Prompts 1

367 ONE-WORD PROMPTS

1. Happiness 28. Dare
2. Beauty 29. Choose
3. Sleep 30. Beach
4. Garden 31. Forgiveness
5. Imagination 32. Disaster
6. Secret 33. Dance
7. Give 34. Mistake
8. Thankful 35. New
9. Kindness 36. Yes
10. Inside 37. Path
11. Outside 38. Horizon
12. Jump 39. Mountains
13. Friendship 40. River
14. Love 41. Open
15. Fire 42. Heart
16. Believe 43. Soul
17. Hope 44. Tear
18. Faith 45. Spiral
19. Focus 46. Up
20. Clean 47. Go
21. Angry 48. Be
22. Work 49. Seek
23. Music 50. Learn
24. Stars 51. Balance
25. Mystery 52. Grow
26. Envelope 53. Strength
27. Book 54. Dream
2 Prompts

55. Passion 83. Skip

56. Move 84. Fresh
57. Today 85. Delicious
58. Awaken 86. Power
59. Angels 87. Complete
60. Laughter 88. Grace
61. Listening 89. Legend
62. Pause 90. Ecstasy
63. Peace 91. Hug
64. Relax 92. Proud
65. Space 93. Simple
66. Wisdom 94. Machine
67. Difference 95. Victory
68. Begin 96. Vibrancy
69. Time 97. Leadership
70. Brave 98. Alive
71. Breathe 99. Bloom
72. Childhood 100. Fame
73. Discovery 101. Enormous
74. Mind 102. Independent
75. Energy 103. Unique
76. Flower 104. Metamorphosis
77. Health 105. Silence
78. Harmony 106. Tranquility
79. Recovery 107. Project
80. Stand 108. Smile
81. Nowhere 109. Miracle
82. Soar 110. Amazing
Prompts 3

111. Game 139. Family

112. Connected 140. Loneliness
113. Muse 141. Experience
114. Dazzle 142. Future
115. Determination 143. Vintage
116. Free 144. Wings
117. Help 145. Letter
118. Intuition 146. Wandering
119. Smart 147. Factory
120. Sweet 148. Rainbow
121. Honesty 149. Ask
122. Useful 150. Self
123. Safety 151. Locket
124. Ready 152. Home
125. Vision 153. Cloud
126. Cycle 154. Hunger
127. Discipline 155. Possibilities
128. Promise 156. Boredom
129. Patience 157. Innocence
130. Destiny 158. Charge
131. Rejuvenate 159. Rhythm
132. Shine 160. Date
133. Talk 161. Consequence
134. Stress 162. Prescription
135. Missing 163. Goals
136. ‘Age 164. Lost
137. Success 165. Found
138. Motivation 166. Cry
4 Prompts

167. Parade 195. Loyalty

168. Party 196. Sharing
169. Ice 197. Travel
170. Dragon 198. Voices
171. Alarm 199. Sidewalk
172. Understanding 200. Tree
173. Uncomfortable 201. Story
174. Serious 202. Why
175. Opposites 203. Maybe
176. Playful 204. Antique
177. Attention 205. Action
178. Caring 206. Culture
179. Hero 207. Fuel
180. Lace 208. Desire
181. Clue 209. Weather
182. Ideas 210. Directions
183. Junk 211. List
184. Collection 212. Ride
185. Radio 213. Wish
186. Interview 214. Breakfast
187. Zoom 215. Touch
188. Puzzle 216. Sadness
189. Landscape 217. Comfort
190. Advice 218. Circle
191. Memories 219. Reflection
192. Communication 220. Optimism
193. Compassion 221. Anxiety
194. Universe 222. Shadow
Prompts 5

223. Spirit 251. Rare

224. Stretch 252. Target
225. Challenge 253. Boat
226. Five 254. Box
227. Messy 255. Grief
228. Adventure 256. Heavy
229. Fun 257. Zeal
230. Surprise 258. Color
231. Illusion 259. Brilliance
232. Mischief 260. Enthusiastic
233. Shy 261. Approval
234. Lesson 262. Enchanting
235. Whisper 263. Attraction
236. Fight 264. Photograph
237. Castle 265. Waterfall
238. Protect 266. Moment
239. Shop 267. Paradise
240. Wheel 268. Parachute
241. Pieces 269. Social
242. Leaves 270. Zingy
243. Fool 271. Number
244. Productivity 272. Little
245. Overcome 273. Sound
246. Encouragement 274. Reach
247. Watch 275. Money
248. Lighthouse 276. Staircase
249. Mild 277. Lemon
250. Mouth 278. Wood
6 Prompts

279. Try 307. Cope

280. You 308. Accomplish
281. Quote 309. Special
282. Weakness 310. Neighborhood
283. Bridge 311. Wonderful
284. Building 312. Service
285. Clothes 313. Calling
286. Prepare 314. Magic
287. Teach 315. Spontaneous
288. Window 316. Fluffy
289. Drive 317. Organic
290. Middle 318. Silly
291. Microphone 319. Thunderstorm
292. Definition 320. Toys
293. Shout 321. Butterfly
294. Catch 322. Buzz
295. Release 323. Vine
296. Balloons 324. Shock
297. Sharp 325. Enjoy
298. Crowd 326. Craving
299. Cute 327. Respect
300. Cheery 328. Abstract
301. Glow 329. Rainbow
302. Apple 330. Train
303. Pictures 331. Invention
304. Swing 332. Perspective
305. Wave 333. Genius
306. Joke 334. Circus
Prompts 7

335. Ball 363. Pizzazz

336. Crystal 364. Breakthrough
337. Purple 365. Curiosity
338. Fairy 366. Distance
339. Cup 367. Zen
340. Reality
341. Forget
342. Priorities
343. Journey
344. Hands
345. Shoes
346. Television
347. Newspaper
348. Radiance
349. Hidden
350. Fright
351. Climb
352. Guess
353. Pretend
354. Turn
355. Shutter
356. Together
357. Adapt
358. Keep
359. Closed
360. Embrace
361. Blessing
362. Block
8 Prompts

365 CREATIVE WRITING PRIOMPTS

1. Outside the Window: What’s the weather outside your
window doing right now? If that’s not inspiring, what’s the
weather like somewhere you wish you could be?

2. The Unrequited love poem: How do you feel when you love
someone who does not love you back?

3. The Vessel: Write about a ship or other vehicle that can take
you somewhere different from where you are now.

4. Dancing: Who’s dancing and why are they tapping those

toes?

5. Food: What’s for breakfast? Dinner? Lunch? Or maybe you

could write a poem about that time you met a friend at a cafe.

6. Eye Contact: Write about two people seeing each other for
the first time.

7. The Rocket-ship: Write about a rocket-ship on its way to the

moon or a distant galaxy far, far, away.

8. Dream-catcher: Write something inspired by a recent dream

you had.

9. Animals: Choose an animal. Write about it!

10. Friendship: Write about being friends with someone.

11. Dragon: Envision a dragon. Do you battle him? Or is the

dragon friendly? Use descriptive language.
Prompts 9

12. Greeting: Write a story or poem that starts with the word
“hello” or other greeting.

13. The Letter: Write a poem or story using words from a

famous letter or inspired by a letter someone sent you.

14. The Found Poem: Read a book and circle some words on a
page. Use those words to craft a poem. Alternatively, you can
cut out words and phrases from magazines.

15. Eavesdropper: Create a poem, short story, or journal entry

about a conversation you’ve overheard.

16. Addict: Everyone’s addicted to something in some shape or

form. What are things you can’t go without?

17. Dictionary Definition: Open up a dictionary to a random

word. Define what that word means to you.

18. Cleaning: Hey, even writers and creative artists have to do

housework sometimes. Write about doing laundry, dishes, and
other cleaning activities.

19. Great Minds: Write about someone you admire and you
thought to have had a beautiful mind.

20. Missed Connections: If you go to Craigslist, there is a

“Missed Connections” section where you can find some
interesting story lines to inspire your writing.

21. Foreclosure: Write a poem or short story about someone

who has lost or is about to lose their home.
10 Prompts

22. Smoke, Fog, and Haze: Write about not being able to
see ahead of you.

23. Sugar: Write something so sweet, it makes your teeth

hurt.

24. Numbers: Write a poem or journal entry about numbers

that have special meaning to you.

25. Dread: Write about doing something you don’t want to

do.

26. Fear: What scares you a little? What do you feel when
scared? How do you react?

27. Closed Doors: What’s behind the door? Why is it

closed?

28. Shadow: Imagine you are someone’s shadow for a day.

29. Good Vibes: What makes you smile? What makes you
happy?

30. Shopping: Write about your shopping wishlist and how

you like to spend money.

31. The Professor: Write about a teacher that has

influenced you.

32. Rewrite: Take any poem or short story you enjoy.

Rewrite it in your own words.

33. Jewelry: Write about a piece of jewelry. Who does it

belong to?
Prompts 11

34. Sounds: Sit outside for about an hour. Write down the
sounds you hear.

35. War and Peace: Write about a recent conflict that you
dealt with in your life.

36. Frame It: Write a poem or some phrases that would

make for good wall art in your home.

37. Puzzle: Write about putting together the pieces of

puzzles.

38. Fire-starters: Write about building a fire.

39. Coffee & Tea: Surely you drink one or the other or
know someone who does- write about it!

40. Car Keys: Write about someone getting their driver’s

license for the first time.

41. What You Don’t Know: Write about a secret you’ve

kept from someone else or how you feel when you know
someone is keeping a secret from you.

42. Warehouse: Write about being inside an old abandoned

warehouse.

43. The Sound of Silence: Write about staying quiet when

you feel like shouting.

44. Insult: Write about being insulted. How do you feel?

Why do you think the other person insulted you?
12 Prompts

45. Mirror, Mirror: What if you mirror started talking to

you? What might the mirror say?

46. Dirty: Write a poem about getting covered in mud.

47. Light Switch: Write about coming out of the dark and
seeing the light.

48. The Stars: Take inspiration from a night sky. Or, write
about a time when “the stars aligned” in your horoscope.

49. Joke Poem: What did the wall say to the other wall?
Meet you at the corner! Write something inspired by a
favorite joke.

50. Just Say No: Write about the power you felt when you
told someone no.

51: Sunrise/Sunset: The sun comes up, the sun goes down.
It goes round and round. Write something inspiring about
the sunrise or sunset.

52. Memory Lane: What does Memory Lane look like? How
do you get there?

53. Tear-Jerker: Watch a movie that makes you cry. Write

about that scene in the movie.

54. Dear Diary: Write a poem or short story about a diary

entry you’ve read or imagined.

55. Holding Hands: The first time you held someone’s

hand.
Prompts 13

56. Photograph: Write a story or journal entry influenced

by a photograph you see online or in a magazine.

57. Alarm Clock: Write about waking up.

58. Darkness: Write a poem or journal entry inspired by

what you can’t see.

59. Refreshed: Write a poem about a time you really felt

refreshed and renewed. Maybe it was a dip into a pool on a
hot summer day, a drink of lemonade, or other situation
that helped you relax and start again.

60. Handle With Care: Write about a very fragile or

delicate object.

61. Drama: Write about a time when you got stuck in

between two parties fighting with each other.

62. Slip Up: Write about making mistakes.

63. Spice: Write about flavors and tastes or a favorite spice

of yours.

64. Sing a New Song: Take a popular song off the radio and
rewrite it as a poem in your own words.

65. Telephone: Write about a phone call you recently

received.

66. Name: Write a poem or short story using your name in

some way or form.
14 Prompts

67. Dollhouse: Write a poem or short story from the

viewpoint of someone living in a doll house.

68. Random Wikipedia Article: Go to Wikipedia and click

on Random Article. Write about whatever the page you
get.

69. Silly Sports: Write about an extreme or silly sport. If

none inspire you, make up the rules for your own game.

70. Recipe: Write about a recipe for something abstract,

such as a feeling.

71. Famous Artwork: Choose a famous painting and write

about it.

72. Where That Place Used to Be: Think of a place you went
to when you were younger but it now no longer there or is
something else. Capture your feelings about this in your
writing.

73. Last Person You Talked to: Write a quick little poem or
story about the last person you spoke with.

74. Caught Red-Handed: Write about being caught doing

something embarrassing.

75. Interview: Write a list of questions you have for

someone you would like to interview, real or fictional.

76. Missing You: Write about someone you miss dearly.

Prompts 15

77. Geography: Pick a state or country you’ve never visited.

Write about why you would or would not like to visit that
place.

78. Random Song: Turn on the radio, use the shuffle feature
on your music collection or your favorite streaming music
service. Write something inspired by the first song you
hear.

79. Hero: Write a tribute to someone you regard as a hero.

80. Ode to Strangers: Go people watching and write an ode

to a stranger you see on the street.

81. Advertisement: Advertisements are everywhere, aren’t

they? Write using the slogan or line from an ad.

82. Book Inspired: Think of your favorite book. Now write

a poem that sums up the entire story in 10 lines.

83. Magic: Imagine you have a touch of magic, and can

make impossible things happen. What would you do?

84. Fanciest Pen: Get out your favorite pen, pencils, or even
colored markers and write using them!

85. A Day in the Life: Write about your daily habits and
routine.

86. Your Muse: Write about your muse – what do they look
like? What does your muse do to inspire you?
16 Prompts

87. Convenience Store: Write about an experience you’ve

had at a gas station or convenience store.

88. Natural Wonders of the World: Choose one of the

natural wonders of the world. Write about it.

89. Status Update: Write a poem using the words from your
latest status update or a friend’s status update. If you don’t
use sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can often search
online for some funny ones to use as inspiration.

90. Green Thumb: Write about growing something.

91. Family Heirloom: Write about an object that’s been

passed through the generations in your family.

92. Bug Catcher: Write about insects.

93. Potion: Write about a magic potion. What is it made of?

What does it do? What is the antidote?

94. Swinging & Sliding: Write something inspired by a

playground or treehouse.

95. Adjectives: Make a list of the first 5 adjectives that pop

into your head. Use these 5 words in your story, poem, or
journal entry.

96. Fairy Tales: Rewrite a fairy tale. Give it a new ending or

make it modern or write as a poem.

97. Whispers: Write about someone who has to whisper a

secret to someone else.
Prompts 17

98. Smile: Write a poem about the things that make you
smile.

99. Seasonal: Write about your favorite season.

100. Normal: What does normal mean to you? Is it good or

bad to be normal?

101. Recycle: Take something you’ve written in the past

and rewrite it into a completely different piece.

102. Wardrobe: Write about a fashion model or what’s

currently in your closet or drawers.

103. Secret Message: Write something with a secret

message hidden in between the words. For example, you
could make an acrostic poem using the last letters of the
word or use secret code words in the poem.

104. Vacation: Write about a vacation you took.

105. Heat: Write about being overheated and sweltering.

106. Spellbinding: Write a magic spell.

107. Collection: Write about collecting something, such as

salt shakers, sea shells, or stamps.

108. Taking Chances: Everyone takes a risk at some point

in their life. Write about a time when you took a chance
and what the result was.

109. Carnival: Write a poem or story or journal

entry inspired by a carnival or street fair.
18 Prompts

110. Country Mouse: Write about someone who grew up in

the country visiting the city for the first time.

111: Questions: Write about questions you have for the

universe. Optional: include an answer key.

112. Rushing: Write about moving quickly and doing

things fast.

113. Staircase: Use a photo of a staircase or the stairs in your

home or a building you love to inspire you.

114. Neighbors: Make up a story or poem about your next

door neighbor.

115. Black and Blue: Write about a time you’ve been

physically hurt.

116. All Saints: Choose a saint and create a poem about his
or her life

117. Beach Inspired: What’s not to write about the beach?

118. Shoes: What kind of shoes do you wear? Where do

they lead your feet?

119. The Ex: Write a poem to someone who is estranged

from you.

120. My Point of View: Write in the first person point of

view.

121. Stray Animal: Think of the life of a stray cat or dog and
write about that.
Prompts 19

122. Stop and Stare: Create a poem or story about

something you could watch forever.

123. Your Bed: Describe where you sleep each night.

124. Fireworks: Do they inspire you or do you not like the

noise and commotion? Write about it.

125. Frozen: Write about a moment in your life you wish

you could freeze and preserve.

126. Alone: Do you like to be alone or do you like having

company?

127. Know-it-all: Write about something you are very

knowledgeable about, for example a favorite hobby or
passion of yours.

128. The Promise: Write about a promise you’ve made to

someone. Did you keep that promise?

129. Commotion: Write about being overstimulated by a

lot of chaos.

130. Read the News Today: Construct a poem or story using

a news headline for your first line.

131. Macro: Write a description of an object close-up.

132. Transportation: Write about taking your favorite (or

least-favorite) form of transportation.

133. Gadgets: If you could invent a gadget, what would it

do? Are there any gadgets that make your life easier?
20 Prompts

134: Bring on the Cheese: Write a tacky love poem that is

so cheesy, it belongs on top of a pizza.

135. Ladders: Write a story or poem that uses ladders as a

symbol.

136. Bizarre Holiday: There is a bizarre holiday for any

date! Look up a holiday for today’s date and create a poem
in greeting card fashion or write a short story about the
holiday to celebrate.

137. Blog-o-sphere: Visit your favorite blog or your

feedreader and craft a story, journal entry, or poem based
on the latest blog post you read.

138. Mailbox: Create a poem, short story, or journal entry

based on a recent item of mail you’ve received.

139. Sharing: Write about sharing something with someone

else.

140. Cactus: Write from the viewpoint of a cactus. What’s

it like to live in the desert or have a prickly personality?

141. It’s a Sign: Have you seen any interesting road signs
lately?

142. Furniture: Write about a piece of furniture in your

home.

143. Failure: Write about a time you failed at something.

Did you try again or give up completely?
Prompts 21

144. Mystical Creatures: Angels or other mystical creatures

– use them as inspiration.

145. Flying: Write about having wings and what you would
do.

146. Clear and Transparent: Write a poem about being able

to see-through something.

147. Break the Silence: Record yourself speaking, then

write down what you spoke and revise into a short story or
poem.

148. Beat: Listen to music with a strong rhythm or listen to

drum loops. Write something that goes along with the beat
you feel and hear.

149. Color Palette: Search online for color palettes and be

inspired to write by one you resonate with.

150. Magazine: Randomly flip to a page in a magazine and

write using the first few words you see as an opening line.

151. The Grass is Greener: Write about switching the place

with someone or going to where it seems the “grass is
greener”.

152. Mind & Body: Write something that would motivate

others to workout and exercise.

153. Shaping Up: Write something that makes a shape on

the page…ie: a circle, a heart, a square, etc.
22 Prompts

154. Twenty-One: Write about your 21st birthday.

155. Aromatherapy: Write about scents you just absolutely

love.

156. Swish, Buzz, Pop: Create a poem that uses

Onomatopoeia.

157. What Time is It? Write about the time of day it is right
now. What are people doing? What do you usually do at
this time each day?

158. Party Animal: Have you ever gone to a party you

didn’t want to leave? Or do you hate parties? Write about
it!

159: Miss Manners: Use the words “please” and “thank you”
in your writing.

160. Cliche: Choose a common cliche, then write

something that says the same thing but without using the
catch phrase.

161. Eco-friendly: Write about going green or an

environmental concern you have.

162. Missing You: Write about someone you miss.

163. Set it Free: Think of a time when you had to let

someone or something go to be free…did they come back?
Prompts 23

164: Left Out: Write about a time when you’ve felt left out
or you’ve noticed someone else feeling as if they didn’t
belong.

165. Suitcase: Write about packing for a trip or unpacking

from when you arrive home.

166. Fantasy: Write about fairies, gnomes, elves, or other

mythical creatures.

167. Give and Receive: Write about giving and receiving.

168. Baker’s Dozen: Imagine the scents and sights of a

bakery and write.

169. Treehouse: Write about your own secret treehouse

hideaway.

170. Risk: Write about taking a gamble on something.

171. Acrostic: Choose a word and write an acrostic poem

where every line starts with a letter from the word.

172. Crossword Puzzle: Open up the newspaper or find a

crossword puzzle online and choose one of the clues to use
as inspiration for your writing.

173. Silver Lining: Write about the good that happens in a

bad situation.

174. Gloves: Write about a pair of gloves – what kind of

gloves are they? Who wears them and why?

175. All that Glitters: Write about a shiny object.

24 Prompts

176. Jealousy: Write with a theme of envy and jealousy.

177. How Does Your Garden Grow? Write about a flower

that grows in an unusual place.

178. Jury Duty: Write a short story or poem that takes place
in a courtroom.

179. Gifts: Write about a gift you have given or received.

180. Running: Write about running away from someone or

something.

181. Discovery: Think of something you’ve recently

discovered and use it as inspiration.

182. Complain: Write about your complaints about

something.

183. Gratitude: Write a poem or journal entry that is all

about things you are thankful for.

184. Chemistry: Choose an element and write a poem or

story that uses that word in one of the lines.

185. Applause: Write about giving someone a standing

ovation.

186. Old Endings Into New Beginnings: Take an old poem,

story, or journal entry of yours and use the last line and
make it the first line of your writing today.

187. Longing: Write about something you very much want

to do.
Prompts 25

188. I Am: Write a motivational poem or journal entry

about positive traits that make you who you are.

189. Rainbow: What is at the end of a rainbow? Or, take a

cue from Kermit the Frog, and ask yourself, why are there
so many songs about rainbows?

190. Museum: Take some time to visit a nearby museum

with your journal. Write about one of the pieces that speaks
to you.

191. Cartoon: Think of your favorite cartoon or comic.

Write a poem or story that takes place in that setting.

192. Copycat: Borrow a line from a famous public ___domain

poem to craft your own.

193. From the Roof-tops: Imagine you could stand on a

rooftop and broadcast a message to everyone below – what
would you say?

194. Time Travel: If there was a time period you could visit
for a day, where would you go? Write about traveling back
in time to that day.

195. Changing Places: Imagine living the day as someone

else.

196. Neighborhood: Write about your favorite place in

your neighborhood to visit and hang out at.

197. Pirates: Write about a pirate ship.

26 Prompts

198. Interview: Write based on a recent interview you’ve

read or seen on TV or heard on the radio.

199. Hiding Spaces: Write about places you like to hide

things at. What was a favorite hiding spot for you as a child
playing hide-and-seek?

200. Extreme Makeover: Imagine how life might be

different if you could change your hair color or clothing
into something completely opposite from your current
style.

201. Empathy: Write about your feelings of empathy or

compassion for another person.

202. Opposites: Write a poem or story that ties in together

two opposites.

203. Boredom: Write about being bored or make a list

of different ways to entertain yourself.

204. Strength: Think of a time when you’ve been physically

or emotionally strong and use that as inspiration.

205. Hunger: Write from the perspective of someone with

no money to buy food.

206. Greed: Write about someone who always wants more

– whether it be money, power, etc. etc.

207. Volcano: Write about an eruption of a volcano.

Prompts 27

208. Video Inspiration: Go to Vimeo.com or YouTube.com

and watch one of the videos featured on the homepage.
Write something based on what you watch.

209. Sneeze: Write about things that make you sneeze.

210. Footsteps on the Moon: Write about the possibility of

life in outer-space.

211: Star-crossed: Write a short modern version of the

story of Romeo and Juliet or think of real-life examples of
lovers who are not allowed to be together to use as
inspiration for your writing.

212. Font-tastic: Choose a unique font and type out a poem,

story or journal entry using that font.

213. Schedule: Take a look at your calendar and use the

schedule for inspiration in writing.

214. Grandparents: Write about a moment in your

grandparent’s life.

215. Collage: Go through a magazine and cut out words that

grab your attention. Use these words to construct a poem
or as a story starter or inspiration for your journal.

216. Oh so Lonely: Write a poem about what you do when

you are alone – do you feel lonely or do you enjoy your own
company?
28 Prompts

217. Waterfall: Think of a waterfall you’ve seen in person

or spend some time browsing photos of waterfalls online.
Write about the movement, flow, and energy.

218. First Kiss: Write about your first kiss.

219. So Ironic: Write about an ironic situation you’ve been

in throughout your life.

220. Limerick: Write a limerick today.

221. Grocery Shopping: Write about an experience at the

grocery store.

222. Fashion: Go through a fashion magazine or browse

fashion websites online and write about a style you love.

223. So Close: Write about coming close to reaching a goal.

224. Drinks on Me: Write a poem or short story that takes

place at a bar.

225. Online Friends: Write an ode to someone online

you’ve met and become friends with.

226. Admiration: Is there someone you admire? Write

about those feelings.

227. Trash Day: Write from the perspective of a garbage

collector.

228. Mailbox: Open your mailbox and write something

inspired by one of the pieces of mail you received.
Prompts 29

229. Fresh & Clean: Write about how you feel after you
take a shower.

230. Energized: Write about how you feel when you’re

either at a high or low energy level for the day.

231. Rhyme & No Reason: Make up a silly rhyming poem

using made up words.

232. Tech Support: Use computers or a conversation with

tech support you’ve had as inspiration.

233. Hotel: Write from the perspective of someone who

works at a hotel or staying at a hotel.

234. Underwater: Write about sea creatures and under

water life. What’s under the surface of the ocean? What
adventures might be waiting?

235. Breathing: Take a few minutes to do some deep

breathing relaxation techniques. Once your mind is clear,
just write the first few things that you think of.

236. Liar, Liar: Make up a poem or story of complete lies

about yourself or someone else.

237. Obituaries: Look at the recent obituaries online or in

the newspaper and imagine the life of someone and write
about that person.

238. Pocket: Rummage through your pockets and write

about what you keep or find in your pockets.
30 Prompts

239. Cinquain: Write a cinquain poem, which consists of 5

lines that do not rhyme.

240. Alphabetical: Write a poem that has every letter of the

alphabet in it.

241. Comedy Club: Write something inspired by a

comedian.

242. Cheater: Write about someone who is unfaithful.

243. Sestina: Give a try to writing a sestina poem.

244. Fight: Write about witnessing two people get in an

argument with each other.

245. Social Network: Visit your favorite Social Networking

website (ie: Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Twitter, etc.) and
write a about a post you see there.

246. Peaceful: Write about something peaceful and serene.

247. In the Clouds: Go cloud watching for the day and

write about what you imagine in the clouds.

248. At the Park: Take some time to sit on a park bench and
write about the sights, scenes, and senses and emotions you
experience.

249. Sonnet: Write a sonnet today.

250. Should, Would, And Could: Write a poem or story

using the words should, would, and could.
Prompts 31

251. How to: Write directions on how to do something.

252. Alliteration: Use alliteration in your poem or in a

sentence in a story.

253. Poker Face: Write about playing a card game.

254. Timer: Set a timer for 5 minutes and just write. Don’t
worry about it making sense or being perfect.

255. Dance: Write about a dancer or a time you remember

dancing.

256. Write for a Cause: Write a poem or essay that raises

awareness for a cause you support.

257. Magic: Write about a magician or magic trick.

258. Out of the Box: Imagine finding a box. Write about

opening it and what’s inside.

259. Under the Influence: What is something has impacted

you positively in your life?

260. Forgotten Toy: Write from the perspective a forgotten

or lost toy.

261. Rocks and Gems: Write about a rock or gemstone

meaning.

262. Remote Control: Imagine you can fast forward and

rewind your life with a remote control.
32 Prompts

263. Symbolism: Think of objects, animals, etc. that have

symbolic meaning to you. Write about it.

264. Light at the End of the Tunnel: Write about a time

when you saw hope when it seemed like a hopeless
situation.

265. Smoke and Fire: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Use this saying as inspiration to write!

266. Railroad: Write about a train and its cargo or

passengers.

267. Clipboard: Write about words you imagine on an

office clipboard.

268. Shipwrecked: Write about being stranded somewhere

– an island, a bus stop, etc.

269. Quotable: Use a popular quote from a speaker and use

it as inspiration for your writing.

270. Mind Map it Out: Create a mind map of words,

phrases, and ideas that pop into your head or spend some
time browsing the many mind maps online. Write a poem,
story, or journal entry inspired by the mind map.

271. Patterns: Write about repeating patterns that occur in

life.

272. Scrapbook: Write about finding a scrapbook and the

memories it contains.
Prompts 33

273. Cure: Write about finding a cure for an illness.

274. Email Subject Lines: Read your email today and look
for subject lines that may be good starters for writing
inspiration.

275. Wishful Thinking: Write about a wish you have.

276. Doodle: Spend some time today doodling for about 5-

10 minutes. Write about the thoughts you had while
doodling or create something inspired by your finished
doodle.

277. Chalkboard: Imagine you are in a classroom. What

does it say on the chalkboard?

278. Sticky: Imagine a situation that’s very sticky, maybe

even covered in maple syrup, tape or glue. Write about it!

279. Flashlight: Imagine going somewhere very dark with

only a flashlight to guide you.

280. A Far Away Place: Envision yourself traveling to a

fictional place, what do you experience in your imaginary
journey?

281. On the Farm: Write about being in a country or rural

setting.

282. Promise to Yourself: Write about a promise you want

to make to yourself and keep.
34 Prompts

283. Brick Wall: Write a poem that is about a brick wall –

whether literal or figurative.

284. Making a Choice: Write about a time when you had to

make a difficult choice.

285. Repeat: Write about a time when you’ve had to repeat

yourself or a time when it felt like no one was listening.

286. Outcast: Write about someone who is not accepted by

their peers. (for example, the Ugly Duckling)

287. Scary Monsters: Write about a scary (or not-so-scary)

monster in your closet or under the bed.

288. Sacrifice: Write about something you’ve sacrificed

doing to do something else or help another person.

289. Imperfection: Create a poem that highlights the

beauty in being flawed.

290. Birthday Poem: Write a poem inspired by birthdays.

291. Title First: Make a list of potential poem or story titles

and choose one to write from.

292. Job Interview: Write about going on a job interview.

293. Get Well: Write a poem that will help someone who
is sick feel better quick!

294. Lost in the Crowd: Write about feeling lost in the

crowd.
Prompts 35

295. Apple a Day: Write about a health topic that interests

you.

296. Cravings: Write about craving something.

297. Phobia: Research some common phobias, choose one,

and write about it.

298. In the Moment: Write about living in the present

moment.

299. Concrete: Write about walking down a sidewalk and

what you see and experience.

300. Battle: Write about an epic battle, whether real,

fictional or figurative.

301. This Old House: Write about an old house that is

abandoned or being renovated.

302. Clutter: Is there a cluttered spot in your home? Go

through some of that clutter today and write about what
you find or the process of organizing.

303. Go Fly a Kite: Write about flying a kite.

304. On the TV: Flip to a random TV channel and write

about the first thing that comes on – even if it is an
infomercial!

305. Fruit: Write an ode to your favorite fruit.

306. Long Distance Love: Write about a couple that is

separated by distance.
36 Prompts

307. Glasses: Write about a pair of eyeglasses or someone

wearing glasses.

308. Robotic: Write about a robot.

309. Cute as a Button: Write about something you think is

just adorable.

310. Movie Conversation: Use a memorable

conversation from a favorite movie to inspire your writing.

311. Easy-Peasy: Write about doing something effortlessly.

312. Idiom: Choose from a list of idioms one that speaks to

you and create a poem around that saying or phrase. (Ie: It
is raining cats and dogs)

313. Playground: Whether it is the swings or the sandbox

or the sliding boards, write about your memories of being
on a playground.

314. Romance: Write about romantic things partners can

do for each other.

315. Rock Star: Imagine you are a famous rock star.

Write about the experience.

316. Come to Life: Imagine ordinary objects have come to

life. Write about what they do and say.

317. Airplane: Write about meeting someone on an

airplane and a conversation you might have.
Prompts 37

318. Health & Beauty: Take some time to peruse your

medicine cabinet or the health and beauty aisles at a local
store. Write a poem, short story, or journal entry inspired
by a product label.

319. Determination: Write about not giving up.

320. Instrumental Inspiration: Listen to some instrumental

music and write a poem that matches the mood, beat, and
style of the music.

321. Wait Your Turn: Write about having to wait in line.

322. Personality Type: Do you know your personality type?

(There are many free quizzes online) – write about what
type of personality traits you have.

323. Decade: Choose a favorite decade and write about it.

(IE: 1980’s or 1950’s for example).

324. I Believe: Write your personal credo of things you

believe in.

325. Lost and Found: Write about a lost object.

326. Say it: Write a poem or story that uses

dialogue between two people.

327. The Unsent Letter: Write about a letter that never

made it to its recipient.

328. The Windows of the Soul: Write a poem about the

story that is told through someone’s eyes.
38 Prompts

329. Trial and Error: Write about something you learned

the hard way.

330. Escape: Write about where you like to go to escape

from it all.

331.What’s Cooking: Write something inspired a favorite

food or recipe.

332. Records: Go through your file box and pull out old
receipts or records…write something inspired by what you
find!

333. Banking: Write about visiting the bank.

334. Sweet Talk: Write about trying to convince someone

of something.

335. Serendipity: Write about something that happened by

chance in a positive way.

336. Distractions: Write about how it feels when you can’t

focus.

337. Corporation: Write about big business.

338. Word of the Day: Go to a dictionary website that has

a word of the day and use it in a poem, story or journal entry
you write.

339. Pick Me Up: What do you do when you need a pick

me up?
Prompts 39

340. Unfinished: Write about a project you started but

never completed.

341. Forgiveness: Write about a time when someone

forgave you or you forgave someone.

342. Weakness: Write about your greatest weakness.

343. Starting: Write about starting a project.

344. Mechanical: Think of gears, moving parts, machines.

345. Random Act of Kindness: Write about a random act of

kindness you’ve done for someone or someone has done for
you, no matter how small or insignificant it may have
seemed.

346. Underground: Imagine living in a home underground

and use that as inspiration for writing.

347. Classic Rock: Pick a classic rock love ballad and

rewrite it into a story or poem with a similar theme.

348. Night Owl: Write about staying up late at night.

349. Magnetic: Write about attraction to something or

someone.

350. Teamwork: Write about working with a team towards

a common goal.

351. Roller-coaster: Write about the ups and downs in life.

40 Prompts

352. Motivational Poster: Look at some motivational

posters online and write a poem or journal entry inspired
by your favorite one.

353. Games: Write about the games people play –

figuratively or literally.

354. Turning Point: Write about a point in life where

things turned for the better or worse.

355. Spellbound: Write about a witch’s spell.

356. Anniversary: Write about the anniversary of a special

date.

357. Gamble: Be inspired by a casino or lottery ticket.

358. Picnic: Write about going on a picnic.

359. Garage: Write about some random item you might

find in a garage.

360. Review: Review your week, month, or year in a

journal entry or poem format.

361. Detective: Write about a detective searching for clues

or solving a mystery.

362. Camera: Take your camera for a walk and write based
on one of the photographs you take.

363. Visiting: Write about visiting a family member or

friend.
Prompts 41

364. Trust: Write about putting trust in someone.

365. Congratulations: Did you write a poem, short story, or

journal entry every day for a whole year? Write about what
you’ve learned and celebrate your achievement!
42 Prompts

51 Dialogue Prompts
1. “You look like you’re going to punch me.”
“I was actually going to kiss you, but if you’re into
that sort of thing then I’m out.”

2. “Do you think things would be different?”

“How so?”

3. “I mean, if we hadn’t met at a strip club.”

4. “Your legs are bleeding.”

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed that half of my
goddamned blood was flowing out of my leg, but
thanks for letting me know.”

5. “Can we start over?”

“From where? We were doomed from the
beginning.”

6. “This isn’t a conversation we should be having.”

“Please, I just need to know your answer.”

7. “Trying and look at it from his point of view, he lost

his brother!”
“And I lost my boyfriend!”

8. “Don’t act like this doesn’t hurt you.”

“It’s tearing me apart, but I’d rather fake it until the
end.”
Prompts 43

9. “How many times has it come to this?”

“You knew I was never good at math, don’t test
me.”

10. “Your attitude in this situation is despicable.”

“I know, it’s because I’m done with your shit.”

11. “Are you going to leave me?”

“You know that neither us want that.”

12. “Don’t be mad at me! I wasn’t the one that killed

her, you were-”
“Oh so this is my fault? I don’t think so…”

13. “How are you doing?”

“I feel like there might be more pressing matters
right now.”

14. “Don’t kiss me.”

“W-why not? I waited all day for you.”

15. “How am I supposed to look at you the same way?”

“Heavens, someone literally just died and that’s
what you’re thinking about.”

16. “Not now, I’m serious, not now.”

“B-but you said ‘tomorrow’ yesterday.”

17. “I miss you.”

“Don’t lie, I know she’s with you.”

18. “Are you going to break my heart again?”

“I can’t promise anything.”
44 Prompts

19. “What did I tell you?”

“You said that I should hope for the best, but
prepare for the worst.”

20. “I love you.”

“I don’t care anymore.”

21. “You look like you’ve been through hell and back.”
“It’s actually called getting drunk, but you wouldn’t
know what ‘fun’ was even if it slapped you in the
face.”

22. “We should get you home.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound very fun or likely.”

23. “Tell me you didn’t do it. Please say it wasn’t you.”

“In your very words, ‘lying never did anyone any
good.’”

24. “Let’s end this.”

“Oh, I thought you were going to ask about the
pregnancy test I left this morning.”

25. “You should think things through before you say

them aloud.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”

26. “Did you think we were going to have sex?”

“I’m optimistic, okay?”
Prompts 45

27. “You could’ve just told me.”

“And risked my social status? I think I’d rather die,
thank you.”

28. “What time?”

“Wow, how romantic, I love my girlfriend and our
fun dates.”

29. “I don’t want to be dramatic-”

“I can tell you right now that you are physically
incapable of not being dramatic, so continue.”

30. “Can we get coffee?”

“Is this a date or is it because you’ll end up
strangling someone if you don’t get caffeine in your
system.”
“I shouldn’t have asked.”

31. “… and then he came up to me and kissed me until

I was-”
“I’m going to have to tell you to shut up now.”

32. “Where is it? I haven’t lost it, I haven’t.”

“I think that means you have. By chance, it wasn’t
this that you were looking for?”

33. “Stop being seductive.”

“I was being myself, but okay.”

34. “We should do this again sometime!”

“I would honestly rather do anything other than
that again.”
46 Prompts

35. “You drank it?!”

“Yes, it was quite delicious, did you know?”

36. “Can you just act normal for this evening. It’s all I’ll
ask of you.”
“You’re asking for a lot then.”

37. “You need to stop yelling at inanimate objects.”

“And you need to stop telling me how to live my
life, but things never go as we want.”

38. “I haven’t got laid in like forever.”

“Oh sorry, did I look like I was offering? Because
I’m most certainly not.”

39. “You look like you’re going to cry.”

“Well that’s killed the mood.”

40. “We’ve been driving for hours, are we nearly there

yet?”
“I would honestly like to tell you something other
than ‘no’, but life is cruel.”

41. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Oh, darling, if that’s what you want to call love,
then, yes.”

42. “Just calm down, things will be fine.”

“My wife is being held at gunpoint and you think
now is a suitable time to tell me to calm down.”
Prompts 47

43. “I hope you don’t think that we all act like this.”
“There’s more than just you? Jesus.”

44. “You could try and sleep it off?”

“I don’t think that will change the fact that I’m
carrying your child, sorry.”

45. “I think you’re going to end up getting hurt.”

“I know. I’m used to it now, it’s fine.”

46. “You set the kitchen on fire?!”

“Just a little, but it means we can start the
remodeling sooner, right?”

47. “I’m just tired.”

“That’s understandable. Go and sleep, I’ll sort
everything out.”

48. “This isn’t something urgent, but please know that

I love you and always will, okay?”
“No, no, no, this is not happening. Stop it. Stop it!”

49. “It’s not fair. You keep this up and I just might-”
“You ‘just might’ what? Leave me? Hurt me? You’ve
done it all.”

50. “Give me a kiss before you go.”

“I know this is all for show, but do we really have
to be so bloody domestic.”
48 Prompts

51. “Can you give me a massage?”

“No, because you moan really loud and our
neighbors think we’re having sex.”
Prompts 49

100 ANGST/ARGUMENT DIALOGUE PROMPTS

1. “This will be the last time you lie to me.”

2. “You know it’s not like that.”

3. “How could you think this wouldn’t hurt me?”

4. “You’re never going to be the same after this.”

5. “I just think it’d be best if we never met.”

6. “I can’t believe you would even think to leave me

like this.”

