scary short story assignment

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Journal Buddies Jill | October 10, 2023 October 24, 2022 | Prompts for Holidays

30 Scary Story Starters for Middle School

Welcome. We have a frighteningly wonderful list of scary story starters for middle school students (and high schoolers, too) for you and your kids. Yes! These ideas are full of suspense and chills and sure to thrill even the most reluctant of writers. So, you see, it’s no trick, these scary ideas are a sweet treat. Take a look now and enjoy!

Scary Ideas Make for Great Ghost Stories

Shortly after the school year begins and the calendar turns to October, it’s time to start celebrating spooks and frights in your classroom.

While many middle school students have moved on from the years of classroom parties, it’s still fun to get a little creative and a little scary with your lesson plans.

Encouraging your students to write a scary story for an assignment in your class is a great way to introduce the horror genre to them while also focusing on their creative writing skills.

These are just a few ways to get your students thinking creatively during this eerie time of the year.

Writing is a powerful way for kids to grow more aware of themselves. In these new scary story writing prompts for kids, your class will make great use of their imaginations and creative spirits.

Ok, let’s get to that list of scary story starters for middle school (and high school) students now. Enjoy!

30 Scary Story Starters for Middle School (and High School Writers, too!)

It was a dark and cold night in October. I was walking down a moonlight path when…
I knew I wanted to be my favorite horror character for Halloween, but I didn’t expect the costume to come to life…
I was working on my homework after school when I heard a loud and startling sound…
I walked into the classroom one day, only to be greeted by the ghost of my favorite historical figure…
Everyone always talks about the old house at the end of the street, but I couldn’t believe what happened when I went inside…
My friends and I were having a sleepover when spooky things started happening every few minutes…
I was walking home from school when I ran into a black cat. I knew I was in for a day of scary sights…
We took a field trip to a local museum, but my friends and I got left behind. We were stuck there for the night. The spookiest moment was when….
I went into the science lab, only to discover a mad scientist concocting a secret potion…
I decided the Jack-o-Lantern should have a spooky face this year, but I didn’t expect it to come to life…
My friends and I went on a hayride to enjoy the autumn leaves. We didn’t know we were really headed down a haunted trail…
On Halloween night, I ran into a real witch. She cast a spooky spell on me…
It was Friday the 13th. I had never been a superstitious person before, but…
My next-door neighbor has always been a mysterious figure. She began to reveal her secrets on Halloween night…
I had always heard that the classroom down at the end of the hall was haunted. I never believed it, until I experienced it for myself…

My mom was driving me home from my afternoon practice when we saw a hitchhiker on the side of the road…
My friends and I decided to sneak into the abandoned asylum just outside of town. We wish we never would have gone inside…
The babysitter showed up one evening, and we expected to have a fun night playing games. We never expected it to be the scariest night of our lives…
I went to the movies to watch the latest horror flick, but that wasn’t the scariest part…
My friends and I decided to explore a haunted house. When we arrived, we met a ghost, a witch, and a skeleton…
We went to the playground after school, but the swing on the swingset kept swinging on its own…
I decided to go into the fortune teller’s tent at the fair. I left feeling uneasy about the things she told me…
I told my friends a scary story but never expected the events to start happening to us…
I woke up in the middle of the night and could feel a strange presence in my bedroom…
Your family is driving along a dark country road together. All of a sudden, you realize you are being followed…
I stumbled upon a witch, and she told me I had three wishes. I didn’t know if I could trust her…
Something was chasing me, and I couldn’t stop running. All of a sudden, I tripped…
I had taken a picture with my camera, but when I looked at the photograph I found a strange floating object in the background…
Your principal has scheduled a magician to come to school for an assembly, but his magic isn’t all fun and games…

I hope you enjoyed this list of scary story starters for middle school and high school students.

Have your writers take these ideas, develop a plot and create a scary story with a twist that thrills their readers. Some brainstorming may be needed and the main character developed. Perhaps a zombie, werewolf, a spider, or some vampires.. eek!

It is my hope that with creatures and plot twists and more, your writers can create a scary short story in no time. (Or a long one if you prefer).

133 More Fun Halloween Writing Inspiration & Resources

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78 Fun Halloween Writing Ideas & Journal Prompts

Before your students start diving into a plot twist, they are going to need to know how to write one and intertwine it into their existing storyline.

These three tips will help students of all ages with writing an engaging and interesting plot twist. These ideas may be used for a short scary story but are probably better used for longer writings (or even that novel your best writing student has in her head!).

Scary Story with a Plot Twist Ideas — 3 Great Tips

When using the scary story starters for middle school students listed above, perhaps you’ll want to use the following tips with your writers, too.

Write an important character out of the story. One of the most surprising things for a reader is finding out that the character, person, or animal that they thought was the main character is not actually an important part of the story. Tip: Try laying a subtle hint or two early on that this may happen.
About halfway through the piece, use a character who has only played a minor, insignificant role and make them do something that changes the course of the story. This type of plot twist may have your fans reflecting on — or rereading your — work to find out what they missed early on in the story.
Startle your readers with an impromptu plot twist at the end. One of the best ways to do this is to finish your story with a cliffhanger. This will leave the readers feeling surprised, as they thought the story was going to wrap up with a tidy conclusion. This type of plot twist can pave the way for a sequel.

Remember, twists are unexpected, strange things that happen in the story that takes the reader by surprise. Play with this idea and in no time you’ll have some exciting new directions to take your scary story’s plotline.

Ok, I hope you found our list of scary story starters for middle school fun and inspiring.

Until next time, keep on writing!

If you enjoyed these Scary Story Starters for Middle School , please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. I appreciate it!

Sincerely, Jill journalbuddies.com creator and curator

PS – Check out the spooky writing resource —> 25 Horror Writing Prompts: How to Write Scary Stories

Tap to See Prompts 22 Spellbinding and Fun Halloween Story Ideas 27 Easy Halloween Writing Prompts (Free!) 78 Fun Halloween Writing Ideas & Journal Prompts ------------Start of Om Added --------- @media (min-width: 320px) and (max-width: 767px) { .inside-right-sidebar { display: none !important; } } Search Now Offering You 18,000+ Prompts!

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9 Scary Short Stories for Middle and High School English

Oct 17, 2023

In the midst of the Halloween season, scary short stories are my go-to for teaching fun, rigorous, and engaging literature! I do NOT want to sacrifice learning for the sake of entertainment, but I love the idea of killing two birds with one stone.

I mean who really doesn’t like being scared a little in the month of October? Frightening experiences kind of go with the “monthly” territory; am I right?

So if you enjoy reading scary short stories and helping your students grow in their knowledge of literature, consider adding some horror into the mix!

Keep reading below for “9 Scary Short Stories for Middle and High School English!”

Need help with Test Prep? Check out this FREE Pack of 3 Test Prep Activities to help students achieve success on standardized tests!

Table of Contents

1. “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The ultimate horror-filled story, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” literally has it all! We have physical gruesomeness and psychological mania all wrapped up in a perfect package only Edgar Allan Poe could create! This infamous tale is the most taught short story in secondary classrooms!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: The narrator, a young man, lives with an old man. Over the course of the story, he plans the old man’s murder because of his “vulture eye.” After scheming for a while, he commits the murder and hides the body underneath the floor. Racked with guilt, the narrator ultimately confesses to the old man’s murder when police officers stop by to investigate after hearing about a neighbor’s concern.

If you need help with teaching character traits, character development, and/or literary analysis, check out this lesson bundle !

2. “Click Clack the Rattle Bag”

Although “Click Clack the Rattle Bag” by Neil Gaiman is typically taught in middle school, your high schoolers will love this short story as well. It is a quick, easy read for most students, and it is a fun addition to any Halloween-based literature unit!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: A young male is watching his girlfriend’s younger brother at their home when the little boy tells the tale of the Click Clacks. Let’s just say that by the end of the story, the young man who was supposed to watch the younger boy, has not REALLY paid attention to the boy and the story he relates during the time at the house…

Standards-based reading comprehension questions will help to make teaching this short story, like most scary short stories, well worth your while!

scary short stories click clack the rattle bag

3. “The Veldt”

I absolutely love anything dystopian. From 1984 to Brave New World to The Matrix , I am a sucker for futuristic worlds bent on their own destruction! When considering scary short stories, I try to include stories that go beyond the typical horror genre. That is where Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” comes in.

QUICK SYNOPSIS: A pair of siblings become consumed with technology. Their parents attempt to gain back control over their own children, which leads to the parents’ demise.

Visualization, characterization, and writing activities have never been easier while teaching scary short stories with “The Veldt” Lesson BUNDLE!

If you teach 9th graders, check out this post for short story ideas throughout the year!

4. “A Vendetta”

Vengeance is truly sweet for some people, although I am not a proponent of it 😉 Guy de Maupassant’s “A Vendetta” relays a tale of revenge that makes it a perfect complement to any scary short stories unit!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: After her son is murdered, an aged mother trains her dog over many months to attack at her command. In the end, she fulfills her objective unbeknownst to others who would never suspect her of committing a foul deed.

Trust me! Your students will LOVE this short story! See it HERE !

5. “The Monkey’s Paw”

This story by W.W. Jacobs personifies the saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Everyone who loves scary short stories will NOT want to miss out on this spooky tale!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: When a family receives the chance to make three wishes, they encounter a series of awful events they could not have foreseen and later on cannot escape. By the end of this horrific tale, the mother and father realize they cannot escape their son’s inevitable death.

“The Monkey’s Paw” BUNDLE contains lessons and activities focused on reading comprehension, characterization, visualization, writing, and more!

Click below to read about more ideas for teaching “The Monkey’s Paw!”

6. “The Cask of Amontillado”

Edgar Allan Poe shows he is once again THE epitome of a short story master with the classic “The Cask of Amontillado!” Your students will find the characters, themes, and language engaging, right from the start! (Because of the higher level language, you may want to read it with them.)

QUICK SYNOPSIS: During a carnival celebration, a man bent on revenge for some unknown reason lures his unsuspecting victim into the catacombs. He then seals his victim’s fate without any real explanation! The reader as well as the victim is left wondering “Why?”

To teach irony within “The Cask of Amontillado,” check out this activity HERE !

7. “Lamb to the Slaughter”

Alfred Hitchcock’s episode “Lamb to the Slaughter” beautifully captures the essence of Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name! Middle and high school students alike will gleefully read and watch this story for many reasons: the plot, the characters, and the quite humorous twist!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: When a husband returns home from work after a long day, he tells his pregnant wife that he wants a divorce. His wife kills him in response and cleverly gets rid of the evidence!

You can help your students examine the evidence and write about it in this ACTIVITY BUNDLE for “Lamb to the Slaughter!”

scary short stories lamb to the slaughter

8. “The Most Dangerous Game”

“The Most Dangerous Game” personifies scary short stories, purely for the story’s psychological horror! It is one of my favorite short stories to teach because of its setting, two main characters, and well-developed plot!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: Marooned on an island, an infamous hunter becomes the hunted. He shrewdly plays the game and eventually overcomes his adversary!

If you need easy-to-teach plot activities, click this LINK !

Want help with teaching reading? Go here—> 19 Reading Intervention Strategies that WORK in Middle and High School Classrooms

9. “The Masque of the Red Death”

In this current era, teaching Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” is VITAL! Everyone, to some degree, fears death, which makes this story a perfect addition to your scary short stories unit!

QUICK SYNOPSIS: During a rampant plague, the wealthy hide out in a fortress in an attempt to avoid death. Clearly, one cannot escape a ubiquitous plague, and these upper-crust partygoers succumb like everyone else in the land!

As you prepare to teach setting, imagery, characterization, and summarizing for this short story, check out this lesson BUNDLE or quiz pack !

Why Teach Scary Short Stories?

They are engaging from the start!
They utilize interesting language and vocabulary!
They connect to themes in other texts !
They link perfectly to the month of October!
They usually contain fantastic characterization!

Don’t forget to incorporate these short stories this year!!

