Whether you’re a serious writer or an occasional writer, a writing prompt can help you to turn a blank piece of paper into a completed, creative story. Prompts give you something specific to focus on and often gets the wheels turning. They can also trigger a particular memory or exciting event, which can work its way into your story.

Writing is one of my favorite things to do, and I’ve been known to peruse through a few online prompts to help conjure up a few ideas. Another thing that works for me is to use my senses to help generate ideas.

Sight– After seeing a photo of a lovely garden, it can become the premise for an evil creature living underground. Or, if I’m out running errands and drive passed a distant hillside, it can become the get-away for an apocalyptic themed story.

Hearing– Hearing something on the news, a television program, during a movie, or if someone mentions something peculiar, my mind takes note. It files it away for use in story ideas.

Smell– When an odor wafts by, it alerts my olfactory sense which can either provoke a delightful idea or perhaps a dreadful concept for a story.

Taste– Tasting a particular food that is unusual or unique can cause my mind to generate an idea for a hunger-related struggle for a character or a food-related affinity/obsession. Details such as this can help bring depth to a character or the story itself.

Touch– Raindrops falling upon my arm, brisk breezes ruffling my hair, or a ray of sunlight warming my face helps me to depict what a character feels.

I thought it would be fun and perhaps helpful to create a list of eerie writing prompts. So here is a list of ten possibilities:

1. You wake in the middle of the night, and the power is out. You hear growling inside your house even though you don’t own a pet.

2. You suffer a head injury and soon realize you’ve acquired the ability to read the minds of others, and your co-worker is planning to murder his wife.

3. A highly infectious and deadly virus spreads, and the only cure is to consume something unthinkable.

4. You pick up your new prescription glasses from the ophthalmologists, and when you put them on, you can see spirits–good and evil.

5. You doze off while watching TV with your family during the daytime. When you wake, it’s as if years have passed. Cobwebs clutter the room, and no one is around.

6. You’re at work when a bright flash, similar to lightning, strikes. You realize everyone around you has gone into a sort of trance. Blood drips from their eyes as they sit or stand in place.

7. You go into your basement to search for your camping equipment and find a small, unlocked door behind all the gear. When you open it, you find a tunnel with fresh blood splattered upon the walls.

8. Your childhood teddy bear, now displayed on a shelf, hops off, sprints toward the knives and retrieves the longest one. It charges at you and says, “Chucky and Annabelle got nothin’ on me!”

9. You order lunch at a café, then leave the table to use the restroom. When you return, everyone is dead.

10. You’re watching your favorite tv program when the signal disappears. Static fills the screen then a yellow-eyed, hooded figure appears on the screen and warns you that the next global pandemic is coming.

Hopefully, one of the above prompts will help you to create an eerie thriller, horror, or suspenseful-based story. The creative writing process is different for every person. There is no right or wrong way to create a short story or a novel for that matter. Have fun with it!