Generally I must shake out of my routine. And to do this, I like to simply scour over writing prompts and resolve if they’re going to work for me. I attempt to put my very own riff on them and add them into different concepts and break them down, and actually simply pull aside what I feel works and would not. These workout routines assist me break a narrative, provide you with new concepts, and simply get me again on monitor. So at this time, I made a decision to dump 200 horror writing prompts out so that you can play with. I hope they lead you down a darkish and scary path into your subsequent novel or screenplay. Let’s dive in.
Horror Writing Prompts
‘Crimson Peak’Credit score: Legendary Psychological & Existential HorrorYou get up, and your reflection within the mirror will not cease screaming.You discover a diary you do not bear in mind writing. It particulars the subsequent week of your life, together with your homicide.Everybody on this planet immediately has the very same face. You are the one one who remembers what they used to appear like.You are a therapist whose new affected person’s delusions are beginning to manifest in your individual life.You begin receiving packages at your door containing your individual tooth, one after the other.You start to suspect your doppelgänger is not simply making an attempt to interchange you; it is making an attempt to enhance you.A reminiscence that is not yours seems in your thoughts. Then one other. And one other.You’re the solely one who can see the large, silent figures that stand over folks’s beds whereas they sleep.After a head damage, you may hear the ideas of inanimate objects. The outdated ones are filled with rage.You are satisfied you died yesterday. Nobody else appears to have observed.Supernatural & ParanormalThe actual property agent “forgot” to say that the earlier homeowners of your new home did not go away—they have been absorbed by it.A baby’s imaginary buddy is petrified of one thing else that lives in the home.Each mirror in your house reveals a mirrored image that’s barely out of sync along with your actions. Final evening, it waved at you.The final particular person to die in your loved ones would not go away. They change into a silent, watchful guardian, however their presence slowly drives the dwelling mad.You’re a ghost, making an attempt to warn the brand new household concerning the different factor that haunts your own home.The vintage music field you got solely performs when somebody within the room is about to die. It simply began enjoying your favourite tune.A séance goes flawed, not as a result of it summons a spirit, however as a result of it banishes one of many contributors to an unknown realm, leaving an empty chair.You discover an outdated Polaroid digicam. The pictures it takes present the scene moments after a horrible tragedy happens. You simply took a selfie.The native church is not for worshipping a god; it is for preserving one thing placated within the crypt beneath.The shadow within the nook of your room is not yours, and it is getting bigger.Physique Horror & MedicalYou discover a unusual new mole in your pores and skin. It has an ideal, repeating geometric sample.After a minor surgical procedure, you discover the stitches beneath your pores and skin do not feel like thread. They really feel like they’re wriggling.A brand new “miracle” weight-loss drug works, however the place does the mass really go? You discover out while you hear a scratching from inside your closet.You begin coughing up issues that should not be inside an individual: soil, rusted nails, and beetle carapaces.Your bones start to ache and shift, slowly rearranging themselves into a brand new, unfamiliar skeleton.You get up with an ideal surgical scar in your chest that wasn’t there while you went to sleep. You are feeling one thing lacking inside.The dentist finds a second row of tooth rising behind your individual, like a shark. They don’t seem to be human tooth.A brand new species of fungus can completely mimic human flesh. You simply found a patch of it rising in your associate’s again.You donate blood and get a name from the blood financial institution. They let you know to by no means, ever donate blood once more, and refuse to clarify why.Your fingernails begin rising at an alarming fee, coiling like rams’ horns and turning into laborious as metal.Sci-Fi & Cosmic HorrorYou are the only survivor of a deep-space mission. The ship’s AI will not let you know what occurred to the crew, but it surely retains buzzing a lullaby their captain used to sing.The primary message from an alien civilization is simply two phrases: “Be quiet.”Astronomers uncover that the moon is not a pure satellite tv for pc. It is an egg, and it is beginning to hatch.A terraforming challenge on a brand new planet awakens one thing historical and hungry that was sleeping beneath the