more serious or threatening.
In “The Moving Finger”, King does this by having Howard freak out about the finger, then have a relatively normal conversation with his wife while listening to Jeopardy and thinking about the finger, and then attempt to avoid the finger by going for a walk. Howard begins to feel safe or assured that the finger is not real, but of course, once he opens the bathroom door, the finger seems to have grown longer and is moving much faster than it was before.
King slowly builds tension for both the character and the reader by introducing the threat and then having it overshadow the rest of the story. As readers, we know the finger is a sign of something bad or possibly evil, and are now in a position to watch Howard try to avoid, and then eventually confront this evil.

While you want to create a satisfying ending for the reader, you also do not want to make it so closed and settled that the reader walks away without a lingering feeling of uncertainty.
You could have the character experience a moment of realization about the conflict or about how to solve the conflict. The revelation should be the result of a build-up of details in the scene or story and should not be jarring or feel random to the reader. [15] X Research source
In “The Moving Finger”, Howard's moment of realization occurs when he figures out that the finger may be a signifier of an evil or wrong in the world. He asks the police officer, who is there to arrest him after noise complaints from the neighbors, a final Jeopardy question, in the category of the “inexplicable”. “Why do terrible things sometimes happen to the nicest people?” Howard asks. The police officer then turns to open the toilet, where Howard stored the slaughtered finger, and “wagers it all” before opening the toilet seat to look at the inexplicable or unknown.
This ending leaves the reader wondering what the officer sees in the toilet, and if the finger was real or a figment of Howard's imagination. In this way, it is open-ended without being too surprising or confusing for the reader.

Focus on creating a story that feels personally terrifying to you. Or, add a twist to a familiar horror trope, like a vampire who enjoys cake instead of blood, or a man trapped in a dumpster rather than a coffin.
Remember that too much gore or violence can actually have a desensitizing effect on the reader, especially if the same pools of blood keep happening over and over again in the story. Of course, some gore is good and likely necessary in a horror story. But make sure you use gore in a spot in the story that is impactful or meaningful, so it can punch your reader in the gut, rather than numb them or bore them. [17] X Research source
Another way you can avoid cliches is to focus more on creating a disturbed or unsettled state of mind for your character, rather than images of gore or pools of blood. Pictorial memories often don’t stick in a reader’s mind, but the effect of these images on a character will likely create a lingering creepiness for the reader. So aim not for your reader’s imagination but for a disturbance in your reader’s state of mind. [18] X Research source

Revising the Story

Get out your thesaurus and replace any redundant word use with synonyms to avoid using the same words or phrases over and over again in the story.
Be sure to make your language use and word choice fit the voice of your character. A teenage girl will likely use different words or phrases than a middle-aged man. Creating a vocabulary for your character that fits their personality and perspective will only add to their believability as a character.

If your story is dialogue heavy, reading it out loud will also help you determine if the dialogue sounds believable and natural.
If your story contains a twist ending, gauging your reader’s reaction by watching your audience’s faces will help you determine if the ending is effective or needs more work.

Expert Q&A

Avoid repackaging proprietary material or the published stories of others, otherwise known as plagiarism. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

Things You'll Need

A pencil or pen and paper, or a typewriter or computer with a word processor such as Microsoft Word.
A dictionary and a thesaurus.

↑ https://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-writing-horror-stories
↑ https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128239303
↑ https://neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/The_Case_of_the_Four_and_Twenty_Blackbirds
↑ https://www.stephenking.com/library/written_old-new.html
↑ https://celestialtimepiece.com/2015/01/21/where-are-you-going-where-have-you-been/
↑ https://referenceforwriters.tumblr.com/post/60572428904/7-helpful-tips-to-writing-good-horror-stories
↑ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/finding-the-emotional-truth-in-horror-writing/530145/
↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/there-are-no-rules/the-horror-genre-on-writing-horror-and-avoiding-cliches
↑ https://everwalker.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/freytags_pyramid.png
↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/16/how-to-write-fiction-andrew-miller
↑ https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/10/11/25-things-you-should-know-about-writing-horror/
↑ https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Creepypasta_Wiki:Creepy_Clich%C3%A9s

About This Article

One way to write a horror story is by brainstorming things or situations that scare you. Many horror writers choose to take a normal, everyday situation, and make it scary by adding unsettling characters or events. Once you have a setting or scenario, make a plot outline and add some detail to your characters, including their fears and goals. As you’re writing, imagine what kind of bad decisions or mistakes your characters could make to worsen the situation, rather than improve it. For tips on writing a riveting climax or adding a twist to your plot, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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

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

Add Details One by One

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

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

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

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

Let the Character Freak Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let The Reader Do the Imagining

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

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

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

Use Strong Verbs

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

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

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

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

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

“Are the straps uncomfortable for you?”

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

The eyes glinted slyly with secret amusement.

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

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

“I’m the devil!”

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

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

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Essay on Horror Story

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

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Horror Story

Introduction.

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

Elements of Horror

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

Impact on Readers

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

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

250 Words Essay on Horror Story

The intrigue of horror stories, psychological appeal.

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

Cultural Significance

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

Narrative Techniques

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

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

500 Words Essay on Horror Story

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

The Psychology behind Horror

The evolution of horror stories.

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

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

The Impact of Horror Stories on Society

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

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

Happy studying!

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[Essay] How to write horror

The key to horror is that fear comes from knowing that something is wrong but not knowing what it is or what you can do about it. You don't need to gross out or shock your reader. But you do what them to be nervous that you'll do just that at any moment.

The Saw franchise is one of the most overtly grotesque horror franchises out there. But the horror doesn't come from watching the victims get chewed up by the traps, it comes from knowing that they're about to die painfully but have nothing they can do about it. In stark contrast, the movie Signs hardly has a single drop of blood spilled throughout the entire film but still has scenes that build up oppressive senses of dread and panic.

Here are some techniques I've noticed come up consistently in excellent horror stories:

Tying the horror to the story's meaning

This is the most important rule. I'm putting it first for a reason.

A good story is more than just a series of events that happen. It's a series of decisions made by characters to overcome conflict in a way that sheds light on thoughtful themes. And so, following these core principles of good writing, it should come as no surprise that good horror is more than a parade of unfortunate situations. Make it clear to us why the protagonist must go through with the horrible situations they find themselves in, even as everything in their mind and body is telling them to get away and save themselves. Make it clear to us how truly severe the consequences will be if the villains are not stopped. And make everything that happens tie back to this central conflict.

You don't have to get to creative to do this. In the movie Alien, the poor main characters are trapped on the spaceship with nowhere to escape. Their options are to fight back or die.

But you can absolutely get creative if you want to. In the game The Evil Within, the main character is a detective who gets sucked into the mind of a serial killer because of sci-fi brain technology. Like Alien, the reason he goes on his journey is largely because he has no choice. But in the sequel , he willingly goes into another nightmare brain world powered by the same technology, knowing exactly how wrong it can go before he does so! The reason he makes this decision is because he discovers his daughter, who he assumed has been dead for years, is actually trapped in this nightmarescape, and this is his chance to save her. The entire game revolves around this. The horror isn't palpable just because the main character goes through hell. It's made much worse by the knowledge that his poor little girl, wherever she is, is certainly going through far worse.

And in Resident Evil 2 , one of the protagonists is a policeman who gets caught in a zombie apocolypse. In his bad luck, this happens on his first day officially on the job, and he's too determined to save his city to back away just when he's getting started. What's more, as he learns more about the zombies, he discovers that they were knowingly created by an evil corporation that has plans to take over the world. We realize that he's not fighting just for his own survival, or even the city's. The consequences if he fails are too terrible to contemplate. And so of course, we find ourselves imagining just that, and the horror is elevated beyond "zombies are scary."

A lack of safety

Throughout your story, rarely give your protagonist a chance to be completely safe and let their guard down. Consistently put them in places where they're in danger, but not imminently. You want it to be very possible for them to suddenly be in a immediate trouble at any moment, even though most of the time things are tensely quiet.

And you can set the tone for the entire story by letting the protagonist finally get somewhere they believe they're safe, then having something happen to them when they least expect it.

The movie Alien: Covenant has some problems, but it nails this aspect of horror. It's about the crew of a spaceship looking for a planet to build a colony on. They find a planet that seems perfect, but when they land, crew members start getting strangely ill. When one of the sick crew members suddenly has a violent alien burst out of their body and kill several other, still-healthy crew members before finally being killed, the threat is visceral: Any of the sick crew members can turn into a monster at any time. For most of the rest of the movie, the remaining crew members aren't actively turning, but the threat that it could happen at any time keeps the rest of the story tense.

And at the end of the movie, the few survivors escape back onto their ship and fly away from the planet. To celebrate, a husband and wife take a shower together, relieved to finally be safe enough to just enjoy each other's company. But then a spiked tail curls its way up behind the stall door... We thought we were safe and past the climax already, but there's a monster in our spaceship, the one safe place we could rely on the entire film.

Slow buildups with plenty of foreshadowing

Each major act or chapter of a most horror stories revolve around one major, in-your-face scare. This scare happens at the end of the chapter, but everything else builds up to inexorably. The pattern looks like this:

The chapter starts after the hero has barely escaped the last threat. They finally have a chance to catch their breath and consider their next steps.

