50 Horror Writing Prompts

I have been spending more and more time writing, but I keep wanting some prompts to get the inspiration flowing. But I wasn’t finding any that really hit the right note for me. I wanted some with horror or sci-fi elements already baked in. So… I made some!

Today I offer you 50 Horror Writing Prompts. With 10 in each subcategory:

1. Home Horror
2. Sci-Fi Horror
3. Circus Horror
4. Aquatic Horror
5. Supernatural Horror

Home Horror Prompts

1. There’s a demon in my teapot
2.  Someone keeps writing messages on the bathroom mirror
3. The doors and windows have suddenly sealed themselves shut with your main character stuck inside
4. A monster has found its way into the house using mirrors
5. Someone is living inside the walls
6. One doorway in the house is actually a portal to another dimension
7. The back porch transforms into something that stalks the streets each night
8. A cursed object is brought home from the flea market
9. Mice in the basement are plotting against the owners of the house
10. There is someone dancing in the attic

Sci-Fi Horror Prompts

1. A child has brought home a new pet… alien
2. A meteor just crashed into the backyard pool
3. Due to an unfortunate mishap at NASA… the floor is lava
4. Strings of a strange substance have attached your character to their couch and the TV is the trying to communicate with them
5. Something has attached itself to the hull of the spaceship
6. A strange fungus has started to change the environment inside the bio-dome
7. A glowing worm offers one final hope to a desperate person
8. The spaceship has been boarded and the crew has moments to react before they are discovered
9. The robots are revolting against humanity… write from their perspective
10. An A.I. leaves behind a poltergeist to harass space bounty hunters

Circus Horror Prompts

1. Clowns are the good-guys in a fight against evil
2. During their performance, a circus performer becomes aware of something incredibly wrong with the audience
3. The circus is in town and it won’t leave until it collects enough souls
4. A specific type of animal keeps congregating around the circus tents, more and more appear each day
5. The lion tamer suddenly starts seeing into the future
6. What’s inside the ring master’s locked chest?
7. A child is convinced the roller-coaster is actually a monster in disguise
8. A mother loses her child in the crowd at an event
9. The popcorn is people
10. The carnies are all werewolves and your character just found out

Aquatic Horror Prompts

1. A person is stranded at sea and there is something in-human on board with them
2. Tell the story of a locked chest dredged up from the lake
3. A fisherman catches something he wish he could throw back
4. The spirits of a drowned society have returned to the sea-side town
5. The storm coming in from the coast shorts out all electricity before something horrific enters the scene
6. Something wraps around a swimmer’s ankle and drags them into another reality
7. The life-vest is possessed
8. A demon is fishing next to my houseboat
9. Electric eels are swarming
10. The lifeguard has 5 minutes left to find the missing child

Supernatural Horror Prompts

1. A sleep-walking person wakes up in the middle of an abandoned town to see a strange ritual taking place
2. A mysterious entity meets for a coffee date
3. A wizard has just been evicted from his home
4. A werewolf, a vampire, and Medusa walk into a bar…
5. Write a “Missed connections” post from  the POV of the monster under the bed
6. Write about a paranormal character with a strange addiction
7. A ghoul has started living in the churchyard next door
8. Goblins have kidnapped your pet goat, Homer.
9. A wendigo has found an unsuspecting camper
10. There are ghost bats in the belfry

If you use any of these prompts, share your story with me! I would love to read it! I’m @Horror_Made on Twitter, @JeanetteAndromeda on Instagram and everywhere else.

For the next post, I’m going to challenge myself to actually share what I write for one of these prompts. Which one sparks your interest the most?