Writing Prompt Challenge: A Touch of Horror

Let's write a little horror to gear up for spooky season! This post has some ideas, inspiration, and a horror writing prompt for you to try out.

One of the most prolific horror writers of our time, Junjo Ito, had some insane ideas. One of his books had fish and sharks that rose up out of the sea, propelled by spider-like robotic legs. When asked about his inspiration, he said in a 2019 interview with Crunchyroll,

“The inspiration for [Gyo] is I was scared of sharks. Ever since I saw the Spielberg film Jaws, I was scared of sharks. As long as I don’t go into the ocean, I’m not scared of them, but I thought they’d be even more terrifying if they could come onto shore. So I started with that. Sharks coming to shore. And then I let my imagination run wild and that’s how I ended up with that story.”

Sometimes the inspiration for a horror story can be as simple as that.

We live amongst our daily horrors. I find horror in the small things in life, when I let my imagination wander a little out of bounds. I imagine what it's like to be the little silverfish in my sink. Confused and horrified as a giant monster chases it around the bowl with a smothering wall of white. There is no escape, there is no understanding, there is only fear and eventual death.

I think that's really all you need for the seed of a horror story.

One of my favorite horror novels

is The Last Astronaut by David Wellington. In that book [spoilers ahead - beware!] our main character crawls inside a spaceship heading to earth, but as she explores it she discovers that the ship is actually an interplanetary being headed to earth to destroy it with her spawn. She's crawled inside of a monster the size of a city and has to figure out how to destroy it from the inside.

I like to imagine that story started with its own horrifying question: what if you were a virus infecting a person? I love any kind of horror that makes you imagine being terrifyingly small. I guess it's my megalophobia.

So here's my horror writing prompt challenge for the month: think of something bonkers. Something, an object, a tiny insect, a bug, a skyscraper, something with a point of view that no one's ever considered - and write from that pov. Write something short, maybe 250 words just to see what you can do.

Find whatever horror is buried there and dig deep into it. See what you can come up with. 

Another story Junjo Ito wrote called Splatter Film was about people becoming addicted to a special drink. If you take even just one sip of the drink, you will crave it forever. But every time you drink it, you risk being crushed by these giant things that appear out of the sky.

Want to guess what his inspiration was?

It’s a tough guess. A mysterious, yummy drink. A mysterious, horrifying way to die. The answer? Mosquitos.

Let me know if you give this writing prompt a try, I would love to know how it went!

Happy writing!