Writing a spooky story can be difficult with so many different monster books and movies that hog all the best monsters. If you choose zombies, your story is automatically going to be compared to The Walking Dead and Z Nation; if you choose vampires you are going to have to face off against Twilight, and there are just so many books, movies, and TV shows with ghosts that it is hardly worth it. In order to write a truly spooky story that will attract readers, you need to produce a well-written story that is unique from what is already available.

Choosing Your Type of Horror: Stephen King, well known author of all thing scary and spooky, has categorized the three types of terror that are essential in a spooky story. According to him, there is: “The Gross-out: a severed head tumbling down the stairs, the lights go out, and something slimy splatters against you. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead walking, the lights go out and something claws you. The Terror: the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there's nothing there.” (Stephen King)

A spooky story does not need to include all of these elements, but each spooky story should include at least one, unless you are aiming for a child friendly story or more of a cute spook like Casper the Friendly Ghost. Whether you choose to include one, two, or all three of the elements in your spooky story, you need to own them and make them unique to your story and not a cliché.

Making Your Monster or Spooky Fiend: Once you have chosen your element(s) of horror, the next step is constructing your spooky monster or fiend. In order to make your story unique, you should avoid the well-known monsters by either digging into myths and legends to find a terrifying monster or fiend that is not well known, or by creating your own unique creature.

 Finding a Creature of Myth or Legend

If you have made the choice to find a monster that is not well known, then you should begin by doing research into myths and legends in other cultures to find something that has a rich history surrounding it, but that is not considered modern. Some examples of such creatures and fiends would be: the Jewish demon Dybbuk, the German Nachzehrer, the Sumerian Gugalanna, the Chinese were-tigers, the Romanian Strigoi, and the Slavic Koschei the Deathless. All of these monsters and creature are horrors buried deep in the myths and legends from around the world that most people would not know about. This would allow you to have a rich mythology base that you can use to pull your reader in.

Crafting Your Own Monster

If you are a particularly creative person, you might be able to create your own monster or creature from scratch with just your imagination to guide you. However, if you are not extremely creatively gifted, then the easiest way to make your own monster is to pick two or three already existing monsters that you like and combine your favorite elements in a new monster that you can make up a name for.