10 Horrifying Horror Story Prompts
Here are 10 horror story prompts that should give you the chills and get you writing something scary. Warning if these don’t scare you, you are most likely a zombie, vampire, werewolf, or ghost. If you are unaware of being one of the undead, seek medical attention immediately.
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- You have had a strange feeling for a few days now. Today you’ve been feeling very energetic and tired at the same time. You sit, exhausted and full of energy, at your desk. Your arm has been itching. It’s killing you now. You look at your forearm and see it for the first time. Something is moving under your skin. It is shifting around. You have muscle spasms, and you realize dozens are moving toward the surface.
- You open your eyes to complete darkness. The last thing you remember is the dog running out into the road, the brightness of the daylight, and your car headed off the road. As your head clears, you realize you are hanging upside down. Your feet and legs are completely mobilized. You can hear something breathing in the room.
- You are driving on a country road. It is late at night. You are far from home. As you check your mirrors, you realize there is a man you do not know hiding on the floor of your back seat.
- It’s 3 am. Your room is dark, but you can see someone standing at the foot of your bed. You can make out that they are wearing a clown costume, and you are pretty sure, from the glare and the little bit of reflection, that it has a knife.
- At 3 am, you wake up out of a very sound sleep. You hear the ice cream truck outside of your house. And you realize the sound that woke you up was the sound of your 4-year-old daughter letting the screen down slam as she left the house.
- You need to arrive on time. After quickly getting ready, you rush out of the house and to your car door. A sound gets your attention, and you look at your surroundings for the first time this morning. There is a fully grown male lion just a few feet from you. Your car door is still locked.
- You are falling. The 737 is 100 yards above you. You hear the rush of the wind, and it’s so cold. You realize you are still holding your baby.
- The worst cramps you have ever had set in on your biceps. Your arms are twisting. You feel your ankles popping. It came on so suddenly. You drop to your knees, look through your bedroom window, and see the full moon. You hear a little voice behind you, “Mommy?” (or “daddy”)
- You are frozen with fear. You open your eyes; the tent is dark. But you can feel the heavy weight of a giant tarantula covering one eye. Through the other eye, you can see the shadows, from the moonlight, of 100s, if not 1000s, of other spiders covering the tent.
- The man leans into you. There is a dark red, almost black, color to the whites of his eyes. He is so close his nose is almost touching your nose. You can feel his breath when he says, “We all have it here. We are all infected.
Well, we hope you have enjoyed our prompts. Some people find them scary, and some people don’t. Either way, these scary writing prompts will hopefully kick off your creativity.
We love hearing from you, so leave us a comment below. Try your hand at writing one of these ideas. If you do, we’d love to see them, and we will even consider publishing them. Check out our submissions page to submit your work.
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Richard Everywriter (pen name) is the founder of EveryWriter and a 25-year veteran of the publishing industry. With degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology, and Education, Richard has dedicated two decades to teaching writing and literature while championing emerging voices through EveryWriter's platform. His work focuses on making literary analysis accessible to readers at all levels while preserving the rich heritage of American literature. Connect with Richard on Twitter Bluesky Facebook or explore opportunities to share your own work on ourSubmissions page. For monthly insights on writing and publishing, subscribe to our Newsletter.
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It’s great! Not that scary, but I made over 10 stories with this!
To everybody who says, “These aren’t scary,” you’re supposed to make it scary. Think of these prompts as ingredients you take out of your fridge or pantry. It’s up to you to put the flour and eggs together to make something delicious. If you don’t add your own twists, raw eggs and flour by themselves taste like crap.
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