They head off into the next part of their adventure with some sort of goal. But as they find the trail to their goal, something is off.

We find out how this next part of the story is scary. Maybe something is following us. Maybe a character we had trusted up to now is acting strangely. Maybe we realize we're trapped somewhere we thought was safe. But we do not find out what it is we're scared of or why we should be scared of it. We only see the effects it has.

As the threat gets closer and closer to us, we get a drip-feed of clues about what the thing we should be scared of is. We see how a previous victim was killed, we hear its bone-chilling howl, we get a taunting call from another character telling us to watch our backs.

At the same time the character reaches their goal, the antagonist that's been haunting us comes out in full view. This is when you get a few pages of in-your-face, grotesque monstrousity. We see the psycho chasing the hero with an axe, we hold our breath with the hero as they struggle with the lock as the room fills up with sewage, we are disgusted as the hyponitzed victims are fed into a meat grinder.

But our hero escapes, whether the goal is accomplished or not. And now, the build begins again...

You might be looking at this and thinking it's formulaic. If you do this every time, then your readers will know to expect something coming at the end of each section of your story. This is exactly the point . Again, horror comes from knowing something is wrong, but not knowing what it is or how to deal with it. So make damn sure your readers know something is wrong. And follow through on your promises that something will happen every single time so that your readers can't rely on the hope that maybe you'll back off this time. They know it will be terrifying when they reach the chapter's climax. Lean into this foreshadowing and structure so that your poor readers can only squirm in suspense as you build up over and over again.

Besides, this formula comes from a very sensible place. It's just the common pattern of rising action leading to a climax and denoument that shows up in all good storytelling. The only difference is that it's applied specifically to the conventions of horror.

The game Silent Hill 3 leans into this formula unapologetically and heavily. The game is about a young woman, Heather, who finds out a deranged preistess is using her to complete a cultic ritual to summon a demon. She has to travel to the titular Silent Hill, a cursed town that causes people's worst fears to appear as monsters, and confront the preistess before the ritual is completed.

The game is split into 5 major dungeons: A shopping mall, a subway, a hospital, an amusement park, and a chapel. Each of these chapters follows the formula I described above. Each area starts out relatively normal, but is gradually overwhelmed by Silent Hill's curse. More and more monsters appear, the environments become increasingly inhospitable, and characters gradually reveal more about the cultic ritual Heather's mother is trying to complete. Then, when Heather finally accomplishes each of her goals at the end of each chapter, she finds herself cornered in a fight to the death against the dungeon boss, which are consistently grotesque and overwraught even by the game's already disgusting standards.

The entire game follows this structure, as well! At the beginning of the game, all we know is that the priestess wants to find Heather. The further we get into the story, the more we find out about the connection between Heather and the priestess, the twisted religion, and how the ritual works with Heather at the heart of it. At the climax, the ritual is completed, and Heather has to kill the summoned demon immediately before it can damn the world.

Gaslighting the reader

This is a bit of a strange one, to be honest. It's not about building up your story, but rather about keeping your reader on edge.

To get inside your reader's head, you can feed them details that are contradictory, nonsensical, or unhelpful. For example, you can describe a wall as having a picture with a happy woman by herself on it. Then a while later, without any way for the picture to have plausibly been modified, nonchalantly mention the baby in her arms crying blood. Or repeatedly mention a bloody handkercheif that the hero notices in strange places, but it never ends up relating to anything or being explained. You can allow your hero to notice and respond to this strangeness or keep it a secret between you and the reader. And maybe there's a rational or even plot relevant explanation for the surreal things that happen, but maybe not. Either way, you'll keep the reader off-balance, and that will heighten the fear that they feel.

The game Layers of Fear is about an artist who is deep in mental illness. The game's story is about what his emotional experience is like, so its setup lets it quickly detach itself from any semblance of rational cause-and-effect. Instead, to capture how out of his mind the artist is, it yanks the player's chain around all the time. You'll look at something, turn around, and by the time you've looked back again, it will have disappeared. Rooms are connected in impossible ways; down a hallway, reaching a dead end, and returning to the entrance will often take you to a different room altogether. By the end of the game, you're climbing up a towering library that gets taller and more precarious every time you scramble onto another bookshelf, and there isn't enough space to swing your arms in other rooms without hitting an object that becomes possessed or is part of a psychedelic blood sacrifice, all without any explanation other than you're insane.

It's not horror, but the story I've found with the best examples of gaslighting is The Stanely Parable . The game has a narrator who tries to narrate your decisions through the game for you, and you're free to ignore his narration whenever you want to. The harder you disobey his suggestions, the more frustrated he becomes and the more surreally he attempts to reassert control over the story. He'll force you to play games that are deliberately awful in an attempt to teach you a lesson, try to kill the main character only to be replaced by a different narrator begging you to restart the game moments before the protagonist dies, and give Stanely entire lectures about the importance of making the right decisions.

You don't need to gaslight the reader if you don't think it would fit your story. The Alien franchise is both horror and hard sci-fi, so it avoids anything that can't be explained entirely within the show's universe. But if you're writing looser or more experiential horror, this is a tool in your pocket.

Inhuman, but not necessarily gory, imagery

You do want to make your reader to feel uncomfortable with the imagery you're using. But this doesn't necessarily mean splatter porn. Vicera and gore are definitely disquieting. But so are claustrophobic spaces, filth, ordinary objects that don't work quite the way we expect them to, spaces that connect up in nonsensical ways, endless industrial areas, and grime and decay. You have an enormous palette of uncomfortable imagery to use. With skill, you can make completely family-friendly settings and scenarios still leave your readers sweating.

Again, Silent Hill 3 is an excellent example of this. When the Silent Hill curse takes over an area, it is twisted into something inhospitable by using some specific imagery. To be honest, there is a lot of blood and gore; decaying bodies and puddles of blood are scattered around everywhere. But it uses other imagery at least as often. It likes to create mazes using chain-link fences, an off-putting choice for indoor spaces. Every surface is either bare concrete or metal, and it's all stained, rusted, or covered in grime. There's barely a single carpet, wood floor, or wallpapered room in the game. Lighting is unnaturally dark, like there's a low ceiling without many lights, even when you're outside. And hallways are lined with rows upon rows of doors, most of which are impossible to open - but you can't know which ones work until you try all of them.

It's a lesser known game, but Infra is a horror game that uses some very unique imagery. You play as a government engineer for a second-world country sent out to inspect its infrastructure. As you explore power plants, sewage systems, dams, and the like, you discover two things: The government is crawling with corruption, and as a result, the infrastructure is utterly dilapidated. This means that as you make your inspections, you consistently find yourself in very dangerous situations, and there's no one to rescue you if - when - things go wrong. One memorable scene has you trapped on an underground bridge as flood gates are opening, forcing you to scramble to unlock the escape doors before you're washed away and killed. All of this game's imagery is completely grounded. There are no spirits, monsters, hallucinations, insane visions, or even gore. But it's nevertheless very tense.

Don't answer all of the story's secondary questions

Remember, in horror, your goal is to leave your readers feeling that something bad can happen at any time. This is a decidedly different goal than in other genres. In a mystery, it's to give your readers the satisfaction of solving a puzzle. In sci-fi, it's to fully explore the implications of technological changes that might come to pass. These genres require you to fully answer most or all of the questions your story asks.

Horror does not have the same expectations! By deliberately leaving some central questions unanswered, you can make it unclear to the reader whether the hero is truly safe even when the story is finished, allowing the sense of horror to persist beyond the point your reader closes your book.

The movie Silent Hill , based off the video games, is about the main character looking for her daughter after she is lost in the epynomous town. At the end of the story, the mom and her child make it home. But even when they're in the same room as the protagonist's husband, he can't see them. They escaped Silent Hill, but did they escape the town's curse?

Inception isn't horror, but the top that doesn't quite stop spinning before the time the credits roll is famous.

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How To Write A Superb Sci-Fi Horror Movie

Sci-Fi Horror is an exciting and potentially powerful sub-genre sandpit that combines the speculative elements of science fiction with the fear-inducing qualities of horror . Sci-fi horror movies create a unique narrative where futuristic technology and existential dread intersect, resulting in both thought-provoking and terrifying stories. Writing a sci-fi horror film involves a nuanced approach, requiring understanding of both genres and how to blend them effectively.

Here’s a detailed guide to crafting a compelling sci-fi horror film, covering core elements, concept development, atmosphere creation, character crafting, suspense building, thematic exploration, and script writing.

Scientific concepts, atmosphere of fear, existential themes, unique science fiction premise, horror twist, isolated locations, unfamiliar environments, visual and auditory cues, relatable protagonists, internal and external conflicts, character development, effective use of scares, unexpected twists, the ethics of science, humanity vs. technology, fear of the unknown, tips for aspiring writers, “the fly” (1986), “invasion of the body snatchers” (1978), “the thing” (1982), “the terminator” (1984), “alien” (1979), the “star wars” franchise, the final take, understand the core elements of sci-fi horror.

Before diving into writing, it’s crucial to understand what core elements make sci-fi horror unique.

The backbone of a sci-fi horror is science. This genre frequently explores speculative and advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence gone rogue, alien species with menacing intentions, or genetic experiments spiraling out of control. The key to effective sci-fi horror lies in grounding these concepts in a semblance of reality. Make these scientific elements plausible, even if they’re exaggerated or speculative so that the audience can experience the horror.

