My first speaking gig...pretty cool stuff!

The 7th grade writing teacher across the hall form me asked me to come in and speak to his students about writing--specifically writing ghost stories. I've taught writing, but this is the first time I've been invited into another teacher's class to talk to the students about writing and what I do as a writer. I'm excited and nervous.

What am I going to say?

I know they're writing ghost stories, and the teacher said many of the students believe only blood and guts is scary stuff. Hhmmm...

I think I need to talk about the elements you need to include to create a good scary story.

• Suspense -- You want your story to create a feeling of excitement, anxiety or even fear.
• Plot Twist -- Don't take the story in the direction everyone expects it to go.
• Conflict -- You have to have a central problem that your characters have to solve.
• Setting -- Take a normal, ordinary setting  and have something unexpected happen.
• Surprise ending -- Give your readers an ending they didn't expect.

There are a lot more things I could talk about, but I've only got a limited amount of time. Some of the 7th graders came up to me and asked if I was going to read them one of my stories. Maybe I could do that and have the students tell me what works and what doesn't.