1001 Writing Prompts About History - Commaful Storytelling Blog

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History is all around you, from the revolutions and national heroes you learned about in school to the important buildings, such as churches, monuments, and museums, in your country. This makes it easy to be inspired by it to create original pieces of writing.

With the right idea, you use the memorable moments in the past to create stories for any genre. It could inspire you to write a historical romance that tackles class struggles during the 18th century, a time travel series about going back to the past to prevent world wars or a horror story about witches during the Salem Witch Trials.

Below you will find writing prompts aimed specifically at getting you inspired to write about history. Use them to stir your creative juices.

In 1865, the farthest advance of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army into Kentucky was driven back by Abner Powell, a 33-year-old Confederate veteran turned Kentucky farmer. What impact does this event have upon Abner and his community?
It’s 1949, and the China Relief Expedition is going on in Shina. Peng Zhang is the son of a murdered politician in northern Shina. A CIA agent wants to put him aboard a truck filled with supplies headed east into China. It could be his first step on becoming a great man for his people and maybe even a martyr to the Communist cause. How does he get aboard the truck to freedom?
It’s a cool summer night in Des Moines, Iowa. A big, burly pack of gentlemen meet to discuss the problems with the nation and have a great steak dinner. Who died, argued about what should be done, gets drunk and then paralyzes a photographer?
You’ve just been hired as the new president of Atari. What do you do in your first months as president, before the corporate crisis of 1983?
School is out for summer, but one student is far from relieved. Write a coming of age story about the scariest thing that a child has to face during their schooling.
It’s fifteen years before the Civil War. You are present at a river ferry to witness a group of escaped slaves on their journey to freedom. What are their plans once they arrive at the river bank?
It’s April, 1945. It’s the end of the war between the U.S. and Japan. Your character is on a U.S. submarine that has commandeered a Japanese cruiser docked in an isolated harbor. Write a scene in which the captain of the sub gets drunk for the first time.
Write a battlefield story in which an ordinary soldier is thrust, unprepared, into a war.
In 1872, a young man named Benjamin Franklin Gates told the story of the Turin Shroud. It will awaken something buried inside of him, and it will lead him on a journey of discovery to the forbidden city of Petra.
It’s 1696, and it is the Salem Witch Trials. You have been accused of being a witch. Write your own defense.
It’s 1970, and you’re inside of an astronomer’s observatory in search for Mars. Write a scene where another member of his team encounters an unknown presence in a long forgotten room.
When one learns that intelligence comes in many forms and intelligence can also be defined as power, the situation can sometimes, unfortunately, make it rather easy for individuals to exploit others. Write a situation in which one individual exploits another for his own benefit. However, the exploited individual learns that he too may possess a type of intelligence as he comes to develop a plan of revenge.
In 1986, it’s fraying the ropes of humanity in a run-down hospital in Tibet.
An astronaut has just returned from an old Russian Soyuz II and is in the early stages of decompression sickness. What is his home like and how do they treat him? Give him an interesting character trait.
If you could rescue a historical figure of your choice from the past, who would it be and why?
It’s 1980, and there’s a turf war going on between the Bloods and the Crips in your neighborhood. You are coerced into joining a rival gang while all three sides are at war. Write a short story about the consequences of your actions.
It’s 1999, and the last show at an old, iconic rock concert hall will occur. What would happen to you in this situation and what are you sad about even though you have this reason to be sad?
It’s 2017, and you are President of the United States. Write a letter to any historical figure that was sent in an effort to protect your interests.
Write a description of one of the greatest cities to ever exist in history. In case your setting is still in the background, instead of having people navigate through the city setting itself, have the characters be in a room that has one window with a view out of the city for its characters to look out of for the setting description.
In 1939, the world fought against the rising threat from Germany. Japan is about to kill thousands of civilians and sink USS “Reuben James”. A line crew member survives the attack and wants to seek revenge against the Japanese pilot responsible. “Reuben James” sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and they never return again. What happens to the crew member and the Japanese pilot?
In 1890, the citizens of Poughkeepsie were terrified by the news of the supposed Jack the Ripper copycat killer on The Varken Island, a small island in the Hudson situated next to Poughkeepsie. Lieveinard Sartre, the town’s mayor, must bring peace to the citizens while trying to find the killer himself.
It’s 1999 and a crack commando unit must track down and defeat a deadly terrorist group before it can attack America on its most frightful holiday. What is something special about this team?
It is 1780. Britain’s war with France is in full force, and the two sides battle relentlessly in the West Indies. A particular standoff continues for days until a crew of British sailors decide to pull some strange objects from the water. They are buoyant, and each carries a curious hole. Throw a British sailor into this desolate West Indies in the midst of his captors. What happens to him? The reader must work towards discovering how his life is tied to objects seemingly from the abyss.
Set in the 21st century, an explorer reaches the North Pole and sees that the entire area has gotten warmer and there’s now a sort of garden and farm. Many people instantly begin to settle there. Decide on what sort of government forms, what sort of culture comes about, and who settles there.
Two strangers, strangers no more, strangers until they became close friends, are walking through the Abruzzi mountains in Italy in the year 1186.
1950s, Enniscorthy, County Kildare. What does it mean when you only see rain? You were born where it rains too much. Write about it.
In 2013, NASA launched a new Mars mission in an ambitious effort to bring homesick men into space. What mystery surrounds the men in space as they struggle to find true meaning in their own lives and those they left behind?
It’s 1999, and the President and his wife are having dinner in an elegant French restaurant in California. The President is meeting with the mayor of Portland to talk about the youth violence in their city when two terrorists enter the restaurant with the president’s protection agents already dead. Write about what happens and how the American people react.
In the times of Henry VIII, write a scene about a woman who is condemned to be stoned to death. The scene can be from her perspective, or from the perspective of someone who witnesses the execution.
Describe a childlike weapon — invented and used exclusively by children — that could realistically inflict serious harm on adults and is in widespread use even today.
This one is for those who love sci-fi writing. It’s the year 2380 and human beings are able to travel at the speed of light thanks to a spaceship engine that utilizes mini-black holes. Here’s a contemporary piece set in the suburbs of Chicago in the year 2000. Imagine that along the lakefront, there lives a family of Elwhans. Nearby, a scientific facility is swarming with Elephants from another world, who all look, sound, and function in exactly the same way as the human family on the lakefront. Something is going on here that even science-fiction writers can’t even begin to understand. It’s almost as if they’ve always been here. For Halloween, here’s a tale of a writer at work on her new novel, working on a science fiction book about a writer at work on her new novel, but the characters in it don’t know it yet. Of course, I’m talking about a
It’s 1963 and a Ku Klux Klan leader is arrested for a hate crime. What is the secret the police find out about his family?
In the 1990s, you walk into a large house in England with nothing but a few memories of the girl you thought you once loved.
As a local tour guide in ancient Palestine, you prepare to guide a mystery tourist through the sight of the crucifixion of Christ.
Write a story where the escape becomes a journey to find the real home, one where from beginning to end, the protagonist never once wavers on their decision to return home.
Your main characters leap a hundred years into the future to help the future generation discover a message within an old photograph once taken by their grandfather. Traveling back in time, they end up discovering a lot more.
A spaceship crash lands on the remote barren planet Veridion in the year 1597. In this science fiction story, you must write a journal entry/log entry as the pilot of the ship before the ship crashed. This could be a descent into madness, a love story, etc.
It’s the summer of 1995. You’re lying down in your backyard while your brother is attempting to perfect his new move, The Worm. At the same time, there’s a space probe named Pathfinder who crash lands on Mars. The space probe relays stories from all over Earth to its audience, the red planet. Your stories collide, but in the end, there’s an important moral to be learned.
It’s 1958, and the Soviet Union is planning to launch a rocket to the moon before America’s projected launch on July 20, 1960. But there is a hint of deception behind this mission.Write a dramatic scene set in 1958 involving two suspicious scientists of the Soviet space program.
In the winter of 1605–06, a man in Jamestown awaited the arrival of supplies from England. He tells the story of the horrific winter of 1609.
Write one of the following short scenes between two characters. Choose two characters from the same time period or two characters from two different time periods.
In present-day Los Angeles, a neglected young boy, finds a strange, extremely large, box during a neighborhood game of hide and seek. Excited about his find, he goes back to his home with his prize box, only to hide it under his bed. The boy returns to his bed, only to realize that a monster lives inside of his box and has come out.
It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Swiss Alps in the year 1813. Alex, an ill-tempered teenage girl, struggles to cope with the death of her father and with her mother’s untimely marriage to Mr. Thompson, a man twenty years her senior.
In 1500, Portugal and Spain were at war. Write a scene involving two childhood friends who despite the conflict risk their lives to be together only to have it torn apart by one of them crossing the Spanish border. It is a place in Spain.
A soldier on the frontlines in the Civil War is confronted by a new campfire that has spread in his direction and finds himself surrounded by hostile neighbors. What options does he have in handling the situation?
In the 1960s you are transported back to Victorian England where you must save a young woman from a murderer in a castle.
In 1970s Ghana, a young man is taken to the forests by his family to learn the value of nature. Go into the eyes of the narrator as he discovers deforestation for the first time.
It is a dark and stormy night. The blackened bodies of children litter the cobblestone streets of early 19th century London. As an esteemed physician, you must investigate the recent source of the plague.
It’s now 2015. You are a cancer research scientist at Oxford University. To your alarm, a cure for cancer has been discovered, but with sinister consequences whenever the cure is not followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. How do you save the world from disaster?
The elderly owner of an old bookstore moans that she is alone and has outlived all of her loved ones, unaware that she has an unlikely visitor for dinner.
Write a letter from a slave’s perspective, talking about how he or she learned English in an effort to communicate with other slaves and then plantation owners.
You and a group of strangers band together in order to survive an unknown catastrophe. What are some challenges you and your group of survivors face and how do you go about handling it?
Write a story in which you try to describe a crime scene or significant event through the eyes of a reporter who hasn’t lived through the actual events and is speaking from a vast distance.
“In the desert of North Africa, in the year 1192, members of a Christian church are slaughtered by a group of Muslim extremists. Through the perspective of one witness of the events, craft a tale of terror where it is up to the audience to decide whose side they are on.”
It is the Roaring Twenties, and the city of New York is in a financial slump. Money and unemployment are a common topic of the day. Law has become a worrisome factor in city life, and Popeye is one of the city’s most famous law enforcers. Write a scene in which Popeye arrests some drunkens on a New York City street corner.
Colonial times. It is frigid cold. Two Death merchants named Eben and Titus decide to let one last person in on the trade before they retire. But where will they find someone who desires to die?
A man awakens from a coma only to find out that the world around him has been uncovered. What first scares him and gradually intrigues him as he goes out of the hospital where he awakens?
Write a scene in which someone opens a mysterious package that transports them back in time to the 1920s.
What was the most important historic date to a certain country’s culture? Write about that event in the words of a townsperson.
Write about The Titanic using the perspective of an old photograph in the wreckage of the sunken ocean liner.
It’s 1923 in the city of Detroit, and money runs rampant. A kidnapper has taken advantage of the economic boom and nabbed a wealthy businessman’s beloved daughter. A mysterious thug vows to help the poor father and tracks down the culprit in a back alley meet-up.
In the early part of the 3rd century, Roman Emperor Severus Alexander decided to convert to Christianity. However, over 100 converts become martyrs for their new faith. Write a journal or journal entry of a martyr either before or after their execution.
Write a fight scene in which an outsider is the victor.
It’s 1942, and World War II is underway as the Nazi’s quickly ravage Europe. The Nazis are currently marching on Poland, so write a scene in which you enter one of the first Nazi invasion stores, full of grief-stricken Polish citizens.
It’s 1900 and you are on your way to the Yukon Gold Rush to strike it rich but are misled to an abandoned mining town in Montana. What happens there?
Henry Viii has come to the decision to marry Anne Boleyn to secure a deeper alliance with France. The queen aspires to be like Katherine of Aragon, but can’t marry a second man who hates him.
It’s 1997, and you have just buried your sixteen year old son. Meanwhile, in downtown Seattle, an underground political rally turns into a fight for the lives of the protesters and bystanders as men in a white van begin shooting automatic weapons in all directions.
A priest, a rabbi, and an imam are having breakfast together, and each man has nothing but complaints about their respective congregations. All of a sudden, a noise outside the window catches their attention. What is it, and what divine being or cosmic terror will emerge?
A young adult gets lost in the metro. His only companion is a display board showing the best stops as selected by the entire family. Write a monologue in which he refers to the visual cues and has a slightly humorous inner monologue.
A cutpurse from the capital city of a Mediterranean sea empire is banished to an outpost on the edge of the empire. There he must work to redeem himself or die.
Set in Pueblo, Colorado during the year of 2007. A teenager named Mark arrives at his work, the Park and River Museum, to discover one of the most shocking things he has ever seen.
Dire situations are no strangers to the farmers that work on the plains surrounding Fort Laramie. How do they handle a new era of trouble when the Sioux threaten the town sending it into a state of emergency?
Write a piece set at Woodstock. Focus on a particular behavior during that gathering and how witnesses perceived the action.
It’s the 1930s. Write a story that takes place in the depression era where during the night one or both parents is unable to find in bed. A family must work together to dig out of trouble.
You arrive in 17th century Japan to find that the government has been taken over by a rising star named Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As Hideyoshi’s advisor, you plan to teach him how to be a wise leader for the people. Where do Hideyoshi’s flaws lie, and how do you expose them?
As the 18th century unfolds, Lord Archibald wants to solve the mystery of the abandoned and derelict silo he has just purchased. What secrets does it hold?
In the alternate history novel Life During Wartime by Suki Lovett for Poppy Inc, Juliana and Serena fled from Nazi-occupied part of Bedfordshire to England. Make up a story related to them told from the point of view of a neighbor, friend or relative of one of these girls.
It’s 1956, and the United States has to deal with the threat of nuclear war. Write a story in which a family is having a party, when suddenly the television shows a message about incoming missiles. What happens next?
It’s 1827, and you are about to embark on the greatest scientific expedition to explore South America’s uncharted rainforest. As a final meeting and saying goodbye you reminisce about your life.
It’s the fall of 2006, and a seventeen year old high school senior is forced to experience his first sexual encounter just before Thanksgiving break.
William Shakespeare was wrong, but in 16th century London, Leonardo Da Vinci creates the world of 2021 as predicted by the great playwright in Jules Verne’s novel From The Earth To The Moon. The eccentric inventor allows one of his hundreds of time travelers to bring a friend into 1900 to watch as the world prepares to go to war once more.
Elephant Hunting in 1788 Africa
A group of actors put on a Revolutionary War play for the townsfolk in Charleston, South Carolina. Write one of the actors’ pep talk about how to be a symbol of bravery to the crowd in the theater, but eventually, tragedy unfolds.
Philadelphia, 1987. Inspired by an incident that occurred in Frankford, Philadelphia where an inner city teenager is charged for the crime of putting graffiti in his neighborhood, an artist is commissioned to design a mural to represent and revitalize his community. But the mural will delve into an inner struggle when the police officers are forced to ask their white brothers and sisters to intervene because of racial remarks made by the artist. What happens when the artist’s words become infectious and reminds us of one of the most critical conflicts of American history.
On this hard March day in 1819, 90 men and women successfully revolted at the Nore and gave hope to all in slavery. Readers learn of African miners on the slave ships that regularly patrolled the English Channel and of the lives that were held on these ships.
It’s 1969, and astronauts are being sent for a returning expedition to the moon. Write a scene in which one astronaut who is not well-suited to the task has a moral dilemma.
“Science Wins!” in 1950, and so it begins. The race to conquer space is on, but what problem must humanity face before they can even take to heaven’s skies?
It is 1992. You have been selected to be the fashion editor for the Junior League Magazine. What will be the headline story of the Spring/Summer edition?
It is the middle of the night in 1920s Paris. A taxi drives slowly along a neighborhood street filled with cocottes. Write a description of the pimp’s encounter with an elegantly dressed man.
In her petites histoires, Itard details the mental progression of the “Wild Child” at the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Paris between 1801 and 1806, whose name has since been lost. Write a story of the Wild Child before she or he was institutionalized.
It’s November 1899, and the Spanish-American war has just ended. This is a war story that takes place aboard an American warship called the USS MacKenzie.
Twelve Kings in Sharakhai are responsible for holding the peace until someone named Çeda comes and disrupts balance. What makes her a threat and why does all this happen?
Sarah is a flight attendant working for a once-prestigious air-line but now is about to go out of business. Write a scene in which she is forced to work on one of their last flights while over Los Angeles.
Write about Billie Holiday.
You are a reporter gathering material for a story about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Write about the mood, conflict and setting within a hospital during the Civil War.
It’s 1969 and you have just been hired by NASA to become a collective of the first non-human form of life to set foot on Mars. However, when you wake up from your hibernation state you find that all your human friends are at war with each other due to rapid time progression. You have to convince them of who you are through kind, kind words instilled in you by NASA.
It’s 1957, and rock ‘n roll is all the rage. Your band has been banned from the radio, but you don’t care about censors as long as you can still catch a good show. Where are you and what are you doing?
It’s 2005. After a national disaster, survivors across the country are in fear of rebuilding the sabotaged lives that they—and the world—have been shattered to pieces.
Chris Columbus was supposed to find a western route across the Atlantic, but instead he finds an entirely new continent.
Fashion Week has just begun and you sneak backstage. Find a celebrity, learn about their special talent, what tragedy befell them, and how it changed their lives. What secret would they never share with the world?
Write about the strangest place you have ever been to on your own for the first time.
It is 1823 on a stormy summer evening off the California coast near San Francisco. A ship from the east crashes into a fishing vessel on a visit to the bay, the impact is so great it splits both ships in the swift current of the water, all coming to a final death at the bottom of the ocean.
Walt Disney’s French Quarter is a neutral territory where monsters and humans, witches and warlocks coexist as neighborly beings and where adventure is always a few steps away. Write an action sequence set in this city of ghoulish misfits where a character has a very unhealthy obsession with books.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall is rapidly coming down, and everyone rejoices as the world celebrates its inevitable end. In a certain town far away in the farming countryside of America, a woman takes in her grandfather who served during the First World War and a French woman who lost her husband during the 1960s. He reveals a “secret” to her about the wall. Write what happens.
A burglar breaks into an antique shop in Sydney, Australia, and begins to pilfer the valuable antiques within, but when he discovers the store owner in a back room the burglar begins to have second thoughts .
During the Florentine Renaissance, in 1593, a “demonic” beard grew exponentially during the annual carnival. A priest is tasked with having an ancient relic to combat the demonic tribulations about to
It’s 1962, and the U.S. population is up in arms over the threat of nuclear war. One man attempts to start a revolution in the city of Boston–but it’s a lot harder than he expected.
A group of soldiers fight on a battlefield during the Civil War. One is severely wounded. Write the dialogue of that soldier as he is rescued and as he dies in order to visually write the ending.
1919. Missouri. A farmer with eternal seeds must gather his entire family to go on a journey of their lifetime to save them all from his past.
The 1920s in Rome were an explosive time for the arts. What is the cause for Maria Tsoukatos to suddenly leave Egypt for Rome in pursuit of painting? Who is Mario Marchionni?
You and your friend got lost in the woods with no cell phone reception and are slowly starving. It’s getting dark, so you take shelter in an abandoned cottage. What is inside? Who else is in there?
It’s 1955 in tiny Palisma, Texas, and a ranch owner gives his herd to a mother and her two children. How does this make the townspeople feel? Do they treat him differently after the mother and children are gone? You must use at least two historical photographs in describing the actual place.
Propaganda Minister, Joseph Gűbbels, is presenting to Hitler the ideas for a new film of great historical significance to the Third Reich. What type of film is and what kind of impact will it have on Hitler and the people of Germany?
It’s the year 2600, and a burgeoning earth is home to hundreds of thousands of peoples. Write the diary of one explorer who is seeking to unveil the mysteries of the universe.
The story of Cinderella is set and takes place in modern-day Toronto. Instead of her usual dirty shoes and abused attire, she wears Louboutin heels and designer outfits from Club Monaco. Despite her jarring comes into wealth, she is still a victim of abuse, but this time, her family’s lawyer instead of her stepmother and two stepsisters.
You are a new farmer in the Kalmar Union in the 1600s. Pick a crop and write a story about an aspect of farming it or a conflict involved with your crop.
In 1960 France, secretly an American spy, works at the Glace Café looking for information from British and French intelligence. Why is she in France? An old acquaintance from the past is about to cause trouble.
A sailor gets shipwrecked off the shore of New Guinea and befriends jungle tribes atop mountainous outcrops. What does this sailor go through to try to survive on his own?
Set at the end of World War II, write a scene between an American nurse and a Jewish resistance fighter in Dachau, who know they only have one hour left together.
Summer, 1940. America is on the brink of war. Write a story about the summer in which a teen goes on a trip to see relatives before they are split up.