The atmosphere of Fear is another vital aspect. Sci-fi horror relies heavily on crafting an environment filled with dread and suspense. This atmosphere can be achieved through unsettling settings—like an international space station drifting through outer space, or a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by unchecked technology.

Existential Themes often underpin sci-fi horror. These themes delve into profound questions about humanity’s place in the cosmos, the ethical boundaries of scientific advancement, the profound fear of the unknown, or the conflict of the human race against aliens or a deadly virus. By exploring these themes, sci-fi horror not only delivers scares but also provokes thought, offering a deeper, more resonant experience for the audience.

Develop a Strong Concept

A successful sci-fi horror movie starts with a strong, original concept that combines elements of both genres.

Start with a unique premise that captures your imagination. This could be an innovative technology, such as a breakthrough in virtual reality that becomes dangerously immersive, or an alien species with abilities beyond human comprehension. The core idea should spark curiosity and offer a fresh perspective.

Next, infuse your concept with a horror twist to generate fear and tension . Once you have your intriguing sci-fi premise, identify how it could spiral into horror. Consider how a plot twist will affect your characters and the story, creating a sense of dread and urgency.

Create a Tense and Unsettling Atmosphere

The setting in a sci-fi movie should be as much a character as the people inhabiting it.

Settings like a spaceship drifting in outer space, remote planets cut off from communication or secretive underground laboratories evoke a strong sense of isolation. This seclusion not only amplifies vulnerability but also makes the characters’ predicament more dire, intensifying the suspense.

Unfamiliar landscapes or futuristic settings should be both visually and thematically alien to the audience. These environments can disorient viewers, making them feel disconnected and unsure, which compounds the horror. An unknown setting forces characters and audiences alike to confront fears of the unfamiliar and uncontrollable.

Effective use of lighting, such as flickering or harsh, unnatural lights, can create a foreboding ambiance. Sound design plays a critical role as well; eerie noises, distorted echoes, or unsettling silence can all contribute to a growing sense of dread. Additionally, disorienting camera angles and sudden, jarring visual effects can amplify feelings of discomfort and anxiety, making the audience’s experience more immersive and intense.

Craft Complex Characters

Sci-fi horror is most effective when the audience cares about the characters. Develop multi-dimensional characters with distinct personalities, motivations, and fears.

The characters should be human and relatable, with distinct personalities and flaws. These traits make them more real and engaging. For example, a scientist driven by ambition who face the consequences of their reckless experiments becomes more relatable when their vulnerabilities and personal stakes are evident. Authentic reactions to the horrors they encounter—whether it’s fear, panic, or determination—enhance the believability of the story and make the horror feel more impactful.

Beyond the immediate external threat such as a monstrous alien or a rogue AI, explore internal struggles like fear, guilt, or moral dilemmas. A character grappling with the ethical implications of their actions or haunted by past mistakes adds layers to their persona, making their experiences with the horror more profound and personal. These internal conflicts often drive the narrative forward and provide a richer, more nuanced perspective on the events unfolding.

Allow your characters to evolve in response to the horrors they face. Their growth should be intertwined with the film’s central themes, whether it’s a journey from hubris to humility or the overcoming of deep-seated fears. Compelling character arcs that reflect the challenges and transformations experienced in the face of terror not only enhance the narrative but also ensure a more engaging and emotionally resonant film.

Build Suspense and Deliver Scares

The pacing of a sci-fi horror movie is crucial. It’s about the slow build-up of tension , punctuated by frightening moments.

Begin with a slow burn, allowing tension to build gradually. This approach involves establishing the setting, introducing characters, and hinting at underlying threats without immediate escalation. As the story unfolds, slowly increase the stakes and intensity, creating a rising wave of anxiety. Key moments of horror should be strategically placed to disrupt this build-up, ensuring they have the maximum impact. By letting the tension simmer before unleashing the scares, you heighten the anticipation and make each scare more effective.

While jump scares can offer sudden jolts, they should be used sparingly to avoid diminishing their effectiveness. Instead, focus on psychological horror that delves into the characters’ fears and anxieties, body horror that explores grotesque transformations or injuries, and the fear of the unknown that keeps the audience guessing. These elements often create a more profound and lingering sense of dread.

Incorporate plot twists that challenge their expectations and subvert common horror tropes . The horror should feel both inevitable and surprising, catching viewers off guard and intensifying their emotional response. By keeping the narrative unpredictable, you ensure that the tension remains high and the scares have a lasting impact.

Incorporate Thought-Provoking Themes

Sci Fi Horror Movie: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Sci-fi horror can be more than just a scary movie—it can explore deeper themes and questions about humanity, technology, and the future.

Delve into the moral implications of scientific advancements and question the boundaries of human experimentation. Themes should challenge the viewers to consider the responsibility that comes with scientific progress and the potential costs of playing god.

This explores the tension between human values and technological advancement. It raises questions about the reliability and control of technology, especially when it surpasses human oversight. The storyline should prompt viewers to question whether technology can truly be trusted and what happens when it becomes uncontrollable.

This theme addresses the existential dread of confronting the unfamiliar—be it alien entities, uncharted technologies, or cosmic mysteries. This fear taps into deep-seated anxieties about the limits of human understanding and the potential dangers lurking beyond the known universe. The film should evoke a profound sense of unease and reflection on humanity’s place in the cosmos.

Write a Compelling Script

Crafting a compelling sci-fi horror script demands a blend of engaging storytelling, well-developed characters, and a deep understanding of the genre’s distinct elements.

Strong Opening

Your script’s beginning is crucial. Start with a strong opening that immediately grabs the audience’s attention. This could be an intriguing premise or a shocking event that sets the film’s tone and establishes the stakes. Whether it’s a startling revelation or a mysterious occurrence, make sure it’s impactful, creating immediate investment in the story and characters. The goal is to hook viewers from the start, setting up anticipation for the unfolding horror.

In sci-fi horror, dialogue should be natural and concise , serving multiple purposes. It reveals character traits, builds tension , and explores underlying themes without lengthy exposition . Aim for authentic conversations that reflect the characters and their situations. Use dialogue to subtly unveil key details and emotional states, keeping the audience engaged without overwhelming them. Show, don’t tell; let characters’ actions and reactions reveal their thoughts and motivations.

Visual Storytelling

Visual storytelling is paramount in sci-fi horror. These movies thrive on their ability to convey fear and intrigue through imagery and setting. Think cinematically when writing your script—describe actions, environments, and visual elements to enhance the atmosphere and build suspense. Use vivid descriptions to bring alien or futuristic settings to life, creating a sense of dread and immersion. Effective visual storytelling can convey emotions and plot developments more powerfully than words alone, making the audience feel as though they are experiencing the horror firsthand.

Satisfying Conclusion

The ending of your sci-fi horror script should resolve the central conflict but doesn’t necessarily need to be a happy one. Many memorable sci-fi horror films leave the audience with a lingering sense of unease. Whether it’s a twist that reshapes the story or a conclusion that raises unsettling questions, ensure it resonates and reinforces the film’s themes. A well-crafted ending should feel earned and impactful, providing closure while echoing the film’s core anxieties and fears.

By focusing on these elements, you can create a sci-fi horror script that entertains, provokes thought, and elicits a strong emotional response from your audience.

Writing science fiction horror, with award winning author, Gareth Powell.

Read Widely: Dive into a variety of works within your genre and beyond. Studying the classics and contemporary masters provides insight into successful storytelling techniques, character development, and thematic exploration. Analyze what makes these works effective, from plot structure to character arcs, and understand how they engage and captivate readers. This broad reading helps you grasp the genre conventions of these movies while sparking inspiration for your unique voice.
Write Regularly: Consistent practice is essential for growth as a writer. Set aside dedicated time each day or week to write, regardless of whether you feel inspired. Regular writing hones your craft, helps you overcome writer’s block, and allows you to refine your voice and style. The more you write, the more you’ll learn about your strengths and areas for improvement, leading to better and more polished work.
Seek Feedback: Sharing your work with others is crucial for development. Find writing groups, mentors, or peers who can provide constructive criticism. Be open to their feedback, as it offers valuable perspectives and identifies areas that may need revision. Constructive criticism helps you see your work from different angles and improves your ability to craft compelling narratives.
Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment: Innovation often arises from experimentation. Challenge traditional storytelling methods, explore unconventional plot structures, and push boundaries. Taking risks can lead to original and memorable stories that stand out. Embrace the possibility of failure as part of the creative process, and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow as a writer.

Examples of Successful Sci-Fi Horror Movies

To further illustrate the key elements of sci-fi horror, let’s take a closer look at some of the best films of the genre. Each of these movies exemplifies a particular aspect of the genre and provides valuable lessons for aspiring writers.

Directed by David Cronenberg, “The Fly” is a seminal work in body horror, illustrating the terrifying consequences of scientific hubris. The film stars Jeff Goldblum as scientist Seth Brundle, whose experiment with teleportation leads to his gradual, grotesque transformation into a human-fly hybrid. Cronenberg’s direction emphasizes the horror of physical degeneration, using practical effects to make each stage of Brundle’s transformation viscerally disturbing. Geena Davis plays Veronica Quaife, a journalist and Brundle’s love interest, whose emotional struggle and heartbreak add depth to the story. The film’s slow-burn approach allows the audience to witness the tragic loss of humanity, both physically and emotionally, as Brundle becomes increasingly monstrous, making “The Fly” a haunting exploration of the fear of bodily decay.