This Short Story ULTIMATE BUNDLE with Lessons, Quizzes, and Activities uses the Common Core standards with reading comprehension QUESTIONS and ANSWERS for 18 short stories such as “The Most Dangerous Game,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “After Twenty Years,” “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Veldt,” “The Lottery,” “The Pedestrian,” etc. modeled after various state reading exams.

Make teaching short stories SIMPLE & EASY!

Just PRINT & TEACH!!

Want more ideas for teaching scary short stories and other interesting tales? Check out my store Kristin Menke-Integrated ELA Test Prep !

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I primarily focus on integrating multiple disciplines and subjects. The goal is to make teaching simplified and effective!

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Two-Sentence Horror Stories: How to Teach Them

I absolutely love October, Halloween, and everything that comes with fall! I might be a #BasicTeacher, but it does lead me to instill some seasonal activities into my classroom . In this post, I want to share a classic writing activity: teach students how to write a two-sentence horror story!

Before I get into all of the details, I just want to share a link to a FREE two-sentence horror story worksheet right here . You can also use the Teachers Pay Teacher’s Easel tool to distribute the worksheet virtually for distance learning!

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What is a Two-Sentence Horror Story?

A two-sentence horror story is exactly what it sounds like: a horror story written with just two sentences.

This activity isn’t new; two-sentence horror stories have been floating around the internet and Reddit for years. It even inspired a Netflix series . (For the record, I don’t recommend the show for the classroom although I haven’t watched every episode, so maybe there is a good one!)

Google the phrase “two-sentence horror stories”, and you’ll find many examples. This site has quite a few to get you started, but here are some just to illustrate how cool they are:

I just noticed a picture of myself sleeping in my phone’s gallery. I live alone.
The daughter ran up to her father, arms outstretched for a hug. Her father recoiled; he buried her three months ago after the accident.
A body was found in the basement. Strange, since I placed two in there just yesterday.

When you introduce this lesson to your students, they’ll be instantly engaged!

Engage your students in more creative writing!

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Why Teach Two-Sentence Horror Stories?

Two-sentence horror stories reinforce some essential writing skills.

Students will have to use precise and concise language. They’ll have to be choosy about the words they pick. The ability to choose the exact right word is one deserving of consistent practice. It will help all of your students’ writing–including academic assignments.

If you’re teaching grammar to students, two-sentence horror stories can also be a fun activity to challenge students to use these skills. Students who can properly use a colon or semicolon will have an advantage over their peers. (Using a semicolon to squeeze in an extra independent clause is a good move when you’ve only got two sentences to work with!)

Because these stories are so short, students can actually stay focused on the whole activity from beginning to end. This means that they can practice brainstorming, drafting, peer-editing, and sharing their work aloud in the span of a single class period.

Plus, they’re just fun! Any time you can work an activity into your class time that is engaging and fun for students, you’ve got a winner.

Two-Sentence Horror Stories: Introduce the Assignment

The first step to teaching this lesson is obviously going to be giving some directions. Be sure to share some examples with students, but don’t give them too many. Too many examples might encourage students to copy the style of their favorites.

If there are any specific requirements you, as the teacher, might have, be sure to share those with students as well.

I let my students sit in groups or clusters as they work. I liked the collaboration that naturally occurred with this sitting arrangement. However, this could be strictly independent, too. Consider how you want students working before assigning the activity.

Two-Sentence Horror Stories: Draft

After introducing the assignment, give students time to brainstorm.

If your students are still wondering how to write a two-sentence horror story, it might be helpful to tell them to think backward. Come up with a twist or creepy ending (one sentence) and write one sentence setting up the scary ending.

You might want to just put a timer on the board for five minutes of silent brainstorming.

Personally, these stories are so short that brainstorming naturally leads to writing for me. I don’t need much transition time.

But it may help your students to separate “brainstorming” from actually “writing/drafting.” If you like using timers, I think five minutes for brainstorming and fifteen minutes for writing their stories will work well.

Set the Ambience

Ok, this step is totally optional, but did I mention how much I love Halloween?

If you’re the type to do so (and your school allows it), help get your students in the horror mood by preparing the room ready with some decorations. You may want to avoid Halloween decorations (in case you have students who abstain from celebrating) and stick to seasonal/harvest decorations: pumpkins, corn, scarecrows, etc.

You can also be sure to have some spooky music ready to play in the background as students write! I have a Pandora radio account just for teaching; I keep everything on that account PG and have used a Halloween party playlist many times with success.

If you’re completing this activity the week of Halloween, you can also score some bonus points with your students by passing some candy around while they work.

(Looking for more ways to include the Halloween spirit in your classroom without angering parents or admin? Check out this post! )

Two-Sentence Horror Stories: Edit

After students have had time to craft their two-sentence horror stories, give them time to peer-edit.

If you have a standardized way of peer-editing in your classroom, go for it! Otherwise, don’t make this overly complicated.

Students can trade stories and give one compliment and one constructive criticism. Or students can ask readers questions like “This was the only word I could think of, but do you have any other suggestions?”

Students should focus on meeting requirements (just two sentences!) and word choice.

One of the biggest mistakes I see students make when they write two-sentence horror stories is that give too much away. For example, I’ve read plenty of stories that read something like “The chair floated in the air. It was scary because there was a ghost.”

Students struggle to hint at why a situation is scary without giving it away. This might also be a good time to discuss showing and not telling in writing. (Student really struggling with this? Check out this “Show. Don’t Tell” Mini-lesson .)

After peer editing, give students a few minutes to make any necessary revisions.

Two-Sentence Horror Stories: Share

I encourage you to have your students share out if they’re willing. But I know getting students comfortable with reading their work aloud is often a struggle.

Still, ask for volunteers to share. Let students have their friend or you read their story if they’re too shy to read it themselves.

If having students share their work aloud is just impossible, have them hang up their work around the room. To remain anonymous, students can put their names on the back of their work instead of the front when hanging it up.

Alternatively, if you’d like to showcase students’ work, you can use them to create a bulletin board!

Writing two-sentence horror stories is an easy and engaging activity. It forces students to practice essential writing skills and can even add some seasonal fun to the classroom!

If you’re ready to share this activity with your students, grab your FREE worksheet and lesson plan right here !

FREE It's Lit Teaching TPT Resource: 2-Sentence Horror Stories Writing Activity

BRYN DONOVAN

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50 Spooky Writing Prompts and Horror Story Ideas

If you’re looking for scary story prompts or horror writing ideas, you’ve come to the right place! These are great Halloween writing prompts, and some of these could also be used as suspense story prompts or dark fantasy story ideas.

These are all from my book 5 ,000 Writing Prompts: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More . The book has 100 additional spooky writing prompts and horror story ideas, as well as master plots and idea starters for all kinds of writing.

If you are easily scared and have an over-active imagination, just skip this one. And anyway, just remember it’s all nonsense that I made up while I was exercising on the treadmill or sitting in bed.

Some of these are skeletal (ha) plot ideas, while others are images or suggestions. And if you’d like a spooky soundtrack to inspire you, be sure to check out my scary music playlist for writers ! Be sure to pin or bookmark the post for future reference. After all, when autumn rolls around, you might find yourself looking for Halloween writing prompts!

A musician practices. When she finishes a piece, she hears someone clapping for her, although she lives alone.
Frightening events in a small town lead its citizens to dig up the grave of a deceased inhabitant.
Someone gets on the elevator by himself and is never seen by his friends or family again.
The Furies—the vengeance deities of classic mythology—are back in business again.
A collector buys an unpublished manuscript by an obscure writer that describes a terrible historical event a year before it occurred. The collector learns the writer wrote many unpublished stories…
Creating a hybrid of a human and this particular animal turns out to be a bad idea.
A person has the ability to make other people very ill.
The dead walk out of the sea.
An individual begins seeing and hearing from someone who looks just like her – and learns she had a twin who died at birth.
A killer places an advertisement for a willing victim and finds one.
A basement contains jars filled with unusual specimens.
A person finds new photos of herself on her cell phone that she didn’t take.
The spirit of a brutalized slave or prisoner of war wants revenge on his tormentor’s descendants.
A couple vacationing in a remote area begins having the same nightmares.
All of the circus performers were killed in the train wreck.
The television switches to another station of its own accord and plays footage of something horrible that happened long before the technology existed to record it.
A spouse or sibling dies. He or she begins to take over the body of the surviving spouse or sibling.
Weekend adventurers explore a cave and can’t find their way out again. Then they encounter something terrible…
Authorities go through the cluttered apartment of a deceased man who lived alone with no known friends or relatives for decades and find something disturbing.
A group of teenagers trolls everyone else in an online group by telling made-up stories about terrible things they’ve done. Things then get out of hand.
It’s bad luck in the theatre to call the Shakespeare play Macbeth by name, but someone in the company keeps doing it anyway… and the superstition proves true.
Every exhibit in this carnival sideshow is fake. Except this one thing.
An individual develops a terror of water – drinking it, touching it, or even being near it. There’s actually a good reason why.
The grandfather clock starts running backwards.
People in this neighborhood begin having freak accidents that involve normal appliances and machinery, such as blenders, weed whackers, and garage doors.
The cure for a new deadly epidemic is almost scarier than the disease.
He locked the doors and shuttered the windows; it came in through the roof.
A woman is happy when her dead loved one comes back to life… but he’s changed.
This centuries-old beauty secret is effective but horrifying.
A killer toys with his victims by orchestrating a series of false hopes for them.
She wakes up in the middle of the night and runs out to a certain tree.
Tourists on a ghost tour, along with their guide, fall into the hands of an evil presence.
A young woman is impregnated by her handsome new boyfriend, who turns out to be something other than human.
The empty swing is swinging.
A bride on her honeymoon discovers she’s not her new husband’s first wife… not even close.
Long ago, when he was a baby, a man’s parents made an unwise deal in order to bring him back from the dead.
Members of a family or people in a town begin sleepwalking and doing strange things in their sleep.
A young man confesses to a killing that hasn’t happened. The murder he describes takes place while he’s in custody.
Grisly events happen after the arrival of a hypnotist in Victorian London.
An author’s fictional villain stalks him.
Fraternity hazing goes way too far.
It always happens when he’s alone in the car.
A patient in a mental hospital encounters a malevolent ghost, but nobody believes her.
A mother’s young child may or may not be a changeling.
Swarms of insects appear in various places in a town, always followed by an untimely death.
The ghost at the movie theater wants everyone to watch one particular snippet of film.
A child’s imaginary friend starts to cause real trouble.
When putting together a slide show for a wedding or funeral, someone notices that for decades, the same man, dressed in the same fashion, has been appearing in the background of photographs taken in public places.
A politician, religious leader, or celebrity exerts mind control over the will of his or her followers.
The fairy godmother isn’t the good kind of fairy.

Okay, I creeped myself out a little with these spooky writing prompts! If you’re writing a novel and want a step-by-step guide to planning, writing, and editing, be sure to check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts .

5,000 WRITING PROMPTS: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More | BRYN DONOVAN |

Do you have questions or suggestions about horror story ideas? We’d love to hear them in the comments section! And don’t miss future posts about writing. Follow my blog, if you aren’t already — there’s a place you can sign up below. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

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Thrills! Chills! Using Scary Stories to Motivate Students to Read

Resources & Preparation
Instructional Plan
Related Resources

This lesson taps into students' desire to read scary stories and, at the same time, helps them explore story structure and develop critical thinking skills. Students examine story elements (e.g., character, setting, plot) through teacher read-alouds and independent reading. Reader-response journals and graphic organizers prepare students for the culminating activity-the creation of their own scary stories. While this lesson uses the Goosebumps series as a model, it can be conducted using any scary story. Goosebumps books should be an easy read for most students at this level, so even struggling readers can actively participate in this lesson.

Featured Resources

Interactive Venn Diagram : Students will use this interactive tool, along with their completed Character Descriptions Organizers, to help them compare and contrast the main character and villain.
Interactive Story Map : Students will use The 5 W s of Scary Story Writing to identify and describe the story elements (i.e., character, setting, conflict, resolution) and then type their responses into the interactive tool.
How to Write Your Own Scary Story : Students will use this handy sheet to brainstorm ideas for a story plot, choose a villain, and write a surprise ending for their own scary stories.