It’s 2077, and cyber attacks from terrorists are destroying cities around the globe. A last ditch effort is launched to send a cry for help as the Earth is struck with a nuclear 911.
Write an anecdote about a recurring argument you had with your best friend followed by “in twenty years, they finally made up.”
It’s 1966, and Chet and Doyle—a young white boy and his black best friend—are involuntarily outcast from the military base for getting into a fight. Where do they go and what tragic future awaits them?
Write a story about a person dreaming about an abandoned battlefield at the end of a war. Write the perspective from different characters on the battlefield in their dreams.
It’s 1862, and Benedict Arnold seeks to ruin Generals Washington and Gates in a battle at Saratoga. Write a dialogue in which Arnold confronts General Gates and attempts to persuade him into “defecting.”
You and your partner have locked yourselves inside the Mos Eisley Cantina in hope that you’ll find enough treasure on Tatooine to pay off a debt. Write about your night in the desert. Everyone is talking about Thomas Edison lighting New York. Create a story about how he did it. Where does it take place? What was his inspiration to do it? Does this change how people live?
It’s 1945. On the edge of a suburban street, a man stands alone. He catches his breath but lingers a moment too long. With the warmth of the sun upon his shoulder, the war torn veteran spies an operation of enemy forces that is training for a parade through town and the signal is given—his mission begins. Where does he go?
Write a mystery scene in which the murder of a president or dignitary is covered up by someone who was close to them. Besides unintentionally carrying out the atrocities of her own father, a woman uses her disguise to find a mysterious power only meant for the elite.
It’s 25,000 BC. Write a scene about a man who wakes up in the middle of the wilderness with amnesia and remembers nothing but his name – Sirius Starwalker. Where is he going? What will be his adventure? Who and what will he encounter?
A navy destroyer captain is caught performing spy work alongside enemy agents, providing vital information to Nazi machines…
90 years earlier, a young lady got caught in a large riot in the streets of 1897 New Orleans during the Spanish–American War. The police shoot one of the men involved, and struggles with him ensue.
In 1978 you wake up in the middle of the night to see that your parakeet, Beaker, has escaped from his cage and is flying throughout your house for the first time. Write a description of Beaker’s flight throughout the rooms of your house and how you finally catch him.
There’s a storm coming. Strange things start happening at a research facility on Mars in the year 2023. It is up to an astronaut to figure out the mystery before it’s too late.
In 2017, Evan Bailly is pulled in by an energy force that sends him back in time into a town that lived in the 1880s. This story needs a reference from the movie Back to The Future.
Write a scene in which you describe what it must have been like to live in the year 1755 during the French & Indian War.
A woman goes on vacation in China fantasizing about a wealthy philanthropist wooing her. In a small town she encounters a man who is both mysterious and enigmatic. What kind of character is he? Write a description of him and of the woman who encounters him.
It’s 1942, and Junius St. Claire, a black man from the south, seeks safety inside a shadowy London dive bar. Unfortunately, he finds himself the victim of a crime. When he reports the murder, he finds that it could get him arrested for the same crime.
It’s 1904, and a new sport called soccer is gaining in popularity. A girls soccer team makes history by competing in the first-ever soccer game in America. Write the story of the first game, their opponents and their spiritual journey.
Her name was Mary…Send your audience on a journey. They land on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…Slip and its political points of view.
You are an astronaut in a spacesuit and you encounter a ghost of a lighthouse keeper from the year 1916. You must use your wits to find a way to protect the physical integrity of your astronaut’s body AND solve the mystery of who the ghost is and what their intentions are.
Your story takes place in 1791. Britain is celebrating its victory over its former colonies in the Revolutionary War, now called the American Revolution. What kind of conflict, be it social, political, or in this scenario, conflict with the Native Americans, start your story off to kick off this grand historical moment?
You are a time traveller of the future, whose job is to tag and verify artifacts like paintings, statues, and carvings of various historical significance. The following are some guidelines to details and features you should have on your time travelling device. How do you find the information you need in order to complete your mission?
You are talking on a 1950s pay phone to your long distance boyfriend. However, a stranger keeps asking you questions and is too close to the receiver. Write how you save the situation to not give out any vital information.
You’re an American writer living in Paris in 1871. Write a scene about hearing the news of the Paris Commune for the first time. Detailed historical information is up to you to research.
It is 1910. Rudyard Kipling is aboard the SS Spitsbergen on his way back to London after visiting the Arctic Circle. Write a scene in which Kipling finds himself in trouble while away from home.
Write a meta-fiction story in which a dying writer confesses to the act of plagiarism that caused his life to crumble.
1950. Northumberland. The second season of the Corinthian League has just come to a close. Throughout the season, the Lords Alderley and the Earl of Ainsley have both tried everything in an attempt to take home the trophy. Yet it was close competition which saw only a single point difference between the two. Now it is time to celebrate for both teams, as they watch the national side in the full throes of their World Cup victory. Can the Corinthian League possibly stand a chance?
Write about a university city in the present day that is trying to conceal a hidden supernatural history hidden in its walls.
Set in 1768, two ghosts stir in a New Jersey graveyard. Write about them and their mayhem as they try to spook unsuspecting travelers on the haunted road.
Write a World War II or Korean War era story that gives thanks to all of the men and women who served for their courage.
It’s 1991, and the world is in the midst of the Gulf War. You are a newly recruited member of the US military who is just getting her first taste of what she might be facing in a war-torn Middle East.
Write a story where a novelist is the detective and is the victim of a crime.
For this one, you get to pick a historical time period. Write a character sketch of someone like Buddha, Julius Caesar, Mozart, Napoleon or any other famous historical figure who played an influential role in world affairs.
It’s 1841, and teenager Bethany Brent goes on a slave hunting rampage from Mississippi to the Louisiana state borders. As Chase McKenzie, a notorious slave hunting bounty hunter, close behind Bethany.
He was digging for dinosaur bones when he found something instead.
Write a scene in which one of the most important paintings is stolen from a museum and the only person who can solve the mystery of who did this is the popular museum curator.
In the 1880s, a circus monkey bit a member of an audience. The chase is on to capture the monkey who may contain a cure for tuberculosis and is infecting other animals.
Today’s your last day to find a way to escape into the future where you can get away from your debt collectors, a partner who betrayed you, or anyone else that you want to escape from.
In an effort to hide her culture from her oppressors, a woman from a proud ancient civilization built a locked vase. How does she break it open?
In the year of 1848, a small town Irish blacksmith faces and fears retaliation after killing one of the local mob leaders in a race riot, though violence only incites more trouble for those remaining.
1913 in Switzerland. Arthur, an eccentric man with magnificent mutton chops, leaves his toothpaste company to his niece, Edith, on the condition that she marries a man of his choosing. Will she make this decision and what complications surround her aunt’s death?
It’s 1969, and the American Apollo 11 is about to land on the moon. Write a monologue in which a satyr tells Aeneas, a former Roman hero of the Trojan War, about his tribe’s reasons for wanting the Greeks to lose the Trojan War.
On the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald captured national attention. In this story, write about the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald from the perspective of one of the surviving crew members.
It’s 1968, and you have been hired to work on a government top-secret project. Set the action inside of a cutting-edge laboratory where you have to work with a professor, a grad student, a movie star, and other famous individuals.
You are a giant and you walk through the streets of New York City. How do the colorful buildings and people look to you?
Imagine you’re a science teacher in London in 1952, just before D-day. Write a scene where you take your students out for a field study.
It’s 1898, and the Spanish-American War is in full swing. A fleet of 1500 U.S. soldiers, ships and volunteer firemen are stationed in Tampa, Florida. Write a scene in which at night on the docks, a Spanish ship has arrived.
You’re a veteran living in the slums of the big city way after World War II. It all depends on where you want the story to take place.
It’s 1944 and World War II is going on in Europe and the Pacific. Write a scene about two women at the airport on a rainy evening talking to each other about their husbands at war.
A man, who lives deep in the mountains of Peru, has escaped from his tepee and is fleeing hunger. He must make his way across perilous terrain in order to migrate to a safer area.
It is the flu epidemic of 1918 and the entire population of New York City has turned into zombies. Try and survive and take out the horde with an inventive weapon and only a handful of bullets. In which part of New York City are you in?
Write a two-act romantic comedy with a time travelling element.
2440 an evolution of the modern world has allowed for a blending of technology and natural resources. Sounds fall on all sides of a bustling avenue as bionic life form flies overhead. It enables you to navigate your way with whispers and thoughts. What happens when what was once known as an expensive vulgarity meets true privacy?
If you knew you were going to die before your thirtieth birthday, what would you do with your life?
Along with a time machine, you’ve just picked up a hitchhiking stranger. Write a story about how time will play tricks on all of your memories.
In the 1970s, the music world lost an amazing soul artist, when Otis Clay vanished just before the release of his greatest work. The following is a fictional situation in which Clay has suddenly reappeared and is looking to finish the album.
“You become obsessed with finding a cure for a deadly disease that is spreading in your town. Will you be able to save anyone?”
You’re one of only three of a troop of survivors from a planet where an unknown disease has laid its claim. The sleeping area duty just called in—sounds like there’s been another outbreak.
In a science fiction or future world, in what year or year range does a scene take place? What is it like, what is it used for, and why?
It’s 1992. Terrorists have struck down an important city in the United States. Write a story about the attack, starting with the characters’ reaction.
It’s 1990, and Susan Plath has just died. Write a scene where one of her fans, a young struggling writer, writes a pamphlet of unsigned notes to acquaintances, friends, deceased celebrities, and her husband, but it becomes the ultimate treasure which will shape her book of poetry she will publish.
Let’s Pretend It’s 1993 and it’s the middle of the afternoon on a hot August day in Aspen, Colorado. A young girl named June decides to go swimming in the town reservoir and she sees a man that nobody else can see. Tell her story.
Dayton, Ohio, Rapture, 1964. As the transformation of Dayton’s citizens continues, the city’s population begins to panic. Word spreads throughout the country and people begin running away from Dayton. The narrator of this story confides in the audience that his father, a scientist involved in the Rapture, has taken him and is keeping him locked away from the outside world, knowing that other scientists have taken their own children and their own families and have run away… to find a way to reverse the Rapture.
It’s the 1980s and a man from New Jersey purchases a two-room house in the big country of Australia. Write a scene from the protagonist’s viewpoint as he comes to grips with the culture of the “strayan’” population and wonders about the country’s rise to prosperity as well as its newfound wealth during the global boom of the early 1900s.
In 1876, a notorious outlaw known as Billy the Kid makes a daring attempt to escape from a sheriff’s fortress in New Mexico.
Five days. Two college students. Seventy Cans. One epic road trip.
Two lawyers, stuck on a jury for over two weeks, become trapped in the place they are meant to be judging, a small theater that is the site of an inexplicable murder.
During the 2016 Irish presidential election, write a short story about the first time a candidate realized that they had been placed under surveillance.
In the 19th century, your favorite character or persona witnesses the Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
Write the lyrics to a song the sailors stole from you two hours before the shipwreck which has been haunting you every night before you sleep. You have recently developed a toxic reaction to chocolate and are slowly working yourself to the point of almost breaking inside. What event do you use as the inspiration for the lyrics and how do you let it out?
Find out what happens when the old west barn dance comes to an unexpected end.
For this prompt, you will have to be imaginative. Write a tale about the effects of a mistaken helicopter landing on a family trying to just enjoy a night under the stars.
In a future world forced to stand in a circle of fire, birthdays are celebrated once a year. The ritualistic, ceremonial act is only bestowed on those under sixteen who are valuable members of the community. In the year of 2050… Write the birthdays of three main characters in the style of the Cantos Cycle of Ezra Pound.
You, your boyfriend, your parents, and a friend visit the local park. Suddenly, an explosion occurs inside of a science lab in a nearby complex, trapping you and your friends inside. How do you spend your final hours together? Where do your families and friends think you are and what do you do during this time together?
It’s the fall of 1922, and Great Britain is in the midst of a “glorious” time for their empire. Write a dialogue between a mother and her daughter where the two talk about the prospects of higher understanding in a foreign country where the shores of British India were rumoured to be ruled by a magical presence or guru.
It’s 1863, and you just agreed to a mission in which you must pretend to be the wealthy husband of a beautiful widow. How were you brought into this situation and where do you go from here?
It’s 1975, and Boston is overcome with worry over what will become of the city and its inhabitants during an oncoming hurricane. Write a scene in which a mishap or disaster strikes the city, washing away employment, homes and family.
Set in the year 1960. At a charming little playground, a group of school children spy a beat-up and broken robot picking up the dirty balls from the sandbox and putting them back in the rack. There is something different about this robot—can you find the creative way to describe him through the eyes of a child?
11. “Vernon God Little.” Dave Robicheaux is a down-on-his luck detective living and working in New Orleans who is asked to solve a crime by the president of the United States.
The Space Race is on, and NASA is slated to land on the moon. An ambitious female, who is tired of women not being celebrated for their achievements, serves as the television announcer for the trip. Write a scene in which she is about to make a historical announcement and gradually realizes that something has gone wrong after it is already announced.
During the mid 1960’s, you arrive on a charter flight in Los Angeles ready to help bring the peace back from the chaos of the big city.
A writer wanted to go live in an exchange program with the BBC because it was so effective and it inspired their writing.
In 1648, horrific bandit raids plagued southern German villages. As a Bavarian herald, you must uncover the true identity of these bandits.
It’s 2018. A sixteen-year-old falls off his skateboard in the mall, travels through a wormhole and reappears in 1995. He meets the people he would’ve grown up with and must decide if the world he knew is worse or better for the changes that happened in the world in the past 20 years.
It is 1976 in a South Carolina seaside town. An enormous fire in a hazardous chemical plant releases a lethal chemical into a river. Where did the chemicals come from and what measures are taken to clean up the spill?
It’s 1995. For sixteen years the world has dealt with pestilence. But for one young man, this was not how life was meant to be. His whole life is uprooted as he must go on an expedition to eradicate the virus from the heart of society, and save mankind.
A nineteenth century man alone encounters a spook with a story to tell. What does the spirit say to him, and what will the man be leery to accept.
It’s a strange year in a strange time. Halloween nights are spent chasing werewolves under a new crescent moon. Throw caution to the vampire wind while giving this the full-moon treatment.
Samuel Smith answers the knock at his door in the twilight hours on Halloween night in a US town known as Shadow Falls and begins a journey that will send chills of fear through the community.
It’s a New Year’s Eve party at the top of the ancient Athenian Acropolis, and a young math genius in the employ of age-old philosophers of Rome is invited to join the adults. But before the ball can drop, a murder is done!
Once Frank Sinatra originated the role of Private Frank Fontaine in “Guys and Dolls” on Broadway, it became a one-man act at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. Its stage was a large pink wicker chair that sat in front of a huge purple curtain at the very back of the hotel. What was it that Fontaine said that put him in everybody’s head during the 1950s and 1960s?
Debbie Reynolds walks into Heaven’s Gate Bar and Grill in Missouri to escape the pressures of stardom. What happens next?
It’s 1302, and a small army of English soldiers has been sent from Coventry to attack Montelligarde Castle in France’s south. The campaign doesn’t go well. Write a journal entry from the perspective of one of the English soldiers. It can be about the metaphoric significance of the castle name or an inner conflict of the soldier.
In modern day Poland, a whistle-blower is about to release information that could have devastating implications for the country. Poland’s nuclear power plant, with the capacity to provide 60% of the country’s energy needs, is about to explode.
It’s June 13, 1964. John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession winds through the streets of New York City as a Civil Rights protest erupts into a historic riot on the streets of Washington D.C. What takes place during this tumultuous time that forever changes the country?
It’s 1987. You’re enlisted in West Germany. While you are on patrol you stop a car carrying two prisoners who are plotting your kidnap in an ISIS-style injury. What do they want with you?
WWII impacted Europe in an extreme way in 1939. Write a scene involving a Nazi interrogator and a captured Polish soldier desperate to save his own life.
A young modern-day scientist takes a time machine back to 1633 Plymouth and encounters Puritan settlers.
It’s 1955. A woman in New York City recovers from an allergic reaction thanks to a new drug. We follow her through an argument with her husband, getting by her mother, enjoying her time out with friends, and ending the day with a hot date.
In 1980s Los Angeles, a Japanese-American basketball player has the talent and tools to become a NBA all-star, there’s only one problem, his teammates are not fond of the color of his skin.
It’s 1519, and none other than Hernán Cortés has come to visit the Pacific Coast in New Spain. During the feast of Cuahtemoc, a bloody Aztec tradition, one of the villagers realizes Cortés is a threat and makes sure Cortés never returns to Castile, Spain.
Your character is a clerk in a frontier mercantile store in the late 1800s. An unexpected traveler walks into your store during the dead of winter, what were the circumstances and what is the outcome of your encounter?
Famed author Malcolm Lowry was searching for a place on the island of Majorca. He found a little white cottage with red doors set back on a hillside, allegedly built over a hilltop cave. Write a fictional scene in which he encountered someone sinister lurking beneath this cottage.
In France or another country, a group of people have been watching your every move. Members of the group want to become involved in your life. Write a scene in which people in the group get closer to you.
With the advent of long-range bombing and airborne troop deployment, the world is at war. A U.S. Air Corp bomber pilot that was wounded and forced to land in a strange place saves the life of a young girl and her family during a bombing raid.
Write a scene focused on a family death in which the surviving children adapt to the change and begin showing characteristics from an adult role.
It’s 1961, and John F. Kennedy is about to be inaugurated, but before that can happen, a comic book writer named James and a horse named Billie Jean have caused a disturbance in the streets of Jacksonville, Florida.
1930s London. Ever since she was young, an impoverished young girl―with the help of her aristocratic patrons―has lived her dream of becoming a showgirl in Tin Pan Alley.
Write about a character who experiences deja vu during a family reunion. Does it feel like déjà vu or something more?
At the turn of the 20 th century, a world author sets out from the British capital to embark on an adventure through Africa with an ambiguous mission. What happens?
You’re at the 1428th bestseller party for a modern-day Martin Scorsese. Mingle with your fellow authors and talk about what you will bestow to the world through your writing.
In a town just north of London streets are filled with the ghosts of past residents. What is the story behind the house at 717 Wylie Avenue?
Early 20th century. The airplane has just been invented, and pilots are starting to take small-scale trips. Write a scene where a young boy witnesses a downed aircraft and has to alert the pilots before they are discovered by an enemy.
In the late 1960s, somewhere in Northern Africa, a platoon of nude war veterans gather together in an abandoned church. There they decide to resurrect their leader, Abraham Osiris Fortes, after a poisonous snake bites him. Where do they go after Fortes’s resurrection?
Joe Louis is a young talented boxer from a broken family. In order to become the great fighter that he dreamed about, Joe faces racism, drama, and setback. Write a scene about one of his memorable fights.
There is never a dull moment for the staff members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on an average work day. Write a scene in a character’s day to day life.
It’s St. Augustine, Florida in the year 1565. A young teenage Juan Ponce de León receives his first tattoo. Write a scene in which he gets in trouble for this and where he runs off.
Describe the workplace of an American freelance journalist in 1919 Berlin, Germany as he discovers the darkest truths about an otherwise pleasant dream.
It’s 1996 on the night Duke beat Carolina in basketball to win the championship. Tell me from the non-winning team’s perspective.
In 1959, Elvis was the biggest star on the planet. In your story, he turns for help to a horse to guide him through the next steps of his career.
A German soldier traverses the frozen wilderness of World War II Russia. What happens when he sees something any man should be lucky enough to see?
In 1848, cabin fever was strong in the cabin of a steam boat plying the Mississippi River through the great northwest territories of the United States. It’s so bad, that they cut off their own arm in a bet. Argue about who should get their own arm back.
It is April, 1940 and you are a German U-boat captain in charge of your crew. What decisions lead to your downfall and how do you react to the result?
In 17th century Britain an underpaid spy for the Crown is sent into a secluded village. He’s there to uncover a conspiracy of traitorous self-elected officials for the Catholic Church.
It’s the Victorian age in England. A woman is out walking in the woods running from her problems at home. Upon discovering a young bride-to-be in the woods tying off her extremities on the redwood tree, what question might she and her family get into later into the future with the discovery?
In 18th-century China, a strict father remarries after the death of his first wife. His new wife—a widow herself—has nine children of her own. She quickly moves in and begins to take control of the household and family. Within a week, most of the family has fallen ill to malarial fever, and half of the first wife’s children have already expired before her eyes. Wracked with grief and misplaced guilt, she soon realizes that she may no longer be helpless. . .
The beginning of the space race is a historically relevant subject matter that includes twists and turns in the plot that keeps readers on edge.
Write a western about a band of fearless outlaw cowboys fighting to keep a secret hidden in the Arizona desert.
