In a guest post on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, Rayne Hall offers advice for writing a spooky ghost story.
First, all good ghost stories are actually two stories, Hall says. “The first is the past tragedy which keeps the ghost haunting in search of atonement or vengeance,” she explains. “The second is about the person whose life gets thrown off course when the ghost intervenes.” The story of the living is probably your main plot, while your ghost’s tale is backstory, which you can reveal in narrative or dialogue.
Your location is also important. You might choose a traditional setting, or something more unconventional. “Unusual settings will make your story stand out, which can be important when entering a writing contest or submitting to an anthology,” Hall writes. Hauntings are generally tied to places the ghost lived or died, or is buried.
Of course, your ghost story also needs an appropriate atmosphere. Hall suggests playing with the following elements:
- Darkness, lights and shadows: Show night falling, lightbulbs flickering, shadows dancing across walls.
- Sounds: Leaves rustling, shutters banging, a dog howling, the thud of the living character’s own footsteps, and eerie effects like creaking stairs and screeching door hinges.
- Chills: Play with the effects of temperature. “When the air grows cold and the character feels the chills, the readers will shiver with her,” Hall says.
Your story will have at least two characters: your ghost and the person it’s haunting. Your living character will probably provide your POV, but you can also tell your story from the ghost’s perspective. Importantly, you need to understand the needs of both.
“The ghost haunts because she needs something, and she can find no rest until this is achieved,” Hall says. “It may be something benign, such as revealing the location of the treasure to the right person or making amends for an atrocity, but it can also be something terrible, such as exacting vengeance and killing the last surviving member of a certain family.” Somehow, your living character can provide this need.
Your human character also has wants, perhaps something connected to the ghost or the haunted site. Flesh out your character by examining what they believe about ghosts and what they’ll do to achieve their ends. “You can give the story depth if the needs of the ghost and the human are related, especially if the human is about to make the same mistake the ghost once made, or has a similar guilty secret,” Hall writes. “Ideally, the human grows as a result of the encounter, and becomes a wiser, better person.”