In this classic sci-fi horror remake directed by Philip Kaufman, Donald Sutherland stars as Matthew Bennell, a health inspector in San Francisco who uncovers a horrifying alien invasion. The plot revolves around alien plant spores that replicate people’s bodies, gradually replacing them with emotionless duplicates. Sutherland’s portrayal of Bennell adds depth to the film’s tense atmosphere, as he grapples with the chilling realization that those around him are not who they seem. The film is renowned for its exploration of paranoia and loss of identity, creating a pervasive sense of dread as the characters struggle to distinguish friend from foe.

“28 Days Later” (2002)

Directed by Danny Boyle , “28 Days Later” revitalizes the zombie movie genre with a modern, sci-fi twist. The film follows Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, who wakes up from a coma to find London devastated by a “rage virus.” The virus, spread through infected blood, causes rapid and uncontrollable aggression, presenting a horrifying and realistic threat. Boyle’s direction combines gritty realism with apocalyptic themes, creating a tense atmosphere through stark visuals and haunting sound design. The film’s exploration of a fast-moving infection and the societal collapse it triggers adds a fresh, sci-fi edge to the classic zombie horror narrative.

John Carpenter’s, “The Thing” is a masterclass in combining creature horror with psychological tension . Set in an isolated Antarctic research station, the film’s horror stems from a shape-shifting alien that can mimic any living being, leading to extreme paranoia among the crew. Carpenter expertly builds tension by focusing on the characters’ growing mistrust of one another, as they struggle to identify who is human and who is the alien. This internal conflict, combined with the gruesome and shocking transformations, creates a deeply unsettling atmosphere where survival is as much about outsmarting each other as it is about defeating the creature.

Directed by James Cameron, “The Terminator” masterfully combines science fiction with relentless horror. The film’s premise revolves around a cyborg assassin sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the future leader of the human resistance. Cameron’s direction creates an atmosphere of unyielding tension , as the Terminator, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is an unstoppable force, embodying the fear of an inescapable, technologically advanced threat. The relentless pursuit and the cold, emotionless nature of the Terminator transform this sci-fi narrative into a terrifying experience, blending the anxiety of future technology with the immediacy of horror.

Directed by Ridley Scott, “Alien” is an iconic example of sci-fi horror that masterfully creates a sense of dread through its oppressive atmosphere. Set aboard the spaceship Nostromo, the film’s claustrophobic corridors and dimly lit spaces heighten the isolation and vulnerability of the crew, particularly Ellen Ripley, who emerges as the central figure in the battle for survival. Scott’s slow-paced direction amplifies the tension , allowing the horror to unfold gradually as the unseen alien menace lurks in the shadows. Ripley’s resilience and resourcefulness become crucial as the threat intensifies, adding to the film’s suspense. The careful use of sound design, from the unsettling ambient noise to the creature’s terrifying hisses, contributes to the immersive fear, making “Alien” a cornerstone in atmospheric horror and solidifying Ellen Ripley as a legendary character in sci-fi movies.

While primarily known as an epic space opera, the “Star Wars” franchise, created by George Lucas, contains elements of horror, particularly through its exploration of the Dark Side and the terrifying aspects of the galaxy. The character of Darth Vader, with his dark, ominous presence and tragic backstory, embodies the fear of losing one’s humanity to technology and evil. Additionally, scenes like the Sarlacc pit in “Return of the Jedi” and the ominous, decaying ruins of the Death Star in “The Rise of Skywalker” tap into primal fears of the unknown and the monstrous. The franchise also explores the psychological horror of the Force, with its ability to corrupt and manipulate, adding a layer of existential dread to its otherwise adventurous tone.

The “Resident Evil” Franchise

The “Resident Evil” franchise, starting with the 2002 film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, is a prominent example of blending survival horror with sci-fi elements. The series follows Alice, portrayed by Milla Jovovich, who battles against a zombie apocalypse caused by the Umbrella Corporation’s bioweapons. The franchise combines traditional horror with futuristic concepts such as genetic manipulation, artificial intelligence, and viral outbreaks. Anderson’s films mix intense action sequences with eerie, claustrophobic settings, emphasizing the terror of a world overrun by monstrous creatures and the ethical dilemmas of scientific experimentation gone awry. The series’ evolution showcases a range of horror elements intertwined with sci-fi advancements.

Writing a sci-fi horror movie is a challenging but rewarding endeavor. By combining the speculative elements of science fiction with the fear-inducing aspects of horror, you can create a film that is both thought-provoking and frightening. Focus on developing a strong concept, creating a tense atmosphere, crafting complex characters, and exploring deeper themes. With careful attention to pacing and a compelling script, your sci-fi horror movie can leave a lasting impact on audiences and stand out in the genre.

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1 thought on “How To Write A Superb Sci-Fi Horror Movie”

LOVED the way this article broke down the sub-genre of Sci-Fi/Horror as futuristic technology combined with existential dread. So far, I’ve written three Sci-Fi/Horror scripts including “Femme Fatale in Stiletto Heels” (Science of Cryogenics combined with fear of growing old and unattractive); “Devil’s Ride” (Science of DNA regeneration combined with fear of going to Hell); and “Bestie” (Environmental Science combined with fear of loss of a loved one). I am now working on a new project, “A.I. Spider” which combines fear of Computer Science with a focus on A. I. with a fear of spiders. This article helped me clarify how to explain my stories living in this “sub-genre sandpit”. Thank you very much for this article!

How to Write an Essay Outline: Examples, FAQs & Tips

An essay outline is a structured plan that organizes the main points and supporting details of an essay before writing. It guides the flow of ideas and ensures that each section of the essay is logically connected and coherent.

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to build a strong essay outline. You'll discover how to define your thesis, arrange your main points, and structure your outline for clarity and effectiveness. If you're still having trouble putting your outline together after reading this, EssayService can provide expert help to make sure your essay is well-structured and persuasive!

Basic Elements of an Essay

An essay begins with an introduction, which is followed by one or more body paragraphs that expand on the points introduced. It ends with a conclusion that restates the thesis and summarizes the main ideas from the body paragraphs.

Introduction

The introduction of an essay introduces the topic and engages the reader from the start. It usually starts with a hook—a statement or question that grabs attention. After the hook, some background information is given to provide context for the topic.

The introduction ends with a thesis statement, which clearly presents the main argument or purpose of the essay. This section not only introduces the topic but also outlines what the essay will cover, setting the tone for what follows.

Avoid these pitfalls:

Don't try to cover too much ground in your introduction.
Avoid vagueness. Be specific and precise in your language.

Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay is where your main ideas and arguments take shape. Each paragraph should open with a topic sentence that clearly states the main point. This is followed by supporting details like evidence, examples, and analysis that back up the topic sentence.

Smooth transitions between paragraphs are key to maintaining a logical flow throughout the essay. Together, the body paragraphs build and support the thesis by adding depth and detail to your argument.

Remember these tips for effective body paragraphs:

Begin each paragraph with a clear and concise topic sentence.
Use specific examples, facts, or quotes to support your point.
Explain why the evidence is important and how it relates to your argument.

The conclusion of an essay wraps up the argument and reinforces the thesis. It usually starts by restating the thesis and reflecting on the discussion and evidence presented in the body paragraphs. A brief summary of the main points follows, highlighting the key arguments made throughout the essay.

The conclusion should close with a final thought or call to action, leaving the reader with something to think about or a sense of closure. The aim is to make a lasting impression that emphasizes the importance of the essay's conclusions.

Remember these tips:

Briefly recap the key arguments you've made.
Leave the reader with a thought-provoking final sentence or a call to action.
Don't introduce any new ideas or arguments in your conclusion.

How to Write an Essay Outline?

Now, let's dive into the heart of this article and show you how to write an essay outline in just four smart steps:

Determining your thesis and key arguments
Organizing points into sections
Adding supporting details
Drafting a rough outline

Determine Your Thesis and Key Arguments

Your thesis should present a specific point of view or a central idea that your essay will support or explore. Here's how to identify your thesis:

Ask a question: What is the main point you want to convey?
Brainstorm: Jot down ideas related to your topic.
Refine your ideas: Narrow down your focus and develop a clear argument.

Once you have your thesis, identify the main points that support it. These points should be logical, relevant, and comprehensive.

Divide your thesis: Break down your thesis into its key components.
Create a mind map: Visually organize your ideas.
Ask yourself questions: What are the main reasons for your argument? What evidence supports your claims?

Group Main Ideas into Sections

The best way to organize your main points when writing an essay outline depends on the specific topic and purpose of your essay. Experiment with different arrangements to find the one that works best for you. Here are some strategies for organizing your main points:

	Use this when	Example
Chronological Order	Your essay is about a sequence of events or a process.	An essay about the history of the French Revolution could be organized chronologically, starting with the causes and ending with the aftermath.
Spatial Order	Your essay is describing a physical space or object.	An essay about the architecture of the Colosseum could be organized spatially, moving from the exterior to the interior.
Order of Importance	Your main points vary in significance.	An essay arguing for stricter gun control laws might begin with the most compelling argument and end with the least compelling.
Compare and Contrast Order	Your essay examines similarities and differences between two or more things.	An essay comparing the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle could be organized by alternating between points of similarity and difference.