It’s the Civil War and you’re on your way through the Georgia mountains to join the army. The forest around you is so thick that the river seems to be in a cocoon. Write a personification of the river that’s inside this forest.
You are the discoverer of a lost voyage. What are the contents? Does somebody seem particularly interested in them? Write a letter from you trying to explain the contents of the voyage to someone that isn’t very interested and see what they say.
When Joseph Stalin rules the Soviet Union, three young men decide to rob one of his factories. With no military experience whatsoever, how will they pull it off?
It’s 2102 and terrorists have threatened the United States with nuclear war. A television reporter and a cameraman head to Mount Rushmore to share one last look at American history.
Write a scene in which a person you despise meets a strange end in the most ironic way imaginable.
In the year 532, an heir of a Byzantine emperor tries to save his family’s empire from the invading armies of the Persian King Khosrau—good or bad, why?
It’s 1763, and you are one of the first settlers of Georgia on their way to the New World to settle a new town. Write a diary entry from day one on your journey to your final day making that journey.
In 1962, a couple engaged in an affair aboard the Queen Elizabeth abroad. Write a dialogue in which they discuss the complications of their life.
During World War II, a young Jewish girl is sent to Britain as part of the Kindertransport in hopes of finding safety far away from Germany. She makes a new friend in a British girl, but this girl turns out to be a horrible person. Write a scene in which the main character finds out her true intentions.
Figaro is a young magician whose rival, the dreaded Count Mirati, has kidnapped the King. Write a fantasy scene about a quick-thinking new apprentice who becomes an important ally to Figaro.
It’s 1522, and the Spanish Armada has been defeated. The Spanish soldiers are on their way back to Spain and one ship has been caught in a storm and may never make it. See scenario.
A carpenter wants to build one of the most extraordinary tourist traps he can, but resources are scarce. You are a carpenter. Write a story in which building the tourist trap is the conflict and resolution.
Five explorers come across an unusual cave when out rock climbing in the Colorado Rockies. Unfortunately, they are stuck inside, so one of the members takes a vote and they decide to explore the cave. Lead the group on an adventure as they find the unexpected.
You’re a FBI Forensic Investigator, give us a crime scene you wouldn’t want to show up on and sniff around in!
You’ve just returned from an archaeological dig on the island of Cyprus. You’ve found a mysterious ancient key and wish to determine its purpose. Describe your experience, your discovery, and what you think the key is for.
Write a scene that takes place in your hometown that you have a personal connection with. Be sure to include details such as who you are with, the mood, and any questions permeating your mind.
It’s the 1960s, a time of change in America. Write two contrasting scenes involving black-white relationships from the 1960s to present.
Writer’s block can be frustrating. Give your writing a break, get up and look outside. Write about what you see and how it uplifts your writing or inspires productivity.
Examine the wreckage following the sinking of the Titanic and tell a story about how one of the survivors resorts to moral constrictions to survive.
Write a mythology of your favorite city where it is being personified as having a personality or being alive.
On Christmas Day, 1936 an African American man named Robert “Bob” Johnson and his brother Ransom tried to escape the “avenues of Montana.” Bob happens to be separated from his brother and gets in an accident with a Ferris Wheel.
You have been hired by a mysterious town to write a piece about a local townsperson for publication in a Federal New Deal project for the poor. During your investigation, you uncover something horrible. What have you discovered and how do you convey the horror?
During the filming of a Civil War movie in the American South, a series of unfortunate events begin to take place. The producer hopes it will add the charm of spontaneity to the movie.
During the Holocaust, during Bastille Day 1940 at Camp de Gurs, French soldiers from the local country side kill eight Jews who had joined in the escape. In order to escape and get in, they had tried to disguise as a couple who had already escaped when Champagne had been requested by one of them, but men were not allowed to serve it and so they had to pretend to be women. Thus, some men stayed behind in the first fence before surrendering and try to help others who didn’t make it in the second fence as the few escaped took refuge in the house of a couple who had already hid many Jews. Who is there to help those escape during the arrest? How do they escape? How do some of the women react if their man was not allowed to live?
What would have happened if Joe Paxton had never been shot? Write a scene in which he sits idly by as murderer after murderer is caught because of the strip searches he developed for the police force.
You are part of a documentary crew examining the breakdown of societal order in medieval England after they were hit with an outbreak of the bubonic plague. At first everything goes smoothly, but as food runs out and panic ensues, you become a target in a town gone mad.
It’s 1099 A.D. Jerusalem has been captured by the Crusaders, and the holy relics are awaiting transport to their final resting place. A thief makes his move on them and is caught in the middle of an armed conflict.
An adventurous American girl refuses to be swapped to a foreign American in an arranged marriage to a prince in the 18th century. The Prince follows suit by disguising himself as a commoner to avoid the arranged marriage.
Characters get into arguments for a variety of reasons. In historical stories, it could be because the characters feel differently about the social ills that are going on around them or it could be because the characters have a different perspective on the same social ills that are going on around them. Perhaps characters talk past each other instead of with each other. Perhaps the characters are arguing because one character feels insecure about their position in the social hierarchy. Let’s take a look at some historical conflicts that might show up in your story. Do the characters have an argument over religious beliefs? In Henry VIII and His Six Wives by Julia Fox, the six wives are dealt with separately. The point of view of the book is like the person scrolling through Hulu. It starts at Katherine while there are only three wives and moves to Anna while there are only two. Do the characters have an argument over certain practices? In the 1890s the U.S. military persecuted and punished Native American soldiers for acts they
In 1812, a young orphan watches her home in Maine burn to the ground, all because of a war…
It’s 1973 and you are a journalist in West Berlin, Germany as the government has been found out to be spying on their own people. Write a scene of a daring escape as a family tries to make it out of the country’s capital.
1958 — “Around 2 a.m., a telephone rings in a Manhattan, NY apartment. The phone call sends six young friends on a shocking boat ride into the jaws of carnage.”
You have been sentenced to death. During your last sunset you head to the Conestoga Saloon where you have one last round of drinks before you face what comes next.
Finding the Courage
In 1912, examine two brothers as they compete in the Olympics. However, when one isn’t content with coming in second, he makes a bold move.
Write a crime scene story set in the 17th or 18th century in which the victim was killed by a high-tech instrument.
It is 1913 in a small German town, and a cloud of fear and racism is consuming the town in the form of the Jewish population, who are unlike the rest of the town in every manner. We meet a local who has a problem with the Jews and has decided to solve his problem with an elaborate but unnatural plan. We are witness to a moment in which this villain of the piece is building the groundwork to deliver pure horror to all those labeled “normal” in the village.
It’s 1996, and a group of tourists visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris discover a hidden message about a later date in July 2001 describing the location and details of a “Revelation.”
It’s the 18th Century and you have been arrested. This charge against you must be heard in a court presided over by His Majesty the King. What kind of charge would be brought against you, what defense would you offer, and would you be found guilty or innocent on this charge?
It’s 1901, and Admiral Peary has just returned from a daring expedition to the Arctic Circle. Before there are elaborate celebrations, he must submit a detailed report on this historic trip. He writes a copy for the press…
It’s 1996, and two of the most important explorers in the history of the Rainforest meet. Write an anecdote involving the two as they attempt to find resources to help save their people.
A Confederate spy stationed in Savannah writes to his wife about how he must go into exile in a foreign country, for the sake of his family. In his letter he explains how he first became a soldier.
It’s nine years since the start of the war and you have been brought to a secret facility in the Nevada desert to have a bizarre explosive device removed from your body.
Write about a famous painting as though it were a scene from a movie. Explain how the story constructs the value of such a work in an intriguing context.
On a 1920 expedition led by Colonel Fawcett, a yeti is discovered and later put in a London Zoo. But trouble arises when a scientist gets a chance to examine the yeti.
A writer for a local newspaper travels to the dusty plains of New Mexico to investigate the disappearance of a neurosurgeon with a secret life. What does he find in the small desert town, and what does he write about it after he returns to California?
The invention of the automobile has brought about a nationwide craze in 1922 that continues with little to no end in sight until it happens…It is the first landmark that is planted in steel on the new ribbon of concrete that only a month before had been a vast, hard-packed prairie. It is 1932, and the Midwest National Highway System is turning that prairie into America’s newest economic superhighway. Write a story in which the lead character expresses his redemption through an encounter on America’s newest superhighway where a dead man walks.
It’s Opening Day in your favorite baseball stadium. Write a narrative on how the game starts, and pick some of the players’ individual decisions and possibly how the outcome is affected.
It’s 1498 AD, and you have been condemned to death. Perhaps for atheism, perhaps for witchcraft. Write the eulogy for the priest as he delivers your sad ritual. You’ve been sentenced to death by drowning by your best friend and the king after discovering that he’s an atheist. Write the letter to your family confessing your love for one of your neighbors of the same sex whom you adore and also write a eulogy to deliver in an event you are going to die. It’s 2029, and London has run out of water. Write about the final days of civilization in the event the city is to run out of water.
Julie Milton is a woman with a secret. A Secret Service Agent, she protects the president of the United States by day, and by night, she pretends to be his mistress.
It’s 1950, and Europe has just been recovering from the destruction of World War II. Now it’s time to rebuild. Write about a person or persons who are helping rebuild how and what they are rebuilding.
When a funeral ship capsizes in the ocean on Cape Cod in 1625, a young girl with psychic powers saves her sister from the cursed pirates on the water.
A couple of compulsive gum-chewers travel back to the movie theatre after curfew and stumble upon a murder. Who is it and what happens?
You are on an island on another planet. Write about how your life has been affected by Tom Hanks.
During the American Civil War, take the viewpoint of the last remaining member of either side as the war draws to a close. What does it take for his side to finally admit defeat?
It’s 1899, and the Asian empire of China chooses a United States diplomat to travel to their country to renegotiate trade relations. He travels by rail and by stagecoach from the port of San Francisco to the great “Middle Kingdom” where tradition has remained for thousands of years, bringing new traditions to the war-torn world.
On the eve of his retirement, Clemens, an employee at a Florida rail depot, finally admits to himself that his best friend, Samuel, who succumbed to shortness of breath nearly 27 years prior, wasn’t allergic to cedar chips at all.
Back in prehistoric times, a Neanderthal gives birth to a child. The child is born with red hair. When the child matures and figures out about his strange hair, how does he react and what consequences fall on him because of this reaction?
Your character is accused of murder and sentenced to hang. Write a letter they write to a priest prior to being hanged about the one thing they wish they could have done before they die.
It’s the year 1000, and an eerie fog covers northern Europe. Two knights, on their way to a church service, travel on a narrow winding mountain road wearing the heavy armor beneath their wool cloaks. Write an eerie, distinctive scene.
In the countryside of England, a woman gets lost in the woods and takes refuge in the home of a murderous cannibal. There she becomes his prey. Think twists like Misery and The Girl Next Door .
Prohibition Era New Orleans, 1929. You are a bartender working at a fancy Mafia don’s club. Your staff have been making your don mad because business has been slow. He commands you to turn the club into the liveliest, not best, joint in all of New Orleans tonight. Have fun with this wild, crazy setting and enjoy creating an exuberant, unpredictable sort of fellow. Have no regrets. Go nuts!
It is the 1960s, and trouble is brewing at a civil rights rally in Alabama. After a Molotov cocktail is thrown into a young child’s wagon, it is up to that child’s cousin to search for medicine. Using either sign posts or a map, describe your journey.
It’s 1989, and Jim Riley is a young and ambitious politician determined to make a name for himself at any cost. His campaign takes him to Philadelphia where he takes on a desperate but immoral request meant to guarantee a win for the election.
A group of rocket scientists are launching their invention into space, but something happens to the rocket. Once in space, they meet visitors from another world.
In the year 2060, leading technological corporations have worked in unifying the earth into a peaceful and equal human civilization. Some people feel that the new global order is too conformist and they seek out the Old Ways. Write a narrative story about a global Tracer—a contradictory individual who embraces both of the opposing views of the unified humanity.
A well known game show displays human endurance of pain and suffering on television each week. With one contestant dead each episode, a journalist embarks on a mission to explore the dark secrets behind the show.
It’s 2015. World War III has begun, and a solar flare has wiped out electronics in a kind of cyber-pocalypse. Everyone is starting to fight each other in order to survive. In a world devoid of all modern technology, two siblings try to make it home while fighting the hoards of desperate people who are now trying to destroy everything.
In the 1960s, hippies and protesters marched through the streets of London to draw attention to their causes. Canonize a hippie or protester and write their mission statement to get others to join the revolution.
Write a historical romance story in 1786 when Mozart premiered La Clemenza di Tito. It’s the story of two aristocrats in love, one is from Rome and the other is from Tuscany.
1945. The battlefield has turned quiet after V-E Day, but its inhabitants are far from celebrating. The question becomes ‘what happens when peace comes?’.
In 1967, racial protests and the Vietnam War were at an all-time high. Write about one of the world’s most controversial races, and whether it is a world that could ever truly happen.
Write a scene in which a schoolteacher is teaching on the Mayflower or some other ship and the Puritans are practicing their religion.
It’s 1992 and police are in the process of arresting an ex-USSR government official on charges of corruption. But where is their proof? Write a scene in which two policewomen are the only witnesses to the crime. But instead of giving their descriptions of the corruption happening, they give an astute description of the man committing the crime in a hot tub.
1957. The hungry, trigger happy dictators of Earth are about to get a visitor from another planet. What he will reveal to them will change history as they know it and what impact will this visitor have on history.
In 1985, before cell phones, it was hard to leave anyone behind. Write a scene where a teenager breaks curfew and needs to call home to get her parents out of bed to come pick her up. If they aren’t home who will she have to call?
It’s 1900 in an alternate version of history. Space travel is an accepted reality in this world, and the great powers across the globe are in a fierce, secret competition to take over the solar system. Write a scene about an away mission gone terribly wrong, and what the consequences are.
It’s August 9, 1969 and man has just taken his first step on the moon. Write the true story of a person who just so happened to be on the same surface as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
A young girl falls to the bottom of a river while scuba-diving in the Amazon. A mysterious man comes to her rescue in this strange paradise. She is also captured by pirates. Where will she end up after her terrifying river trip?
“ Do you hear the people sing? ” It is the heart of the French Revolution in 1790, and the streets of Paris show no sign of quiet, especially in the quarter called the Bastille. Mustapha, a quiet Algerian tailor living in the historic prison run by the prison governor De Launay, has always followed the rules. Until today . . .
It’s 1996, and you’re on an exotic island surrounded by mysteries of unknown origin. Through forbidden caves, winding mazes and over perilous obstacles, you must find the secret to your own identity as well as survive the traps and the grueling ordeal you’ve been put through. In hopes to find the escape you’ve been seeking for so long, your whole life you are left wondering-What exactly is this island where you have found yourself?
Write a scene about how the Native Americans in North America survived the devastation The American Revolutionary War left on their culture and lives. Describe what might have happened had the Native Americans who fought alongside King George III been victorious.
It’s 1967, the height of the Vietnam War. It is about a scene where a man isolated himself from social activities, but finds out someone is interested. He’s a recluse and finds out an unlikely friend might make him comfortable with going outside.
During the height of the Cold War, two astronauts are sent up on a mission to investigate what was thought to be an unidentified flying object. But what they find ends up being much more sinister.
In 1987, the Stanley Cup Finals begin June 3. Research the game and write the play by play of the last game as closely as possible.
2018, and the healthcare industry is introducing an all new device to measure one’s hereditary size, shape, and health called “the BodyStats Kit”. How do you feel about using this health gadget and where do you fall?
It’s 1250 AD, Ireland. You are a fisherman whose income has recently gone way down due to a storm that took out the last of the town’s boats. Now that the money from your father’s boat has been exhausted, how do you find food to feed not only yourself, but your wife and new baby?
It’s 2000 and one lonely night, fate brings an experience from the distant past into the present. Write about how one of the ghosts of the past attempts to make up for its mistakes by talking to you, i.e. the author.
A space cadet uncovers the secrets of the entire universe, plenty of which may just change the future of the world. They must learn to control their newfound knowledge and defend the natural balance whilst discovered adversaries attempt to take such power for themselves.
It’s 1935…As a nosy teenage girl, you spend all of your time listening and peeping at the gossip around town. One day, you overhear a conversation that never happened.
The year is 2499. Helene Brooks has been revived from cryosleep by a renegade crew member. Desperate to escape a spaceship disappearing into a black hole, Brooks must stop the ship from being destroyed. Someone is trying to kill President Franklin Roosevelt—a second attempt in two months. Who will be able to protect him before it’s too late?
You are a martial arts instructor in feudal Japan. Write a scene where a police detective interrogates you about the murder–suicide involving one the most wealthy families in the capital city.
It’s 1973, and a successful businessman returns home from a long flight to find a man in his driveway with a gun in his hand. Write what happens after the businessman finds out that man is one of his relatives.
You wake up inside of the capsule of a top secret experimental rocket that has blasted off only to land in outer space. What adventures do you have while marveling at the never-ending expanses of stars and nebulas when you wake up?
A group of kids find a strange eyepiece that allows them to go back in time. Write about a strange experience they might have back in time.
In 1950, a wealthy entrepreneur challenges a competing scientist to solve a mystery at one of his houses in Manhattan, New York. What happens at the house and who solves it, the scientific community or the entrepreneur?
In the midst of the apocalypse, a lone wanderer is traversing the middle of Route 66 searching for loved ones. While his body has begun to grow weary as he plods forward, his will is as strong as ever. With so many dead around him, he has the constant challenge of not losing himself amidst the chaos.
In 1865, toward the end of the Civil War, a wounded American soldier walked the battlefield, waiting to die from a bleeding wound in his leg. What does he see and how does he approach his death?
It’s 1968, and a group of people are aboard the North Star Jetliner when it crashes into a field on an island off the coast of Chicago. Everyone is killed except for five people, and you happen to be sitting next to one of them. Write a memory story based on a journal entry one of them might have kept during the plane crash and how it would affect the plane crash.
A group of families have traveled to the newly opened land of America in 1630 in the wake of the Puritan migration to the New World from England. Write a story in which a young girl is in trouble and comes to the aid of a man from England, who has extended his kindness to help her family and other families.
It’s the Mesozoic Era. A single Ophthalmosaurus, feared by all for its ability to control the waves, emerges, shattering the secluded peace of Planet Ophthalmo. In a town on the coast near the water, a family plots to kill the beast, but whose death will it lead to?
In 1939, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred. Write a story about 3 soldiers on the front lines and how they experience the event.
It’s 1934, and you have travelled to the Columbia River Gorge to research salmon migration. While conducting your studies, you discover that you have stumbled upon a hidden map leading to a fabulous treasure. What risk must you take to go forth and seek the treasure?
In 1972, all flights from airplanes were canceled because of the horrific events that surrounded President Nixon and Watergate. What event changed your life drastically because of this event – say what you needed to do, or what you didn’t do? Alternatively, you may wish to write a story you may have witnessed.
They’ve come. They’ve invaded Earth, breaking all communication. Humanity must put an end to them, even at the cost of their humanity.
Caridad Placido Espinosa moves from Venezuela to Mexico in 1966, at a time when rumors and outcries still run rampant within the government about Che Guevara’s whereabouts, a group of women goes on bounty to catch a misfit criminal, The Fenderman.
Write a scene in which all the U.S. Presidents in chronological order engage in a heated argument.
Write a diary entry from the point of view of someone who is aboard the Titanic the night that it sinks.
The year is 1605 and a sailing ship of the Spanish armada aims to invade England. The ship’s cook is tired of waiting to attack England, and takes matters into his own hands.
It’s the year 2061. After witnessing nuclear devastation, a family attempts to come to terms with the destruction of their former home and the role they might have played in its destruction.
It’s 2020 and the United States is in the middle of an intergalactic war with three other planets. Write a scene involving one of the soldiers.
Travel back to a Victorian Farmhouse in 1815, on the western frontier. Bobbie’s family lives in constant fear of if a Native American attack will brew. How does Bobbie’s attitude play a role in keeping his family safe?
Write a scene for a 1940s film noir movie that has a romantic comedy or action-adventure flavor.
Write a scene from the life of an 18th century Pennsylvania farmer as he has an important, life altering realization.
It’s the night of a lunar eclipse. Six people–colleagues who have never interacted before–are stuck in an elevator in the building where they all work. One of them bit off the tip of his finger and fainted. Another one, a crumb snatcher, refuses to clean up his mess. Use your creativity to come up with a way to resolve the situation.
A child in the present day wakes up thinking it’s 1942 and reenacts famous scenes of World War II for a month. When he discovers it was only a dream, how does he feel about the information he learned?
A mother in today’s world is given the chance to tell her side of a tragic accident that killed her young daughter that took place 20 years ago.
It’s 1959, and the race for space through the eyes of three women who want to travel to the stars.
You are the first private settler of a newly discovered city sitting smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Even stranger is that no one knows the true nature of this civilization. You invite your extended family to your new home and one by one terrible things happen, leading everyone to suspect one person is behind it all.
