A sinkhole swallows a house whole and unleashes something from beneath. Why? But they listen in … Fantasy is a great genre for exploring quests, such as finding a magical item or rescuing a Princess. Think about your most offbeat friend. Although some plot types lend themselves more to some genres than others, genre is a different dimension to plot, and some plots may span across several genres. Write about that detective. But beware! 57. Writing a great story isn’t just about a great idea. Mannequins in a department store seem to be moving on their own.
A boy’s stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf. Look at the front page of your local paper. There’s someone or something living and moving up in the attic — but it’s not a ghost. A door-to-door salesman circa the 1950s visits the wrong house.

54. A woman is watching a scary movie alone on Halloween night — someone, or something, keeps knocking at her door. The two are separated when the step-sister gets a horrifying tattoo. Write a story describing a sinister reason for its disappearance. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire. 16.


94. Friends on a road trip stumble upon a back country town whose residents all dress up as different types of clowns. An important event forces the main character to change his/her ways, often making him/her a better person. A man wakes up to find a hobo clown staring down at him.

I could have been anything—a doctor, lawyer, architect. You can use prompts below to help you harness your own life and background to come up with story ideas that are easy to develop. A humorous character faces conflict that becomes more and more confusing, but is at last made plain in a single clarifying event. And she’s alive. 53. 101. Think about the last good decision you made. 25. He was just a simple guy with simple problems. A little girl comes down from upstairs and asks her parents, “Can you hear it breathing?

Something demonic. What would have happened if you'd made the wrong choice? 3. Fifteen years later her parents get a call from her older self.

If you scare easily — and have active imaginations like most writers do — turn up the lights and proceed with caution…. 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. But it’s also a tragic love story. A man wakes up in a coffin next to a fresh dead body. Someone looks out their window to see a clown standing at a corner holding a balloon — staring them. Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good scary story. A scare walk in the woods during Halloween is actually real. Learn how to write great movie dialogue with this free guide. 38. A protagonist is in some way misfortune, usually financially. 4.

11. Could there be a conspiracy behind the main headline?

14.

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

Someone is taking a bath as a hand from behind the shower curtain pushes their head into the water. A doctor performs the first head transplant — things go wrong. An Artificial Intelligence begins to communicate with a family online, only to terrorize them through their technology. A prisoner awakens to find the prison empty — but he’s locked in his cell. 55. © 2020 ScreenCraft. Rebirth. 95. A hair stylist overhears something she shouldn't while cutting hair. 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! 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. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive. 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. 49. A jetliner flies high in the sky as Nuclear War breaks out below.

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. 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.

32. We get our ideas from a plethora of sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. 84. Abhishek is a dentist from Southend-on-Sea who falls in love with his step-sister. 59. 43. Years after the zombie apocalypse subsides, survivors discover that the epidemic was caused by aliens that have appeared to lay claim to the planet. When he saw the state troopers standing on his front stoop, he thought they must have the wrong house. 62. | A Red Ampersand Company.

71. 27. A man wakes up bound to an electric chair. However, Abhishek manages to rescue the situation by changing his identity. A girl hears laughter downstairs — she’s the only one home. Lilies of the Valley: As the new housekeeper for a prominent wealthy family, one of your tasks is to … A group of friends are forced to venture through a chamber of horrors where only one is promised to survive. 65. What if the God people worshiped was really Satan — and Satan had somehow kept God prisoner? A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

A woman out hiking is caught in a bear trap as the sun begins to go down. 70. Often, the detective will fail to stop the criminal before another crime is committed (tragedy) before growing as a person (rebirth) and sometimes overcoming a personal barrier. Though he was a bit shy.Sometimes he can't accomplish anything, because he is held back by fear. A family buys a cheap house only to discover that an old cemetery is their back yard. Instead, I became a carney. 17.

74. Something has turned the neighborhood pets into demonic killers. Something ancient rises from an old pond. Write a fictional account of his/her five minutes leading up to the taking of the photograph.

1. 90. 64. 13. 22.

18. 86. Somebody clones Hitler and raises him as a white supremacist.

Someone discovers that we are all actually robots — who created us and why? The protagonist is a hero who makes a mistake that brings about his/her downfall, evoking sympathy. Stone gargoyles suddenly appear on the tops of buildings and houses of a small town. A boy has a tumor that slowly grows into a Siamese twin — the older they get, the more evil the twin becomes. A woman has memories of being abducted by aliens — but she soon learns that they weren’t aliens. Enter the ScreenCraft Horror Screenplay Competition here. 15. 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. 88.

New residents to an old neighborhood are invited by their friendly neighbors to a Halloween party. Alternatively, we see a character who's genuinely flawed (often a commitment phobic) changed into a better person by love. The protagonist is a hero who makes a mistake that brings about his/her downfall, evoking sympathy. Already have a great horror screenplay?

Like all boys he was attracted to this one girl. 69. An important event forces the main character to change his/her ways, often making him/her a better person. One of the easiest ways to write a terrific story is to write about what you know. 7. The devil told me to.”, 85.