Add Details to Each Main Idea

When working on your essay outline, remember to choose supporting details that are relevant, specific, and convincing. The more evidence you can provide, the stronger your arguments will be. Consider these tips for developing supporting details for each one.

Provide examples: "For example, the Great Depression led to a significant increase in homelessness and poverty."
Cite expert opinions: "As the renowned historian, Eric Hobsbawm, once said, 'The French Revolution was a watershed moment in European history.'"
Make comparisons and contrasts: "While both cats and dogs make excellent pets, cats are generally more independent, while dogs are more social."
Offer definitions: "A democracy is a form of government in which the people have the power to elect their leaders."

Make a Rough Outline

Once you've developed supporting details for each main point, you're ready to create a draft outline. This outline will serve as a roadmap for your essay, guiding you through the writing process.

Here's a basic outline template:

Background information
Thesis statement

Body Paragraph 1

Topic sentence
Supporting detail 1
Supporting detail 2
Supporting detail 3

Body Paragraph 2

Body Paragraph 3

Restate thesis
Summarize key points
Final thought

Remember to:

Use consistent formatting: Indent supporting details.
Label sections clearly: Use Roman numerals for main points and letters for supporting details.
Be flexible: Adjust your outline as needed to accommodate new ideas or changes in your argument.

Essay Outline Examples

Now that you have an understanding of the basic structure of an essay outline let's explore some specific examples tailored to different essay genres. Remember, these are just templates, and you should feel free to adapt each essay outline example to fit your unique needs and writing style.

Argumentative Essay Outline

I. Introduction

Hook: A captivating opening sentence to grab the reader's attention.
Background information: Relevant context to the topic.
Thesis statement: A clear and concise statement of your argument.

II. Body Paragraph 1

Topic sentence: The main point of this paragraph.
Supporting evidence: Facts, statistics, examples, or expert opinions to support your argument.
Explanation: Analysis of the evidence and its relevance to your thesis.

III. Body Paragraph 2

Topic sentence: The second main point of your argument.
Supporting evidence: Facts, statistics, examples, or expert opinions.

IV. Body Paragraph 3

Topic sentence: The third main point of your argument.

V. Counterargument

Acknowledge opposing viewpoint: Briefly mention a counterargument.
Refute counterargument: Provide evidence or reasoning to disprove the opposing viewpoint.

VI. Conclusion

Restate thesis: Reiterate your main argument.
Summarize key points: Briefly recap the main supporting points.
Final thought: Leave the reader with a memorable and impactful statement.

Expository Essay Outline

A. Hook: Start with an engaging statement or fact to grab the reader's attention.
B. Background Information: Provide context or background information necessary for understanding the topic.
C. Thesis Statement: Clearly state the main point or purpose of the essay.
A. Topic Sentence: Introduce the main idea of the paragraph.
B. Explanation/Detail: Provide a detailed explanation or description of the first point.
C. Evidence/Example: Include evidence or examples to support the explanation.
D. Analysis: Explain how the evidence or example supports the topic sentence.
B. Explanation/Detail: Provide a detailed explanation or description of the second point.
B. Explanation/Detail: Provide a detailed explanation or description of the third point.

V. Conclusion

A. Restate Thesis: Restate the thesis in a new way, summarizing the main points of the essay.
B. Summary of Main Points: Briefly summarize the key points discussed in the body paragraphs.
C. Final Thought: End with a concluding statement that reinforces the significance of the topic or provides a closing thought.

Persuasive Essays Outline

Background information: Provide context or history related to your topic.
Thesis statement: Clearly state your argument or position.
Main argument: Present your strongest argument in support of your thesis.
Supporting evidence: Use facts, statistics, examples, or expert opinions to back up your argument.
Counterargument: Briefly acknowledge an opposing viewpoint.
Rebuttal: Refute the counterargument with evidence or reasoning.
Main argument: Present your second strongest argument in support of your thesis.
Main argument: Present your third strongest argument in support of your thesis.
Restate thesis: Briefly rephrase your argument.
Summarize key points: Recap the main supporting arguments.
Call to action: Encourage the reader to take a specific action or adopt a particular viewpoint.

Final Words

As we sum up this article, let's recap the main steps for writing an outline:

Determine the main argument or purpose of your essay.
Break down your thesis into key ideas or arguments.
Group related ideas together under clear headings.
Include evidence, examples, and explanations for each main point.
Arrange everything in a logical order, ensuring a smooth flow from one section to the next.

To ensure your writing is well-structured and effective, rely on EssayService, which is here to help with any type of essay.

Frequently asked questions

Linford, J. (2014). Essay Planning: Outlining with a Purpose What Is an Outline? How Do I Develop an Outline? https://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/handouts/Essay%20Planning%20-%20Outlining.pdf
‌ Writing an Outline for your essay | MacOdrum Library . (n.d.). Library.carleton.ca . https://library.carleton.ca/guides/help/writing-outline-your-essay

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The Audacity.

The Audacious Book Club Essay Contest Winners

And details about the next contest, for fiction, horror, oh my.

At the end of Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Bite by Bite, she offered a series of writing prompts and when we invited you to write an essay inspired by one of those prompts, more than a hundred of you accepted the challenge. There were so many wonderful essays about your experiences with food, family, friends, how you define home, and much more. It was challenging to winnow the submissions into a list of fifteen finalists and even more difficult to pick a winner. Aimee, herself, read those finalists’ essays and picked a winner and three runners up (who will each receive $250). Congratulations to everyone who participated and especially the winner and runners up. The winning essay will be published toward the end of November, so keep an eye out.

Instant Pot Time Machine by Taj Zaidi

Daring to Love a Durian Fruit by Felicia Chang Junk Food by Caroline Diggins Tomato by Laura Khoudari

Queen of the Casseroles by Marcelle Beaulieu Coming for the Chopping by Amy Chadwick Cooking My Father Back to Life by Caroline Hagood The Kitchen With Two Doors by Kristina Kasparian Quenelle de Brochet by Jessica Palmer Parsley by Susannah Pratt Shelf Life of Milk and Oranges by Parlei Riviere Calabacitas by Liza Sparks Anything But Cooking, Please by Sonora Taylor Congee is My Security Blanke t by Hui Tran Growing Up by Yi Youn Kim Our Bite by Bite inspired writing contest was so fun and you guys wrote so many wonderful essays that we’re going to do it again. This time, the category is… Horror. One of my favorite things about Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Cuckoo was the way she wrote a horror story that felt utterly original and reminded us that the ways our society treats people on the margins is far greater a horror than any dark imagining of the monsters beneath our beds.

We will be accepting entries for your best horror stories ( fiction only) from now until October 15th at midnight. Stories must be no longer than 3,500 words. The winner will receive $2,500, publication in The Audacity , and a one-hour Zoom session where I offer feedback on up to 25 pages (double-spaced) of your fiction or non-fiction prose. Winners will be announced by December 2nd.

The submission link is below.

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How to End a College Essay: Strategies and Examples

Writing a college essay takes skill, but making a strong college essay conclusion is often the most important part. A great ending can make a big impact on your readers and bring your main ideas together. This guide will walk you through four strategies that will help you create impactful conclusions that resonate with your audience.

1. Writing a Memorable College Essay Conclusion

The conclusion of your essay is your last chance to strengthen your main points and leave a lasting impression. A well-written ending can make your whole essay better and more memorable.

Successful Essay Ending Examples

Here are some great ways to end an essay:

Share a thoughtful idea that connects to your main point, giving a sense of closure and understanding.
Quickly go over your main points, showing them in a new way.
Discuss why your topic matters beyond just your essay.
Link back to your introduction, making your writing feel complete.

Example:

"When I started looking into how music affects the brain, I didn't know I'd find a connection to my grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's. I learned that songs people know well can often bring back memories for patients, even when they have trouble talking. This discovery changed how I see music's power and gave me a new way to connect with my grandmother. When we hum her favorite songs together, I see hints of recognition in her eyes, reminding me that sometimes, big scientific ideas can have very personal effects."

Common Mistakes in Ending an Essay

Avoid these problems when writing your college essay conclusion:

Adding new ideas: Your conclusion should bring together existing points, not introduce new information.
Just repeating your main point: While it's important to remind readers of your main idea, simply saying it again word-for-word doesn't work well.
Using overused phrases: Don't use expressions like "In conclusion" or "To sum up."
Stopping too suddenly: Make sure your conclusion gives a feeling of completion and doesn't leave readers hanging.

Aithor's advanced language model can help you write compelling conclusions that avoid these common mistakes and enhance the overall impact of your essay.

2. Thought-Provoking Questions: A Powerful Way to End an Essay

Ending an essay with a question that makes people think can get your readers interested and encourage them to keep thinking about your topic. This approach leaves a strong impression and can make your essay more memorable.

"After looking at how social media changes how we see ourselves, we're left with an important question: Can we find a way to share our lives online while still living them fully offline? Maybe the answer isn't choosing between the online and real worlds, but learning how to connect well in both."