It is 999 AD and England is a Christian nation. Vikings are preparing to strike. Your story covers that part when a pagan runaway learns about oppression and where his loyalties truly lie.
The year is 1969, and a tornado has hit the small town of Taylor, North Carolina killing 23 people. Write a memoir-style piece that takes place in a local sheriff’s office where a deputy has detained one of the suspects.
You are trapped in a cavern in Amsterdam filled with false relics. How do you survive? Who can you trust? What happens in the end?
Write a scene in which a famous historical figure speaks to you through a new invention.
Two high school students find an old box under a school bus stop and discover it to be a time portal. When they jump in, they find themselves in the 17th century. Come up with an idea on how they reach home safely.
It’s the largest fire of its kind. The year is 1871. What started it?
Set against the backdrop of World War I, write about an actress and her lover, a soldier, as they have a forbidden affair. What fact of life are they escaping from and how does the conflict with this cause change both of their lives?
In a world with superheroes, write an alternate history story where some hero from the past is rescued from the brink of death, and he uses his new life to establish a dictatorship.
It’s 1983, and the aerospace industry of the western US is suffering due to foreign competition. How does an unemployed aerospace worker show his support toward the American pride movement?
A medieval knight and his companion, a peasant boy, get caught in the middle of a Klingon invasion.
It’s 1861, and the United States Navy has seized control of a Confederacy ship full of slaves. Write two diary entries from the point of view of some of the slaves on board their ship…
French painter Edgar Degas paints on his deathbed, revealing his connection with mankind as his family and admirers look on.
A reporter is pursuing a story about the destruction of ancient buildings. He stumbles upon the remains of a document which looks incredibly familiar to a document he has seen.
In 1868, a young Mark Twain must finally make use of his travel pamphlet in Paris. He finds a friend who is willing to take time for them to show Twain the parts of town off the beaten path. What adventures will Twain have with his friend, and what will he learn about the world outside of Connecticut?
Ana has been struggling to cook some dinner for her family tonight. In a span of 12 hours, break her life down to the minute where she has to make the ultimate decisions between what she wants and needs.
Write a satire about a famous event in history, turning everything on its head through an unexpectedly humorous plot.
In 1665, one family called for a town meeting at The Globe Coffeehouse in London because they thought they had discovered a tremendous discovery. What is that discovery, and what happens after the town meeting is called?
It’s the year 2068, and the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola is under siege by a devastating hurricane. Write a short story in which a man and his daughter seek shelter inside of what used to be a luxurious hotel.
The shores of twentieth century England hide a purple lake that will send you inside a different world. How does one man break the curse and regain his own existence?
Your screenplay opens as you see a woman carrying heavy chains in the hot African sun. Follow her as she is escorted to her fate.
If you were the captain of a sixteenth-century Spanish galleon, what exploration would you choose to make and why? What does it take to be a navigator and how do you get to be the lead navigator on a voyage?
A straight-A student gets a failing grade on his history presentation because he can’t write his thesis in reverse chronological order. In desperation, he heads down to the local diner to seek advice from his con-artist criminal father.
In 1961, in the United States, an African-American woman was accused of harboring a suspect from the Ku Klux Klan after members burned down the home of one of her neighbors in Woodlawn, Mississippi.
It’s 1996. A neuroscientist examines the brain of an elderly woman who seems to be in a permanent, vegetative state. He becomes curious about a peculiar memory attached to a simple drawing of a smiley face where he must make a life and death decision.
Park life in New York City is complete with stories of secret messages sent from the ducks on the pond to underground tunnels that lead to the underworld of 1960′s Harlem.
Write a short story in which a character becomes obliged to tell a lie in order to protect someone.
In 1920, a college-age girl runs away from home because of an argument with her stepmother. Trying to escape her home city, she gets on a train headed toward the country. However, what should have been a wild ride turns into something else as the young woman keeps encountering a figure who seems to be following her.
Escort your favourite author through one of Mount Vesuvius’ ancient streets. Who is she or he? Why have they come here? Why are you here?
It’s the year 2018, and a human civilization has begun to harness the power of the sun. Write a science fiction story, in the style of Jack London, about a young, idealistic scientist on a mission to Venus.
What happens when one of America’s founding fathers discovers the lost civilizations in the Amazon? In 1751, Native Americans attacked an English settlement. It is a mere skirmish compared to what Col. George Washington hears in 1799—monsters found in the Americas.
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It’s 1959, and the United States is in the middle of a Cold War. Write a scene involving the paranoid, watchful, city of Las Vegas and Elizabeth Taylor sending a letter to the Soviet Union.
A landing party from Earth is stranded on a faraway planet because of engine failure. What do they do and why do they wait until the end of the story to leave the planet?
Still in the era of that famous revolutionary, General George Washington and the Continental Army have selected Philadelphia as their temporary commander-in-chief’s quarters. It’s then that a young lady from the countryside enters the story who is starting to have her suspicions about the rebellion being waged against the Crown.
Three impoverished migrant workers from Mexico without immigration papers have arrived in rural north Georgia during the Civil Rights Movement. It is time for the white farmer’s harvest, and he needs their help and can pay them a small wage. What choices do they make? Why?
It’s now the year 3000. You are one of the last humans alive, stranded on a distant planet without any hope of returning to Earth. Relate a scene in which you finally give up hope.
In 16th-century Toledo, Spain, the city is a hotbed of artistry, known as the world’s center for the manufacture of swords and armor. Write a story in which an armor-making dynasty faces destruction when they strike a deal with the Devil, and then ask yourself what you believe the Devil is really after.
In the 1920s, one of Hollywood’s first female film producers traveled to Hollywood from Britain to strike a deal with Charlie Chaplin and Cecil B. DeMille. She is renowned for her beauty and intelligence, but becomes more renowned for another reason when a struggle for power begins on the production lot.
Write an account of the last day and night of a death row inmate in Washington State.
You are aboard Le Griffon, the first-ever voyage made by French explorers in 1679 and, oddly enough, the only French ship ever to set sail with men, women and children who consist of Catholics and Protestants. Write about your voyage.
It’s 29 AD, and the world is about to follow one man into a brand-new era. Think about Nero, the great Roman Caesar, and write a fictional account of the fire that the world alleges was started by Nero himself. A man, weary of a journey to which he is endlessly committed, has to take one last voyage across the sea. What awaits him when he comes ashore? Why has he made this journey and what is it that he finds that he left behind?
Write a story about a high school teacher that fell in love with a student.
You are taking the Orient Express this evening. Write a scene about the people you’ve met on board. At the end of your story, what lesson has the train ride taught you?
Rival gangs seize power in Dar es Salaam, Africa. Where do the protagonists go when they’re alike of what is happening, and what conflict and characters do they encounter as they seek asylum?
It’s 1856, and an explorer from England is stranded in the Tsavo region of east Africa. It’s your job to write his story about how he is rescued and details something he learns about the area during those terrifying fifteen days.
Several leaders and politicians of Mexico and the United States reach an agreement on the Tequila Crisis of 1907, the Mexican President then hypocritically exploits this concession by financing a pro-imperialist rebellion in the troubled Mexican state of Sonora in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. An American reporter is in on the deal though. A smuggler finds a map of secret tunnels and subway lines and escapes Mexico. The Mexican President is drugged by his conniving mistress. What misfortune strikes them all and who strikes them and how?
It’s 1958, and your character has captured the Medal of Honor for bravery in World War II, and he is invited to a Congressional luncheon located inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the occasion.
It’s the 14th century and everybody, it seems, is preparing for some sort of end. What turmoil separates two lovers and drives them apart?
Original Book vs Movie Artwork by Jeff Sinisterra
It’s 1995. Write a bittersweet story about a small high school production put on during the War of 1812.
Shipwrecked in the South Pacific in the 18th century, an adventurous teenager befriends a native tribe that gives him an example of cultural diversity in a time when much of the world was colonized.
In 2019, the world has experienced economic crises, energy crisis, famine, drought, war, and pandemics. Write a scene introducing a homeless teenage girl scavenging on the streets of New York City.
It’s the Great Depression, and you are a traveling newspaper salesman. Describe a day in which something out of the ordinary happens to you as you try to sell your newspapers.
What happens when you mix slow-motion capture with slapstick comedy? Write a scene in which a brutal fight breaks out between a gang of prisoners captured in the American Civil War.
In this tale of historical fiction, the true civil rights story of Sadie and Mabel Scotten is retold where the sisters travel from LA to San Francisco through the southern region of the United States.
On the night of December 7, 1941, war was declared by the Empire of Japan on the Empire of the United States. “The First Hours of War” is about a native of Oahu living through the attack against the United States.
An American man is forced to change his identity and leave the US because he works in a communist organization prior to the McCarthy “Red Scare.” What is his best memory from his youth and how will he be reminded of it?
George Washington has wrapped up the Revolution and is now building a new nation. This scene is about a new found resolve. A soldier returns from the front lines and resolves new conflicts in his own heart. Write a scene that takes place in the setting of George Washington in Philadelphia and consider what motivates the character before the trip to kill the President. It’s June 4, 1776, and the Declaration is about to be read from the balcony of the colonial government house. Can you describe the scene and the mood of the characters when the spectacular moment occurs?
It’s 2025. A nightmarish disease has evolved that causes the human body to twist, contort and reshape itself into a form not of this world.
Kent was a half-Mexican boy who lived on the wrong side of the tracks in a bad time in the racist town in the United States, 1940s Tulsa, Oklahoma. His day started just like many, which were the products of daily abuse at the hands of others his people were known to hate, but one day, after suffering one too many, he snapped and the only thing he did was what he’s wanted to do for a long time. He murdered three people…Write a character of the day fiction piece as if Kent himself was to tell his story from the day he snapped to the day he was taken to Boggs.
A twelve year old girl gets into a fight with her friend and isn’t sure if she can forgive her. Describe one of their adventures with the leading cause of their conflict and show us how she overcomes her flaw to forgive.
In the 1930s, a worn-out G.I. meets a young Native American girl who gives him a second chance at life when he disguises himself as her father to get food and possibly to escape Korean communist policies.
Challenge your characters by plunging them into an alternate past complete with a plague affecting the population.
Your pet ferret goes for a walk and is kidnapped by an agent of a London smuggling syndicate in the early 1800s. Write this heist and chase from the ferret’s perspective.
In 1348, there was a series of plagues called the Black Death that ravaged Europe. Write about a man who has escaped Europe to escape the plagues. He knows they have been carried by fleas that live on rats. However, at the port of call he has reached he knows that numerous rats are infesting his ship. He can’t decide whether to get off the ship or stay on.
As an enlightened 19th century anti war heroine, your view on the matter of war is seen by many as a major threat to the current government. What is the very worst thing that could happen to you, and how do you handle the situation?
Is it as easy as walking in your front door to have your home become another country?
Write a story set in 1977 about a mother and father on the run. They leave two daughters behind, one of whom remains with the father while the oldest child is forced into a life of gang violence. After reuniting with her sister and brother, the train they are riding on is hit by a trailer.
Introduce your main character in the opening scene of the history you’ve chosen. At the end of the scene, describe how his or her life will change.
Write a scene in which an investigative reporter hunts a serial killer who is murdering women in the early 20th century.
1958. A satellite orbiting the earth accidentally carries a deadly, unknown biological weapon from space. Describe the scene in which the satellite crashes to earth and the characters in which they try to survive.
You’re an astronaut in the early 1960’s and are roped into conducting a strange experiment regarding a new camera that came down with you. It’s not long after you set it up that you realize it’s seen details not meant for humans.
It’s 1955 and you and your boyfriend are on a trip to Disneyland. Write a scene in which you are apart from each other and caught in a conflict. When you reach him or her, you change and become someone different after all the experience.
Edward Albee once said, “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” What story can you come up with of a writer going through the hardest fight of their life of a writer going through their hardest writing moment and eventually finishing it with success?
It’s 1940 and a squadron in the German Air Force is headed to bomb London. An RAF Pilot is ordered to intercept the squadron and bring down the main battleship in it. You must write a report describing the route he takes to take down the squadron and the concluding battle.
Write two stories. The first is set in the Civil War, and the second is set in a galley on a Roman ship.
It’s 1955, and a family of urban survivors one day finds themselves isolated on their farm, after an EMP destroys the U.S. electrical grid. The question then becomes, What happened to all the people around them? In a world where nothing functions, what does the day-to-day look like?
Cully, the most notorious criminal in all of California, is a burglar with a cause. He is an idealist who has become disillusioned by the world he knew at an early age.
It is 1956 and the Cold War has accelerated the development of advanced weaponry. Using at least one military artifact such as a jet fighter, hand gun, wall icon, or intercom system, write a scene in which a scientist performs a deadly experiment.
On a ship traveling through the Caribbean, a poorly-secured crate unleashes its dark contents, leaving the ship vulnerable to a haunting that slowly drives the crew mad.
Write a scene in which a family goes on a vacation to New York City for the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in the 1930s, then detail the tree lighting and why they decided to go in the first place.
In present day Los Angeles, an elderly man and an escaped, intelligent ape from the 1930s are brought together. What is their connection?
A Victorian woman searches for her lost fiancé, who mysteriously disappears during their giant picnic. Years later, she runs into a strange man claiming to have known the man who vanished. What follows does not bode well for the young women …
Write from the point-of-view of the parent of a drug addict. How has his or her child’s addiction affected the family? How does the parent feel about himself or herself? Who really is to blame for the addiction?
Write about a time you wish you could have taken part in, if only for a short while, such as the Great Depression, the Woodstock Music Festival, or the Civil Rights Movement.
A writer with her muse inhabits a magical house from the late 17th century. What she churns out leaves her dazed as her life is changed forever.
Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ most powerful sorceress, is the talk of the town and might be the reason behind a young Southern belle’s sudden death. Write the scene where Laveau defends herself by casting a dark spell on the entire town.
During the silver rush of Argentina in the late 19th century, a scientific expedition ventures into the Andes in an attempt to discover a lost species of bird. Between strong relations with the indigenous people and mysterious blue lights, one young boy goes on an adventure that would change history forever.
Reserve judgement on one of the characters, and have all of the protagonist’s insecurities and thoughts be told from the antagonist’s point of view.
It’s 2014 and you live in Cat Spring, Texas. Writea scene featuring you at the closing of the town’s Dairy Queen.
Go to any virtual reality video game you recognize and play through the entire storyline. What other elements can you include in order to create a strong narrative?
2010, The Arctic, an oil rig disaster has just killed seventy-five men, women, and children. Write in diary format, what the crew experienced as the rig fell apart, and how they struggled just to get off alive.
You’ve purchased a new refrigerator, and it’s full of groceries. Write a flash fiction piece where you describe how it breaks down in the middle of a heated confrontation with your husband or wife.
In the late 1950s, Dr. Robert Goddard records the moment he realizes his rocket is about to take off. Keep it at the moment after ignition, with him simply observing nearby.
What happens 30 years later to a woman running away from an arranged marriage?
It’s the middle of the Second World War and you have landed at the wrong location. You are now stuck in the middle of two underground bunkers, which are both in complete disarray. What do you find, and how do you escape?
A phone rings in a dark room with a man sleeping on a comfy sofa in the solitude of an old house. The ringing is followed by footsteps and a throat being cleared before the only person in the room finally answers the phone. Tell us a story in which that man holds the last person that anyone would have suspected in a notorious serial killer’s crimes.
It’s 1812, and the United States is in the middle of a second war for independence against their former British government. A spiritualist professor believes he has discovered the remains of John Fleming who sailed the USS Constitution during the War of 1812. Write the journal that he is writing as he plans to unveil the remains to the public that same day.
A French captain and his crew at sea stumble across a Spanish galleon stuffed with gold. How do they get their prize away from the Spanish wreck, and are the riches worth the trouble?
Write a hurricane story. Where are the characters when it hits? What has to be done to avoid destruction from the storm? How does it affect different characters differently? Who survives, who dies, who helps who survives? What are the after affects?
You wake up and discover the vampire is coming after you. How do you try and outwit it?
It’s 1982, and you’re the manager of a national city baseball team. Write a scene where you have to discipline one of the players for a serious violation of team rules.
In the 1960s, a young boy spends the summer away at his grandmother’s mountain retreat. It is during this summer that he has a dream, but wishes it were true. Write his vision and then transport it back into reality.
Write a scene set in a dairy farm in Minnesota during the Great Depression.
Restaurateur, Peter Skyhorse, has begun a new venture in his New York City based restaurant, Peter Skyhorse’s Bombay Palace. Peter yearns to make the best Indian food in the business once again, but competition in the business is winding up. He must find a new dish which could solve all his problems. What would it take for him to walk away from this new dish?
It’s 2012 AD and the election is at its peak. A man desperately needs to obtain evidence that might change the outcome of the outcome of the election. The man must find a way to obtain the evidence of the scandal.
It’s 1969 and a woman is protesting in Washington, D.C. peacefully protesting beside two friends. The policemen along with Army soldiers unaware of what really happened at The Pentagon all play a role in why she decided to get arrested.
It’s 1953 and times are changing. The electric car is taking over, and the internal combustion engine is slowly being phased out. Write a paragraph in which the main character realizes that Oil is a thing of the past.
A clergyman writes a few lines on a slip of paper before being hanged. Write a few lines of prose that have inspired him.
During the Civil War, a group of Southern soldiers find themselves stranded in Ohio without food or money. They band together to hatch a plan to escape the country and rescue their families from the real war.
Write a scene in which food plays an integral part to a historical event or event. Write a description of a famous scene in U.S. history from the Civil War as an over the top USO comedy act.
If you were living in the 15th or 16th century, what position of power would you hold in your community and how would you use it to influence the social order?
This is the era of Western expansion. Pick a place that was on the path of human migration into this region’s boundless frontier and write a scene where a young family of settlers have their first meeting with a Native American Chief.
It’s 1973 and you’re a peace activist who has a chance encounter with a fast talking oil salesman, and suddenly you challenge the world oil market.
In 20th century Sweden, a wealthy writer returns to his hometown of Saltsjobaden seeking inspiration to complete his masterpiece. What does he find? What complications does he encounter?
Write a scene in which a boxer steps into the ring and gets blindsided — figuratively and literally — and how he finds victory in defeat.
There’s 1775, and the American colonies are in the brink of war against the British Empire. Write a scene involving a very determined drummer boy, and a young George Washington.
You’re on a sailboat, sailing across the sea on a beautiful day. Write the story of your boat catching on fire as you are coming in to shore.
In the year 2047, scientists take a journey to explore the ocean floor near Iceland. What do they discover below the ocean and do they document it? Years later a fisherman discovers this journal documenting the exploration but can read no English and goes on a mission to uncover the stories told within these pages.
Mexico City, Mexico is in the midst of a horrific earthquake. As the city is in chaos, many try to respond to the disaster, while others search desperately for a way to save their family members that are trapped beneath the surface.
An adventurer searching for the lost Ikran Kingdom takes her first real test with a mysterious stranger in the desert of Namibia.
Imagine that you live in a place where you travel by horseback for miles each day merely as a way to travel from one town to the next. What are the roads like, and what are your neighbors like?
Write a scene of what happened two days after August 29, 1944, when the Battle of Market Garden in the Netherlands was an Allied defeat when one of the British soldiers finds himself off course and seeks shelter inside a church that he soon realizes is being used as a temporary morgue.
Sweetie Pie is a typical twenty-something girl living on the coast of North Carolina. Her amazing sense of smell has guided her thus far in life, but after escaping a run-in with a man obsessed with possessions, she realizes that her olfactory abilities are about to bring her more trouble than she ever thought possible.
A young boy tries to survive on the streets after life has handed him a number of harsh blows that build up and send him in the wrong direction.
Prove to your parents that you aren’t an evil person by doing one good deed per day. For each of the next 30 days, write about how your life is different after doing a single good deed each day for them.
Write a story in which a theme park worker doing a boring building maintenance job turns out to be a pivotal part in an important historical moment in American history.
On an alternate Earth space traveling is routine in the year 2100. Write a sce
In 2012, Michael Phelps won his 20th gold medal, tying the count of swimmer Mark Spitz. It’s the latest in many feats from the humble athlete who hails from Baltimore, Maryland. However, history tries to erase some of Phelps’ success due to his troubled past. Two of the key components from his past are his hippie mother and obese father. Write a short story about the two parents and their son, when he was a kid.
It’s 1963, and you’ve just discovered that you have the uncontrollable power to teleport other people. How do people react to discovering this about you?
It’s the 2nd century AD, and you are a guest of honor at an important barbarian wedding. What kind of person are you and how are you treated at the wedding itself?
It’s 1985. A wheelchair-bound boy in Kansas is exploring the world of fantasy by learning to code computer games. In a twist of fate, he gets lost in the modern world and must adapt to life in a new dimension.
Write a journal entry detailing one of sixteen unique dates in a year.
