1) Consider the setting. A ghost story cannot be told effectively in broad daylight. Darkness or semi-darkness is essential. It also has recently become fashionable to tell ghost stories to large groups of people. This is far less effective than telling the story to a group of a dozen or so wide-eyed listeners around a campfire. The teller must always have eye contact with his audience.

2) Tell a ghost story after dark, the audience seated in a rough semi-circle around the you. Make sure that you can see every member of your audience clearly. The light from a campfire is sufficient for that. In fact, any single light source is best, with the background in darkness. And make sure the audience can see you, too.

3) The suitability of the ghost story that you tell depends upon your audience. The classic horror tale of “Raw Head and Bloody Bones”, of course, would not be appropriate for every small children. Neither would a tale about a bogeyman under the bed or in the bedroom closet. But older children, say 10 years-old and up, love these kinds of tales. In fact, all kids love to be scared.

4) Be sure that the listener can identify with the setting of your tale. If the woods in which you are camped is haunted, tell your audience about it. If the house in which you are telling the story has a ghost, tell of someone’s encounter with the spook. At least, associate your present setting with your story. For instance, you can begin your tale, “Years ago, along a trail just like this one, there was a ghost who liked to scare people.” Or you can say, “Old houses, like this, are always haunted.” 

5) Get up close and personal with your listener. Keep your voice calm, yet with a mysterious lilt. The teller doesn’t have to use a different voice for each character, or jump around like a whirling dervish, to create the proper mood. In fact, such gyrations often spoil the mood of the tale.

6) Listening to a story is like reading a book. The words fire the imagination. His mind draws pictures of the people and events in the story. Your story does not have to be very detailed to be successful. The listener does not have to know what color shirt the character is wearing, not even the color of his eyes. The teller paints word pictures in the mind of the listener. If the teller can make the listener “see” what is happening, then the tale is a success.