Using Cemeteries for Character and Story Ideas

When writers are feeling blocked, they’re often looking for that big, broad idea that will grow into a fully formed piece of writing. But sometimes inspiration can come from tiny details that we run across in the real world. Cemeteries are a great place to collect these tiny details that can grow into a larger story or the characters that populate it. Below are my tips for using cemeteries for character and story ideas.

Names and dates

The most obvious source of inspiration that gravestones can provide are names and dates. Horror writers in particular have taken names for classic characters from walks through graveyards and cemeteries.

First and last names can even be mixed and matched. The dates on the stones too will help you to realize what names were popular in a particular era to fit a specific historical time period or a character of a certain age.

Nicknames are often added to the stones. It can be fun to come up with the origin of these nicknames with such limited information. It also helps when the stones are decorated with trinkets or even just flowers to show that someone still visits and that they bring items that that person would have liked.

Find a few headstones that belong to people who were born or died the same year. Then, come up with a story where their paths cross, dovetail, or indirectly affect one another, all because they happened to live in the same area and were born around the same time.

Familiar last names

Whenever I’m walking through neighborhood cemeteries, I often see familiar surnames jump out at me. These could be last names that match the names of local roads or businesses in the area. Families are often buried together or nearby. So, you’ll see clusters of them in a particular area.

Find a grave or set of graves that match these local families, and research their history with the town, or make up your own history of how they became so prevalent in the area. Are they powerful citizens in town or just the family that everybody knows? Do they exploit their place in the town’s history, or are they do-gooders? How has their legacy evolved and survived? How do their gravestones reflect their personalities?

The themed gravestone

Many gravestones are similar shapes and sizes. So, it’s the unique ones that stick out from the crowd. I’ve seen gravestones personalized with photos of the person’s face, an etching of an activity they loved, or a quote that they lived by. I’ve seen gravestones personalized for hunters and fishermen as well as cooks and caretakers.

Find a personalized gravestone and think about why they are personalized the way they are? Was the person showy? Did they truly love the activity that’s on their stone, or was it just their surviving relatives who wanted to do something special and chose one of many traits that defined them? Who paid for the extra embellishment, or did they pick it out themselves? If they didn’t, would they have liked it, or could they have been insulted?

Babies and children

It’s extra sad to pass by a stone with a little lamb carved into it or toys placed on it, and, doing the quick math, you realize that this is the resting place of a child or infant. Some are as young as the day they were born. But they all have a story to tell.

What happened? Was it a medical issue, an accident, or worse? How long ago did they die? Did that factor into their inability to survive?

How did it affect the people they left behind? Was anyone held responsible? Did any good come out of it?

Basing the death of a young character on an actual person who lived adds authenticity and sensitivity to the way you’ll portray that character. You’ll always have them in the back of your mind as you develop that character, and it will help you to honor their memory as well as humanize them.

Ethnicity and culture

I recently found a Ukrainian cemetery that I can visit on my lunch break at work, and I didn’t know it was a Ukrainian cemetery until I looked up the type of cross I kept seeing on all of the stones. This, along with the specific style of names on the stones, got me thinking about the culture that the deceased grew up around or may have even devoutly followed throughout their life.

Religion also plays a factor into the decision to be buried. Were they religious, or did they or their family just go through the motions of basic funeral arrangements that they were used to? Or did they have any choice at all?

What does their afterlife look like? Could you develop a story from the afterlife you imagine? Or do you have a particular culture or religion that you follow that would be fun to write about, either positively or negatively?

Setting

Cemeteries are traditionally scary places when actually, they have more of a park-like atmosphere. They’re usually set on a hill which gives them a scenic view and can give you great ideas for places to set a story, whether it be a particular home, street, or town in general. You can describe the foliage in the area, the animals you see, or the vehicles that drive past or park nearby.

If the cemetery is rundown, old, or creepy, or you visit at a spooky time of day or on a dark or even rainy day, jot down what makes it creepy and set it as the next spot for a scary story. Use the landscape to portray different beats for your story as your characters follow the same path that you’re walking and run into the same obstacles and visuals.

The visitors

I often have the cemetery to myself when I visit, but sometimes people walk their dogs, visit friends or relatives, or just pass through. People often live nearby, and they can be seen in the yards cutting grass, sitting outside, or kids could be out playing.

I’ve seen a lot of different types of people in the cemetery. Once I saw children in Halloween costumes slinking through a cemetery. Another time I saw a bride who stopped to lay flowers on a grave before getting married.

One time I even had a conversation with a woman who had come a long way to visit her husband, and she apologized for talking to him aloud. I thought that was something that people only did in the movies. But it made her feel better.

You might even see a funeral or a freshly dug grave while you’re there. Who are they there for? How are they dressed? What types of cars are they driving? Where are they going afterward? How upset are they? What will they do next? Could this be the beginning of an entirely different story?

Put a positive spin on it

Thinking about dead people automatically draws you to dark and morbid ideas. But why not put a positive spin on it? Find a grave where somebody died young, whether it’s age five or age 50. Pretend they had lived longer.

What would they have done? Where would they be now? Would they still be alive today? Make your nonfictional fictional and then see where it takes you in your imagination.

What inspiration have you taken from cemeteries? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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