How to encourage and inspire students to write a ghost story using an example ghost story as a ‘temp

How to encourage and inspire students to write a ghost story using an example ghost story as a ‘template’.

1. Read the class this specially written story by Johnnie Young (1600 words aprox).
2. The punch line and the ghost part is not revealed until right at the end.
3. Ask students to have a go at writing their own ghost story using the example story as a ‘template’ idea:
   a) write about an isolated setting (could be a desert, a jungle, a castle on a mountain or a ship adrift at sea etc…)
   b) Have four characters who know each other and explain why they are there (note in the story Ludwig the four characters were two married couples who had just retired and wanted some down time to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of life)
   c) Remind the reader of the sense of isolation – nobody else is near – they are in a remote place.
   d) Have an unexpected visitor (how did he get there? In Ludwig he walked a cross the moors)
   e) Create the idea that the visitor is highly suspicious (in Ludwig the visitor is pretending to be a police officer)
   f) Have a part where the visitor attempts a crime (perhaps trying to steal something) but unexpectedly they are protected and rescued by someone
   g) Only right at the end reveal that the ‘someone’ must be a protector ghost.