In 2015, a helicopter crashed at the same place that Flight 401 crashed in 1972 into the Everglades. What crew members survived the impact and what do they discover down in the dense wilderness of the Florida swamplands?
The Present, the Past & the Future
Joan of Arc, cursed by her family, forced on a marriage and looked down upon by the all around community for being a maid. Write about an apprenticeship in which her talents shine, and she becomes the town hero.
It’s a 1984 Turkmenistan, and you are from a wealthy family of one of the old Czars. Write a scene set in the Soviet Union on New Year’s Day when you’re surprised by a government spy. Where do you meet? What do you talk about?
It’s 1965, and the United States is on the brink of going to war with Vietnam. Write a scene about a military family going through any of the complicated troubles of what it means to make sacrifices for their country.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. In your story, you must write about a person that is directly affected by this piece of legislation.
Make a mystery story about a famous unsolved disappearance.
Write about a character who indulges in a life of power and wealth only to realize in death that power and wealth are illusions and lead to vanity and decay.
An inmate on death row sits in her cell on the day of her execution much in despair. Write a flashback scene recounting a harrowing event from her childhood and tell why her life hit such a bad road.
New York City. 1863. The Civil War is still raging on. Searching for an escape from the horrors of war at home, an Irish immigrant woman finds love. When the reality of what she has gotten herself into hits her, betrayal and heartbreak sets in.
In the 1920s, a group of Victorian women in a rural town with strict gender roles, take on a mysterious spiritualist who has come in from off the wicked streets of the war-torn Spanish Pyrenees.
It’s late winter in 1913 and a young teenage girl sits in her darkened bedroom. Tell the story from her point of view? Who is she hiding from and why?
On a brilliant, sunny day in California, a pile of strangers are suddenly sentenced to death by a dark-robed wizard. Write about one unusual person who gets a chance to appeal their case, but is required to solve a riddle in order to do so.
It’s 1808. The Chesapeake Bay is a border between the United States and the British Empire. Two American sea captains face off against a British four-mast schooner in the midst of a squall as they make their way to sea. Inspired by the legend of the “Maryland Gun,” which inspired the United States Navy’s first official salute from a flag officer.
It’s October 1972, and you’re planning on attending the Last Waltz, but you never make it. The plane carrying the band members crashes into the Andes Mountains. Your 30 day count down before facing certain death has begun in a tale about the strange inhabitants who live amidst the deathly necessities of the Andes Mountains.
It’s 1942. Soviet Forces have broken the Hitler offensive in the Caucasus. General Zukov ordered reconnaissance scouts to the small Siberian town of Stalingrad. Meanwhile there are reports that mysterious submarines appear in Canals at night and soldiers on patrol are turning up with no hope of survival. It’s suggested that the Nazi special ops have become active in the area. What happens when mysterious events keep happening and scouts discover a dark secret?
Alice, a member of the Darlington Slave Trade family is sailing away for the New World. The Darlington family has decided to sell her into slavery at a price of 1000 pounds. What is going through her mind as she travels across the ocean to reach the New World?
It’s 1209, and you are supposedly dead. Your sister has been shot to death and you see the shooter in charge of disposing the bodies. Write a scene where you face the murderer and fight to keep your sister’s body.
Beakenstein lives in an alternate Germany of the 1930s where Fuhrer Wilhem is still revered and respected, and where the Nazi Party is still in power. Write their story from their perspective, the world they live in, the things they do, the conflict against them, the world they lived in, and their goal.
Set your story in a crime lab. What scientific technology will you use to solve the crime and how will you use this knowledge to solve the mystery?
Write about winter in New Hampshire in the company of some of the first people to ascend Mount Washington in 1852 and what they discover up there.
A frustrated, impatient wizard is summoning up a demon he has researched in all his years of study, and the demon begins to show himself, attains freedom and collapses into the cold harsh reality of their world.
It’s 2021, and your character’s best friend just announced she’s getting breast implants. Write a scene where the two girls try on each other’s clothes and get into a catfight. This scene can be serious or even humorous.
Victoria’s Secret is a major clothing store famous for its sexy, provocative lingerie. Catering to customers with ample bosoms, it retains a secret no longer. As a South American businessman with a fancy for jilted English girls, you begin shopping for your next conquest.
In 1887, mysterious circumstances surround a photographer’s murder. Write a story that begins with a murderer discovering a victim and ends in a courtroom dilemma.
In the past, the dominant form of energy was wood. Fast forward to a futuristic world where almost everything is run by electric power, and the price of destruction is high and the repercussions devastating.
A natural disaster strikes a small mining town in the Midwest in October 2018. How do previous grievances between the townspeople weigh in on the aftermath?
Decide the outcome of a battle or war in your own unique battle or war scene. As you write down this decision, you leave yourself no choice but to write a follow-up to your own writing. So, if we choose a number 1, we then have to write a follow-up with a number 2. Then if a number 3, we have to then write a follow-up with another number 4 – and so on.
Transported back in time to the life of an 18th century French woman, you must pretend that you are this person for your own safety. When you return to the present day, how do you get back home?
It’s 1492, and you’ve just boarded your very first boat. What novel experiences await you out at sea? Where do you see yourself in ten years?
It’s 1932, and the worst speakeasy in town is the scene of a gangland-style murder. Out of the shadows, three unlikely heroes step forward in an attempt to help the victim.
You’re an African American slave on a cotton plantation in the mid 19th century. one night, you and your friend sneak out to go get high, but accidentally burn the tent down, killing him while injuring yourself. How do you act so you will avoid the suspicion of your master and Mistresses?
For this writing exercise, you will work from the point of view of a George Washington impersonator in modern day New York City. Work a description of his vivid dream into the narrative as you explain the events of the night that Washington never celebrated across the Delaware.
It’s April 1932 and Prohibition is in effect. A bootlegger is shot while trying to transport liquor to South Carolina in an automobile.The Beatles attend a show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. While in the locker room, John talks to Paul about songwriting. John says that Paul should always
It’s 1969, and the moon has been reached by a group of astronauts. But one of them back on the International Space station feels disconnected and distracted knowing his friends are stuck on the dark backwash side of the moon. What is happening on the space station that makes it so difficult for the astronaut to concentrate?
It’s 2007 and two teenagers must find a safe place for their community before the zombies break through the barricade.
It’s 1640, and a native Tupi is forced to live with a Portuguese family who recently owned an estate in what is now Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He is forced to sell sugar, blacks, and fabrics to other Portuguese. Write a scene where the indigenous man looks back upon his recent past, but—as in many real life events of the time—the people of that narrative are lost to the world.
The year is 1881. A Scandinavian immigrant and his family gear up for a journey to the wilds of 18th century Minnesota Territory. While on a hunting expedition, gunshots ring out. Tell us what happens and how the family copes as the story unfolds.
In the early 20th century, people relied on Negro times for the latest city news. Write a report as if you were a Negro time kid reporting on the famous race-horse, Seabiscuit.
It’s 1995 and you are an auto mechanic obsessed with the current Big Lebowski musical sensation sweeping the nation, led by a cult-like group called the Dudeists.
Write a scene from the perspective of the workers of the pyramids in ancient Egypt.
You are a rookie police interrogator in 1950 Miami. Interrogate a perp and decide his or her fate in this suspenseful interactive story.
It’s 1870s and Annie Bess has fallen in love with a half-black, half-Indian ex-slave named Andrew. Her parents disapprove of the relationship because Andrew doesn’t live up to their expectations. Write a confrontation scene between Annie and her abusive father regarding Andrew.
It’s 1940 in a small, fictitious Midwestern town, in small-town America. It’s the day before the eclipse, but thanks to the war, there is concern over an air-raid. It might seem like all is peaceful, but sinister secrets are about to be revealed and secrets that perhaps have been kept for a while.
It’s day four of a military conflict, and the journalist is off to a foreign land to cover a brutal conflict and discovers there is something more important than what is being written about.
On the northern coast of Greenland sometime in the 16th century, a crew of Vinland natives hunted and slaughtered a large polar bear using small, hand-held spears and harpoon.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon. Write a fictitious account of what would happen if another man were to land on the moon that night.
It’s 1837 and a revolutionist dressed in all black and riding a ghostly white horse comes to town seeking vengeance. What happens when the rest of the villagers are scared of death at the hands of the Irish terrorist?
Junior high school students remove a ban placed on girl’s softball during the 1950’s for an intriguing story about a girl with exceptional talent at baseball.
It’s 1001 AD, and you are in the middle of the Song Dynasty in China. Write an scene in which your protagonist is running from the guards but is forced to risk storming into the forbidden grounds of Emperor Taizong’s Palace, a place protected with traps, every day by one recurring priest—your metaphorical angel punching down walls, a pest in the grille of your consciousness, goading you onward, forcibly unfurled in the tough fibers of the mind. Are you…are you jumping in or what?
Write a short ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ story in which the main character travels back in time with limited resources and a strict deadline in the Victorian era.
Write a letter from one of Russia’s leaders to another to describe their hatred for Rasputin.
Find yourself in 1912 Wittebriz, Russia, and you must soon realize you stumbled into a scene of historical political and sociological change. Describe the events going on around you.
Neil Armstrong is about to become the first man to walk on the moon. Write a story in which a family member of his has a special message for him to say when he takes his one small step to glory.
In 1973, a deadly heat wave struck the city of New York. However, the cause is not as simple as the extreme beating of nature from the relentless direct sunlight. What is the cause of the heat wave and how do the citizens manage to survive?
In 1986, the world’s first heart transplant was performed. Write a story that features a character with a heart of stone.
It’s the 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr. is leading a march on Washington, DC when a rainstorm kicks in. Write the scene when the leader takes cover in a telephone booth next to a young white man with his own agenda.
A soldier returns home from a war during World War II. Instead of feeling joyous about his upcoming marriage, he feels he is somehow missing out on the real action. Write a scene reflecting what he might be feeling.
It’s 1949, and you are traveling in a corvette from Miami to Key West to escape the chaos of the Cuban Revolution. Your father has died years ago, and it’s just the two of you, mother and son, steering out in the open ocean facing a future of uncertainty. There’s no telling if anyone is alive to greet you in “America’s Key.”
Write an exciting scene in a 1960’s amusement park that hijacks the Olympic gold championship race… of horses!
Write a scene in which your ancestors have been transported forwards through time to witness a calamity.
Write a diary entry from the point of view of a Georgian slave in America in the early 1700s. What do you think is the most understanding aspect of what was going on in the mind and the heart of a slave? It’s 1963, and civil rights supporters are meeting at a town meeting to decide whether they should treat everyone equally when it comes to school lunches and bathrooms. What is the role of a town parent at the meeting when they decide they want to take their children out of the school that is mixing races?
In 1990s Moscow, Russia, a foreign military serviceman with American military secrets is taken into custody by the Russian KGB after being caught on camera stealing sensitive information. He denies stealing the document, yet, he is convicted and sentenced to death. What steps does the foreign soldier take to appeal his death sentence?
Imagine you are an environmental activist traveling through the ocean in a submarine, trying to stop an underwater power plant and save the wildlife. Create a scene as the submarine hits a rock and the sub is starting to go down.
It’s September 10th, 2001, and on one of the most decisive days in American history fate causes a CIA analyst, a Wall Street broker, a New York paramedic, a teenage girl and four men from Queens to converge in Lower Manhattan.
In 1980s Hollywood, California, a father’s dream of becoming an important actor successively takes a huge toll on his business and family life through various stages of his career.
It’s 1960 and there has just been a total eclipse of the sun. After the event, report a small incident in which someone is in the path of totality when you it’s all over for one character.
In this justly famed historical novel by Ken Follet, he portrays a powerful political rivalry in 12th century England. Write a scene in which one of the rivals dies, either lusted for by the other for respect, or escalated through betrayal.
In a post-apocalyptic world, survivors of a nuclear war are regrouping to rebuild civilization.
Write about the period of time when a past social movement was in its critical period and you are on the forefront of defending it.
In 1762, Napoleon was at war. As a young officer, he goes to war in battle. Write a scene in which he bears the full brunt of war when the troops are forced to retreat.
The year is 1940, and Norway suffers under Nazi occupation. Write a scene in which a resistance fighter desperately tries to ship vital war information to England as the Gestapo closes in.
She is a washed up, but determined singer performing in a small club in New Orleans. He is a mysterious, creepy bartender who wants nothing more than to see the singer fail. You are a couple of heartbroken strangers at the bar who during a late night jam session strike up a severe, romantic and mutual love.
What would happen if cowboys suddenly appeared in modern-day Manhattan or a young woman was suddenly transported from New York to the Wild West? Write a scene in which someone suddenly gets transported back in time to the Pony Express era.
You are in a strange cemetery looking at the headstones of a long-dead family, whose descendents you happen to be. Each stone has a simple sentence inscribed on it, and you are to choose one of them as a legacy of your imagination.
It’s 1902, New Orleans. The New Orleans Grand Opera Company is putting their final production before they close up for good. The cast and crew are overworked and hopelessly disorganized, but the events which follow soon turn much more serious as a tropical storm hits the Louisiana coast.
Write a short story or poem in which a young girl loses a pet to something desperate, like an imprisoned pirate, desperate to free himself before being fatally hung in the morning. What is the sacrifice the girl must make to keep her pet?
During the earliest moments of the Cold War, an American spy in Siberia is arrested. Write a story from the point of view of that spy as she vents upon being forced to spend the majority of her time in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison.
201X, and the battleship has gone off the grid and far from its party-crashing purpose. Something has happened on the ship, and you never know who you can trust anymore.
In 1980s Northern California, a mid-level drug dealer has been getting away with his dealings for years. Now he’s finally starting to lose money due to a new wave of competition. What decisions does he have to make in order to secure his future, and how does he deal with them?
Elvis, Britney, The Kardashians and Lady Gaga share breathing space with Abraham Lincoln, Oprah Winfrey and social activist Jane Addams in “World View 2020,” a futuristic pitch for a reality TV show. The characters from a TV show blast into the real world causing all kinds of trouble. You’re required to write only a teaser for an excerpt to the show. Use your imagination in describing the show, its plot and characters.
Write a scene in which a fictionalized version of a famous historical biologist or naturalist describes life in the early stages of the Cambrian explosion.
Write an opening scene for a TV series about a group of friends that take a road trip to Las Vegas before getting married.
Write about a disaster that has a disastrous effect on one particular country or time period.
It’s 1250 AD. If you were a knight sent to deliver an urgent message to King Henry III in Winchester on that mission do you think it would be of any importance?
You are one of the last of your kind living in a kennel in an underground research facility.
Write a tragic love story about a woman and a man separated by a social taboo that is considered a dishonor to their families. Who does the woman love more than life itself, and what happens to them as a result of their fight for a love forbidden by fate?
What will Brenda Gene Read’s legacy be? What are some of the problems she will face? How will the institution “Brenda Gene’s Home For Unwanted Ospreys” change in Brenda Gene’s and the Ozark Lake?
Automotive cars have not been invented yet, but the convenience of the automobile has. Write a story in which someone goes on a road trip from Whitefish, Montana to Las Vegas, Nevada in the comfort of a horse-drawn carriage in the 1890s.
It’s 1998 and you’re a very talented writer, but on the other hand you’re struggling to find the right publisher. Take a suggestion from one of their publishing representatives and write a story. Then, after you are published, return to the suggestion, but write the opposite.
You are involved in Project Hermes in the 1960s. You have lost track of your partner, Alix J. Hemment. The urban war megalopolis is split in two between the civilian wall-society and the military puppet government. You must follow Alix into the walled city, but rumors say the government is going to demolish the city’s center for a military regiment. All the infrastructure points to an approaching confrontation between the two sides and a need to be reached within 48 hours.
You’re in charge of designing a new church building in Phoenix, Arizona to be put in place by the year 2010. It must match its architectural surroundings, but also reflect the community’s spiritual heritage.
This challenge presents a relatively common fantasy story setting, a small town where magic is prevalent and accepted and the world is reminiscent of the pre-industrial age. Pair up with a peer and write a story in which magic has helped advance technology in some way.
Write a story that tells how the first automobile traveled along the Lincoln Highway.
Write an episode script for Sesame Street featuring Lewis Carroll and Beatrix Potter as visited by the letter H.
In 1954, the City of Los Angeles, California had just celebrated its 100th anniversary. There is a contest to pick the most influential person from the city’s first century, and your character has been picked along with dozens of others. Write the scene in which his or her name is called to place a ballot.
In 17th Century Paris, the world’s greatest alchemist struggles to find a trace of the legendary Philosopher’s Stone under the surveillance of a strict master who plots to steal his work.
It’s 1927, and a beautiful woman sails the seas as an actress. A charismatic Broadway director sees what she can do with the starring role of his next show as they bring their own set of tempestuous personalities to their new venture.
Romeo and Juliet are a sibling duo who are meeting in secret. What’s going on behind closed doors that’s driving them to despise one another? Write a conflict story about the family drama in 13th century France.
Your pen pal, Anna, who lives far away, sends the very same letter she writes to you every summer. However, to your disappointment, when you finally write back to her this year, she doesn’t respond. You begin to think about how you truly left out so much in the letters you sent her and, annoyed, you never write to her again. Is there another possible reason as to why she never wrote back, or could it have been perhaps an error in the mail?
In 1776, on the night before the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to invade Brunswick, New Jersey, George Washington kneels at his bedside and prays to God. But does a certain enemy in town lurking on a rooftop across the river hear him and use this opportunity to his advantage?
It’s a hot, dry, summer, and you’ve just arrived in a seaside city controlled by a group of art-loving, rich Egyptians. What do they want, what do the people they don’t control do, and what do you do?
Explorers Lewis and Clark make their way back from the frontier while crossing Grizzly territory.
Travel back to the Siege of Gondor on the day the Orc army descends upon it. How does it affect the people inside the city, and how do they react?
The year is 2054 and the search for life in the universe has yielded only one methodical probe to Earth’s neighboring star. Humans finally make physical contact with extraterrestrials. Write a scene concerning one of the human astronauts coming in contact with life from another world.
There are different versions of history in the world. Write an alternate history story on your own in which a different interpretation or version of a historical event is revealed.
Write a scene in which a modern detective confronts a defiant witness via hypnotic regression.
It’s 1967, and a neighborhood is engulfed in flames. In this story, a fireman finds a boy that has been hiding in the basement of the home. Help the firefighter and police save the child, leaving you with a climax that will have the reader craving more.
“Moonwalkers” is a film about a forgotten piece of the 20th century… the race to get to the moon. Narrate over the film, and write one paragraph as if you are introducing a school group to some people who weren’t allowed to be involved in the space race.
Nineteen-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon receives a letter from the editor of her local newspaper wondering what benefit of having God in the United States schools would provide to society. How might her reply affect her relationships with her family and friends?
Scores of dead polar bears are found along Ellesmere Island. Their remains testify death by internal bleed out. Draw national attention to this unexplained catastrophe.
1995. Write a scene between a young man and woman in which the major conflict seems benign and they are discussing love.
Write a story about a boxer or martial artist in 1964 who has gone astray and wants to turn his life around. He meets an elderly man who he knows will teach him something to help him, what is that?
Describe an important travel day in your life.
There’s a trap door hidden behind the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Slip inside, and find out what secrets lurk before you descend into madness.
Write a scene in which one character is responsible for exploring or discovering an ancient place and shares this experience with another character for the first time. This place may be real or fictional.
The 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics are about to be hit by a terrorist attack. Write an opening paragraph that suggests what appalling event might happen.
In the past you have always gotten what you’ve wanted. Everything comes easy. What happens when it’s the present? Do you continue taking what you want, or do you struggle to find a different way.
It is the year 2009, and the United States is about to become the laughingstock of the world as they deliver the first ever floating airport to Kangia. Write a news headline reporting this event.
An American pilot was shot down over Japan during World War II. He arrives in Yokohama with nothing more than a pocket knife and is forced to survive among the locals until the war reaches its latter end.
What adventures will you have? Will you be the hero or the villain when you travel through time? With stories, your imagination can go anywhere. With scribble boxes, you can make anything your reality. Just open your imagination and take your time erasing fears and living in your new world.
In 1992, a risky operation took place to extricate a man who was left to die in an abandoned well in the jungle. Write an account from the man’s perspective.
It’s the Great Depression, and workers are dying to build the new Hoover Dam in rural Nevada. What are the demands of the workers to their bosses and what is the response?
It’s the Victorian age, and you are a child living with your family in a posh London townhouse. Write a terrifying ghost story that takes place in your home.
In 1956, Bobby Angle is an eighteen-year-old high school student with a clear and present plan to kill his famous father. He claims, “It’s for his own good.” Write a scene that exhibits Bobby’s feelings toward his father and how he plans to carry out his twisted notion.
It’s 1944 during World War II, and a young Jewish boy whose parents are refugees from Nazi Germany, struggles to avoid becoming a target by the Nazis.
