Nano Horror Stories and Creepy Tales
Horror stories don’t have to form a novel hundreds of pages long, they don’t even have to be short stories a dozen pages long. With nano horror stories you can encapsulate the tale within only a few lines. Sometimes even a single line will do the job.
“Impossible!” I hear you cry.
But no, it can be done – check some of these nano horror stories:
Beth awoke in the darkness with her husband’s strong arms wrapped tightly about her waist. Her bedroom door slowly opened and Beth’s husband entered the room.
As I walked away from Mary’s funeral my phone rang, I took it from my pocket and read the caller ID. It simply said, “MARY”
I have my father’s eyes but they’re carefully tucked away in the attic.
Her skin is so soft and it fits me perfectly.
The photograph on my phone showed me sleeping peacefully – I live alone.
I lay back in the tub, relax my breathing and listen to the pleasing drip, drip, drip sound echoing around the tiled bathroom. I smile contentedly with a soft sigh – this is the first body I have ever dismembered but it won’t be my last.
The grinning face peered into my bedroom window through the darkness. I live on the 15th floor.
My daughter won’t stop crying during the night. I’ve visited her grave and asked her to stop but she doesn’t.
Do you see a theme with these stories?
Like a joke, a nano horror story usually leads you in one direction before snapping you back in the opposite direction. Here’s an example of a joke to illustrate;
- “What’s orange and sounds like a parrot?”
- “A carrot.”
Ok, it didn’t say it was a good joke.
When it’s a joke that sudden change of direction makes you smile but when it’s a nano horror story it makes you uneasy, shocked or even scared.
Can you come up with your own nano horror stories? It’s actually fun to come up with your own and quite a good exercise to get the creative juices flowing at the start of a writing session.
© Colin Lawson Books