Do you ever wish you could supercharge your creativity? Maybe you sit down to write, but the words just aren’t coming? Or you find yourself sitting at your desk, hands on your keyboard, and you just don’t feel it.

That happens. And it happens to every writer.

When it happens to me, I like to turn to a creative writing prompt to get the words flowing again.

I want to share a fun prompt with you, and I’m going to tailor it to fall because I love October – I love Halloween. And it’s the perfect time to think back to your childhood and revisit those scary stories or urban legends you grew up on. Every generation has their version of the man with the hook for a hand, or the frightening phone call coming from inside the house.

So in honor of the spooky season, I want to share three ways to reinvent the ghost story! 

Reinventing the ghost story

A great way to ramp up your creativity and rethink what you know is to reinvent a story that you’re familiar with. Think about an urban legend or ghost story you grew up with. Those were the stories that scared you as a kid – the ones you told at sleepovers at midnight with the lights out.

Do you have one in mind?

Update the setting

Does the story you remember seem a little dated? Chances are good since these stories tend to get passed down from generation to generation. Now reimagine your ghost story or urban legend in a different time or place. Or both! For example, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow takes place after the American Revolution, in 1790. The historical context, language, social customs, descriptions of the buildings –all helped lay the story’s foundation.

Now imagine Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman in a different time and place. The year 2085, on Mars? Take the narrative structure of the story and play it out in a different environment. People do this with Shakespeare so beautifully! The 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet moved the story from Renaissance Italy to a modern Verona Beach, complete with guns, cars, and modern music.

When you move your story in time or place, it makes it new again.

Flip the protagonist

Another way to reinvent a story is to “flip” the protagonist. A great example is the musical Wicked. We always think of The Wicked Witch as the villain of The Wizard of Oz, but in the narrative structure of Wicked, the villain became the hero.

So, we can make the antagonist into the protagonist for a fresh take on the story. Maybe that character was misunderstood or imprisoned by a gaslighting partner. Maybe they’re not evil at all. It’s up to you.

When you flip the protagonist, you’re telling a familiar story from an unexpected point of view. You’re giving it a new layer of depth.

Mash-up an old story with a new theme

The third way to reinvent the ghost story or urban legend is to write a “mash-up” of the original story with a new theme. This is fun – you can take a classic ghost story or urban legend and make it about something with a much deeper meaning than the bad guy scaring the babysitter by calling from inside the house, for instance. Maybe it’s a societal satire of suburban parents who are too self-involved to protect their kids. Think of a different lens you can view the familiar story through.

What’s fun about a mash-up is that there’s already a known structure to the story and some tropes the reader expects. And then you delve into something powerful and unexpected that the reader never even imagined.

Let’s Talk About Your Writing

Do you know you have a story inside, but you just can’t seem to tell it? If you have a calling to write, speak, or share your mission, I believe someone out there needs to hear your message.

I am devoted to helping men and women find their voices and share their stories. Can I help you share yours?

If you have questions or want to talk about how to get from where you are now to where you dream of being, drop me a note on my website.