Share a Scare: Writing Your Own Scary Story

by Nancy Loewen, Christopher Lyles (Illustrator)

Ready to build a scary story? First, you’ll need the right tools. Open this title in the Writer’s Toolbox series and discover plenty of tips and tools to get you started. Soon you’ll be sharing scares like a pro!

Genres: Picture Books, Writing

32 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Nancy Loewen grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, surrounded by library books and cats. She's published more than 140 books for children. FOUR TO THE POLE (co-authored with polar explorer Ann Bancroft) and THE LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN were Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her WRITER'S TOOLBOX series received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers.

Nancy lives in Saint Paul and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University. She has two adult children and a cat who sometimes bites her knees under the table as she writes.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of a series on writing different kinds of stories. The story is sparing and simple, but the real drive here was informing the reader about the essential tools of constructing an effective horror (scary) story. This might help some readers who aspire to write with the basics of horror writing. I'd like to see the other texts in the series as they seem to be very approachable and might be a good addition to a school library.

[Nazmi Yaakub]

Tiga titik bukan hanya semata-mata tand produk kulit diperbuat daripada kulit babi, sebaliknya ia juga penggunaan titik sebanyak tiga kali yang selalu digunakan dalam cerita seram atau karya popular oleh penulis yang masih baru!

[Zalila Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre seram bukanlah kegemaran saya, tetapi tidak dinafikan cerita seram mempunyai keunikan dan keseronokan tersendiri ketika membacanya. Menulis cerita seram untuk kanak-kanak? Why not. Sekadar menghadirkan unsur suspens dan keseronokan dalam meneka-neka babak seterusnya.

Ada anak-anak yang minat membaca dan mahu menulis cerita seram? Ini bukunya. Setiap langkah diberikan dengan contoh pembinaan cerita yang menarik. Tentu sahaja ada beberapa aspek yang berbeza daripada genre lainnya. Pemilihan perkataan, bentuk penyampaian dan ilustrasi yang penting dalam menceritakan babak-babaknya. Oh, ilustrasi dalam buku ini sangat cantik.

Seperti biasa penulis menyimpulkan langkah-langkah penting pada muka surat akhir, dengan latihan kendiri, panduan menulis dan glosari.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the mechanics of creating a horror story, explaining the different writing elements used to structure a horror story.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully scary story used to teach writing skills to young creatives. Highly recommended!

If your kids are easily scared maybe this one is not for them because it really is scary.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This writing book by the company Picture Window books is one of the best how to books I've seen about writing. It gives you Tools and an example of writing (this time a scary one) using those tools.

The tools this time are: setting , character, sensory details, foreshadowing,plot, surprise, suspense, imagery dialogue, take action , use of punctuation, climax, ending-scared. Then the book gives you ideas!

[Tracy Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for teaching students how to write scary stories. The plot of a scary story is paired with writing tips to help young authors go through the writing process of a scary story. Great model for what is age appropriate writing.

[Liz Price Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd Grade, 3rd Grade