The year is 700 BC, and a family of craftsmen finds themselves in the midst of a dispute between warring tribes. Write a poem in which the father is explaining why the family’s horses have been taken from them.
It’s 1999, and a college graduate has a job offer from her favorite tech company, Run A Bit Faster Media Software. She celebrates by going out for drinks one last time with her friends. What occurs during their last night out before she goes off to San Francisco and what could go wrong?
2016, Elon Musk makes an interplanetary flight to Mars with a crew of colonizers. A problem results in everyone dying except one person. Write a scene about that person’s hopeless reaction.
In 1BC, the mighty Roman Empire exerts absolute control over Great Britain. Write about the only citizen to challenge the Emperor’s reign.
A character named Will receives an unexpected letter from Will Shakespeare asking him to come to London and perform for royalty…
In 1954, during the Cold War, two undercover agents from warring ideological camps fell in love. What happens to them?
In 1910, an American trapper living in northeast Siberia among the Dwagons, an indigenous Siberian people, faces an incredible opportunity when a group of explorers approaches to enlist his help in an expedition to the north pole.
It is 1982 and it is the eve of the first Space Shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral. Write a story about a man that night whose family is somewhat threatened.
A scene begins with a photograph in a London art gallery that never seems to be of this time or place. One of the British soldiers is familiar, but as the main character moves into the next room she trips back in time to World War I. Write a scene about what happens next.
What conflict does a father living in the Antebellum South with a unique occupation face and how does his occupation affect it? Your answer might be based on a historic occupation of the time or one invented.
If you had to pick the right or wrong plantation in the American Civil War, which would you choose and what role do you play in the final outcome?
It’s 1493, and Christopher Columbus is enjoying the hospitality of some natives in the Caribbean. What “gifts” does he offer in return? Write a story about this exchange.
It’s 1929, and the United States is in a recession. Write a story about one ordinary man who is forced to do the unthinkable to save his family.
The 2015 sci-fi thriller Ex Machina takes place in a strange new heaven-like setting called Nathan’s Haven. You work with the character Caleb on a fascinating science-religion, but he disappears in the middle of the storyline. What is the incident, and what is the community’s true reality regarding their “creator” Nathan?
Your best friend has something to tell you, and this could change everything. What’s up and how do you act on it?
Write the last will and testament of Ottokar Novak, a 107-year-old mechanical genius who invented a machine so scientific and elaborate that it rivals the complexities of the 21st century Tesla Discovery Series – despite its creation long before the advent of electricity. After writing the will, make it the document where Ottokar uses his life’s knowledge to reveal the whereabouts of the machine to the one person he trusts most with the secrets of creation.
1979. The Black Plague dead begin rising with dark, demonic powers, fueled by an unending lust for human flesh. Pinpoint a specific time and place somewhere in the United States where infected zombies tear their way into a world locked in gas guzzling vehicles and dishwashing soap.
It’s 1963 and racist detective, Johnny Madrid, finds himself hot on a lead that may help solve one of the most puzzling cases in New York history.
It’s 1956, and there’s a hush over the world. The Cold War is in full-swing and President Eisenhower is preparing to order an American space program to start exploring the stars. But someone is missing. Write a missing-persons memo to Ike in which he asks for help finding someone.
Write the most tear-jerking scene in which a high society debutante realizes that her lover has been killed in battle.
Somewhere in the world right now, an unthinkable atrocity is unfolding. Write a scene about the moments leading up to the event and the events unfolding during the last moments of these people’s lives.
It’s the wee hours of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival and the complete chaos that ensues from a full band of excited hippies who have sneaked into the event. See what they do to distract from the fact that they belong there and how they end up leaving the concert.
In the 1800s, your character was made Queen of the Gypsies. Suddenly, she’s torn between being a queen and her love for a sweet, worldly Englishman. But the other Gypsies don’t like foreign men, and her old flame isn’t going to let her go that easily…
It’s 2020, and we are no longer dependent on fossil fuels because we have robotic cars that run on clean water. It’s a new era of world peace, and scientists have found the key to human prosperity. Write a scene that shows this prosperity as well as the greed some humans still hold.
In 1960s California, a troubled man visits a remote island resort hotel to relax. What strange mystery do the employees discover about him and how is it dealt with?
Write a turn of the century action story set in a small French town. Very few want the protagonist to finish their journey, while at the same time, another character is very determined to save them.
It’s 1948, Italy, and Vatican officials are alarmed at the sudden disappearance of an ancient relic. In the search to restore peace back to the region, more questions are brought about the unsolved mystery underlying the sinister disappearance.
It’s the 1950’s and UFOs have been spotted flying in and out of an unexplored area of Alaska. What do they want and what is their reason for visiting Earth?
Write a short story regarding the lives you have known since your childhood.
At the height of World War II, a grouchy pilot is given the most important mission of his life.
In 1986, a baseball player was inserted in the bottom of the 9th inning in the bottom of a tie game. The moon is full, and Team Bats is up by one run with two outs. He’s the winning run, but he can’t find the plate. The pitcher throws four straight balls, and the umpire is demanding that he take the pitch and get something out of it for his team. Write a story about what he could tell the umpire as he lingers in the batter’s box.
You wake up in the middle of your high school cafeteria only to realize you are in the wrong time and the wrong place. What time are you actually in and what do you do to fit into this time period?
The film version of Gone with the Wind is entering theaters. It is such a memorable story that when it was released, it changed the direction of filmed history. Rewrite the script to fit today’s time and add in some modern objects. If you’ve seen the film, you’ll find it more difficult to write about since there are certain lines and characters that have become iconic after 75 years. Write a story about the Roman Empire in which the main character was actually born into an African tribe prior to the conquests. She is captured one day, sold as a slave and eventually trained to be a gladiator.
As a new inmate at a concentration camp, you await transportation by train to a more permanent facility.
Travel to Dark Ages Scandinavia, where you are a part of the Viking expedition on the eve of Lindisfarne.
In 1969, the Apollo space program landed man on the moon for the first time. However, this does not go smoothly, and after the entire program crashes and burns on the launch pad at the very last moment, write the eulogy for this historic project.
Rumours are spreading in 16th century London that a man from Italy has found a way for his dead brother to bring him back to life. Is this rumour a fact or just plain fake news?
It’s June 6, 1944, and the Battle of Normandy, also known as D-Day, is being fought. Take this opportunity to write about four soldiers fighting in the US Army.
Set in 1870s America, a time when women had no rights and children had little freedom – but the West was wild and opening up. However, one family of settlers has broken these traditions and barricaded themselves against the outside world and have set up a utopia for all. Describe this ragtag misfit family of outcasts and why they chose to live this way.
As two men are stranded in a desert after a plane crash, they start to argue about their future. Write the moment just before they begin to make peace with one another.
It’s 1960, and the United States is in the middle of the Cold War. Write a scene set in a top secret research and development facility sprawled on the edge of a forest.
In 1992, a bomb went off in an airplane headed to Omaha, Nebraska at an airport. Write a scene set before the explosion that focuses on the backstory or foreshadowing the event or even the event itself.
It’s 1968 during the civil rights era, and Martin Luther King Jr. is shot in the face on his hotel balcony. Write a story of racial discrimination in the Deep South and how a young racist man comes to see the error of his ways.
It’s 1950, and, with the nuclear threat coming closer to the United States’ border, two possible enemies unite in an underground shelter to discuss a resolution.
You are on a journey across Arkansas in 1837. Specifically, on the Trail we follow in The Gilded Age. Things have not always been easy for you, and this ride is no exception. You awake on the ground with a tiny hint from a stranger of where you are – if you heard what they said correctly – and in what year…
You are a scientist in the year 1000 B.C.E. You have carefully observed the natural world and are looking to try something groundbreaking. You create a potion that has dramatic effects on both you and two people you encounter in the forest. How does this adventure unfold?
It’s World War II, and two hospitals filled with wounded soldiers are neighboring each other, one filled with German soldiers and the other with Allied soldiers. Could these soldiers come to a truce where they help each other as opposed to working against each other?
It’s 1967 and you’re vacationing in one of the summer colonies that are built along the beautiful coastline of Maine. An annoying fly buzzes too close to your sunbathing ear. You swat it away only for it to land right smack in the middle of one of your pink frosted chocolate sprinkled cupcakes from Peter’s Beach Cookie and Bakery. All of a sudden, something rises from the depths of the ocean and before you have time to react, your cupcake is gone.
In 1985, Olivia Sr. moved into a brownstone that used to belong to a father she never knew. What experiences does Olivia Jr. have in the brownstone after talking her mother into allowing her to live there on her own?
It’s 1952, and the first United States Music Festival is held in Aspen, Colorado. With so many talented artists in attendance, writes about a budding romance between two world renowned musicians.
It’s 2003, and you have just met the love of your life. When he proposes to marry you in a week you realize that your father and step-mother were recently killed in a vicious car accident. Write how you spend your week getting ready for the wedding and then mourning the loss of your only living relatives.
It’s the early 20th century, and a young man works as a manual laborer in Chicago. As his task becomes increasingly trying, he submits to psychotic hallucination and delirium that are brought on by the sheer repetition of his task.
Have you ever faced a tragedy? Write about the last moment before the tragedy.
Write about a group of college students who head to the beaches of Thailand to get drunk and unwind only to be taken captive.
Jack Kerouac is on a bus trip to the United States. Write about a spontaneous excursion that leads him to a new experience. What do they encounter along the way?
1937. Boston, isn’t the typical fun filled day at the fair. This is the era of the start of gang activity by the Black Hand. Aid two brothers as they go in disguised as members of the Black Hand with the ultimate goal of eliminating the Mafia’s influence over Boston.
It is June 27, 1987. 87 members of the armed forces are killed in a mission in the Persian Gulf. Write a scene that focuses on the funerals that take place back home.
It’s 1846 in London and someone has stolen the Crown Jewels. Who would do this and could it be stopped?
Write a scene in which an undercover cop tries to rescue a kidnapped family from a drugged-up fugitive in the basement of the family’s own home.
You’re an archaeologist and your student is dying. What decision do you make as a leader and how does it affect your career?
It’s 1866-1867. The First North American-Australian Gold Rush has just begun. An experienced miner and a young, ambitious immigrant strike it rich, and try to make their way back to civilization filled with countless opportunities. Write an adventure story about their voyage.
In this historical setting there’s a community of people living on a farm. One day, a mudslide occurs and a girl gets trapped beneath her house. One deep breath offers comfort to one person.
In 1963, the U.S. public is being settled in their television homes as they watch an astronaut do a spacewalk and be the second man ever to walk on the moon
Describe a permanent comic event that happened during your lifetime and how it affected you.
After a brutal earthquake, you enter a deserted high school with your best friend. Write a mysterious scene involving you finding a mysterious photograph.
In 2017, a quantum physics experiment using the Large Hadron Collider goes horribly wrong. What strange event comes out of the experience?
It is 1873, and a Native American child goes missing, causing great distress among her tribe. The Smithsonian Institution searches desperately for the child while fighting off accusations that it was involved in her disappearance. This girl, who was stolen long ago, returns and reveals what happened to her.
By 2020s , private ownership of space travel is a lucrative industry and multi -planetary pop up towns and cities have sprung up on other planetary bodies. Write about the adventure of traveling to and living on a new planet. What memorable moments occur during the trip?
The truth is a powerful weapon if used in the right way. Now imagine all of your truth, all of your life story for other people to read. Write what you think it would include and then write it as a scene.
Write a story about a restless spirit. It could be a character hiding from his past or a creature that the living must learn to get along.
In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited Nikita Khrushchev and Joseph Stalin to the White House for a black tie event. The following is a confrontation that will spark a war between the United States and Russia.
It’s the 1890s, and you have been asked to approach a professor for a granted interview for your student monthly. The problem is you are scared to approach him and are using a rhetorical appeal as a way to encourage your protagonist to go on this interview.
A young man has just found out that he is a direct descendant of Sir Thomas More, a dead scholar from the Catholic Church. After the man has gained this knowledge, he is greeted by a friend and his uncle, who are both obviously not from America. Then tragedy strikes, and he is left stranded in the middle of nowhere all by himself.
You approach the gates of an ancient temple. 13 pillars rise beyond the columns and remnants of Greek sculpture. A mysterious treasure must be retrieved before violent storms threaten your survival.
In 1931, a renowned archaeologist comes across a mysterious painting recovered from the lost city of Nimh, which impedes his work with the famed Howard Carter.
In 1970s London, England, three men conspire to steal priceless paintings from beneath the noses of everyone, including the Queen. What is the heist they’re working on and how do they plan to pull it off unnoticed by others?
Write a scene as if it were a growing news story. Be creative with the detail and the language involved. You may use any information or setting to create the news story.
It’s 1823, and you are a Venetian painter in exile who has long since lost hope and faith in anything except his bitter and cynical personality. All of a sudden, there is a knock on the door, and who is there but the last person you ever expected to see, Henry James. He invites you to create a masterpiece with him. How do things go from their cold starting point for both the pair as they paint?
It’s 2005, and the doorbell rings in the middle of the night. Write a scene about an underground Nazi organization set in present-day America.
In the 1960s United States, civil rights were at the forefront of every local issue. Write a letter from one of the civil rights activists to a hometown friend, while hiding such letters in an event flyers from local nightclubs.
It’s 1992 and you are an Iranian soldier recently dispatched to Baghdad during the First Persian Gulf War. Join your comrades and embark on a mission that takes you across the western desert to find and capture Saddam Hussein before the bombs start dropping.
The 1971 discovery of King Tut’s Tomb in Egypt changes the history of mankind.
In 2003, a wealthy young man rose to the top of the ranks as one of the most powerful people in the world by playing a huge role in an unexpected social revolution. He is also a masked vigilante. Let the fun begin in this story about him when he saves a successful actress from a terrible situation.
It’s September 11th, 1967, and your school just got an incredibly interesting new student. What is your first impression of him? Where does he go shortly after?
It’s 1808 and you are a world famous romantic poet venturing across the Alps. Write a scene in which your journey up the mountains abruptly ends and you must brave a long walk back home.
Imagine you are a recent divorcée whose entire life is based in Manhattan. After a year of heartbreak, your best friend drags you to a house party out in Brooklyn. The key word for this writing prompt is “Brooklyn,” so the plot will require a new location.
A once fearless crusader cracks under the pressure as she leads the first female group in the history of Asia to ascend one of the most challenging mountains in the world.
Write a scene in which a young child traveling with his family accidentally wrecks a rental car in the rural United States. Write about what happens when the parents argue about who’s fault it was using flashbacks to tell the story.
It is a summer afternoon in 2008, and O.J. Simpson breaks out of prison with the help of an accomplice. He meets the woman who lives in the cottage up the hill and tells her a story about a bank robbery that happened in the 1890s just outside of Seattle.
1940s New York City, have a heated debate with a peer who claims that every person has a book in them. What do you argue?
You have only 5 pages to write a short story or essay about a single significant moment in history. What moment and why?
It’s the 1920s, and the Volstead Act has gone into effect. Marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and opium can no longer be purchased, consumed, or possessed. Write a scene about a hard-hitting journalist investigating the police records taken from the raid of a fly speakeasy located in the Tri-state.
It’s 2358 and a deadly pandemic has wiped out most of mankind. Four scientists are the last hope for humanity to overcome the plague.
It’s 1995, and in an isolated valley in the South American Andes, the Indian villagers are living in fear because of a species of giant bat unknown to the outside world. It is believed they were put on Earth by their mythological god of death.
In 1969, a little girl in Cleveland, Ohio took a trip to the moon. However, the Apollo 11 lunar expedition mysteriously disappears. Your narrator is the little girl who saw the moon ship go up into space, while the actual pilots are still lost on the dark side of the moon.
In the aftermath of an automobile accident, a man goes to the hospital to meet his wife. While at the hospital, he must find a way to persuade his wife not to die.
Write about the life of a soldier during the American Revolutionary War during the Siege of Donnington Castle in England.
Bernice is a Louisiana girl who, upon finding her boyfriend in bed with a rival, decides to get revenge. Write a dialogue scene between her and her friend Marie, as they decide what her new suitor’s greatest flaw will be.
It’s 1950s New York City, and a framed person is on the loose. Using a famous piece of artwork of the time as your inspiration, write a scene that includes the hunt for the wrongfully accused man.
A starving orphan from the 17th century seeks refuge inside a huge clock tower. Being company to the as he desperately prays for food.
It’s the early 1960s and the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is at its peak. Write a research paper on the life and times of one of the Cold War’s most popular anti-communist but controversial politicians.
Write about the consequences when a secret promise made many years ago in a prisoner of war camp gets revealed during present-day child custody hearings.
Write a Western story told from a dog’s perspective.
It’s 1740, and you are out sailing under the Mediterranean Sea. Close your eyes and think back to the heavy scent of pear and cherry blossoms that thrived in Alexandria fifty years ago. What does the town look like? Think about the kind of people that lived there and the climate at that time. Describe this experience, the sights and the sounds.
It’s 1895 and the frontier is overflowing with the greatest of all American gold rushes. Write an essay where you explain why a person who lives in San Francisco shouldn’t be included in the rush.
Things Change. Write a story about the Second Coming of Christ in a modern setting with a turn of the epic twist of “the Day of Reckoning.”
Who killed Marilyn Monroe? A respected businessman with his own medicine cabinet.
Life can change in a second so do not spend too much time thinking about the future.
In 1995, you’re exploring an archeological cave in Mexico. When you fall down a seemingly endless pit, you wake up to find yourself in the same cave, but in a Mayan village during the Carib attack in 1441.
Napoleon and his bride of approximately a year ride his horse to seek safety at the Las Cabezas de San Juan lighthouse, but a disagreeable night watchman decides to throw a wrench into their escape plan.
Find a hero. Now, destroy him. How do they go about achieving their goal? In what kind of conflict does this create?
A spaceship captain decides to go against orders and interfere with a primitive civilization. Write an epic story of heroism and sacrifice involving the captain’s crew of malevolent mutineers.
Paranova, a female magician in Victorian England, wants to escape her controlling father even if it means going against her wishes. She always dreamed of going backwards in time to the time of the Ancient Egyptians. Time travel is unheard of and illegal, but she is willing to risk it. Paranova travels to several time periods with the help of her magical crystal. As she travels she witnesses the fall of Rome, travels to Japan during the samurai battles, and goes to Hogwarts, in the Magical Era. She witnesses the hardships and joys of people from different times. In reality, Paranova is changing history, but she doesn’t know that, and she can’t go back to where she came from. Her father and a boy from her past seek out Paranova to bring her back. The boundaries between science fiction and fantasy are blurred in this wonderfully orchestrated plot by Lisa Lerner. “Follow the Moon Home” is a must read for not just young adults, but also for adults
Write a short story in which the protagonist is haunted by the ghost of an infamous historical actor, beatnik, gangster, crime lord, politician, or soldier. Have the character believe the ghost is trying to warn him or her in regards to a problem occurring today that will have consequences.
It’s the year 2014, and you are stuck inside of a space capsule that is falling to the ground in a giant city. Your oxygen tank is running low, but there is a way to stop the airflow. Write a scene in which you decide whether or not to bring something or someone onto the capsule that will affect the outcome of your story.
You’re the newly chosen queen of an elusive ocean kingdom. You are determined to bring peace and prosperity throughout your newly discovered civilization. How do you achieve your goals and how are they met with hatred, skepticism, or hostile actions?
In the not so distant future, there’s a cult that roams from town to town before murdering every person living in the vicinity. Write the sermon/prophecy the cult leader delivers to his followers.
In 1545, Giovanni de Verrazano—the first documented European to have stepped foot in New York—is about to set foot on the shores of North Carolina. He’s searching for the fabled Golden Fleece. What does he find instead?
Write a biographical story about a major figure in history who is usually overshadowed by someone else, be it a friend or foe.
In 1972, an epidemic had hit California. The disease was as beautiful as it was deadly. What did people react to this disease?
You have an important message for a most unusual person. Anyplace and anywhere in the world, you only have a specific amount of time to write the contact information before you die. Act out this vital message, in which it is also your epitaph to the world.
You are an investigative sports announcer covering a Triple Crown horse race with a legend but a detested contender. How can the outcome of this race forever change the memory of a great athlete and a great horse?
For extra credit, consider trying different software and tools for writing stories. You may have already tried Campbell River Library’s online Storytelling Keys, however, have you tried Power Story or Dramatica? Dramatica is a software program to write stories, and you can use it to write histories as well as stories. Power Story has more of a craft writing aspect where you can try starting stories in different ways. Like any good writing program or software, it allows you to save your writing and compare it with successful works. Learning from other stories is a great way to learn the craft of writing.
In 2025, you are the author of the world’s first medical procedure simulating Near Death Experience. What are three early test results?
On her way to work, a young, professional girl is stalked by a mugger. She is saved by a pre-war, masked vigilante. What mechanism could the girl have had in her possession that could have cost her life?
