(This book is loaded with ghost stories.)

When I was a kid, a favorite activity was to take my siblings, or cousins, or any willing friend into my closet (during daylight hours) and tell spooky stories. I’d block the light coming in at the base of the door with a towel to make it pitch black. I knew I’d told one scary enough when the kid(s) would scream and jump up to get out into the light.

Mine were never about blood and gore. There was the set up to the story, and then either a quiet-realization ending (“…then the boyfriend came around to open the girl’s car door and found a bloody hook on the handle.”) or it ended with rapid speech or creepy sound with a loud reveal (“…but it couldn’t have been her dog licking her; her dog had died the year before”, or simply a shouted: “Boo!”).

To create a spooky story, it’s as easy as 1-2-3. First, you need the set up, then the buildup (with foreshadowing of what’s to come), concluding with the final, quick ending.

Go try your own hand at doing this!