When using this method, make sure your question is:

Related to your essay's main topic
Open-ended, encouraging deeper thought
Not easy to answer with just "yes" or "no"

3. How to End Your College Essay with a Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) in your conclusion can encourage your readers to do something based on the ideas you've talked about. This works well for essays about social issues, environmental problems, or personal growth topics.

"In this essay, we've looked at the problem of plastic in our oceans. Now, it's time to help fix it. Start by replacing one single-use plastic item you use every day with something you can use again. It could be as simple as using a reusable water bottle or bringing your own bags to the store. Tell your friends and family what you're doing. By taking these small steps, we're not just making less waste; we're starting a chain reaction that can lead to cleaner oceans and a healthier planet."

When writing a CTA for your college essay conclusion, make sure it's:

Clear and easy to write
Directly related to your essay's main points
Something your readers can actually do

Aithor can assist you in writing perfect calls to action that connect with your readers and fit well with your essay's content.

4. Personal Anecdotes: An Engaging Essay Ending

Ending an essay with a personal story can help your readers feel connected to you and strengthen your main message. This approach makes your writing more relatable and human.

"Last summer, I helped at a local animal shelter. One day, they brought in an older, scruffy dog named Max. For weeks, people passed him by, always choosing younger, cuter puppies instead. I started spending extra time with Max, and slowly, his playful side came out. When a family finally took him home, the happiness on their faces – and Max's wagging tail – showed me how important it is to give every living thing a chance. This taught me more about patience, unfair judgments, and the power of second chances than any book ever could."

When using a personal story to end your college essay:

Make sure it relates to your main topic
Keep it short and powerful
Use clear language to paint a picture for your readers

Tips on How to End a College Essay

To write a strong conclusion, think about these extra tips on how to end a college essay:

Wrap up your main points clearly while suggesting how they might apply to other things or future ideas to keep your readers thinking.
Make sure your conclusion sounds like the rest of your essay for a smooth, polished finish.
Don't weaken your arguments by sounding unsure in your conclusion.
Be extra careful with grammar and punctuation in your conclusion, as it's the last thing your readers will remember.
Write your conclusion to connect with your specific readers, whether they're college admissions staff, teachers, or other students.
Write a short and powerful conclusion that drives your main points home without repeating too much or using too many words.

Remember, your conclusion is your last chance to make a strong impression. Take your time to write it carefully, making sure it ties together your main points and shows why your essay matters.

For those wondering how to end a reflection paper, Aithor can help you improve your college essay conclusion, making sure it's polished, powerful, and fits your specific needs. This top writing tool can help you refine your essay ending examples and give you guidance on how to end a reflection paper or any other type of school writing.

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Santa Clarita Valley's #1 Local News Source

Kipper ai: the breakthrough essay rewriter for flawless, undetectable academic writing .

August 27, 2024

Every tool that shakes up a market has been met with fears of a reduction in individual skill, the value of the finished product, or even total human obsolescence as a result of technological innovation. Computers and calculators are still avoided even in the modern academic setting, amid fears that students will not be able to write, research, or perform mathematical equations without the assistance of a machine.

Innovations designed to ease the workflow and improve efficiency have always been met with such skepticism, and now AI is the next scrutinized advancement.

Fear of the Calculator and an AI Essay Writer

Much like computers and calculators before it, Kipper AI is a tool designed to assist students in their essay-writing coursework. It is a tool for improving efficiency and achieving better results from one’s work; after all, the human mind remains the guiding force behind the AI’s output. Kipper is meant to provide students with a means of completing tasks in a quick, but driven manner, taking a principled approach to an AI generator for essays.

The Best AI for Writing Essays

As AI becomes more integrated with modern technology, schools and companies have responded by using AI checkers such as TurnItIn and GPTZero to scrutinize submitted writing. Rather than understanding the tremendous benefit of AI essay writers to enhance productivity, schools are limiting students to traditional methods by using an AI essay detector and AI content checkers to restrict these new problem-solving resources.

How Kipper Bypasses AI Detectors

Kipper AI believes AI integration is an innovative step forward for productivity, and students should be familiarizing themselves with its processes rather than being discouraged from using them to their fullest potential. In accordance with this belief, Kipper AI has developed the best AI writing tool, capable of detector bypass and humanization.

Kipper AI’s solution is to not only provide a high-quality, plagiarism-free essay writer , but to incorporate AI detection tools into its program. Using these tools in conjunction with the AI enables students to identify where their work might be flagged as AI, and rework those sections, avoiding any fears of their work being invalidated by TurnItIn or GPTZero.

More than an AI Checker

In addition to automating tedious essay work with zero detectability, Kipper AI offers a range of other tools and services designed to help students keep up with coursework and excel in their studies. Kipper AI features a Chatbot Tutor designed to help students find answers in lengthy PDFs and YouTube videos, or other sources the professor provides. The Chatbot Tutor more than lives up to its title, able to assist and teach on tasks at any time. An AI summarizer built into Kipper AI can take those same resources and create summaries, bringing essential information to the surface from beneath pages of reading or hours of watching videos.

Why Kipper AI Avoids AI Detectors

The world is based on innovation, and to deny progress in educational efficiency is to prevent students from embracing a new future. Students now have access to problem-solving skills previously unknown to other generations but are prevented from using them to their full extent. Kipper AI ensures students can make use of the tools available to them, bypassing AI detectors and allowing access to the full potential of AI.

DISCLAIMER: No part of the story was written by The Signal editorial staff.

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What a Thesis Paper is and How to Write One

A student sitting at her laptop working on her college thesis paper.

From choosing a topic and conducting research to crafting a strong argument, writing a thesis paper can be a rewarding experience.

It can also be a challenging experience. If you've never written a thesis paper before, you may not know where to start. You may not even be sure exactly what a thesis paper is. But don't worry; the right support and resources can help you navigate this writing process.

What is a Thesis Paper?

A thesis paper is a type of academic essay that you might write as a graduation requirement for certain bachelor's, master's or honors programs. Thesis papers present your own original research or analysis on a specific topic related to your field.

“In some ways, a thesis paper can look a lot like a novella,” said Shana Chartier , director of information literacy at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). “It’s too short to be a full-length novel, but with the standard size of 40-60 pages (for a bachelor’s) and 60-100 pages (for a master’s), it is a robust exploration of a topic, explaining one’s understanding of a topic based on personal research.”

Chartier has worked in academia for over 13 years and at SNHU for nearly eight. In her role as an instructor and director, Chartier has helped to guide students through the writing process, like editing and providing resources.

Chartier has written and published academic papers such as "Augmented Reality Gamifies the Library: A Ride Through the Technological Frontier" and "Going Beyond the One-Shot: Spiraling Information Literacy Across Four Years." Both of these academic papers required Chartier to have hands-on experience with the subject matter. Like a thesis paper, they also involved hypothesizing and doing original research to come to a conclusion.

“When writing a thesis paper, the importance of staying organized cannot be overstated,” said Chartier. “Mapping out each step of the way, making firm and soft deadlines... and having other pairs of eyes on your work to ensure academic accuracy and clean editing are crucial to writing a successful paper.”

How Do I Choose a Topic For My Thesis Paper?

What your thesis paper is for will determine some of the specific requirements and steps you might take, but the first step is usually the same: Choosing a topic.

“Choosing a topic can be daunting," said Rochelle Attari , a peer tutor at SNHU. "But if (you) stick with a subject (you're) interested in... choosing a topic is much more manageable.”

Similar to a thesis, Attari recently finished the capstone for her bachelor’s in psychology . Her bachelor’s concentration is in forensics, and her capstone focused on the topic of using a combined therapy model for inmates who experience substance abuse issues to reduce recidivism.

“The hardest part was deciding what I wanted to focus on,” Attari said. “But once I nailed down my topic, each milestone was more straightforward.”

In her own writing experience, Attari said brainstorming was an important step when choosing her topic. She recommends writing down different ideas on a piece of paper and doing some preliminary research on what’s already been written on your topic.

By doing this exercise, you can narrow or broaden your ideas until you’ve found a topic you’re excited about. " Brainstorming is essential when writing a paper and is not a last-minute activity,” Attari said.

How Do I Structure My Thesis Paper?

Thesis papers tend to have a standard format with common sections as the building blocks.

While the structure Attari describes below will work for many theses, it’s important to double-check with your program to see if there are any specific requirements. Writing a thesis for a Master of Fine Arts, for example, might actually look more like a fiction novel.

According to Attari, a thesis paper is often structured with the following major sections:

Introduction

Literature review
Methods, results

Now, let’s take a closer look at what each different section should include.

Your introduction is your opportunity to present the topic of your thesis paper. In this section, you can explain why that topic is important. The introduction is also the place to include your thesis statement, which shows your stance in the paper.

Attari said that writing an introduction can be tricky, especially when you're trying to capture your reader’s attention and state your argument.

“I have found that starting with a statement of truth about a topic that pertains to an issue I am writing about typically does the trick,” Attari said. She demonstrated this advice in an example introduction she wrote for a paper on the effects of daylight in Alaska:

In the continental United States, we can always count on the sun rising and setting around the same time each day, but in Alaska, during certain times of the year, the sun rises and does not set for weeks. Research has shown that the sun provides vitamin D and is an essential part of our health, but little is known about how daylight twenty-four hours a day affects the circadian rhythm and sleep.

