Middle School English: Creative Writing Short Horror Stories Camp

For centuries scary stories have been inspired by our greatest fears, their spooky pages have inspired generations of writers and readers, and some scary stories have been adapted into movies. In this five-day camp I will teach your child the steps to create and publish their own scary story. We will pick and research topics, explore the elements of short stories, think of complex characters, write drafts, read our stories aloud, and publish them. These are some the same techniques I have used to publish my own writing before. A sample schedule has been included below. Classes 2 and 3 will use the same approaches I have used to teach my beginner and intermediate level creative writing classes here on Outschool. 

Class 1. Introduction, getting to know each other, and researching potential horror ideas.

On day one of class, we will introduce ourselves to our classmates and the instructor. We will discuss what scares us and how our fears can be incorporated into a scary story. Students will also be able to research more on their selected topic.


Class 2. Elements of short stories and outline.

On day two of class, we will learn the elements of a short story and incorporate them into our own writing. We will also draft a brief outline of our story to get an idea of how the story will take place. 

Class 3. Revising our stories and creating complex characters. 

On day three of class, we will build upon our story elements with emphasis on our characters. We will make our characters more complex by deciding how our characters will interact with each other and if they will be good characters or bad characters. We will also make changes if needed from our previous day in class.

Class 4. Writing our drafts.

On day four of class, we will write a word for word draft of our story. This should take a majority of the class. If we finish early, we can fix any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Class 5. Read aloud and publishing.  

On our final day of class we will share our creations by reading them aloud and I will talk students through the self-publishing process.