From Theory to Practice

Children choose to read scary stories for pleasure, and the new juvenile horror genre has become extremely popular in the past decade. The Goosebumps books, in particular, deliver an emotional punch; they have fast-paced plots, suspense, and dramatic power.
Teachers can use students' expressed interest in scary stories to engage them in worthwhile instructional activities, such as the study of various story elements and structures.
After analyzing the key elements of scary stories, students can apply their knowledge by writing their own scary stories.
Studying scary stories in class can help students employ the skills and strategies they are learning, while at the same time, increase their reading competency and their desire to read.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

Class collection of Goosebumps books
Chart paper and markers
Folder for each student
Overhead projector and transparency paper
Journal Rubric
Writing Rubric
Goosebumps Anticipation Guide
Scary Story Characteristics Web
Character Descriptions Organizer
The 5 Ws of Scary Story Writing
Journal Assignments
How to Write Your Own Scary Story
Reflections On My Scary Story
Literature Guide Questions
Scary Stories Booklist

Preparation

1.	Create a blank on chart paper.
2.	Obtain as many different Goosebumps titles as you can. Many are available in local and school libraries, or you can ask your students to contribute to the classroom library by sharing their collections of Goosebumps books with the class.
3.	You may want to send a permission letter home to parents explaining the instructional purpose of using Goosebumps books in the classroom and some of the positive outcomes. If any parents object to teaching Goosebumps, you can use another book (see ).
4.	Choose a Goosebumps book to read aloud. , , and are a few favorites.
5.	Make photocopies of all of the Student handouts (see ), as well as transparencies of the and s of Scary Story Writing.
6.	Bookmark the Web resources on all classroom or lab computers (see ).
7.	Procure some spooky music to set the mood as students enter the classroom. Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" is a good choice, or you can access this .

Student Objectives

Students will

Activate prior knowledge about scary stories by completing an anticipation guide and characteristics web
Develop an understanding of scary story elements and strengthen critical thinking skills by listening to a read-aloud and examining the story's setting, characters, plot, and ending
Recognize descriptive word choices and details that contribute to the effect of a scary story and apply those descriptive elements to the writing of their own scary story
Respond and make personal connections to a story by completing a written reader-response journal
Make reading and writing connections by demonstrating their understanding of scary story elements through the writing of their own scary story
Apply the writing process by brainstorming, prewriting, peer editing, revising, and publishing their scary story

Instruction and Activities

Introduction

Distribute folders and the Goosebumps Anticipation Guide , and have students complete the before column with a partner, then share their responses with the class. At the end of the lesson, students will return to complete the after column. Have students place the anticipation guides in their folders. This is where they will keep all of their work during the lesson.
Activate prior knowledge by asking the class: "What scary stories have you read?" "Which were the scariest?" "Who are some authors of scary stories?" "Why do you like to read scary stories?" "What makes them scary?" Point out that scary stories also include mysteries, adventure stories, and survival stories.
Have students brainstorm the characteristics of a scary story while you write their responses on the Scary Story Characteristics Web you prepared earlier. Discuss why plot, setting, descriptive writing, characters, and suspense are important to a scary story.

Exploration of Story Structure Each day read several chapters aloud from your selected Goosebumps book. As you read, stop intermittently and think aloud about how various story elements affect the scariness of the story. Refer to the Literature Guide Questions and encourage students to discuss and think critically about the setting, characters, plot, and mood of the book to determine what makes it scary.

Setting and descriptive words

Tell students that authors of scary stories often use setting and word choice to create a disturbing mood or atmosphere.
Set up a chart paper with two columns. As you come to words or phrases in the text that describe the setting, write "when" words (e.g., Halloween, midnight) on the left side and "where" words (e.g., basement, haunted house) on the right side. How are these words clues about the setting?
On a second sheet of chart paper, start a list of descriptive words and phrases that convey fear in the story. This list may include words and phrases that describe the sounds, places, things, or people in the story (e.g., a face in the window, a stormy night, creaky stairs, people wearing black). How do these words and phrases add to the mood of the story?
Continue reading aloud, stopping intermittently to identify key descriptive words or phrases that convey a scary setting or mood, and continue to model by thinking aloud how these words contribute to the scariness of the story.

Character description

Tell students that much of a scary story's suspense is conveyed through the characters' thoughts, words, actions, and reactions to events and other characters.
Continue modeling as you read the book, this time focusing on descriptive words about the characters. Have students draw conclusions about the main character and villain by using the thoughts, actions, and words of each character. Have students add these words to the ongoing descriptive words list.
Distribute the Character Descriptions Organizer , and help the class identify the characteristics of the main character and villain on an overhead transparency. Students should keep their copies of the organizer in their folders.
Take the class to the computer lab or have students work at classroom computers. Have students use their completed Character Descriptions Organizers to help them compare and contrast the main character and villain using the interactive Venn Diagram . Remind students to print and place their Venn diagrams in their folders.
As you read aloud, have the class notice how the plot unfolds and how the author creates suspense.
Distribute The 5 W s of Scary Story Writing and help students identify the story's details on an overhead transparency. Have students add the completed 5 W s organizer to their folders.
Have students use The 5 W s of Scary Story Writing to identify and describe the story elements (i.e., character, setting, conflict, resolution) and then type their responses into the interactive Story Map . Have students print and place the story maps in their folders.
Before reading the final chapters, have students predict what they think will happen.

Once you have finished reading the scary story, lead the class in a discussion and review using the After Reading section of the Literature Guide Questions .

Independent Reading and Journal Assignments

Ask each student to choose a Goosebumps book from your classroom library to read independently. Encourage students to browse BookHooks.com: R.L. Stine reviews to aid in the selection of their books.
Have students preview their books by examining the front and back covers. Ask them to make predictions about their books based on the preview.
Allow students time to read their books independently. Adapt a timeframe to fit your students' needs and abilities. Ask students to read a minimum of 30 minutes each night. Also provide 10 to 15 minutes of independent reading in class each day so you can monitor their reading.
Distribute and explain the Journal Assignments Journal Rubric so that students will know how they will be evaluated before they complete the assignments. Students should complete one to two journal entries each night after they read, or work at their own pace to complete the journal assignments.
Each day, promote discussion through the use of cooperative groups. Allow students to talk about what they are reading and to share their journal responses with their groups. Ask volunteers to read excerpts from their books that support their responses.

Writer's Workshop

Have students read "How to Write Your Own Give Yourself Goosebumps Books" on the R.L. Stine website.
Discuss how authors' ideas usually come from real life. Discuss interesting "what if" situations from your students' lives. What would be a good idea for a scary story that happened in real life?
Review the descriptive word charts that are displayed around the room and the graphic organizers that you completed during the read-aloud. Students should also review their individual journal assignments.
Distribute and discuss the How to Write Your Own Scary Story worksheet and the Writing Rubric so that students will know how they will be evaluated on this part of the lesson. Walk around the room and monitor students' progress as they brainstorm ideas for a story plot, choose a villain, and write a surprise ending.
Provide class time for students to write their own scary stories. Remind students daily to review the various charts and organizers from their previous work to aid in word choice and plot development. Help students as needed by providing feedback and suggestions for improvement.
Divide the class into pairs and have students evaluate their stories using the Writing Rubric. If students are unfamiliar with the peer-editing process, suggestions are available in the ReadWriteThink lesson, "Reciprocal Revision: Making Peer Feedback Meaningful."
After the peer-edit session, students should revise their work as necessary.
Ask student volunteers to read their scary stories to the class. Turn the lights down and play spooky music while students read aloud.
Put students' scary stories into a class anthology and share them with other classes.
Have students read another Goosebumps book and use the interactive Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two books.
Visit the Poe Museum to introduce other mystery books, authors, and genres to extend reading.
Have each student write a short review of the book he or she read during the lesson on an index card. Reviews should include the book title, a brief description of the story without revealing the ending, and the student's opinion of the book. Students can then share their reviews with their classmates.
Have students visit the R.L. Stine website to learn more about the author. Provide a writing activity, such as listing facts learned about the author.
Have students use the Mystery Cube to practice identifying mystery elements from the book they read for this lesson or another mystery. They can also use this tool to plan the plot of their own mystery.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Have students complete the Reflections on My Scary Story sheet.
Have students complete the after column on the Goosebumps Anticipation Guide , and compare their before and after responses. Did any of their answers change? Go over the correct answers with the class. All answers are true, except #4 and #5.
Collect students' scary story folders to evaluate their graphic organizers, worksheets, and prewriting notes.
Use the Journal Rubric and Writing Rubric to assess students' work.
Calendar Activities
Student Interactives

The Story Map interactive is designed to assist students in prewriting and postreading activities by focusing on the key elements of character, setting, conflict, and resolution.

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

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Kindergarten K

Teach Your Students How to Write a Scary Story

You’re terrified. Your heart is pounding, and your chest feels like it’s going to EXPLODE ! You breathe faster and faster as sweat drips from your shaking hands. Are you going to die? NO . You’re just listening to a SCARY STORY .

Being scared is exciting, right? If it wasn’t, why would we go on haunted hayrides, watch scary movies or ride roller coasters?

Let’s face it, in each of these circumstances, we know we’re pretty safe. And when the experience is over, the thrill isn’t. Just watch a group of kids coming out of a haunted house at the fair. They’re shrieking and laughing at the SAME TIME . And, because they know the fear is SAFE , they scramble to get in line again. They’re experiencing a fear-induced NATURAL HIGH . That’s because being scared causes an adrenaline rush in your body and creates a feeling of EUPHORIA .

Enter SCARY STORIES ! When it comes to teaching your students how to write a scary story that will keep readers or listeners on the edge of their seats, nothing beats a good old-fashioned scary story.

Kids love the element of surprise and the unexpected. It’s fascinating to talk about monsters, ghosts, or anything weird! Reading and writing these stories is reassuring to kids. The creepy stuff is just fiction, and it’s not a part of their everyday lives. It’s IMAGINATION .

Over the years, I’d teach my students how to write scary stories. But, I was disappointed by the majority of the stories I got. I tried different writing prompts, using scary pictures, anything I could think of. None of that worked. To be honest with you, I got some pretty crummy stories. I knew my kiddos were capable of more. I refused to give up! Finally, through trial and error, I developed a formula that worked for me. It’s just two magic words: CHOICE and TOOLS.

I provided my kids with a buffet of plots, settings, and characters. They were intrigued.

Suddenly they had the FREEDOM to concoct a story that was guaranteed to spook their audience. They didn’t have to respond to the same writing prompt.

The graphic organizers helped them plan and organize their stories, develop their characters, and use descriptive words in their writing. Keeping students engaged in writing is foolproof when they choices and the tools to plan and write a great scary story.

Scary Story Elements

Scary Stories:

Amp up the fear factor.
Add cringe-worthy thoughts like a darkness that foreshadows an unknown danger.
Have characters that get into terrifying situations by breaking the rules, making bad decisions, or ignoring a warning.
Include a terrible problem that is creating a mood of doom.
Are usually set in someplace spooky and often takes place at night.
Include a wide variety of sensory words.
Contain mystery and suspense.
Might be unpredictable – setting the reader up to expect one thing but then providing something else.

Setting the Stage

Nothing sets the tone for writing better than turning out the lights and reading a couple of scary stories. Here are a few of my favorite scary stories for younger kids.

PICTURE BOOKS:

The Teeny Tiny Woman by Paul Galdone
There’s a Nightmare in my Closet by Mercer Mayer
There’s an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer
A Very Hairy Scary Story by Rick Walton
Beneath the Bed and Other Scary Stories by Max Brallier
In a Dark Dark Room by Alvin Schwartz
The Little Old Woman Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
Piggie Pie by Margie Palenti
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Ghosts! Ghostly Tales From Folklore by Alvin Schwartz
Tell Me a Scary Story but Not Too Scary by Carl Reiner
Scary, Scary, Halloween by Eve Bunting

One year, I took my kiddos to a Tale Telling Festival in Selma Alabama. My kids were on the edge of their seats listening to master a storyteller regale them with tales from the book Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey .

