Writing
25 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Sep 3, 2021 • 1 min read
Not all horror stories need to be set during Halloween. Looking for inspiration to start writing a scary story or creepy film? See these 25 creative writing prompts for writing your own horror story.
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25 Horror Writing Prompts
- 1. A scary doll comes to life.
- 2. A scene from a nightmare comes true the next day.
- 3. Days go by, and your parents don’t come home.
- 4. You feel yourself slowly becoming a monster.
- 5. Your friends start to disappear, and no one else notices.
- 6. You’re lost in the woods, and you don’t know how you got there.
- 7. You’re inhabited by a ghost that controls you and makes you do crazy things.
- 8. You have no reflection in the mirror.
- 9. The teacher is a monster, but no one will believe you.
- 10. You hypnotize your brother, and you can’t snap him out of it.
- 11. A fortune teller reveals that you are evil.
- 12. Someone follows you home, and it’s your exact double.
- 13. You find a diary that tells the future.
- 14. Every time you wake up, you’re a different person.
- 15. Your parents explain that you are actually an alien from another planet.
- 16. You know someone is watching you day and night from the house across the street.
- 17. You realize you are shrinking.
- 18. While reading a scary book, you realize that you’re a character in it.
- 19. Someone is living in your mirror.
- 20. Everyone knows the new neighbors are vampires, and the kids invite you over for a sleepover.
- 21. All the cats in a small town vanish in the middle of the night….and all that remains is a set of big, scary teeth smashed into a car door.
- 22. A group of friends takes on the zombie apocalypse.
- 23. Strange things start happening after the grandfather clock starts to speak.
- 24. You finally meet your child’s imaginary friend. Who turns out to be a serial killer.
- 25. When a local police officer goes to investigate the haunted house down the street, he finds a young girl who died decades ago.
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