In the example Attari wrote, she introduces the topic and informs the reader what the paper will cover. Somewhere in her intro, she said she would also include her thesis statement, which might be:

Twenty-four hours of daylight over an extended period does not affect sleep patterns in humans and is not the cause of daytime fatigue in northern Alaska .

Literature Review

In the literature review, you'll look at what information is already out there about your topic. “This is where scholarly articles about your topic are essential,” said Attari. “These articles will help you find the gap in research that you have identified and will also support your thesis statement."

Telling your reader what research has already been done will help them see how your research fits into the larger conversation. Most university libraries offer databases of scholarly/peer-reviewed articles that can be helpful in your search.

In the methods section of your thesis paper, you get to explain how you learned what you learned. This might include what experiment you conducted as a part of your independent research.

“For instance,” Attari said, “if you are a psychology major and have identified a gap in research on which therapies are effective for anxiety, your methods section would consist of the number of participants, the type of experiment and any other particulars you would use for that experiment.”

In this section, you'll explain the results of your study. For example, building on the psychology example Attari outlined, you might share self-reported anxiety levels for participants trying different kinds of therapies. To help you communicate your results clearly, you might include data, charts, tables or other visualizations.

The discussion section of your thesis paper is where you will analyze and interpret the results you presented in the previous section. This is where you can discuss what your findings really mean or compare them to the research you found in your literature review.

The discussion section is your chance to show why the data you collected matters and how it fits into bigger conversations in your field.

The conclusion of your thesis paper is your opportunity to sum up your argument and leave your reader thinking about why your research matters.

Attari breaks the conclusion down into simple parts. “You restate the original issue and thesis statement, explain the experiment's results and discuss possible next steps for further research,” she said.

Find Your Program

Resources to help write your thesis paper.

While your thesis paper may be based on your independent research, writing it doesn’t have to be a solitary process. Asking for help and using the resources that are available to you can make the process easier.

If you're writing a thesis paper, some resources Chartier encourages you to use are:

Citation Handbooks: An online citation guide or handbook can help you ensure your citations are correct. APA , MLA and Chicago styles have all published their own guides.
Citation Generators: There are many citation generator tools that help you to create citations. Some — like RefWorks — even let you directly import citations from library databases as you research.
Your Library's Website: Many academic and public libraries allow patrons to access resources like databases or FAQs. Some FAQs at the SNHU library that might be helpful in your thesis writing process include “ How do I read a scholarly article? ” or “ What is a research question and how do I develop one? ”

It can also be helpful to check out what coaching or tutoring options are available through your school. At SNHU, for example, the Academic Support Center offers writing and grammar workshops , and students can access 24/7 tutoring and 1:1 sessions with peer tutors, like Attari.

"Students can even submit their papers and receive written feedback... like revisions and editing suggestions," she said.

If you are writing a thesis paper, there are many resources available to you. It's a long paper, but with the right mindset and support, you can successfully navigate the process.

“Pace yourself,” said Chartier. “This is a marathon, not a sprint. Setting smaller goals to get to the big finish line can make the process seem less daunting, and remember to be proud of yourself and celebrate your accomplishment once you’re done. Writing a thesis is no small task, and it’s important work for the scholarly community.”

A degree can change your life. Choose your program from 200+ SNHU degrees that can take you where you want to go.

Meg Palmer ’18 is a writer and scholar by trade who loves reading, riding her bike and singing in a barbershop quartet. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English, language and literature at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and her master’s degree in writing, rhetoric and discourse at DePaul University (’20). While attending SNHU, she served as the editor-in-chief of the campus student newspaper, The Penmen Press, where she deepened her passion for writing. Meg is an adjunct professor at Johnson and Wales University, where she teaches first year writing, honors composition, and public speaking. Connect with her on LinkedIn .

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About southern new hampshire university.

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SNHU is a nonprofit, accredited university with a mission to make high-quality education more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Founded in 1932, and online since 1995, we’ve helped countless students reach their goals with flexible, career-focused programs . Our 300-acre campus in Manchester, NH is home to over 3,000 students, and we serve over 135,000 students online. Visit our about SNHU page to learn more about our mission, accreditations, leadership team, national recognitions and awards.

The True Story Behind David Fincher’s 'Zodiac' Is More Disturbing Than the Movie

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The Big Picture

David Fincher's film Zodiac is a retelling of the story of the infamous Zodiac killer, who remains unidentified to this day.
The Zodiac killer murdered multiple people in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and sent letters to publications like the San Francisco Chronicle .
The case remains unsolved, with Arthur Leigh Allen being a suspect but never conclusively linked to the crimes.

David Fincher is a master of his craft at the height of his career, boasting several Oscar-nominated modern classics such as Seven , The Social Network , and Fight Club . The 2007 movie Zodiac starring Robert Downey Jr. , Jake Gyllenhaal , and Mark Ruffalo not only joins this lineup of impressive Fincher films, but is also inspired by one of American history's most infamous serial murderers.

Written by James Vanderbilt and based on the books Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith , who worked as a cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle during the murders, the movie follows Jake Gyllenhaal's Graysmith, whose obsession with the Zodiac becomes the focus of its tagline : "There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer." But how much of Graysmith's book and Fincher's movie is true?

Between 1968 and 1983, a San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac Killer, an unidentified individual who terrorizes Northern California with a killing spree.

The Zodiac Killer Murdered Five People Before the Movie's Opening Scene

The real Zodiac story begins with two Lompoc High School seniors, fiancées Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards . While sunbathing on a beach near Gaviota State Park during their "Senior Ditch Day" in June 1963, the two were bound with rope and were shot eleven and nine times respectively. Their bodies were dragged to a nearby shack where Robert's father found them soon after. Similarly, in October 1966, Cheri Bates left her father a note to say she'd gone to the Riverside City College Library only for her Volkswagen Beetle to be found abandoned there the next day, and her stabbed corpse left between two nearby houses. The local paper received a typed confession from the supposed killer one month later, and the following year, the newspaper, police, and Bates' father all received similar handwritten letters signed "Z." These events wouldn't be linked to the Zodiac killer until years later.

The story continues with more high schoolers, Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday , whose first date took place in December 1968. According to passing motorists, they were parked at a lovers' lane in Benicia before Jensen was found shot in her back in the front seat and Faraday shot in the head outside the vehicle. In Vallejo the following year, married mother Darlene Ferrin parked in another lovers' lane with Michael Mageau . They were approached by a stranger who shot them both. Ferrin died of her injuries but Mageau survived. The killer called the Vallejo Police that night to confess, stating, "I also killed those kids last year. Goodbye." The killing of Darlene Ferrin is where David Fincher's Zodiac begins its story.

Did the Zodiac Killer Really Write to the Newspaper?

On July 31, 1969, three letters were posted to the Vallejo Times-Herald , The San Francisco Chronicle , and The San Francisco Examiner respectively. These were mostly identical, detailing the weapons and ammunition used in the murders. They stated, "I like killing because it's so much fun," and threatened to kill again if the publications refused to publish his attached cipher. Another letter was sent to the Examiner five days later teasing the police for failing to solve the cipher. "When they do crack it, they will have me." This letter features the first use of the name "the Zodiac." San Francisco Chronicle published their cipher, but it didn't stop the killing. The following September, college students Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard were both stabbed by a man wearing a hooded costume and the Zodiac symbol. Shepard died of her wounds but Hartnell survived.

One month later, 28-year-old cab driver Paul Stine was shot in the head and had a piece of his shirt removed. SFPD's Dave Toschi investigated the scene and would soon become the inspector most famously related to the case. Toschi's fame and style would go on to inspire movies such as Dirty Harry and Bullitt . Toschi considered Stine's death part of a routine robbery until the killer sent a letter to The San Francisco Chronicle that included the missing piece of Stine's bloodstained shirt to prove his legitimacy. In the movie, the Chronicle's Paul Avery reads the letter, bringing Toschi (Ruffalo), Avery (Downey Jr.), and cartoonist-turned-Zodiac-obsessive Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal) together at last.

Zodiac and Paul Avery Became Unlikely Pen-Pals in Real-Life

The Chronicle soon became the Zodiac's primary correspondence for publication, sending them two more letters that year . The letters included ciphers and accounts of the police nearly catching him but ignorantly letting him go. They would go on to receive several more letters from the Zodiac throughout 1970, some denying involvement in recent crimes, others claiming responsibility. Enjoying the fame Avery's articles provided him, the Zodiac demanded in April 1970 that the people of San Francisco's Bay Area wear "Zodiac buttons" featuring his symbol. In July 1970, he complained about the lack of "Zodiac buttons" being worn. The Chronicle decided against publishing a few Zodiac letters at this time, with Avery controlling the narrative himself. As a result, the killer likely became frustrated and began targeting Avery personally .

'Fight Club's Not-So-Secret, Secret Obsession With Starbucks

How do you think Tyler Durden likes his coffee?

