Ghosts and Hauntings Writing Prompts

As an amputee you experience phantom arm syndrome. Then one day you realize you can use it to punch ghosts.

They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time. What they don’t say is that in between those deaths, you get stuck in purgatory with all the great philosophers and authors - all just waiting to die.

You bought a home filled with cutting edge technology, including a helpful 'smart A.I.' that can do just about anything you ask them to. Unbeknownst to you, there actually is no A.I, the house is just haunted by a really helpful spirit, and they are posing as a program so they don't scare you.

According to US Navy tradition, submarines that have not been confirmed to be destroyed, are still on patrol. Since WWII, there have been 52 submarines that haven’t yet returned to port, yet to report in, nor have been confirmed to be destroyed. You are one of those, on the eternal patrol.

A man who sees ghosts checks himself into a mental institution, oblivious to the fact that the facility has been closed for almost thirty years.

A depressed guy moves into a haunted house with 7 demons, each corresponding to a deadly sin. But, they're all trying to help him get back on his feet; Pride helps with self confidence, Lust helps him get laid, etc.

Humans can't see spirits, but the same goes vise versa. There's currently chaos in the spirit plane, hulking towers of metal and concrete are appearing at an even faster pace than before, and the spirits must investigate why.

You are the most generous mountaineer. You give food, drink, and climbing poles to exhausted climbers, and never accept anything in return. Your secret? You died on this mountain years ago, because nobody was there to help you as you are helping now. Someone has figured it out.

You've been living alone for 13 years. Whenever you come home from work, you always find your bed made, dinner cooked and a message with "This could have been us." You moved out several times. This keeps going on.

When humans die, their ghosts are anchored to the place of their death, but are unaffected by planetary orbit or rotation, left behind as Earth and the galaxy rotate. Metaphysical archaeologists are tracking this trail of spirits across the stars, seeking the ghost of the first human.

You're pinned down, outnumbered and out of ammo. Your partner says, "There's no way we're both getting out of here alive." He pulls out a small pistol and presses it to his temple. He smile and says, "I'm going ghost". He pulls the trigger. The enemy stops firing... then they start screaming.

Your little daughter have imaginary friends. One day, she asked if her friends can sleep in her room. You jokingly told her that they can stay as long as they want, as long as they help with the rent. The next morning, you found a hand wearing a Rolex and a roll of cash by the sink.

You're bitten by a zombie. By some strange happening, you die and become a zombie, but your ghost remains bound to this earth. Your ghost has to try and keep your zombie body out of trouble until a cure is found.

NASA employee: oh hey you guys are back early. Astronaut: Moon's haunted. NASA employee: what? Astronaut: *loads pistol and gets back on rocketship* Moon's haunted.

You die with your cell phone in your hands, and the afterlife customs agents miss it when letting you in. You find that it still works, and you can connect to the internet and contact people in the living world.

In the late 2040s, a supernova killed humanity so suddenly that Death simply gave up on processing them all. Centuries later, aliens are extremely weirded out when they contact an entire starfaring society entirely comprised of ghosts.

"So let me get this straight" The former UFC fighter looked at the doctor in the eye. "You want to put me in a medically induced coma so my ghost can beat the shit out of the ghost that's haunting the psych ward of the hospital? "Uhh... If you want to put it like that, sure."

Ever since you were young, your grandpa played horrifying pranks on you to scare you when nobody was around. Now that he's passed away, you read through his diary and realized - He's not the one who played them, he's the one who stopped them from taking your life.

You're a psychic doing a game show. Unlike the other contestants, you're the real deal. They bring you all to a house where a crime happened in the past. When it's your turn, a ghost appears and tells you: "That's him, that's the one who killed me." Pointing towards the host of the show.

You die two deaths - your physical death and your true death when your name is spoken for the last time. You, a mild-mannered introvert, have been stuck in limbo for centuries waiting for your true death, and finally found out why.

1000 years ago, a great king had his soul infused with the crown so he may rule eternity, taking possession of anyone who wears it. But with each new 'successor,' the king took his extra lives increasingly for granted, until one day.....

You run a café on the edge of life and death. Souls who have been departed from their bodies temporarily, such as in comas or near-death experiences, can relax in your quaint cafe for as long as they need before they can either return to their bodies or begin their journey to the afterlife.

The afterlife is divided based on where you died. Those who died in Paris spend eternity in Paris. If you die on an ocean liner, you live on a liner. You are, to your knowledge, the first person to die on the moon. At least, you thought so, until you saw the hundreds of others on the moon.

“Your superpower is: you can converse with exactly three people who have passed away.” “I choose Albert Einstein, George Washington, and my late father” “that’s only two, you can choose one more”.

Your friend always said "I'll rest when I'm dead," so much that it became his catchphrase. He says it again today when he came into work, going about his daily routine. This normally wouldn't be concerning, if not for the fact that you attended his funeral two weeks ago.

They say you die three times, first when the body dies, second, when your body enters the grave, and third, when your name is spoken for the last time. You were a normal person in life, but hundreds of years later, you still haven't had your "third" death. You decide to find out why.

You are the curator of a Museum of Military History. On display are artworks representing every great military leader. One day you watch an ancient, bent old man hobble in, and when you look back at the collection suddenly every portrait and statue appears to have raised its hand to salute him.

The secretary at the law firm gasps, then shakes her head. "That's the name of the hotel that was here before this building. It burned down, sixty years ago, killing dozens of people. Every year, someone shows up, somehow having made a reservation..."

Your best friend killed you. It happened, but you both knew it was an honest accident. You forgive them and return as a ghost to help them cover their tracks to avoid, at best, a manslaughter charge.

I pulled myself together and got up. The autopsy technicians could only stare in horror.