I didn’t expect Halloween journal prompts to send me back to my childhood hallway. Yet that’s right where I ended up this week, thinking about a certain caped houseguest.

It started small. I sat down with the Halloween journal prompts from my own Trick, Treat and Tell Me More journal. My plan was to answer one quick question. Instead, I answered three, and one of them came with a vampire.

The Vampire Who Wanted In

One of my Halloween journal prompts wanted to know about a fear I’ve outgrown. When I was a girl, my bedroom was on the second floor. Our family was in the middle of redoing the upstairs. An old chimney had an opening right into the hallway.

To you, that might sound like a remodeling detail. To me, it was a front door for Dracula.

I was terrified he’d use that opening to come find me after dark. So I did something I still think is a little wild. I taught myself to control my dreams.

Dinner With Dracula

Learning to steer a dream takes practice. Eventually, though, I could notice I was dreaming and change the story.

Then one night, Dracula appeared again. This time I rewrote the scene. Rather than chasing me, he pulled up a chair, and we had dinner together.

I had spaghetti. He had a glass of blood.

It was a pretty civil meal, all things considered. After that, the terror lost its grip on me. He was simply a guy with odd taste in drinks.

That’s my answer to “What’s one fear I’ve outgrown?” It proved to be a bigger question than it looks. That’s the sneaky charm of October writing prompts.

Ursula Wins Favorite Villain, No Contest

Next in my Halloween journal prompts: favorite villain. That one was easy: Ursula.

She is so much larger than life. Between the sass and the drama, she owns every scene she’s in. Some villains are frightening. Ursula is a full-on performance.

Cute Over Creepy, Every Time

Then came a spooky season journaling classic: “Creepy or cute Halloween décor?” Cute, hands down.

Back when my kids were small, we’d walk the neighborhood every October 31st. Some houses went all out with gory displays that weren’t kid friendly. My kids would skip those houses or get too scared to keep going. And once that happened, trick-or-treating stopped being fun for anybody.

So give me friendly ghosts and grinning pumpkins. I’ll pick a smiling jack-o’-lantern over a bloody one any year.

Halloween Journal Prompts Hold More Than You Think

Here’s what surprised me. Three quick questions pulled out a dream I’d learned to steer and a villain I adore. They also surfaced a memory of nervous little trick-or-treaters. None of it was planned. It arrived because a page asked.

That’s why I love October writing prompts like these. On the surface, they look light and silly. Underneath, they hand you pieces of your own story you’d forgotten you had.

The Trick, Treat and Tell Me More journal has 31 of them, one for each day of the month. They cover costumes, candy rankings, ghost stories, haunted places, and the fears that scare you in a good way.

Spooky Season Journaling, at Your Own Pace

You don’t need to start on the first. It’s the 21st, and that’s fine. Skip around, do the goofy ones first, and save the deeper ones for a quiet evening. The best Halloween journal prompts don’t need a schedule.

If you want a starting point, try one of these fall reflection questions tonight:

• What scares me in a good way?
• Am I more into tricks or treats?
• What’s a Halloween memory from childhood that still makes me smile?

Grab a pen, pick one, and see where it takes you. The printable is here if you want all 31: Trick, Treat and Tell Me More Halloween Journal.

P.S. For the record, that chimney was suspicious.