7. “You never loved me, did you?”

8. “It didn’t have to be like this, but now you’ve

ruined everything.”

9. “I hope you’re happy.”

10. “If you had have kept your mouth shut, then he’d
still- he’d still be here!”

11. “What did you want once this was all through? Tell
me!”

12. “Now I have to deal with the consequences of your

actions. Thanks, it means a lot.”

13. “You could’ve- could’ve stayed. You could’ve

helped me fix things.”
50 Prompts

14. “I knew she’d never change; she was too stubborn,

too similar to me.”

15. “This isn’t going to be fixed. You’ve ruined this for

good now.”

16. “I hope I’m not put in the same part of hell as you.”

17. “When did you think you could hurt me again?

Today? Tomorrow?”

18. “You’re back in my life and I want to die again.”

19. “You only ever brought me pain and I’m sick of it.”

20. “I hope you got what you wanted.”

21. “You made me miserable and I still loved you.”

22. “When you die, I’ll be the first to dance on your

grave.”

23. “Don’t underestimate me, I have more power than

you can even comprehend.”

24. “If only you knew what you’d brought upon

yourself.”

25. “We’re never going to have a happy ending, just

remember that.”

26. “Everytime something goes well, I momentarily

forget how much I despise you.”
Prompts 51

27. “Don’t pretend like you’re not happy to see me like

this.”

28. “There is nothing worse than seeing you get what

you want.”

29. “Your mind must be a horrible place.”

30. “You can cut me, bruise me and skin me alive, but
you will not take her from me.”

31. “How is it that we always end up in this

predicament?”

32. “I want to wipe that grin of your face with my

sword, but my mother taught me to play nicely.”

33. “Did anyone ever tell you how pathetic you are? It’s
incredible how low my standards are for you.”

34. “Ah, well if you want them back alive, I suggest you
lay down your own life.”

35. “Don’t be ‘smart’. The battlefield is no place for

Math Scholars.”

36. “You shouldn’t have come. You can’t be-”

37. “Stop talking or tomorrow won’t come.”

38. “Hand me the gun and I’ll kill him myself.”

39. “I shouldn’t care for your life, but I’m starting to

and it’s becoming an inconvenience.”
52 Prompts

40. “If you live to see her, please send my best regards
and this box of her father’s ashes.”

41. “It would’ve been nice to get to know you better,

but I’m afraid I don’t care.”

42. “I can’t help but think you’re a terrible person.”

43. “Seeing your face has unconventionally made me

want to die. I wasn’t quite prepared for this feeling.”

44. “You could have loved me, I’m quite good at

seducing, but you’re actually vile.”

45. “I hope I see you in a body bag sometime.”

46. “Let’s pretend you didn’t cheat on me with my

sister and be good people for a few minutes.”

47. “We should probably stop talking forever.”

48. “If I hated you anymore, I think I’d probably be

crowned as satan’s right-hand man.”

49. “To say I ‘tolerate you’ is a vast overstatement.”

50. “You broke her heart and came back for more, you
bastard.”

51. “This isn’t fifth grade, this is a courtroom, you

whore.”

52. “I think you’d be the perfect match for my ex-

husband. He loved to sleep with multiple people.”
Prompts 53

53. “I’m not coming home, don’t look for me.”

54. “Time was always a measurement of this

relationship and we finally ran out.”

55. “Please don’t look at me with such hatred.”

56. “I could’ve died and you couldn’t have cared less.”

57. “Just get out. I- I don’t want you here, just leave.”

58. “You’re not the same person I married, don’t tell me

I’m wrong.”

59. “I wish you wouldn’t beg for forgiveness; it has the

opposite effect of what you want.”

60. “Don’t hate me for this. You would’ve done the

same.”

61. “This could’ve been the end and you were ready to
let me go.”

62. “You should’ve left me; you could never deserve

the person I’ve become.”

63. “Hate me all you want. I know I’m right.”

64. “Today you broke my arm, I hope tomorrow it’s not

my heart.”

65. “Nothing can justify this, you’ve ruined him.”

66. “You live with so much guilt, I hope it drives you

mad one of these days.”
54 Prompts

67. “My life was ruined because of one mistake. You

were that mistake.”

68. “You are everything I hate, don’t ever come back.”

69. “Evil doesn’t come close.”

70. “Your wrongdoings are becoming your pastimes.”

71. “I wish you had of just done it for the thrill of it,
but now you’re in deep shit.”

72. “Next time, I won’t be here to salvage your

wreckage. This is the last time.”

73. “You should have ruined me when you had the

chance.”

74. “No one will keep your name alive. Once you’re
gone, everything you once stood for disappears
too.”

75. “Don’t pretend you haven’t thought about your life

without me.”

76. “This is always how it ends.”

77. “Break my heart once more, I dare you.”

78. “Forget how you loved me once, I mean nothing

now.”

79. “This isn’t Romeo and Juliet, this is real life and
I can go on without you.”
Prompts 55

80. “You don’t own me, I don’t belong to you.”

81. “I should’ve died. That would’ve made you happy.”

82. “Are we going to carry on like this or are you going

to give him back to me.”

83. “She drowned and he lost his mind.”

84. “We shouldn’t. You’re married and I’m pregnant.”

85. “You’ve never been loved, I can tell.”

86. “Who told you I needed fixing and what made you
believe them?”

87. “You’re almost as far-gone as I am.”

88. “Maybe it’s best that we don’t go home.”

89. “Roaming the streets was never safe for her. What
makes you think it’s different for you?”

90. “I think you’re going to ruin me. Am I right?”

91. “Do you remember our last feud? I wouldn’t want

someone to lose their life again, would you?”

92. “Kiss me quick and leave them be.”

93. “I hate seeing you so sad. It’s just so dramatic how

humans show emotions and being sad is such
a boring one.”
56 Prompts

94. “Will you ever forget my number? No? Ah, because

you still love me.”

95. “After the funeral, let’s surrender.”

96. “What made you think I cared for you?”

97. “It’ll be fun explaining this to your sister. I hope she

likes horror stories.”

98. “Don’t act as if we’re friends. I know how much you

want to slit my throat.”

99. “Let’s not get angry. Let’s calmly and sensibly take
this outside so I can ruin your face.”

100. “Please ruin yourself for me and I’ll watch in

adoration as I fall apart as well.”
Prompts 57

100 ANGST/ARGUMENT DIALOGUE PROMPTS (MORE)

1. “Don’t touch me, you lost that privilege when you
let her into our bed.”

2. “You just keep acting like everything’s fine! It’s not

fine!”

3. “I hate you; I hate everything you stand for, every

fiber of your being.”

4. “I don’t have the energy to yell at you, you’re not

worth it anyway.”

5. “Show up here again and you won’t live to see the

end of it.”

6. “You killed her! She was the only person I ever

loved and you killed her!”

7. “There’s not a single reason I can think of for me to

let you see her. You may be her father, but I’m her
everything.”

8. “You broke me! You ruined everything we had

and- for what?”

9. “I know you hate me, but you should hear yourself.

You sound just like him, you sound just like your
father.”

10. “Nothing you do will fix things, no amount of

money will turn back time.”
58 Prompts

11. “I wish you’d just leave me alone; I wish I’d never

met you.”

12. “You really were the worst thing to ever happen to

me. I mean that.”

13. “I wouldn’t hate myself as much as I do now if it

weren’t for you.”

14. “Thank you for ruining my life, I know exactly the

kind of person I don’t want to become now.”

15. “Don’t look at me like you’re sorry. You’re not

sorry.”

16. “You’ll never love me like you loved her. I know

that now.”

17. “Not now, not ever. You’ll never be the person I

love.”

18. “I can’t believe I was ever stupid enough to think I

knew you.”

19. “Yell at me, scream until your throat hurts, put a

damn bullet in my chest, but you will not touch
him.”

20. “I would rather die than be the person who climbs

into bed with you at the end of the night.”

21. “You lied! You lied again and I fell for it!”
Prompts 59

22. “Everytime you open your mouth I want to push

you over the edge of a cliff and I mean that with all
my heart.”

23. “Don’t pretend there’s more than years of pure

hatred here.”

24. “We were never in love, we were simply caught up

in a nightmare that felt like a dream.”

25. “You’ll never forgive me, I know that, but please

just pretend you love me. Just until the kids are old
enough.”

26. “Shoot me, I dare you, it’ll make you feel better.”

27. “And if I die, I swear, I’ll crawl out of my grave just

to ruin your life.”

28. “I promised you a lifetime of misery, do you really

think I’m done just yet?”

29. “You’ll end up dead if you keep that up and it won’t

even be at my hands.”

30. “Hit me, hit me and see what happens to you.”

31. “Let’s just say that if I saw you bleeding out on my

kitchen floor, I’d act like I hadn’t seen you.”

32. “It wasn’t an accident! It wasn’t and you know it!”

33. “It was assault, it was you.”

60 Prompts

34. “There’s no one I can hire, no one I can call that

will give you a torturous enough death.”

35. “You could’ve left! You could’ve run away with

me!”

36. “Anything- anything- but this!”

37. “There’s nothing I can say to get you to fix what you
did, there’s nothing I can do to understand why you
did it.”

38. “You should’ve just killed me, I could’ve just been

a nameless body in an abandoned cemetery. You
could’ve just set me free.”

39. “He’s the only person left! He’s the only thing I’ve
got, the last good thing in my life!”

40. “You can’t take her, please! I’ll do anything, I

swear!”

41. “She was nothing to you, was she? Then prove it.”

42. “Don’t even look at me, everything about you is

everything I tried so hard not to be.”

43. “You’re not someone I’ve ever understood, but I

never thought I’d hate you as much as I do at this
moment.”

44. “Wow, you’ve really outdone yourself, I want

nothing more than to ruin your life.”
Prompts 61

45. “Jump, I dare you, but will that really make you
happy?”

46. “You sound just like the person I used to love, but
you’re not him anymore, are you.”

47. “I asked for your help, I begged you for it, now do
you understand?”

48. “Don’t romanticise death if you won’t follow

through.”

49. “Hate is a pitiful emotion, but then again, you are a

pitiful person.”

50. “What is stronger than love? Nothing? Then you

will simply not win.”

51. “You could’ve defeated me, broken me, left me as a

pile of flesh. What stopped you?”

52. “I never have been someone to take the moral high

ground, blood and broken bones is much simpler,
don’t you think?”

53. “She wasn’t your person to ruin.”

54. “I had it under control! I had a plan!”

55. “She’ll bleed out before nightfall and you think we

should stay? Are you stupid?”
62 Prompts

56. “Let’s hope he doesn’t remember your face when he

wakes up, your eyes always were horribly
distinctive.”

57. “You shouldn’t have come, I don’t want you here.”

58. “He doesn’t own me! He can’t keep controlling me

anymore!”

59. “I refuse to keep being a pawn in your game, this

has to end.”

60. “If I loved you, would I really have kept you

around? Love is a weakness; I don’t have
weaknesses.”

61. “I must admit, it would’ve been easier to get rid of

you if you weren’t so beautiful.”

62. “Nothing will change if you stay here with me!

Nothing will ever change!”

63. “It should’ve been an easy decision to make, but

you’ve never made things easy, have you.”

64. “The worst part was that I saw it coming, I knew

you’d hurt me, hurt us, but I still kept you around.”

65. “I can keep this up for longer than you can stick
around for. Cut my hair, change my name, you’ll
never find me.”
Prompts 63

66. “What did you want in the beginning? What did

you think would happen?”

67. “You’re not him! You’re not him and that’s the
problem!”

68. “Hire a necromancer so I can tell her how much I

hate her guts for leaving me like this.”

69. “There’s nothing you can do, this is it. This is how
it goes.”

70. “You never let me go, that’s why you’re miserable.”

71. “I’m not the person at fault, I never was. It’s you, it
was always you!”

72. “Just pretend we’re okay, just for tonight, just for
show. I’ll be gone by sunrise.”

73. “So none of it was real? You didn’t mean any of it?”

74. “You’re the last person I want to talk to right now.

We can’t just put things aside because I’m having a
bad night.”

75. “People talk- people will always talk- and you

never listened.”

76. “The last thing I want is for you to think I’m

grateful for what you did back there.”

77. “I couldn’t think of a worse outcome, unless of

course, you had some other way to ruin my day?”
64 Prompts

78. “Seven billion people in the world and I got put in

a room with you. Either I’m cursed or God likes
playing house with us.”

79. “Have you ever thought that maybe you’re the

problem? All these people keep leaving and you
keep acting surprised.”

80. “You betrayed her! You betrayed her trust and look
where it got us!”

81. “I should’ve stayed in San Francisco, I shouldn’t

have ever met you.”

82. “Even after everything, you still won’t admit this

was your doing. This was your fault. It always has
been.”

83. “I can’t risk her getting hurt anymore, I can’t put

her in danger just to keep you safe!”

84. “You’ve never been someone I looked up to, I just

wished you’d at least acknowledge me.”

85. “This was never how I wanted things to go.”

86. “Living is so much harder than dying, are you sure

you’re fit for living?”

87. “I wanted her heart, everything good and pure, but

nothing in this world is ever what it seems.”
Prompts 65

88. “You should’ve seen the look on his face- he’s going
to destroy you.”

89. “She’s my daughter, can you really blame me for

hating her when she’s just like me?”

90. “You never should’ve left, it never should’ve been

an option.”

91. “Somehow, whatever you do seems to be the wrong

thing. I’m sick of it.”

92. “Do you actually hate me or is it just the idea of

having someone to despise that you enjoy?”

93. “Nothing you guessed about me was true, I’m

nothing like anyone’s ever met before.”

94. “I’m not the person you thought I was, but neither
were you.”

95. “How can you care for her? You’ve never met her,
have you?”

96. “You’ll never meet again, life in death is like

nothing you’ve ever seen.”

97. “I wish a lot of things, but most of all, I wish you

didn’t hate me.”

98. “These days, I think about you, but you’re never the
same person I created in my mind.”

99. “It could’ve been worse, we could’ve fallen in love.”

66 Prompts

100. “At least I can forget him- he’s easy to forget- but
her, I’ll never forget her for as long as I live. And
it’s all your fault.”
Prompts 67

100 HEARTBREAKING DIALOGUE PROMPTS

1. “I promise you, just trust me.”

2. “I thought you were happy, I’m sorry.”

3. “Please, just stay a little longer.”

4. “I hope you don’t get your heart broken.”

5. “Why didn’t you say h-how bad it was?”

6. “Am I going to die?”

7. “When will this end. Please can this end.”

8. “How many times has he told you he doesn’t love

you?”

9. “You need to find happiness without me.”

10. “I want to help you through this, I really do, just

not as your girlfriend.”

11. “I know exactly how this ends.”

12. “You don’t have to pretend you care when you

already have one foot out the door.”

13. “You can keep pretending, but you’ll never be

happy”

14. “Why won’t you admit it!”

15. “When she told you to leave, you should have

stayed.”
68 Prompts

16. “I’m not good at this. I never have been.”

17. “The only person who will end up hurt here is you.”

18. “Please don’t cry.”

19. “I was hoping his flight would be cancelled, but

miracles don’t happen.”

20. “How could we have gotten this so wrong?”

21. “You were never one of us.”

22. “This is what they warned me of.”

23. “I would’ve died for you.”

24. “You almost died! And for what?”

25. “If I leave now, I won’t come back.”

26. “There will never be a place for you here anymore.”

27. “Everything is temporary, this was merely one of

those things.”

28. “You didn’t care, even a little bit?”

29. “I’m just tired of this. I’m tired of it all.”

30. “I thought she made it. It was clearly a figment of

my imagination.”

31. “Wishful thinking will always be my downfall.”

32. “She didn’t even try to save me.”

Prompts 69

33. “I saw it in her eyes. She wanted a different thing

to what I wanted.”

34. “I’m not going to cry, it isn’t worth crying.”

35. “Don’t look at me like that, I don’t want pity.”

36. “And then he left.”

37. “I wish I could fix this.”

38. “I deserve more than this.”

39. “You hurt me and I still trusted you.”

40. “It should never have come to this.”

41. “Don’t be sorry, it was no ones fault.”

42. “I’ve spent all this time wondering and worrying

about you. You didn’t think of me once?”

43. “I’m not a lot of people’s favourite person.”

44. “She quite clearly doesn’t want you.”

45. “I think that’s enough.”

46. “I shouldn’t have wasted 3 years on someone when

Russia could’ve sold me good vodka.”

47. “You’re angry with me, I know.”

48. “Can we have this conversation when you’re not

upset.”
70 Prompts

49. “I don’t think I can forgive you.”

50. “It’s never been as easy as you think.”

51. “Why would you put so much hope in me? Things

have clearly never worked out for me!”

52. “Oh, I was just another notch in your bedpost?”

53. “You really had me fooled. I might’ve almost said

something I’d regret.”

54. “You put yourself in that position! That wasn’t my

doing!”

55. “How could I be so blind?”

56. “Why are you still with me?”

57. “When was it that you realised that you didn’t love
me?”

58. “I can’t even look at you right now.”

59. “Don’t put this on me!”

60. “I really think it’s easier for people when I’m not
around.”

61. “I know, but you didn’t have to use her like that!”

62. “I’m not someone who breaks easily, but I must

commend you on this.”
Prompts 71

63. “There wasn’t even a moment when you smiled at

me like that.”

64. “I’ve never seen that side of you.”

65. “If you were in my situation what can I do to stop

hurting this much?”

66. “This never would’ve happened if we hadn’t have

met!”

67. “I’m glad I get to see you walk away from me!”

68. “You really did play me like a goddamn fiddle.”

69. “There isn’t a way to fix this now.”

70. “You know I wouldn’t call unless I was in pain.”

71. “I never thought I’d be the one to hurt you.”

72. “You really were my first and last.”

73. “Don’t say anything else, just stay.”

74. “We can start over. I’ll do anything, everything can

be perfect. Just please don’t leave me.”

75. “I heard the doctors. I know you haven’t got long.”

76. “You could’ve told me, or helped me! Anything

other than what you actually did!”

77. “Don’t wish me the best, you were my best

everything.”
72 Prompts

78. “It was never up to me.”

79. “I wanted to save you. I wanted to be the hero and

save you. How did I miss my chance?”

80. “The only thing I can do is love you!”

81. “Why can’t you see that?”

82. “I hope he will make you happy.”

83. “You never get what you want. Haven’t you learnt
that by now?”

84. “There hasn’t been a day I didn’t think of you and

it’s starting to hurt.”

85. “You weren’t here when I needed you the most,

why now?”

86. “I should never have trusted you.”

87. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

88. “This can’t be how it ends! No, this isn’t how the
story goes.”

89. “Just close your eyes for now. You’ll still be hurting
in the morning.”

90. “This will be a pain you won’t forget, I’ll always be

with you.”

91. “I never thought I’d love you this much.”

Prompts 73

92. “It was always you. No matter how many times I

disagreed, it was always you.”

93. “Your letters never made it to her. She was gone

before she even received them.”

94. “Why does it hurt so much? Why do I feel like she’s

broken my soul?”

95. “I haven’t stopped crying since Thursday. It’s

pathetic.”

96. “It was a mistake and I know I can never fix this.”

97. “I hope it hurts to think of me.”

98. “This isn’t over. You always come running back and
I always welcome you.”

99. “Don’t make me fall in love again.”

100. “I thought I didn’t miss you, but then I saw your

photo.”
74 Prompts

100 SWOON-WORTHY DIALOGUE PROMPTS

1. “Why do you have to look at me like that? It’s
making me weak, please stop.”

2. “Oh god, how can you manage to switch from cute

to sexy in under a second?”

3. “I’m so lucky.”

4. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

5. “I’ve realised that you keep interrupting my daily

and, holy shit, do I love it.”

6. “Is this the moment that we kiss?”

7. “The more I look at you, the more I think we need

to leave.”

8. “Look at me. I love you.”

9. “What took you so long? I missed you…”

10. “I-I think we should go for dinner first.”

11. “I know you’re working, but can I come over

because I miss seeing your face?”

12. “I never thought I’d be so lucky, especially not in

this lifetime.”

13. “I love you more than coffee.” *distant gasps*

Prompts 75

14. “And when you’re not around I keep thinking I

might cry.”

15. “I’m asking because I’ve seen the way you look at
me.”

16. “I’m tired and my bed feels so empty without you

here.”

17. “I think I’m in love with you and I don’t know what
to do.”

18. “I desperately want to take you out for dinner and

slow dance with you until the sun comes up, but I
also want to grip your hair as I watch you writhing
underneath me.”

19. “If you don’t stop looking at my lips without doing

anything about it, I will take you right here on this
counter.”

20. “Every inch of you is the most incredible thing that

God ever created.”

21. “I know you don’t like labels, so will you be my

married-person-thing?”

22. “Are you going to kiss or keep staring?”

23. “I fell for you without even knowing it and, jesus,

does it hurt that you can’t see it.”
76 Prompts

24. “Stop doing that with your face, someone else is

going to snatch you up.”

25. “Please just look at me while I confess, after that

you can look anywhere you like, I swear.”

26. “For you, darling, I would collect every cherry

blossom in Japan- no- in the world.”

27. “And now your hand is in mine and I feel like the
luckiest person to walk the planet.”

28. “Don’t hesitate, just kiss me.”

29. “Everytime I look at you, I think I fall a little more

in love.”

30. “You are more than you think of yourself. You’re

everything to me.”

31. “Don’t look at me like that and then feign

innocence.”

32. “You’re the best thing that has, and ever will,
happen to me.”

33. “I think you need to tell me the truth about how

you feel towards me.”

34. “I shouldn’t be allowed to be this happy.”

35. “You keep saying that we’re friends but you look at
me for a moment too long for that to be true.”
Prompts 77

36. “Not only am I deeply in love with you, you’re my

best friend.”

37. “I would honestly die before I let anything happen

to you.”

38. “Please don’t love me the way you loved your exes.”

39. “I’m not materialistic. I like being happy and

having lots of sex.”

40. “I don’t care if you think you look like godzilla

when you wake up, you’re my beautiful godzilla.”

41. “I know you haven’t done anything, but can you

please stop looking so goddamn kissable, my
parents are here.”

42. “You’re the only person I’ve ever actually wanted

to spent the rest of my life with.”

43. “The things I would do just to see your face right

now.”

44. “Please come home, this doesn’t feel right.”

45. “Will you stay the night?”

46. “I made breakfast, but I didn’t know what you liked

so I made enough to probably feed a small tribe.”

47. “Hold my hand.”

48. “Shall we- shall we go back t-to my place?”

78 Prompts

49. “How can you stand there looking like that?”

50. “Why do I feel like I’m home whenever you’re near

me?”

51. “I will love you forever and when ‘forever’ ends, I’ll
love you some more.”

52. “If only you could see yourself the way I see you,
because, holy shit, you’d realise how much I’ve
fallen for you.”

53. “Are you awake? Oh my god I was so worried, holy

shit I thought I was going to lose you.”

54. “Don’t think about anything. Just tell me that you

love me and hold me tighter.”

55. “I think we need to talk about the fact that I’m in

love with you and also that I’m pregnant.”

56. “Call me everyday, I just need to know you’re

okay.”

57. “I know you think we aren’t right for each other,

but we’ve run into each other too many times for
you to tell me that this isn’t fate.”

58. “There’s always a place in my bed for you, I will

wait no matter what.”

59. “People like me aren’t supposed to have someone

like you, I think fate was being harsh on you.”
Prompts 79

60. “I’m so madly and deeply in love with you, please

meet me so we can discuss this.”

61. “I would’ve waited an eternity if I knew you were

what I’d get at the end of it.”

62. “I hope you’ll never forget how much I adore you.”

63. “Why didn’t you answer your phone? It was an

emergency, I needed to tell you I loved you.”

64. “I hope our love never gets boring.”

65. “I want to spend the little time I have left with you
and only you.”

66. “Thank you for loving me, I couldn’t have been

more lucky.”

67. “Every morning you kiss my forehead before I leave

for work, why was it my lips today?”

68. “My heart hurts when I look at you.”

69. “I’ve fallen for you and it’s becoming difficult for
me to get anything done.”

70. “All I can think of is your lips on mine.”

71. “Don’t blame it on the alcohol, you tasted like you

wanted me.”

72. “You keep that photo of us in your wallet?”

80 Prompts

73. “If anything ever happens to me, remember that I’ll

always love you.”

74. “Darling, your heart is too pure for me.”

75. “I got everything I wanted. My everything was

you.”

76. “Kiss me like you mean it.”

77. “All I ever wanted is right here in front of me.”

78. “Don’t pretend that you don’t feel the same way.”

79. “I fought so hard to get you and thank god I can

finally rest.”

80. “Don’t leave me like that again, you scared me.”

81. “I never thought we’d end up together, but here

you are confessing everything to me.”

82. “I can’t be without you.”

83. “You were never the person I wanted, but you were
the only one I ever needed.”

84. “I don’t know how you’ve put up with me for this

long, but I love you for it.”

85. “I hope we last.”

86. “We could be an epic novel of forbidden lovers, like

Romeo and Juliet without the ending.”
Prompts 81

87. “Don’t tell me you love me unless you mean it.”

88. “Every little thing you do, makes me want to hold

you forever and never let go.”

89. “If marrying me will make this relationship boring,

then let’s just date forever.”

90. “I want to love you like it’s our last day on earth,
but you beat me to it.”

91. “That night you kissed me and I thought I might

melt.”

92. “My heart isn’t beating faster, my heart isn’t beating

faster, I swear it isn’t, get ahold of yourself.”

93. “They told me that you’d break my heart but, holy

shit, they never said it’d feel like this.”

94. “Don’t act innocent, you had me pinned

underneath you 5 minutes ago.”

95. “I just want you to be happy, even if your happiness

doesn’t include me, I just want you happy.”

96. “Will you love me like this forever?”

97. “I could never not love you.”

98. “I can’t think of a life that doesn’t have you in it.”

99. “You don’t know half of the things you do to me.”

100. “Kiss me and promise me a forever.”

82 Prompts

100 MATURE/NSFW/SMUT DIALOGUE PROMPTS

1. “Do I look like I’m messing around? Do I look like
I won’t punish you?”

2. “Fucking is a reward, but you haven’t been good.”

3. “Move an inch and you won’t be coming tonight.”

4. “You look just about good enough to eat.”

5. “Take your clothes off. Right now.”

6. “We’re really going to fuck here? What if someone

sees us?”

7. “Hands behind your back.”

8. “Open your mouth for me, baby.”

9. “Is it good when I touch you here? Or maybe here?”

10. “Beg for it.”

11. “Be a good girl/boy for mommy/daddy.”

12. “I’m going to fucking ruin you.”

13. “You’re so in for it when we get home.”

14. “You can take it, you’ve done it before.”

15. “Just a little more.”

16. “I won’t apologise for marking you up, everyone

should know you’re taken.”
Prompts 83

17. “Suck on my fingers.”

18. “You look so good with my hands around your

neck.”

19. “Keep your eyes open, look at me, baby.”

20. “Kiss me properly.”

21. “You’re so wet.”

22. “Look how good you take it.”

23. “My baby, you did so well.”

24. “God, you feel amazing.”

25. “Swallow. All of it.”

26. “Faster! Please, let me come!”

27. “Do think you deserve a reward/punishment?”

28. “Don’t make a mess, baby.”

29. “Come one more time for me, I know you’ve got it
in you.”

30. “Stay still, don’t move your hips.”

31. “How do you want it?”

32. “I don’t care if it takes all night, you will submit.”

33. “Show me how much you missed me.”

34. “Did you come already?”

84 Prompts

35. “Can you use your hand?”

36. “Harder.”

37. “It’s not too tight, is it?”

38. “I want to see you, want to watch you come.”

39. “Enough, please, I can’t take anymore!”

40. “That’s so fucking hot.”

41. “What makes you think I’m going to fuck you?”

42. “Spread your legs for mommy/daddy, I want to see

you.”

43. “Slowly, baby, I’m not going anywhere.”

44. “Holy shit, you came pretty quickly.”

45. “Do you need to use your safeword, darling?”

46. “Do you know what happens when you

misbehave?”

47. “Are you holding back? Don’t.”

48. “Shall we put that mouth to better use?”

49. “You’re going to come untouched, do you

understand?”

50. “I want it. I want to taste you.”

Prompts 85

51. “Don’t think so much, just let your body take

control.”

52. “Won’t you help me? Please?”

53. “I don’t like getting off on my own.”

54. “Oh, baby, you’re drooling everywhere.”

55. “It’s my thigh or nothing, I’m not helping you get

off.”

56. “I want you so bad.”

57. “You seem more sensitive than usual.”

58. “No one’s ever touched me like this, fuck.”

59. “Turn over, baby.”

60. “Come for me, you’ve done so well.”

61. “Again! Please, again!”

62. “Touch yourself.”

63. “I said I’d take care of you, did you think I wouldn’t
follow through on that?”

64. “I don’t want anyone else. No one else can make me

feel like you do.”

65. “I know, baby, I know. I’m right here, just breathe.”

66. “Please! Give it to me!”

86 Prompts

67. “So good for me, look at how much you came.”

68. “Shh, just look at me, baby.”

69. “I’ll take care of you.”

70. “Where did this attitude come from?”

71. “You like it that much, hm?”

72. “I need it! Please!”

73. “God, you love it like this, don’t you?”

74. “Don’t tease me.”

75. “Please, I can’t sit still.”

76. “You know I’m holding back from fucking you over
this kitchen counter, don’t push your luck.”

77. “I need you. I need you both, right now.”

78. “You know, I could always get you off right here,
right now.”

79. “I can be good, so good! I swear!”

80. “You didn’t come yet, let me-”

81. “Do you wonder what it is that makes me scream?”

82. “We have to make this quick.”

83. “You’re easy to please.”

Prompts 87

84. “Why not tonight? I’m even wearing something

pretty.”

85. “Why are you being so gentle with me? I like it

when you’re rough.”

86. “Does it make you nervous when I stare?”

87. “It’s hot when you talk back.”

88. “You’re so messy.”

89. “Your thighs are shaking so much.”

90. “I know what I like, I know my limits.”

91. “Be good for me and I’ll untie you.”

92. “I can’t- please- I can’t-”

93. “That’s good, baby, keep doing that.”

94. “Just relax for me, I’ll make it feel good.”

95. “Quiet, baby, the others will hear.”

96. “I had this dream and- fuck- you couldn’t keep your
hands of me.”

97. “I was good while you were gone! I didn’t even

touch myself.”

98. “I never thought I’d hear you say that, fuck, that’s
hot.”

99. “I want more, please, give me more!”

88 Prompts

100. “You’re still horny? Didn’t I fuck you hard enough

last night?”
Prompts 89

100 SONG LYRIC PROMPTS

1. “Will nature make a man of me yet?”- The
Smiths, This Charming Man

2. “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still

remember me?”- Lynyrd Skynyrd, Free Bird

3. “When my time comes around, lay me gently in the

cold dark earth. No grave can hold my body down,
I’ll crawl home to her.”- Hozier, Work Song

4. “I don’t think that we should be alone together,

when we’re in a room you get my eyes, you open
your mouth I’m hypnotised”- The
Neighbourhood, Single

5. “She looks as if she’s blowing a kiss at me and

suddenly the sky is a scissor”- Arctic
Monkeys, That’s where you’re wrong

6. “You think you want to be alone, just wait until

you’re crying on the shower floor”
“They’ve got a pretty face, but they’ve got a pretty
empty head.”
“But how the hell do you fall in love, the last time
I checked you can’t fall in slow mo”- LANY- The
Breakup *There were too many good ones in this
song, I couldn’t help myself*
90 Prompts

7. “I know it’s mad, but if I go to hell will you go with

me or just leave?” - Panic! At The Disco, Do you
know what I’m seeing?

8. “I don’t know who’s protecting me, but we hit it

off”- Drake, Sandra’s Rose

9. “Do me a favour and break my nose, do me a favour

and tell me to go away?”- Arctic monkeys, Do me a
favour

10. “Baby just came back around, said she needs time to
explore, said I can’t love her no more”- The
Neighbourhood, Baby came home

11. “Just one mistake, you say you’re not in love no

more, but was it really love if you can leave me for
something so innocent is this the end?”-
LANY, Thick and thin

12. “You can have Manhattan, I know it’s for the best,
I’ll gather up the avenues and leave them on your
doorstep. I’ll tiptoe away so you won’t have to say
you heard me leave.”
“You can have Manhattan, the one we used to
share, the one where we were laughing and drunk
on just being there. Hang onto the reverie, could
you do that for me?”- Sara Bareilles, Manhattan

13. “You don’t love me, big fucking deal, I’ll never tell
you how I feel.”
Prompts 91

“I’ll send my best regards from Hell”- Marina and

the Diamonds, Starring Role

14. “I been writing these songs ‘bout how I can’t be

with you. I don’t want to be a monster, but I’ve
been here for days, drinking too much now I want
you, can’t get you off my brain.”- Henry, Monster,
Eng. version

15. “Change lives, get better, yeah that be the plan”

“That’s why you see me winning, yeah, even after I
lose”- Jay Park, Ask bout me

16. “Love is not looking over shoulders, Love is you

should trust what I told you”
“Love is not struggling to say I love you”-
6LACK, Disconnect

17. “All these people taking miles when you give them
an inch, all these followers but who’s gonna follow
me until the end?”- Drake, Emotionless

18. “She’s in the rain, you wanna hurt yourself I’ll stay
with you, you wanna make yourself go through
that pain, It’s better to be held than holding on,”-
The Rose, She’s In The Rain *Absolutely love this
one, don’t @ me, I will die for the The Rose**

19. “Sex by the fire at night”- Bruno Mars, That’s What

I Like
92 Prompts

20. “I’ve got the good side of you, sent it out into the
blue.”- Troye Sivan, Good Side

21. “Standing by the window, rain falling, I want to

have you full in my embrace and tell you, even
when I’m born again and love you, even then, will
you be with me?”- KREAM, 선물 Gift *Translated*

22. “It all passes, Someday, For sure, Certainly”- RM, ft.
NELL, everythingoes *Translated*

23. “Please stay as long as you need, can’t promise that

things won’t be broken, but I swear that I will never
leave. Please stay forever with me”- Sleeping With
Sirens, Scene One- James Dean & Audrey Hepburn

24. “When you move, I’m put to mind of all that I

wanna be, when you move
I could never define all that you are to me”-
Hozier, Movement

25. “Wake up and smell the coffee, is your cup half full
or empty?”- Billie Eilish, come out and play

26. “Am I a bad person? Or am I just in pain?”- DEAN,

Sulli, Rad Museum, Dayfly *Translated*

27. “Kiss me on the lips, a secret just between the two

of us, deeply poisoned by the jail of you, I cannot
worship anyone but you and I knew the grail was
poisoned but I drank it anyway”- BTS, Blood Sweat
& Tears *Translated*
Prompts 93

28. “When the sun sets and darkness comes, I only

remember your warmth, where the stars wrap
around us. I’m going there, I’ll be there”-
SEVENTEEN, Highlight *Translated*

29. “I don’t ever wanna feel like anything I do ever had

a fucking resonance or meant a thing to you.”-
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, I Hate You

30. “You can’t take this away from me, the way I hit
the melody, the waves bring clarity, running
through me”- Tom Misch, Del La Soul, It Runs
Through Me

31. “It was a lie when they smiled and said you won’t
feel a thing”- My Chemical
Romance, Disenchanted

32. “The fog has lifted and things get clear, all the lies
pass by like a reel of film. I hate you”- EXO, 내가
미쳐 (Going Crazy) *Translated*

33. “I’m sorry- no, I’m not sorry, I’m just getting started
and my life’s a party”- DEAN, Eric Bellinger, I’m
Not Sorry

34. “Ain’t it fun, living in the real world?”-

Paramore, Ain’t It Fun

35. “Ready or not, we are coming back- yeah, we’re

over, we can tell you ‘bout what you need. You can
94 Prompts

look it up when you’re older”- Evergreen, Cargo

Cult

36. “You, you got so much potential, every moment

spent with you I bet was always eventful”- Aminé,
Kehlani, Heebiejeebies- Bonus

37. “Could you imagine the taste of your lips if we

never tried to kiss on the drive to Queens? ‘Cause I
imagine the weight of your ribs if you lied between
my hips in the backseat”- Halsey, Roman Holiday

38. “Forever isn’t for everyone, is forever for you?”-

Arctic Monkeys, Snap Out Of It

39. “Wish you good luck being lonely, I’mma push red
every time you phone me. You vow to be a
memory”- Ella Mai, ft. Ty Dolla $ign, She Don’t

40. “I’ve been dazed and confused from the day I met
you, yeah I lost my head and I’d do it again”-
Ruel, Dazed & Confused

41. “I just want you closer, is that alright? Baby let’s get
closer tonight”- Paolo Nutini, Last request

42. “You have no idea how pretty you are when you
wake from sleep, you have no idea how beautiful
you look as you get ready for bed”- Zion.T, No
Makeup *Translated*
Prompts 95

43. “I was thinking I could fly to your hotel tonight,

baby, ‘cos I can’t get you off my mind”- Shawn
Mendes, Lost In Japan

44. “She’s soothing like the ocean rushing on the sand,

she takes care of me, baby, she helps me be a better
man. She’s so beautiful, sometimes I stop to close
my eyes, she’s exactly what I need”- Jeremy
Passion, Lemonade

45. “And her lips are like the galaxy’s edge and her kiss
the colour of a constellation falling into place”-
Arctic Monkeys, Arabella

46. “It’s how you look, not how you feel. A city of glass
with no heart”- Queens of the Stone Age, If I Had a
Tail

47. “I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your
knife”- Hozier, Take Me To Church

48. “Bitter and hardened heart, Oh, aching- waiting for

life to start”- Keane, Bend & Break

49. “When you move I’m put to mind of all that I

wanna be, when you move I could never define all
that you are to me”- Hozier, Movement

50. “She said, ‘Baby, I’m afraid to fall in love, 'cause

what if it’s not reciprocated?’ I told her, ‘Don’t rush
girl, don’t you rush, guess it’s all a game of
patience.’”- Pink Sweat$, Honesty
96 Prompts

51. “Share a casket with you, we’ll be buried alive, me

and her playing truth ‘til the day we die.”- Granata
Ft. Phoniks, You Dont Need Me

52. “And hope that I had survived yesterday, and today

is jealous of tomorrow.”- Emeli Sandé, Breathing
Underwater

53. “Heaven if you sent us down so we could build a

playground for the sinners to play as saints, you’d
be so proud of what we’ve made.”
Stephen, Crossfire

54. “Tell me how do you cope with it? How do you

sleep with yourself at night? How do you cope with
it? How do you sleep with yourself at night?”-
blackbear, make daddy proud

55. “If anyone looks perfect, you look perfect next to

me.”- Nick Wilson, Obsolete

56. “When I meet you after time passes, I’ll know (you
were my future), I’ll know (I was your yesterday).
When I meet you after time passes, I’ll know (you
protected me), I’ll know (I desired you).”-
SEVENTEEN (Wen Junhui & Xu Minghao), My
I *Translated*

57. “I need my sex n’ drugs, I need my money first, bless

me with all my sins.”- Abhi The Nomad, Ft.
Harrison Sands & Copper King, Sex ‘n Drugs
Prompts 97

58. “Naked and fallin’ in love, look here I got you. Safe
where there’s no one to judge, keep it insightful.”-
Keiynan Lonsdale, Preach

59. “All alone, all we know is haunting me, making it

harder to breathe, harder to breathe.”- The
Neighbourhood, Leaving Tonight

60. “Now I see you get off of the subway, haven’t seen
you in months but it’s okay. I’d forgotten but I feel
the same, hate that I still wish you were…”-
Claud, Wish You Were Gay

61. “A perfect stranger lying next to me, he’s playing

God with broken figurines. He keeps calling me his
little queen and I believe.”- Jake Wesley
Rogers, Little Queen (This song deserves way more
recognition, make sure to give it a listen!)

