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Best Horror Writing Prompts

Join our ongoing contests and win up to $1,500. Flex those creative muscles with these writing prompts.

Showing 64 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Signs and Omens

131 contest entries /
63 stories

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Closes at 23:59 - Oct 09 EST

An apparent coincidence occurs. Write a story about a character who suspects paranormal, spiritual, or criminal causes.

– 128 stories

Write about a mysterious figure in one’s neighborhood.

– 203 stories

Write a story that involves a reflection in a mirror.

– 286 stories

Start your story with a character looking out of a window in the middle of the night.

– 333 stories

Start your story in an empty guest room.

– 150 stories

Start your story with the arrival of a strange visitor in a small town.

– 184 stories

Set your story at a party that has gone horribly wrong.

– 193 stories

Write a story about a character who gets lost at a carnival or festival.

– 187 stories

Write a story set in a city where the power suddenly goes out, leaving everyone in darkness.

– 185 stories

Set your story in a countryside house that’s filled with shadows.

– 168 stories

End your story with a truth coming to light.

– 180 stories

Write a story that begins in the light and ends in darkness, or the other way around.

– 376 stories

Set your story in a library, after hours.

– 249 stories

Set your story in a Gothic manor house.

– 131 stories

"Come with us,” two burly men in gray suits say, grabbing you by the arm and handcuffing you. “You know what you did.” But you have no idea.

– 108 stories

You hear the crash of plates and a bloodcurdling scream coming from the kitchen.

It’s 3 am and you don’t know where your children are.

You'd always wanted to fall in with this crowd. Now that you had, you weren't sure about them anymore.

Everyday, you return to your apartment and say “Honey, I’m home. Oh wait, that’s right, I live alone.” But one day, a voice replies, “I picked some pizza.”

You work as a host at a restaurant when someone comes in and says they have a reservation. You look it up to find that the reservation was booked 40 years ago.

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