Horror story opening paragraph

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

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

Horror Writing Prompts List

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

1. 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 ha
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   5 out of 5 Stars

   Well, since this is pretty self-explanatory, it as an Anthology of Horror Stories (or Drabbles) each told in 100 words. So, I will skip the synopsis and go straight in to a couple of my favourite stories and my GUSHING praise!!

   I can’t tell you all how much I LOVED this Anthology!! It is so hard to give you all examples of the amazing stories in this because I found myself highlighting almost every story in it! Lol!! The different views on what a Horror Story should be were amazing, so many different thoughts! Some were gruesome, some were psychological, some were scary because it deals in Reality and really makes you think, and some were silly… but in a scary kind of way!

   I’m going to share a couple of MY personal favourites with you, but I’m not going to tell you which category they fall into so you will have to figure it out!!

   Just a Game

   Christopher Motz 

   Jack gave each of his four friends a small, clear capsule and took his place in the circle.
   “How does this game work?” Jenna asked.
   “You all

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   How to Write Horror - With Cynthia Pelayo

   This post comes from Cynthia Pelayo, a horror novelist and poet who won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Poetry Collection in 2022. You can learn more about her on her website, or from her author bio at the end of this post.

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   Horror is such a vast, dark sea of possibility, it can be hard to know where to start. As a horror author myself, I can definitely relate to struggling with scope! But after creating multiple works of horror over the past decade, I now have a much better understanding of the genre than I once did.

   In this post, I’ll attempt to draw on that understanding (as well as some horror classics and perennial favorites) to help you write a horror novel of your very own! Here's how to write horror in 8 spooky steps 👻

   1. Grasp the true nature of horror

   A few years back, I saw author Grady Hendrix conduct a presentation on his novel The Final Girl Support Group. He said something that stuck with me — that he doesn’t think of horror as a genre in the traditional sense, but instead as more of a category, and then within th