SUBJECTS FOR WRITTEN IMITATION
1. The Haunted House11. The Dancing Squirrels2. Mysterious Footprints12. Footsteps at Night3. A Strange Echo13. The Lost Cemetery4. Warned in Time14. The Woman in Black5. A Haunting Dream15. The Dead Patriot6. My Great-Grandfather16. The Cat That Came Back7. The Old Grave17. The Church Bell8. The Ruined Church18. The Old Battlefield9. Tap! Tap! Tap!19. The Indians' Camp10. Prophetic Birds20. The Hessian's Grave
1. The Haunted House11. The Dancing Squirrels2. Mysterious Footprints12. Footsteps at Night3. A Strange Echo13. The Lost Cemetery4. Warned in Time14. The Woman in Black5. A Haunting Dream15. The Dead Patriot6. My Great-Grandfather16. The Cat That Came Back7. The Old Grave17. The Church Bell8. The Ruined Church18. The Old Battlefield9. Tap! Tap! Tap!19. The Indians' Camp10. Prophetic Birds20. The Hessian's Grave
If you are to imitateRunning Wolfsuccessfully you must first think of a story of the supernatural, a simple, easily-understood story that will have a foundation of fact, and that will appear to be reasonable in its use of the supernatural. Then, without introducing your story immediately, show how a person who knows nothing of it takes part in a series of events that lead him to understand the story.
Make the setting of your story one that will contribute strongly to the central effect. Do not give any definite explanation of the events that you narrate. Give your reader such an abundance of suggestion that he will be led to infer a supernatural explanation.
Hold until the last the basic story on which you found your entire narration.