In 1980, a Mexican American rebel named Rolando gives a political speech in East Los Angeles as the police try to break up the rally.
It’s 1977, and you are a group of tennis players invited to play in a major tournament. You all represent countries just after the Cold War, and tensions are high. You end up stranded as the only people in the entire city.
1913. The Clipper Ship Mary Dawson is stolen by the notorious pirate Valentine Vexler. The ship is the biggest ever created, a leviathan. The struggle for the pirates in taking on such a monster ship raises the probability of it to succeed or fail. Write a scene in which the hostages give a daring idea of escape, but they can only do so inside the ballroom of the ship.
It’s 1972, and an Apollo space mission has just landed on the moon. In five pages, write the history of this particular moon landing and what it means for mankind.
A group of insiders, known as high muckety-mucks, control the way legislative politics work. What happens when one of the insiders plays that game a little too long? Write a story based within the political atmosphere and current events.
A young couple’s transgression is discovered in 18th century London. Write a scene as the couple is pulled apart by the servants, and they lie and cover for each other. An old lady, who has been observing the whole thing from her window, has a side to the story that leads to the couple’s ultimate arrest.
Set at the very moment when Christopher Columbus first spots land, a horror story that involves the sailors aboard his ship eerily unfolds.
Summer 1976, a small town, the remains of a tornado touch down, and now the locals have to clean up the mess.
It is 1899 in Tilbury, England. As you enter a pub for the first time, the bartender ignores you. What happens next and why?
It’s 1953. After the Korean War, a young mother and father cannot welcome their newborn baby into the world. Sit with this couple and explore who they are and why they want to end their lives.
It’s 2200, and you have to resolve a labor dispute at a mine in northern Canada before you return home. Who are you and who are the other key players involved?
From the vantage point of the front door, you stare at your excited 12-year-old son running out the door with a satchel and matching coat—a satchel filled with books about mythology, legends, and folklore.
Write a scene in which a young street urchin witnesses a showdown between rival gang members. What does the young urchin do when everything is said and done, and how does he or she react?
Issac Newton is sitting at his desk. Write a scene in which he is visited by ghosts of previously discovered scientists.
14-year-old Derek struggles with a strained relationship with his father and feels like he needs to rescue his mother from his father who doesn’t care about anything but work and raking in profits. Circumstances force Derek to confide in Renee, a seemingly nice woman claiming to be an old friend of the family but isn’t as far…
It’s 1995 and a family struggles to come to terms with the death of their son in World War II. The husband has no faith in spiritual matters, which puts a strain on the rest of their family. A woman brings messages from another dimension to help in the healing process.
A futuristic world orders its citizens by outward perfection, where living is a mechanical achievement. When a citizen decides to throw off the constraints of society and opt for the real world, there are dire consequences.
It’s 1959. A local politician’s career depends entirely on winning the smallest vote of them all – that of a Midwestern town in an upcoming election. But what happens when a communicable pandemic takes hold of the mayor and produces more to worry about than any one vote could ever be? Capturing a scene from the early days of Romeo and Juliet.
In year 2123 a nuclear holocaust suddenly erupts, also making monsters out of formerly peaceful people, all over the earth.Three survivors from Sweden, Afghanistan and Africa fight against these new hostile enemies as they travel across Europe until finally finding themselves in a tiny little island where the god of thunder thrusts him down a hill and also heals him as a gift for his services.
Write the scene in which a group of talkative tall tale men challenge one another with a day of boastful boasting.
Write a story about a 19th century British family who goes on an extended tour aboard a freighter and experiences life at sea.
It’s 1944 during World War II. Write a scene in which an Allied pilot is shot down over a Nazi-occupied European town, and the haunting kids who believe he’s a dirty so-called American spy must decide what to do with him.
What if the famous biblical Jesus Christ you learned about in Sunday School is nothing like how you thought? Before you answer, write a scene where a slave in the days of his execution finally gets to meet his Messiah.
It’s the 1920s, and Westerns were very successful during this time period. Write a scene in which a forgotten family is attacked by bandits whose motive is to steal a discovery that will change the world, but the family will have something else to say about that.
Lieutenant Ahab must make it back to Nantucket Island to see the home of his ancestors destroyed during a hurricane. Only Mrs. Starbuck can tow Ahab’s ship, The Pequod, back to shore.
In 1954, Cleopatra was married to the most powerful man in the world, President Dwight Eisenhower. She is at the height of her mysterious abilities as she wields power over the USA. Begin this scenario by describing Cleopatra’s journey to the White House, her influence over Ike, and the general attitude of senators and Congress against her.
Write the script for a two-person version of the board game Chutes and Ladders where small measures of luck dictate the fate of each roll of the dice. The result is a dialogue between how luck affects each player differently.
Write a scene in which your character, Diego Cortés, finds a device left behind 406 years ago by one of the first Europeans to land in the Americas. He gets an idea of what it might do, and he is excited to use it to his advantage. He wants to present it to local authorities so that he can get amnesty for his dishonest business dealings. What happens?
Set in Dartmoor prison, a desperate convict hatches a plan that involves an accomplice. In your 100-word story, raise the stakes higher than ever before by raising the conflict.
During a journey across the United States in 1860, an English gentleman keeps a journal while encountering the people and culture of this vast country.
What would happen if an army of ancient warriors appeared during the first British attack against Germany in 1942? Rumor has it something extremely strange did happen. Tell what happened on a coastal British reserve in Wales.
You are a medieval warrior fighting in the Grand Tournament. Describe the fight, the rings of cheering fans, and your thoughts as you take down an opponent.
It’s 1939, and two women who would normally avoid each other’s paths meet at the home depot to liven themselves up to move past the country’s unfortunate political climate.
Two rivers join to create a third river, but eventually the third river will grow to become the largest river in the world. Write the history of that river, tracing the beginning where two rivers eventually join to create a third, and eventually crossing paths with the Native Americans, as the white man arrived, dividing the family within, as one side wants to continue the fur trade, and the other side has horses they are trying to avoid selling, and as the white men arrive wanting the land.
Write about the Citi Field Stadium in New York during the first ever lunar eclipse in the year 2009. What do the people do when they see this occurrence and do any spectators turn into zombies?
In the 1880s when people visited the famous Dr. Samuel Mudd’s office for an ailment, wishing to extend the magic of his medical services, they took home a souvenir that would change their lives forever.
America is in the middle of a highway robbery epidemic and in an attempt to change the course of high-risk crime, the government considers outlawing it forever. What effect will this law enforcement approach have on society and is it right for the country?
Exploitation of American Indians is the framework of this which is built around one taboo — cannibalism.
It’s 1865, and you are one of six people living on a secluded island full of murders and pirates. Investigate the murders and write a report proving who is responsible.
On a warm summer day in July of 1988, Polish immigrant Alex awakens from a bad dream to find that a bully has destroyed Alex’s pet crawfish. Even worse, the bully has a secret that threatens to bring shame upon himself and his family.
A lieutenant in the Spanish military has to walk all the way across the country to return home. Along the way, he meets people suffering from different plights, and he uses the strength he has to help them. What happens as he meets more people?
Boris Vasiliev, a Russian pilot stranded near Moscow, crashes near the residence of a boy and his sister, 14-year old Sarah Cronwick and her 10-year old brother Henry. What conflicts and challenges does the trio face, not only from the war, but from the people of a werewolf-infested town?
You’re a French aristocrat on the run during the French Revolution. Find a way to escape the Revolution without going to prison or having your head chopped off by getting your friend in a position of power to grant you asylum. Strike the bargain.
Write about a time when a pirate raiding party is run out of Madagascar and have them run into the cannibal tribes of New Guinea.
It’s 1955, and the U.S. is in the middle of a racial crisis. Write a scene in which two young adults of different social standings come together with a common purpose. What role does courage play?
Detroit, 1967. Just before the riots, an older man wants to share his perspectives with his grandson. Write a scene that explores the tribulations facing the black community and the often disguised bigotry that stirs up the hatred and violence behind the headlines.
12 days before your high school graduation, you and your friends go on a final adventure. Where do you go and what trouble do you get into?
The entire world’s children are turned to stone and must be revived. Write what happens when you travel to a stone city on the outskirts of Paris haunted by children and spirits of the paranormal.
It’s 1998, and Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary has caused a resurgence of the activity. Write about a Civil War reenactment in your area with romantic and/or comedic complications thrown in with opposing forces.
Write the next chapter of the novel gone with the wind. How does Rhett Butler die? Who takes care of Ashley Wilkes? In what way does the story of Gone with the Wind remain critical for history?
You are a resident of a small coastal town in Maine who is planning an outing to the public pier after the Memorial Day holiday. It’s a day of celebration, but you wake up to a tornado alert, which you ignore out of pure whim. The storm leaves total destruction in its cover as your town’s only pier is erased. Write a newspaper account of your town’s event explaining what took place during the storm and how it affected your town.
You and some other people have just been sentenced to death by a street gang based in Los Angeles, write a cynical story, in which the condemned man or woman at the scene estimates his or her respective chances of not dying during this fatal confrontation.
Write a story about a time travel scenario in which good and evil are squaring off against each other.
It’s the year 2000 and the never-ending study of space is put to a breaking point. How does one scientist try to save millions of years of discoveries to provide to future generations?
A father and son travel the Northwest during the Gold Rush in search of fortune or glory. What mistakes do they make on their journey together?
What scares you the most? Write a story in which this fear of yours is exploited by someone. It could be for their amusement or to get away with something.
Write a scene in which a curious and lonely hermit finds the perfect companion in an injured bird found in a storm.
Recruitment posters from the first World War featuring drawings of men wanted for service that have been attached to trees by the children of a small country town with hundreds of unfamiliar words on them.
It’s the eve of the American Civil War but the South is prospering because of slavery. A young African-American house servant witnesses how lucky being an American could be if only all humans were treated equally.
Travel with your mind beyond the clouds to find the place where all the lightning bugs go at night during the summer.
It’s 1979, President Jimmy Carter is in his second term, and the United States has just been attacked by Egypt. In a state of panic, the nation is put under martial law.
It’s 2007 and the world is a disaster. Texas and twelve other United States have declared themselves the independent Republics of New Atlantis and California. When guns start flying, two gang leaders are sent to ‘stand down’ and come to ‘terms’, but neither is ready to back down. Write a scene for the two leaders of the two countries and see how they deal with one another.
It’s 1952 in the African Congo, and a forbidden love blooms in the heart of war. Describe the strongest conflict between a Pygmy warrior and a Caucasian soldier.
Established in 2006, CollegeInfo Security Database was made as an online gateway for the students to explore the Top Universities/Educational Institutes and the relevant information mainly based on Espionage.
Write a scene in which the main characters must deal with questioning their best instincts and facing a loyal dog, whose wagging tail may be too good to be true.
Write about a runaway slave on foot in the middle of winter headed to Canada to get help and succor for freedom. Her pursuers are a klansman and his dog.
It’s 2019, and the world isn’t what it used to be. In the midst of rampant artificial intelligence and global terrorism, two survivors are faced with having to make the ultimate sacrifice to continue living on.
It has been said that in ice age eras animals used to worship the land. Create a fictional story in which a creature decides to die for its territory after being driven from its home.
Oxford is one of the best universities in the world with the best professors. Come up with a compelling thesis/dissertation in collaboration with one of the Oxford professors about an invention or discovery that forever changed the world.
It’s 1915, and you are working your first day at Morston Hall. The Earl of Morston has forbidden any staff from having any contact with the family, but with a wedding being planned, one of the staff must find a way to sneak in and discover this big secret.
It’s 2019 and a student at UW-Eau Claire in Wisconsin discovers his father has been overthrown as president of his small, island country. The despot has always said that one day “freedom will come,” and so it did. Analyze the fraught environment that this young man must navigate to get his father’s country back.
Write about a town square on the night before a World War took place in as much detail as possible. Write about the denial, the excitement, and everything else that would surround such an event.
Write a scene involving King Arthur from his youth. Exaggerate or mute his legendary figure by changing his physical traits, his morals, or any single characteristic.
Write a story about the beginning of the American Revolution in which you feel the spirit of military war around, but you’re trying to fight a personal struggle with someone you encounter.
It’s 1993, the Berlin Wall has fallen, and Hitler is Still Alive. Write a story about one of Hitler’s loyal henchmen being charged with burning his private diaries trying to beat the Russians to them.
During the 1880s, a foreman of a mining camp had a reputation for breaking strikes.
1912 New York City is the most crowded, richest, and most fertile place in the world. What secret does the Queensbridge Housing Project hide?
Write the story of an ordinary citizen on a giant slave ship who is captured and sold into slavery in America.
It’s 1992 and you are about to experience what all the other nerds did during the era of dial-up internet. Write a story about a person who attempts to go online for the very first time.
It’s 1804, and Lewis and Clark have just finished exploring the Pacific Northwest. What indigenous tribes help the explorers during their journey and what is the relationship between the two groups?
In the late sixties your father is accused of attempting to destroy the cornerstone of society. For his punishment you are sent far away to the side of the moon away from everyone.
1999. It’s the time of global warming and you’ve been put in charge of the last pup of a dying breed. He’s the last of his kind and very ill. What do you do and how do you save him from a tragic death?
In this forest adventure, a large family must survive a night in the terrifying woods with no food in sight. The only thing they have are the matches in the pocket of a young boy. The rest is up to them.
It’s 2099, and society’s greatest fears are coming to life. Urban legend has it that a murderous ghost is on a killing spree in an old hotel. What happens when a group of teenagers decide to go there to prove its existence?
It’s 1982-83, and the United States is playing host to the summer Olympic Games on President Ronald Reagan’s home turf. Write a scene in which a small town known as the Miracle Mile in California is the focal point of the games as a growing young athlete competes in a dream of a lifetime.
Write a scene about a pirate on a small boat in 1716 during an oncoming storm going aimlessly in the middle of the ocean. During the storm, the pirate sees an island that looks good to stop at. As the hurricane is about to hit, the island turns into a mistake.
Sitting on the shore of the beach, a small child watches a candle sitting on the sand. The wind blows erratically. What imaginative detailing will happen in the short story inspired by this event?
Write a scene in 1529 where – if you didn’t have the sense prevailing to question your actions – you may have found yourself sitting on a throne that didn’t belong to you…all in a bid to overthrow Henry VIII while you posed as one of his ladies attending him when his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, the subject of the latest episode of Showtime’s The Tudors was able to exchange several glances with her cousin, Anne Boleyn, and delighted in being able to engage in the kind of fun that she had enjoyed before she’d been forced to marry young Henry. She’d enjoyed her spot on a throne – a tiring throne – in 1526, when her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, had arranged a May Day revel which had allowed her romance with Thomas Overbury – the man she had loved until the day that she married the King of England. Katherine had boldly sent letters to Overbury, full of gossip about the royal
It’s 1492, and you are Christopher Columbus. You have yet to discover America, but you are close to doing so. However, you grow ill, and shortly after, realize that you are dying. What are your last thoughts?
Write a scene in which a futuristic society loses confidence in a supposed hero and must hunt her down to redeem themselves as they rebuild a destroyed city.
It’s the year 1959, and Mutiny on the Bounty has recently been released. Write a story in which you include your own secret take on what really happened on the voyage that gave Captain Bligh his infamous reputation years ago.
Scientists created a time portal in 1959 and tested it on six unsuspecting humans. Inside the portal, there are three adventures waiting for them. Tell their tales.
Write a science fiction scene in which Earth is under attack for control of the universe. The enemy spacecraft is on the other side of the planet and sends their troops to invade. A squad of volunteers are sent as a last defense to keep the enemy from taking over Earth. Unfortunately, the spaceship is damaged and troopers must repair it to form a force field between the vessel and any other aerial attack. Trouble is, they have no clue how to do it. It’s up to one brave volunteer with a working knowledge of homemade bombs to save the day.
British airmen are being shot to death in fields and on battlefields during World War II. A local Indian family is blamed for the murders. Write a scene where a group arrives at the Indian residence to take the family members away to prison.
It’s 1956, and the United States is in the middle of a Cold War with the Soviet Union. Describe a small rural New England town witness to a destructive nuclear experiment only they knew happened, and how it changed their life.
It’s 1962, and a small town must deal with racism head on when a church congregation learns their new priest is a Negro.
It’s 1969, and a public suicide of a famous comedian leaves everyone in shock. Unfortunately, a famous male political figure is involved in the case that has made the crime a national news story overnight. You are one of the investigators working the scene. Who specifically did the comedian murder and was there a motive?
Deep in the bowels of the Pacific Ocean, a top-secret scientific lab is hidden in a harsh environment. Write a mystery in which a man goes to investigate it.
Write a science fiction scene about a time machine from the future that transforms into a telephone booth and transports a man back to the era of dinosaurs.
In the present day, soldiers stationed in Afghanistan face new difficulties while battling the Taliban. Write a story in which a soldier deals with separation from his girlfriend and features the difficulty of a sniper attack.
Totally wiped out by a series of asteroid impacts tens of thousands of years in the past, most people think Homo Sapiens evolved entirely in Africa. But what if that weren’t entirely true?
Shaun Cameron is a young magician who just learned his dark magic skills came from a secret cult operating in small time China. The cult’s new leader is an odd scientist who wants to turn Shaun into the darkest magician alive. An epic duel pits the four-part soul of Shaun against his equipment, rival, and his own body!
Prince Charles and Lady Di are on-board the Titanic. Each has secrets unknown to the other. What happens when their secrets are revealed?
It’s 1970 and you are trying to send money home to your family living in Uganda where a brutal civil war is waging. The rebels have overtaken the national carrier and now need money to operate.
It’s the 1934 hurricane Season in New England. Write about your own family adventure disaster where everyone in your family says they saw it coming but you felt it would never happen to you.
Hitler has been deemed a master of propaganda, and he is working hard to convince a group of Hollywood elites that his views on Jews are indeed correct. What does he do to change the minds of these big-name Jewish actors, actresses, producers, et cetera.?
The Russian government sends four distant relatives to the front lines to keep their bloodline going. What happens when they must go out into the field against the enemy?
In 1972, President Nixon and the White House were about to lose the biggest battle of their lives. The story begins and ends during his administration.
It’s 1912 in Nashville Tennessee and the Grand Ole Opry is the leading live radio show in the United States. Write a story in which one of the performers recounts an experience that they had the night before at a recording studio when strange events occur.
Write an historical romance scene with a mystery twist and make sure to keep the setting a major part of that twist.
In the early 1900s a young woman was hired to transcribe the manuscript of a westward pioneer. What happens as she goes about her work, becoming connected to the traveler’s story?
It’s 1940 and Pearl Harbor has just peaked. It’s up to you to describe the scene as bombs are about to drop on Japanese fighter planes as the morning sun comes through the window into the eyes of allied troops hoping that they have just enough time to defend America one last time.
What is the saddest moment in history? Write a character who wasn’t there at the time but who learns about it decades later. Or the happiest moment?
It is the fatal night of September 21, 1977, and rock stars The Smashing Pumpkins are playing in a stadium in California to a sold out crowd. In a moment of history, one of the concert goers asks the band to play a song for the first time ever in their 19-year career. They are about to play their best-selling hit single, “Thirty-Three”, live on stage for the first time above the Pacific Ocean when disaster strikes. Answer this prompt by writing about what happens.
It’s 16th century France, and you have been commanded by Catherine De Medici to take control of a town that has long been historically involved in the land trade of flax and linen. Write a scene from your point of view as your character bargains his/her way out of a life threatening situation involving the local citizens.
In the smoldering city of Pompeii, August 24th, 79 AD was just another sunny summer day. But when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and covered the city in ash, it also erased the fate of the small forgotten coastal town in history. Write a scene in which a legionnaire contemplates the meaning of love while writing a suras or poem in his journal.
Write a conflict story between two friends. One of the friends invites the other to join their cult, and the invited friend has to choose whether or not to join.
1950s Toronto, Canada. Write a scene satirizing the television show “Life in the Balance”.
A girl is trapped inside of the Notre-Dame Cathedral after a hostile takeover by gargoyles. Arriving with the police force, a young French police officer is just now learning of the forces they stand up against.
It’s the 1960s and a fad has invaded New York City. Write a scene involving one of the young trendsetters from this era as they fall victim to the hype.
A traveling merchant encounters a band of mountain lions during a caravan in the late 1880s.
Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders dive into action against Spanish troops in the early 1900s. Write a scene in which Theodore Roosevelt leads his men into battle.
In the ancient land of Mughal, where Rajput Warriors and African Slaves had to fight for their kingdoms, you are a Nubian slave who is now a scout for the Sultan. You go with your trusted Rajput companion, Matali, to survey the Niger River, so he can attack the King of Songhai from the north. But below the surface is death from the troubled past that has resurfaced.
It’s 2015, and you find yourself dropped into colonial America. How do you make the best of your situation?