62. “Hell is so close to Heaven, hell is so close to

Heaven. Hold on don’t look back, you know we’re
better- we’re better than that. Lost and thrown
away, you know we’re better- we’re better than
that.”- Sleeping With Sirens, The Strays

63. “Alone tonight, I’m drawing my dreams across the

sky farther than I can imagine- She wants it.”-
CIX, Movie Star *Translated*

64. “Yeah I mixed words and some whiskey on the

flight just to make sure I landed on time and I wrote
98 Prompts

me a song I could sing just in case I forgot

everything.”- Marc E. Bassy, Last One I Love

65. “Don’t ask questions you don’t wanna know,

learned my lesson way too long ago.”
“Deadly fever, please don’t ever break, be my
reliever 'cause I don’t self medicate”- Billie
Eilish, my strange addiction

66. “And it’s worth it, it’s divine, I have this some of
the time.”- Hozier, Cherry Wine

67. “And I realize you’re mine, Indeed, a fool am I.”-

Queens of the Stone Age, No One Knows

68. “Look in the mirror ‘til I forget everything I know,

everything I did was just a way to make the time
feel faster.”- Miya Folick, Stock Image

69. “Do you feel how I feel? Are you numb? Do you
tread crystal waters, bound to be stung? Are you
scared? If I see you, we’re upon,
will you dye your hair dark so you’re no longer
blonde?”- Isaac Dunbar, Cologne

70. “Tell me; To you I’m bad & hurtful. Because I’ve
been busy, you’re hurting. Bad, bad, bad, I’m bad,
bad.”- Crush, NAPPA (나빠) *Translated*

71. “Just for the record, the weather today is slightly

sarcastic with a good chance of: A. Indifference or
B. disinterest to what the critics say.”- Panic! At
Prompts 99

The Disco, London Beckoned Songs About Money

Written By Machines

72. “‘Cause you don’t say what you feel, I’m the one
driving but you take the wheel. You wanna wait,
'til we’re older, I’m the one who started this, but
now I just want closure.”- Ieuan, Closure

73. “Our names carved in the pavement, sealed by

what’s left of our handprints, now. I told my mom,
she’d love to meet you, but it’s too bad she won’t
get the chance to.”- COIN, Malibu 1992

74. “I’m running outta time to hold you close, running

outta time to be your man. I’m just lost in this
moment, I’ve been zoning.”- blackbear, 4u

75. “Standing on your mama’s porch, you told me that

you’d wait forever. Oh and when you held my
hand, I knew that it was now or never”- Bryan
Adams, Summer Of ‘69

76. “I’ll go out, grow my hair too long, sing your least
favourite songs at the top of my lungs. I’ll go out,
kiss all of your friends, make a story and pretend it
was me who made this end.”- The Vamps, Hair Too
Long

77. “Getting my mind right, I’ll wait 'til the time’s

right. I’m meaning to tell you why it’s hard to sleep
at night. There’s nothing to fear now, girl, we
100 Prompts

should be here now. So why don’t you hear me

out?”- Jeremy Zucker, Ft. blackbear, talk is
overrated

78. “We haven’t spoke since you went away,

comfortable silence is so overrated. Why won’t you
ever be the first one to break? Even my phone
misses your call, by the way.”- Harry Styles, From
the Dining Table

79. “Look overhead at the stars and the ocean, foggy

emotions, moments, erosion. This supernova could
cause a commotion, my minds of the notion, you’ll
still be my motive”- Ansel Elgort, Supernova

80. “I love that new dress you bought, yeah, you sure
look nice. Heard you liked that new restaurant, you
know, I’ve been there twice. And the way that you
switch up your hair, all of the moments we’ve
shared, strolling the streets back in Rome, oh, how
I wish I was there. It ain’t fair.”- Ruel, Face To Face

81. “Welcome to your life, there’s no turning back.

Even while we sleep we will find you acting on
your best behaviour, turn your back on mother
nature.”- Tear For Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule
the World

82. “I’m wide awake, not losing any sleep, I picked up

every piece and landed on my feet. I’m wide awake,
Prompts 101

need nothing to complete myself, no.” Katy

Perry, Wide Awake

83. “If you don’t realize, all of the things your life can
do you will be left behind, swept up by the storm
of those you knew.”- Meltycanon, thankful

84. “I always knew that we’d be by each other’s side

forever, now our time has come and I’d be satisfied
if we died together. Yeah, our climate’s fucked, we
might as well enjoy the weather, our time is up and
I’d be satisfied if we died together.”-
Samsa, Anthropocene

85. “There’s still so much to say, I’m faded, broken,

pretending you’re on the line, wasting my time.
Sinking deeper, watching you spend your night,
like I’ll be fine and I’ll be over this.”- NYK, Faded

86. “I’d rather go to hell, than be in purgatory, cut my

hair, gag and bore me, pull this pin, let this world
explode.”- My Chemical Romance, Na Na Na (Na
Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)

87. “I reached for a shooting star, it burned a hole

through my hand
Made its way through my heart, had fun in the
promised land.”- blink-182, Wishing Well
102 Prompts

88. “Let go of your baggage, but don’t think I don’t

understand it’s probably a challenge,”- Isaac
Lewis, Fly

89. “It’s been a long night in New York city, it’s been a
long night in Baton Rouge. I don’t remember you
looking any better, but then again, I don’t
remember you.”- John Mayer, Who Says

90. “They say that love kills, it ain’t quite what it seems,
don’t be shocked when you lost what you called
‘meant to be’.”- StayLoose, Bryce Fox, Sociopath

91. “When they come for You, I will shield Your name,
I will field their questions, I will feel Your pain.”-
Kanye West, Ultralight Beam

92. “Two steps forward, one step back and it won’t be

long til my heart attack, yup! And common sense
falls second place to the way it feels when you kiss
my face, yup!”- The Band CAMINO, 2 / 14

93. “Leaving empty souls when he avenged, evil spirits

flowed, he drank the blood like lemonade.”-
Morcheeba, Blood Like Lemonade

94. “Your smile will become a classic; the brilliance of

sunlight, the haziness of the moonlight exist for the
sake of promises.”- WayV, Moonwalk

95. Dear God, I hope you got the letter and I pray you
can make it better down here. I don’t need a big
Prompts 103

reduction in the price of beer, but all the people

that you made in your image- see them starving on
their feet.”- Lawless, Sydney Wayser, Dear God

96. “Down below, sandy, like the ocean floor, quiet,

like I like it; here I’ll never be alone.”-
slenderbodies, anemone

97. “I love everything, fire spreading all around my

room, my world’s so bright, it’s hard to breathe but
that’s alright- hush.”- Sub Urban, Cradles

98. “I’m telling myself, I’m telling myself, ‘I don’t need

you anymore’.”- Lia Marie Johnson, Cold Heart
Killer

99. “So I moved to California, but it’s just a state of

mind, it turns out everywhere you go, you take
yourself, that’s not a lie. Wish that you would hold
me or just say that you were mine- it’s killing me
slowly.” Lana Del Rey, Fuck it I love you

100. “See, she knows that I love her, but I don’t think
she’ll stay and she knows that I need her, but my
love’s lost its weight. Spend my days longing for
something real, spend my days stuck in the way I
feel.”- JOBA, Sad Saturdays
104 Prompts

340 Romance Writing Prompts

Billionaires

1. Your writing career has been stagnant since you

moved to the city, so when your editor comes to
you with a project unlike any other, you hope this
will be your big break. The assignment? An exposé
on a bachelor billionaire tycoon that everyone in
the city is talking about. The goal is to uncover
something unseemly about his background and
ruin his reputation. You feel bad about it, but if this
is the price for success, you decide that you are
willing to pay it. Besides, the public deserves the
truth, right? But when you pose as a high-end real
estate agent and manage to get some time with him,
you find that he's smart, charming, and considerate.
He's nothing like you expected. The more time you
spend with him, the more your feelings grow until
you realize you're unable to complete your
assignment. But if he ever found out about your
true background, your budding relationship would
be doomed.
2. A reclusive billionaire without family or friends is
in a wreck and develops temporary amnesia from
the injuries. Without any identification, he falls in
love with you, the nurse who nurses him back to
health. As his memory slowly returns, he realizes
Prompts 105

that friendship and love have been missing from his

life, and he has found both in you.
3. A billionaire mogul loses much of his wealth in a
legal battle with your family. To your mutual
surprise, what begins as hatred turns into romance
as you find a way to give him back the fortune he
lost.
4. "You can't go in there," you tell him, before he
informs you that he owns the museum and can go
anywhere he pleases. Since you're a museum guide,
he asks for a tour, and you both recognize a spark
happening.
5. You are a single mother who works as a waitress at
a nightclub to make ends meet. The one thing you
can't stand are people who get everything handed
to them, like the rich, snooty patrons you have to
wait on night after night. However, when a
handsome and charming clubgoer becomes smitten
with you, you find yourself drawn to his enigmatic
way. After a few coffee dates, you wonder if this
could be the one, but then you learn that he's
actually the club's billionaire party boy owner—a
man you've heard about and hated from afar for
years. He swears he's changed and that he has fallen
for you, but you're not convinced: Can you trust
him to leave his partying lifestyle behind to become
a family man?
106 Prompts

6. You're a woman fleeing an abusive marriage and

you meet your husband's billionaire boss. You fall
in love and your husband learns the hard way that
abusers don't win.
7. The son of a wealthy industrialist is in the midst of
a very public and nasty divorce from his
notoriously dreadful wife. You are a reporter hired
to find dirt on him for a story. You are surprised to
discover that he is actually a wonderful man, and
you begin to fall in love with him.
8. You've worked years to get to where you are as
hairstylist to the stars. It's good work that pays well
and lets you help your family back home with their
financial struggles. Plus, you love to the work. The
only downside is that the patrons of your salon
aren't exactly easy to talk to. Their priorities are so
different! Vanity plagues their every move, and
their cavalier attitudes drive you crazy. No one is
worse than your weekly customer: a billionaire
obsessed with his aging appearance. He's handsome
and you know from overhearing a dozen phone
calls that he's pretty charming, so you can't quite
understand why he's so insecure over a few
wrinkles. You tell him as much, and he's surprised
to learn that you find him attractive. He asks you
out and, despite the age difference, you find
yourself saying yes. Over time, you help him find
Prompts 107

the confidence he needs. You discover that you

share much in common, and love grows.
9. You are trapped in the elevator of your office
building with a handsome executive when the
power goes out in the city for a few hours. You get
to know each other a little during that time, and the
attraction is strong. He's evasive about what he does
for the company, and it's not until power is restored
and you're back at your desk that you realize he's
the billionaire CEO's son…and he's emailing to ask
you on a date.
10. You've had foreign language students before, but
none as handsome as the son of a billionaire
inheriting all of his father's wealth. When he asks
you to be a translator for a trip he's about to take,
you're all in.
11. You hate his materialistic ways but a billionaire's
charm wins you over when, following an airplane
crash, you are stranded for weeks on his family's
private island.
12. A chance encounter brings you on the radar of a
tortured young billionaire who can't forget the
abusive past he endured at the hands of his father.
You have a similar past—can you move past it
together?
13. You're a teacher who loves her job and her
students. However, when your contract isn't
renewed due to budget cuts in your district, you
108 Prompts

find yourself at a loss. Luckily, a friend of yours

knows of someone looking to hire a tutor with just
your qualifications. You go to the interview and
realize the job is to tutor and mentor the son of a
renowned tech billionaire. The son has had
behavioral problems in school and was threatened
with expulsion, so the single father decided to hire
a trained professional to assist in his son's issues.
The more time you spend with the small family, the
more you realize that the son's behavioral problems
stem from his poor relationship with his father. The
billionaire is smart, innovative, clever, handsome,
and stubborn. He initially disagrees with your
analysis, but then eventually gives way to your
advice. The longer you spend in the role of
caregiver to both father and son, the more you start
to feel like this is where you belong.
14. Life is hard, especially for a single mother, but
you've made the best of it and took a new job as the
secretary for a billionaire. A terrible tragedy rocks
his world and you're there as a shoulder to cry on
as he heals (and falls in love with you).
15. An overweight billionaire hires you to be his fitness
coach. You get his blood pumping in more ways
than one and the healthier he gets, the more you're
attracted to him.
16. He's a reclusive billionaire and you are a model
hired to be his guest for the evening at a local
Prompts 109

charity function. He initially has nothing to say to

you, but begins to admire you for who you really
are inside. Romantic sparks ensue.
17. A music industry mogul hears your voice on a demo
album that he receives and signs you to his label.
Your troubled life and past keep him at bay for a
while as his friends warn him against it, but true
love can't be held back for long.
18. Your dream is to sail around the world and he has
the yacht to do it. The only problem is: You're the
new maid hired to keep the yacht spotless while
docked.
19. You are a young girl on a student scholarship at a
very high-profile British university. One day at the
uni pub you meet a handsome young man with
whom you feel in love at first sight. Next day, you
open the newspaper only to discover you have been
out with a crown prince.
20. He ran his hand through your hair, commenting on
its softness, and from that moment you were
hooked. You had no idea he owned a vast empire of
real estate and was looking to find the perfect lady
to settle down with.

Comedy

1. The new guy you have been dating has invited you
to his house for a home-cooked Italian meal. You
put on your cutest outfit and head over in
110 Prompts

anticipation of some cannoli and canoodling. He

invites you in and offers you a drink, and then his
mother walks out of the kitchen with a tray of
antipasti and a scowl.
2. You are mad at the world and he's an eternal
optimist. While on a business trip, you get stranded
in the same hotel room (thanks to a hurricane) and
the ensuing hilarious encounters convince you to
join him in romance (and optimism).
3. A couple has been dating for about three years, and
the man still hasn't proposed. The woman is getting
impatient, and after a drunken night out on the
town, she proposes to him. He loves her—but he
says no—owing to his belief that it's a man's job to
propose. This awkward moment leads the pair
down a path neither expected.
4. You've just moved into a fixer-upper in a quaint
neighborhood. You're looking forward to the
project of building and designing your nest.
Everything's perfect…or would be, if it weren't for
that gorgeous but obnoxious guy next door, who's
also remodeling his house and who you fight with
practically every day.
5. You are the maid of honor in your best friend's
destination wedding, but you are single and feeling
depressed about having to attend solo. Stressed and
grumpy on the long flight there, you have a few too
many drinks and pass out, drooling, on the shoulder
Prompts 111

of your seatmate. When you arrive at the wedding,

you are mortified to discover that your handsome
seatmate is the best man, and you spend the rest of
the wedding weekend trying to avoid him.
6. You and he are ruthless competitors at a bank. You
are both constantly trying to outdo each other and
compete for the assistant manager's position. One
day, you get into a heated argument in the supply
closet that ends up turning into heated passion.
After the encounter in the closet, the competition
gets complicated.
7. You are taking a break behind the catering truck
with the other extras, when the star of the movie, a
major celebrity, asks you for a light. In that
moment, more than a cigarette is lit up, and the
whole film production goes sideways.
8. When you dreamed of becoming a television
writer, you never expected you'd end up wasting
your time writing for a vapid dating quiz show, but
a job's a job. One night, your very charming, very
single boss asks why you're working late; you
mumble something about new truth-or-dare
questions. "Great," he replies with a smile. "Ask me
one."
9. You work in an office with a co-worker who
annoys you with his political views that you
disagree with. You complete a profile on a dating
site and it pairs you with him. At first, you laugh at
112 Prompts

this, but realize that you are attracted to him

despite his political leanings. You end up going on
a date and having a lot more in common than you
suspected you would.
10. You are a single parent with eight children. Eight.
And he's the first person to take an interest in years.
You have to deal with two grown children who
think he's a creep, younger children who don't
want him to replace your late partner, and your
own reluctance to invest in a new relationship.
11. Your friend can't wait to introduce you to her new
beau. She's been talking about him nonstop and
you're actually a little nervous to meet him. When
he walks through the door your jaw drops. You
would know that face anywhere.
12. You and your friend are in different relationships
that are unhealthy. When you get together, you are
constantly sharing stories about how miserable you
are. Finally, it dawns on one of you that you should
be with each other because you have much more in
common with each other than with your partners.
13. You fall in love with an adventurous, fun-loving
mountain climber. Little does he know that you are
afraid of heights and have never slept outside. He
invites you on one of his expeditions, to your
dismay. You really want to impress him, so you
pack your hair dryer and try to make the best of it.
Prompts 113

14. You encounter your high school sweetheart on the

weekend you are set to marry another woman (who
is spoiled, selfish, and cruel to others). Your best
friends work earnestly to thwart the wedding and
convince you that your first love is the right one for
you.
15. You are a stand-up comic, and have spent most of
your life making people laugh. You were on the
verge of signing a major television deal to have your
own prime time comedy show, when tragedy
struck and you found yourself struggling to laugh
again. Then you meet someone who changes
everything.
16. You never learned to swim, but signed up for adult
swimming lessons despite your misgivings. Your
instructor is a drill sergeant-type who seems to
think you're training for the Olympics, but the only
other student helps lighten the mood. You begin to
grow fond of the student.
17. You meet your online dating match at a craft
brewery, expecting a face that looks nothing like
the profile picture. But when you lock eyes it's
electric and you talk for hours. You start to think
he has relationship potential…but then he tells you
about his extensive doll collection.
18. You are a dog walker with little interest in anyone
with fewer than four feet. Your new client, the
handsome owner of a goofy, flatulent French
114 Prompts

bulldog, changes all of that when you begin to bond

over your loveable new charge.
19. You just scored a spot on a major competition TV
show that makes its participants do the craziest
things. You're partnered up with a handsome but
over-confident stranger who, you decide, you
instantly despise. Can you work together to win the
day and the huge prize?
20. You're a single mom who works two full-time jobs
to make ends meet. The new manager at your
second job asks you out on a date. He's hot, kind,
and perfect, but your son hates him and shows that
in many humorous ways. Will love blossom or
wither under his disapproving gaze?

Contemporary

1. You're a publicist secretly in love with your famous

client, but his agent thinks you should cook up a
story about him and his co-star to generate buzz for
their upcoming movie. This involves arranging
dates and photo ops for the two of them, but you
can't help but notice he seems more interested in
you.
2. He's a writer who has bestsellers and movies based
on those bestsellers, but he has run into horrible
writer's block. You're an adventure guide and you
know exactly what he needs for his inspiration to
return.
Prompts 115

3. An intriguing character across the beer garden

keeps staring at you and finally walks over. "Ten
euros," the stranger says, putting a freshly sketched
portrait of you on the table. It's a good likeness. You
wonder why the artist chose you as a subject. You
reach for your wallet, saying, "Only if you stay for
a drink."
4. You love them both, but they're married, to each
other.
5. You're a teacher, and you get a new student in your
class – a shy little girl who needs some extra help
with reading. You offer to tutor her after school,
and you discover that she lives with her divorced
father, who is struggling to balance single
fatherhood with his work as a police officer. You
offer to help out where you can, and romance
blooms.
6. You are a successful singer, a tabloid favorite and a
judge in a national TV singing contest. An
attractive and charming contestant fails badly
during his performance. You want to approach him
and express your feelings but you are afraid of
negative attention from the press like last time. Yet
you have to do something or you'll never see him
again.
7. While visiting your grandmother in her nursing
home, she tells you that her high school sweetheart,
who broke her heart by marrying someone else
116 Prompts

before she met your grandfather, just moved into a

room down the hall. One day, you meet the man's
grandson, who has been told a different version of
what happened between them. You compare notes
over lunch, and as you fall in love, you help your
grandparents rekindle their own romance.
8. You work in a corporate office in a mid-level
professional position. One day, you accidentally
receive an email from the VP, the son of the
company's CEO, that's meant for someone else with
your last name. Then, you begin an ongoing email
correspondence wherein you begin to develop
feelings for each other.
9. The quiet guy who lives next door to you hardly
seems to notice you, but you can't help but notice
him—he's gorgeous. You've given up all hope of
striking up a conversation until he comes to your
rescue one night after your ex shows up to your
house, drunk and looking to take you back,
whether you want him or not.
10. Attending preschool functions as a single dad
makes you the only man in a romper room of
pretty, attention-starved, flirtatious moms. Their
playground games range from helpful and sweet to
saucy and brazen. You must choose between your
desires and what is best for your kid.
11. You are instantly attracted to the well-dressed
person sharing your elevator, but could never think
Prompts 117

how to initiate a conversation. So the two of you

ignore each other as the elevator pumps up New
York's Chrysler building. Slowing to a stop on the
117th floor, there's a blackout!
12. You're already having the worst day ever, and a
fender bender on the way to an important client
meeting is the last thing you need. Even the
attractive guy you hit doesn't cheer you up…until
he does.
13. You were in love with him since high school but he
never returned your feelings. You get happily
married and get a job as a flight attendant. During
one of your business trips you spot him on board,
handsome and clearly impressed by the new you.
He actually asks you out when landing.
14. You're an up-and-coming chef whose culinary
talent is getting a lot of attention in your city. You
agree to compete on a new cooking game show that
will give you national exposure and possibly prize
money that will help you fulfill your dream of
opening your own restaurant. But you are shocked
to discover that your competition isn't just any old
cook, but rather a charming, cocky, talented sous-
chef you might have met before. Although you try
to hide it from the producers, it's obvious that you
two have history and chemistry off the charts—and
the competition has just gotten that much more
complicated.
118 Prompts

15. You own a flower shop, and every week for the past
year, a handsome guy has come in to order a dozen
roses to be sent to his girlfriend. One day, another
man comes in to send a dozen roses…to the same
woman. Now you are left with a dilemma: tell the
first customer, or let him find out on his own.
16. You are on a blind date, and the guy turns out to be
a total jerk. Increasingly uncomfortable, but too
polite to get up and leave, you are grateful to be
rescued by a handsome stranger who comes over
and gives you an out.
17. You've given up on looking for love, burying
yourself at the office as only an accountant at tax
time can do. Poring over a client's receipts, an
irresistible portrait emerges: scuba trips to your
favorite island, charitable contributions, and other
proofs of values you treasure. On paper, this person
is your soulmate.
18. A recently divorced woman leaves New York to
move back to her hometown. Depressed and
unhappy with small-town life, she has a change of
heart when she meets someone from her past – and
can suddenly imagine a future again.
19. You'd never have an affair with a married man,
except he promises he is divorcing his wife. When
you see them together at a gallery opening you are
faced with stunning realization. You look identical
Prompts 119

to her, except that you're twenty-five years

younger.
20. Moving into the retirement community felt like
taking a seat in heaven's waiting room. Then who
should roll up in a golf cart? Under the gray hair
and wrinkled skin, you recognize the twinkling
eyes of your high school crush.

Fantasy Romance

1. Growing up, there was a knock on the door every

year at midnight on your birthday. With everyone
sound asleep, you would always go and check who's
there, only to be met with nothing. On your 20th
birthday, the knock happens as usual, but this time
someone is standing in front of you. It is the
handsome man from your nightmare last night—a
person who wielded powerful magic and saved you
from a dark being during your dream. You hope
that your dream was not a premonition.
2. As a child, a bluebird would leave small gifts of
pebbles, flowers, feathers, and scrap metal at your
window. Years later at a gallery opening, you come
across a handsome and mysterious mixed media
artist whose compositions featuring pebbles,
flowers, feathers, and scrap metal are intriguingly
familiar.
3. It is said that when the world eventually falls into
darkness, there will be one who will come from the
120 Prompts

light to lead humanity out of it. You. You are the

Prophecy, an angel who is the sole salvation for the
human race. You have been under constant threat
of destruction. Demons and dark forces hunt you
endlessly. It is a battle just to survive. However,
when a demon corners you and confides in you
instead of attacking, you lower your weapon and
listen. "You are wrong about all of this," the
handsome demon states. "The Prophecy foretells
that you will be the cause of humanity's downfall.
All humans and demons will perish, and angels will
rise in their place. What your brethren has told you
has been a lie. Join me, and together we will make
our own destiny together."
4. Laid off from your job, you come home early to find
your fiancé sleeping with your so-called best friend.
To top it off, your great-aunt has passed away. You
haven't seen her since you were a child, but you
receive a letter from a solicitor notifying you of her
passing and that you are her sole beneficiary. To
what, the letter doesn't state, only that you have to
appear for the reading of the will in person. You've
never been to England, but now is as good a time as
any. Your great-aunt lived a full life, if not a little
bit eccentrically. She left you everything, including
the estate, but with a catch: For the will to be
permanent, you have to find the Trinity Stones
within your great-aunt's manor. The story is that
Prompts 121

the queen, jealous of her step-daughters' beauty,

stole the stones and trapped the young princesses
inside. Find the stones, and you free the sisters. The
folklore is as old as the house. Nevertheless, you are
determined to find them, and you have the help of
the attractive young solicitor, who feels duty-
bound to help you search for them.
5. In a world where elves rule the forests, dragons rule
the skies, and giants rule the plains, humans are left
to fend for themselves in mountain settlements
throughout the continent. As a princess of one of
these scattered settlements, you have always
wanted to venture out of your homeland, but your
father, the king, forbids it. When your father falls
deathly ill, you are finally granted your wish as you
must travel into the forest to find an elven wizard
rumored to have healing powers. The journey is
difficult, and you encounter troubles along the way.
You find the wizard, but he is different than what
you had imagined, and he has requests you must
follow if he is to heal your father. The first request
is a kiss.
6. If you could have any superpower, what would it
be? On Earth, such a question is a game. On Planet
Desalia, it's reality. Everyone gets to choose their
magical power on their 18th birthday. You choose
invisibility and quickly start a one-sided
relationship with a love interest you follow around
122 Prompts

town. Things get awkward when your love interest

chooses the power of x-ray vision and confronts
you about following her.
7. On your eighteenth birthday, you notice
unexplainable things happening around you.
Objects seem to move if you squint at them. Faint,
golden sparks seem to shoot from your fingertips.
Dreams of a handsome stranger with violet eyes
plague you at night. At first, you chalk it all up to
your imagination, but a week after your birthday,
the mysterious stranger from your dreams
approaches you and reveals that you are a high-
born fairy who was hidden in the human world as
a baby for your protection. You are now coming
into a powerful arsenal of magic and are destined to
be the ruler of a fairy kingdom that will fall apart if
you continue residing in the human world.
8. In your universe, the Gods are approachable beings
with whom anyone can converse and interact.
Following a devastating break-up, you call upon the
Gods for the power to prevent tragedy in your life
and are bestowed the gift of immortality and
magical power, making you the first sorceress in
your world. Local townsfolk are afraid of your
powers, however, and you must hide from a mob
hellbent on burning you at the stake. When a
handsome warrior hears of your plight, he comes to
Prompts 123

your aid, protecting you from those who think that

magic is inherently evil.
9. You are a royal in the 1560 Danish court and in love
with a beautiful woman who rejects your feelings.
You obtain a magic potion that makes the drinker
love the first person he or she sees. You plan to use
it on her but her sister drinks it by mistake.
10. Desperate for tuition money, you stumble upon a
flyer for a drug trial. Three weeks, easy money.
Most likely you will get the placebo anyway, but
even if you don't, there shouldn't be any lasting
effects. Unfortunately, they lied. You wake up, but
you aren't you anymore. Given your new
shapeshifting abilities, the scientists who
administered the drug trial perform experiment
after experiment to see just how far your powers
can go. Desperate to escape, you enlist the help of
another captive with similar abilities. You find that
you can speak telepathically to her, and together
you plot your escape. As you work together, you
discover there is more to her than meets the eye.
Her father, a magical shaman from a far-away land,
is behind the development of the drug. Now you
have to decide if the woman you've fallen for is to
be trusted or will eventually betray you.
11. You live in a realm where magic exists alongside
modern life, but everyone can't see it. You have
seen it all of your life while your romantic interest
124 Prompts

thinks it's all silly and your imagination. Then he

sees something he can't un-see and finally believes.
12. Your life is anything but ordinary. You are a dream
walker and one of the last of your kind. Gifted with
the ability to enter into the dream realm, you are
hunted by both those who believe you are an
unholy aberration of the Divine Right and the
Shadow Terrors, who want to exploit your abilities
to bestow death and destruction to all that is good.
Your only hope to survive is to join forces with
Ranger, a dark and dangerous wanderer who shows
no allegiance to any faction and only looks out for
his own personal gain. So why would he help you?
13. Raised in an orphanage, you know nothing of your
magical heritage. However, when you reached the
age of maturity, you discovered that you possessed
the powers of both the light and the dark. You don't
know how your dark powers came to be, but they
could get you killed by the magical enforcers: a
group sworn to remove black magic from the
world. That's why you fled the orphanage in the
dead of night and never looked back. You survived
on the streets, using your wit and your grit as well
as a little bit of your dark powers, but only when
absolutely necessary. Now an adult, you still remain
in the shadows, keeping to yourself. One fateful
night you stumble across an attempted murder. You
refuse to watch an innocent man be killed. With no
Prompts 125

choice but to use your dark powers, you save his

life. Little do you know that the handsome man you
saved is, in fact, a magical enforcer.
14. As a fairy, you live in a hidden kingdom deep
within woods. Most of your kind grow wings when
they reach puberty. However, yours never grew.
Now 20 years old, you are shunned by both family
and friends. You watch sadly as the rest of your
generation takes flight and chooses their mates
while you are left on the ground, with no one to
share your heart. Dismayed, you leave the kingdom
and go elsewhere, hoping to find a wingless mate
who will accept you. While on your search, you
find a fairy who lost one of his wings during a
battle. You aren't sure how he feels, but you
instantly fall for him.
15. He's been your protector for years. Having come of
age, you are now expected to ascend the throne as
demon Queen of the Underworld, but you want
him by your side. Although you've loved him since
you were a teenager, he only sees you as his
charge—his duty, nothing more. In order to fully
ascend and claim what's rightfully yours, you must
be mated by midnight of the next equinox. You
only have two months to prove to this man that
what you feel is real and that he is meant to be your
life mate so you can rule the Underworld together.
126 Prompts

16. Seven years ago, your older brother disappeared

during his Trials of Espial, a quest each mage who
comes of age must take to receive the ordainment
of their magical order. Now it's your turn. You can
choose to follow the same path as your brother, or
you can carve your own path. No one would fault
you for moving on. Regardless of which path you
choose, you are granted the accompaniment of a
spirit guide. Choose your own path and you are
granted Sylindra, a soft-spoken white mage who
has been your best friend since you were children.
Choose to follow in your brother's footsteps and
you must put your trust and your life in the hands
of the same handsome and enigmatic spirit guide
that failed to protect him.
17. Betrayed by your own brother, you are cursed by a
spell from the ancient tomes you were sworn to
protect. Now branded with the mark of the
Serpent, you are cast out from your clan and
banished from your beloved country. As you
wander the outer lands, you hear rumors of a
powerful sorceress with the knowledge of the curse
that lives within the caves of the Hindral
Mountains. You venture there and find that the
sorceress is a young and beautiful maiden. After
hearing of your plight, she vows to help you
remove the curse. However, the ingredients for the
Prompts 127

cure lay deep within the caves—deeper than even

the sorceress has dared to venture.
18. You're from a realm where all beings have the gift
of seeing others' aura. You meet a man who has no
aura at all—something you've never encountered.
Then you learn why and can't help but to love him
for it.
19. You're a witch from a centuries-old powerful
coven. Except, you have no magical powers. Or at
least, no way of accessing them. Until you meet a
dangerous vampire, who tells you he can help you
unlock your powers…if you'll become his
permanent blood-snack.
20. As a demonic angel-hunter, you do not know the
difference between right and wrong. You have
been raised and trained from birth to kill those in
the white robes, but then one captures you before
you can kill him. He makes it his mission to change
you, and over time your demonic features recede.
Hate and rage are replaced by kindness and
understanding. Your dark red scaly skin becomes
human-like in appearance. When your horns fall
off, your angel captor decides to release you. Yet
you refuse to go, as your love for him has blossomed
during your transformation. You know that other
angel-hunters will pursue him once they learn
what has become of you, and you become
128 Prompts

determined to defend yourself and your love from

these demonic forces.

Gothic

1. On the moors of England in the 19th century, you

take a job as governess to the small children of a
reclusive lord. The lord tells you the rules of the
house, including that it is forbidden to enter the
east wing; indeed, the door to that section of the
house will always be locked. One day the children
run away from you. You look for them and
eventually hear them on the other side of the east
wing door. Unable to open it, you ask the handsome
groundskeeper for help. He uses his skeleton key to
open the door, and you find only a dark corridor on
the other side. The children suddenly appear
behind you. You ask them where they were, and
they tell you that they were playing in the kitchen.
Then the groundskeeper pulls you aside and warns
you that this house is not what it appears to be, and
you should be wary of your surroundings. Just as he
finishes his warning, the east wing door slams shut.
2. Many years ago, you were invited to stay at your
uncle's castle. Although you didn't like it at first,
the place grew on you and, eventually, you couldn't
think of any other place that you would like to live.
Today, a new guest arrives at the estate, and you are
excited to see him. It has been a long time since
Prompts 129

someone has visited. His clothes are somewhat odd,

yet you find him quite attractive. You began talking
to him, but he just ignores you. You follow him
from room to room, but he doesn't seem to care as
he is busy measuring the walls. When you have had
enough—you are a duchess, after all, and no one
should treat you so rudely, no matter how cute they
are—you confront him, cornering him in the
kitchen, grabbing his shoulders, and yelling, "Can
you hear me? What is your problem?!" His eyes go
wide as if he's looking at a ghost.
3. As you walk through the abandoned castle, you
have a strange feeling that someone is watching
you. Then, up ahead, you see a painting on the wall
of a fine young gentleman from the 1800's. As you
look closer, you notice that the eyes of the
gentleman are following your every movement.
You stand there and stare at the painting, petrified
with fear. Then, one of the eyes winks at you.
4. A year ago, your sister married a wealthy man who
seemed a bit strange to you. After the wedding, her
new husband whisked her away to his stately
mansion by the sea, and you haven't seen her since.
At first, she sent you letters, but gradually the
communication became less and less. Now it's been
a couple months with no communication from her
at all, and you're worried about her. You set off to
find her, bringing the handsome young man who
130 Prompts

was always your sister's best friend as your travel

companion. When the two of you arrive at the
___location where you thought she lived, you find that
the mansion has been abandoned for years.
5. Ever since you were a child, you've loved the big
old house on the outskirts of town. You dreamed of
living there and obsessed over every detail of the
house. Your second-grade teacher was even
concerned about your obsession, especially
considering that every picture you drew in class
was of that large house on the hill. As an adult, you
come into some money, so when the house comes
on the market, you quickly call up the seller and
agree to buy it. It is what you always wanted, and
now you can finally live there and slowly renovate
it over time. The man selling the house recently
inherited it from his deceased grandmother. When
he gives you the keys, he tells you that the house
has a funny effect on people, so he'll stop by to
check on you later. You find him a little odd, but
charming in a sort of endearing way. Yet that night
you begin to understand what he meant when you
hear a whisper coming from the hallway. You get
out of bed and put your ear close to the bedroom
door, but all you can make out is: "Welcome home.
We missed you."
6. You are moving to a large house in the South to take
care of your aging grandmother. Once there, you
Prompts 131

encounter family secrets and lies that have torn the

family apart, along with your childhood sweetheart
who helps keep you safe when the secrets turn
deadly.
7. "Speak softly love," he whispers in your ear. But
when you turn in surprise, there is nothing there
but a bust of a handsome young man staring back at
you. You continue walking down the dark corridor.
8. The train you're on to travel across England
suddenly derails and crashes. Luckily the young
man you've been sitting next to and chatting with
during the entire trip saves your life, but then he
vanishes. When you ask about him later, you're
told there was no passenger by that name or
description on the train. You return to the scene of
the crash, looking for any clues about his identity,
but after several unfruitful hours, you walk back
toward your car, frustrated and tired. From the
parking lot, you see the ruins of a castle in the
distance and notice the young man standing in
front of it. You rub your eyes and look again, but he
is gone. You decide to investigate further.
9. You've purchased an old house that's on the
historic registry and needs a lot of work. As you
uncover its years of use and abuse, you find
messages on the walls that appear and disappear,
even though you're the only one living there. You
132 Prompts

ask a nearby handyman for help in deciphering the

mystery and romance ensues.
10. You're a reporter investigating claims of violent
crimes inside the ruins of an old house on the
outskirts of town. Before you go, your father insists
that you bring along a police officer he knows.
After you begrudgingly agree, you meet up with
this officer outside the house. You and the officer
scale the chain link fence that surrounds the
property and open the front door. The interior is
surprisingly clean. There is no graffiti, no dirt, and
not even a smidgeon of dust. There was just empty
room after empty room with the occasional piece of
furniture blanketed with a white cloth. You make
it to the second floor and find an antique full-length
mirror in one of the bedrooms. As you gaze at it,
you notice in the reflection that the officer is
walking around behind you. The guy is pretty
attractive. Maybe you'll invite him for drinks after
this. You look back at yourself in the mirror, but
you don't see your reflection. Suddenly, a sheet that
covered the bed behind you grabs the officer by the
ankle and drags him under the bed. You turn
around and the officer is gone.
11. A few years ago, your friend and her husband
decided to buy a 300-year-old castle in Ireland to
renovate it from the ground up. You thought they
were crazy. "If I sold my company," you thought,
Prompts 133

"the last thing I would do with that money is make

a spooky castle my home." Now their castle
renovation project is complete, and they invite you
to fly over and check it out. Of course, the property
is stunning. It seems like they spared no expense.
After looking around the first floor, your friends
invite you into the basement to see their wine room
and to have an impromptu wine tasting. You agree
wholeheartedly, needing a break from the "look at
all of the pretty things I have" tour. As you sip your
first glass, you feel woozy, then suddenly collapse.
You wake up and find yourself chained to the wall.
On the other side of the room is a man in his 20s.
"What's going on?" you ask. He responds in an Irish
brogue: "I was one of the contractors they hired.
They didn't want to pay my bill, so they put me in
this dungeon." He points to a key close to you. "If
you can reach that somehow, we can get out of
here." "But why are we here?" you ask. "Because the
castle feeds on our suffering."
12. They say that these old ruins are haunted. That no
one should ever go there at night. Well, after your
girlfriend goes missing, you go to that place. The
one place that everybody said was the last place you
should look for her. You hope to find your love, but
you may find more than you bargained for.
13. You have been having sleepwalking episodes ever
since you moved into an old fixer upper and you
134 Prompts

constantly wake up exhausted. You install a camera

and try to see what you do while you are asleep.
You are surprised to discover you have been going
out of your bedroom and having a relationship with
a mystery man that appears to live in your house.
Who is he?
14. You whisper to him that he is the love of your life.
He backs away, looks into your eyes, and tells you
that no one has been alive here in over a hundred
years.
15. You travel to England and stay in a castle that's
been converted into a B&B. You enjoy your time
there and find the other guests downright
charming, especially the man you bumped into in
at the airport who surprisingly was staying at the
same B&B. One day at breakfast, one of the guests
starts chatting about how he used to be a
lamplighter in Bristol. "A lamplighter? You must be
well over a hundred years old, or maybe electricity
isn't in fashion in Bristol," you joke. All of the
guests at the breakfast table suddenly stop what
they are doing to stare at you. Then, the lady who
runs the B&B slowly approaches and whispers in
your ear: "You are upsetting my patrons." You
apologize and get up to leave, but she pushes you
back down into your chair. "I'm sorry, love, but
leaving is not an option." The room goes black. A
person from the other side of the table lights a
Prompts 135

match. It is the handsome man from the airport.

You ask what is going on, but he knows as much as
you do. Together you look for a way out.
16. When your great aunt from Scotland passes away,
she leaves her old castle to you. As the castle in in
disrepair, you plan to fix it up to sell. You aren't
prepared for the ghosts of your aunt's past that you
find there, or discovering her mysterious romantic
history.
17. You visit a beautiful old hotel near the sea that has
been rumored to be a home for ghosts searching for
their unrequited love. While there, you encounter
a handsome ghost hunter who is there to speak
with his grandmother, who has been dead for 15
years.
18. After your fiancé up and leaves with no trace, you
go through the usual process: disbelief, grief, anger,
and, finally, something sort of acceptance. You
return all the wedding gifts you'd already received
and cancel every part of the wedding that you can,
but the wedding venue—a castle that hidden in the
hills of Scotland—refuses to return your money.
You've paid in full to ensure that yours was the first
wedding scheduled after the castle was renovated.
You decide not to waste the money, wedding or no.
But when you arrive at the grounds, it looks
nothing like the pictures. It is decrepit and dirty,
and when you venture inside, it's completely
136 Prompts

empty. The castle is straight out of a nightmare.