mud.Your new sensible house is designed to your each want. It has now been determined that to your personal security, it’s best to by no means go away once more.The celebs are disappearing one after the other.A analysis workforce on the South Pole finds a brand new colour, one which the human eye should not have the ability to understand. Taking a look at it causes instantaneous, violent insanity.You are an archivist digitizing outdated audio recordsdata. You discover a recording of a numbers station that stops broadcasting numbers and begins pleading for assist.Humanity makes it to Mars, solely to seek out an actual duplicate of your childhood hometown ready for them.A black gap begins broadcasting a sign. It’s a single, repeating heartbeat.Creature & MonsterThe monster beneath your mattress is afraid of the factor that lives in your closet.You are a park ranger in a nationwide forest the place the “lacking individuals” posters aren’t for individuals who bought misplaced, however for individuals who have been taken as tributes.The scarecrows within the native fields get nearer to the street each evening.A deep-sea expedition discovers a brand new species. Within the footage, you may see it has crafted instruments from the bones of the earlier expedition’s crew.The “stray” animal you introduced dwelling would not eat the meals you give it. It eats your unhealthy reminiscences, leaving you a cheerful, hole shell of an individual.One thing has been looking the pigeons within the metropolis. Now, it is beginning to hunt for greater prey.The folklore concerning the native woods is true. Do not whistle at evening. Do not step on a mushroom ring. And by no means, ever say its title.A brand new type of termite would not simply eat wooden. It eats bone.On a tenting journey, you notice the chirping crickets have been changed by a sound that’s virtually, however not fairly, human whispering.Your cat retains bringing you useless issues, however they’re issues that should not exist—animals with too many legs, birds with human-like eyes.People Horror & IsolationYou win a free trip to a distant, idyllic village. The residents are pleasant, however they refuse to allow you to go away. It is virtually time for the harvest competition.The cave work in a newly found cavern do not depict animals; they depict an in depth historical past of the long run. The final panel reveals the cave’s entrance collapsing on you.You are stranded in a city the place nobody is older than 30. While you ask the place the outdated individuals are, they simply smile and level to the crops within the fields.Each 27 years, a small island city sends a ship out to sea. It at all times returns with a full crew, however they’re by no means the identical individuals who left.The youngsters within the remoted village play a sport known as “Feed the Roots.” You have simply been chosen to be the “seed.”A lighthouse keeper slowly realizes the sunshine is not meant to information ships away from the rocks, however to lure one thing particular in the direction of them.In a city shrouded by perpetual fog, the locals have realized to navigate by the shapes they see shifting inside it. You’ll be able to’t see the shapes.The outdated nicely within the heart of city is claimed to grant needs. It does, but it surely takes one thing of equal worth from you later, while you least anticipate it.You inherit a farm in a rural valley. The contract has a wierd clause: you need to go away a bowl of contemporary milk on the porch each evening for “the neighbors.”The attractive corn maze has a secret: it’s a labyrinth designed to lure a sacrifice for a bountiful harvest.Fashionable & Technological HorrorYour GPS reroutes you down a darkish, unfamiliar street. It proclaims, “You might have arrived.” There may be nothing there. The doorways lock.You get a buddy request on social media from somebody for a truth is useless. Their current posts are pictures of you, sleeping.A brand new social media filter can present you what you’d appear like as a ghost. For you, nothing adjustments.You be part of a video name for work, however you see your self in two of the home windows. The opposite “you” begins mouthing the phrases “HELP ME.”An AI artwork generator begins creating photorealistic photos of against the law that hasn’t occurred but. The newest picture is of your front room.Your kid’s new speaking doll generally says issues in a voice that is not its personal, sharing secrets and techniques it could not probably know.You discover a forgotten folder of movies in your pc. They’re all recordings of you, filmed from an angle inside your individual monitor.The “reside” feed out of your new child monitor reveals an outdated girl singing to your youngster. While you rush into the room, it is empty.You obtain a meditation app that guarantees that will help you discover your inside voice. It does, however