Story Starters: Halloween Theme

Another way to help students generate ideas for creative writing is to provide them with story starters.  The free write may get students to think about certain characters they might want to include and certain settings that they might place their characters in.  Here is a sample of some free writes for Halloween story starters.  Rather than telling students "Write a story about a haunted house," it is often beneficial to give them a specific starting point.  Then they can develop the ideas from the free write or come up with their own Halloween stories.  (Notice that #10 has a connection to the characters that we started to develop in class.  Perhaps there is a story there? If you have not written your story yet, feel free to try out one of these story starters.  Be sure to use the planning page when you are starting to plan out your structured story.  Free writes, however, do not necessarily require a planning page first.  The free write might help students fill out a planning page later when starting to structure the story.)

Activity: Students should write a Halloween Happening (short story) of their choice.  The Halloween Happening should have a beginning, middle, and end.  There should be a plot, setting, and characters.  Here are some story starters:

1.) "What is that AWFUL smell?" I asked. Then I saw the cauldron full of bubbling purple liquid ...


2.) I took off my Halloween costume, washed the paint off my face, put on my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. I was almost asleep when I first heard the sound ...


3.) One dark and rainy Halloween ...


4.) It was the night before Halloween ...


5.) The black cat twitched its tail twice. It hissed. Then ...


6.) Everybody said the old Bosworth mansion was haunted ...


7.) My brother/sister and I were walking through the woods one Halloween day when we saw what appeared to be a short cut. "Let's go that way," my brother said ...


8.) Ugh. I think I've eaten too much Halloween candy ...


9.) Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound came from inside the closet. Quietly, I crept toward the door ...


10.) When Amy met Henrald she was only six and he was 600, but they had more in common than one might have thought.  Halloween was their favorite holiday and....