You hear a noise. Convincing yourself it is the
owner who can answer your questions, you follow
the sound down a flight of stairs, then two, and
then you hear the crystal-clear sound of a voice
saying your name. But not any voice—it's him,
your fiancé. You race after him, desperate for
answers, when suddenly the door slams shut
behind you and the lights go out. You scream, and
from the dark corner someone begs you to be quiet.
"They'll hear you," he says. You scramble away and
trip over something firm. "Who?" You question.
The man you still can't see lets out a shuddering
breath. "The monsters that live here."
19. While you are attending an elegant soiree at an old
mansion, a servant runs out of the kitchen
screaming that the house is on fire. You turn to run,
but you can't find a way through all the people and
smoke. Just as part of a wall is about to fall on you,
a handsome stranger saves your life, sacrificing his
own in the process. Afterward, the stranger appears
to you in your dreams and begs you to come back
to what is left of the mansion.
20. During the Victorian era, a man has been falsely
accused of murdering his neighbor. His wife,
desperate to prove his innocence, conducts her own
investigation into the crime. Venturing into the
castle ruins where the murder took place, she finds
Prompts 137

both clues and assistance from the long-dead

residents of the castle.

Historical

1. You are a governess and you accept a position

working for a Russian noble family. You have never
ventured outside of your hometown in England, let
alone the Russian Empire, and the head of this
family is known for being a cantankerous and
disagreeable baron who makes life difficult for
anyone around him. It is anything but easy at first,
but the young children quickly capture your heart.
Over time, so does the baron.
2. It's 1692 and you have been accused of practicing
witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. You fear for
your life as no one believes in your innocence
except the kind, handsome deputy constable. He
helps you escape, and the two of you flee through
the New England wilderness with the Salem
authorities in hot pursuit, falling in love along the
way.
3. You have always been good at selling yourself.
While others shy away from social engagement,
you jump right in feet first. You never miss an
opportunity to make a business connection or
perhaps convince some young ingénue that you are
the next best thing to John Gilbert. One day you
realize that, if you can scam that Texas oilman
138 Prompts

magnate you met last week into giving you a big

pile of cash, you can use that money to convince an
upper-class woman that you come from old
European money. Then you can marry into wealth
and be set for life. You'll have to change your name
and adopt an accent, of course, but that's no big
deal. After a few months of joining clubs, going to
the right parties, and being seen with the right
people, you shoot up the New York City social
ladder. But now your money is running out. If you
are going to make a move, you have to do it soon.
The best mark by far is the woman in the red
flapper dress you bumped into last week. She is the
heiress to an overseas publishing empire and took a
keen interest in you during that party. After a few
get-togethers, your romantic efforts are successful,
and you are on the fast track to marriage. However,
when you happen upon her birth certificate in a
lockbox you picked, you discover that she is as
common as you are. Basically, she is playing the
same game as you. You should be disappointed, but
somehow this makes you fall for her instead.
4. A year after the end of the American Civil War, the
situation is still tense among the families in your
small town along the Mason-Dixon line. Some
families chose to ally themselves with the North,
and others with the South. Your childhood
sweetheart fought for the Confederacy at the
Prompts 139

behest of his father and came home a changed man,

sullen and silent. As a staunch supporter of the
abolitionist movement, you are still angry about his
choices. Can you find common ground and learn to
love one another again?
5. You have just been formally introduced to society
through a grand debutante ball. Eligible suitors may
now seek your hand in marriage. Unfortunately for
your family, no one who has come to court you has
caught your eye. All of the men have been
distasteful, brutish, and self-occupied. You seek a
confident, daring person who embraces challenge
and adventure. When you find those qualities in a
newly hired maid, you decide to pursue her. Even
though you desire her, you know you must tread
lightly. If word got out, the repercussions could
permanently damage the status of both you and
your family.
6. You are the daughter of a colonial governor in the
Caribbean during the Golden Age of piracy. You
are kidnapped by a notorious pirate captain and
taken on a long sea voyage. At first, you are terrified
of him, but as you spend more time on the ship, you
begin fall in love. When your father sends his fleet
to bring you back home, you must decide if you
want to return to your old life.
7. At the turn of the 20th century, you meet a
someone who is unlike anyone you've met, and not
140 Prompts

given to following the rules of Newport high

society. A scandal leads you to fight to prove your
love's innocence.
8. You are an herbalist in the Middle Ages, trusted by
some in your village as a valued healer but reviled
by others as a witch. One day, a boy rushes up to
your house to tell you that a knight has been
thrown from his horse and is lying in at the edge of
the forest, barely alive. You bring the knight to
your house and nurse him back to health. He is
initially distrustful of you, but you fall in love
during his convalescence.
9. It is the dawn of the Age of Electricity, and
inventors and entrepreneurs from across the world
are working and competing with one another.
Seizing the opportunity to be at the forefront of this
technological revolution, you drop out of Harvard
to pioneer the development of alternating current.
To continue your pursuits, you seek outside
investment from wealthy individuals. One
successful businessman is interested in your
invention, but reconsiders after learning that your
business would be competing against the likes of
Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. His daughter,
however, still believes in you and your invention
and makes a simple proposition to rectify the
situation: Announce that you and she will be
betrothed, and her father will have no choice but
Prompts 141

to invest in your business. After a year, you can call

off the engagement. The idea makes sense, so you
go along with it. Little do you know that this tactic
would be the start of a true romance.
10. You've just set foot in the New World, one of the
first colonists to emigrate from England. Your love
was too ill to handle the trip and stayed behind.
You've agreed to send letters as often as the ships
can carry them. This is your love story in letters.
11. You run a Prohibition-era speakeasy, selling
bootleg Canadian liquor for a powerful organized
crime syndicate. One night you meet a beautiful
new customer, and you are smitten at first sight—
until you discover that she is the girlfriend of the
local mob boss. Acting on your feelings would put
both of your lives in danger, but are you willing to
take a chance on love?
12. A young, handsome prince has recently been
betrothed, but you, a servant in his father's castle,
have always cared for him. As wedding
preparations commence and the two of you grow
closer, he'll have to make a choice: you, or the
princess that will bring peace to both of your
kingdoms.
13. The Seneca Falls Convention is next weekend, and
you're all ready to go to show your support for the
congregating suffragettes. But your father forbids
you from going. He's against the movement and
142 Prompts

worries that, if you attend, it will fill your head

with the wrong thoughts. Without your father's
permission, you have no idea how you will travel
to New York without any money besides pocket
change. You bemoan your issue to your best friend,
a man a few years older than you that you've
known since you were both children. He offers a
solution: He'll accompany you and pay for the train
tickets and hotel room in exchange for a night out
on the town with him. You didn't think he had
feelings for you, and you are surprised by his ham-
handed approach. What surprises you even more is
your response: You say yes.
14. The Sultan singles you out from the other
concubines, summoning you to dance for him. It's
a terrifying honor, but your movements flow like
sea grass, pleasing his highness. Back at the harem,
however, his favorite mistress is raging with
jealousy. Pray his majesty calls you back before she
strangles you with a silk veil.
15. You are a young queen on the eve of your
coronation and the first female ruler of the British
monarchy. Your father passed away a week ago
from a mysterious illness, leaving you grief-stricken
and under the guidance of his closest adviser, who
is pressuring you to marry a nobleman of his
choosing. Rumor has it that the adviser had
something to do with your father's death, but no
Prompts 143

one will step forward with proof. Needing an

escape, you disguise yourself as a commoner and
sneak into town, where you stumble into a pub and
meet one of the palace guards. He doesn't recognize
you, and the two of you spend the entire night deep
in conversation that ends with a kiss. The next
morning at your coronation, you lock gazes with
the guard, and his eyes widen with recognition.
16. Traveling from Mexico to California to pick
walnuts in the early 1900's, you are taken aback
when the wealthy landowner catches you painting
in the grove after work one evening. Art becomes
your common ground, making room for friendship
despite the ethnic, class, and language barriers
between your two worlds.
17. You remember it like it was yesterday. When news
spread throughout Nantucket that the whaleship
Essex was attacked and sunk by a whale, you were
absolutely devastated. You hoped and prayed that
your husband was one of the survivors, but he
wasn't. After several of years of mourning, you are
determined to move on with your life. One day,
you catch the gaze of a wealthy local banker as he
pretended to be looking at a shop window. You
approach the shy man and strike up a conversation.
After a few months of smiles and laughter, he
proposes to you, and you eagerly accept. He is
nothing like your former love, but you still adore
144 Prompts

him and appreciate his warmth and kindness. On

your wedding day, you look out from your widow's
walk as preparations are being made downstairs.
Off in the distance, you see someone jumping out
of a boat and running toward your home. You
watch him as he nears, and suddenly you recognize
him as your former husband.
18. Your widowed mother and aunt pressure you to
marry into wealth, introducing you to the most
eligible suitors in Bruges society. You serve the
pompous dullards moldy cheese and stale bread to
express your disdain, lacking the courage to confess
your heart already belongs to the poor farmhand.
19. You don't have many options since your father
died. With a grieving mother and four younger
siblings to take care of, you leave home to work as
a maid for a wealthy nobleman who was recently
widowed. On your first day, the housekeeper warns
you that you must never engage with the master of
the house as he likes his privacy. Determined to
stay employed, you agree to follow the rules. One
morning while you are dusting the parlor, the
master enters the room and, before you can rush
out, asks you to stay and keep him company. He is
lonely and grieving, and you are young and
inquisitive. As the weeks go on, your bond grows.
You start to see him as more than the master of the
Prompts 145

house, and it is clear that he sees you as more than

just his maid.
20. You are trapped in an old shoe factory during the
Haymarket Riots, hiding from the gunfire outside.
When a wounded protestor stumbles in, bleeding
from a bullet wound to his shoulder, you find
yourself in a situation you never imagined:
nursemaid to an agitator. The more time you spend
with him, desperate to keep him alive, the more
you realize there's more than meets the eye—both
with the riots and with the man himself. Drawn to
his intensity, passion, and kindness, you can't help
but wonder what will happen when the fighting
ends and he can leave. Surprisingly, you find
yourself hoping that he won't.

Holidays

1. It's the dreaded annual holiday party at work,

complete with cheesy party games, forced fun, and
a bunch of people who would rather be doing
anything else. And, of course, there is a Secret
Santa. Last week, you drew the name of Bob from
accounting, who has the personality of a wet
blanket. You really hope he likes the pens and
pencils your grabbed during a quick trip to the
stationery store yesterday. When it is your turn to
open your Secret Santa gift, you plaster on a big fake
smile and open the box. To your amazement, you
146 Prompts

find a snow globe that matches the one you had as

a child but lost when you moved to college years
ago. How would somebody find this? Who knows
you this well? You look at the bottom of the snow
globe and find a small handwritten note: "I hope
you like this gift. It was difficult to find, but seeing
you smile will be worth it. From your secret
admirer." You look around the room, wondering
who it could be but are left in the dark. You just
hope that it isn't Bob.
2. On each of the 12 days of Christmas, you receive
extremely thoughtful gifts from a secret admirer.
You and your best friend search to find this mystery
person, but you soon realize that it was your best
friend the entire time.
3. Your brick-and-mortar toy story is on the brink of
closing down due to competition from big box
stores and e-commerce. You know that this
Christmas will make or break your business, so you
are willing to try anything this season to keep
things afloat. When the owner of the candy shop
down the road proposes a partnership, you jump at
the opportunity. He has been wildly successful over
the last few years, and now he is willing to let you
in on a few of his business secrets while promoting
your toy store to his pint-sized patrons. One day,
when you catch him glancing at you for a little
Prompts 147

longer than expected, you feel there is more to this

partnership than just business.
4. Your marriage ended on Christmas of last year, and
this year, you've vowed not to celebrate it. A new
romantic possibility changes your mind and you
have the most beautiful holiday imaginable.
5. It's Christmas morning and you head out to get
your family coffee and bagels for the present
opening like you do every year. The new barista at
the coffee shop is super cute, looking lonely and
unhappy to be working on Christmas. In a moment
of bravery, you invite him to Christmas dinner,
thinking he'll probably have plans with his own
family anyway. Well, he doesn't, and you have a
Christmas date!
6. You choose your own Christmas tree from the same
farm every year as part of a sacred family tradition
you've followed ever since you were a kid. This
year when you find the perfect tree, someone else
notices it at the same time from the other side of
the tree. You squabble over the tree, and the
argument becomes heated. After a lot of back and
forth, you finally give up and storm out of the farm,
driving away in a cloud of anger and sadness.
However, your feelings change the next day when
the stranger shows up at your house with the tree
in his pick-up truck.
148 Prompts

7. Your flight was cancelled due to the snowstorm and

now you can't spend Christmas with your family.
You're wallowing, watching sappy romances on
TV, and your Chinese food is on order. Who
would've thought that the Chinese delivery guy
would be your new holiday romance?
8. You're a contestant in a popular televised baking
competition and ready to wow the judges with your
amazing gingerbread Christmas cake. This year's
competition includes a twist: Competitors are
randomly assigned into pairs, and together you
must create one winning vision to take home the
top prize. Will sparks fly? Or will there be too many
cooks in the kitchen?
9. Christmas is one of the most romantic times of the
year, but can also be one of the loneliest. You join
a dating service offering 12 blind dates in
December. Will you find a date to your snobby
family's Christmas Eve party, where no one ever
shows up single?
10. You're shopping for Christmas decorations, so
excited to have your first Christmas in your own
house so you need a lot more ornaments and décor
than you currently own. But, being the klutz that
you are, you end up knocking over tons of
ornaments and displays, causing a Christmas
decoration massacre! Good thing the store manager
Prompts 149

seems more concerned with you than with the mess

you've made.
11. Five Golden Rings: You receive five Christmas
proposals from five equally matched suitors,
although each is unique in their own way. You've
been dating one of the suitors for a couple of years,
so you were expecting that proposal. However, the
other four are completely out of left field. Who will
win your heart this holiday season and
forevermore?
12. While snowed in at the airport on Christmas Eve,
you and the other passengers decide to throw a
makeshift holiday party. The airport shops and
restaurants are closed, so you and a few others
decide to raid the vending machines and grab as
many snacks as possible. A very nice traveler offers
the champagne that he bought from the duty-free
store a few hours ago. Another passenger offers a
fruit pie from his carry-on bag. One mysterious
passenger who seems reluctant to join in the fun
catches your eye.
13. This is the first Christmas you have celebrated since
your parents' divorce made you hate the holidays.
You meet someone else who has closed off his heart
to Christmas, and together you find a way to
rediscover the magic of the season—but you never
expect what comes next.
150 Prompts

14. When your dog goes missing on Christmas Eve, you

spend hours searching the neighborhood for her,
fearing what could happen if she's trapped out in
the cold. Late that evening, a stranger sees the flyers
you're posting near his home and tells you that he
has found your dog. He invites you in and you are
overjoyed to see your furry friend curled up next to
his fireplace. After a pleasant conversation with the
stranger, you decide to stay a bit longer to escape
the cold. You end up staying all through Christmas
Day as romance blooms.
15. Newly engaged and beyond happy, you are
preparing to bring your fiancé home for the
holidays to meet your family for the very first time.
So far, the two of you have had an idyllic
relationship, but the true test will come when the
parents and siblings come into the picture and
dredge up the past.
16. You're spending the holidays away from family this
year, having recently moved overseas to Japan.
Expecting your Christmas will be uneventful, you
plan to hunker down in your PJs and watch your
favorite holiday movies. However, you soon
discover that Christmas Eve is a romantic holiday
in Japan, similar to Valentine's Day, in which
couples spend time together and exchange gifts
(and, for some reason, eat lots of fried chicken). A
Prompts 151

new acquaintance asks you out, and you have your

first ever first date on Christmas Eve.
17. You're in charge of organizing this year's
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting. When
one of the singers scheduled to perform during the
show flakes out at the last minute, you scramble to
find a replacement. As you work through your
rolodex, finding that—not surprisingly—every
singer you know is unavailable, you worry that the
lighting will be a disaster. Then you find one person
who says he can be there in 15 minutes and pull off
an acapella performance—but only if you go on a
date with him. With no other options available, you
agree.
18. You're trying to get back to your fiancé for
Christmas but a major snowstorm prevents you
from flying. Luckily, a generous stranger offers to
drive you across country in his truck. The crazy
cross-country trip may be more than you two
bargained for when sparks begin to fly.
19. Sometimes love at first sight means via social media,
right? When you double tap the Instagram
promotion for a new holiday basket company you
never expected anything to come of it, let alone for
the owner of the company to message you…or to
spend all of Christmas Eve night chatting with
handsome businessman.
152 Prompts

20. You're boarding at a school overseas, and most

students are going home for the holidays. You can't
afford the trip, so you've decided to stay despite the
fact that you miss your family. A charming
classmate whose father is a teacher at the school
invites you to join him and his family for Christmas.
During the break, you relearn what Christmas, and
love, are all about from a new perspective.

Inspirational

1. You're a famous gospel singer, spreading the word

of the Lord with your God-given ability to sing.
Your gift has brought you around the world and
back again, but it's also brought you a busy and
lonely life. One day, you are overjoyed when you
accidentally bump into a member of your church
hundreds of miles from home. You talk about
memories of your hometown and, when he admits
that he has always had a thing for you, you smile
and tell him that you feel the same way. You
believe this was meant to be. However, your faith
and love are challenged when it is time to go to
your next gig. Will you stay with your one true love
or continue spreading the word?
2. You were a rebellious teenager who fell in with a
bad crowd far too young to understand the
consequences. After years of struggling with
addiction, you leave rehab looking for a new way
Prompts 153

to go about your life. You find resolve in your faith

and depend on the pastor of your church for moral
support. He knows everything about your past, but
still embraces you as an important part of the
community. One day while helping set up a food
drive, you bump into the pastor's son. You instantly
fall for him. However, you believe that the pastor
would never let you two get close as he knows too
much about your sordid past. At first you keep your
feelings to yourself, but over time things begin to
blossom between you and the son. You just hope
that when his father learns of your relationship, he
will have enough forgiveness in his heart to let your
love continue.
3. Your local church is about to close down due to a
lack of attendance. Although you have fond
memories of going as a child, you haven't gone in
years and don't really care what happens to the
church. But then your former Sunday school
teacher comes knocking on your door to ask for
your help in saving the church. He's much more
handsome than you remember, and you agree to
help him in order to get to know him more. What
you don't expect is to have your faith renewed and
your love for God come on as strongly as your love
for the new man in your life.
4. It's been a long journey from the small town where
you were raised to the big city where your
154 Prompts

burgeoning PR business is making a name for itself.

But there's one complication you never could have
planned for: the boy who shows up claiming to be
your son. When his mother rushes in after him, you
realize that, although you might leave your home,
it never really leaves you. The preacher's daughter
is as beautiful as she was at nineteen. You turned
your back on her and her faith when you left the
town ten years ago. But now, as you get to know
the son you never knew you had and re-meet the
woman you'd tried to forget, you realize that
sometimes God's plans for you are a little more
complicated than you'd ever guess.
5. A quiet stranger moves to town and joins your grief
group. As a widow, you're open about your
struggles and how the church has been there for
you. The new man never says anything but attends
every meeting and every Sunday service. Despite
his stoicism, you find yourself drawn to him. God
works in mysterious ways, you've learned, and
there's nothing quite as mysterious as the stranger
in your parish.
6. If there's one thing you know, it's that good faith
models after good practice. So you do your best to
always set a good example of the life you're meant
to live for your family and your community. But
when a betrayal comes to light and your marriage
is threatened, you have to ask yourself if you are
Prompts 155

sticking with tradition and good faith or following

your heart and what you believe God asks.
Although you know in your heart that faith trumps
family, you find yourself on the outskirts of your
community when your ex-husband refutes blame
and tries to sully your reputation. When it seems
impossible to come back, a new parishioner sees
you in a way you stopped thinking was possible
long ago. With his support, and your firm belief in
your mission, you learn that sometimes following
faith isn't the easiest path, but it is always the right
one—and that hearts can heal no matter how deep
the break.
7. You've found the love of your life but he is not a
Christian. Can you still follow the Bible and follow
your heart?
8. A deeply religious Christian couple fails to resist
temptation and engage in premarital sex. The next
morning, they are unsure how to deal with their
actions. The man is willing to ask God for
forgiveness. The woman is devastated, and doesn't
think they can continue their relationship. She
feels that she has failed God, and needs to find a
way to seek God's forgiveness and forgive herself.
9. You've never given faith much thought. You're not
exactly atheist, but you wouldn't claim to be
agnostic either. You're just uninterested. But when
an accident leaves you hospitalized until you're
156 Prompts

able to heal, you meet a nurse who cares for you,

holds your hand gently, and prays over you. You
wonder if there's more to this universe—and
yourself—than you ever knew. If there is, you
think she must be the key.
10. Your co-worker at the office is a quiet, kind, and
patient woman. Whenever your bosses give you a
tight deadline for a report, you cuss and swear but
she emails you links to useful data and
documentation for your report. When the delivery
guy gives you the wrong order, she shares her
homemade sandwiches. One day, your co-worker
hands you a box lunch that she had made just for
you. Already smiling, you open the box and find a
note: "God loves you, and so do I."
11. After an acrimonious divorce, you leave your
hometown to work overseas as a missionary for a
year. You meet another missionary who catches
your eye, but he doesn't speak your language. You
will have to find a way to bridge the
communication gap for love to grow.
12. You're a practicing atheist, which means you avoid
all churches, spectacles, and other religious
nonsense that rages on around you. But when a
freak storm traps you and the pastor in a cabin with
nothing but a fire and conversation, you realize that
things might not be as they've always seemed.
Maybe, just maybe, there's something to what the
Prompts 157

woman is saying. The light of day seems too bright,

and a promise to attend worship with her brings
doubt, but you've got to try. You realize that a
connection this deep has to count for something.
13. A handsome widower moves into town and
becomes active in the church as a channel for his
grief. You become friends and try to help him heal
and learn to love again. Friendship quickly turns
into romance; however, the widower's faith and
commitment are questioned when the father of his
late wife visits and learns of the budding romance.
His father-in-law believes that starting a new
relationship is disrespectful to his deceased
daughter. You must bridge the gap between these
two grief-stricken men and prove that the new love
you have established is not a betrayal of the late
daughter's memory.
14. After a lifetime of running from your family's
traditional expectations, you find yourself in the
one place you never thought you'd be: the
sanctuary of a church. You've got nowhere else to
go and no one to turn to—except, maybe, the one
thing you've been avoiding. The handsome pastor
promises to help you find your way again. You
slowly realize that sometimes the road less travelled
is the one you were always meant to go down. With
the promise of love, faith, and happiness on the
158 Prompts

horizon, you have to ask yourself: Can this be your

home now?
15. You are a successful career woman who's become a
bit jaded, returning to your old hometown to try to
find something you have lost along the way. You
run into a high school crush who is now an
unmarried pastor, and the reunion allows you to
reconnect as you find that some things never
change. This rekindled romance allows you to get
your old self back, finding that faith and love were
what you were missing all along.
16. Devout your whole life, you're dedicated to
preaching and spreading the gospel. But when a
new man moves to town with a dark and
mysterious past—and no patience for the
community you've built—you're faced with your
toughest challenge yet: love and cherish a man who
is against everything you stand for. With a burly
exterior and matching attitude, he tries to fight
against your efforts to draw him closer until
suddenly you both realize there's more at stake
than just a religious conversion. To be together,
there's always a give and take, but can you get
through to the man you're developing feelings for?
Or is love not in the cards?
17. You and your fiancé have been blessed to be
propelled on the path to missionary stardom after
being chosen as the fresh young couple to lead your
Prompts 159

faith in educating and welcoming youths across the

world. From brochures to posters to video
interviews, you and your love have become a
symbol of inspiration. However, the stress of public
life has been a constant challenge, and your
relationship with each other as well as with God
has suffered as a result. How will you handle the
fame and pressure that comes with spreading God's
word?
18. A difficult home life has led you to make choices
that have given you a bad reputation in your small
town. Embracing this image, you have grown into
a reckless troublemaker with a stony heart. At the
town's annual fair, you hear an angelic voice
singing a hymn that gives you goosebumps. You
follow the voice and discover it belongs to the
preacher's daughter, who you know is devoted to
her faith. You are the last man she'd be interested
in, but you can't ignore the attraction you feel to
her. As you pursue her, she challenges you at every
turn. Over time, your stony heart softens as the
light of her love and faith fill your life.
19. Despite being widowed a decade earlier when your
husband died of a heart attack, you're still sure of
three things in your life: family, faith, and football.
But when a football accident leaves your son in a
coma, you lose it all in an instant. As a single parent,
you spend all your time split between the hospital
160 Prompts

and work. You're angry with the coach, with the

other team, with God—and with a handsome
preacher who seemingly, infuriatingly, is
everywhere. From the hospital hallways to the
checkout line at the gas station, he's the one
constant you've got in the world while your son lies
unconscious in the ICU. The only problem? He
wants you to forgive. As your faith dwindles, the
preacher remains steadfast in his mission: to help
you see God's will in your life, even when it hurts.
As your son starts to heal, you realize it's not just
your family and faith healing. Your heart is healing,
too.
20. Your dance group rents out the church basement
for practice every week, but you've rarely ventured
above into the church itself. Religion has always
made you uncomfortable, and you generally avoid
it at all costs unless it is part of a wedding or a
funeral. However, a scheduling mishap, followed
by a desperate pastor looking for volunteers, leads
you to help out with the church bake sale. While
organizing the event, you meet a handsome
parishioner who challenges your lack of faith and
opens your heart to greater possibilities.

Military

1. You receive the news every spouse dreads: Your

wife is missing in action and presumed dead. The
Prompts 161

Chinook helicopter she was piloting crashed in

Zabul province within the Spin Ghar mountain
range. So far, no one can approach the wreckage
due to adverse weather conditions, but you can feel
that she's still alive, somewhere nearby that
___location. You are determined to find her, so you
gather your mountain climbing equipment and
take the next flight to Afghanistan.
2. You spent the last five years living through hell
together as soldiers, with only a few brief moments
apart. Now you're in your respective homes,
halfway across the country and you can't help but
think that what you had together might have been
something more.
3. Recently returned from war, you've been told by
the doctors that you might never see again. Then
you meet someone who seems more broken than
you are, and you unite in your shared pain to help
each other find meaning in a world that doesn't
make sense anymore.
4. Your boyfriend returns from war after suffering a
severe head injury that impairs his memory. He
doesn't remember you, despite the fact that you
have been in a relationship with him for more than
two years. You work with him day and night to
help him regain his memories, showing him
pictures and videos of his past and talking about
what you have done together. Nothing works, and
162 Prompts

he begins to question everything, believing that

you are some sort of spy assigned to interrogate
him. His conspiracy theories become increasingly
outlandish, and you start to give up hope. However,
one day, he remembers something from his past.
You are overjoyed when he remembers you and
your love, but when the memories of war begin to
terrify him, you must help him cope with a fear
that, until now, was in the deep recesses of his
mind.
5. When your spouse returns from Afghanistan, you
are elated. You were so fearful for his safety and feel
relieved that the worst is over. However, you are
unprepared for how much PTSD and culture shock
would isolate your loved one from everyone once
he returned home. You struggle to show your love
and find ways to connect.
6. You're a third-generation soldier, proudly
decorated and always ready to serve your country
and your people. After three tours in Afghanistan,
you barely think twice before signing up for a
fourth. But then you meet her. She's everything
you've ever wanted and a million things you never
even dreamt possible. As you prepare to ship out in
a week, the woman you love promises to write.
Unfortunately, when you arrive back on base,
things aren't quite as they seem. You discover a
conspiracy involving your commander and certain
Prompts 163

members in your regiment, and now you face your

most difficult challenge yet: Do you get in line, do
your work, and go to home to the one you love or
do you investigate your commander and find the
evidence that will expose the conspiracy? One
thing is for certain: If your commander discovers
your investigation, everyone in your life will be at
risk, including the love of your life.
7. You've been out of the military for ten years, a
civilian in all the ways that matter. But your life
lacks meaning—not from your lack of service, but
from the woman you left behind. She went missing
on your last mission, and you've never been able to
forget her. You never told her the truth, told her
that you loved her, and the mistake eats at you.
Even a decade later, it consumes you. One day you
open your door to find her standing on the other
side.
8. You are a young woman living near an American
military base in Japan during the post-WWII
occupation. You have met and fallen in love with a
handsome GI who wants to marry you and take you
to live in his hometown in Indiana when his tour
ends. You love him, but you are reluctant to leave
Japan and everything you have ever known. Things
get even more complicated when your family
threatens to disown you if you leave.
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9. It's a fairy tale romance: boy soldier meets girl

soldier on base, falls in love, and marries the girl.
You've been with your spouse for three years now
and, even though the war rages on and you're in
combat, you're together. Then a run-of-the-mill
raid goes sour, and your spouse is declared missing
in action. Before you can get any information,
you're called to the frontlines. Now you have a
choice to make: follow your duties and commander
or become insubordinate, abandon your post, and
search for your spouse. For you, it's really no choice
at all. You leave, with nothing more than a pack on
your back, while two armies continue fighting to
the death and you an enemy to both. Your spouse
might be dead for all you know, but one thing's for
certain: You're not leaving this place alone.
10. In WWI Russia, you believe your lover is going to
propose marriage. Instead he suddenly departs with
the army, leaving you with no plan for a future.
Should you embrace the nearest friend in this war-
torn world? Or wait, fanning the faint hope that
your true love is alive somewhere and will return.
11. You are a prosthetist working at Walter Reed, and
your newest patient is a hard case: a handsome
young veteran who lost both of his legs in a
roadside IED explosion. He is so depressed that he
can barely even look at you during his first
appointment, and he tells you that he hasn't felt
Prompts 165

like a whole man since losing his legs. As you get to

know him better, you begin to develop feelings for
him. You realize you want to give him more than a
new set of prosthetic legs. You want to give him
your heart.
12. The last thing you remember is being shot down on
the battlefield. When you wake up, you are
standing in the middle of a crowd of people with a
bomb strapped to your body and your hand
fastened to the trigger. You scream for help, but
everyone thinks you are a terrorist, except for one
woman, who sees the truth in your eyes. Together,
you seek help.
13. You sign up at eighteen. At nineteen, you leave for
special training. By twenty, you're the youngest
Navy SEAL on your team. They call you baby and
kid, but you don't mind because you know why
you're there: do the job, protect your country, have
your team members' backs. They have yours, too.
But then you're sent on a CIA covert operation
without them, with no one to have your back, and
you start to question just how you're ever going to
pull this one off. When all hope seems lost and you
question whether you will even be able to complete
your mission, you meet her. She's perfect—sweet,
pretty, and, best of all, the daughter of the man
you've been sent to kill. Perhaps she will be the
ticket to get you in the same room with your target
166 Prompts

so you can complete your mission. But when you

fall for her, you have to decide between your
country and your love.
14. A soldier home from deployment moves into the
house next door to you. He befriends your dog after
experiencing a PTSD panic attack one night. He's
closed off, but gradually opens up to you.
15. You receive word that your husband has been
injured and is in a coma. He is a POW in a country
where the Geneva Convention is an afterthought
and women have limited rights. Despite all of this,
you must reach him because you are a surgeon with
a significant amount of experience treating his
specific type of injury. You believe you and you
alone can save him. Against all odds, you weave
your way into the country so you can perform the
surgery before it is too late.
16. You wake up in the dark. Being one of the first
female soldiers to attend the Special Forces
Qualification Course, you thought you were ready
for anything. However, nothing has prepared you
for this. You remember that you were scaling a
ridge on a solo mission. Something happened, and
now you can't make out anything in the darkness.
As your eyes adjust, you see a man in the distance,
but you have no idea if he is a friend or foe. When
you hear his voice, a smile comes across your face.
Prompts 167

17. He's a handsome, recently-returned vet dealing

with PTSD and you're a nurse working at a VA
hospital. You grew up watching your father
struggle with his own memories of Vietnam and
always regretted being unable to help him. You
extend your hand in friendship, hoping you can
make a difference.
18. A sniper is part of a special security mission for a US
ambassador in a war zone. You're the ambassador's
daughter he can't help but fall for, no matter how
much distance he tries to put between you. But a
dangerous situation requires him to decide to save
you, or the ambassador.
19. You wake up one day, alone in the desert, with no
memories, no keepsake, and no name. The heat
only intensifies, and the questions follow suit, but
you never find any answers. You eventually decide
that it's okay to live like this, so you find a job, a
house, and a name that works well enough in a
village you've never even heard of before. Years
pass, uneventfully. Then one day you see him, and
a lifetime of memories rush back. Not all of them
are good. The love for your beloved is almost as
sweet as the biting pain from your time in the war.
To save a child and his pregnant mother, you defied
orders and became a criminal to your own country.
Do you go back to that life, with a man you love but
a history you'd sooner forget, or keep living the
168 Prompts

simple life you've built from the ground up? You've

always believed true love conquers all. Now it's
time to put that belief to the test.
20. You are the wife of a soldier who is missing in
action and presumed dead. His best friend, who
survived the war, offered you comfort and
companionship, and over time love blossomed. A
year later, you learn that your husband is alive and
is coming home. Now you must confess to him that
you have moved on—or have you?

Paranormal

1. You always thought of death as just a vast

nothingness, a rest that was eternal. When you
actually die, however, you find that this isn't the
case at all. You wake up—exhausted—and realize
that you're still on Earth. You're incorporeal, and
no one can see or hear you. You are a ghost. You
get over the shock quickly enough, and then
boredom sets in. In fact, you're absolutely out of
your mind with boredom. Years and then decades
pass as you roam the streets. One day, many years
after you first awoke to this pitiful excuse of an
afterlife, someone looks at you—not through you,
but at you. Then he speaks. He can see you. You're
determined to know why. As you get to know him,
for the first time in ages, you feel love.
Prompts 169

2. In a world of angels and demons, humans are a rare

commodity, and any who survived The Great War
are in hiding. Now, years after the war started, your
little brother has gone missing. The elders forbid
you from searching for him, claiming it is too
dangerous, too volatile. You leave anyway, only to
run face first into a handsome renegade angel, with
a sword in hand and death in his eyes. He sees your
desperation, your humanity, and promises you one
thing: He will help you on your journey or die
trying. With your brother missing and humans
being sold to the highest supernatural bidder, you
don't have time to be wary. It's you and one broken
angel against a whole world.
3. You are a busy bank clerk with no social life but a
great love for reading fiction. One day you read a
book about a fairy. As you keep reading, you find
yourself gradually falling in love with her. One day
she flutters into your bank.
4. You are a rich merchant in medieval England and
hire a servant girl to work in your shop. You fall for
her and plan to propose to her but rumors are she is
a practicing witch. You don't believe it until you
discover strange objects such as melted wax and
bird feathers under your bed.
5. You are a werewolf slayer whose duty it is to
protect humanity from the Lycan hoard. However,
you never anticipated that your true love would
170 Prompts

become the one thing you were trained to kill. You

didn't get to her in time, and she was bitten before
you could intervene. Yet the law is the law. She
must be slayed before she harms others. There is no
chance of her changing back. But you just can't
bring yourself to do it. Now you must protect the
one you were sworn to destroy.
6. You're used to a life of general monotony; after all,
being a vampire for the last two hundred years has
left you with a lot of downtime. You've perfected
most musical instruments, read every bestseller
ever, and are a pretty good woodworker now. But
no amount of hobbies can ever really fill your day,
and you're starting to feel the slow grind of
boredom even more acutely. Then, you meet him:
smart, funny, handsome, and, unfortunately,
human. He captivates you in a way that no other
human has in your two hundred years. You have to
be careful to not let your secret slip, to not let him
know the truth about you, but it's worth it for this
friendship—for the energy and life that he offers
you, just by existing. But when a tragic accident
occurs and he is injured with no signs of recovery,
you have to make an impossible decision: Do you
let him die a human death and lose him forever or
do you curse him to an afterlife that even you don't
want just so you can keep him in your life?
Prompts 171

7. A deep voice sings each night, a haunting song

unlike any you've heard at the recording studio
where you work. Each night, you listen and fall in
love until one moonless night you seek its origin,
finding a handsome ghost who wishes he had tasted
love before death stole him away.
8. It is hard for an aspiring witch when the black cat
you have loved for 10 years suddenly dies. While
burying him out in the garden, a spirit approaches
you, informing you that he has been trapped within
the cat for the entire decade. When you look closer
at him, you realize that it is your ex-boyfriend, who
disappeared during high school. Everyone just
assumed that he dropped out of school and ran
away. He was always the rebellious type, after all.
He tells you that there is a way to bring him back
to life as a human, but you'll have to dabble in some
black magic to make it happen.
9. Yes, you used to be in love with a vampire, but you
were just seventeen and emotions were running
high. You broke it off with him before you left for
college and, although it was weird to go back to the
real world, you knew it was the right thing to do.
But then students at your college begin to go
missing. Bodies are found on campus drained of
blood. When your roommate disappears and then
your new boyfriend, you've had enough. It's time
to put on some garlic, grab a stake, and end this
172 Prompts

relationship once and for all. You just hope you can
resist his irresistible charms.
10. When your fiancé is killed in a car accident, you
struggle to cope with the loss. One day, in a therapy
session, you do a role-playing exercise where you
speak with your fiancé and talk about the future
that you never got to share. After the session, he
follows you home and helps you grieve until you
are ready to let go.
11. You awaken handcuffed to your bed, with your
wife of 10 years standing over you wearing a
witch's hat. She is saying some sort of incantation
as she sprinkles something over your body. You feel
woozy and fall back asleep. When you wake up, it
is Saturday morning, and your wife greets you with
a big smile and a kiss. You have a hard time
remembering what happened last night, but
everything rushes back to you when you notice a
witch's hat stuffed into a duffel bag in the corner of
the bedroom.
12. Your elders have raised you to hunt vampires, who
are the closest thing to a demon that you will ever
encounter in this world. According to your elders,
vampires have no morality to speak of; all they
want is to feed. You are hard-wired to hate these
evil creatures, until you meet one and learn the
truth. They only drink the blood of those they want
to mate with, marking their territory. When one of
Prompts 173

them drinks your blood, the passion instantly runs

through your veins, and your life changes forever.
13. The love of your life is bitten by a werewolf and
doomed to spend his life turning at every full moon
each month. After consulting with a witch, your
love acquires the "cure," which he drinks just
before he turns. It "cures" him all right, trapping
him in the werewolf's body forever.
14. Something about the new guy in school intrigues
you. A loner yourself, you can't fight the magnetic
draw you feel to him whenever you lock eyes. One
rainy night, while driving home, lightning pierces
the sky, enveloping the new guy as he stands on a
hill. Worried that he may be hurt, you race up the
hill to find his body crackling with electricity. He
is overcome with emotion and reveals that he is a
Nephilim. The reason you feel connected to him is
because you have loved each other for years. His
father, the God of all Gods, wiped your memory to
keep you apart because it is prophesied that
together you will have a powerful child who will
rule the Heavens.
15. During a business conference in the Greek islands,
you hear a sweet and soft song floating on the air
from a distance. You walk down the beach,
following the sound, and find a woman in the water
beckoning you to come closer. You move closer
before sitting down on the beach to listen to her
174 Prompts

voice. Days pass and you become too weak to stand.

