My stay at a lakeside cabin left me with a ghost story idea. Any prompts to build on it?

I spent last month at a small cabin near Lake Superior. The fog would roll in every morning, and the old pier creaked with the waves. One night, I heard footsteps on the dock when no one was there. It got me thinking about a story where the lake itself has a memory. I want to write about a person who finds hints of past visitors in the mist. But I'm not sure how to start or what problems to add. Has anyone used a similar setting for horror or mystery? I'd love some prompts to kick my writing into gear.

3 comments

3 Comments

laurat262mo ago

That fog and the creaking pier are perfect mood setters. What worked for me was having my character find a single, very old item washed up on that dock, like a rusted key. The problem became figuring out what it opened, and each wrong guess made the footsteps at night come closer up the shore.

terryw832mo ago

Man, I always figured you needed big scary monsters right away. But that "wrong guess makes it come closer" thing... yeah I'm stealing that for my next draft.

karen4052mo ago

Totally agree about the power of small details! What really gets me is when the scary thing is tied to a normal, everyday sound. Like, the monster isn't a roar, it's just the specific squeak of a floorboard in an empty house. That way the character (and the reader!) starts jumping at every normal noise.