Workshop: How to Write a Chilling Ghost Story

Ever wanted to write a spine-chilling ghost story but not sure how to conjure genuine fear? It takes more than tortured groans and rattling chains to create something truly frightening. This workshop will explore where terror truly lies in a narrative and how to evoke an emotional response that lingers with readers long after they have turned the final page. We’ll show you how to find inspiration for stories, then take your audience on a harrowing journey which chills them to the core. You’ll learn ways to make a ghost story credible and compelling in a contemporary context.

Crafting a ghost story that resonates with contemporary audiences requires a delicate balance of timeless eeriness and modern relevance. In this age of scientific fact, people are more cynical about ghosts and hauntings. So how do we get in there and scare them? During the workshop, participants will:

• explore the genre of ghost stories in the 21st century
• undertake some ‘seeding’ exercises and prompts which will provide inspiration
• consider the structural conventions of the ghost story
• write a premise and plan a full-length story
• play with some provocations to help develop writing

Sara Starbuck has spent 25 years working in UK trade book publishing, as a commissioning editor, desk editor, a development editor and author’s agent. She is a freelance editor, proof-reader and writer, and the author of 9 published works. Ted Gooda is an award-winning poet, playwright and short story writer. She is the ghost writer of a series of Sunday Times top ten bestselling memoirs and a former teacher who runs adult workshops at the National Writing Project (UK).