Nevertheless, you remained entranced by this
creature. Suddenly her singing shifts to crying, and
she tells you that, although she is the last of her
kind, she cannot bear to devour another victim.
You vow to help her, not knowing if the love you
have for her is true or is a result of the siren's curse.
16. It's the height of the witching hour, risky for an
ambush, but it's your job as a witch hunter to take
risks. Suddenly, you're frozen by magic. You see a
familiar face, only to hear, "I'm sorry. I do love
you." The world goes black.
17. You are new in town and determined to blend in
and keep a low profile. After securing a job at a local
coffee shop, you manage to convince everyone that
you are a normal human and not an incubus with a
dark past. When a human regular at the coffee shop
starts taking an interest in you, you can't help
falling for her. Just when you become comfortable
in your new routine, an unwelcome reminder in
the form of your succubus ex struts back into your
life. Before she can blow your cover, you must
reveal the truth about yourself to the woman you
love.
18. The night of a full moon is one that you dread every
single month. After losing your fiancé to a tragic
accident a year ago, you're wary of the moon and
the animals that seem to prowl each time it fills.
Prompts 175

The police call you hysterical in your grief, but you

know that something doesn't add up with the so-
called dog attack. Something happens in the woods
of your town each month, and you're determined
to find answers. You're alone in the woods when
you hear it: loud, vibrating howling, followed by
the sound of animals running toward you. You try
to run away only to trip, and then the dog is on you.
It's big, huge, a wolf like none other you've ever
seen. The wolf stops, a paw on your chest, staring
down at you. There's something familiar about its
eyes. Suddenly you understand. Contrary to what
the police told you, your fiancé's body wasn't too
shredded to identify because this wolf—somehow,
someway—is your fiancé. As the sun rises while
you sit there, staring at him, you see the wolf's body
ripple and change until your fiancé is sitting naked
before you. The only thing you hear before passing
out is him saying your name.
19. Working as a paranormal hunter is hard enough
without throwing romance into the mix, but when
a fairy you recently banished starts stalking you on
the job, you realize something has gone wrong. In
your overworked state, you messed up the
pronunciation of a single word that turned your
banishing spell into a binding contract of marriage
in ancient fairy lore. To break the unwanted union,
you and your new spouse must travel to the fairy
176 Prompts

world, where you encounter all the fairy you

banished—who now want revenge.
20. Your wife died just a year after you were married,
leaving you nothing but an empty house and
broken dreams. You are about to sell your house
when you see your wife's reflection in the
bathroom mirror. Days later, she appears again, this
time as a reflection in the bedroom window. She
speaks to you, saying, "I will never leave you. If you
open your heart to me again, I can come back."

Regency

1. Your father is one of many advisors to the Prince

Regent and, through him, you have access to all of
the upper-class gossip. You enjoy exchanging
information about the latest scandal with your
circle of friends. However, some are quite
displeased by what you are sharing and would like
nothing better than to get back at you for what you
have said. When your diary goes missing, you fear
that it will be found by someone you spoke against
and that you and your true feelings will be exposed.
Instead it is found and read by the man you have
been eyeing for the last few months, and things get
even more complicated than you expected.
2. You're a hopeless romantic. Although the ton can
be tiring and you're not exactly pleased to be on
your second season, you're trying to maintain a
Prompts 177

positive attitude. After all, your dance card is

always full, and you've received two separate
proposals. Thankfully, your parents agreed that
neither match was advantageous enough to warrant
your displeasure. But you've barely got a week left
of this season, and no one has your eye. You're
worried you'll be forced into a marriage that you
don't want just because you're aging out. One suitor
is nice enough, but there's no spark. Still, when he
asks for your hand, you feel forced to say yes,
deciding that perhaps a love story is just not in the
cards for you. Yet during one visiting, you meet his
cousin, the dashing Duke of Essex. The spark is
instant—as well as the trouble you find yourself in.
3. You have no desire to wed—now or ever—but your
mother has other plans. Tired of her constant
matchmaking and not-so-veiled "chance meetings"
with eligible ton ladies, you decide to go against her
wishes and embarrass her in the process. During
one of your mother's huge soirees, you propose to a
quiet mousy serving girl in front of everyone your
mother deems important. You have no intention of
actually going through with it, but hope the shock
of the fake engagement will end your mother's
ridiculous attempts. You never planned on actually
falling in love with the lass.
4. You are tired of the obligations that society places
on you, the Duke's daughter. Although you are
178 Prompts

already betrothed, you are still expected to attend

social events, which bore you to tears. You can
barely contain your irritation when forced to make
small talk and gossip with the other ladies of the
ton, who are still trying to find their perfect
matches. You are comfortable with your
engagement to the affable and amenable viscount.
He may not be the most urbane catch, but he is kind
and will take good care of you. You do not worry
that he is not a love match, like the other silly girls
dream of. You have no wish to be swept off your
feet with the silly feelings of romance. Then you
meet the viscount's brother. As dashing as he is
daring, he takes your breath away and makes you
second-guess your decision to settle for
comfortable.
5. Mistaken as a "lady of the night," you are accosted
by an English nobleman. You are able to fight off
his advances and end up knocking him out, but in
the process you lose your coin purse and your
footman runs off. Now you have no choice but to
"borrow" some coin from the brute who attacked
you to get a ride home. You tell no one about the
incident, as you are not supposed to be out
unaccompanied. Several weeks later, at a seasonal
ball, you see none other than the brute who
attacked you. Only now, you realize he is not riff-
raff, but one of the wealthiest men of the town, and
Prompts 179

he's interested in your hand in marriage! How do

you explain your aversion to the advances of the
most eligible bachelor in town without giving away
what happened? It doesn't help that his version of
events is that he was attacked and robbed, and now
the local authorities are looking to make an arrest.
6. You've grown up a child of old money, the second
child and only daughter of a long and dwindling
line of aristocrats. Your overprotective big brother
keeps you away from potential suitors. However,
you are smitten by his best friend, who often visits
to play lawn bowling. You begin to wonder if his
gaming endeavors are just an excuse to get closer to
you.
7. You are a middle-class silver-fork novel author,
fictionalizing aristocratic life for the masses. You
often pose as an aristocrat for research purposes,
getting gossip as a member of the inner circle. One
day your own "secret" affair becomes the talk of the
town. What will you do?
8. You have been dubbed the "Ice Princess" for your
unwillingness to accept any suitor's hand in
marriage—and there have been plenty. Many have
been excellent matches from prominent and
wealthy families, but you have not been even
remotely interested in any of them. However, time
is running out, and your father has finally put his
foot down, demanding that you marry to secure the
180 Prompts

family's position, both financially and in society.

Instead of giving you the option to choose, he has
now chosen for you, and his choice is none other
than your worst nightmare. This viscount has been
a thorn in your side since your first coming out
season. You've always found him to be quite high-
handed, arrogant, and utterly distasteful despite his
incredibly good looks.
9. Everything is going exactly to plan. Your three
daughters are all in season and are extremely
popular; their dance cards are always full, and
you've been approached for several proposals.
You're eager to marry them off—not because you
don't love them, but because you very much do.
When your husband died more than ten years ago,
you learned just how terribly lonely it can be
without a partner. You want your daughters to be
happy. You've given up on happiness for yourself,
happiness like that, but you're okay with your
decision because you know your daughters will be
happy. You've told yourself this so many times that
you almost believe it. Then you meet him. A
dashing rake with a reputation so big, it's stretched
all the way over to you. You warn your daughters
to stay away from him. He's older and likely
uninterested, but you can never be too safe. But
when you meet him, everything changes.
Prompts 181

10. You have spent the majority of your life living in

the shadow of your gorgeous and vibrant younger
sister Charlotte, who is everything your parents
had hoped you would be: beautiful, outgoing,
graceful—society's perfect darling. You, on the
other hand, are introverted and clumsy, and you
prefer to have your nose in a book rather than
interact with society's elite. When asked to teach
literature at an all-girls boarding school in
Dansbury, you jump at the chance. Out of society's
eye, you are free to be yourself without worrying
about what others think of you. Unfortunately, you
find that there is one person's opinion you can't
help but want to impress. Master William
Hattenburg, the dean of the school, has captured
more than just your attention. He has stolen your
heart as well.
11. It's your first season in London, and you're not sure
if you're more nervous or annoyed. The ton isn't
exactly your scene. Despite feeling ready for
marriage, you are uncertain you're ready for the
season of romance. You're tired of the preening and
the monotony, and you know the other girls are,
too, although they hide it better. The one exception
is the Duke of Essex's daughter. It's her third
season, which is almost unheard of for someone so
well-connected and beautiful. You find yourself
drawn to her. She sees through the same boredom
182 Prompts

that you do, and you are both surprised by the

instant connection. When an aristocrat offers her
marriage and she considers it, you're shocked by
your own jealousy. You wonder if you have found
love at the ton after all, but with her—a woman.
12. When your wife and child die during childbirth,
you vow to never marry again. What you had with
her was real love, not a marriage of convenience.
She was the love of your life. You close the manor
and send away all but the minimal staff possible—
you aren't able to look at any of them, watch them
mourn your wife as you do. When your wife's
cousin shows up in need of help, you want to turn
her away—you really do—but you can't. She comes
in and opens the curtains, and you hate her. You
hate her because she reminds you of your wife and
also because she's nothing like your wife. You keep
hating her until you don't. But can any amount of
feelings overcome the guilt?
13. With no family money to speak of, no title, and no
longer considered of marriageable age, you are
about to be cast out of the only home you've ever
known. Desperation forces you to decide between
options you never thought you would have to
consider: either work at the brothel as a common
prostitute or try to secure your place as a wealthy
lord's mistress. Selling the last of your family's
silver, you commission a dress for the final ball of
Prompts 183

the season—a masquerade ball. Without a formal

invitation, you must sneak your way in, but you are
determined to succeed as you have only this one
night to secure your future.
14. You've been a risk taker and gambler all your life,
only this time you've gone too far. At risk of being
stripped of your title and your wealth, you must
marry and rise to your position of responsibility or
be cast out by the family's matriarch. A determined
bachelor, you are not too keen on marrying, but
you have no choice. With your back against the
wall, you choose Constance Danvers, the quiet and
unassuming daughter of your father's long-time
business partner, mostly because you feel like she
would make a good and respectable wife. She
knows she is an unwanted wife, and the marriage is
strained from the very beginning. Only when you
face the greatest trials of your life do you realize
that your feelings for Constance are deeper than
you believed.
15. As a recent widower with two young children, you
aren't interested in finding a new wife. Your
mother, however, strongly disagrees and wants you
to remarry as soon as possible, securing an even
greater income for the family. From your
perspective, you have retained a curtesy in all your
late wife's land, so there is little need to remarry for
wealth. All you want is someone to care for your
184 Prompts

two young children, who are in desperate need of a

mother-like figure. When you request a nurse from
the agency, expecting a dour, middle-aged, no-
nonsense spinster, and are quite shocked when you
get quite the opposite: a young, whimsical, and
quite attractive woman. You are skeptical of her
abilities and her teaching methods are a little
suspect, but her credentials are impeccable, and the
children seem to love her from the start. Over time,
you find yourself drawn to her as well, rekindling
feelings you never thought you'd have again.
16. Despising the stringent restraints that being a lady
of society requires, you delight in exhibiting
reckless and audacious behavior at every turn to
spite your parents. You turn your nose up at the
suitors who wish for your favor, as you know they
do not have your best interests at heart. They only
want the dowry you bring. One night at a dinner
party you bump into a dashing young man who,
like you, wants nothing to do with high society and
openly mocks it whenever possible. Both of you
decide to team up and, over time, you fall in love.
17. As the youngest of seven sisters, you are told to wait
your turn for marriage, but you can't help but fall
for a handsome gentleman who comes to town on
business. You decide to pursue him even though
your mother has been eyeing him for sister number
five.
Prompts 185

18. You are the daughter of the Earl of Devonshire, a

once respected and sought-after man of wealth and
stature. However, a scandal has thrown his
reputation into disrepair, and you have almost
given up any hope of marriage until you meet the
impossibly handsome Earl of Castleberry, your
father's new business partner. The Earl is not just a
savior to your father's fortune and reputation; he is
everything you have dreamed a gentleman can be
and it looks like he has eyes only for you. However,
after you marry, you discover that your Earl has
secrets of his own that threaten to shatter not just
your trust, but also your heart.
19. It's been years since you've travelled to the city.
The last time must've been when you were
socializing at the ton to support your younger
sisters. You didn't find a wife in London, but that
didn't really upset you much as you are never going
to marry. You enjoy your quiet country life too
much. Even your mother has long since stopped
trying to convince you to find a bride and family.
Still, you dutifully support her and your unmarried
siblings, so when your sister comes to call and begs
you for help, you say yes, of course. Her husband's
cousin needs a place to hide from a laudanum-
addled ex-suitor and requests to stay with you.
Although skeptical at first, you can't turn the young
girl away any easier than you could tell your sister
186 Prompts

no. After all, it's not like it's going to change your
life if a woman lives with you—right?
20. Handsome, wealthy, and well-respected amongst
your peers, you are one of the ton's most eligible
bachelors in all of society. Known far and wide for
your shrewd business deals, cunning intelligence,
and irreproachable character, mothers and fathers
alike throw their eligible daughters at your feet.
Sure, they are all beyond beautiful and come from
respectable families, but you know their "desire" for
you is manufactured. Not a one strikes your fancy—
that is, until you meet the delightful and mysterious
Lady Midnight. She is both stunning and sassy and
ignites a flame within. The only problem is, she is a
courtesan.

Romantic Suspense

1. As a nature photographer out on an assignment in

the woods, you witness a man burying a body. You
snap a photo and quickly turn to leave. However,
you trip over a tree root, and the man hears you fall.
He drops his shovel to chase you. You run from the
unknown killer, going deeper into the woods. As
evening comes, you find a tiny ramshackle hunter's
cabin and stop to hide. The ruggedly handsome
hunter who catches you breaking in offers to help
you.
Prompts 187

2. You make a great team – one is the driver, the other

takes the money, and you are the lookout. The
three of you have been successful bank robbers for
six jobs now. As the police begin closing in, you
find yourselves in conflict—one never wants to
stop, the other wants out of the game, and they are
both in love with you.
3. A handsome new associate in your father's crime
syndicate catches your eye. You know there are
rules about this sort of thing but you can't help
falling for each other. When it turns out that he is
actually an undercover FBI agent, you must decide
between love and loyalty.
4. It has been a decade since you began working for a
notorious crime boss, and now you want out of the
game. When he gives you the task of acquiring a
collection of rare paintings and switching them
with counterfeits, you tell yourself this is your last
con. Your job is to pose as an art dealer so you can
get close to the owner of the paintings and make
the switch before anyone notices. When you arrive
at the home of the owner, you discover she is a
beautiful, young widow who has inherited her
husband's estate. Over several meetings, you
develop feelings for her, which causes you to doubt
whether you can deceive her and carry out the con.
5. As a senior detective in the special victims crimes
unit, you are hunting down a serial killer who
188 Prompts

targets young college women. The clues lead you to

a reclusive billionaire with a "devil-may-care"
attitude. But something is off. It's just too neat
when all fingers point to him. However, you can't
help but question your motives as you find yourself
drawn to him in ways you've never felt before. Can
you put aside your own desires to find out if he's
really a serial killer or will your passion get in the
way of doing your job?
6. You are a white-collar criminal who has embezzled
a fortune, and your secretary has accidentally
downloaded evidence of the crime. You go to her
house to cover your tracks, but end up falling for
her instead.
7. You are working deep undercover to infiltrate a
drug ring. While walking down the street with one
of the traffickers you are trying to bust, you run
into your ex, who greets you by your real name.
The trafficker immediately assumes you are a narc
and pulls his gun on you. You manage to jump out
of the way and escape with your ex in tow. Now
that your cover is blown, you have no choice but to
keep yourself and your ex alive.
8. Your editor wants you to investigate a case that was
considered closed until a recent murder bore the
signature calling card of the Black Lily Killer. The
problem is the Black Lily Killer is currently in
prison, serving a life sentence, so the police are
Prompts 189

trying to keep this one under the radar. After

securing an interview with the Black Lily Killer,
you run into his daughter who is also visiting him.
She is an accomplished lawyer who doesn't believe
her father committed the murders he was
imprisoned for and is determined to prove his
innocence. When another murder takes place, the
two of you join forces and set out to uncover the
truth.
9. You and your neighbor have been dating for more
than a year, and you have fallen in love with him.
When he offers to cook you a beautiful meal at his
house, you think he's going to pop the question.
You are ready to commit to him. When it's finally
time for dessert, you can tell the magical moment is
about to happen. Then you notice the red laser
lights focused on him. Confused, you point them
out to him. He glances down and pulls you both out
of the way just as a stream of bullets shatter the
window. Under the cover of the dining table he
tells you he is a contract killer and his agency is
here to terminate him.
10. While hiking through some unfamiliar woods, you
realize you are miserably lost. As the darkness sets
in and the temperature drops, you stumble upon a
cabin deep in the forest and find that it belongs to
a handsome writer who lives alone. There is
something electric between the two of you, and you
190 Prompts

connect on a level you have never experienced

before. When someone pounds on the door the
next morning, the cabin owner pushes you behind
him and motions for you to stay quiet.
11. There's been a rash of break-ins at your store. The
police officer they keep sending is gorgeous, funny,
and kind. Everything you're looking for, but how
do you make the first move? You keep tripping the
alarms! Great plan, until you find out it's totally
illegal, and you're about to be arrested by the
handsome cop.
12. You come home after filming on set all day to
discover a pool of blood on the floor of your
mansion and your wife missing. The police arrest
you. Once the media gets wind of the situation, you
know their stories will ruin the reputations of you
and your wife—both famous movie stars. You
reluctantly call in a favor to your ex, who works in
the DA's office. You hope she's forgiven you for
cheating on her with the woman who eventually
became your missing wife because she might be
your only chance to prove your innocence.
13. You're a detective solving a slew of murders. Your
head is throbbing from the sleepless nights. Just
then a stunning woman walks through your office
door. She says she has something that could change
the case and your life.
Prompts 191

14. After a nasty divorce, you begin dating again by

using apps. You meet a seemingly flawless man, but
after a few months of blissful dating, you have an
encounter with an FBI agent who is investigating
him and wants your help. The agent asks you to do
some digging into your boyfriend's personal papers
to determine if this is the guy the FBI has been
hunting for. The more you uncover, the more
suspicious you get, and you find that he may be as
dangerous as the agent believes. As you do your best
to help, you grow closer to the agent, finding that—
despite all his flaws—he is an incredible man.
15. During your early morning jog, you find a child
crouched in the bushes, half frozen. He says he is
hiding from his foster family, and the last thing you
want is for him to be sent back because he seems so
scared. You take him home with you, but he
convinces you not to call the police yet. That night,
a noise wakes you up. When you get up to check on
the boy, you discover that he is gone, along with
most of your valuables. Your attractive next-door
neighbor knocks on your door, saying he saw
someone fleeing from your home. He has the first
few letters of their license plate. The two of you
team up to find the robbers and the boy, who you
know is being used unjustly.
16. You are lost in the middle of the jungle with your
clumsy and absent-minded co-worker. Under these
192 Prompts

adverse circumstances, you get closer than you ever

thought you would.
17. After witnessing a mafia murder, you are accepted
into the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program
and relocated to a small farming community in the
Midwest. You meet a handsome local farmer, and
you begin to develop feelings for each other—until
he discovers that you have not been honest with
him about your past. Things get even more
complicated when the mafia learns of your
___location.
18. You are a jewel thief trying to get out of the
business, but you agree to take one last job before
going straight. The money seems too good to be
true—enough to set you up for life—so you can't
turn it down. However, there's a catch. You need
to steal the jewels from an auction house where
your former lover is the head of security. It's been
more than ten years, but the pain of his betrayal is
still very real. Your plan is to get close to him again
to learn the ins and outs of the auction's security
system. You didn't plan on falling back in love with
him.
19. You're an ambitious investigative reporter
determined to uncover who's behind a string of
jewel heists in the city. You find yourself in the
wrong place at the wrong time one night, and a
handsome detective has to come to your rescue in
Prompts 193

order to save your life. The problem is, those

behind the crimes now know who you are.
20. As a recently retired detective, you are surprised to
receive a call from your former captain asking you
to come into the station to help question the
suspects in a murder investigation connected to one
of your old cases. At the station, the captain briefs
you on the details: A man was killed by blunt force
trauma. There is no sign of a murder weapon. There
are two suspects: the man's wife and his mistress.
As you interview each suspect, you are drawn to
the mistress, who is beautiful and has a brilliant
mind. Your bias could be affecting you, but you are
sure she is innocent.

Science Fiction Romance

1. After a violent android uprising, life on the space

hub you call home has finally settled down. Things
are different now. There are security guards around
every corner and a curfew for non-biological life
forms. However, it is a small price to pay for
peace—or so you thought. When the android
you've been best friends with for the last five years
goes missing, you barely know where to begin. The
police are no help, and soon you don't know who
you can trust or what to do. All you know for sure
is that, if you don't find him soon, you might never
get the chance to tell him you're in love with him.
194 Prompts

2. You are an advanced alien life form sent on a special

mission to Earth to exterminate all humans, who
have repeatedly demonstrated their negative effect
on space. When your pod malfunctions and
crashes, a kind human woman saves you. Now, you
are conflicted between the love you feel for her and
your mission to destroy her race.
3. Your life didn't work out the way you had planned.
Instead of being a successful race car driver, you are
now flipping burgers at a fast food joint while your
social life and love life are non-existent. Your only
form of enjoyment comes from playing videos
games—and you are grateful for the escape. When
the first virtual simulation game hits the market,
you are excited for a whole new level of distraction.
This simulated reality game requires you to perform
tasks physically in real life to unlock achievements
in the game, and you feel pain when injured. Your
skills that normally go unused in real life make you
a top player within the gaming world, and you
draw the attention of a fellow female player who
you fall for. But will your relationship be able to
translate into the real world or are you doomed to
experience life through a simulated reality forever?
4. Your ship crashes on a planet not found in any of
the navigation charts you were given back on
Earth. You wake up after the crash and venture
outside only to find yourself in a spaceship
Prompts 195

graveyard, with dozens of empty, crashed ships

strewn about in the wreckage. Right in the middle
is a humanoid alien standing on top of a ship. The
handsome alien stranger grins and calls you by
name: "We've been looking for you." He holds out
a hand. You hesitate, then—still unsure—place
your hand in his.
5. You weren't prepared for the phone call in the early
hours of the morning, especially since you've been
working overtime, but your boss wants you to come
in right away. When you arrive at the government
research facility where you work, your boss grants
you special access to an underground facility you
didn't even know existed. Within a glass prison you
see something that you can only assume is an alien
species. You are tasked with conducting studies on
the alien and reporting your findings. Over the
weeks, you begin to realize that the alien is reading
your mind; it is also becoming more human-like in
appearance. One day you walk in and find that it
has taken on the form of your recently deceased
wife.
6. An alien group abducts a group of Earthlings for the
purposes of experimentation. When a female alien
begins to study one of the Earthling males, she
begins to sympathize with him and falls in love. She
plans an escape from the main ship with him to a
196 Prompts

nearby planet where they plan to carve out a new

life for themselves.
7. You're one of the last surviving humans on Earth.
Most others abandoned the planet soon after the
final world war. After five long years of not seeing
another person, you stumble upon an alien
spacecraft. You try to run away, but are captured
and brought back to the ship. When the mysterious
alien leader sees that you're sick and alone, he takes
you under his protection. You fight against it at
first, but eventually realize that his intentions are
pure. The more time you spend together, the more
you come to respect him and his alien nation.
Although it doesn't make sense, at least not at first,
you feel something a bit more than respect: you
start to fall in love.
8. Your uncle funds a space exploration program and
convinces you to join the team of astronauts
exploring a new planet. When you arrive on the
planet, you realize that it's barely habitable, but
there is a strain of evolved humans that somehow
manage to survive there. As you learn more about
this strange species, you fall in love with one of
them, but the rest of your team perceives these
beings as threats and wants to eliminate them once
and for all.
9. A scientist captures you and your best friend while
you are visiting Earth in disguise. You're not sure
Prompts 197

what the human wants from you, but it quickly

becomes clear that it's nothing good. Your best
friend is tortured before being taken away, and the
scientist tells you he'll be back for you soon. You
manage to escape, but now you find yourself alone
on an unfriendly planet. You don't know who to
trust or where to go. You meet a human male who
offers to hide you while you figure out how to get
home. You weren't expecting kindness from a
human, let alone love and affection, but the heart
wants what the heart wants—especially when you
have three of them.
10. As a general of the Android Armies, fighting against
the humans who first created and are now trying to
oppress you, you're good at your job of leading your
fellow androids in battle. You are known for being
calculated, controlled, and unflappable. But when
your soldiers find a human in your camp—the
human woman you once loved—you're faced with
your biggest challenge yet. She says she's here for
you because she still loves you, but with the end of
the war in sight and a win for the androids so close,
you have to ask yourself if you trust her. Do you let
yourself be with the woman you've never been able
to get over or listen to your fellow androids and
decree her an enemy?
11. The aliens have integrated nicely into your society,
and peace has been maintained for nearly two
198 Prompts

decades. You were young when they first came and

can barely remember a time before the two
societies existed as one. But when protestors start to
cause agitation, you realize that maybe things aren't
as good for the aliens as you thought. You wonder
if it's worth all the fuss, but then you see human
peacekeepers attacking a defenseless alien on the
street for no reason. You try to protect him, but he
is ultimately arrested. The more you dig into the
mistreatment of aliens in your city, the more you
become convinced that an insidious underbelly
exists. The only ally you find is an alien who has
been an activist and agitator for many years. He's
wily and furious and out of control—and right. You
become unlikely close friends in a battle for alien
rights.
12. You and your wife never wanted to work on the
experiments, but as two of the most talented
geneticists in the country, your superiors put
pressure on you to conduct cross-species DNA
mutation. You know that animal and human DNA
shouldn't be spliced, and the unearthly screams
from the mutation room torment you to no end.
Your wife decides to reveal the truth about the
horrible experiments to the media but dies in a
freak accident before she can. Doubling down on
work to distract yourself, you continue conducting
the experiments. One night, you venture into the
Prompts 199

mutation room and find a creature that intrigues

you. There is a sadness in its familiar eyes that
speaks to you. With a jolt, you realize that this is
your wife.
13. To preserve the energy aboard the space station you
call home, you and two hundred volunteers are
placed under cryogenic sleep for a hundred years.
It is a tough choice to make, but it is the best option
for your colony and the advancement of humanity.
Coldness sets in. Everything grows dark. You know
nothing else. Suddenly, you awaken, and
everything rushes back to you all at once. Your
century of sleep must have ended. You are excited
to see your friends, but when you climb out of your
pod, the only person you see is your girlfriend, who
has a gleam in her eye as she says, "It's just you and
me."
14. Incredible advancements in nanotechnology have
allowed humans to protect themselves against
almost any virus or disease by receiving a
mandatory shot of nanoparticles once a year. While
attempting to get your annual nano shot, your
handsome new doctor refuses to administer it,
causing government agents to surround the clinic.
"You don't know what they're really doing to you,"
he says. Something tells you to trust him. Now on
the run with the mysterious doctor, you learn about
200 Prompts

the sinister side of nanotechnology and how the

government uses it to control the population.
15. You are the captain of a spaceship on a government
mission to travel through space to a mysterious
planet and retrieve a powerful object. Once you
arrive, you realize your leaders lied to you. The
planet is inhabited by a gentle alien race that
doesn't believe in violence. The powerful object
you must acquire is the daughter of the alien leader.
Although you are now questioning your orders, she
agrees to come with you quietly, and you find
yourself drawn to her kind nature.
16. There is nothing in the world you dislike more than
being mocked by a room full of men, except maybe
the tight corset and ridiculous dress society expects
you to wear. These Oxford scholars understand
nothing about the steam-powered flying
contraption you've created, which you plan on
using to explore uncharted lands across the ocean.
In order to secure Oxford College's funding, you
must grin and bear their arrogant questioning and
misogyny. Luckily, one handsome scholar takes
you seriously and agrees to privately fund you—on
the condition he can join you. Together, the two of
you set out to prove those pompous scholars wrong
about your innovative invention.
17. One day you wake up and find yourself on a world
you've never even heard of before. Here, species of
Prompts 201

all kinds—aliens from across the galaxy—live in

peace and unity. You're told that your entire planet
was under siege, so a wealthy alien family brought
you to their world to save your life. As an orphan
with few friends, you adjust quickly to the new
world, but some unanswered questions prickle at
your new life. When looking around the new town,
you find another human—the only other one
you've seen so far. The more time you spend with
him, the more you both realize that there's more
than meets the eye here in the alien world you've
both been brought to. Yet when presented with the
option to return to Earth, you have to choose
between going home and staying with the man
you're starting to fall in love with.
18. One day, a mysterious object appears in the sky.
Governments around the world are unable to
destroy it and declare a global emergency. The
mysterious object begins to glow one night. Your
wife turns to you as her body shimmers in the same
way and says, "It's time for me to go home. Come
with me."
19. You are on an expedition to find a planet that
humans can colonize. Rule number one is to not
engage with any sentient life. You never thought it
would be an issue; after all, living beings are rare on
new planets. However, the planet you're sent to
investigate is home to various creatures, many of
202 Prompts

whom are highly intelligent. When you're attacked

by locals after an excursion for wildlife goes wrong,
one alien risks everything to save you from his
people. You never meant to disobey your orders. It
was a situation you could not avoid. However, you
don't think your superiors will understand if you
fall in love with this alien. It is a temptation that is
hard to resist.
20. Your whole life is planned out and has been set in
stone for years: finish your medical residency, get a
job as an attending, marry your fiancé, have two
kids, and live happily ever after. With your
residency ending in two months and your wedding
scheduled for the third month, you're ready for the
rest of your life to begin. The only hiccup occurs
when you come home early from work and see
your fiancé fixing his arm with a soldering gun. The
love of your life has been lying to you since the
beginning: He's not human at all. He's an android.

Sports

1. Your big brother invites you to his favorite baseball

team's season opener. While the two of you talk in
the stands, the people around you jump out of their
seats. You look up just as a fly ball hits you square
on the head. You're taken to the hospital to ensure
that you don't have a concussion—which you do—
and the batter himself visits you in the hospital. He
Prompts 203

asks if he can do anything and, in your half-dazed

state, you stammer "how about a date?" When he
says yes and smiles, you are not sure if he is really
interested in you or is just trying to make you feel
better. When he comes to your apartment a month
later dressed to the nines with a bouquet of flowers
in hand, you realize that it is not some sort of
benign gesture.
2. You are a sports psychologist on staff with a
professional basketball team. You are passionate
about your job, but have very strict rules about
never getting personally involved. Your resolve is
threatened when you meet someone who makes
you question everything, and you have a decision
to make.
3. Being an NFL cheerleader is not nearly the
glamorous job everyone thinks, but you love the
sport and the athleticism of cheering, plus it gives
you some part-time income that you desperately
need. What you don't love is the objectification and
occasional disrespect you receive from both fans
and players. When a loudmouth fan throws his hot
dog at you during one of your dance routines, a
rookie quarterback comes to your defense and gets
the fan ejected from the stadium. After the game,
the player comes over to introduce himself. You
thank him for the help and exchange numbers. The
following week, he texts you to ask you out. Dating
204 Prompts

football players is frowned upon in the NFL, but

you say yes anyways.
4. You're just getting out of an abusive relationship
and decide to reclaim your life. Your brother puts
you in touch with an old friend at a boxing gym, a
former professional fighter who will help teach you
how to defend yourself. You're wary of your trainer
at first, but despite his tattoos and edgy appearance,
he's kind and gentle, and you can't help but fall for
him. However, he is not ready for a new
relationship, especially as he was just dumped by a
woman in love with the famous boxer and not the
man he truly is. Things get even more complicated
when you see your ex outside your apartment
building and fear that he may be stalking you.
5. When you wake up one morning to find 100 text
messages and several missed calls on your phone,
you know something bad has happened. In fact, bad
is an understatement. It turns out your star NBA
player fiancé was caught making out with
numerous women in a club last night. Now facing a
PR disaster as your face is splashed across every
tabloid magazine in the country, you're not sure if
your life will ever return to normal. Somehow, you
get through the toughest weeks of your life, but just
when you feel like you are in a good place, your
cheating ex shows up on your doorstep.
Prompts 205

6. You are a personal chef hired by the coach to cook

exclusively for a star NFL player, who turns out to
be an extremely picky eater. Basically, what he ate
as a child is the only things he eats as an adult. What
starts out as a trying working relationship quickly
leads to fun in the kitchen and romance.
7. You pull the head off the heavy mascot costume,
sighing as a cool breeze from a fan chills your
flushed cheeks. As you step out of the rest of the
costume, you notice one of the basketball players
standing behind you. Number 4. "I didn't realize
you were a girl," he says. "Or pretty."
8. You're the daughter of the head coach of an NFL
team. You dad's rules are clear: no relationships
between you and any of the players. You have
never wanted to challenge the rule—until the guy
you tutored in college and had a huge crush on gets
drafted to your father's team.
9. You're in charge of a sports publicist firm that
represents a baseball team in need of serious PR
spin when a bad-boy rookie flips his SUV after a
night of partying. He's trouble with a capital T, but
after spending some time with him, you realize
what really happened during the accident and
discover he's not such a bad boy after all. You are
drawn to him and start a secret romance while
worrying that word about your relationship might
get out, which would put your reputation and
206 Prompts

career in jeopardy. You try to keep things on the

downlow, but this baseball player is anything but
low-key.
10. One night while walking home, you're attacked by
a person hiding in an alleyway. A mystery man
comes to your rescue. You later learn that he is a
prominent MMA fighter. Your would-be attacker
learns this as well and plays up his injuries to press
charges against the fighter. As an up-and-coming
attorney, you take on the fighter's case, defending
him just as he defended you. Little do you know
that this will be the start of a true romance.
11. You're the personal assistant for a famous
professional baseball player, and you finally admit
that you've fallen head over heels in love with him.
However, he doesn't notice your affection and
treats you like an employee. After a whirlwind
romance with a local reporter, he decides to marry
her after only a few months of dating. You don't
like her one bit. When he asks you to buy the
engagement ring, you grudgingly agree, but while
trying to figure out her preferences you discover
that she has been cheating on him. You decide to
find hard evidence and expose her for what she
truly is.
12. When you were young, you were friends with a
neighborhood boy who liked the same things as
you. Both of you were dirt poor, but it didn't seem
Prompts 207

to matter; as long as you had each other, there was

always a make-believe adventure right around the
corner. He grew up to be a star basketball player
and, now that he's wealthy beyond imagination,
seems to have forgotten where he came from. You
haven't talked to him in years, but a death in the
family brings him back to the old neighborhood,
where you reconnect and reintroduce him to the
life he left behind.
13. After your divorce from a star NFL quarterback,
you've sworn off relationships with athletes. In
fact, you've sworn off relationships altogether.
Then you meet the quarterback for the biggest rival
of your ex's team at a local bookstore, where he is
signing copies of his new memoir. He recognizes
you from various industry events, and you discover
he's everything your ex never was.
14. There used to be only three things you need in life
to be happy: money, baseball, and your freedom.
Now that you're playing pro, you have everything
you ever wanted—but feel that something is still
missing. Could your gorgeous new physical
therapist be the key to your happiness?
15. He is formidable in the rink and, when he is out of
it, he is surrounded by a flock of adoring female
fans. As the star hockey player of the decade, you
are certain he has an ego, but when he walks into
the bar where you work, you are surprised by how
208 Prompts

down-to-earth he is. As the night goes on and he

starts buying you drinks, the electric connection
between you is undeniable. When a drunken kiss
between you is photographed, you are not prepared
for the media storm that hits.
16. How do you start small talk on a date with a famous
footballer? Do you admit that you have about a
million posters and jerseys at home or pretend
you've never watched a game in your life? No more
time to think—your date has just arrived.
17. Your kid sister is getting bullied at school and asks
to take karate lessons so she can learn how to
defend herself. You don't want her fighting, but
you do want to empower her, so you enroll her in
some basic classes at the gym. The sensei is a
gorgeous semi-pro fighter, and he's so sweet with
the kids that you can't fight off your attraction to
him. You decide to sign up for private lessons with
him, hoping to get to know him better.
18. It's tough being taken seriously as a female soccer
player, but as the star of the team, you are
determined to win the world championship series.
When your coach of several years passes away
suddenly and a new younger coach is assigned to
train your team, you must fight your growing
feelings for him because he is exactly the kind of
distraction you don't need at the most important
point in your professional career.
Prompts 209

19. You promised your high school sweetheart that

you'd support him throughout his pro football
career, and now, seven years later, he is the poster
child for the NFL. You are doing your best to
remain by his side, but you are also forging your
own path as a personal trainer. As the two of you
start to drift apart, will your relationship survive
the pressure or will fame get to him?
20. You're an orthopedic surgeon assigned to help a star
basketball player get back on his feet after a
sidelining injury. He's not exactly your favorite
patient, but over time, you realize there's more to
him than the arrogant front he shows the media.

Time Travel

1. You should have known it was too good to be true

when the caretaker dropped the price of rent in
half, but after your disastrous relationship fallout
you need a fresh start and the tiny town of Adare
in Ireland sounds perfect. The village is straight out
of a fairy tale, and you quickly fall in love with the
spirit of the people and the land. As you explore the
town and its hidden treasures, you stumble across
castle ruins that hum with life. In the basement,
you find a cheval mirror covered in dust. It has odd
looking Celtic runes on the sides. You know a few
of the runes and speak them aloud. As you do, the
mirror begins to ripple like water, and you are
210 Prompts

transported through time. You are immediately

captured as a spy and taken to the king, who is as
ruthless as he is handsome. You have to convince
him to spare your life so you can try to make it back
home, but at what price? And with the heat that
flares between you and the king, you may have to
decide where home may truly be.
2. One day during your travels as a knight-errant, you
come upon an old woman being threatened by a
pack of wolves. You rescue her and escort her back
to her village. While riding away, you are thrown
from your horse—and through time. You wake up
hundreds of years in the future, in a world unlike
any that you could have imagined. You have no
friends or allies… until you meet her. She's unlike
any woman you've ever known, and you soon
realize that you've never known true happiness
without her. One night, you hear a sound and go to
investigate. You see the same old woman from the
village. She tells you that, because you saved her
life, she has given you the gift of being with your
one true love. However, since you had to travel
through time to find her, the old woman is unsure
how long this spell can last.
3. You're just enjoying your day off from work,
thinking about maybe watching that new movie
that people keep talking about, when the literal air
splits around you and a man appears out of
Prompts 211

nowhere. He's tall and handsome, and he tells you

that he's been sent from the future to protect you.
You think he's crazy—except you did see him come
from nowhere. When he grabs your hand, you feel
a spark. This man is here to save your life—and
change it forever.
4. You are desperate for money to pay your rent, so
you sign up to take part in a clinical trial, despite it
being a little vague on the details. You're not
complaining because the money is great! But when
they strap you to a machine with a dozen different
wires, you start to worry. It's too late to back out
now. After a flash, the room fades. You wake up in
an alleyway, confused and disoriented. When a car
flies overhead, you know something has gone
wrong. Somehow, you have ended up in the future.
Panicked, you find the nearest floating police
station, but the officers laugh you out. One of the
officers believes your story and offers to help you.
As the two of you grow closer while trying to
unravel the mystery of what happened to you, your
feelings for her grow too.
5. If you get assigned to the fryolator one more time,
you are going to lose it. You hate your manager, and
you hate working at Burger Hut, but most of all you
hate the smell of French fries cooking in a rancid
vat of oil. You clock in, tie on an apron, and—
surprise, surprise—Ken has you on fry duty again.
212 Prompts

Jerk. You go into the walk-in freezer to grab a bag

of frozen fries, but when you turn around, the
freezer is gone. In fact, the entire Burger Hut is
gone. So is the year 2020! You discover that are on
a potato farm in rural Ireland in 1545. You don't
know what to do, until it dawns on you that no one
here knows how to make a French fry. With your
advanced knowledge on the subject, you could
make a ton of money and become a lord or
something. You knock on the potato farmer's door,
introduce yourself, and discuss your business plan.
After a minute, he slams the door in your face. You
begin to lose hope, but when the farmer's beautiful
daughter approaches you and expresses her interest
in your food invention, you think you have found
your business partner—and perhaps something
much more.
6. It's been ten years since you woke up in the 1980s.
Born in 1605, it was a hell of a culture shock to
wake up in a world you never could have imagined
in your deepest dreams. You've created an okay life,
and you've even managed to get a job working in a
local bakery, using the skills you learned as a young
boy. You're in love with the cashier at the bakery—
a beautiful woman who is smart, kind, and so
unlike any other person you've ever met. She
doesn't know the truth, but how could she? How
could anyone? You're going to propose so you can
Prompts 213

live happily ever after together. But then the night

you're headed to the restaurant, ring in hand, you
slip and fall back into time, waking up in the 1600s
once again. You don't have any more answers than
you did the first time you time travelled, but you do
have a clearer plan: This time, you've got to get
back so you can find your way back home to the
love of your life.
7. It has been a week since your wife died, leaving you
feeling hollow and alone. She was the missing piece
in your life, and you would give anything to have
her back. While visiting her grave, a mysterious
man appears and informs you he can grant you the
ability to travel through time and save your wife.
The catch? Every hour you spend in a different time
shaves a year off your own life.
8. A handsome stranger moves to your small town,
and all the single women are desperate to impress
him. As a shy bookworm, you spend your time
working at the local library and reading the classics.
You are surprised when the newcomer frequents
the library daily, reading old journals. The two of
you bond over your love of books, and there is
something different about him that makes you fall
for him. One day after he leaves, you chance upon
one of the books he has been reading, which details
the town's history. You are shocked when you look
214 Prompts

at a picture of the town's founders and see someone

who looks identical to the newcomer.
9. Your life was uneventful until New Year's Eve,
2019, when a strange portal opened in the air in
front of you and a panicked figure ran out, claiming
to be from the future. She said she wanted to save
you from government agents from her time, who
were about to travel here to kill you. She explained
that, sometime in the future, you will create a
technology rendering all other energy sources
useless. You laughed, telling her you are a broke
college student who eats ramen three times a day.
Before you could convince her she had the wrong
person, another portal materialized.
10. Your wealthy brother takes you on vacation to
Morocco, but when the plane lands and you exit the
airport, you realize it is the Morocco of ancient
times. You turn around to talk to your brother, but
he and the airport are gone. When you yell for help,
you are picked up by a handsome horseman, who
takes you to his tribe. Communication is difficult,
but the language of love crosses all boundaries—
even those of time.
11. You are a time traveler and on your latest journey
you meet and fall in love with a beautiful but
mysterious woman. When your lover suddenly
vanishes before your eyes, you realize that she is a
Prompts 215

time traveler as well. You move through time again

and again in an effort to find her.
12. Your lover leaves you for somebody else, but you
can't live without her. You find a way to travel back
in time to discover what you did wrong and figure
out how you can make things right. You can
control time. But can you control free will?
13. You're not a fan of time travel. It's expensive, it's
dangerous, and the regulations don't allow you to
alter the timeline anyway, so why bother? Besides,
you spend your days and most of your nights
working on the tech to keep the machines running,
which doesn't leave you with much spare time. But
one day, as you're fixing a minor issue in the data
mainframe, a woman comes storming in with a gun
and demands you go with her—to 1854. She takes
your key card, which is the only way to activate the
machine, and off you go. You don't know anything
about that time period, but you don't have a choice
in the matter. Yet the further the adventure goes
and the longer you're with her, the more intrigued
you become. This woman is on a mission and, as
mysterious as she is, you find that you can't help
but believe her. You're also starting to think there's
more between you than just happenstance—that
she chose you for a reason.
14. You have no idea where you are or what's going on.
You woke up in the middle of a forest, surrounded
216 Prompts

by men in old fashioned army uniforms and guns.