If you can’t make it to a storytelling festival, expose your students to a few videos of storytellers telling scary stories to get a sense of the mood these stories elicit.

Videos provide your students with the opportunity to experience how professional authors play with the readers’ emotions through their choice of WORDS , VOICE, and FACIAL and HAND expressions. One of my favorites is Jackie Torrance telling The Story of Tillie

How to Write the Scary Story

Have you ever tried to teach without a lesson plan? It’s quite frustrating and chaotic isn’t it? You need a PLAN . The same thing is true for your kids. Some of your kids have minimal experience in writing stories. They don’t even know where to begin. They need a plan!

That’s where you come in! By providing supports and structure, your students will write fantastic scary tales. Writing a great story takes time, so if you only have one class period for your kiddos to write, you’re probably not going to get great stories. The time frame from start to finish to sharing takes my kids about a week to complete.

Writing Steps

Here are the steps I use with my students. Depending on the age and degree of writing experience, your students may not need to spend much time on each step.

First, students BRAINSTORM story ideas for things and places that scare them. This is a fun and easy step because kids LOVE to talk about being scared. It’s also good for kids to see that some of their friends are afraid of the same things they are. Be prepared, you might hear some things that you can’t imagine being afraid of. For example, my grandson was TERRIFIED of going to visit my mother in her assisted living facility. He thought all the “old folks” looked like evil creatures. Thankfully, he got over that.

Next, students select a setting, problem, and characters for their story. To help my kids out, I give them choices and ideas to get them started. I provide them with SETTING , PROBLEM , and CHARACTER cards to choose from. By taking note of what your kids shared during the previous BRAINSTORMING SESSION , you have some great ideas to write on the cards.

In the next step, students organize their thoughts using a story elements organizer and a story summary organizer. With these organizers, students plan the story and make sure it has a logical sequence.

Giving students copies of word lists helps them choose sensory words, sound effects (think Ontomontopeia), and vivid verbs to add to the writing.

Have you ever had kids who wrote a narrative and every sentence began with “and then?” Since scary stories are NARRATIVES , I make sure they use a TRANSITIONS WORD LIST to help them with word choice. That way I don’t have to read “and then,” “and then” over and over again.

Let the Writing Begin!

You’ve laid the groundwork. Your kiddos have a recipe for their story. Now it’s time to put pen to paper and START WRITING . For a first draft, I usually have my kids write on every other line. That way it’s easy to make edits during the revision stage.

Next, have a peer and or a teacher review the rough drafts. It’s also helpful to give the kiddos a checklist to make sure they included all the elements for a scary story.

Finally, revise and edit. This is the kids’ LEAST FAVORITE STEP . They want to write their stories ONCE and be done with it! I try to make it more fun by having a little revising party in the class. Give out stickers and turn on some creepy music. If your students have not had experience with peer editing, you can be the editor. A little hint: Tell at least 2 things you really like about the story BEFORE you may suggestions for improvement.

Oops! We’re not done yet! The most overlooked step is REFLECT AND EVALUATE ! Give your kids a writing rubric that is completed by both the student and yourself. I always have my kids share what they think they did best first, and then what they need to improve upon in the comments section of the rubric.

Sharing Your Scary Stories

The most fun is when the kids get to share their own stories. This is the time when my friends say I put on a DOG AND PONY SHOW . But seriously, your kids are super pumped about sharing after learning how to write a scary story.

It’s time to celebrate all their hard work. Have the kids dress up in costumes. Make s’mores. I bought a fantastic electric s’mores maker on Amazon. Turn out the lights, play some spooky music. The piece de resistance is a fake classroom campfire for your kids to sit around.

When it’s time to share his story, I give each kid a flashlight. Remember, it’s important to encourage the kids to ham it up with sound effects, facial expressions, and tone of voice.

Creating a Classroom Campfire

You can find numerous blog posts with instructions for building a classroom campfire. Just do a search on Pinterest. Basically, all you need is:

rocks in a circle
sticks in the center of the ring of stones
battery-operated Christmas tree lights to place under and around the sticks
some orange, red, and yellow tissue paper for the flames.

Avoiding Overwhelm When Teaching How to Write a Scary Story

Does this all sound like a lot of work to you? Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered. You can purchase my Write A Scary Story unit on TpT. It includes a PowerPoint on how to write a scary story, all the handouts, cards, rubric, graphic organizers, and everything else you need to teach this unit. There is also a Distance Learning Version you can use if you are teaching remotely!

I’d love to hear how your scary stories turned out! Come back comment to let me know!

PIN FOR LATER

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How to Write a Scary Story

How to write a scary story in 5 Easy Steps

Most of us love a good scare!

From our first game of peek-a-boo as a child through those ghost stories around a campfire as a teen, surprises and a little fright never lose their appeal. It’s why horror movies remain big business at the box office and on streaming websites.

Even those who profess not to read much will likely have read a Stephen King book or two.
Gamers aren’t immune either, as the popularity of games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hills will attest.
Horror is one of the best-selling fiction genres in any medium.

In this article, we’ll look at spine-chilling tips to help students write spooky stories that will rattle readers to their core. If scary is not your thing, then check out our complete guide to writing a narrative here.

So, pull the curtains, dim the lights and let’s learn how to write a horror story for school.

THE STORY TELLERS BUNDLE OF TEACHING RESOURCES

how to write a scary story | story tellers bundle 1 | How to Write a Scary Story | literacyideas.com

A MASSIVE COLLECTION of resources for narratives and story writing in the classroom covering all elements of crafting amazing stories. MONTHS WORTH OF WRITING LESSONS AND RESOURCES, including:

1. Write about what scares you.

BRAM STOKER’s vampire tale dracula is regularly remade for audiences of all eras and ages

The old writer’s mantra states, ‘write about what you know. While it’s most unlikely that your students know any killer clowns or lunatic killers who haunt campsites frequented by teenage couples, they can still write about the things that scare them.

This is the best place to start. A student has little hope of frightening the reader unless they choose to write about something they find disturbing.

The more specific the subject, the more personal the writing can become. Horror is filled with tropes and cliches. The world doesn’t need another axe murder chasing teens through the woods or another foolhardy ouija board misadventure – unless there’s a new spin put on things.

Avoiding tired clichés like those mentioned above will help maintain the element of surprise in the writing, which, as we shall see more of later, is essential to keep readers engaged.

Teaching Activity: Ask students to write down a list of the top 3 things that scare them. They needn’t be things that other people are scared of; the more personal and idiosyncratic they are, the more original the story is likely to be. These could be anything from a fear of heights or open spaces to a fear of the doorbell ringing at night.

Now, ask the students to choose one of these fears and list why they are scared of it. They should also write about how their fear makes them feel. The more detailed they can write about this, the better.

Encourage the students to use their full five senses to describe the feelings and emotions they would experience. The more convincingly they can convey the experience, the more successful they’ll be in striking fear into the hearts of their readers later on.

2. Use Setting to Your Advantage when writing a Horror story

how to write a scary story | jaws horror story | How to Write a Scary Story | literacyideas.com

The setting is a crucial element to any story and when used skillfully, it can be an essential tool in raising the scare factor of any tale.

When asked to write a scary story, younger kids will inevitably gravitate towards the more apparent settings such as haunted houses, cemeteries, and dark woods. Again, these well-worn settings would best be avoided unless the student intends to subvert a reader’s expectations.

In fact, given that surprise is one of the key elements to any good scare, subverting the setting is one great tool for terror available to our students.

For example, the comfort of a sleepover at their grandmother’s can take a turn for the worse if it’s discovered she holds a Black Mass. Imagine a coven of devil-worshippers in the dead of night in that dated living room where she serves milk and cookies to her grandkids during the day. Enough to make you spill your glass of milk over the embroidered cushions!

The physical environment can also be used to create tension and fear. For example, imagine two siblings hiding in a cupboard witnessing Grandmother’s midnight Satanic shenanigans. It’s hot and cramped. Imagine the claustrophobic feeling coupled with the terror of discovery. It’s enough to make you want to skip that Sunday visit to Grandma’s entirely [shudder].

If you are going to teach students how to write a scary story about a haunted house ensure you show them examples of figurative language that gives the house character.

Teaching Activity: Ask your students to take the fear they identified in the first activity and devise a setting for a story based on that fear.

One novel approach for deciding on a setting is to choose the place that seems least likely for a horror story. This unlikely element is one of the reasons why clowns are extraordinarily creepy or why the child’s doll in the Chucky movies is so unnervingly terrifying.

Not only will this build strength in the student’s creative writing muscles, but it will also help ensure a crucial element of originality in the finished story. The setting should be painted as vividly as possible to create a picture in the reader’s mind. The clearer that picture, the more intense the fear created.

Remember, too, the setting consists of both time and place , so students shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with historical and future settings for their stories too.

Exotic characters are common place in horror writing

3. Choose your character and point of view wisely when writing a horror story

One of the most common areas horror stories fall down in is that of characterization. Poor characterization is the number one reason many scary stories and movies fall as flat as the characters they utilize.

If your student wants to take their reader on a real knuckle-whitening ride of terror, they have to make the effort to bring their characters to life. An effective strategy to help students bring characters to life on the page is to have them base them on real people.

These real people could be people they know personally, people they’ve heard about in their community or beyond, or even pre-existing fictional characters they are already familiar with. Students should, of course, make the necessary modifications to make sure they are not committing either defamation or plagiarism.

At a more advanced level, students may also consider creating a composite character that brings together various aspects of different characters (real or fictional) that they already know.

Once students have gathered together their cast of characters, they’ll need to decide on a point of view from which to tell the story. Generally, this will be a first or third-person POV, and though the advantages and disadvantages of each type are too complex to go into here, you can find out more about different POVs in other articles on this site.

That said, some general points to consider when choosing a POV for a horror story are that while the first-person POV is great for grabbing the reader’s attention from the outset and for building suspense when the story is in the past tense, it may ruin any suspense regarding whether the narrator survives or not.

Third-person narratives allow for a slower build to a story while maintaining the suspense concerning the outcome for the story’s protagonist. They also allow for the more detailed narration and description demanded by longer stories.

One more point for students to consider is whether the narrator is reliable or not, If they opt for an unreliable narrator, this can open up great opportunities for a final twist in the tale. The 90’s movie The Usual Suspects is a great example of the unreliable narrator at work where the climactic twist at the end reveals the real Keyser Söze.

Teaching Activity: For this activity, students should select a scene to rewrite from a fiction book they are already familiar with. A book a few levels below their current reading level will be perfect.

Students rewrite the scene from first and third-person limited and omniscient perspectives, as well as from the points of view of different characters in the story. More advanced students can even play with using a reliable and unreliable narrator if they’ve already grasped these concepts.

When students have written the different versions of the scene, they should take time to compare the effects of these different points of view. Ask them to identify which of the perspectives and points of view worked best for this particular scene and story. What were the specific advantages and disadvantages of each version?

Year Long Inference Based Writing Activities

Tap into the power of imagery in your classroom to master INFERENCE as AUTHORS and CRITICAL THINKERS .

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This YEAR-LONG 500+ PAGE unit is packed with robust opportunities for your students to develop the critical skill of inference through fun imagery, powerful thinking tools, and graphic organizers.

4. Lay It all on the line when writing a scary story

Although written centuries apart these two horror tales are almost identical

Like the card game poker, it is when the stakes are highest that horror stories are at their most exhilarating.

In the world of stories, these stakes are directly related to the central problem and character motivation. The broad appeal of horror stories lies in the universality of these motivations.

Ensure students understand this and reflect this knowledge in their writing. There are several different types of ‘stake’ they can use to amp up the reader’s interest. Let’s take a look at 2 of the most common motivations in this genre:

The Survival Motivation: This is the most primitive of the 3. Not wanting to die is something we can all relate to and needs no explanation. However, this motivation can be further enhanced by adding another layer for the character. For example, if the protagonist needs to survive to defeat the monster etc, then the need to survive is emphasized beyond just the preservation of life.

