ABSTRACT
Summary of the chapter
Introduction. Defining a ghost story. You can offer the children our definition and also ask them for their own ideas. Exploring the etymology of some common words found in ghost stories, such as ‘ghost’ and ‘haunted’. What other relevant words can the children research using a dictionary and thesaurus?
What does a good ghost story contain? Collect ideas from the class. Let the children use the list given as a reference to help them plan their own stories.
First planning. Thinking of plot, characters, settings and objects. Any of these features can be used to generate ideas for the others. Questioning is the behaviour we want to encourage. So, asking about a magical book can create ideas about characters’ motivations, which can lead on to thoughts about sequences of events. Example questions are given to show the children what’s expected of them. What other questions can they think of?
Research. Encourage children to read/watch/listen to some age-appropriate ghost stories. You may want to do this as a first step to introduce the genre and inform children’s thinking to tackle the other activities in this chapter. Further research projects include exploring word origins, analysing ghost stories to see how other writers achieve their scary effects, discussing any ghost stories that the children have previously written, and discussing what scares readers in ghost stories and why.
Story lines. This is a visual planning device. Once children understand the idea, they can use it to plot stories in other genres, plus pieces of nonfiction writing. We also aim to encourage the attitude that it’s fine for children to change their minds as they plan, because it shows further thinking and decision-making skills.
Characters. Here we introduce ‘character templates’ such as hero, villain and companion. We also look at character descriptions, plus touching on a few old-hat character situations that are best avoided.5
Settings. Encouragement for the children to think beyond the usual settings for a ghost story. We also point out that the reader’s imagination fills in many of the details of a setting, so including just a few vivid descriptive details usually works better than writing long slabs of description.
Atmosphere. Tips for creating atmosphere in a ghost story, plus advice for distinguishing between different emotions such as nervousness, fear and terror.
Story starters 1 – plot suggestions.
Story starters 2 – opening scenes.