You screamed, but they were unimpressed, refusing
to break character. You think it's a game, a joke,
until a man in a different colored uniform jumps
out from behind a tree and shoots one of your
captors dead in the chest. You scream again and
pass out, but when you wake up, you're still there.
Despite being born in the 1990s, you realize you're
now in the middle of the American Civil War. Your
only ally is the handsome, mysterious soldier that
puts you on his horse and protects you from the
other men there. But can you really trust him? Can
you trust anyone, especially with a secret like this?
You have no idea how to proceed, but as the gruff
but kind soldier continues to keep you safe—both
from others and this new, dangerous world you find
yourself in—you think maybe there's more to this
mysterious man than you originally thought.
15. You and your husband are inventors who finally
discover the secret to time travel. You agree that
this year's vacation will be to New York in the
1960s. Unfortunately, something goes terribly
wrong, and you both end up in separate eras, lost in
time. How will you find your way back to one
another?
16. Life in the Scottish Highlands in the early 1600s
isn't always easy. Luckily, you work for a good lord,
who is always kind and considerate to his workers.
Prompts 217

Although the kitchen is hot and the work is tiring,

you are happy with your life. But one night, as
you're readying for bed, a strange man appears out
of nowhere. He tells you that there will be a fire
and he is here to save you. He grabs your hand and
before you can say anything, you're somewhere
new. He tells you that you're in the twenty-first
century. You call him a liar, a witch, but he explains
that he is a time traveler who has brought you to
his time to protect you. You don't believe him, but
you also don't know how to explain what you are
seeing around you. You bide your time to survive,
all the while learning that there's more than meets
the eye with the handsome, mysterious captor.
17. You've been lost for nearly as long as you can
remember—jumping from year to year, from time
to time. You never stay for long, and you cannot
control when or where you land. One day, after
being thrown from ancient Greece to the Roaring
20s in America, you find yourself stuck. You're
unsure what's changed or how long this reprieve
will last. Then, you meet him. He's handsome and
charming. Weeks turn into months. He tells you
that he loves you, and you realize that, for the first
time, you are in love. This must be why you've been
lost in time: You were looking for him all along.
You tell him as much. You fall asleep in his arms.
When you wake up, you are in 1670 Russia. You
218 Prompts

don't know how, but you know you must make it

back to your love, whatever the cost.
18. When you wake up one morning to find that your
wife has aged by fifty years, you wonder if you had
one too many tequila shots the night before. Your
geriatric wife manages to tell you she is not from
this time, but a traveler from the past who has been
trapped here for years. As a result of this, the aging
process of her body isn't working properly, and she
needs to return to her own time to survive. The
problem is her rapidly deteriorating memory means
she can't remember where she hid the device that
allows her to travel in time.
19. You usually try to ignore your eccentric aunt when
she calls, but after receiving an urgent voicemail
from her, you decide to make sure she's okay. It
turns out she's been busy inventing a device that
enables you to travel through time and she wants
you to test it out. Thinking this is some new crazy
game of hers, you play along—and get transported
to the 1980s with no way to get back to your own
time. As your grim reality sets in, you head to the
nearest bar to get a strong drink to calm your
nerves. The bartender is witty and captivating, and
you begin to feel something for him, but what
happens when you find out he's someone you know
in your present?
Prompts 219

20. You're walking through the forest when you find

an antique locket on the ground. You open it and
recognize the face of your fiancé in the yellowed
photograph inside. The other side of the locket is
inscribed with a date from the 1800s.

Western Romance

1. You know absolutely nothing about modern

cowboy life other than what you see in movies and
TV shows. You've never even seen a horse up close.
But that's not what your fiancé thinks. You have
been telling him for years that you know a thing or
two about horses. It's not like you've been lying,
just pretending that you know more. However,
when he asks you to visit his family's ranch, you
have to either come clean or do a crash course in
riding 101. You choose the latter and hire an
honest-to-God ranch hand with cowboy boots and
a Stetson to teach you the basics before your trip.
He's ridiculous, but also kind and handsome, and
soon you find yourself looking forward to your
secret lessons with him. As your lessons draw to an
end, you find yourself sadder than you expected.
You express this to him, and he gets serious, telling
you that he's in love with you. You're shocked—
not only at his admission, but also at your own
feelings about it. Do you stay with the man you
220 Prompts

already agreed to marry or follow your heart to this

cowboy?
2. You've been travelling west for months. The wagon
journey has been tiresome, and you've grown
increasingly weary of what waits for you when you
reach your destination: a husband you've never
even met. Your family has sent you off to a wealthy
man on the other side of America and—knowing
what's waiting for you—you hope the journey
takes the longest time possible. Then the
unthinkable happens: Outlaws raid your wagon
train, and one outlaw even threatens to shoot you.
A tall, handsome outlaw knocks the threatening
man away and keeps you safe. You grab at the
handsome outlaw's arm and beg him to take you
away with him. Baffled, he agrees. You climb atop
his horse, and he gallops away with you. When the
adrenaline wears off, you still don't regret your
impulsiveness. You and the man agree that, when
you reach the next town, he'll give you a bit of coin
and you'll be on your own, a new woman. But the
days are long and you find yourself drawn to him—
and he to you. You start to wonder if you really
want to leave him at all.
3. A handsome cowboy is injured while tending to a
wild horse he's rescued miles from town. You're on
the run, and can't afford to stop on your way to
Mexico – but you can't ignore the wounded man
Prompts 221

when you see him, and decide to help him despite

the personal risk.
4. When your father is transferred west to open a
bank in a newly settled area, it's a much rougher
life than you had in the big, bustling city. Luckily,
you love every minute of it. The local sheriff
teaches you how to shoot a gun, and the bank is
doing great business. Then the small town is rocked
by a devastating attack from some local bandits.
You manage to shoot one of them in the leg and, as
the others flee, disarm the injured bandit only to
discover that she's a young woman. You grow to
love her as she recovers and tells you about the hard
life she has led.
5. You're a down-on-your-luck lawman looking for a
new job in the Wild West. Since being fired from
your last position after refusing to charge an
innocent man, you have been unable to find steady
work. When a wealthy railroad tycoon overhears
you telling your woes to a bartender, he offers you
a job: Bring the person who killed his son to justice
and receive a sizeable reward. You never thought
of yourself as bounty hunter, but you can't decline
the opportunity. A month later, you track down the
killer only to discover that it is a woman who killed
the son in self-defense. She's been on the run ever
since. After hearing her story, you decide not to
fulfill your contract and instead protect her from
222 Prompts

the tycoon hell-bent on revenge. You know that

someday he will send more men to finish what you
have started. You stay with her to make sure that
this never happens, growing closer with each
passing day.
6. You're an overworked accountant with little time
for a love life. Desperate for a break, you join your
girlfriends on vacation at a dude ranch. The
handsome ranch owner is rough around the edges,
and so are his books. He's about to lose the ranch
and everything he's worked for. Will you extend
your stay to help him out?
7. You own the best saloon for a hundred miles.
You're no nonsense and good at your job: The
saloon is clean, the barmaids are treated well, and
the patrons are happy. But when an outlaw bursts
in with guns blazing, your happy little saloon is at
risk. A brawl breaks out, and one of your barmaids
gets hit across the face. You pull your own gun from
behind the counter to get everyone to stop. The
outlaw points his gun at you, and you balk. This
isn't just any outlaw; this is the famed bank robber,
wanted dead or alive by every sheriff in the west.
More importantly, he is your ex—the first and only
man you've ever loved. The outlaw recognizes you
at the same time as you do him.
8. When you receive word that your friend needs help
with a cattle drive, you don't think twice about
Prompts 223

agreeing. You're not needed on your family's ranch

right now, not with all your brothers to pick up the
slack, so you pack a bag and head over first thing.
When you arrive, though, it's clear that this is a
tougher challenge than you expected as just
yourself, your friend, and his cousin have to
complete a difficult journey—not to mention how
irritating this cousin is. He scoffs at the fact that you
are a woman and proclaims that cowboys are "boys"
for a reason. He's smarmy and conceited and, yes,
the handsomest man this side of the Mississippi.
You resent your attraction to him and how
seemingly unimpressed he is with you. But when a
camping mishap has you injured and him racing to
your rescue, you see a different side of him: caring,
attentive, and generous. He risks everything to take
care of you. As you realize the depth of your
feelings, you wonder if you two can find love
together.
9. You're a city slicker now, but you'll always be a
country girl at heart. A family illness calls you back
to the ranch. You run into your old friend from
childhood, who's now all grown up and a handsome
cowboy. Your reunion isn't exactly sweet, since he
thinks you haven't been true to your roots.
10. You're in line to deposit your monthly earnings at
the bank when a man comes up behind you with a
gun to your back. "Sorry, ma'am," he says with a
224 Prompts

southern drawl you can't quite place, "but I'm

gonna need your help." He takes you hostage as his
partner robs the bank. You're held in the back safe
while he stuffs his bag and apologizes. You don't
understand why until he pulls you up by the arm
and says that you're going with them. You scream,
but no one can help you as the bank robber throws
you on top of his horse and gallops away with you.
You're stuck with him as you ride out of town and
into the unknown. He promises not to hurt you.
You have no reason to believe him, but you do.
There's something about this outlaw that you can't
put your finger on, but you're drawn to him. Will
your instincts be right, or are you crazy for trusting
a bank robber?
11. Horses are your life—so much so that you run a
ranch that rescues neglected horses. You're getting
too many to take care of yourself, so you put out a
call for some help. You end up hiring two men: one
a little older with lots of ranch experience and one
in graduate school who is working to become a
veterinarian. As you see their passion for the
horses, you begin to develop feelings for both of
them.
12. During a road trip through Montana, your car
breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Luckily,
you find a nearby ranch where the owner
reluctantly agrees to let you stay. The ranch owner
Prompts 225

is standoffish and rude, and you can't wait until

your car is repaired. However, as you get to know
him, sparks fly, and you can't help thinking this was
meant to be. Of course, you've been living in the
big city for so long that you must decide whether
you can live a rancher's life or give up the man you
love.
13. The Wild West is no place for a woman to be alone
with her children, but when your husband dies on
the journey, you don't have a choice. You're all the
three younglings have. You're building a life for
your family when a bandit comes to your small
home to rob you. Seeing you there all alone and
defenseless, he has a change of heart. He says he
might be a scoundrel, but he's still a gentleman.
Months later, you find the same man in town—this
time with a noose around his neck because he stole
a horse. You beg the sheriff to let the bandit go, but
the sheriff refuses to listen to your pleas. Frantic,
you lie and say that the bandit was at your home
the night the horse went missing, adding that you
are about to be wed. The sheriff believes you and
places the man in your custody. After all, who
would make up such a story to save a convicted
horse thief? But you don't know what to do now.
The bandit has to stay with your family for a while
or you run the risk of going to jail as well. As you
spend more time with him, you find yourself more
226 Prompts

drawn to him. There's something captivating about

the mysterious bandit, and you begin to fall in love.
14. When your husband was on his deathbed three
years ago, you promised him that you would keep
his ranch business up and running since it has been
in his family for generations. Yet despite your best
efforts, you've barely been scraping by. Your ranch
and your home have fallen into disrepair, and you
are about to lose everything to the bank when a
mysterious man comes into town and offers to help.
This former rancher has been travelling for a while
and is now looking for a place to settle for a bit.
With more than a decade of ranching experience,
he believes he can help you keep your ranch afloat.
You agree eagerly, despite the warnings from your
friends that he might be dangerous. There's
something about him, beyond his captivating
mystery, that is kind albeit broken—the same as
you. Seeing him as a kindred spirit, you invite him
into your life.
15. You like your cowboys rugged and a little rough
around the edges, so the second he saunters into
your saloon, you know you're a goner. It doesn't
take long before the two of you fall hopelessly in
love and get married. One day, a bounty hunter
walks into your saloon in search of a man with a
large bounty on his head. When he shows you the
Prompts 227

wanted poster for the man, you realize it is your

husband.
16. You're the greatest barrel racer the Women's
Professional Rodeo Association has ever seen.
You've set record after record and constantly sell
out every rodeo you go to. When a hotshot
newcomer starts to steal headlines and win races,
you're annoyed. She's basically a kid just out of high
school, and she's all show, no finesse. Still, when
the press asks if you'll race against her, you try to
be a good sport. Then you hear her scoff and ask
"would it even be a race?" Your blood boils. Who is
this nobody cowgirl? You go to confront her and
are surprised by the way you react to her: still hot
blooded but it's not quite anger you're feeling. She's
conceited and confident as well as snarky and smart
as a whip. You become tongue-tied as you realize
your interest in her. You walk away, humiliated.
You're upset with yourself. You absolutely,
irrevocably cannot have feelings for your worst
enemy.
17. Seeking respite from the horrors of war, a soldier
arrives for a long visit on his uncle's ranch. You are
the town's only veterinarian, and when you make
his acquaintance when you go over to check on one
of the animals, you realize the soldier needs some
TLC, too.
228 Prompts

18. Tired of your life working in a textile mill in a

congested East Coast city, you want to see the
American frontier, which you have only read about
in magazines. You are also getting a little too close
to spinsterhood for comfort. You've always had a
sense of adventure, so you decide to answer an
advertisement placed by a California prospector
seeking a mail-order bride in a local newspaper.
Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?
19. You are a bull rider, and riding is the only thing
you've ever loved. When your legs are shattered in
a serious accident, your career is over, and you feel
as if your life is over as well. The only bright spot
in your days is your beautiful physical therapist,
who gives you hope that you will walk again. You
hope that you might even get back on the bull. She
also stirs feelings inside of you that you never even
thought possible.
20. You own the most successful and lucrative ranch
this side of the country. It's taken generations of
hard work, and you're proud of the property, but
when your estranged cousin comes to town—
lawyer in tow—everything you've worked for is
threatened. The lawyer tells you that a clause in
your grandfather's will indicates that the ranch
actually belongs to your cousin. Baffled, you tell
them that you will fight them in court. As the court
cases starts, the lawyer and your cousin take up
Prompts 229

residence at the B&B on the property over. The

legal battle rages on, and you find yourself taken
with the lawyer trying to take everything from you.
The lawyer is hard, unwavering, and
uncomfortable with the ranch life that she is
suddenly thrust into, and you find her exterior
melting the more you show her how good a slow,
happy life on the ranch can be. With the judge's
decision only days away, you decide you're going to
tell the lawyer how you feel—after all, what's the
point of winning if you're alone at the end of the
day?

Young Adult

1. The two of you are best friends in college. You ask

him to fix you up with some of his single friends.
He secretly likes you and decides to hook you up
with friends that he knows won't work out. During
the last disastrous date you go on, your date reveals
the plan to you. At first, you're angry, but then you
realize the lengths your best friend is willing to go
through and you decide to try going out with him.
2. Being the new girl is always hard. You are shy and
introverted, and you would much rather be
surrounded by books than people. But now you're
a senior in high school, and you want this year to
be different. Tired of being the nerd and the
wallflower, you decide to be someone else. Before
230 Prompts

you know it, you've caught the attention of the "in-

crowd" as well as the most popular boy in school.
As the school year and your crush progress, you
worry that you can't keep up the façade forever. If
you show your true self to him, will he still like
you?
3. You've been having vivid dreams recently about a
beautiful girl. This morning in class your teacher
announces the arrival of a new transfer student. It's
the girl from your dreams. She drops a folded piece
of paper on your desk as she walks past you to her
seat.
4. A year ago, your father was convicted of
embezzling millions from his clients. You didn't
just lose your father, but also your home, your
social standing, and all your family's wealth. Forced
to move halfway across the country to a small
Podunk town with your mother to live near your
grandparents, you hate everything about your new
life. Then you meet him. He isn't the type of boy
you are used to. He's a farmer's son who couldn't
care less about social status. You think he's perfect,
but your mother doesn't approve. She has lost
everything as well, but she still clings to her old life
and decides that he will never be good enough for
you.
5. You are an 18-year-old girl who is in a hospital after
receiving a heart transplant. You hear sniffling and
Prompts 231

glance into the hallway outside your room to see a

handsome young man about your age wiping away
tears. You feel inexplicably drawn to him and ask a
nurse who he is. She tells you that he is grieving his
girlfriend, who was killed in a car accident…and
that you have received her transplanted heart.
6. Spending your summer at an all-girls camp was
never your idea of fun. You'd much rather be
hanging out with your friends, flirting with boys,
and thinking about prom next year. Unfortunately,
your parents had other ideas. You are determined
to hate everything about it, but your cabin mate is
unlike anyone you've ever met, and you find
yourself drawn to her in ways you never imagined.
You never felt this way about any of the boys
you've dated. Is this just an experimental phase, or
could this be what love really feels like?
7. You just found out that your girlfriend cheated on
you over the summer. Heartbroken, you are
convinced you will never love again. But then a
new girl arrives in school, and you are asked to
show her around. You play it chill at first, but her
kind and bubbly personality thaws you and you
can't help falling for her. However, she pushes you
away, telling you that she is the last person you
should fall in love with.
8. You are a recent college graduate who is
backpacking through Europe. You just ended a
232 Prompts

difficult relationship and have vowed to spend the

summer on your own. On a hiking trip in the
Italian Alps, you meet a guide who has you
thinking twice about that decision.
9. You hate your high school. All the other students
are either dumb jocks or superficial airheads. You
still have three years of surviving this small town,
but you are counting down the days until you can
go somewhere and meet some people you actually
like—not these high school stereotypes. The worst
is the police chief's daughter, an irritating
cheerleader you really can't stand. But one day on
your walk home you see her ex attacking her, and
you jump in to fight him off. She's distraught and
crying, so you calm her down and take her home.
The more time you spend with her, the more she
feels protected, and you realize that there's more
than meets the eye with this girl.
10. You are in love with your best friend, but she has
no clue. You have suffered in silence as you have
watched her fall for the wrong guys over and over
again. Graduation is coming up, and you are
running out of time to tell her how you feel. Will
she finally see that it should have been you all
along, or will she break your heart forever?
11. He's a gamer and so are you. In fact, you're both so
good at it, you reach top rankings in international
Prompts 233

competitions, and that's how you notice each other.

But romance is more than a game—or is it?
12. A handsome working-class student at an Ivy League
school is treated like an outsider by his classmates
from wealthy families – except for you, who sees
something in him that they don't. Can you
overcome the obstacles of your very different
backgrounds?
13. It's not much, but the little apartment you've got is
all you need. You were emancipated from your
parents a year ago after you discovered that they
were taking out loans in your name to pay for their
drug and gambling debts. You think that there's
nothing life can throw at you that you can't handle.
Then you meet her: fierce, unflappable, and kind.
You are attracted to her instantly, but you are
hesitant about pursuing a relationship. You are
wary of getting close to others; you are simply not
ready to trust people again. However, she's
determined to show you that there's a greater
amount of good in the world than there is bad.
14. You are a junior in high school dating the senior of
your dreams. He is kind and sweet, but his wealthy
parents look down on you because of your middle-
class status. His snobby younger brother doesn't
seem to like you either. After a tense dinner at your
boyfriend's house, you run out in tears, running
into his brother. The two of you get into a heated
234 Prompts

argument and, out of nowhere, he kisses you

passionately. Afterwards, he tells you he doesn't
hate you. In fact, he has liked you for years. Now
you can't stop thinking about him or that kiss.
15. The boy with the glasses is all you can think about.
He moved to your town over the summer and, now
that school has started, you keep hoping you'll run
into him. But he keeps to himself, never socializing
or participating in anything except what the
teachers ask of him. You don't know what it is
about him that draws you in, but you can't fight it.
When you're paired together for a school project,
you think this is your chance. But he's more than
just quiet—he's got secrets that you can't even
begin to imagine.
16. After a car accident nearly took your life, you wake
up from a coma. In the six months since the
accident, everything has changed. Your best friend,
who was behind the wheel when you crashed, is
dead. All of your other friends have graduated and
gone off to college without you. Meanwhile, your
mom is busy working three jobs to pay your
medical bills. You sit in your room in the rehab
facility feeling a deep loneliness and depression that
you never could have expected. One day you meet
a new patient on the ward: a handsome football
player who shattered his leg and thinks his life is
Prompts 235

over, too. The two of you work through the healing

process together, growing closer each day.
17. Two camp counselors have been working at the
same summer camp for four years. This summer is
different—it's their last year at camp and their
feelings for each other are changing. What will
they do when the summer ends?
18. Tired of the pressure of college, you take a summer
job at the beach to recenter yourself. It's the perfect
place to unwind, decompress, and figure out who
you are. You have a difficult time making friends,
but there's one girl who's different than most. She's
bookish and quirky, and not at all cool. But that's
the best part about her. The social scene at college
can be so cutthroat, and you like that she's not
trying to one-up or sabotage you. You quickly
become best friends, but by the end of the summer,
you are so much more.
19. When you came out of a bad relationship, your
friend was right there for you. She took you out for
pizza and let you talk for hours. The experience has
brought you closer, and you start to realize that you
might have feelings for her. The only problem is
that this friend is the same gender, and you've only
ever been in straight relationships.
20. Excited to finally be starting college after taking a
year off to work following high school, you're
immediately overwhelmed by the workload and all
236 Prompts

of the new people. Always a bookworm, you seek

the quiet and peace of the library, where you find
an adorable nerdy boy with his head stuck in a book
by your favorite author. You strike up a
conversation with him and, even though he's not
your usual type, you find yourself falling for him
quickly. The two of you become inseparable—until
he loses his scholarship.
Prompts 237

41 Romance Writing Prompts

1. As a bridesmaid, you meet one of the groomsmen
at your sister’s pre-wedding dinner and hit it off so
well, he asks you out. Your sister warns you not to
get too close. You decide to follow her advice, but
keeping him at arm’s length proves more difficult
than you expect.
2. You start a new job at a large firm, and out of the
blue, you start receiving flowers every week with a
note enclosed. The admirer’s only signature is a
three-digit number, but you don’t know what the
number could refer to.
3. Your best friend tells you about a wealthy family
living in the area and when she shows you a
journalistic piece she wrote on them for the local
newspaper, you recognize one of the young men as
the tall, reserved, green-eyed guy at the library.
Your friend knows why.
4. You’ve just broken up with — you swear — your
last boyfriend and kicked him out of your home.
Now, you’ve decided to redecorate the place —
making it just the way you want it. The guy at the
paint counter doesn’t seem like your type, but
there’s something about him.
5. You’ve left your husband’s church, and now he’s
using a variety of not-so-subtle tactics to coax you
back in. You see what he really wants: not a better
marriage so much as a “good Catholic” wife. But
238 Prompts

when your husband presents you with tickets for a

couple’s vacation in an Irish castle, you agree to go
— despite your suspicions.
6. You start having intense erotic dreams — and the
face you see is one you don’t recognize but that feels
familiar. In any case, the love relationship you have
in your dreams is better than what you have in “the
real world,” and you take an interest in lucid
dreaming.
7. You inherit a movie theater — or half of one,
anyway. You share ownership with the nephew of
your deceased relative’s best friend. Your first
“business meeting” is not auspicious, but something
about this guy makes you want to give him a
chance.
8. At an annual town carnival, you buy a raffle ticket,
thinking it’s for the newest quilt created by a
quirky, lovable group of ladies you’ve known since
childhood. But what you ended up winning is a
date with the mayor’s son, a conspiracy theorist
who lives on a boat.
9. You’re investigating strange phenomena in the
wake of a devastating tornado when you meet an
eccentric journalist who clearly knows something
you don’t. Your curiosity compels you to accept his
invitation to review his personal collection of
observations.
Prompts 239

10. The last year has been rough, and you’re finally
interested in maybe meeting someone new, but you
feel unattractive. So when a friend shows up after a
“miracle makeover” from someone new in town,
you insist she takes you to him.
11. Your job as a cop has made it difficult to maintain a
romantic relationship, and a two-year relationship
has just ended on a sour note. So, when a civilian
informant, who has no love for your ex, starts being
a lot more helpful, you’re not sure what to think.
12. Your morning alarm interrupts an intensely erotic
dream involving someone you just met. He just
joined your team at work, and you’re drawn to his
warmth, intelligence, and unsettling dark eyes. But
a friend and coworker believe the man is her
soulmate.
13. You take a job as a social worker who visits shut-
ins and develop an attachment to a man a little
older than you who is agoraphobic. You get along
like old friends, but you wonder if he’d give you the
time of day if you hadn’t met the way you did.
14. You came back from a near-death experience, and
everyone has questions, but no one wants to hear
anything that contradicts what they’ve been told.
You close yourself off to all but a few — the
members of a small support group of NDEs. And
one of them believes he’s your soulmate.
240 Prompts

15. You go to sleep wanting to visit an old flame you

haven’t talked to in years, and you dream that
you’re in his bedroom, watching him sleep. The
next day, he calls you, fearing you were dead. You
agree to meet with him and debate whether to tell
him more.
16. A former connection comes to your door on a full
moon, and you almost refuse to let him in. He
persuades you to open the door so you can talk
about a concern of his, and before you know it,
you’re both getting a lot closer than you’d planned.
And you know why.
17. You have a fair tolerance for alcohol and keep a
bottle of Jameson in your home office, but when a
new client comes to your door with a bottle of
Black Barrel, you let him in and talk for a bit over a
few drinks. You wake up wearing a wedding dress.
18. You move into a coveted apartment, and your first
visitor is a stunningly gorgeous man looking for the
previous resident. He’s about to leave when he
notices the book you’re holding. He’s the author.
19. You stop at your favorite used bookstore and buy
one of their grab-bags to help with a fundraiser.
When you open it, you find a peculiar hardcover
book with a handwritten message inside. That
night, you find a note at your door with the same
handwriting.
Prompts 241

20. You’re looking through old photo albums when

you see a face you’d all but forgotten — the face of
an old high school crush who’d flirted with you but
had never asked you out. The same guy shows up
the next day at your highly acclaimed
matchmaking agency.
21. You take a job singing telegrams and end up singing
a Dear John letter to the guy who jilted you in
college. He listens to the whole thing, asks you to
wait while he writes a calmly-worded response,
and tips you a set of keys to the car out front.
22. You’ve paired up for a class interview project in one
of your writing classes, and your partner is someone
you might not otherwise have noticed. In a dream,
he comes to your door and invites you to a movie.
Suddenly, you’re in a car together, and there’s a
ring on your finger.
23. Your roommate invites her boyfriend into the room
and introduces you as a hermit who lives on coffee
and sandwiches. You take one look at each other
and time literally stops for a moment. Memories of
a lifetime together pass in that brief space.
24. To satisfy a math requirement, you take a class in
Statistics and you’re immediately drawn to a
classmate who explains the material better than the
prof does. When you see him greet his boyfriend,
you’re torn between relief and disappointment.
242 Prompts

25. Your new roommate seems intensely interested in

your life and wants to know everything about you.
You’re flattered and a little freaked out, but it’s nice
to have someone to talk to. When her handsome
brother comes to visit, she seems uncomfortable.
26. For years, you thought you were born without the
capacity for sexual attraction, but when you meet
someone in the college dining hall, you feel an
intense urge to grab hold of him and kiss him. He
gives you a brief, guarded smile and walks past you.
27. A class project has you pairing up and writing daily
words of affirmation to your partner, but since you
showed up late to class, you end up paired with
someone you’ve always seen as an egotistical asshat.
28. You accept a job taking notes for college students,
and your main client is a guy with dyslexia, ADD,
and gender dysphoria. You become friends and
support him, even when it means crossing swords
with his older brother, who’s trying to walk a fine
line.
29. Your best friend wants you to help her write a love
story about her boyfriend that the college literary
journal will publish in time for Valentine’s Day. But
the story is published under your name, and your
ex seems to think the story is about him.
30. You agree to go on one double date with the
reclusive best friend of your roommate’s fiancé, and
you’re surprised to learn he’s a published
Prompts 243

playwright. You hit it off and agree to watch one of

his plays with him as a second date. The
performance does not go well.
31. You agree to tutor someone who’s struggling in his
writing class, and he ends up tutoring you in
something you’ve avoided as much as possible:
driving. He’s a natural behind the wheel — and
under the hood — and you have a gift for writing.
32. Your vampire cousin has confessed to you his
developing attachment to a shifter woman (feline)
who works with him and who recently divorced
her cheating husband. You know that the vampire
leadership wouldn’t tolerate such a relationship,
but you’ve secretly been watching the man who
was your boyfriend before you were turned.
33. You wake up from an intense dream and see that
your arms have changed to wings with snow-white
feathers. Your mother suddenly enters and looks
you up and down. “Lying son of a …! He told me
you’d grow up normal….”
34. The humans in your world are dying of a disease
that hasn’t affected the elves, but you’re charged
with the protection of a man who, according to a
prophecy, will unite the warring human kingdoms.
He agrees to go with you on a quest to the
mountains, and you take shelter in a cave for the
night. Someone had created a home there, but
there’s only one blanket.
244 Prompts

35. You finally gave in to your boyfriend, whose latest

romantic overtures have been over the top. That
night, it’s a full moon. When you later tell him
you’re pregnant, his reaction scares you. He insists
on going somewhere private to explain why.
36. You’re intensely drawn to someone in your class,
and twice now you’ve looked into his eyes and you
swear they were different colors each time — cool
blue when you first met and a warm green when he
looked at you in a way that lit you up inside.
37. Your mating season has come, and there’s no
escape. Your parents are hoping you’ll respond well
to the attentions of the alpha, but you’ve secretly
been meeting with a forbidden friend from a
different pack — a friend who has lately become
more than that.
38. As a princess, you’re expected to marry someone
with advantageous connections, but to you,
marriage sounds worse than death — until a
particular prince arrives who reveals himself to be
a dragon shifter.
39. You wake up with an irresistible drive to roam the
woods in search of… something. You run out in
your pajamas but soon you no longer need them.
Taking to the sky with blue-black feathers, you soar
overhead until you see one like you. He’s waiting.
40. All the other women in your family are talented
witches, but not you. Your mother and sisters play
Prompts 245

up your non-magical gifts but you know they pity

you, and more than anything you want to surprise
them. And one night, during a traumatic
experience, you do.
41. You’ve come out of the ocean to find a mate, not
intending to stay long enough to get attached. But
when you meet someone who strongly resembles
an old enemy, you extend your stay to seduce and
then punish him for his crimes against your clan.
246 Prompts

Some Tropes
1. Best Friends. The characters start out as best friends
but eventually decide to start a relationship. This
can either be a happily ever after or a terrible idea.
2. Enemies. The characters begin as enemies. At some
point, they are forced to spend time together and
begin falling in love.
3. Unhappy Ending. Two people are crazy for each
other, but can’t ever be together due to
circumstances out of their control.
4. The Break-Up. A couple that has broken up realize
that they may have made a mistake - but is it too
late?
5. Broken Tradition. Create a couple where all gender
role and relationship expectations are turned
upside down. What does this romance look like?
6. Bad Timing. Two people know they are perfect for
each other, but the timing is just never right.
7. The Tourist. A tourist travels abroad and doesn’t
know the language. They become infatuated with a
local.
8. The Arrangement. Two people within an arranged
marriage actually fall in love - after getting married.
9. The Campaign. Two people are fighting for the
same spot in an election. Could be anything from a
true political campaign to high school class
president.
Prompts 247

10. A Life Changed. Two lives are changed forever

when they embark on a short but sweet love affair.
11. Lies. A major lie is what brings two people together
- what happens when one or both of them find out
the truth?
12. He has already been ruled out. She made up her
mind long ago that she would never date a man
with his title (doctor, biker, lawyer, etc.)
13. She already broke his heart once. He pursued her
once in the past and was brutally rejected. She has
realized how stupid she was and is desperate for
another chance.
14. He was faking it at first. perhaps he made a bet that
he could get her, or he pretended that he liked her
so he could manipulate her and reveal all her
secrets. Oops, now he loves her.
15. She has moral concerns. She is his
boss/professor/teacher/captor and it would not be
appropriate, no matter how badly she wants to do
it.
16. He is a suspect. He is suspected of a major crime
(murder, large scale robbery, etc) and she is wary of
the implications.
17. The first impressions were terrible. Their first
meeting was awkward and horrible. Neither of
them left with a good first impression. They have a
difficult time finding their way back to each other.
248 Prompts

18. Vanished Love. Your main character shares a

wildly exciting and romantic week with the man
she has always loved. They express their feelings for
each other, and he tells her of his desire to stay with
her forever and build a life together. They fall
asleep one night in complete and utter bliss. The
next morning, he is gone. He cannot be found or
reached. She is heartbroken and must begin the
process of rebuilding. Five years later, he returns.
What happened?
19. Eye for an Eye. Your main character’s boring,
predictable life is shaken when they discover a
stranger dying in an alley. They want to call 911 but
the person begs them not to. They decide to take
the person back to their place to fix them up. Once
the mysterious stranger is better and feels stronger,
they reveal that they are actually a supernatural
being. Their species holds strongly to the “eye for
an eye” and that includes saving lives. Your
protagonist is now stuck with this being as their
sidekick until they are able to save their life. At
first, this is annoying, until feelings start to develop.
20. Perfection. He is an art fanatic with a desire for
constant perfection. No one has ever gotten close to
him because no one is ever as perfect as the
artwork. The sculptures. The portraits. The
beautiful scenes of perfect women frozen in time.
He works in a busy office which is kept in pristine
Prompts 249

condition, until one day they hire a new intern. She

is unfashionable and unkempt with messy hair and
a constantly disorganized workspace. He is driven
mad nearly every day… so why can he simply not
stand the thought of her leaving at the end of her
term?
21. Nightmare Love. Your main character is a vivid
dreamer. Some are wonderful experiences and
others are horrible nightmares. Suddenly, the
terrible people and events from their dreams start
appearing in real life. Their partner then dies
suddenly in a tragic way. They are devastated but
hopeful because their dead partner starts appearing
in their dreams. They spiral into the tragic
existence of frantically searching for their partner
in the real world during every waking moment.
22. On the Run. Two people on the run from the law
find each other. Of course, they are wary of each
other but they eventually build trust and fall madly
in love. They help each other hide from police and
they pool their knowledge of life on the streets. The
two work together to steal cash and essentials -
food, water, clothing. They share several near-
death experiences until finally one gets caught, and
the other doesn’t.
23. The Kiss of Death. When your protagonist grows
up and begins dating, she discovers a terrifying fact
about herself. As soon as she kisses the man she’s
250 Prompts

developed a relationship with, he mysteriously

dies! She chalks it up to bad luck at first but soon
she can’t deny that it is a pattern. Refusing to accept
the fate of loneliness, she sets out to discover the
origin of her condition.
24. Embrace the Era. Choose an era to set your story in,
and really embrace it. Research everything you
need to know. The fashion, the attitudes, the
employment situations, the political atmosphere…
everything. And then immerse your characters in
the culture. Write a whimsical, emotional, and
heart-wrenching romance between two characters
of that time. Transport your readers to a different
place and you will have them hooked the whole
time.
25. Time Travel. Time travel is a theme that has been
explored over and over again throughout the
history of storytelling, but it never seems to get old.
Perhaps this is because of the completely endless
options you have with the idea. Write about a
protagonist who travels through time and meets the
love of their life in a different era. They are clearly
meant to be, but one of them refuses because of
where the protagonist is from.
26. The Survival. Your novel takes place in a post-
apocalyptic world and your characters are just
trying to survive. Your main focus is their survival
attempts and the man vs. earth conflict you’ve
Prompts 251

created. The group travels together, and two of the

men are in love with the same women. One knows
her from the past, the other only met her after the
destruction happened. Both are constantly working
to impress her and put the other down. One day
they stumble upon another group of surviving
people and they team up. The woman becomes
interested in one of the new men.
27. Criminal Love. A young police officer is working
on a serial killer case. They are on his trail but
haven’t caught him yet. The officer begins to
develop feelings for one of the suspects'
friends/family/witnesses. The tension builds as they
need this person more and more for the
investigation, but the officer knows they must wait
until the case is over to pursue anything. No one
knows how long this case will last.
252 Prompts

34 Romance Writing Prompts

1. A bookstore patron falls for one of the booksellers,
but is too shy to speak to them. One day, they buy
a book with a note tucked inside.
2. A distant member of a European royal family
crashes their car outside a woman’s house in a rural
area.
3. Two high schoolers who hate each other get stuck
doing community service together after a senior
prank goes wrong.
4. A woman’s on her way to her date an hour early
and chats up her Lyft driver. He’s handsome and
charming, and soon she realizes he’s the man she’s
supposed to meet later.
5. Write a love story between two patrons at a cafe
from the perspective of the barista.
6. A farmer hires a mercenary to guide her to the next
town through a monster-infested forest. Their
relationship is strictly professional…until it’s not.
7. Groups from both sides of a war clash at a crypt,
searching for an ancient, powerful artifact. In
battle, the crypt collapses, trapping two knights
from opposite sides. They have to learn to work
together if they’re going to make it out alive.
8. A student on a study abroad trip falls in love with
the bartender at the pub down the road, and on the
last day of classes before she leaves, she confesses
her feelings.
Prompts 253

