Fright Club
Creative Writing Contest | Ideal for 10-18 years
Can you scare someone in just 100 words?
A knock at the door. A figure in the dark. A curse. A missing person. A ghost who's having the time of their afterlife...
Fright Club challenges students to create an original ghost story in just 100 words. Creepy, mysterious, funny, or truly terrifying, the story is theirs.
DOWNLOAD FREE RESOURCES →
Everything you need to introduce Fright Club and get students started.
Write it. Enter it. Get published.
A 100-word story could turn a student into a real author.
Give your students the thrill of becoming published writers, with the opportunity to see their Fright Club stories published in a Young Writers anthology.
And, there's more to play for:
3 STUDENT WINNERS
Our 3 favorite published writers will each win a $50 Amazon gift card.
TOP SCHOOL
The school with the best set of entries will receive the Young Writers Award of Excellence.
Enter if you dare...
Not sure where the story begins? Start with something that makes you want to know what happens next...
My friends dared me to knock...
What’s behind the door, and why does nobody else want to find out?
I didn’t believe in ghosts until...
What happens that makes them change their mind?
The curse was unleashed...
What caused it, who is in danger, and can it be stopped?
My curiosity turned to terror...
What did they discover that they wish they hadn’t?
He’d been missing for months...
Where has he been, and why has he suddenly returned?
It’s fun being a ghost...
Who says a ghost story has to be scary?
Or create something completely your own.
Haunted houses, creepy dolls, abandoned schools, strange footsteps, ghost ships, secret passages... anything can become the beginning of a 100-word story.
Easy to offer. Easy to get started.
Use Fright Club in whatever way works for you and your students.
Run it as a class activity, share it with interested writers, use it for enrichment, or offer it as a fall creative writing challenge.
We've created everything you need to make getting started simple, including:
- a video introduction
- story starter cards
- a graphic organizer
- examples
- lesson support
Use as much or as little support as you need.
DOWNLOAD FREE RESOURCES →
Everything you need to get students started with Fright Club.
1
CHOOSE
Choose a creepy idea
2
BUILD
Build the tension
3
WRITE
Tell it in 100 words
4
ENTER
Send it in
Free resources to make it easy...
Whether you’re sharing Fright Club with your whole class or simply giving interested students the chance to enter, pick the support that works for you.
DOWNLOAD FREE RESOURCES →
Pick the resources that work for you and your students.
Big suspense. Just 100 words.
Creating an atmosphere in only 100 words means every detail matters.
As students shape their Fright Club story, they can experiment with tension, suspense, setting, and vocabulary - choosing the words and details that will have the biggest impact.
The challenge is keeping it short while keeping the reader hooked:
Can they build the tension and deliver a story readers won't forget in just 100 words?
Prizes and recognition
Give your students the thrill of having their writing published in a real book, being recognized for their creativity, and the chance to win a prize.
FOR STUDENTS
3 writers will each win a $50 Amazon gift card
Get published
Every student has the chance to see their ghost story published in a Young Writers anthology.
Be recognized
Writers whose work we'd love to publish will receive a certificate of merit.
PLUS:
Every entrant receives a limited edition Fright Club bookmark.
FOR SCHOOLS
Young Writers' Award of Excellence
The school that submits the best set of entries will receive the Young Writers Award of Excellence.
Free copies for your school
Participating schools will receive a free copy of the book that features their students’ work.
The more entries you send, the more free books you’ll receive:
1–30 entries = 1 free copy • 31–60 entries = 2 free copies • and so on.
1–30 entries = 1 free copy • 31–60 entries = 2 free copies • and so on.
Ready to enter?
Entering your students' Fright Club stories is easy:
IT'S EASY TO TAKE PART - HOW TO ENTER
COLLECT THEIR STORIES
Each story should be no more than 100 words.
Each story should be no more than 100 words.
CHOOSE HOW TO ENTER
Submit your students' entries online, by email, or mail them to us.
Submit your students' entries online, by email, or mail them to us.
SEND THEM BY OCTOBER 30, 2026
Then leave the judging to us!
Then leave the judging to us!
MORE CONTEST INFO
Everything you need to take part:
Content Guidelines
Students are very welcome to make their stories scary, creepy, dark, or unsettling. Horror themes and some violence can be included where they’re part of the story, but we’d ask students to avoid anything excessively graphic or gratuitous.
A good rule of thumb is that the horror should help create atmosphere, tension, or a great twist, rather than relying on detailed gore or violence purely for shock value. We’d also ask students not to include cuss words/profanity in their entries.
Students can explore all sorts of horror, from supernatural threats and monsters to psychological horror, eerie situations, and chilling twists.
Previous winning stories are a useful guide to the kind of content and level of horror that can work well in the contest.
Closing Date: Friday Oct 30, 2026
We've worked with over 20,000 schools. Here's what some of them have to say...
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