The Protection Motivation: Here, the protagonist’s prime motivation is the need to protect others from a threat, usually in the form of loved ones such as family or a lover. Again, this is a primitive desire that we can all relate to and needs little in the way of explanation for the reader. There are two main ways to increase the stakes for this motivation – increase the number of people’s lives on the line or reveal a deep relationship between the protector and the protected.

Teaching Activity: Organize students into small groups. Have them look at a list of horror movies, such as those on an online database like IMDb, and then sort the movies into two categories: Survival Motivation or Protection Motivation .

There may be some crossover as many movies will employ both motivations to enhance the drama. In such cases, students should focus on the prime motivation of the movie’s protagonist. Where there’s disagreement, a discussion can be had as a whole class at the end.

When they have completed this activity, students should then look at their notes from the previous activities described above. What motivation is best suited to their embryonic story? Students should write a few lines to explain.

umm… it’s a horror movie… I wonder what will happen???

5. Avoid Clichés in horror writing

There are arguably more familiar tropes and clichés associated with this genre of story-telling than any other. For our student writers, these should be avoided. Clichés and overused tropes result in dull and predictable storylines. These are the opposite of the elements such as surprise and shock, which good horror so often relies on.

The one exception is when the writer takes well-worn plotlines and characters and subverts them to come up with something new, which leads us directly to our next activity.

Teaching Activity: Organize the students into small groups again and challenge them to make a list of clichés and tropes from horror books and movies. The IMDb movie database will again serve well if they need some inspiration. Even if they don’t know the movies, they can read the synopses and identify some of the clichés and tropes used.

Once students have their list, they should attempt to make something fresh from them. The simplest way to do this is often to change the setting or characters. This will lead to unusual ideas, such as vampires in space or piranhas in the city sewage system.

The ideas generated need not be plausible or even ‘good’. This activity aims to flex the students’ creativity muscles in pursuit of something original.

The Final Bell Tolls

So there we have it. Five tips to help students hone their horror-writing skills and five activities to put that newly-gained knowledge into practice.

Writing spooky stories is a great way to get reluctant students to write at Halloween and any time of the year.

Though writing spooky stories is fun , students still gain opportunities to internalize literature’s essential elements and develop their understanding of how language, structure, and story work.

Not bad for a night’s work…

Now go and write one, and be sure to read our complete guide to writing narratives if you need any further guidance on story writing.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING STORY ELEMENTS

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BOO! Halloween is right around the corner—what better day to write some spooky stories? Sharpen your pencil and take a stab at one of these Halloween writing prompts !

Scary Stories Connect With Readers in Big Ways

You write to get a reaction out of your readers. No matter the genre, you want your reader to feel something when they read your writing.

For horror writers, that feeling is fear. But it's also so much more.

Great horror stories take the everyday creepy and turn it into something even more creepy (and often become a condemnation of injustices in society). The great thing is, horror stories teach you that those creepy things can be beaten. That's what keeps bringing the readers back.

And that's why horror writers keep churning out the fear.

Maybe you love writing scary stories. Maybe you don't, but I hope you'll give it a try, just for practice (we're fans of that around here!).

Just like reading outside your genre is valuable to mastering the writing craft, so is writing a scary story .

This story doesn't have to be long, it could be a short story . Try for something you can write in one sitting, like 1,500 words.

To get you started, use one of the Halloween writing prompts suggested in this article. Then let loose, and have fun!

Creepy Story Writing Prompts

1. It's late at night, and you hear footsteps in the cellar, but you're definitely home alone…or so you thought.

2. You've put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa. On Halloween night, you find it watching you…

3. A bad-tempered businessman is driving home after a long day of work. He thinks he sees his kids trick-or-treating and stops to pick them up but those aren't costumes.

4. It's Halloween night and you and your friends think it would be fun to visit the local town's annual corn maze. But when you're inside it, someone inside the maze doesn't look like an actor in a costume. And shortly after, your friends start to disappear one by one.

5. You don't believe in the rumors that say a certain scary book is cursed—and that anyone who reads it will meet their maker by the end of the week. So naturally, you read it. And then things start going wrong…

Monster/Ghost Story Writing Prompts

6. A young woman goes to her grandmother's house for tea on Halloween night. They have a wonderful time together, sharing stories, joy, and the best times of family. The next day, the woman learns her grandmother has been dead for a week and no one could get ahold of her to tell her.

7. A little boy is lost in the woods, but at least his faithful dog is with him. As they look for the way out, the dog defends his master against terrifying monsters and animals. But the closer they get to the escaping the dark forest, the more apparent it is that they'll need to face the person, or thing, releasing these monsters in the first place.

8. A farmer who dreams of being a scientist experiments on this year's pumpkins, hoping to enlarge them. He has a lot of success, until one of his potions is tampered with, and the cute pumpkin in his patch morphs into a monster that eats anyone who stumbles over its vines.

9. Your girlfriend/boyfriend brings over your favorite treat on Halloween, but when you eat it, you transform into a giant, poisonous snake that kills anyone who touches you. What do you do next?

10. You wake up on Halloween night, look outside your window, and see your sister sleep walking away from the house. You chase after her but can't catch her until she plunges into a dark lake, where there's a mysterious song that starts to pull you deep below the surface.

Not-So-Spooky Story Writing Prompts

Not all people love scary stories. If this is you but you'd like to try to write a scary story—and have a fun time writing it—try tackling a (not-so) scary story prompt that could turn a potentially scary tale into something that is fun (even funny):

11. You hate clowns, which makes it even worse when your husband secretly decides to hire a clown for you son's birthday party—which just happens to be on Halloween.

12. Aliens have just landed on Earth and boy, did they pick a weird day to come. How do they respond to Halloween, supernatural or otherwise? Do they decide this place is just too bizarre and get the heck out, or do they stick around and join in the fun?

13. On Halloween night, lovers get to come back and spend the evening together one more time. One couple from the Roaring Twenties decides to come back from the grave to help their extreme nerd great-grandchild or the kid will never get married.

14. You decide that this year you're going to crash the ten top costume parties in town—and prank each one while you're at it.

15. A mad scientist determined to destroy the world falls hopelessly in love with a not-so-wicked witch. As hard as he tries, he can't impress her.

Write Your Spooky Stories

Writing a scary story can be a fun exercise to give your students (regardless of age, elementary students to college graduates) around this time of year. It also can stir some exciting writing ideas in any writer, whether or not they're part of an entire class or their personal writing group.

As mentioned above, writing scary stories can also push you to better your creative writing skills, even if it's not normally in your genre lane. Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has some great insight about why this is true:

Fairy tales are more than true: Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

You don't have to love horror stories to write one, but you will learn about protagonists who face trialing, often life or death, situations when writing them. Challenge students or writers to become better at their writing craft by pushing them to write a short scary story with one of the writing prompts in this article.

Sit down with your favorite candy or flavor of candy corn and get ready to write. Pluck it from the list, and let your imagination free!

What is your favorite Halloween writing prompt from this list? Why did it stand out to you? Let us know in the comments .

Abigail Perry

Abigail Perry is a Certified Story Grid Editor with professional teaching, literary agency, and film production experience. In addition to writing Story Grid masterwork guides, she works as a freelance editor and is the Content Editor for The Write Practice. Abigail loves stories that put women and diverse groups at the center of the story—and others that include superpowers and magic. Her favorite genres include: Smart Book Club Fiction, Women's Fiction, YA Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and unique memoirs. She also has a B.S. in TV, Radio, and Film and loves working on screenplays that are emotionally driven and/or full of action. You can learn more about Abigail on her website.

Ruthanne Reid

Best-Selling author Ruthanne Reid has led a convention panel on world-building, taught courses on plot and character development, and was keynote speaker for The Write Practice 2021 Spring Retreat.

Author of two series with five books and fifty short stories, Ruthanne has lived in her head since childhood, when she wrote her first story about a pony princess and a genocidal snake-kingdom, using up her mom’s red typewriter ribbon.

When she isn’t reading, writing, or reading about writing, Ruthanne enjoys old cartoons with her husband and two cats, and dreams of living on an island beach far, far away.

P.S. Red is still her favorite color.

10 Comments

“Damn, I hate those busy bodies. Auditors, they call themselves. Pains in the ass is what they are.” said Joe aloud to no one who could hear. The radio blasted the nightly news and told a grisly story about three kids poisoned by bad candy. Joe, shaking his head from side to side and mumbling,

“For crying-out-loud. They’re just kids. Who in their right mind would do that to kids?”

The traffic became lighter and Joe took the off ramp to his street. As he drove toward his house, he saw his children walking down the sidewalk trick or treating. After hearing the news about the poisoning, he wanted his kids to go home. He stopped the car and walked over to them.

“Jeremy, Julian, why are you out here alone. Your mother was supposed to wait until I got home?”

He stood over the children waiting for an answer. When none came, he grabbed an arm, one child in each hand, and marched them to the car. He opened the back door and demanded they get in.

“In the car. Don’t stand there, get in… I’ve had a rough day, keep this up and you’ll get a Halloween to remember.”

Jeremy, the cutest little goblin, turned to Joe, jumped on top of him, opened his enormous mouth, and swallowed Joe whole. Julian, danced around Jeremy singing

“Remember, remember, a Halloween to remember, A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down”

To the children passing by, the song sounded familiar. They started to sing,

“Ring-a-round the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush! We’ve all tumbled down.”

William – I enjoyed your story. Nicely developed in such a short span.

Great lead-in to the story as a way to introduce taking his kids home. One suggestion in the first paragraph … not sure you need “from side to side” after “shaking his head”, and you could modify it to ” Joe, shaking his head, mumbled, …” or “Joe shook his head and mumbled, …”

While it could be viewed as too abrupt (I didn’t think so), I love how Jeremy “the cutest little goblin” got right down to business and “jumped on top of [Joe], opened his enormous mouth, and swallowed Joe whole”, with Julian dancing and singing along. Those two lines plus Julian’s clever integration of “Remember, remember, a Halloween to remember” made for a ghoulishly delightful twist.

Thanks for the Halloween treat.

– Susan

Thanks Susan. I already made the change (Joe, shaking his head, mumbled). It reads much better. William

Hi thanks for writing this story it gave my students some ideas to write about since halloween is coming up

Thanks for the Halloween treat, Ruthanne. Great prompts.

I love prompt #4 with the grandma, I was devastated when my grammy died…. this will be good to write about.