9. While exploring an ancient castle, a woman falls

down a tower. She wakes up in a monster’s lair. At
first, she’s horrified, but it turns out they’re both
trapped down here, and the monster isn’t so bad.
10. When people turn 20, a tattoo appears on their
wrist–a clue to lead them to their soulmate. On
your character’s 20th birthday, their wrist remains
blank.
11. A woman is torn between man and woman vying
for her affection, and when she tells them, they
confess that they have feelings for one another, too.
12. At the party after their high school graduation, one
graduate works up the nerve to confess her four-
year-long crush on someone else via Snapchat. The
next morning, she realizes she sent the message to
the wrong person, who says that the feelings are
mutual.
13. At a ball, a woman waits for her crush to ask her to
dance. They disappear, but when the party’s ended,
they meet the woman in the empty ballroom for a
last dance.
14. A caterer regularly works at a CEO’s lavish parties
and falls in love with a recurring guest.
15. Your character has a crush on someone in their
apartment building. They find excuses to be in the
common areas when the neighbor comes and goes.
16. A woman studying for her history degree uncovers
a series of letters in a digital archive written
254 Prompts

between two lovers fighting on the European front

during World War One. What do the letters say?
17. Your character loathes one particular coworker.
They’re both working late when something traps
them in the building for two days. How does their
relationship change?
18. A high school student’s best friend and crush
reveals herself to be a werewolf.
19. A knight swears his fealty and hand in marriage to
his queen. But on his very first quest, he falls in love
with a fellow knight…
20. While her partner is at work, a woman decides to
try to cook dinner as a surprise for them. It goes
spectacularly bad.
21. Write about a long-distance pair off the internet
meeting for the first time in two years in a fast food
parking lot, all from the perspective of an employee
at the restaurant.
22. On an airplane, a woman strikes up a conversation
with a stunning person and regrets not getting their
number when the plane lands. When she boards
the plane for her return flight, the person is in the
next row over.
23. Two interns scouting out a possible five-star hotel
for their CEO to stay on a business trip get snowed
in. Luckily, the company agrees to pay for them to
stay the weekend–but there’s only one room
Prompts 255

available at such short notice. And that room has

only one bed.
24. In a failed attempt to woo a beautiful baker, your
character ends up with a job at the bakery.
Unfortunately, they know absolutely nothing
about baking.
25. On a road trip across the country, a woman meets
an intriguing traveler at a rest stop.
26. A man spends his life obsessed with a woman from
a Renaissance painting. He becomes a successful
scholar, researching the painter and painting. One
day, he meets a woman who looks exactly like the
woman from the painting.
27. Every night at the same time, a woman plays her
violin in the town square, and a stranger puts the
same amount of spare change in her case. They
grow to look forward to the woman’s performances.
One day, the woman vanishes.
28. A woman dresses to attract a man who won’t pay
attention to her, but draws the attention of his best
friend instead.
29. When his upstairs neighbor keeps blaring music,
Trevor blares his own music in return. His neighbor
starts incorporating Trevor’s favorite songs into his
rotation. One day, Trevor goes to ask him about it.
30. Two people fall deeply in love. One night, one
partner has a dream where, in dozens of past
256 Prompts

lifetimes, they’ve found each other and fallen in

love before.
31. On a tour bus driving through beautiful
countryside, a tourist strikes up conversation with
the guide, since all the other travelers are quiet.
Turns out, they have more in common than just
their interest in history.
32. After months of building up the courage to ask out
a coworker, the date goes horribly wrong.
33. It’s the last day of filming for the latest Hollywood
rom-com. Just as they wrap things up, the actress
realizes she’s got feelings for her co-star.
34. Your character accompanies their friend to a speed-
dating event for moral support. While they aren’t
interested in the dates in front of them, they find
they can’t stop peeking at their friend across the
room.
Prompts 257

Plain Romance Writing Prompts

1. Your character has an unwavering belief that love
is strictly a choice. They have made the choice to
not get involved at all. Relationships only bring
drama and heartbreak and they want none of it.
What will it take to change their mind?
2. Your character is passed over for a promotion. They
grow bitter that the company decided to hire from
outside rather than promote from within. They
begin their quest to take this new person down -
not at all expecting to fall for them instead.
3. A large package arrives on your character’s
doorstep. It appears to have been misdelivered but
curiosity gets the better of them. Inside they find
several hundred love letters, written over many
years, all addressed to the same person. They find
themselves reading through them for hours and
feeling increasingly drawn to the sender. They
become determined to find the person who wrote
them as well as the intended recipient.
4. Tell the story of a love that only exists in someone’s
dream. Every night when they go to bed, they are
united with their lover in dreamland. The dreams
are vivid, lucid, and they always remember every
second of them. Each dream starts where the last
one left off as if their dream lover just waits for
them during waking hours. Will they ever pursue
real-world love? Where are the dreams coming
258 Prompts

from? Are they really just dreams, or are they

something more?
5. Arranged marriages are the norm. No one marries
for love, it’s all for personal, business, financial, or
political gain. No one knows what love is until your
protagonist begins feeling inexplicably drawn to
someone who is already promised to another. This
has them questioning everything they know about
relationships and “love.”
6. Your main character has already been ruled out by
their love interest simply due to their
occupation/lifestyle/opinions. For example, the
person has stated that they will never be with a
lawyer. Your character is a lawyer and loves their
job. Can they change their crush’s mind?
7. Your character is a professional matchmaker. She
runs a dating service with extensive personality
questionnaires that match you to the perfect
people. She has a good reputation and many couples
find love with her. Upset about a recent romantic
problem of her own, she makes a dire mistake. Two
couples are out on dates right now, and she got
them mixed up. On paper, both pairs are
completely wrong for each other while their
perfect match is out with someone else. Will the
correct pairs reunite or will some unlikely
relationships develop? What will come of our
Prompts 259

matchmaker who can’t seem to manage her own

love life?
8. Cupid isn’t the true matchmaker, he is just the
messenger that shoots the arrows on direction from
his boss. He is given an order and sets out to make
it happen, all the while strongly disagreeing with
the match. For the first time, he doesn’t believe
these two belong together. He begrudgingly shoots
one of them but decides to follow his gut at the last
minute. He intentionally misses the next shot. The
problem is, in his haste, he accidentally hit
someone else. What happens to these people? Who
truly do belong together?
9. Your protagonist falls in love with the man who has
recently moved in next door. They are building a
relationship slowly. Eventually, she learns that he
is actually on assignment to protect her. It is no
coincidence that he moved in and visits her
sometimes. What is he protecting her from? How
did she come to know? Does she make her feelings
known?
10. A strong-willed and independent woman is single
but wants to settle down. She has a strong distaste
for children. Of course, she has to fall in love with
a single father of one troublesome young child.
11. A heartbroken young woman gets into a cab of a
driver who was just broken up with. She has just
been stood up. Feeling vulnerable, she tells the
260 Prompts

drive what has happened. Feeling equally lonely,

he opens up as well. They embark on a magical
night of spontaneous adventure.
12. Two best friends are finished high school and
taking some time off before continuing their
education. Both are single and not looking to date.
They decide to embark on a cross country road trip
together to discover themselves. In finding
themselves, they also find each other
13. Your main character is at work, minding their own
business. They receive an anonymous delivery.
Inside is a bag of candy hearts. They begin eating
them and soon realize the words on the hearts are
trying to deliver a specific message.
14. Your main character decides who she does and
doesn’t date based on horoscopes and love quiz
results. She abides by this faithfully for years, until
someone comes along that makes her want to
abandon it all.
15. One person is on the waiting list at the library for a
particular book for a long time. They happen to run
into the person who has it so overdue while at the
library. The two bond over their love for the book
and decide to keep in touch.
16. When upset, overwhelmed, or wanting to be alone,
your protagonist goes out to a secret clearing they
found in the forest behind their house. They
Prompts 261

thought it was their own special place until one

day, someone else is there when they show up.
17. A rich, suave, handsome young man is used to
getting what he wants, including women. He uses
them for status, appearances, and meaningless sex.
Once finished, he discards them when he grows
tired of their greed and neediness. He laughs at the
women who throw themselves at him, hoping to
gain something. He is out and about one night and
is drawn to a pretty woman sitting alone - his next
target, as usual. She turns him down immediately.
This has never happened before. He becomes
obsessed with her.
18. Your main character had a great time in high
school. They were attractive and popular. One
thing they never did get was their crush. Their
adult life is mediocre and they remain stuck on the
past - including their crush. One day, that very
crush starts a job at their workplace. All the
fantasies of the last ten years come crumbling down
when they see how much the person has changed.
19. A young woman is drawn to an attractive man on
the subway. Acting on a whim, she gets off at his
stop and follows him to his destination, where she
introduces herself.
20. Your main character is fed up with her new
neighbor’s stuff protruding onto her property.
Rather than confront them about it, she goes right
262 Prompts

to a lawyer. She didn’t expect the neighbor to be so

charming, attractive, and single.
21. Your main character has been wrestling for years
over how to tell their lifelong best friend that they
are actually imaginary. Usually, they reveal the
truth when the person is 12 years old. They
disappear and the child has no memory of them. It’s
now 12 years past the “due date” and each day the
prospect of telling them and disappearing is getting
harder and harder.
22. An eccentric actor is cast for the role of a
multilingual character. Rather than taking classes,
he decides to travel to several different countries.
He soon learns how intriguing foreign women can
be.
23. Two characters are the only ones left in the theater
as the credits are rolling. She’d been eyeing him the
whole time and wants to make a move. She
approaches, only to realize he’s crying. The movie
wasn’t sad.
24. Your main character is going crazy while on the
25th annual family road trip. They wish the
tradition would just die already. They meet a cute
convenience store clerk, to whom they end up
venting about the whole thing. On a whim, the
clerk follows the family, determined to get to know
your protagonist better.
Prompts 263

25. A woman is on vacation in a foreign city. She is

exploring when she suddenly realizes she’s in a
place she’s been many times before - in her dreams.
She looks around frantically and finally sees him.
The man who is always there, in the dream. He
smiles and approaches, asking if it’s really her.
264 Prompts

Historical Romance Writing Prompts

1. A southern lawyer is secretly helping slaves escape
the north in the civil war. He harbors families
himself on the route of the underground railroad.
He falls in love with one of the young women who
come through his home. Her eyes are only on
freedom, understandably so. Her departure from
this stop on her journey could be a source of
heartache for him.
2. It is the era of prohibition. Black market trading
and sales run rampant. A rebel-rousing moonshiner
falls in love with the daughter of a competing and
ruthless mob boss. This, of course, threatens his
business, but also his life.
3. It is the middle of the Vietnam war and a wounded
soldier is recovering in the hospital. He falls in love
with his nurse (or perhaps she falls in love first). He
is simultaneously battling the psychological
demons that have come from his time on the
battlefield.
4. During the depression, a young woman leaves her
hometown hoping to have a better chance of
finding work elsewhere. She moves into the home
of a family to exchange free boarding for taking
care of household chores and errands. There is an
undeniable connection between her and one of
their sons. She tries desperately to deny her feelings
Prompts 265

because she left a lover back home with promises of

returning to him someday.
5. It is the peak of the cold war, and an American
double agent is deep undercover in the heart of
Moscow. Despite his best efforts, he is developing
feelings for a foreign spy. His loyalty to his country
is not in question, however, neither are his feelings
for this Soviet spy.
6. The Salem Witch trials were a dark time in history.
One thing that is never focused on, though, is the
relationships that were ripped apart by these
events. Write about the journey of one woman
falsely accused of being a witch as she and her lover
try to escape.
7. It is the Pop Urban II first Crusade. Write about a
Christian captain who falls in love with a Muslim
while in a foreign land.
8. An Italian immigrant moves to America in search
of a better life with a higher paying job. He intends
to send for his fiance once things have settled. It
isn’t long, however, before he meets a young
woman in Brooklyn who is earning his affection
more and more each day. With his fiance waiting
patiently in Italy, he must decide between the two.
9. It is the height of World War II and London is
being bombed. A British woman has a loving
relationship with a German ex-pat. She is under
intense pressure to turn him in as a suspected spy.
266 Prompts

10. Write a story with a less than happy ending. Write

about a prince who is betrothed to a neighboring
princess purely for political gain. He is secretly in
love with a commoner. He sneaks away and has a
short but fiery affair with the women of his dreams.
But in the end, he succumbs to family pressure and
marries the one who was arranged for him.
11. A brilliant engineer is considered dangerous by the
government because of her inventions and
technological advancements. She ends up on the
run with a dedicated fisherman who lives at sea.
The isolation brings them closer.
12. A princess is well loved and respected by the
entirety of the small kingdom she will soon rule
over. Authorities are searching for a serial grave
robber. The princess has a chance encounter with a
dashing young man who she falls for quickly. It
turns out he is the wanted grave robber. Can she
trust his intentions?
13. A humble, lowly used bookstore owner is visited by
an arrogant and pious official. Some false
accusations have been made. Eventually, the
prideful officer relents and begins to help the store
owner clear her name. Her quiet, charming
personality begins to break the walls of his ego.
14. The king marries the women of his dreams, making
her his queen. He did this, knowing it would start a
worldwide war. He didn’t care.
Prompts 267

Fantasy Romance Writing Prompts

1. Fantasy and romance often mix quite seamlessly. A
wild, magical adventure is the among the best times
for one to fall in love!
2. Interspecies romance is the new normal. Humans
haven’t been with each other in decades. Your
main character is in love with another human but
afraid to admit it because it is not socially
acceptable.
3. Artificial intelligence has reached its peak. Robots
are emotional and sentient. They are slowly
replacing humans in all areas of life, including
relationships. Humans are developing lasting
relationships with robots. Your main character is
engaged to a robot she fell in love with. But, she
begins to learn about the past and how humans used
to engage and be with each other. She begins to
question how much a robot can actually love.
4. Write about two characters who have each
promised their firstborn children to separate
witches. They end up falling in love with each
other and having a child together.
5. You answer the doorbell to find someone from a
different universe. They say that you are their
favorite book character and they want to change
the ending to your story.
6. A young woman is used to partying with the rich
and famous - her dad is one of them. She finally
268 Prompts

meets a man she doesn’t recognize. It isn’t until

their third date that he learns he is the prince of a
far off land.
Prompts 269

Thriller Romance Writing Prompts

1. A young man’s fiancee goes missing. She is never
found, the case goes cold, she is presumed dead. He
never gives up waiting and looking. Ten years later,
he finds her. Now that he has found her, he must
either stay with her where she is for the rest of his
life or be killed.
2. A woman has been in solitary confinement with no
human contact for two years. That is until
mysterious love letters start slipping under her
door.
3. While on a student exchange program your
character discovers her host family is involved in a
prolific drug ring. Her first instinct is to contact
authorities, but she hesitates due to her feelings for
their son. He offers her the world in exchange for
joining them.
4. A young woman is at the bank when a robbery
ensues. She is surprised when the masked robbers
retreat as soon as they see her. She comes to find
that her high school boyfriend now runs a large
crime ring. He has placed on her his strict “no
harm” list. She decides to pay him a visit after all
these years.
5. Write about a serial killer who kills women he falls
in love with. He knows they are out of his league.
So, if he can’t have them, no one can. Finally, one
woman returns his affections before he gets the
270 Prompts

chance to kill her. Will this put an end to his

murderous tendencies?
Prompts 271

Comedic Romance Writing Prompts

1. Your main character has regained touch with an
old flame. They realize the fire from the past is still
lingering, but the person is set to be married next
week. To a real jerk, no less. They will stop at
nothing to win this person back.
2. Think about your favorite romantic comedy. Now,
insert yourself into the main relationship. What
would change? How would you do with the person?
Write it all down and go into detail.
3. A love potion is being mass produced and is going
viral. Everyone is falling in love with everyone.
Will anyone find their actual true love?
4. Write about a couple who has found true love but
with a significant age difference. Everyone around
them is skeptical. They beat the odds, but not
without some confusion caused by the generation
gap.
5. Write a reverse Romeo and Juliet. Two close
families know their children are meant to be
together. There’s no arrangement happening, they
just want to see them together. The two kids are
aware of their families’ feelings and refuse to be
together simply to prove them wrong.
6. She comes thundering into the clearing atop a
glorious white stallion. He puts down his sandwich
as his jaw drops in awe. He slowly walks over to
reassure his little cob pony.
272 Prompts

7. Write about a character who truly believes the

entire world revolves around them. They see
someone waving, it’s always at them. A man holds
open a door, they are definitely interested.
Someone needs to break their delusion once and for
all.
8. A radical religious cult takes over the government.
Caffeine is outlawed. A woman must now join her
boyfriend as he goes rogue to fight for his right to
caffeinate.
9. A shy and lonely college guy is swiping through
Tinder. He is shocked when an actress he loves
matches with him. They meet up and your main
character is saddened to realize there is no real
connection. He is, however, quite attracted to her
assistant.
10. Two people who are almost exactly alike fall for
each other. They are both angry, violent, jealous,
and possessive personalities.
11. A man gives his number to a woman at a party. She
promises to call but never does. Weeks later they
run into each other at the grocery store.
12. Two teachers are known rivals at their high school.
Despite this, half the school roots for them to be
together. Their secret? They’re already married.
13. Your main character works in a bookstore. A man
comes in once a week, reads a book, and leaves. The
manager asks her to tell the man he can’t do that
Prompts 273

anymore without buying anything. But she would

rather quit than do that, because she loves every
book he’s been reading.
14. Two characters are known as jokesters and
pranksters among their friends and families. They
grew up together, teaming up to mess with
everyone. Now they are together and planning to
marry, but everyone still thinks they’re joking.
15. Your main character’s best friend sets them up on a
blind date. They arrive, only to find their best
friend themselves sitting at the table.
16. A woman is invited over for dinner by a man at
work. Basically a low-key first date. Things are
awkward and there is no connection. While inside,
a storm brews, and they are snowed in. She is stuck
there for the night.
17. A man is cast to be the host of a hot new dating
show. His high school crush is a contestant on the
first episode.
274 Prompts

Supernatural Romance Writing Prompts

1. Earth is riddled with guardian angels masquerading
as humans. They infiltrate themselves into their
assignments lives in order to better protect them.
Your main character is a guardian angel who has
successfully protected thousands of humans. He is
one of the most well-respected angels in the realm.
This time, he is desperately in love with his
assigned human. This is strictly against the rules.
2. A girl is selling all of her silver jewelry so she can
safely be around and touch her werewolf
boyfriend.
3. A female vampire was never interested in love
when she was alive and nothing is different now.
She feeds on humans with no remorse and turns
animals immortal to fill the need for
companionship. A human man comes along and is
determined to crack her.
4. Your main character becomes possessed with an
angry spirit. The twist? The spirit is in love with her
and demands they live the rest of their lives like
this.
5. A small town has a local urban legend about a siren
that lives in the lake on the edge of the city. She is
blamed for many old deaths in years past but hasn’t
killed in a while. A young man sets out to learn the
truth once and for all.
Prompts 275

Futuristic and Sci-Fi Romance Writing Prompts

1. Your protagonist lives in a futuristic world where
soulmates/partners are designated at birth.
Everyone accepts this system and lives a happy life.
Your main character is the first person in thousands
of years to stop and wonder if this type of love is
real since no one had a choice. They have been
“married” to their partner for 10 years already.
2. It is so far into the future that intelligent robots
have been the only form of “life” for centuries.
Humans have been forgotten. Until one day, one
robot stumbles upon ancient evidence of human
life. He goes digging and finds more. He gathers all
the information he can and eventually “creates” the
first human in hundreds of years.
3. The statues of greek and roman gods around the
world all start coming to life. One young woman is
delighted for she has been crushing on Hercules
ever since studying him and his story in high
school.
4. In the distant future, evolution has changed what
gender means. Individuals can change gender at
will. When gathered in groups, some people will
switch until it is an even mix of male and female.
This causes an ever-changing shift in relationships.
5. A young, single man is found to have a rare genetic
mutation that would produce near-perfect
276 Prompts

offspring - physically, mentally, intellectually. He

becomes the most sought after man alive.
6. A dedicated astronaut dies on board his ship. In his
will, he requested to be “buried in space.” They
fulfill his wish and blast him into space. Years later,
an alien colony picks him up and revives him. His
only goal is to return to earth and reunite with his
wife.
Prompts 277

Sad or Tragic Romance Writing Prompts

1. Two lovers know they are destined to be together,
but it can’t happen in this reality. They tearfully
part ways for the last time as they promise to find
each other in the next life.
2. Your characters live in a world where soulmates are
your life source. Once matched with your
soulmate, you cannot live without their touch.
Going without it for too long will kill you. Both
criminals and corrupt governments take advantage
of this.
3. Your characters live in a time where relationships,
especially marriages, are sacred and cherished by
all. Cheating in a dating relationship is grounds for
imprisonment. Cheating within a marriage is
punishable by death. Your main character’s spouse
is caught in an affair… but all they want is to
forgive them and move on.
4. Your main character is one of the few people
afflicted with a literal touch of death. Their touch
will kill immediately. Most of these people are
deemed dangerous and locked up for life. Your
protagonist has managed to hide it from the
authorities by never killing anyone. They do this by
keeping a low profile in general and wearing gloves
at all times. Against their will and better judgment,
they fall madly in love with someone. But, they can
never truly touch them.
278 Prompts

5. A woman is standing outside the gates of a castle.

Inside is the man who has her heart. She is there to
kill him.
Prompts 279

Paranormal/Gothic Romance Writing Prompts

1. A woman's fiance dies just weeks before they were
slated to marry. However, her devastation is short-
lived as he suddenly shows up in her room one
night - as a ghost. They “hang out” like this every
day. But, they cannot have a physical relationship
and she is growing weary of this.
2. Feeling stuck in a dead marriage, a woman is visited
by the ghost of an old flame.
3. Your main character is a renowned medium and as
such, is familiar with ghosts and spirits. There is
one special ghost that has kept coming back over
the years, acting as sort of a guardian angel. He has
gotten her out of some tricky situations. One day,
he appears and tells her she is in grave danger and
he can’t help her this time.
4. She has been dead for years, wandering the earth,
where no one can see her. Until he sees her. Their
unconventional romance may be cut short when
his friends recruit an exorcist.
5. Looking into a mirror she suddenly hears a voice
calling her name wistfully. Is the object possessed,
or is it something else?
6. Caught in the middle of the ocean clinging to a
broken raft for dear life, she is rescued by a
handsome and charming sailor. They spend a few
days getting to know each other. When the ship
finally docks, she finds she was the only one alive
280 Prompts

the whole time. Only she can see the sailors. She
desperately wants to be with the one who saved her
but he can’t leave the ship.
7. He has been stuck in the underworld for ages. He
finally finds someone who can help him back to the
surface. But, he wonders if he wants to leave
anymore if it means he never sees her again.
8. A ghost town is deserted by the living. A developer
has purchased the land and wants to rebuild. Little
does she know, the residents, though dead, are very
much thriving in the spiritual realm of the town.
They are not happy about the plans to develop.
9. For his entire life, he has had a disturbing recurring
dream of a woman dying a brutal, undeserved,
untimely death. Now in his thirties, he discovers
that his dream is an event that actually happened.
He learns this when the woman’s ghost comes to
him for help.
10. A plane crashes down on a remote island. Thinking
they are the only two survivors, a couple begins to
search for ways to get off the island. Days later, help
finally arrives. It turns out - only one of them
actually survived. The other’s ghost is now
confined to the island.
11. She is killed by a man who makes it look like an
accident. No one suspects a thing. Her boyfriend is
next on the list, so she sets out to warn him.
Prompts 281

12. She has always loved that old, abandoned house at

the edge of town. She finally buys it. Upon moving
in, she discovers she is not alone.
13. An antique collector acquires a particularly
interesting piece - one of the oldest in his
collection. The original owner, however, is still
very attached the item despite being dead. She will
not leave the man alone until he surrenders the
item.
14. A man discovers a spell that will bring back his dead
lover. What he didn’t consider was the cost of such
an act. She has changed completely.
15. An amateur archeologist accidentally digs up an old
grave. This stirs the spirit of the one buried there,
and he is angry.
16. A man has always been drawn to an old portrait he
found at a thrift shop. It hangs in his home, despite
having no idea who the painting is of. By chance,
he finds a descendant of the women in the painting
and they develop a connection. This upsets the
spirit of the women in the portrait as she has been
living in the painting and is quite fond of the man
herself.
17. A young teenage girl dies before ever having the
chance to get a boyfriend. Enraged at the lack of
romance during her time alive, she makes a point
to seduce every young, living man she can get her
dead, ghostly hands on.
282 Prompts

18. A woman dies in a tragic accident. She remains on

earth as a ghost, but she is the only one who knows
she’s dead. Her boyfriend is blissfully unaware. She
is riddled with guilt as she continues to selfishly
deceive him.
19. A man’s girlfriend dies before he has the chance to
propose. He soon learns that he can still
communicate with her… but only through text
message.
20. A woman discovers her dead boyfriend is living in
her bedroom. Her joy is short-lived as she realizes
he can’t see her. He is stuck in the room but is
unable to connect to the living world.
21. A ghost hunter arrives in town having been invited
by a young man to rid his house of spirits. She is
there to hunt the darkness in his house, but she
finds the darkness in his soul to be much more
dangerous and captivating.
22. A man is visiting the house of a woman he is
casually dating. Upon exploring the house he finds
a dark room full of developed photos, all of himself.
In all the photos, he is dead.
23. Death himself falls in love with a woman he was
supposed to let die 200 years ago. She doesn’t know
why she never ages. She is increasingly unhappy
with her condition.
Prompts 283

Dialogue Romance Writing Prompts

1. “I find you to be very…”
“Beautiful, intelligent, and wonderfully talented?”
“Dangerous, actually.”
2. “I was going to ask if you wanted to do me on that
desk, but I thought I’d at least say hello first.”
3. Are you clinically insane, or just annoying?”
“Probably both.”
4. “I take it you don’t know who I am. Well, that’s
about to change.”
5. “Just take my hand, would you?”
“But why?!”
“For crying out loud… I’m trying to ask you to
marry me!”
6. “This mascara is too expensive to be ruined by
crying. But you should know that I am feeling a lot
of things right now.”
7. “It’s a long story.”
"You had me believing you were dead for nine
months. I can make time.”
8. “You know you’re going to break his heart if you go
through with this, right?”
“Oh, does he have a heart?”
9. “If you’re going to break my heart, can we at least
do it outside?”
“But it’s raining.”
“Yes, I want to be dramatic.”
284 Prompts

10. “I’m trying to have a serious conversation with

you!”
“And I’m trying to avoid it!”
11. “I never had a chance, did I?”
“That’s the sad part. You did, once.”
12. “How’s the meeting?”
“I want to stab everyone.”
“Darling, try not to get blood on your dress today.
We have reservations at 7.”
“Fine, just this one time, for you.”
13. “I’m on call, and they’ll probably need me tonight.”
“Let’s just see how much trouble we can get into
before then, shall we?”
14. “Can you stop being so happy all the time? It’s
getting contagious and I don’t want it.”
15. “It was all done for you.”
“I didn’t ask you to kill anyone.
16. “I love you”
“Lying does not look good on you, sweetheart.”
17. “I’ve spent the last five years thinking you hated
me, so forgive me if this confession makes me
suspicious.”
18. “Why aren’t you dating him?”
“I’d destroy him.”
“He’d be into that.”
19. “At one point in time, we could have been happy.”
20. “Just get it over with. Tell me it was never going to
work, tell me you’re leaving.”
Prompts 285

“No. I want you to come with me.”

21. “On a scale of 1-10, how bad of an idea would be if
we got married?”
“Totally off the charts. I’m in.”
22. “You’ve got the worst poker face I’ve ever seen.”
23. “I didn’t leave because of him… but he’s why I
never went back.”
24. “Hon, you need to leave the city tonight. I’m
burning it all down.”
25. “You know you’re in love with her, right?”
“What, since when?”
“Since forever. That’s why I’m breaking up with
you.”
26. What do you expect from me? I’m not human and
I never was.”
27. “Don’t trust him.”
“Interesting, he said the same thing about you.”
28. “Right now, I don’t know whether I want to kiss
you, or throw you off a cliff.”
“Can I pick?”
29. “I’ll see you in the next life, my love.”
286 Prompts

67 Mystery Writing Prompts

1. You’re a memoir writer with a complicated love
life. An estranged cousin calls asking if you’ll help
her write a “tell-all” memoir. Then she disappears.
2. You’re a private investigator looking into the
murder of a philanthropist’s reclusive wife. Two
people confess, each swearing they acted alone.
You suspect another.
3. You’re the assistant to the creator of the first
empathic AI, who disappears just as the first
psychopath AI blows away the competition at a
global tech convention.
4. Your candle shop wins a prestigious award. Last
year’s winner is angry and slanders you and your
products. You find their body behind your store,
covered in wax.
5. You research your genealogy and find that several
people from different branches all died in the same
mysterious ___location — of unknown causes.
6. A well-known motivational speaker is about to give
a TED talk when they take a drink from a fresh
water bottle and collapse. Their assistant
disappears.
7. She’s always been faithful to her husband. So, who’s
been trying to frame her for adultery? And what
does her husband’s dead lawyer have to do with it?
8. You’re lost in the woods, no thanks to a poorly-
planned nature hike, when you find the hatch to an
Prompts 287

underground bunker. A picture on the wall stops

you cold.
9. Someone is stealing items from the graves of
historical figures buried in the New Orleans
cemeteries near your home. What does your latest
Etsy purchase have to do with that?
10. Every eligible woman was eager to claim his
attention at the ball, but only one would add his
name to her dance card — and something else to
her collection.
11. A grandfather you never met has left you an
unusual item in his will with a warning: “Don’t
underestimate this gift. It’s always been meant for
you.”
12. You’re a witness to the opening of an Egyptian
sarcophagus that’s only just been discovered in a
buried tomb. Resting on the mummy’s chest is an
old camera.
13. A few minutes after you buy a friend’s older
smartphone from them (for a bargain), you get a
phone call from someone who’s tracking your
every move.
14. Your business computer has just been hacked by a
pro, who happens to be a resident in the local
nursing home — and the father of last night’s date.
15. You’re on a solitary walk through the woods near
your new home, and you find a set of fresh
288 Prompts

footprints leading deeper in, possibly toward the

lake. You follow them.
16. You’re on your way home from a vacation when an
airport official tells you your passport must be a
fake. Your country of origin doesn’t exist.
17. You take a short walk out in the snow and come
back to find a fresh, icy handprint on the glass by
your door. There are no footprints leading to it.
18. You visit a tea shop, and a woman pulls you aside
and convinces you to buy a special blend she’s
created, warning you to only drink one cup a day
— and only at night.
19. While looking for the cabin retreat you signed up
for, you get lost and end up at a cabin that resembles
what you expected. They welcome you.
20. Every night, a new house of worship in your town
is ransacked. Each time, the thieves steal a hidden
sacred object but leave more expensive things
untouched.
21. A rogue doctor overseas has created a life-saving
vaccine for a deadly pandemic but disappears
before he can share it.
22. You’re a seasoned detective looking over a murder
scene at your ex-wife’s residence. So far, her dog is
the prime suspect.
23. The winner of the beauty pageant is the last person
everyone expected. Then she wins the lottery
jackpot and wakes up with a dead guy in her closet.
Prompts 289

24. You’ve agreed to deliver a package to a recluse

living in a neglected manor in exchange for
$100,000,000. They never told you he’d want you
to stay.
25. The night before you head home from college,
someone calls you from the home phone and leaves
a disturbing message. Now, no one’s answering the
phone.
26. You think you know the identity of your “Secret
Santa” until you see the most recent gift: a gem your
suspect could not have afforded (and wouldn’t have
given).
27. After the “prophecy,” he changed her name and
never expected her to spell out the name “Petra”
with her wooden blocks. The near-drowning was
not an accident.
28. At night, she sleeps with a different stone beneath
her pillow. This morning, she woke to feel as if
she’d spent the night running. She wasn’t wrong.
29. The murder victims all had admitted to the same
phobia. And all of them died just as they’d
overcome it. Now, the hypnotist who’d helped
them was missing.
30. You arrived early for a job interview and have
noticed two candidates walking into a room but not
leaving it. The secretary who calls you in is visibly
shaking.
290 Prompts

31. You visit a practicing witch who happens to be the

prime suspect in a murder. Only she wasn’t even in
town when it happened. And she’s your sister.
32. The winning pie was the murder weapon. And the
pie plate looked identical to your mother’s favorite
— the one that had disappeared after she died.
33. A woman claiming to be your sister warns you not
to get in touch with your birth parents. She leaves
a duffel bag with you and, within a day, disappears.
34. A marriage counselor arranges a scavenger hunt for
a struggling couple, based on their history.
Someone changes the clues, though, and one of
them ends up dead.
35. You go to a friend’s wake and see a different body
in the casket. Hers is nowhere to be found. And
there’s a note under the corpse’s right hand —
addressed to you.
36. A woman returns a lost wallet and becomes the
target of a stalker. An item from the wallet (one
she’d considered keeping) ends up in her mailbox.
37. Members of a notorious fraternity are found dead
and partially “dismembered.” Their leader has the
most reason to fear and goes to you for help and
protection.
38. You’re reading a book given to you by a quiet but
friendly classmate who lives down the hall when
you realize it’s about you. And you die in the end.
Prompts 291

39. You subscribe to a candle of the month club

recommended by a new colleague, and your first
candle reveals a ring that once belonged to a local
murder victim.
40. A desperate housewife fakes her own death, then
ends up in the trunk of her husband’s car, wearing
a dress that cost twice as much.
41. A talented musician who performs at a local
coffeehouse is found wiped of his memory when his
faithful dog leads a police officer to him.
42. A group of carefully selected teens returns home
from a conference to find their parents have all
disappeared, leaving identical typewritten notes.
43. An orphanage with a reputation for finding good
families for every child in their charge finds itself
under a microscope when one teen returns with a
horrific tale.
44. . A stranger uses magic to hide his true intentions
as he grooms a new target — the young daughter of
a rising politician — to do the unthinkable.
45. You return home and notice strange behavior
among the townspeople and an even stranger
weekly ritual. You investigate and make an enemy.
46. Bored with your small-town life, you happily
accept an offer of a month-long internship at a
London bookshop. You get there and find the
owner dead.
292 Prompts

47. You run a cafe and have just hired a troubled teen.
Unfortunately, her reputation raises the ire of some
locals, who point the finger when a customer ends
up dead.
48. You take a job at a local bakeshop run by identical
twin sisters, one of whom wants to start a business
of her own. One of them dies, leaving you a note.
49. Every member of this community took vows of
non-violence and silence, so when one is found
dead in the herb garden, you and your deaf partner
investigate.
50. Random objects in your home go missing, replaced
by strange, typewritten poems. You wake up to find
one of these poems resting on your pillow.
51. A bouquet of flowers arrives each week from an
unknown admirer. Each flower means something,
and those meanings have taken a dark turn.
52. Whenever you order from your favorite Chinese
restaurant, the fortune cookie’s message sounds
eerily personal and prescient. There’s a reason.
53. When you’re feeling low, your new best friend
knows just what tea to brew to make you feel
better. It turns out she can also help you remember
things long forgotten.
54. You could swear you’re being followed, but when
you turn, no one’s there. Once you’re home with
your doors and windows locked, they’re closer to
you than ever.
Prompts 293

55. You’re a cop investigating the murderer of a

homeless person, but your new partner, who grew
up here, seems determined to trip you up at every
turn.
56. When a local bartender is found dead, his curious
neighbor finds a secret door propped open by his
corpse. The door leads to an underground world of
trouble.
57. You overhear a murder confession and hide where
you can see the penitent when the door opens. You
recognize the face and barely manage to keep quiet.
58. You’re looking through a deceased relative’s
possessions and planning to donate most of it until
you find a note she left you — about stolen
evidence.
59. You wake up to the sound of a blizzard, and you’re
dressed in someone else’s winter clothes,
wondering how you got there — and what
happened to your date?
60. You turn a corner in your new neighborhood, and
someone stops in front of you, looks you up and
down, presses a key into your hand, and says, “I’ll
be back for this.”
61. You didn’t know you had a doppelganger until you
came face to face with her at the new coffee shop
on the corner. She’s not nearly as surprised as you
are.
294 Prompts

62. You’re stress-shopping early Black Friday sales

when you notice the cameras seem to be following
your every move. The manager nervously invites
you into his office.
63. Five fellow college students have been murdered in
the same week. Each had stolen something on a
dare. One of them mailed their stolen item to you.
64. You’re decorating for Christmas, and you find a
book that belonged to your ex. A note falls out of it
addressed to someone who died shortly before he
left.
65. Self-care hasn’t been a priority for you lately, but
you accept an invitation to a weekend spa retreat.
You didn’t expect your host to be the boss who fired
you.
66. You’re a photographer looking over wedding
pictures when you notice a figure with a blurry face
that appears in every shot. His face is turned toward
the groom.
67. You’re telling your children a story about a
babysitting job that went terribly wrong. But
you’re not telling them everything. And there will
be consequences.
Prompts 295

50 Mystery Story Ideas

1. A woman asks a writer to write the story of her life.
Then she goes missing.
2. Murder victims are found buried with some of their
wordly goods, Viking style.
3. Three people close to the murder victim have
confessed. Each of them swears they acted alone.
4. Notes and gifts from her “Secret Santa” at work take
a strange turn.
5. It’s going to be a beautiful wedding at a beautiful
destination, but two people in the wedding party
have been murdered.
6. The creator of a high-tech prototype that will
change an industry has gone missing.
7. Her parents believe her to be their biological child,
but they all learn otherwise.
8. The dead woman’s wedding ring is found in a ditch
forty miles away.
9. A museum conservator is restoring an old painting,
and an X-ray reveals something shocking or
mysterious painted or written in the layer beneath.
10. A sorority sister who bullied prospective pledges is
found dead.
11. As a man researches his genealogy, he finds that
ancestors from a few different generations and a
few different countries made visits to the same
remote place.
296 Prompts

12. Someone replaced the woman’s contact lens

solution with a damaging liquid.
13. He’s always been a faithful husband, but someone
has planted false evidence of his having an affair.
14. A detective is hired for a high price to find a thief
who stole something that doesn’t appear to have
any real value.
15. Every unmarried lady at the ball wanted to dance
with the duke, so it’s too bad he was found stabbed
in the garden.
16. In the middle of a wilderness, someone finds an
abandoned bunker with security cameras, powered
by a generator.
17. The graves of historic figures are being robbed.
18. Clues to the mystery come to him in dreams, but
nobody believes him.
19. Serial murders in cities in two different countries
are very similar.
20. A man she didn’t know left her a valuable and
unusual item in his will.
21. A writer researching his biography of a Golden Age
movie star comes across something that makes him
suspect that contrary to the official story, she was a
murder victim.
22. The accidental death of this investigative reporter
seems a little too convenient.
23. The murders all relate to common fears, such as
public speaking, flying, and heights.
Prompts 297

24. A woman wakes up with a headache and goes into

work, only to learn that she’s been missing for a
month.
25. Writers are being murdered at the mystery writers’
convention.
26. The painting must have been stolen from the
museum in broad daylight, but the security cameras
malfunctioned and no witnesses have come
forward.
27. Three different guests at the Air BnB died later
under mysterious circumstances.
28. A practicing witch or voodoo priestess is accused of
murder.
29. The murders are re-enactments of famous murders
in novels or movies.
30. He claimes to be the rich man who was lost at sea
two decades ago.
31. The inspector’s friend is murdered while he is
talking on the phone to the inspector.
32. A dead body is found in an unclaimed piece of
luggage at the airport.
33. He was murdered on his honeymoon on a cruise
ship, and his new, much-younger bride was the
only one on board who even knew him.
34. A woman who didn’t know she was adopted meets
her twin sister, who gives her a dire warning.
35. One of the pies submitted to the state fair contest
was poisoned.
298 Prompts

36. The report of a celebrity’s death is false, but he dies

soon after.
37. The murder victims all have the same tailor.
38. Who would kill the guest of honor at their 100th
birthday party?
39. The victim was found drowned in a whiskey barrel
at the distillery.
40. A wife arranges a romantic “scavenger hunt” for
her husband, but someone else changes a few of the
clues.
41. The thief who steals rare books always leaves a
sonnet behind.
42. The wrong body is in the casket at the visitation.
No one knows who it is, or where the other body
is.
43. The murders were definitely committed by a
human, but resemble the attacks of wild animals.
44. After the woman returned the lost wallet, someone
began stalking her.
45. The book she’s reading seems to be telling the story
of her own life, though she doesn’t think she’s ever
met the author.
46. A man who faked his own death must be found in
time.
47. Someone in a villain costume and mask attempts to
kill an actor at a fan convention. The actor is saved
by a fan dressed as a superhero.
Prompts 299

48. An Egyptian mummy, or what appears to be one, is

found in an unlikely place.
49. A man is found murdered following a heated
argument with several people on social media.
50. A body is found in the organic vegetable garden at
a hippie commune.
300 Prompts

