The Writer’s Playground Series – Horror: Escalate the Mundane

Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series!

Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft.

Today’s Exercise is

Horror: Escalate the Mundane

  • Objective: To create psychological horror and creeping dread, rather than relying on jump scares.
  • How to Play:
    1. Each writer chooses a completely harmless, everyday object or situation (a dripping faucet, a child’s drawing, a flickering street light, a song stuck in your head).
    2. They have 15 minutes to write a scene where this mundane thing becomes progressively more strange, unsettling, and eventually, terrifying. The key is in the slow burn and the character’s perception of the object changing.
  • Best for: Building suspense, mastering tone, and psychological horror.

Nightmares can be an incredible source of inspiration. Of course, for some, these can inspire the nightmares themselves.

Purchase the full collection in paperback or hardcover!

If you have more writing games and exercises, please feel free to Send Us A Message to be considered for an addition to our collection.

Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Email

More Posts

The Writer’s Playground Series – The B-Plot

Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series! Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft. Today’s Exercise is The B-Plot Objective: To practice weaving subplots into a main narrative. How to Play: As a group, quickly outline a simple A-Plot (e.g., “A detective must solve a murder

The Writer’s Playground Series – The Unreliable Narrator

Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series! Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft. Today’s Exercise is The Unreliable Narrator Objective: To practice the subtle art of misleading the reader through a first-person narrator. How to Play: The facilitator tells the group the “objective truth” of

The Writer’s Playground Series – Adaptation Challenge

Thank you for joining us in The Writer’s Playground series! Here we run through writing games to spark imagination and sharpen your craft. Today’s Exercise is Adaptation Challenge Objective: To understand how stories are reshaped when they move between mediums. How to Play: The facilitator reads a short, narrative poem or a news article aloud.

Send Us A Message