Mystery thriller story starter ideas Writing a good short story is far harder than it might sound and children need plenty of good ideas to get them started, as well as time to plan out the story. We have just published a great set of 6 mystery/thriller story planning sheets for children in the middle to upper primary age range. Each has a starter paragraph to help, as well as space to write down ideas and possible key words they want to use. The themes are: A creepy castle A scary forest A dark cave The other side of the door A spooky ghost story A strange violin A couple of tips to pass on to children to help with creating that great short story: Tip: don’t tell the reader how a character is feeling e.g ‘he was scared’; instead try to show how they are feeling by what they say or do e.g. ‘His hand was trembling as he turned the cold door knob and slowly pushed open ……….….’. Tip: try to create some suspense. This can be done by lulling the reader into a false sense of security; everything is pleasant until the unexpected is introduced! Go to Mystery, Thriller Starters ideas