After seeing a writerly friend, Colin Mulhern, post a link on FB titled 20 SCARY HORROR STORIES WRITTEN in TWO SENTENCES, I thought it’d be a great exercise. But not just for me, for all my writing buddies. Click on the link above to read examples.

This caused me to be torn between two versions I wanted to write.  But I decided this could be part two of this fun practice.

Here is my first reflex:
After proclaiming his love, my boyfriend pressed the warmth of his moist lips against my face. The blood dripped from his tongue as I removed the knife from his throat.

Upon thinking further:
After proclaiming his love, my boyfriend pressed the warmth of his moist lips against my face. I licked the blood from his tongue as I withdrew the knife from his throat.

I’ve two different reasons for the killings in both examples. How do you read them? In the first, it’s self defense against an obsessive lover and unmasked serial killer. The second, the murderer is the serial killer. Now, give me your two sentence horror story. Can you rewrite it slightly to have a completely different meaning for the history behind the same story?

Ready. Set. Go!

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction