Creative Writing
Eight Halloween Journaling Prompts
Fun ideas for writing about the spooky season.
If my friends are any indication, grownups love Halloween as much as kids do (if not more). Some of our excitement comes from nostalgia, and some from enjoying a good time — and some of us like the macabre.
With that in mind, here are eight quick prompts to bring some Halloween spirit(s) into your journal writing.
Starting with Childhood
One: Write about your earliest memory of the Halloween season as a kid. For me, it’s the big plastic orange pumpkin on my grandma’s table, filled with candy; I’m pretty sure she hauled it out on the first of October. Use as many sensory details as you can to describe your first Halloween memory.
Two: What favorite childhood memories of Halloween come to mind? What costumes can you remember wearing? What parties did you attend? Where did you trick or treat, and what did you get — and what candies did you like best?
Three: What does Halloween mean to you as an adult that’s different and the same as when you were a kid? If you have kids, how is Halloween similar or different for them than it was for you as a kid?
People: Past and Present, Real and Imagined
Four: What people do you like to spend time with on or around Halloween? What did your family like to do when you were a kid? What about your friends? Who were you with on your most memorable Halloween as an adult? Who throws the best parties?
Five: Have you ever had any ghostly experiences? Did anyone really scare you? Halloween is filled with friends and strangers — who have you met or seen at haunted houses or while trick-or-treating that you can’t forget?
Spooky or (Un)familiar Places
Six: Think about setting, and describe your city or town around Halloween. This can be your childhood town, or your town today, or your ideal imaginary Halloween-focused town. What experiences have you had around Halloween that are especially location-based, like visiting a haunted house or an abandoned building?
Seven: What are some places you’ve visited or wanted to visit that are distinctly adult-focused when it comes to Halloween? Have you ever gone to a gothic-themed club around the holiday, or taken a haunted/ghost tour? Have you ever visited a cemetery on Halloween night?
Try Cutting and Pasting
Eight: Use some found text to inspire your journal entry. For example, you could print out some spooky language like the text of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe and then cut it up into lines or phrases, or you could cut up some pages from a falling-apart paperback of a Stephen King novel. Use your source text as the basis for your journal entry, rearranging the cut-up lines, phrases, or words on your page until you come up with an interesting new text of your own.
You can also use found text in your journaling by watching a scary movie or TV show as you journal and writing down some of the interesting lines that you overhear from the movie or show as you go. It can be fun to interweave your own words with found lines from something playing in the background.
Have you ever used found text in your writing before? To learn more, check out this link about found poetry.
If you have favorite ideas for writing about Halloween, let me know in the comments! By the way, these prompts could be fun for visual journaling or collage, too, if you want to try something different; this page has some fun prompts for relaxing visual art journaling projects with a Halloween theme.
If you’re interested in other articles with writing prompts, I’ve linked a couple below. My day job is teaching English at a local college, and I enjoy sharing ideas for writing exercises here on Medium. Thanks for reading this!
