The ghost story has been part of daily life ever since Victoria was on the throne and Scrooge received his first visit from Jacob Marley. But never has it been quite so popular. Urban myths, or "friend of a friend" stories, are everywhere – tales of the paranormal and supernatural that can never quite be proved and often not disproved. Spend a couple of minutes channel surfing, meanwhile, and you'll find Medium, Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural and legions of psychic reality shows.
What's the appeal? Ghost stories show us our limits, as well as whispering in our ear, persuading us to push our luck just a little too much until we realise, too late, that "it's not a prank call", that the house "really is built on a graveyard". They're stereotypical, certainly – but done right, few types of fiction can entertain and frighten us as much.
All of which makes for perfect entertainment as the nights draw in. For the best possible effect, all you have to do is take control of four elements: your environment, your audience, your story and yourself.
Atmosphere is vital for any performance, especially ghost stories, so your first job is to make sure your audience are only paying attention to you. With that in mind, make sure you work indoors, because it will cut down on any distractions, and you can tailor the lighting in the room to your needs.
If you can, get a single source of light in the room and place it centrally or near you. The mind and the eyes focus on what they can see, so if you're the only point of light in the room you're also going to be the only thing anyone looks at. If this isn't possible, then candles spread around a room will give you a different but no less impressive effect, lowering the light and heightening the atmosphere.
Jack-o'-lanterns are well worth your time too, especially as they're one of the very few craft projects in existence where talent really isn't that necessary. In fact, the more off-centre they are, the more unsettling they look.
Controlling your environment will also help you control your audience, whether you're playing to two people or 50. Arrange the room so you're either at the tip of a wedge of seats or standing at the centre of a semi-circle, ensuring that everyone is pointing towards you and subconsciously concentrating on you before you even speak. Asking people to turn off their mobile phones before you begin is also well worth doing.
Once you've got your audience focused on you, you can keep them there by viewing them as individuals instead of an anonymous group. Oddly, small groups are slightly harder work, as you end up having to make eye contact with everyone in turn. With larger groups, meanwhile, you can concentrate on the people who are reacting to the story and play to them. Their responses will lead the rest of the group, meaning you get everybody by playing to a few individuals. If you move around a little, this will only help matters, keeping your audience focused.
The story, though, is king, and if you're brave enough to write one from scratch, no less a figure than MR James, one of the greatest ghost story authors of the past 200 years, is on hand to help. In Some Remarks On Ghost Stories in 1929, James expanded on work done by Professor Frank Coffman to identify the five basic elements of a good ghost story.
"The pretence of truth", James's first element, is vital. Your story has to be grounded, whether that's through using locations or events you know about or by taking one of the classic locations, such as abandoned mills, run-down Victorian asylums or old mines. James's next point, that the setting should be "those of the writer's (and reader's) own day" also holds true. Write not just what you know, but what your audience knows, and they'll connect with it much faster.
The absence of gratuitous bloodshed or sex is next, and while this appears slightly prudish in these post-Saw days, it still holds largely true. Ghost stories are fictional sleight of hand, terror suggested rather than terror under a spotlight. Look at films such as The Others, Haunted and the first hour of 1408 to see how much impact tiny scares can have.
"No explanation of the machinery" remains good advice, too, although surprisingly difficult to follow. Great ghost stories mimic the ghosts themselves: fleeting impressions left on the reader's mind, the sense of something unknowable only just out of reach. The reason for, and mechanics of, your haunting have to be simple but not quite self-evident. You don't have to feed your audience everything; keep them guessing, just a little.
Finally, "a pleasing terror" is about as good a statement of intent for ghost stories as you're likely to find. Your audience needs to be frightened, but not terrified, as you lead them to the edge of the light and then just one step further. It helps if you pick something simple as a signature for the ghost, whether it's music being hummed, a phrase being repeated, or the lights flickering. Simple is iconic, and iconic is memorable.
If the muse doesn't strike, then do some research and see what local ghost stories there are. These can be particularly effective, with your listeners automatically connecting places they know with the ghastly events you're describing.
If all else fails, you can always fall back on the classics. James's pioneering combination of beautiful rural settings, mysterious artefacts and horrific events is always worth reading, and his Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad is still regarded as a classic. Sheridan Le Fanu, of whom James was an enthusiastic supporter, is more gothic but no less effective, and his Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter is a nicely gruesome story inspired by the work of 17th-century Dutch artist Godfried Schalken. My favourite, though, remains William Hope Hodgson, especially the Carnacki the Ghost-Finder stories, which pit a fiercely rational scientist hero against the supernatural, using tools such as his "electric pentagram". All three are huge fun, and much of their work is available for free at Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org).
The final and most important element is, of course, you. Dress up a little but make sure you're comfortable. You're there to entertain people; your audience are there to listen. Once you have that relationship established, you're halfway there.
The rest comes from your voice and how you deliver the story. Once you're comfortable telling it, vary your tone, speed and volume as the story demands. For narrative sections, don't be afraid to speed up as the story does, while for horrific revelations – aka reveals – you should slow right down and let the audience hang on every word. Your voice and its absence are the best tools you have, so make sure you use silence as well. Hold the audience on a reveal, leave them hanging in absolute silence for two seconds and then pick it back up. It'll feel like an eternity but it's barely any time – and all it will do, again, is focus people back on you and the story you're telling.
Whether that story is original, local, or one of the classics ultimately doesn't matter. By doing this you'll be keeping an ancient tradition alive, a tradition that stretches back across history: one person entertaining their friends by showing them fear in a handful of syllables. Do it right and you'll give your friends an unforgettable and unique evening's entertainment. Just don't ask if they had to sleep with the light on afterwards.
• Alasdair Stuart hosts the Parsec award-winning horror podcast Pseudopod (pseudopod.org)
Know your enemy: who's who in the spirit world
Banshees
Female spirits from Irish myth who are often seen as omens of death or messengers from the underworld. Banshees can change shape, often appearing as beautiful women. They are associated with the Irish battle goddess, the Morrigan, and are often described as appearing as an old washerwoman washing the armour of those about to die in battle.
Fetches
A deeply unsettling concept, fetches, or doppelgangers, are the ghosts of people who are still alive. Percy Shelley claimed to have met his own doppelganger, as did Abraham Lincoln. One of the most interesting cases is that of Emilie Sagee, a French teacher working in Latvia in 1845 who apparently split in two in front of dozens of witnesses. Her doppelganger reportedly mimicked her writing and eating and moved independently of her. While Sagee claimed not to be able to see her doppelganger, she also reported feeling stronger and healthier whenever it returned to her body.
Ghosts
The disembodied spirits of the dead, ghosts are widely believed to be spirits trapped on Earth because of unfinished business from their lives. The other favoured theory is that ghosts are "recordings" – moments of extreme emotion or trauma that are imprinted on the place where that trauma was suffered. Nigel Kneale's classic TV play The Stone Tape explores this, as a team of researchers realise something malevolent has been recorded on to the stones of a particular room.
Ghouls
Creatures of Arabian myth, ghouls get their name from al-ghul, which literally means "demon". Ghouls tend to live in the desert and can change into the form of an animal, usually a hyena. They lure unwary travellers into the desert, eat them and then take on the form of their last victim.
Revenants
Revenants are ghosts returned to haunt the living, often as animated corpses. Like normal ghosts, they often return to avenge their deaths, but have more freedom and are able to interact directly with individuals and locations. The main character of James O'Barr's graphic novel The Crow and the later Alex Proyas film both feature a revenant as the protagonist.