One year after receiving Paul Stine's bloody clothing in the mail , Avery received a Halloween card that read, "From your secret pal," "Peek-a-boo - you are doomed," and the number "4-teen" implying either the Zodiac had claimed an unidentified fourteenth victim, or that it could be Avery himself. Unlike the movie suggests, there was no bloody cloth in this envelope as Paul Stine's clothing was received the year prior. However, as the movie suggests, this new targeted correspondence directed at Avery specifically (or "Averly" as Zodiac frequently misspelled it) meant that Avery carried a .38-caliber revolver with him at all times after that. The film also correctly notes that Chronicle employees including Avery himself would later wear "I Am Not Avery" buttons as a joke to avoid becoming the Zodiac's next victim.

The Zodiac Case Remains Unsolved

Mark Ruffalo and Adam Goldberg in Zodiac

The Zodiac killings seemed to stop in the following years. This was seemingly contradicted by a letter to the Albany Times Union in August 1973 that stated where and when he would kill again. The police failed to identify any murders from that date to relate to the Zodiac, and handwriting experts were unable to verify whether it was even written by the same person. Another letter to the Chronicle in 1974 stated, "Me – 37, SFPD – 0" implying the killer had claimed 37 victims by then and was still at large.

Ultimately, the Zodiac's identity remained a mystery, with Toschi convinced it was Arthur Leigh Allen , a teacher and child molester who had served three years in a mental hospital. Unfortunately for Toschi though, Allen’s fingerprints and handwriting didn’t match the killer’s, and he passed a polygraph test that Allen said went on for 10 hours . Police quietly reopened the case in 1991. 1969's Zodiac survivor Michael Mageau identified Allen from a mugshot in 1991, but the Vallejo police department deemed this to be invalid since, by his own admission, Mageau never got a good look at the gunman at the time. Allen died in 1992. Robert Graysmith would go on to write the book that Fincher's movie was based on, both of which attempt to provide some closure by surmising that Allen was the Zodiac but that he died before the police could question him again after Mageau's supposedly valid statement.

Zodiac is available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Watch on Paramount+

Movie Features

David Fincher

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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.
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6. Put your characters in compelling danger. 7. Use your imagination. 7 key tips to writing a blood-chilling horror story 😱. Click to tweet! 1. Start with a fear factor. The most important part of any horror story is naturally going to be its fear factor.
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YouTube Video by Facts Base — Horror Writing Prompts. Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts. Using these writing prompts is simple. Choose a prompt that sparks your interest. Imagine the characters, setting, and conflict. Let the prompt guide you, but feel free to add your unique twist. Keep writing until the story unfolds naturally. Related ...
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See also: How To Write A Song Title in an Essay: 7 Rules to Remember. 2.Ensure your Setting Creates the Mood. Your descriptions of the place and setting establish an eerie tone from the first page. Use your eyes, ears, nose, and other senses to create an ominous and frightful atmosphere. 3.Isolation.
How to Write a Horror Story in 7 Steps
So get personal: If you can scare yourself, you can probably scare an audience. 4. Create three-dimensional characters. Write characters whose character flaws feed the action of the story. All good literature and film contains well-wrought characters with desires, emotions, and a backstory.
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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.
How to Write Horror
Step 4: Keep your audience in mind. From this point on, you are ready to start writing your horror story. Much of the writing process will be carried out in the same way as you would write a story in any other genre. But there are a few extra considerations.
How to Write a Scary Story: 7 Tips for Writing a Terrifying Horror
Horror is a genre within creative writing that relies on one thing: instilling a sense of fear in the reader. The horror genre is multifaceted—there is a kind of horror for every kind of person. For some, the most effective scare is the idea of being trapped in a haunted house. For others, it's being chased by a serial killer on Halloween.
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.
How To Write A Scary Story: The Art of Horror Writing
Building suspense is crucial in horror writing. To create suspense, writers can employ techniques such as foreshadowing, withholding information, or setting a time limit on the characters. In this way, you slowly build tension, making readers uneasy about what might happen next. 3. Structure of a Scary Story.
How to Write a Horror Story in 12 Steps
Step 4: Develop a horrific setting. When writing a horror story, it's very important that you get the setting right. Think about some scary places that you know of in real life or places that you've seen in your nightmares. You could also link your main setting choice to a common fear explored in your story.
How to Write a Horror Story: Telling Tales of Terror
Tapping into common fears for horror writing. If the point of horror writing (and horror elements in other genres such as paranormal romance) is to arouse fear, shock or disgust, think of the things people are most commonly afraid of. Live Science places an interest choice at number one: The dentist. It's true that you can feel powerless when ...
110+ Horror Writing Prompts (With A Twist)
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 ...
Writing Horror Tips : r/writing
Inevitability: Stephen King does an easy version of this technique by writing a line like, "Before Adam died on his fifth birthday, he was bowling with his dad at Markie's." It's a short but simple way to establish tone. And that there's no way out of the events that about to occur. If you have 'the inevitable' horror tension, it's not about just one or two anxious scenes, but something you've ...
Scaring Your Readers 101: 8 Tips For Writing A Great Horror Story
2. Establish the familiar. Horror is about contrasts between the comfort of the familiar and the discomfort of the unknown. The best way to create this is to begin your story with your character in a comfortable, familiar place. This could be a place that the reader identifies with as a place of comfort, as well.
How to Write a Horror Story (with Pictures)
7. Create a plot outline. Once you find your premise or scenario, your setting, determine which extreme emotions you are going to play on, and decide the types of horror details you are going to use in the story, create a rough outline of the story. You can use Freytag's pyramid [10] X Research source.
How to Write Creepy Scenes to Make Your Readers Squirm
In contrast, the more calm individual in the scene, Karras, responds with simple verbs like "answered" and "saw". The contrast allows the reader to see Reagan as disturbing. If you want to make your readers squirm, reading only in daylight hours, shy away from the obvious gore and claptrap.
Aaaah! 8 Horror Writing Tips That Will Keep Your Readers up ...
Would you like to know how to build the kind of horror and suspense into your writing that keeps readers turning pages? In this video, I discuss eight tips f...
Essay on Horror Story
Introduction. Horror stories have been a part of human culture for centuries, delighting and terrifying audiences in equal measure. They are narratives designed to frighten, cause dread or panic, or invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. The horror genre taps into the primal fear within us, making us confront the ...
[Essay] How to write horror : r/storyandstyle
A good story is more than just a series of events that happen. It's a series of decisions made by characters to overcome conflict in a way that sheds light on thoughtful themes. And so, following these core principles of good writing, it should come as no surprise that good horror is more than a parade of unfortunate situations.
How To Write A Superb Sci-Fi Horror Movie
Writing a sci-fi horror film involves a nuanced approach, requiring understanding of both genres and how to blend them effectively. Here's a detailed guide to crafting a compelling sci-fi horror film, covering core elements, concept development, atmosphere creation, character crafting, suspense building, thematic exploration, and script writing.
How to Write an Essay Outline: Steps and Templates
An essay outline is a structured plan that organizes the main points and supporting details of an essay before writing. It guides the flow of ideas and ensures that each section of the essay is logically connected and coherent. In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to build a strong essay outline. You'll discover how to define your ...
The Audacious Book Club Essay Contest Winners
One of my favorite things about Gretchen Felker-Martin's Cuckoo was the way she wrote a horror story that felt utterly original and reminded us that the ways our society ... At the end of Aimee Nezhukumatathil's Bite by Bite, she offered a series of writing prompts and when we invited you to write an essay inspired by one of those prompts ...
How to End a College Essay: Strategies and Examples
Writing a college essay takes skill, but making a strong college essay conclusion is often the most important part. A great ending can make a big impact on your readers and bring your main ideas together. This guide will walk you through four strategies that will help you create impactful conclusions that resonate with your audience. 1. Writing a Memorable College Essay Conclusion The ...
Kipper AI: The Breakthrough Essay Rewriter for Flawless, Undetectable
Fear of the Calculator and an AI Essay Writer Much like computers and calculators before it, Kipper AI is a tool designed to assist students in their essay-writing coursework.
Revealed: JD Vance once praised Project 2025 org's anti-woman essays as
The Hillbilly Elegy author's spokesperson pushed back on the Times' reporting on Vance's endorsement of the essays, noting that the Ohio senator didn't personally write any of them.He also pointed ...
What is a Thesis Paper and How to Write One
A thesis paper is a type of academic essay that you might write as a college graduation requirement. The 5 components to a standard thesis typically include an introduction, literature review, methods and results, discussion and conclusion. Meg Palmer Sep 3, 2024 From choosing a topic and conducting research to crafting a strong argument ...
The Terrifying True Story Behind David Fincher's 'Zodiac'
David Fincher's film Zodiac is a retelling of the story of the infamous Zodiac killer, who remains unidentified to this day.; The Zodiac killer murdered multiple people in the late 1960s and early ...
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta was 'pressured' by Biden ...
Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, "to establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is ...
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The mother recalled how her daughter would write in her diary every night before going to bed. "She wrote that she wanted to win a gold medal for her medical degree.

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

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250 Horror Writing Prompts (Scary Good Ideas)

What Is a Horror Writing Prompt?

Types of Horror Writing Prompts

Ghost Stories

Psychological Horror

Paranormal Activity

Creature Features

Gothic Horror

Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic

Body Horror

Slasher Stories

Cosmic Horror

Folk Horror

Final Thoughts: Horror Writing Prompts

How to Write a Horror Story: 12 Tips for Writing a Horror Story

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12 Tips for Writing a Horror Story

Plot Structure of Horror Stories

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