Halloween short story prompts

Spooky season has begun! It’s time to get in the mood by writing something Halloween-themed. Whether you’re working on flash fiction, a short story, a novella, or something a bit longer or different.

Try out some of these Halloween short story prompts have been listed below.

Any acknowledgement or credit for using any of my short story prompts is appreciated.

22 Halloween short story prompts

You can take just one prompt or combine any of the following for one story! Every prompt is entirely up to your interpretation.

You’ll find prompts for characters, words, settings, tropes, plotlines, and something sensory below.

Characters: A teenager aspiring to be a sorcerer. A former blood mage. A killer cat.

Words: Beheading. Crack. Acid. Gasp. Hunted. Squalid.

Settings: Wedding. Police station. Maze.

Tropes: Dead All Along. Vampire Hunter. Spirit of Halloween

Plotlines:

• A character never takes warnings seriously, and someone decides to scare them into changing.
• Nobody saw the beast coming until it was too late.
• It isn’t a portal to hell. It’s far worse.
• The antagonist uses pumpkins to demonstrate what they’re going to do when they catch the protagonist(s).
• A couple meets and weds on Halloween.
• Magic is real, you just need to find the right place to channel it.

Sensory: Howling.

Halloween character ideas

Here are some Halloween-themed character ideas for protagonists and antagonists to write in your stories.

• A protagonist who dresses up as a witch but finds themself mistaken for one.
• An overconfident protagonist who doesn’t believe in curses.
• Two protagonists haunted by a Halloween party gone wrong.
• An antagonist who uses Halloween to disguise themself during their hunt.
• A bloodthirsty antagonist who bathes in the blood they spill.
• There are multiple antagonists vying for the same victim.