Harold Saggerbob loves Halloween. Has his very own Pumpkin Club. But while the ‘pumpkins’ on his shelf, might be round, they are certainly not orange. And every Halloween, several kids disappear near his home…

It’s not really creepy but I tried it with my characters. English isn’t my first language so if you see any mistake, please let me know:

“Aymeric was eating alone in the kitchen. He didn’t have much appetite and spent more time looking at the dark sky through the window than eating. He sighed. He wished he had company. But that wouldn’t happen. Rose was back to his home and was probably already sleeping – flowers go to sleep with the sun, after all. The sky was covered in dark clouds so thick he couldn’t even see the Moon – and it was definitely up somewhere. He could feel it. It felt as if he had a knot in his throat. He covered his plate and put it in the fridge. He would eat it later, when he’d be hungrier. Suddenly, he stilled. He had heard footsteps. He closed the fridge slowly, careful not to make any noise. It wasn’t some kind of rodent. They were scared of lycanthropes. And Aymeric was able to recognize footsteps from rodents. With a hearing like his, no one could fool him. He put his fork and his knife in the sink, shrugging. It wasn’t as if the intruder could mess with his stuff unnoticed, anyway. What bothered him was that he didn’t heard the intruder enter. It was definitely strange. He didn’t know what or who it was but he’d better be careful. He grabbed a dagger and followed the noise. It definitely came from the cellar. He barged in there, determined to end all this quickly. The moon was rising and waxing, anyway, so he shouldn’t have any problem dealing with whoever it was. What he saw still surprised him. A tiny body in the middle of the room. Thick wavy blond hair, long ears, big grey eyes. Aymeric recognized the child immediately. When the little elf saw him, he rushed into his arms. “Hey, what’s wrong, champion?” He didn’t expect the kid to reply. The elf only hugged him tightly. Aymeric could feel his relief and his fear. The ability they had to travel between spaces and times was really something he couldn’t get used to…”

Noah was waking up. He had been knocked down while he was chased by a group of teens. It was Halloween. Noah left his home with Oscar his dog. He headed to park across the street where his friends were waiting for him for trick or treating around the neighborhood. As they got treats from the third house Noah and his friends headed for the next house. Suddenly a huge dark figure appeared and almost grabbed one of Noah’s friends. The group was actually chased by teenage boys who looked hideous beasts in their costumes. Noah and his friends were dispersed. Some managed to stick together, some made it back home. Noah lost the sense of direction and was running for a while now. Suddenly he stumbled and tripped over. He knocked his head hard on something and passed out. After he got up he could see dark figures with blazing eyes staring down at him. Noah jumped to his feet and fled into the woods that were the only easy hideout he could access fast. Oscar was behind him growling and barking at the dark figures that followed them into the woods. As he went farther it got more and more dark. The only thing that kept him going was Oscar who was right behind him keeping the dark figures at a distance. Noah saw bushes and managed to hide within. Oscar had stopped barking now and there was a deadly silence. Noah was panting and was trying to calm down. He was about to lie down when he saw a huge hand trying to grab him from within the bushes. Noah screamed in panic when Oscar jumped in between just in time to save him. Noah was running fast when suddenly he saw light piercing through the darkness. He ran towards the light fast. When he came near he couldn’t believe his eyes. The sun shone bright and there were beautiful flowers and trees. Far away he could see children playing. He quickly entered the garden as he had no better choice to escape the dark figures. Oscar slowly paced back and ran all the way home where Noah’s parents were mourning his death.

great Helloween

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101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

28. A priest is a vampire.

29. A woman wakes up with no eyes.

30. A man wakes up with no mouth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

39. Kidnappers abduct the child of a vampire.

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

41. A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

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

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

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

45. Suburbia is actually purgatory.

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

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

48. An old shipwreck washes ashore.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

62. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

69. Something ancient rises from an old pond.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sleep well and keep writing.

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

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

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

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Scary Short Stories To Teach Around Halloween

I absolutely adore teaching scary short stories in ELA . The suspense, the spooky twists and turns in the creepy plot lines, and the sinister characters always seem to draw students in. This is why I use Halloween as an excuse to spend Octobers studying my favorite scary short stories. Below you’ll find a list of my absolute favorite scary short stories that are great to teach around Halloween (or really at any time in the year) along with some teaching tips and assignment ideas to accompany each of them.

1. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury follows Eckels, a hunter who pays to go back in time to hunt the most ferocious beast that ever lived, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The hunters are given strict instructions not to touch anything while visiting the past as any small interruption of the natural process could have an irreversible effect on the future. Unfortunately, when fear enters the equation, things don’t quite go as planned!

When I teach this story, I usually begin with a little pre-reading discussion on time travel. I have students imagine that they have access to a time machine and have the opportunity to go back to witness a historical event or meet a particular person from the past. You’ll be really surprised at the variety of choices from your students. I also have them consider whether the invention of time travel would be a positive or a negative thing.

The literary elements I focus on during this story are characterization (particularly the development of Eckels) foreshadowing, figurative comparisons (metaphor, simile, and personification are used throughout the text), and the theme that even small things can have a big impact (the butterfly effect).

I also love to show them the EC Comics adaptation of the story as it stays incredibly true to the plotline and hooks even your most reluctant readers.

Bradbury is known for his ability to create vivid images for his readers. Therefore, as a final assignment, I focus on improving students’ descriptive writing by having them examine Bradbury’s incredible description of the T-Rex.

A Sound of Thunder Descriptive Writing Assignment

2. Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

In Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl , Mary Maloney, a loving and devoted housewife receives the terrible and unexpected news that her husband is leaving her. Mary, in her incredible shock, enters a trance and commits an unspeakable act that no one sees coming.

I do a whole-class reading of this story and choose students to play the different roles. I bring in some basic costume props (and by bring in, I mean swipe from the school’s theatre costume room) and have students come to the front of the class to read their lines and act out the scene. They really get into the story this way, and of course, they love the part with the frozen lamb leg! A little tip: print out a script for each character and highlight each of their individual parts. It makes things go much more smoothly.

Here is a list of what you might want to have for costumes and props

Yarn/thread and needle
Something that looks like a leg of lamb (I just stuff a brown paper bag – see picture below)
Potatoes, a can of beans, and cheesecake (you can also just print pictures of these things)
A woman’s dress (for Mary)
An apron (for the grocer)
Dress shirts with police badges (print a badge) for Patrick, Noonan, and O’Malley

Scary Short Stories Readers Theater Lamb to the Slaughter

The literary element I focus most on with this story is dramatic irony. We also discuss the idea of guilt and whether or not Mary’s actions were justified. It always makes for an interesting ethical discussion.

As a final creative assignment, I have students write Mary Maloney’s Secret Diary. They write three entries from specific important moments in the plot.

Lamb to the Slaughter Mrs. Maloney's Secret Diary

3. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Enter the mind of a disturbed narrator attempting to convince the reader of his sanity while telling the story of how he came to commit a murder. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe focuses on the reasons for the man’s actions, the process he takes, and the guilt and paranoia he feels.

There are lots of new vocabulary terms in this story, so before we even begin reading, we do some pre-reading vocabulary work to prep students for this more challenging read. After reading, we also do some work with figurative language as Poe so skillfully uses alliteration, simile, and personification in this story as a tool to enhance description. I also have students examine the internal conflict (person vs. self) of the speaker and consider whether or not he is a reliable or unreliable narrator.

1. The first one has students create a detailed police report from one of the police officer’s perspective. Students will include a detailed account of the ‘suspect’, the crime scene, and the evidence.

2. The second assignment has students write a prequel or a sequel to the story. If students choose prequel, they explain how the narrator came to live with the old man and what came to make him so fearful of “the eye.” If students choose sequel, they will explain what happens after the speaker confesses his crime.

4. The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

In The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs , Sergeant-Major Morris arrives at the White family residence with a monkey’s paw that has the power to grant three wishes. He warns the family that the paw is cursed and attempts to burn it in the fire, but Mr. White snatches it up for himself. Through a series of unfortunate events, the family learns that perhaps it is true that you should be careful what you wish for!

The literary elements I focus on in this story are mood (shifts dramatically from the start of this story to the end), symbolism (the paw as a symbol for greed), and allusion (Arabian Nights & Aladdin).

I also have students complete an “It Says, I Say, And So” Character Analysis for each of the characters. This type of graphic organizer has students find a passage from the reading that reveals a character trait (It Says). In the second column, students explain the personality trait revealed (I Say), and in the final column, they explain why/how this character trait is revealed (And So).

As a final assignment, students imagine that Mr. White can’t locate the monkey’s paw when his wife unbolts the door. They have to write an alternate ending and describe what is on the other side of the door!

5. The Open Window by Saki

In The Open Window by Saki, trickster, Vera, tells a spooky ghost story to the unsuspecting and nervous Mr. Nuttel. He is the perfect victim for her plot, and she sets the story up to give him a rather shocking ending.

This is a typical Saki story with a light-hearted beginning and a macabre twist ending. The story is useful for examining situational irony and flashback. After some preliminary work with vocabulary and some reading comprehension questions, I use this story to help students examine the plot diagram. Although it does employ flashback, it is actually a fairly typical plot structure for students to examine and understand the story arc.

I end with a creative writing exercise where students take on the role of the nervous and anxious Mr. Nuttel at the end of the story and write a letter to his sister after he has bolted out of the Sappleton residence.

6. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson , the villagers of a small town gather in the town square for the annual tradition of the town lottery. As the story progresses, the reader soon realizea that this is a lottery that one might not want to win.

I love to start this story off with a bit of discussion about strange traditions that we still follow today (trick or treating, the President pardoning the turkey for Thanksgiving, predicting the weather with a groundhog). Students discuss why we follow traditions, whether they are easy to change, and what superstitions they have.

Symbolism is so important in The Lottery, so we spend time discussing symbolism before we even begin reading. I tell them to pay attention to descriptions of setting, weather, character names, and objects in the story and consider what they might symbolize.

As a final assignment, students create a newspaper for the town in which The Lottery is set. They write a headline article explaining the results of this year’s lottery, a special interview with a character, an obituary for Mrs. Hutchinson, and a life and times article about a topic of their choice.

7. The Landlady by Roald Dahl

The Landlady by Roald Dahl tells the story of Billy Weaver, a successful businessman who travels to a small city called Bath. He finds a local bed and breakfast for lodging that is run by a landlady. Billy comes to learn that the only two other guests who have ever stayed at the B&B have names that he recognizes. The reader may soon learn that the landlady is not as innocent as she first appears.

There are lots of elements to discuss in The Landlady (characterization, mood, foreshadowing, setting). Because of this, I created an analysis booklet for students to complete after reading this story. It includes 6 analysis questions a graphic organizer to analyze character traits of either Billy or the landlady. It also includes a creative response where students write a headline article about what happens to Billy after the story.

Scary Short Stories Roald Dahl's Landlady Assignment

These scary short stories are sure to engage your students and help them dig deeper into the elements of fiction. If you’re looking for other ways to bring the spirit of Halloween into your classroom, click here.

Get each of these scary short story units in a ready-to-use bundle by clicking here.

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by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

21 Scary Halloween Short Stories For Middle School

October 10, 2014 in Pedagogy

The creepier the tale, the more middle school students love it. October is the perfect month to introduce middle school students to scary short stories. Download these 21 short stories that are perfect for your Halloween-related units. I have tried to include other resources such as YouTube videos, TV show adaptations, paired texts, and related songs. If I can find existing lesson plans online, I may will link to those, as well. Happy Halloween!

Note: Would you like access to ALL of our curated short story resources — PLUS a free lesson plan template you can use for ANY short story — right here on this page — without having to enter your email address more than a dozen times?

For just $10 a month, you can have ongoing access to current and future curated resources! Let us do the late-night searching for you. Learn how you can sign up for instant digital access . Note: Curated resources DO NOT include RTE created lesson plans.

Curated Short Stories Library Members: Click here to access your downloads!

The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson | Assessment Activity & Writing Project | Assessment Activity & Writing Project on TpT
The Masque of the Red by Death by Edgar Allan Poe* | Assessment Activity | Assessment Activity on TpT
The Landlady by Roald Dahl | Assessment Activity | Assessment Activity on TpT
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
A Ghost Story by Mark Twain
The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley
The Tomb by H.P. Lovecraft
The Tree by H.P. Lovecraft
The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
The Spectre Bridegroom, a Traveller’s Tale by Washington Irving (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe*
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
The Hitchhiker by Orson Welles (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket by Jack Finney (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

Note: An RTE subscriber recently emailed me to ask if there was a simple way to subscribe to all the curated resources in one place, without having to enter an email address for every short story. At the time, there wasn’t, but we have worked out a way to make it easy for you to access all the resources in one place — right here on this page! For just $3 per month, you can have ongoing access to current and future curated resources! Let us do the late-night searching for you. Sign up here for instant digital access .

Curated Short Stories Library Members: Click here to access your downloads!

NOTE: Curated resources do not include the units that RTE has developed in house.

* These stories may be more appropriate for students with higher-level reading skills, or may require extra scaffolding from the teacher.

Copyright notice: These stories are published on sites other than reThinkELA.com and NO copyrighted stories are excerpted or quoted in RTE-created materials. Some stories are in the public domain (not copyrighted), or are excerpts of larger works, while others are not. In some cases, teachers may print a class set for their own classroom usage, but there are exceptions. Please check with your district regarding its policies and licenses for reproducing printed copies. Generally speaking, you may ask students to download their own copies (outside of the one you download for your own use) to their devices for their own educational studies.

October Inquiry into Spooky Short Stories

Imagine if you could leverage your students’ enthusiasm for Halloween to engage them in studying the spooky genre literary elements — and writing their own stories. Now you can! Check out our”October Inquiry Unit: Reading and Writing Spooky Stories.” It’s sure to engage your students in Halloween literacy all month long!