You’re on a mail boat which crashes off the coast of Thailand. You seek safety, but now what? You have developed amnesia, and the only clue about your identity is the address label on the letter you are carrying. What letter? And where is it from? Write the story of what happens to you. As the Pinkertons chase Al Capone out of Chicago, write a scene in which two of Capone’s boys are playing with a machine gun in the back seat of a parked car. Their rival gang is in hot pursuit.
It’s August 1990 and a movie starlet is getting married. Her friends ask you to help them plan the wedding. You take them on a tour of some of the most beautiful and unique wedding locations in all of Colorado.
The world around you is rapidly changing in 2007. Write a play in which two generations of elderly people are arguing over the memories of World War II.
The year is 1899 in Chile. The government is accepting citizenship applications from eager immigrant families from far-away Europe. What are the conditions of this city in post-colonial Chile and what are the lives of these immigrant families like?
You are the manager of the local pizza shop. Your son has just told you he plans to marry the girl he just met a few weeks ago. What happens to make you realize you should have taken a stronger hand in preparing him for marriage?
It’s the year 2035. The aircraft industry has streamlined itself to create supersonic jets for world travel. Write a scene involving a commercial flight to Paris that turns tragic.
The lieutenant doesn’t know what to do with his fifth downed enemy jet. He looks back to the private seated beside him, who jokes, “lieutenant, three kills gets a pin, four kills gets a medal… this is going to be a hard one to top.”
“The story is centered around the town of Nuremberg fourteen years later, as it tries to move on from the Nazi past. It’s the first feature from director Oliver Hirschbiegel, whose film, “Downfall,” focused on Hitler’s last days. “Downfall” centered on Hitler’s last days.
Write about a mysterious event that is thought to have occurred during medieval times. Was it a bloodbath or was it something much quieter than what was reported?
Write about the first day of summer during the Spanish Inquisition. Your main character as a young apprentice somehow survives the brutality of the Spanish Inquisitors. Expand on his memories of the trials, executions, and tortures from the perspective of both the victim and the torturer.
Briefly write about a pivotal moment in 1926 in which a neighboring country secedes from this country and becomes its own separate nation.
In the Autumn of 1845, in Contra Costa County, California, Jim Brockster, a wealthy landowner with an ego, learns his long lost son Capt. Holden Brockster, USN, has arrived. The two have not seen each other in nearly thirty years. Holden’s mother Florence Brockster told her wealthy husband their last child died at childbirth. The father, a tyrant in his own right, had disowned and forbidden his wife to see Holden. What happens at the father/son reunion.
Write about World War II and about a group of soldiers who are on a prison train moving toward a Nazi concentration camp. Meanwhile, one of the soldiers is telling his fellow prisoners a mostly fabricated story about how he acquired his watch, but not wanting to make anyone feel bad, he is keeping a couple of details that could cause trouble for him a secret. As the train travels onward, the story comes to a close and the last line of the story will be that he has now come clean with his comrades about certain details.
Moments before the onset of a powerful blizzard at the peak of a lunar eclipse, two vampires from rival clans meet at their families’ estate and struggle with their shared ancestry and an involuntary mutual attraction. During their first encounter, both are surprised when they discover what the other is. They banter, exchange insults, trade words, and barbs. They grapple with the roles society has established for themselves, with their own identities, and with their disparate feelings during the confrontation.
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a skilled blacksmith sets out to forge a singing sword and once it is finished, he tries it out after putting a spell on it. He then learns of the consequences of such a weapon.
You are living in an old fishing village fifty miles off the coast of Ireland. Who are the characters around you and what are their stories?
Submarine action in the North Atlantic! You are ordered to sail close enough to the shores of an Atlantic state where a German U-Boat is suspected to be hiding in order to conduct an undersea raid. First, though, you are to notify the United States Coast Guard as to your arrival so they can prepare the town for the attack. What do you do and how do you go about it?
In 1899, several families living in the woods of West Virginia experienced the true meaning of the saying “be careful what you wish for.”
It’s 1965 and a lone British weapons designer is trying to solve the enormous problem of intercepting enemy ballistic missiles from a secret underground bunker.
In 1978, Edward Snowden built a top secret model train for his 8 year-old stepson, Randy. What is the threat?
It’s 1945, and the USA and Soviet Union have changed the course of history by winning World WarⅠ. They have now merged together and are cooperating with Japan for a joint advancement in science and technology. Write a short story in which a Soviet citizen watches as two suspicious men enter his office and leave it in shambles.
You’re riding in a carriage through Victorian London when suddenly an animal stampede challenges your safety. Your driver is missing and you are set to face the challenge alone. What and who saves you?
It’s 1989, the year when the Berlin Wall ceased to exist. Write a short story in which two friends from opposite sides of the wall express their feelings about the historical event through a conversation with one another.
A young man from New York makes the long journey to Jasper Alabama to see the grave of a soldier from the past war. Upon his arrival in the sleepy town, the people all know their parts and prepare for his arrival. It seems they know exactly what’s going to happen when he arrives. It doesn’t take him long to conclude that something odd is going on and that they may be trying to deceive him…
In March of 1486, the Italian explorer John Cabot boards an overloaded schooner with starry eyes and an unbelievable plan to seek a northern route connecting Europe and Asia. Despite the odds and critics claiming his trip was meant to be suicidal, John Cabot presses on with only the stars and his sense of adventure to lead him. What problems do the crew members face as they leave the safety of Spain to the excitement of arriving in a newly discovered territory?
It’s 1901, and you have just arrived in New York City to spread the news about a large meteor that hit Russia. You decide to stop by the most popular news organization of that time to see if they want to publish what you have to tell.
It’s the American Civil War. A teenage girl is on the run after boarding a slave ship carrying slaves to the New World. She must decide between freeing the captured and seeking safety.
In your imagination, you just built the perfect summer home by the beach. Describe the exterior and interior of your summer home as well as why the builders or realtors would want to feature your home as one of the crown jewels in their portfolio.
Your tour bus hits a cyclone and leaves you stranded in the past.
The year is 1792, and you better act fast or you’ll be meeting a ghastly end. Write a scene about a man who is about to be sentenced when he enlists the help of a stranger in the prison.
It’s 1972, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has been called the “Suicide Club” for the numerous individuals who have jumped off of it. Describe the dramatic events in the life of a young man as he decides whether or not to jump into the void.
Your main character is a museum curator. Write about a day in her life where everything goes wrong. Doesn’t matter when or where.
It is 24th century Earth, and the reign of generations of kings and queens is over. This is the story of one such queen who died before ever being crowned. Her average-joe husband is left with the task of filling her throne.
Discover the complex relationship between great white whale sharks on the coast of South Africa and the species of fish they feed on and save.
In a post-apocalyptic Syrian world thousands of years in the future, civilizations are dark with chaos. One tribe is attempting to restore order through storytelling. They are trying to lead the people of the world back to a golden age, but they are continuously thwarted by opposition.
An industrial electrical fire spread to a nearby mill in 1850. What causes the fire and what do you do about it?
Write a story about the first mental health facility you’ve ever heard of. What events happened there that infected your view of mental health caregivers until this very day?
A blackout occurs in modern times. Amidst the complete chaos, a father and daughter find themselves lost within the dark city streets. How do they get home?
Write a speculative story which begins with the different theories of discoveries from explorers over the centuries.
With the power of a time machine, write about a world leader who is released from imprisonment and granted a pardon. Without any compromises, can this villain pass the test of becoming an admired figure in history?
Write a scene describing the newly published “Elephants in the Attic” by someone in Hurricane Katrina.
It’s the day before Christmas in 1974. Write a momentary scene involving the lives of three struggling characters who work at a Target.
It’s 1960, and you are on the Silk Road as a member of a bazaar, or trade caravans across Central Asia. Choose a symbol of a product, and write a story about its life and where it is going.
It is May 1865 and the chaos of the Civil War has ended. Write a story about a reunion of Union soldiers that ends in a traumatic event.
Mark Twain and his brother, Henry, flee from Kansas to St. Louis during the Pony Express era’s westward expansion. Dedicated readers may recognize that Henry actually died just a few years before Mark Twain, so this is a fictional tag-on story.
In 1763, an English schoolmaster named Thomas Moore was buried in the cemetery of St. Giles. Write a scene in which Moore is struggling to teach his students and the students are struggling to learn from a tutor that they think is rather boring.
Two little boys met at recess and have a disagreement about which dog is better. Use the younger of the two boys as your protagonist to write a story about the drive out of town to attend a baseball game and a shocking experience they have at the ballpark.
It’s 1966, and the Apollo Moon ship is on its way to the astronaut landing. The countdown has begun. Can the religious metaphors and references withstand a blastoff? Or will the mission’s success be called into question?
You are following with wonder the epic story of Genghis Khan and his rise to power when all of a sudden you begin to wonder what you would do facing the plight of one of his wives or daughters.
Where in time would you want to be in a zombie apocalypse? Why and what would you be doing?
Write about how the Columbia river gorge helped Portland out of the difficulties of the flood and how it used the disaster to its advantage.
You’re walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame during the summer of 1989. Coincidentally, it’s at the star where Céline Dion recorded her first big hit, “The Power of Love.” Write a scene in which a group of people have to decide whether they should leave the planet for the place where the song suggests, the paradise people say is in rhapsody.
2014 is a pivotal year for Boston. It’s the year that the Boston Marathon was attacked by terrorists and also the year when the Red Sox broke an 86-year curse and won the World Series. Write a story involving both items, and why they are connected. An author sits in her home office writing. Why is the weather outside the window depressingly long for this writer as she tries to write the ending of a complex novel?
In the backyard of an old farmhouse, three adolescent girls who have bonded together ever since they lost a loved one to the same tragic accident show each other with love and anger what they each prefer to do as they grow up.
You are a former first daughter serving as the waitress for a first daughter’s wedding. Write an encounter with an obnoxious guest that leaves you fuming on the inside.
Sailors on an 18th century ship investigate a noise in the cargo hold.
The quest of a Roman lyra player becomes personal as he sets out to discover the grave of a Celtic chieftain who he greatly admires.
An interrogator is tasked to question a prisoner who has cracked. To prove his innocence and gain the trust from his captive, he must first earn the trust of her canine companion without any clue about what they are getting into.
Write a mystery story involving either a famous statue or a piece of music. It should feature archaeology, a background of art and history that is out of place, and some scientific feel like chemical analysis.
It’s summer in Boise, Idaho, and a murder has recently occurred in one of the neighborhoods. Write a story that dives into the psyches of the main characters involved in the murder and the troubles of each of their lives that led to the tragic event.
Write an account of a boy who has just returned home from a free-spirited European vacation, now adjusting to living in a new country again and coping with his parents, who are still living their youth.
In 1971, a young girl named Mary Barnes is brutally murdered. Write a story about the aftermath of the crime and attempted justice.
Your story takes place in Helheim, an icy world, inhabited by two polar bear tribes. The North people believe their tribe is superior because the sun never sets there. What happens when a royal member of the South tribe, Ziip, falls in love with a North tribe member?
A decorated World War II soldier from a small Texas town faces a moral dilemma as he gets trapped behind enemy lines.
Write a story with an alternate ending to the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.
It’s 15th century Florence, and you are a high-profile artisan commissioned to sculpt a dancing nymph for one of the greatest artists of his time. Having been told no twice already, why would you allow a third request at this point?
Write about the time you first realized your parents were once children. What did your childhood look like to them when they were young and what promises did they make to make it better?
You wake up in your bed and find that everything in your room appears to be normal. Memories of the past flash in front of your eyes, and you think “I’m alive?” Without warning your situation takes a turn for the worse. What do you do?
WHAT TIME MAKES
What if the Cuban Missile Crisis was more than just a close call, but in fact it was a big conspiracy to bring about world peace? Look back at history with a different lens. How do you change your perceptions of the world around you based on this trip back to the past?
Set in a dreary North American city in the future, a young female detective’s attempts to keep peace on the streets are forever changed when she is called upon to find a mysterious vehicle in which the driver-a strange, gray-haired woman, very sick and scared-claims to know her from many years ago.
It was the early morning of April 9, 1945. After hearing the news about President Roosevelt and the death of Eleanor, the mayor’s wife, your character vanishes into thin air. He’s been asked to participate in a top secret plan that requires special skills only he can provide. Who is he going to meet and what does he have to do?
It’s 1955, and you’re part of a gang of sociable thieves. All of the people you’ve stolen from have been kept inside of a hidden, _____, located near the Luxor. _____ is perhaps even more beautiful than _____, and somehow even more interesting than _____. You wonder how a celebrity likes _____ as much as _____ does?
Joseph Frick is an ambitious writer working for The New Yorker in the 1950’s. While on the job one day, he learns about the history of a building during a tour in the basement.Write a spotlight on the ghost haunting this historic and notable building .
In 1971, Richard Nixon left the White House. Write the final day in the life of a President with a secret mission that could keep him out of the realm of history forever. It’s September 3, 2001, and the clock is ticking…or is it? What would happen if the clock had stopped?
In 1879 China, the Emperor had the look of a person who was afraid. Write a fictional scene where the Emperor of China builds a paper tiger to portray a fearsome dog of his.
In the early nineteenth century, A young woman called Jane Eyre stumbles across a strange village in England that interests her though she feels she doesn’t belong there. In desperation for employment, she gets a job as a governess, yet it ends up opening up another avenue of mystery…
The year is 1626 and mutineers from a pirate ship are marooned on an island in the Bay of Fundy. Write a story about how three of the captains rise to power and the two people left of the initial eight mutineers’ ways for revenge.
In the summer of 1968, the country was in the throes of violent protests when a bus ride took a terrifying turn on an interstate highway.
Life and love look different when you’re drowning inside of quicksand. You think your dreams meant everything to you, but what if your dreams just turn your life into a nightmare?
While visiting their father, two young brothers get lost deep inside the jungles of Cuba. What unique experience do they have and how do they find their way back home?
You’re a couple of mice who go through a mysterious clock to get to downtown Paris. You can’t speak, but your adventure back in time allows you to befriend a couple of companions who you fall in love with. How do you make your feelings known?
In the present day, a family moves their elderly mother into a sterile nursing home with the intention to change her life—without considering her past would affect her present. What is the relationship like between the family members and what is their mother’s favorite hobby?
Write about an occupation you would like to have. What is your profession as a time traveling detective or detective who lives in the 1930s.
You, a young woman from a small town long ago, are chosen to be something new to the women’s rights movement. Write the moment of when you become a part of history.
A young traveler leaves home to discover a vast and ancient magical world. After many trials, he finds his way in the world and decides to settle down in a village of mages and witches to start a family of his own. Although he has found his place in the world, his settled life is disrupted when his children are enchanted by a mysterious world of giants and ogres.
It’s 1990, and New York City is in the middle of a violent crime wave. Would you stay or be one of the many New Yorkers who left?
It’s June 1961, and you, a humble mailman in a small suburban town for a larger company of post offices that handles less important mail, have come upon a letter that you’re not sure you should deliver. Write an account as to why it is not your place to deliver the letter and what happened as a result.
Crisp fall evening, edge of the town, pine-covered hillsides. A father and his young daughter have just moved. Dad has been transferred and his daughter is very upset. Dad pulls over by an old barn and the two sit on a log beside the creek. Dad does his best to comfort his last-born.
It’s 1981, Thatcher is in England and computer technology is the buzz of the times. Set your scene in a business office just before the clock strikes 5pm.
Write a posthumous to a real historical figure. Explain historical events as you know them as if you were with them the whole time.
Elizabethan England who has successfully stormed the throne and is about to formally take the throne for her new reign. What complications arise in her immediate family that threatens to further her success?
You are creating a world-famous, top notch sailing ship for a wealthy man. He wants it fast, very heavily armed, and made to look “like a ghost.” What do you build and why?
It’s 1998 and you are a female author who is trying to become the next great historical novelist because female historical writers have been ignored because of gender bias. Write your article that argues “gender blinded readers view both male and female writers to have less respect for quality than their male counterparts.”
In the early 15th century, the Ottoman Turks began a conquering march that threatened Western Europe. Using the siege of Constantinople as your setting, write a short description of the motivation of the Sultan to lay siege to the embattled city.
In the summer before her freshman year of high school, a young author spends time at her grandmother’s home on the rural coast in Galveston and becomes glued to the window seat in her room and the mementos of her ancestors. Get inside the mind of an aspiring girl whose background leaves much to be desired.
Legalize it! In a future time, marijuana grows wildly along the riverbanks of the Mississippi Delta. Write a short story about a rush for legalization or a tourist’s encounter with the “local stuff.”
Write about the devastating decisions forced on the generation who came of age in the 1960s during the Vietnam war. Write about a decision they had to make in relation to the war, and explain how it affects the person even into their adult years.
Write about an incident that happened in your family’s life when one of your family members took advantage of another
In 2017, an expedition from MIT discovered mysterious cave inscriptions in southern Italy in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
Write a monologue setting in a room where a person or creature’s narrator tells horrific tales of insanity as if being interviewed by a psychologist or a famous writer.
During World War II, a young woman living in Arthur, Illinois has her entire idea of patriotism, machismo and a soldier’s duty sacrifice challenged when she and several other young women volunteer locally and decide to help the war effort by becoming ‘motor girls’. What are the experiences this character faces that challenge her values and how does it ultimately affect her world views?
Write the ghost story of a young boy who lost his life during an air raid in World War II London after being sent up to the attic of his grandmother’s house to hide from the German’s navy.
Write a vampire story depicting a transformation and transformation back again.
In the heart of London, a group of Victorian girls weave an intricate ball of lies about a mysterious phantom.
It’s the Renaissance, and you are commissioned to write a scene where two characters discuss their love affair as they walk under the Aunts in a secret garden on a rainy evening near one of the three rings of the circus.
In 1950s Miami, Florida, a college student hears about a haunted beach mansion and travels to the beautiful mansion to encounter its ghostly occupants.
Fictionalize a country on the brink of collapse. You must describe the country in great detail. You must also describe the country before its fall how it failed and the effect of this failure led to its demise.
There are all types of risks people take every day—when climbing a mountain, during a meteor shower, or even on vacation. Write a short story involving two people taking risks that put their lives at risk.
You are a slave on The Clotilda, the last slave ship to cross the Atlantic. Write a scene on how the course of your life was solidified by a certain event.
Set during Prohibition, a young boy and his father transport illegal hooch in barrels of pickles to different speakeasies in downtown Chicago, but, upon leaving their speakeasy, they witness a crime. What is this crime and how does the boy feel about it? It is the summer of 1992 and a group of teenagers get together in the days leading up to the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles, and they coped with the outcome in their own way.
There’s one night when you don’t answer your door, that your neighbor doesn’t know to avoid talking to your family due to the rampant rumors. From the eyes of your most inner self, these stories are a personal collection of life as they would unfold in a war torn, cultural dominant aristocratic family.
You are an historical ghostwriter who loves telling tales about long-dead auteurs. Each night after studies you sneak your psychologist father’s notes about the personal lives of sixteen different directors who lived in Europe from 1892 to 1940. For your college film project, write an obituary for one of the silent-era directors who fit the description. What exactly are the notes about this director’s life with evidence for your claims, and how did you ascertain the information they contain?
You are the editor of the local newspaper in a bustling downtown city. What is the biggest news story today and what is the headline in the newspaper?
Write a scene where the hero tries to escape a firing squad by proving them wrong in their procedures.
In 1910, Constable John Corbett of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police was called to the town of Brown’s Home to investigate a double homicide and arson. What does he discover about the residents of Brown’s Home when he arrives? What twists and turns are revealed as he uncovers everything that led to the murders?
Not far off the coast of Hawaii, a wondrous ship sinks and only one man will tell the story of what happens next.
It’s early 1980’s Afghanistan. A young Pakistani school boy is kidnapped by a band of the Russian Empire and taken to Moscow. When there, the boy has to deal with the religious conflict brewing in Afghanistan. He fights for his own people in a land he’s never seen before.
Years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is now set up as a historical monument on a busy plaza in a major American city. Write a memory involving a confrontation between those who are for and those who are against.
Camp counselor John finds himself in the hospital after a freak accident at the archery range. He is visited by a strange junior counselor who most campers claim does not exist. Over the course of the following week, John discovers something stranger than fiction.
Write a short story about the personification of depression. Where does depression show itself during this story? Describe how it is eliminated in such a way that it will bring you to a sense of resolution.
Write about any historical event from the perspective of a character in it.
You can find more writing prompts for various topics here
Write a scene in which a parent wrongly blames her child for a mishap and has to apologize for being so wrong. It happened, once upon a time.
In a dark alley, you chance upon a fiery circus performer who is trying to flag down an old friend. What has happened in their past, and what is the fire-eater’s message?
It’s 1999 and you have just won the lottery. You have a strong sense that by winning the lottery, something bad will inevitably come your way. Write a story of the lottery curse and how it centers around your life.

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