the voice just isn’t pleasant.A cellphone sport goes viral. It makes use of the participant’s digicam to create augmented actuality monsters. The monsters do not disappear while you shut the app.Discovered Footage & EpistolaryYou purchase a used camcorder at a thrift retailer. The final tape left inside is the ultimate, frantic recording of its earlier proprietor. What they have been operating from is now in your own home.You are a 911 operator. You obtain a panicked name from your individual quantity. On the opposite finish, you may hear your individual terrified respiration.A sequence of letters from a Nineteenth-century sailor describes his journey to a newly found island, the place the crew slowly turned on one another beneath the affect of a wierd, fixed sound.You discover a USB drive labeled “EVIDENCE.” It comprises audio logs from a researcher describing a newly found parasite that spreads by means of eye contact. The final file is a video. The researcher appears to be like instantly on the digicam.A police proof locker comprises a group of journals from a dozen completely different folks, all of whom vanished. The ultimate entry in every journal is similar, single, cryptic sentence.Miscellaneous & OdditiesThe value of immortality is that you just slowly overlook everybody you ever beloved.You’re employed the evening shift at a morgue. One evening, a physique arrives with a contemporary tattoo that reads, “Do not bury me. I am not executed.”All of the clocks on this planet cease at 3:33 AM. They begin once more a minute later, however one thing is completely different. One thing is lacking.You’re the solely one who remembers that the sky was blue. Everybody else insists it has at all times been this sickly, crimson colour.A clown performs for a youngsters’s hospital. He is by no means seen arriving or leaving, however the sickest youngsters at all times appear to get higher proper earlier than one other youngster disappears.The town’s mannequins have began shifting to completely different storefronts in a single day. They’re slowly gathering in a single place.You are a lucid dreamer, however you end up in a dream you may’t management. Another person is dreaming you.The Tooth Fairy is actual, however she wants the tooth for a horrible function.On the subway, a matted man arms you a crumpled observe that claims, “Do not belief the one who appears to be like identical to you.” You lookup and see your actual double sitting on the different finish of the automotive.The rain in your city hasn’t stopped for 40 days and 40 nights. The water is rising, and also you’re beginning to see issues shifting within the floodwaters.Each e book on this planet immediately has a brand new, equivalent closing chapter. It describes the tip of all the pieces.The viewers on the magic present is mesmerized by the “disappearing cupboard” trick. They do not notice that the magician’s assistants by no means reappear backstage.You’ll be able to immediately perceive what birds are saying. They’re scouts, reporting on human exercise to one thing older and bigger.Each evening, somebody hangs a brand new, intricately woven dreamcatcher outdoors your window. Each morning, you get up with a brand new scar.The sound of your individual heartbeat is not your individual. It is beating in a rhythm that is not fairly proper.You discover a map that results in a spot that does not exist. The map is a tattoo on the within of your individual pores and skin.The census taker visits your own home. After asking the usual questions, he asks, “And what number of souls reside right here?” He’s not smiling.A brand new restaurant opens with a secret menu merchandise. Those that eat it are by no means unhappy once more. They’re by no means something once more.All of the canine within the neighborhood begin barking on the similar empty spot on the road nook at nightfall.You’re a skilled cleaner for crime scenes. At some point, you are known as to a scene the place the one blood belongs to somebody who has been useless for 50 years.An outdated playground rhyme, when sung backward, is definitely an incantation. A bunch of youngsters simply found it.The mannequins in a clothes retailer are created from a brand new, hyper-realistic materials. They really feel heat to the contact.You pull a free thread in your sweater, and it would not cease. As you pull, a part of the world round you begins to unravel with it.The outdated household recipe e book has an ingredient listed you have by no means seen earlier than. You discover it on the market on-line, but it surely’s listed beneath “human stays.”On the finish of your life, you’re given a alternative: heaven, hell, or the possibility to hang-out the one who wronged you most. You select the third choice, solely to seek out your self standing behind your new child youngster.Let me know what you assume within the feedback.