Related topics: Halloween Lesson Plans , Short Story Lesson Plans

About the author

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma student working on my doctorate in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum with an concentration in English Education and co-Editor of the Oklahoma English Journal. I am constantly seeking ways to amplify students' voices and choices.

Thank you so much for sharing! Love all of these great activities for Halloween!

You’re welcome! I’m glad this post has helped you.

I love Duffey’s Jacket …..

Thank you, Zee!

I found a copy of Duffy’s Jacket my readers can download and print for their students. I also found a few teacher’s resources for the story.

I read all the stories, and I love them.

i liked the red death story. It was very well written and a very good story.

Thank you for your comment, Mark. Poe’s works are deliciously macabre, and are favorites of students. Have you read “The Tell-Tale Heart?”

Great list. If any teachers reading this want to teach some of these pieces to their students, but are finding that their students just aren’t ready for such complex text, they may want to check out our free, multilevel versions at http://www.booksthatgrow.com . We have The Masque of the Red by Death, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Hearth, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Monkey’s Paw, A Rose for Emily, and 130+ more.

Thank you for sharing, Jason. I’m checking out what you’re offering, particularly the myths and folktales, and legends.

Do you know if these leveled versions can be printed? Or you can only view through internet?

A short short story that my students always enjoyed is “Cemetery Path.”

WOW!! Thank you so much for your generosity! My students and I will enjoy several of these stories and activities.

You’re welcome! I’d love to hear feedback from you and your students. Let me know if there are any other resources I can find for you.

These are absolutely fantastic! Thank you for the list. Do you happen to have the Lexile levels for each story?

Great list and useful links. Thanks for putting this together. My son loves spooky stories and we have been reading them together.

Thank you! Using it this month!

Thank you for your amazing blog/website/fb page, and all these stories! Everything is useful and wonderful. ?

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Grades 6-12
School Leaders

100 Last-Day-of-School Activities Your Students Will Love!

10 Scary Short Stories To Share With Your Students This October

You can’t get scared if you read them in the daylight, right?

Picture of a creepy nightime sky with a large full moon and three black bats flying in front of it

I always loved walking into English class in October and discovering my teacher had a scary short story for us to read. Sometimes, they’d dim the lights and have creepy music playing softly in the background. We’d all dive in, eager to see if it really was as scary as we hoped. When I became an English teacher, I continued that tradition. And now I’m always on the lookout for new, spooky short stories. This year, I found a few new ones I’d never heard of before, as well as rediscovered some classic, scary short stories I can’t wait to show my students. Here are the ten scary short stories I was most excited to find, as well as how a teacher might use them in a lesson.

1. Hello, Moto by Nnedi Okorafor

Three brightly colored wigs, one purple, one red, and one blue

This scary short story takes place in Nigeria. The three main characters are all Nigerian women with a powerful secret. As the main character desperately tries to undo the consequences of her terrible scientific experiment/invention gone wrong, your students will definitely pick up on some similarities to Frankenstein and other classic horror stories.

Lessons on characterization, mood/tone, and thematic ideas like the consequences of scientific experimentation. Comparisons to other horror or science-fiction stories are easily made as well. It would be an excellent companion piece to a unit studying Frankenstein .

2. A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson

Brown and white horse lying down on a bed of hay

In this creepy, atmospheric piece, the narrator wonders if the things he sees are real or if he has lost his mind. His house seems to be changing. His family too. Eventually, he realizes there’s nothing and no one he can trust. And we realize that maybe we shouldn’t trust him either.

This tale is short on stereotypical scares and high on a slowly building sense of dread. Because of this, it’s better suited for high school students. It would be a perfect piece to begin or elaborate on a lesson about unreliable narrators as well as how authors develop mood and tone. If you had a scary short story unit, it would be excellent as a modern companion piece to “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “A Cask of Amontillado.”

3. The Flowers by Alice Walker

A field full of yellow flowers with one oak tree standing in the center

This is another short story better suited for older students. Alice Walker’s coming-of-age story about a young Black girl named Myop discovering the chilling evidence of a long-past lynching isn’t one to hand out without a lot of preparation. It is a surprisingly powerful story, especially when you consider it is only two pages long. Walker’s use of setting as a way to illustrate how Myop’s worldview changes is definitely worth sharing with your students. Just be prepared for some heavy conversation about the history of racially motivated violence and its effects on young people.

Have students pay close attention to how Walker’s descriptions of the setting change as the story progresses and why she makes those choices. Discuss how Walker uses irony by writing such a dark story and setting it during a bright, sunny summer day. Ask students to determine what they believe are important thematic statements for this story.

4. His Face All Red by E.M. Carroll

Screen shot from the scary short stories His Face All Red showing a man sitting in a tavern looking at his brother while he laughs with friends

It’s always beneficial to share a good graphic novel with your class. I was excited to find this one by E.M. Carroll, a graphic novelist who writes horror stories. Not all of his work is school-appropriate, so this scary short story is a perfect find. The story revolves around a young man who is convinced his brother isn’t who he says he is. He knows this because … wait for it … he murdered his brother earlier that week.

Perfect for discussions about how graphic novels differ from “regular” novels or for an examination of how authors show literary elements like characterization, setting, suspense, or dialogue in graphic novel form. Discussions of unreliable narrators or any unit with elements of suspense could also add this story as a companion piece.

5. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Ok, this one’s an oldie but a goodie. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t have an immediate reaction to the end of this scary short story. There’s something about what Jackson leaves out of this tale of a small town and its strangest tradition that is almost infuriating. There’s no real violence in this story; it’s more implied, which makes it perfect for middle grades. Fair warning, though, it’s also what will make students respond so strongly to the story. Be prepared for students who love the open-ended ending and some who absolutely hate it.

This would be a wonderful text to assign as the core text for a Socratic seminar. All students will be able to come up with at least a few questions about the story and its characters. More complex questions about peer pressure, mob mentality, and traditions would add to the depth of the discussion. A fun creative-writing activity might have students write a prequel that explains the origins of the lottery or challenge students to write an open-ended short story of their own.

6. Lacrimosa by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Shadow of a man walking on a city street alone at night

Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia might be better known for her full-length novel, Mexican Gothic . But she also can spin one heck of a scary short story. In this story, readers will follow a Mexican man living in Vancouver. Although he is relatively successful, he is unhappy. Guilt over not doing more to support his family in Mexico, he begins to believe he is being stalked by a vengeful spirit.

Because of its obvious connection to the horror movie La Llorona , students might enjoy this new look at a story they’re already somewhat familiar with. The question of whether or not the main character is truly being haunted or if it’s just a metaphor for his guilt will certainly lead to a higher-level discussion about his motivations. This also would be a great piece to use for discussions about mood/tone.

7. The Landlady by Roald Dahl

This is another classic, but it will be new to many of your students. They’ll get a kick out of learning just how macabre the man who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory really was. While there’s no overt violence, the idea that the danger comes from the person you least suspect makes this a perfect addition to your collection of scary short stories.

Finding a narrative students are willing to reread after they’ve finished reading it a first time is a challenge. This one, however, is one I’ve never had trouble with. Students love returning to this story to find the first moments when Dahl foreshadows that everything is not what it seems. You can also use it in lessons about how authors develop characters through dialogue. The landlady gives herself away several times throughout the story if you know where to look.

8. Haunted by Harris Tobias

Spooky house at night with two lamps on the wall surrounding the house lighting the walkway to the front door

Looking for a new Halloween tale for your younger students? This haunted house story is perfect for students who can handle a little bit of scary, but not too much. In this story, the haunted house is trying to send a message to its new owner, but it’s not the message your students might expect from a typical scary story.

Several great conversations could come from a reading of this story in class. What can go wrong if we jump to conclusions and how we should ask for help when we’re afraid are two excellent topics for younger readers to tackle. Having students create their own versions of spooky creatures that are just misunderstood would make for a fun Halloween lesson as well.

9. Cow’s Head retold by S.E. Schlosser

Treasure chest with something gold glowing inside

Another great choice for younger students, this retelling of a Ukrainian folktale has just enough spooky elements to make it perfect for a Halloween lesson without crossing into truly scary territory. It feels a little bit like Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel mashed together … with a cow’s head.

This would be an excellent addition to a unit on folklore or fairy tales. Students could be encouraged to make up their own creepy folktale using similar elements to those found in the story. The teacher could also use this story as an extended thinking activity, asking students to identify the similarities to folktales from other cultures.

10. Patient Zero by Tananarive Due

Glass wall with quarantine sticker on it and hand pressed up against the glass from the other side

Just creepy enough for middle or high school students without going too far with the “deadly virus” imagery, Patient Zero is the story of Jay. He spends most of his days being taught about the Constitution and edible plants by his teacher and having blood drawn by doctors who seem a little afraid of him. The reader is left to piece together what has happened from the snippets of life Jay writes about in his journal.

This would be an awesome scary short story for a science teacher to use as a launch for lessons about viruses and asymptomatic carriers. It could also be used as the source material for a Socratic seminar or fishbowl discussion about ethics in times of crisis. What should be done with Jay? If you’ve already introduced the concept of unreliable narrators to your class with stories like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” it could also be useful to show them that unreliable narrators can be unreliable for reasons other than madness, for example, because they’re children who don’t fully understand what’s happening to them.

Looking for even more short stories to share with your class? 51 Great Short Stories to Teach in Middle School

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10 Scary Short Stories To Share With Your Students This October

Collage of images illustrating spooky campfire stories, including The Gift of a Doll and Drive of Danger

20 Scary Campfire Stories With Just the Right Level of Creepy Fun for Kids

For spooky chills and eerie thrills! Continue Reading

132 Best Horror Writing Prompts and Scary Story Ideas

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

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

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

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

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Why you shouldn't worry about invasive Joro spiders

Regina Barber, photographed for NPR, 6 June 2022, in Washington DC. Photo by Farrah Skeiky for NPR.

Regina G. Barber

Rachel Carlson

Berly McCoy

Gus Contreras

Sacha Pfeiffer

Joro spider sits in the middle of a spider web. GummyBone/Getty Images hide caption

Joro spider sits in the middle of a spider web.

Joro spiders are starting to spread across the East Coast. They are an invasive species that likely arrived in Altanta, Ga through shipping containers from eastern Asia. The city now has a large population of the arachnid . Their success in the U.S. may be due to the similarities between the southeastern climate and their native habitat.

Joro spiders are orb weavers, like Charlotte in the beloved children's book Charlotte's Web . and have patterns like native garden spiders. However, their arrival in the U.S. has alarmed people because of their appearance: Female Joro spiders can grow up to four inches long and their coloration is black and electric yellow — a combination that often indicates danger.

No, you don't need to worry about joro spiders. They may even be helpful in some ways

Invasive Species: We Asked, You Answered

Although they look like something out of a Tim Burton movie, these spiders rarely bite. Even if they did, their fangs are so small that they would have difficulty breaking human skin. Besides, on the rare occasion they do, the bite is less painful than a bee sting and doesn't need special treatment.

Human impact aside, invasive species often affect the broader ecology of an area.

The number invasive species has increased — a trend that is expected to continue thanks to global warming and increased trade. Warmer winters allow insect population to thrive, creating longer breeding seasons and an increase it habitable areas. "We also open up new shipping lanes and longer durations of shipping. And so you can actually ship things more easily and more cheaply from places where you might not have been able to get them from before," says Hannah Burrack , an entomologist at Michigan State University.

Research News

Need to track animals around the world tap into the 'spider-verse,' scientists say.

Researchers don't yet know when Joro spiders will reach the northeastern U.S. and more research is needed to determine how they will affect the environment.

In the meantime, you can help contribute to research efforts. If you've see one of these spiders, you can log the sighting at Joro Watch and iNaturalist's Project Joro .

Unrelated, we're hard at work on an upcoming episode about Pluto. As part of that, we would love for you to send a voice memo with your name, where you live, what your favorite planet is and why to us at [email protected] . We might include it in that episode!

