31 Spooky Writing Prompts for October – A Daily Prompt Challenge

October Writing Prompts

As the leaves turn golden and the air grows crisp, October ushers in a season of mystery and imagination. For writers, this month offers a unique opportunity to explore the eerie, the supernatural, and the downright spooky. To help you make the most of this creatively charged time, we’ve compiled 31 spine-tingling writing prompts—one for each day of October!

Why Should Writers Use Daily Prompts?

Daily writing prompts serve as excellent warm-up exercises, sparking creativity and helping to overcome writer’s block. They encourage you to think outside your usual narrative patterns and can lead to unexpected story ideas or character developments. According to a survey by the National Writing Project, 78% of writers who use prompts regularly report increased productivity and creativity!

How Can These Prompts Enhance Your Writing Skills?

Each prompt is designed to challenge different aspects of your writing:

1. Character development

2. Setting description

3. Dialogue creation

4. Plot twisting

5. Atmosphere building

By tackling a new prompt each day, you’ll flex various writing muscles and potentially discover new strengths in your craft.

Now, without further ado, let’s dive into the 31 spooky writing prompts for October!

31 Spooky Writing Prompts for October

1. Write a story where the protagonist slowly realizes they’re the monster in a horror tale.

2. Write a love story that began on a Halloween night five years ago.

3. Describe a haunted house attraction from the perspective of one of the scare actors.

4. Create a narrative where silence is deadly, and noise is the only thing keeping the characters alive.

5. Create a narrative around a mysterious podcast that predicts listeners’ deaths.

6. Write about a character who realizes their recurring nightmare is a suppressed memory.

7. Craft a tale about a character who can manipulate others’ fears, but at a terrible personal cost.

8. Write about a group of witches who meet on Halloween night to reverse a centuries-old curse, only to discover it’s been protecting them all along.

9. Describe a world where jack-o’-lanterns are used to trap evil spirits, and one family forgets to light theirs.

10. Every October, the birds in your town disappear, only to return with something strange in their beaks.

11. You find an old, ornate mirror at a yard sale. When you hang it up at home, you realize it shows a different reality.

12. Write a dialogue between two cemetery statues who come to life on Halloween night.

13. Create a story about a Halloween candy that allows people to temporarily experience the memories of the house they’re trick-or-treating at.

14. An arborist investigating a series of rapid tree deaths in a national park uncovers a centuries-old curse tied to the fall equinox.

15. Create a tale centered on a character making their favorite apple-based dessert, but with an unusual twist.

16. A grocery list you made starts changing on its own, adding increasingly bizarre items.

17. A forest trail appears only in October, and no one who walks it comes back quite the same.

18. The town’s fall festival hayride has been running for years, but this year, none of the passengers come back.

19. A meteorologist tracking unusual weather patterns discovers a correlation between autumn storms and reported ghost sightings.

20. You discover your new neighbors are friendly werewolves. How does this affect your life?

21. A Halloween parade takes a bizarre turn when the floats are mysteriously occupied by something other than humans—turns out, they throw better candy.

22. Describe a day in the life of the Grim Reaper during their busiest season.

23. On Halloween night, all the black cats in the city vanish. The next morning, they return, but something is different about them.

24. Write about a character who can see ghosts but pretends they can’t to avoid dealing with their demands.

25. A ghost asks you to help solve their murder.

26. After a heavy fog rolls in, people start disappearing from your town, leaving nothing behind but their shadows.

27. The local cemetery always has an extra grave by the end of October, but no one knows who it belongs to until it’s too late.

28. A mysterious letter arrives inviting you to a Halloween ball at a mansion that was demolished 50 years ago.

29. You’re a time traveler who accidentally lands in Salem during the witch trials. What do you do?

30. An antique Halloween mask grants its wearer the ability to see and communicate with the dead, but only until midnight.

31. Explore the consequences of a town that decides to ban Halloween, only to face supernatural repercussions.

How Can You Make the Most of This Challenge?

Set a daily writing goal: Commit to writing for a specific amount of time or word count each day. Even 15 minutes or 300 words can make a significant difference over the course of the month!

Create a writing routine: Choose a consistent time and place for your daily writing. This helps establish a habit and signals to your brain that it’s time to be creative.

Share your work: Consider joining a writing group or sharing your creations online. Feedback can be invaluable, and the accountability can help you stick to the challenge.

Reflect on your progress: At the end of each week, review your writings. Notice any patterns, improvements, or areas you’d like to develop further.

What If You Get Stuck?

If you find yourself struggling with a prompt, try these techniques:

Freewrite for five minutes without stopping

Change the perspective of the story

Combine two prompts for a unique twist

Research the folklore or history related to the prompt for inspiration

Remember, the goal is to spark creativity, not to produce perfect pieces. Allow yourself the freedom to experiment and even write something “bad”—it’s all part of the process!

Embracing the Shadows of Your Imagination

As you embark on this 31-day journey through the realms of the spooky and supernatural, remember that each prompt is a doorway to unexplored territories of your imagination. This challenge is not just about producing 31 pieces of writing; it’s about developing your skills, pushing your creative boundaries, and perhaps discovering new aspects of your writing voice.

By the end of October, you’ll have a collection of unique stories, scenes, and ideas that you can further develop into larger works. Who knows? The seed of your next great novel or short story collection might be hiding among these prompts!

So, sharpen your pencils, boot up your computers, and prepare to let the eerie atmosphere of October fuel your creativity. Happy writing, and may your stories be as thrilling to write as they are to read!

Erin K. Larson-Burnett, Production Manager at Atmosphere Press (submit your manuscript here!), is a born-and-raised Southerner currently living in Katy, Texas, with her husband and their small domestic zoo. She is an avid ink drinker who lives and breathes books—during the day, she works remotely with authors around the world, honing and perfecting books published through Atmosphere Press. By night, she crafts her own stories…or at least tries to. The Bear & the Rose is her debut novel.