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify , Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts .

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave .

What science story do you want to hear next on Short Wave? Email us at [email protected] .

This story was produced by Berly McCoy and Gus Contreras, edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Regina G. Barber and Rachel Carlson. Josh Newell and Neil Tevault were the audio engineers.

invasive species
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A man in a blue shirt with thick black hair looks backward toward the camera in Chime

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The best horror movie of the year so far is a Japanese NFT

Japanese horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with another terrifying masterpiece

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The release date on a new Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie should be an internationally recognized holiday for film fans, particularly for horror die-hards. Chime , the latest from the Japanese director of Cure and Pulse , warrants that kind of celebration. It’s terrifying, beautifully made, and one of the highlights of 2024 so far, no matter the genre. The only problem is that most people don’t know the movie exists, or don’t know they can watch it, because it’s only available through a somewhat complicated, NFT-inflected process.

Chime is currently rentable through the Japanese digital video trading platform Roadstead.io. Digital video trading, or DVT, as Roadstead’s site calls it, is sort of an evolution of NFTs. A certain number of copies of a movie are made available to purchase, and then the purchasers can do whatever they want with them, including renting them out to other users at whatever price point they decide on.

Chime seems to be Roadstead’s only movie so far, and thankfully, it’s easy enough to rent, though you’ll have to jump through a few hoops, starting with making an account on Roadstead’s site. From there, you head to Chime ’s rental page — which I can’t actually figure out how to access without a direct link or a Google search.

Once you click the “Rental” button, you can select which user’s copy of the movie you’d like to rent. The prices vary from copy to copy, and they’re available for a variable number of days as well. For example, one copy might cost $4.50 for a one-day rental, while another owner offers a $10 rental that lasts a week. Once you’ve selected a price and length, you can rent the movie, so long as you have a card that can be used internationally, as the site currently only accepts payment in yen. But after all that, the movie’s right there in your “assets” tab to watch for as long as you’ve got it rented.

The good news is that Chime is more than worth jumping through all these hoops for.

In the poster for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s movie Chime, a man in khaki pants and a red shirt walks down a dark road

The movie follows a former chef named Matsuoka who is teaching cooking classes while he waits to find another job. One day, a student starts complaining about a strange sound he can’t stop hearing, which seems to be changing him from the inside out, causing him to lose control of his behavior and even become violent. What makes the noise especially terrifying, though, is that it seems to spread from person to person with no warning or signs at all, leaving every moment of the movie unpredictable and tense. Kurosawa hasn’t made a horror film since 2016, but he’s sharper than he’s ever been.

Kurosawa has always been a master of creating tense, terrifying atmospheres, and he seems to take the idea of building this mood within Chime ’s short run time as a personal challenge. He pulls out every trick in his very deep bag and manages to create a creepier, more intense movie in just a couple of scenes than most movies this year have managed in their entirety.

From its earliest moments, set in Matsuoka’s kitchen classroom, everything about Chime feels perfectly calibrated to unsettle viewers. Kurosawa’s camera sweeps by students innocently cooking, but lingers on knives and burners. It sits sedately while people chop onions, like it’s just waiting for them to have an accident. When people walk through the space, it feels like a threat. They move quickly and with purpose, sometimes even with a knife pointing out in front of them, though only to cut more vegetables back at their station. It’s agonizing and brilliant.

In minutes, before any of the plot has been introduced, there’s an inescapable pull, a sense that something is going to go horribly wrong. All that’s left is to wait and see what. Kurosawa makes this whole sequence feel like a magic trick, a movie’s worth of tone-setting, handled in minutes through nothing but framing and blocking. But Kurosawa’s most impressive element in Chime is the movie’s brilliant sound design, which makes every noise feel cacophonous and inescapable.

In a poster for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Chime, a person in a red shirt walks across a long bridge

The audience never officially hears “the sound,” which the student first describes as a kind of “chime.” But there’s a recurring motif in the movie’s sparse score that seems to stand in for it instead. Around that, though, every part of the movie’s sound design is ratcheted up. Noises are distinct and clear, played with a loud crispness that feels designed to worm its way into viewers’ heads and infuriate them. Inside the sparse kitchen classroom where much of the movie’s action takes place, the sounds of knives hitting cutting boards feels like an echo that can’t be escaped, and the spatulas on frying pans sound like nails on a chalkboard.

Each sound presses down around the audience and the characters until the chime cuts through and turns the scene on its head, providing both relief from the encroaching shroud of other noises and unease in the sudden silence — and often violence — that follows it.

With all these elements working in dreadful harmony, Kurosawa has made far and away one of the best horror movies of the year so far , and he sets a more complete and frightening tone in less than half the run time of most of those movies. Like all Kurosawa’s movies, Chime isn’t necessarily the kind of scary that’s going to make you jump in the moment. It’s the kind of scary that might wake you up a few days later with an uneasy feeling, with a scene from the movie stuck uncomfortably in your head. In fact, the noise at the center of Chime feels like an almost perfect metaphor for the way its director treats his horror movies. They start quiet and strange, and they echo in your head until it’s all you can think about.

Why’s the Pacific Northwest always so creepy?

The watchers might be a compelling thriller if it wasn’t so bafflingly backward, the best horror movies you can watch right now, loading comments....

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30 Scary Story Starters for Middle School » JournalBuddies.com
Encouraging your students to write a scary story for an assignment in your class is a great way to introduce the horror genre to them while also focusing on their creative writing skills. ... your writers can create a scary short story in no time. (Or a long one if you prefer). 133 More Fun Halloween Writing Inspiration & Resources. 22 ...
9 Scary Short Stories for Middle and High School English
5. "The Monkey's Paw" This story by W.W. Jacobs personifies the saying, "Be careful what you wish for." Everyone who loves scary short stories will NOT want to miss out on this spooky tale! QUICK SYNOPSIS: When a family receives the chance to make three wishes, they encounter a series of awful events they could not have foreseen and later on cannot escape.
Two-Sentence Horror Stories: How to Teach Them
Two-Sentence Horror Stories: Introduce the Assignment. The first step to teaching this lesson is obviously going to be giving some directions. Be sure to share some examples with students, but don't give them too many. Too many examples might encourage students to copy the style of their favorites. If there are any specific requirements you ...
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.
PDF HOW TO WRITE YOUR OWN SCARY STORY
4. Choose a scary setting. Decide where and when your story takes place. 5. How did the main character end up in the scary situation? 6. Choose a bad guy or villain. Describe this character and how he or she will provoke fear in the story. 7. Complete THE 5 WS OF SCARY STORY WRITING handout.
50 Spooky Writing Prompts and Horror Story Ideas
These are all from my book 5 ,000 Writing Prompts: A Master List of Plot Ideas, Creative Exercises, and More. The book has 100 additional spooky writing prompts and horror story ideas, as well as master plots and idea starters for all kinds of writing. If you are easily scared and have an over-active imagination, just skip this one.
Thrills! Chills! Using Scary Stories to Motivate Students to Read
Overview. This lesson taps into students' desire to read scary stories and, at the same time, helps them explore story structure and develop critical thinking skills. Students examine story elements (e.g., character, setting, plot) through teacher read-alouds and independent reading. Reader-response journals and graphic organizers prepare ...
How to Write a Horror Story: R.L. Stine's Tips for Writing Horror
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Aug 10, 2021 • 5 min read. Horror stories help readers escape to another world by confronting them with the unknown. Celebrated author R.L. Stine, the creative force behind more than 300 tales of suspense and the macabre, shares his tips on how to write a horror story that will stay with your readers.
Teach Your Students How to Write a Scary Story
Scary Stories: Amp up the fear factor. Add cringe-worthy thoughts like a darkness that foreshadows an unknown danger. Have characters that get into terrifying situations by breaking the rules, making bad decisions, or ignoring a warning. Include a terrible problem that is creating a mood of doom.
How to Write a Scary Story in 5 Easy Steps
1. Write about what scares you. 2. Use Setting to Your Advantage when writing a Horror story. 3. Choose your character and point of view wisely when writing a horror story. 4. Lay It all on the line when writing a scary story. 5.
15 Haunted Halloween Writing Prompts
Creepy Story Writing Prompts. 1. It's late at night, and you hear footsteps in the cellar, but you're definitely home alone…or so you thought. 2. You've put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa.
101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts
7. A man wakes up bound to an electric chair. 8. A man wakes up in a coffin next to a freshly dead body. 9. A woman wakes up to find her family gone and her doors and windows boarded up with no way to escape. 10. A man afraid of snakes is shipwrecked on an island covered with them. 11.
Scary Short Stories To Teach Around Halloween
Below you'll find a list of my absolute favorite scary short stories that are great to teach around Halloween (or really at any time in the year) along with some teaching tips and assignment ideas to accompany each of them. 1. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury follows Eckels, a hunter who pays to go back ...
21 Scary Halloween Short Stories For Middle School
A Ghost Story by Mark Twain. The Bottle Imp by Robert Louis Stevenson. The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley. The Tomb by H.P. Lovecraft. The Tree by H.P. Lovecraft. The Screaming Skull by F. Marion Crawford. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (Available in our Curated Short Stories Library)
Short Story Unit Horror Teaching Resources
This Spooky Short Stories with Comprehension Questions Bundle contains three different scary short story units, including The Birds by ... and dialogue. The download includes a 2-page overview of the assignment itself, including draft deadlines, prompt specifics, tips for narrative writing, and additional requirements; a 2-page handout ...
Scary Short Stories Guaranteed To Set a Halloween Mood ...
6. Lacrimosa by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Mexican-Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia might be better known for her full-length novel, Mexican Gothic. But she also can spin one heck of a scary short story. In this story, readers will follow a Mexican man living in Vancouver.
Short Story Unit Plan
Description. Short Story Unit Plan - Scary and Surprising Stories - Lessons and Assignments: Elevate your English class with this chilling and thrilling short story unit, guaranteed to send shivers down your students' spines! Perfect for Halloween or any time of the year, this collection of scary and surprising stories will captivate and engage ...
Results for horror story
This HALLOWEEN HORROR STORIES [BUNDLE] product is just what you need to have an amazing HALLOWEEN/ HORROR Unit. Over 180+ slides, Over 15 Video/Digital Projects, Group Assignments and projects, handouts and worksheets, Instructional Focus Calendars, 120+ TASK CARDS, GALLERY WALKS, short responses, discussion questions, ESSAY EXAMS, READ ME ...
PDF Creative Horror Short Story Assignment
competition. For this writing assignment, everyone will write a short horror story. While reading Frankenstein and other short horror stories we will think about how authors think about audience in order to fulfill a purpose, to scare and entertain. As writers, we will think about how our
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.
Horror Short Story Teaching Resources
This no-prep short horror story with analysis activities is perfect for a 1-2 day sub plan or as an introduction to a larger horror writing unit. Richard Post's story "The Bloody Eye" will introduce the elements of suspense and horror to your students, and the included response questions and essay assignment are designed to build strong ...
Scary Short Story Assignment 2.docx
Creative Writing Assignment: Halloween Scary or Funny Story Task: In this creative writing assignment, your task is to write a 1 -1 ½ page story that is suspenseful and creates a creepy or ominous mood. The goal is to create a story that is creative and scary but not distasteful (the challenge is to create fear without hardly any blood or guts; this is what really shows your writing ability).
Joro spiders are spready in the U.S. Here's what to know : Short Wave : NPR
GummyBone/Getty Images. Joro spiders are starting to spread across the East Coast. They are an invasive species that likely arrived in Altanta, Ga through shipping containers from eastern Asia ...
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's NFT short is the best horror movie of the year so
The release date on a new Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie should be an internationally recognized holiday for film fans, particularly for horror die-hards. Chime, the latest from the Japanese director of ...
Scary story lesson plan
Short Story Unit Plan - Scary and Surprising Stories - Lessons and Assignments: Elevate your English class with this chilling and thrilling short story unit, guaranteed to send shivers down your students' spines! Perfect for Halloween or any time of the year, this collection of scary and surprising stories will captivate and engage your students. Explore the dark and mysterious world of ...