50 Creative Writing Prompts for YA Writers

1. A brother and sister discover their dad has been
having an affair with their favorite counselor at
school.
2. A girl is looking through old family albums with
her mom and finds a picture of her as a child, sitting
on the lap of man she doesn’t remember. She
decides to find out who the man is.
3. In the span of one week, a high school senior in the
heart of Los Angeles is dumped by his girlfriend and
told by his parents that they’re separating. He
decides to live with his dad and they move to the
place he grew up, a very small farming town in
central California.
4. A group of friends go to a party one night but wake
up the next morning in a white tiled room with a
one way mirror on one of the walls. They’re dressed
in hospital gowns and each of them has a red scar
on their right forearm.
5. After her mom has died from cancer, Rylie finds a
bundle of envelopes addressed to her in her mom’s
handwriting. She opens the one on top and finds a
slip of paper that reads: Summer of ’77, 142 Brooks
Ct, WA.
6. Josh is the only one who doesn’t pass the aptitude
test, so when everyone else his age is moved to their
new home, he is forced to stay with the Forsaken.
Prompts 301

7. It’s been 7 months since the accident and 3 months

of physical therapy. On his last day of therapy,
Chris is told that the person who was the prime
suspect in his case has been cleared of all charges.
8. The girl that Jordan’s been in love with for the past
year gets into a major car accident, putting her in
the hospital’s ICU.
9. After a memorial service ends, a daughter lingers at
her dad’s spot and leaves flowers for him. When she
comes back the next day, more flowers have been
added by someone else.
10. When Kristin arrives for the first day of her new
job, the store has been boarded up. She notices a
note tucked under the doormat instructing her to
go out back. When she does, she finds a door
emitting a glowing green light.
11. Alyssa is diagnosed with Asperger’s the same
month she starts high school.
12. Charlie heads back to his locker after class is let out
but stops when he sees Marley, the girl he’s had a
crush on throughout high school, standing beside
his locker.
13. A group of kids who have been friends since first
grade leave their senior prom and decide to go on a
road trip before going their separate ways for
college.
14. Ever since he was a little boy, Luke would spend
every night in his backyard, lying on his back with
302 Prompts

Ashley and trying to name the constellations. But

he can’t do that anymore.
15. Zac lined up with everyone else in their black
gowns and mortar hats. Just as the procession was
about to begin, he remembered his first day of
junior year English, when she walked into class
after it had already begun.
16. While her roommate is out of town, Hannah is
woken up by the sound of someone in her room.
17. The Collective only sought after teenagers between
the ages of 15 and 17, and tomorrow was David’s
15th birthday.
18. September came and that meant it was time for the
annual trip to the family cabin.
19. He woke up to excruciating pain and a blinding
white light.
20. A month before graduating, a senior gets shunned
by all five of her closest friends, and she can’t figure
out why.
21. A guy live broadcasts a Ouija board session on
Periscope, and though the people present don’t see
anything special, his lone friend who was watching
goes insane.
22. In his junior year, the high school quarterback is
told by his doctor that because of several
concussions he’s received, there is a risk of
permanent brain damage if he plays football his
senior year. Does he decide to play or not?
Prompts 303

23. A male teenager who loves video games and

organizes the chess club struggles with how to tell
their parents that he wants to become a female.
24. After being together for 5 months, a high school
couple decides to have sex for the first time.
25. A teenager with a 4.0 GPA is rejected by all twelve
of the colleges she applied to, and decides to go to
each college and confront each counselor who
rejected her, demanding to know why they ruined
her future.
26. The “it” couple on campus is forced to break up
when one of them moves across country for college.
27. A teenager who has spent their entire life on a boat
learns that there are other people in the world and
they live on land.
28. A 14-year-old teenager who is a musical protege is
diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer.
29. A teenager makes candles and delivers them to the
senior center where unbeknownst to her, her
estranged grandfather lives.
30. A teenager in the foster care system who is
relocated seven times in seven years finally finds a
family which is loving and functional, until he
discovers the father’s dark secret.
31. After being kicked out of their high school, a
teenager is enrolled in the same boarding school his
older sibling attended, and discovers there is a
mysterious club there that he wants to join.
304 Prompts

32. A high school basketball star is the prime suspect in

a murder trial of his ex-girlfriend.
33. While all their friends are away for the summer, a
soon-to-be senior spends his summer vacation
working at the community pool, and falls in love
with a girl in eighth grade.
34. A teenager thinks she has it made when she lands
the hottest college guy, until he dies in a fiery car
accident and she learns about all his other
girlfriends.
35. After attending their first high school party, a
freshman goes to school next week to learn that a
video of her drunk and saying racist things is
circulating around school.
36. Two days after finishing up his first year at college,
a teenager realizes he’s in love with a girl who just
graduated and moved back home to a different
state.
37. While on a family vacation in Hawaii, Andrew tries
surfing for the first time and receives help from one
of the other surfers. It’s not until he gets back on
shore that his brother tells him he just surfed with
Kelly Slater.
38. On Natalie’s first day on the job as a white water
rafting coach, she loses one of her rafters in the
waves.
Prompts 305

39. Instead of getting off on his exit, Charlie kept

driving up the west coast until he hit the Canadian
border.
40. After being teased throughout middle school, a
teenager decides to lose weight. But he’s really
doing it because he’s ashamed of his overweight
parents.
41. After three failed suicide attempts, Liz’s doctor
recommends she transfers to a new school.
42. A teenager keeps a book full of intimate
conversations she has overheard at her school. One
day it goes missing and little by little, the
conversations are leaked to the entire school.
43. A teen’s mom abandons their family one night and
leaves no trace of where she’s gone. But her
children are determined to find her and learn why
she left.
44. In the middle of the night, Nate receives a call from
his best friend’s mom informing him that her son
had committed suicide.
45. Lucy didn’t want middle of the night visits from her
dad anymore, and the only way she knew how to
end them was to run away.
46. While house sitting for his neighbors, Stephen
invites some friends over to hang out and watch a
movie, but when they see the Porsche in the garage
they decide to take it for a drive, even though none
of them has their license.
306 Prompts

47. Emily has been trying for years to get recognized

by a recording label and decides she’ll play one last
show before calling it quits. When she takes the
stage, she sees an executive from a Nashville label
in the audience.
48. Jake has messed up one too many times and his
parents have sent him to a behavioral correction
school. If he messes up again, he goes straight to
juvenile detention.
49. Jess spent every day after school writing in her
journal about a world she had created and could
escape to. One night after writing, she dreams of
her world; but if she doesn’t wake up before
sunrise, the dream will become reality and she
won’t be able to get back.
50. A teenage werewolf grew up in a world filled with
witches, vampires, werewolves, and mermaids. But
then she comes across a book that tells of a world
full of only humans, and it changes her forever.
Prompts 307

50 Young Adult Plot Ideas and Writing Prompts

1. A boy pursues his list of wildly ambitious New
Year’s resolutions, with hilarious and touching
results.
2. A girl on the swim team transforms into a part-time
mermaid.
3. A group of “outsiders” become a clique that
eventually excludes others.
4. A girl’s favorite author plagiarizes her fanfiction.
5. A boy learns who believed his sister died finds out
she’s very much alive.
6. A teenager’s best friend goes missing—and is
widely believed to be the murderer of a family
member.
7. Two teens begin to write a fantasy novel together
and then cross over into the world they’ve created.
8. In a dystopian future, college admissions boards
have access to video footage of students’ entire
lives.
9. A girl always hangs out at a particular little nook at
the library. Then the same boy starts taking the
space every day.
10. A boy learns something terrible about his parents.
11. In a modern-day Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, three
girls ditch class for a day filled with adventures.
12. A girl who loves cosplay begins taking on the
personality of whatever character she’s dressed up
as.
308 Prompts

13. A college student desperate for tuition money

secretly works at two different full-time summer
internships at once, two city blocks away from one
another.
14. Anonymous notes in her locker lead her into a
mystery.
15. Two teens from different social groups strike up a
clandestine romance.
16. An adopted girl finds out she’s one of four
quadruplets and finds her other sisters.
17. A teen’s private diary is shared without his consent
on social media, and it goes viral.
18. A boy pretends he can foretell the future…and
discovers he actually can.
19. A teen forms a unique connection with an animal.
20. A girl escapes a fundamentalist cult that’s living off
the grid.
21. In a world where all creative work is illegal unless
commissioned by the government, teens meet to
write and share poetry in secret.
22. A high school coach or teacher convinces his
favorite students to cheat.
23. When a nerdy girl transfers to a new school, she
completely changes her image.
24. The captain of the high school debate team does his
best arguing outside of tournaments—and it gets
him in trouble.
Prompts 309

25. A teen makes a friend with someone who may or

may not be an actual angel.
26. A girl tries to keep up with her schoolwork while
adjusting to her newly discovered responsibilities
as Queen of the Fairies.
27. A boy growing up in rough circumstances falls in
love with cooking and dreams of becoming a chef.
28. A teen gives excellent advice in an anonymous
advice column in the school newspaper, but is
completely unable to follow the advice herself.
29. Two boys on rival basketball teams develop
romantic feelings for one another.
30. A girl takes boxing lessons and gets the confidence
to stand up for herself verbally, as well.
31. A quiet, studious boy has a secret, rebellious life at
night.
32. Two girls carry out an elaborate act of revenge
against two other girls.
33. In order to avoid his abusive father, a boy finds
ways to avoid spending time at his own house.
34. A teenager is pressured to shoot a buck on his first
deer hunt with an older relative, but he can’t bring
himself to do it.
35. A girl who wants to be a virgin until she gets
married faces social pressure about her decision.
36. A teen gains the ability to take the form of any
other person she chooses.
310 Prompts

37. A girl’s science fair project yields results that attract

the government’s attention.
38. A teen’s suspicions about a teacher lead him to
conduct a private investigation.
39. A girl struggles with the decision to tell authorities
about what the star quarterback did.
40. Soon after a boy was born, his father went missing.
Now, a skeleton has been discovered in the
basement of their former home.
41. A teen attempts to make his whole fractious
extended family get along and have a nice
Christmas for once in their lives.
42. A girl discovers a secret passageway in one of the
office buildings she cleans at night, but nobody else
seems to be able to access it.
43. A teen copes with both a hopeless crush on his best
friend’s older sister and a younger girl’s crush on
him.
44. A city kid deals with a move to a tiny farming
community.
45. A boy’s random acts of kindness prove contagious
and lead to surprising results.
46. A girl whose mother is a hoarder attempts to have
a normal life.
47. Two boys discover treasure in a local cave.
48. Two families hiding from a repressive government
live in a submarine.
Prompts 311

49. A boy tries to escape the shadow of his more

accomplished and more handsome older brother.
50. A girl dreads spending the summer with her
grandparents…but it turns out to be the best
summer of her life so far.
312 Prompts

43 YA Writing Prompts with Best-Seller Potential

1. A high school age student loses both their parents
in a car accident and is forced to move across the
country with their eccentric aunt and uncle.
2. A young Muslim boy from a strict family falls in
love with the Christian girl in his high school, and
must now balance the expectations of his family
with that of his heart.
3. An 18-year-old boy who left home to pursue a
career in music with his band is close to hitting the
big time when he gets a call from home saying his
father passed away.
4. A student being raised by very strict parents who
want them to become a doctor loses a friend during
her freshman year of college giving her a new
perspective on life, pay renewed ambition to pursue
her true passion, art.
5. A young girl has her boyfriend overdosed while at
a high school party and falls into a deep depression.
She realizes she’s spiraling out of control, however,
she feels she deserves it.
6. A young male had dedicated his life to studying the
Torah to become a rabbi, but recently his faith is
being tested like never before. He must now decide
if he is to continue in his family’s footsteps or
abandon his life’s work.
7. A Young college freshman is told they have less
than a year to live. They decide against having any
Prompts 313

more treatments against her family’s wishes to

pursue their bucket list.
8. Young teen gets in trouble with the law, and it cost
them their college scholarship. They are now left to
pick up the shattered pieces of a previously
charmed future.
9. A teen dealing with Asperger’s struggles to get
through high school. When the pressure gets too
much they contemplate giving up and ending the
struggle forever, if not for the friendship of one of
the most popular kids in school.
10. A High school senior volunteers their time in a
nursing home. When one of the residents passes
away, the student is shocked to find out the patient
had left him a mysterious key and an address in a
foreign country thousands of miles away.
11. When an only child’s dog and best friend is lost he
sets off on an adventure to find him despite his
family’s warnings.
12. When a young college student learns his
girlfriend’s rare disease and possibly cured by
experimental medication in Mexico, he takes it
upon himself to try and get some for her.
13. The star football player is the pride of a Christian
Texan town, during all the recruitment fanfare he
decides to risk it all by coming out of the closet for
himself and others like him.
314 Prompts

14. A Young college freshman is raped on campus and

goes into severe depression after it happens causing
her to drop out of school. Now her best friend in
the world takes it upon themselves to find out
who’s responsible.
15. A young teen is forced to grow up way too fast
when his father passes away and he takes over the
family ranch. When he receives an acceptance
letter from his dream school Juilliard he must
decide between forsaking his family when they
need it most or his dream.
16. A teen serves two years in a juvenile detention
center after being an accessory to a gang-related
murder. When he gets out he seeks out the family
of the person that was killed to make amends, but
instead of forgiveness, he is met with threats that
could land him back in prison or dead.
17. A young chemistry student falls in love with her
college professor, when she finds out that he has
been hiding a secret life that includes a wife and
child her passion goes too far and turns deadly.
18. A foreign exchange student comes to America for
his senior year. What his host family doesn’t know
is that he’s hiding a terrible secret that could put
them all at risk.
19. A quiet and brilliant student has a tremendous
future ahead of her, having received a full
scholarship to every Ivy school in the country.
Prompts 315

Despite her academic success, she feels an

emptiness due to the lack of true friendships she has
had throughout high school. When a guy from a
notoriously bad crowd takes a liking to her, she
risks throwing everything away with a series of bad
decisions.
20. A young computer genius hacks into a government
computer to try and find the truth about his birth
parents. What he finds out goes well beyond his
adoption history and forces him to go on the run.
21. Young teens from neighboring towns meet online,
both having issues with their social statuses at their
current schools, they decide to run away together.
What they don’t realize is that one of them is a
proven killer with a new target in their sites.
22. A young girl battles early signs of schizophrenia.
She struggles to hide her symptoms while fighting
to keep her sanity.
23. A group of friends decides to go backpacking across
Europe during their senior year summer break.
When one of them disappears, the others must try
to find out what happened and who is responsible.
24. A young girl loses her mom and heads down to the
lake to be alone. During a brief interlude from her
uncontrollable sobbing, an old woman seemingly
appears out of nowhere and sits down next to her.
She places her hand on the girl’s forehead says: “I
wish your pain away child”, almost instantaneously
316 Prompts

a sense of calm comes over the girl. When she turns

around to say thank you, there is no one there.
25. A young writer befriends a retired English
professor. They spend the summer writing together
until the first time author publishes their first
novel. Shortly after publishing the novel, police
knock on the door asking questions of the author as
it seems the book he published described to great
specificity an unsolved murder. When the boy
takes the police officers to the professor, the
apartment is empty and he is gone without a trace.
26. A socially awkward advanced student has a hard
time adjusting during their internship as he
struggles to fit in at the office, despite having
advanced technical skills, he is missing basic
communication skills. A custodian sees the student
struggling and takes him under his wing to help
him through the social phobia.
27. A mathematical genius focuses his skills on
counting cards and partying. One day he gets
caught counting cards in the wrong underground
casino, and now he will need to figure a way to pay
back over 40000 dollars before vengeance is taking
out on him and his family.
28. A student wakes up in a tremendous sweat after
having a dream of a disaster at his school. When he
returns to school the next day, many of the events
Prompts 317

that led up to the tragedy seem to be taking place in

real life, what does he do?
29. A young man is born with the ability to feel and
take away the pain of others, the catch is that each
time he does it, he takes the pain onto himself. He
must now decide between his own self-
preservation and helping others.
30. A young boy who looks up to his father,
accidentally finds out that he is having an affair.
When his dad confronts him and asks him to keep
it a secret, he needs to decide who to look out for,
his hero or his selfless yet overbearing mother.
31. A young Indian boy comes to America to pursue his
studies and make money for his family back home.
When the cost of living becomes too much, he must
decide between staying in school to complete his
studies or find a way to provide for his family as
promised.
32. A young boy obsessed with mermaids has long been
criticized for his childish obsession. But one day
when he meets one for real, he needs to hide his
new love from friends and family for fear of being
ostracized or deemed insane.
33. A teen obsessed with becoming a youtube star starts
to gain some fame from their channel. But when
one fan’s following crosses the line from fandom to
obsession the stakes get raised way higher than they
ever imagined.
318 Prompts

34. A girl goes to her first concert when she gets invited
backstage to meet her idol she has her world
thrown up-side-down when she assaulted by the
lead singer. Now she needs to decide should she tell
her story and take down the band or keep the secret
to herself.
35. A girl can see her own future, and more specifically
how each of her current actions directly affects her
life in the future. The weight of this knowledge
threatens to paralyze her into a perpetual state of
fear and inaction.
36. When an activist student decides to take on
bullying with a social media campaign that goes
viral, they become the target of a national game
phenomenon centered around bullying him.
37. A group of high school friends heads down the
shore for prom weekend. When they are there
events bring unlikely students together in a way
that they have never been before.
38. A student finds out her best friend is having an
affair with one of their teachers. She must now
decide to blow the whistle and deal with the
consequences or turn a blind eye to something she
clearly knows is wrong.
39. A series of mysterious happenings lead an awkward
group of teens to a treasure map that promises to
reveal a secret that will change their lives forever.
Prompts 319

40. A scary old woman befriends a neighborhood teen.

What she shares will forever change their lives.
41. A mixed race teen couple is inexplicably sent back
in time and into the middle of heated racial tension
during segregation.
42. A teen is left to care for their younger siblings while
their addict mother slowly kills herself. But they
must do while keeping it a secret or risk being
separated from each other by the state.
43. A talented basketball star tries to navigate his
school celebrity, being courted by agents, and the
bountiful bad actors from the old neighborhood
that are looking to take advantage of him.
320 Prompts

55 Of The Best YA Writing Prompts

1. While learning the true identities of the nursing
home residents, a teen volunteer discovers
something unexpected about her own and meets an
unusual mentor.
2. A teen shifter who was told her twin sister died in
childbirth discovers the truth when she escapes her
house at night to shift and go for a run.
3. Two teens secretly crushing on each other create a
fantasy world for a school writing project and
suddenly find themselves lost in it.
4. Anonymous notes in a teen’s locker lead them to a
rendezvous with someone who knows their secret
identity and wants their help exposing some of the
faculty.
5. At her 16th birthday, Maeve accepts her aunt’s gift
of a chance to see some of her past lives. She learns
why the face of one of her classmates feels so
familiar.
6. A teen girl learns the true meaning behind the
mark she was born with. Now, she must choose
between two teachers with very different ideas
about magic’s uses.
7. A teen mage turns heads when it becomes obvious
she’s even more powerful than her well-known
parents (RIP). Her BFF warns her about rumors
going around.
Prompts 321

8. Lucia never learned how to swim and is nervous

around pools, so when someone shoves her into one
at a friend’s birthday party, she’s not prepared for
her own transformation. Someone else at the party
is.
9. A college freshman finds refuge on the dormitory
roof until another student starts hanging out there
to practice magic. They agree to keep each other’s
secrets.
10. It’s not easy being a shapeshifter whose human
form is a teen paralyzed from the waist down. Only
in her other, terrifying form is she able to move
freely.
11. A teen takes in a stray cat who follows her home.
The same cat leads her to an abandoned house
where she learns a secret about her past — and her
identity.
12. Petra decides to go to the prom in a tux as her
cousin’s “date,” and, manifesting abilities she didn’t
know she had, she stops a guy from committing
date rape.
13. Isa died and came back to life ten years ago. Now,
she learns that a tree was involved in her coming
back, and recent strange experiences begin to make
sense.
14. Whenever she’s under duress, a strange song plays
in her mind. When she says the words aloud,
322 Prompts

strange things happen. And this time, she’s the only

survivor.
15. A teen switches bodies with her 50-year-old
neighbor and learns disturbing truths when looking
through the woman’s possessions. Meanwhile her
teen body is up to nothing good.
16. At your first job, you witness strange phenomena,
but your boss tells you to keep your head down and
check things off the list. Too curious, you find a
hiding spot.
17. Soraya, a withdrawn sophomore, turns 16 and starts
seeing an unfamiliar face in her dreams. A new
“exchange student” comes to class, and she meets
the face.
18. She wants to meet her birth mother, and he’s
willing to drive her there in secrecy. They end up
stranded together when his car breaks down 100
miles from home.
19. A teen girl develops a flair for cosplay and takes on
the personalities of the characters she becomes.
One of these character’s fans pursues her.
20. A teen growing up in a devout Christian home falls
for an outspoken atheist and grapples with her
religious beliefs and sexual orientation.
21. She sees his face in her head and doesn’t know why
he’s so important to her. They’ll never meet. Only
when she writes about him does he come alive and
speak to her.
Prompts 323

22. Two young athletes on competing teams develop

romantic feelings for each other. Their coaches are
bitter rivals.
23. A quiet, hardworking student by day, Dax takes on
a different identity at night. And that’s when he
meets the only person who can help him find
balance.
24. Sixteen-year-old Tess is the butt of cruel “fat” jokes
until a boy humiliates the jokers and walks her
home. They see each other and become more than
friends.
25. Declan McGregor never thought he’d take in a
stray, but when “Boss” follows him home, he
decides to help the mutt, whose human turns out to
be his nemesis.
26. A reclusive junior develops a crush on a flirt, who
befriends her, only to find out he was acting on a
dare. Then she finds out who dared him and why.
27. She gives good advice through an anonymous
advice column in the school paper, but when she
meets one of the students she “helped,” she realizes
her mistake and tries to fix it.
28. A quiet girl who keeps her home life secret takes up
boxing and becomes more confident and
outspoken, drawing the attention of someone who
knows her family.
29. An asexual teen starts questioning her identity
when she responds in surprising ways to a face that
324 Prompts

keeps showing up in her dreams. Then she meets

the face.
30. Working her first night shift, an 18-year-old
discovers a secret passageway in her employer’s
office — and ends up encountering his socially
awkward son.
31. A teen with Asperger’s finds an unexpected
friendship with one of the popular kids after
standing up to a bully and ending up in the
principal’s office.
32. An infamous teen flirt stands up for a trans boy
when classmates play a cruel prank on him. They
befriend another student whose home life is
dangerously chaotic.
33. A boy learns something terrible about his parents
and confronts them about it. They send him to live
with his uncle in New York, where he meets his
first crush.
34. As a child, she wandered away from home and was
brought back by a friendly stranger. Now, she
learns the family she’s known for most of her life
stole her.
35. As a teen apprentice to a 15th-century artist, your
work experience challenges childhood beliefs,
especially when you develop a crush on one of the
models.
36. You’re coming of age in Victorian England, and
your parents want you to marry someone you
Prompts 325

dislike. Meanwhile, the butler’s son has been your

friend for years.
37. A city kid struggles to adjust to life in a farming
community when his parents move back to his
mom’s hometown after his dad disappears.
38. Her boyfriend just told her he’s been drafted for the
Vietnam war, and “we might never see each other
again.” She writes to him as her teen pregnancy
progresses.
39. A teen stows away on a ship to escape his oppressive
government after his family is killed to set an
example. He becomes a valuable member of the
crew.
40. A homeless teen finds a secret hiding place in the
library that leads to an abandoned underground
network of tunnels, where some have made a life.
41. A sheltered teen befriends a refugee who
challenges the ideas she picked up from her family.
When ICE comes to the school, she risks
everything to help him.
42. Growing up as a plantation slave was hard enough
before his only parent mysteriously disappeared.
Now, he and another will risk everything to escape.
43. You want to believe your parents when they tell
you they’ve been abducted by aliens, but your
whole school knows about it and whispers behind
your back.
326 Prompts

44. A popular student whose parents work as youth

pastors learns something during a scouting trip and
decides to come out one evening at a youth group
meeting.
45. A high school junior is raped by her popular
boyfriend and falls into a deep depression when
she’s blamed for it by everyone but her best friend.
46. When a social outcast moves to a new school, she
changes her whole look and creates a new “life
history.” She becomes popular, but the truth
catches up.
47. An adopted girl finds out she’s from a set of
fraternal triplets; her siblings happen to be the
“mean girls” making her life as a freshman
miserable.
48. A high school junior struggles with her academic
workload while doing their best to protect their
younger siblings from their abusive parent.
49. A sophomore struggling to provide for his siblings
grows marijuana and sells it to customers on the
dark web, while providing some to his ailing
grandfather.
50. A freshman with a knack for app development
creates an app that makes her the most popular
student and attracts the attention of the
government.
Prompts 327

51. Her older brother was dead, and the cop who killed
him wasn’t charged. Her brother’s crime? Walking
alone through a white neighborhood.
52. A teen born in the U.S. to immigrant parents is
graduating with her class when ICE shows up to
arrest her parents, and she can do nothing to stop
their deportation.
53. Your dream is to become a famous tattoo artist,
creating inspired designs for wealthy patrons. An
unpopular neighbor gives you your first tattoo.
54. A teen who just wants to be “normal” struggles with
a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and befriends a
classmate struggling with addiction recovery. They
make a pact.
55. One teen hospitalized with anorexia goes through
eating disorder treatment and wonders if she’ll ever
feel happy or even functional again. More than
anything, she wants to go back to residential care,
where she felt happiest.
328 Prompts

72 Writing Prompts
Fiction

1. “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

Use this famous opening line to start your own
novel.
2. Rewrite your resume as a short story, either in the
first or third person.
3. Open the dictionary at any page and select the first
word that catches your eye. Write the opening few
paragraphs of a thriller using that word at least
three times.
4. Write a synopsis of your version of the movie,
Groundhog Day. What would your day look like
and why?
5. Write a short story using these words:
Mountainous, parched, field mouse, time travel,
and Black Forest Gateau.
6. Sit in a café and write a short story about the person
or couple at the next table. Take note of their body
language and clothing, what they’re eating, or
doing. And if you can eavesdrop, let their
conversation inspire you too.
7. Write about a person who is arrested for
committing a crime, but they can’t remember
anything about the night the crime occurred. What
is the crime, why can’t they remember and what
happens next?
Prompts 329

Fantasy

8. If you could come back to life as any person, animal

or thing, what or who would you be and how
would you live your second life?
9. The world’s oceans dry up. Who or what survives?
10. You open the bathroom door and find the room’s
disappeared. In its place is another world. Describe
what you see and hear, and what you do next?
11. You’re sitting at a bar talking to a giraffe. What’s
the conversation about?
12. You live in a fantasy world where people
communicate without talking. Write about an
average day in this sci-fi, fairy tale world.
13. You are the inventor of a popular video game. One
day the main character from your game knocks on
your front door. What does he want?
14. Write about a character who has a superhuman
power. The problem is, they don’t want it. Write
about the conflict between the character, his or her
power and the everyday life they are forced to lead.

Romance

15. What is the most romantic season of the year and

why?
16. Write a story about love at first sight. It doesn’t
have to be about young people, or even about
people.
330 Prompts

17. “Last Christmas” was a song by George Michael

that inspired a movie by the same name in 2019.
Think of your favorite romantic song and write a
film synopsis for it.
18. If you are a woman, write a short love story about
the most romantic experience you could imagine,
as a man. If you are a man, reverse the exercise.
19. The song “Summer Nights” from Grease is about the
summer romance between two high school
students, with their friends begging to hear more.
What memory does that evoke for you about the
first time you fell in love, and who did you tell?
20. Next time you visit a grocery store make a note of
the first person you see. What are they wearing,
what are they buying, are they alone? Write a
description of them as the main character for your
next romantic novel.
21. Your protagonist is about to marry the man she has
been in love with for years. A week before the
wedding she meets a stranger and falls madly and
hopelessly in love. What does she do?

Comedy

22. You are a bartender on a quiet night, listening to

man drown his sorrows as he tells you how his wife
has recently left him for a neighbor. A second man
enters and sits at the other end of the bar. It’s the
Prompts 331

neighbor. Describe the comedy of errors that

happens next.
23. What makes you laugh out loud?
24. What’s the funniest joke you know? Write the
backstory to the main character in the joke.
25. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you in
real-life? Write it as a stand-up comedy anecdote
with lots of observational humor thrown in.
26. Your shopping bag rips apart, and all the contents
tumble out at the feet of the girl or guy who lives
in the apartment below you, who you have fancied
for some time. What does your shopping reveal
about you and why are you so embarrassed?
27. List posts are one of the most popular forms of
blogging. Write a funny list post about all the things
you are not going to do in 2021.

Horror

28. Write the opening chapter to a story that begins: “I

stared at my beautiful, evil wife and realized the
horror had only just begun.
29. “Terror made me cruel” is a line from Wuthering
Heights by Emily Bronte. Write about a situation
where terror might make you cruel.
30. You’re walking home alone late one night when
you realize several cats are stalking you. Then the
streetlights go out. What happens next?
332 Prompts

31. There’s a locked door at the top of the house you’re

staying in. What’s behind it?
32. What are you really, really scared of? Put yourself
in that situation and describe how it feels.
33. Write a horror story set in either a bar or a
graveyard (or both). Include a blue-veined hand, a
serial killer, and the phrase “all that spit and sweat.”

Persuasive

34. Your best friend doesn’t much care for Chinese

food. Write down all the reasons why they need to
reconsider their opinion and join you tonight at
your favorite Chinese restaurant.
35. Your mother’s always nagging you to clean your
room. Write an account of the last time she nagged
you, but from her point of view.
36. Have you ever seen a ghost, or sensed a ghostly
presence? Write an account of your experience
knowing it will be read by a skeptic.
37. Talk the Christmas Grinch out of being a Grinch.
38. A man finds a letter in a bottle while walking on
the beach. Where has the bottle come from, how
old is it, and what does the letter say? What does it
compel the man to do?
39. Think of a cliché and write an argument against it.

Poetry
Prompts 333

40. Open the dictionary at any page and select the first
word that catches your eye. Set a timer for 5
minutes and write a list of rhyming words. Now
write a poem using as many of those words as you
can.
41. Write a poem about rhythm. It might be about
music, or the flow of a river, or the clattering sound
of a train. Weave the rhythm you hear in your head
into the tempo of your poem.
42. Write a poem about a feast. Describe how it looks,
smells and tastes. Include the different sensations of
spices and flavors, the texture and feel of the dishes
and how each one made you feel as you ate more
and more.
43. Write a poem about the “Thrilla in Manila.”

Journal

44. Write about your plans for tomorrow and how you
hope they’ll turn out.
45. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have
ever done.” This is a famous quote about self-
sacrifice from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles
Dickens. Write an honest journal entry about how
far you would be prepared to go to sacrifice your
wealth, happiness, health, or safety for a person or
principle.
46. Write about a single day — either the first or last of
your life.
334 Prompts

47. Think about the last time you woke up at 4am, in a

cold sweat. What was on your mind and how did
you resolve it? Did you feel differently about it in
the daylight?
48. Write a letter in your journal to each of your family
members, telling them what your love (and/or
hate) about them.
49. What is your personal manifesto? What are the
core principles and values that guide everything
you do in life?
50. Make a list of all the things you’d like to say no to,
and then write down the reasons why you don’t —
or can’t — say no. Is there a pattern? Is there
something you can change?

Blog

51. Write about the biggest challenge you have faced

and how you overcame it.
52. Write an open letter to a person or group of people
you strongly disagree with and explain why. Use
reason not emotion.
53. Write about the best writing or weight loss tips you
can share.
54. Interview your favorite fictional character.
55. Describe social media to someone who has never
heard of it before. Include advice on which
platform might be best for them.
Prompts 335

56. Think of the 3 most unhealthy habits you indulge

in and write about how you might be able to break
those habits.
57. What are the top 10 style trends you would like to
see make a comeback in 2021?

Non-fiction

58. Write about your views on climate change. Are you

a believer or a skeptic? Is the world doing enough?
What facts do you know?
59. Write about a time you had to swallow your pride
and do something that made you uncomfortable,
either morally or physically.
60. There is no such thing as a truly unselfish deed.
Defend this statement.
61. If you were to write an autobiography, how would
it start?

Random

62. Write a fantasy story based on the last dream you

had.
63. Write about your favorite place and how it makes
you feel. Use all the sensory language you can
muster to describe the place.
64. If you were a dog, what type would you be and who
would own you?
336 Prompts

65. If you had the opportunity to turn back time what

would you change about the course of your life and
why?
66. What is your favorite thing to eat and what
memories does it evoke?
67. Write a list of your three most prized possessions
(inanimate objects, not people or animals). Imagine
you are forced to discard one. Which one would it
be and explain the reasons for your choice?
68. Write your own eulogy as a diary entry. What
would you like people to know and say about you?
69. Write 500 words on what financial freedom looks
like to you?
70. Select a book from your bookshelf and open it to
any page. Write out the last sentence of the last
complete paragraph on that page and continue
writing.
71. Think of your favorite book or film. Now rewrite
the ending to something completely different.
72. If you were to buy a plane ticket today — no
expense spared — where would you go and why?
Prompts 337

35 Business Prompts
1. Write about the biggest lesson you’ve learned in
business.
2. Write about how you have failed in business, and
how you overcame that failure.
3. Write about the biggest mistake you made in your
industry, and what you learned about it.
4. Write about how your industry can impact lives
across the world.
5. Write about the top authorities in your industry
and what you can learn from them.
6. Write about how you got started in your industry,
and how others can learn from your process.
7. Write about industry secrets that can help other
people grow their authority.
8. Write about how businesses in your industry can
maximize their profits.
9. Write about what you’ve learned in your industry,
and educate readers on how to
10. Write about opportunities for innovation in your
industry.
11. Write about the top qualities an authority in your
industry must have to succeed.
12. Write about the top issues in your industry, and
how readers can avoid them.
13. Write about how to empower others in your
industry, and why it’s important.
338 Prompts

14. Write about the future of your industry, and how

readers can adapt to the changes.
15. Write about the history of your industry, and how
it has shaped the present and how it will shape the
future.
16. Write about a major time period in your industry’s
progression, and the lessons from that time that can
be learned and applied today.
17. Write about common fears in your industry, and
how others can overcome them.
18. Write about the common stressors in your industry,
and how others can manage this.
19. Write about a time when you had to start over in
your career, and the lessons you learned that can
help readers.
20. Write about how to generate ideas in your industry.
21. Write about how to be a better leader in the
workplace.
22. Write about the importance of company culture,
especially in our digital age.
23. Write about the secrets to sustainability in your
industry.
24. Write about decision making in your industry, and
how others can make better decisions.
25. Write about the habits of authority figures in your
industry, and what others can learn from them.
26. Write about the failures of authority figures in your
industry, and what others can learn from them.
Prompts 339

27. Write about the successes of authority figures in

your industry, and what others can learn from
them.
28. Write about the key to productivity in your
industry.
29. Write about the key to creativity in your industry.
30. Write about the key to working smarter in your
industry.
31. Write about how to think big, and when to think
small, in your industry.
32. Write about what you wish you knew now when
you first started in your career.
33. Write about setting up a successful atmosphere to
thrive in your industry.
34. Write about something big you accomplished in
your career, and share your blueprint for success.
35. Write about developing a team, and how to
successfully work with others.
340 Prompts

40 Self-Help Writing Prompts

1. Write about a time when you had to start over in
your life, and what you learned from that.
2. Write about why it’s important to break the rules
in life sometimes.
3. Write about how to generate creative ideas.
4. Write about the secrets to gaining unshakeable self-
confidence.
5. Write about the secrets to gaining lasting
happiness.
6. Write about the secrets to developing laser-focus in
work and life.
7. Write about the secrets to living a regret-free life.
8. Write about the secrets to creating lasting love.
9. Write about the power of forgiveness, and how
others can tap into this.
10. Write about the power of gratitude, and how to
apply it to daily life.
11. Write about critical thinking, and strategies for
improving critical thinking skills.
12. Write about how to reduce everyday stress and
anxiety with practical tips.
13. Write about effective communication, and how
others can communicate more clearly.
14. Write about your creativity process, and include
strategies for how to be more creative.
15. Write about the secrets to a successful relationship,
and how anyone can be a better partner.
Prompts 341

16. Write about how to stay disciplined, and why most

people fail at self-discipline.
17. Write about society’s hustle culture, and why
working hard is good or bad.
18. Write about your favorite country or travel
destination, and what you’ve learned from the
people and culture.
19. Write about the key to being a more productive
person, and how it can transform others’ lives.
20. Write about finding your passion, and how others
can discover their purpose.
21. Write about the power of positive self talk, and how
others can implement it in their daily life.
22. Write about dealing with anxiety.
23. Write about dealing with change.
24. Write about creating an atmosphere of peace.
25. Write about controlling the controllables for
happiness.
26. Write about controlling the controllables for peace.
27. Write about something a big goal you’ve
accomplished, and share your blueprint for success.
28. Write about finding inspiration, and teach others
how they can find it, too.
29. Write about how to better understand the people
in your life.
30. Write about the art of simplicity in life, and how
others can benefit from it.
342 Prompts

31. Write about decision-making and the best practices

for making big and small decisions in life.
32. Write about the power of tapping into your
imagination, and why it’s so important for people,
including adults.
33. Write about the importance of truth, and how
others can be more honest with themselves and the
people in their life.
34. Write about dealing with life transitions, and
strategies to improve adaptability when things
change and its out of your control.
35. Write about how to regain control in your life, and
what to do when you’ve hit rock bottom.
36. Write about finding your identity, and how people
in your niche can discover themselves again.
37. Write about the purpose of life.
38. Write about how an individual can increase their
confidence.
39. Write about how the fear of rejection has been
holding you back and what action you can take
consistently everyday to break this fear.
40. Write about 7 daily habits that can increase your
self esteem and make you feel unbreakable.
Prompts 343

29 Memoir Prompts
1. Write about a big goal you’ve accomplished, and
share your blueprint for success.
2. Write about a major time when you had to start
over in your life, and what you learned from that.
3. Write about the greatest lesson you’ve learned so
far in life, and how others can learn from your life.
4. Write about one of your biggest regrets, and teach
others going through the same thing how to deal
with it.
5. Write about the most difficult decision you’ve ever
had to make, and what you’ve learned from that
process.
6. Write about a traumatic experience in your life, and
how you have dealt with it.
7. Write about a time you failed, and how you were
able to rise up.
8. Write about a major event in your childhood, and
how that shaped you as an adult.
9. Write about the saddest time in your life, and
encourage others who are going through similar
situations.
10. Write about the happiest time in your life, and the
greatest thing that moment has taught you.
11. Write about the most influential people in your life,
and how they helped shape the person you have
become.
344 Prompts

12. Write about how you have developed self-love, and

why it’s important to have a relationship with
yourself first.
13. Write about your journey towards self-discovery,
and share tips with others who are lost.
14. Write about a time you lost your way in life, and
what helped you find your path again.
15. Write about your spirituality and beliefs, and how
you can share your message with others.
16. Write about the biggest heartbreak you
experienced, and what it’s taught you about love
and life.
17. Write about the time you broke someone else’s
heart, and what it’s taught you about loving others.
18. Write about a time you experienced compassion,
and share how others can be more compassionate
in their own life.
19. Write about the biggest self-defining moment in
your life thus far, and how you’ve developed from
the experience.
20. Write about your biggest accomplishment, and
how its helped you banish self-defeating thoughts
and behavior.
21. Write about a toxic relationship you had, and how
you were able to overcome it.
22. Write about an influential travel experience in your
life, and what it taught you about yourself and
others.
Prompts 345

23. Write about the town you grew up in, and how it’s
shaped your perspective on life.
24. Write about how you were raised, and what you
learned from the people that raised you.
25. Write about a significant historical event you lived
through, and what others can learn from your
experience.
26. Write about your life’s journey from where you
were ten years ago to how you arrived to this point
today, and, the most important lesson you have
learned on the way.
27. Write about five life lessons you believe everyone
should practice/follow.
28. There is an experience from your past that has
always held you back from thriving in life. Write
about what this experience is, and if you were to
overcome your trauma, how could you lead the life
you’ve been dreaming of?
29. There is a saying: “You are the sum of the five
people you spend most of your time with.” Write
about the people you spend your time with and
how they influence your life on a day to day basis.
346 Prompts

29 Health & Fitness Prompts

1. Write about emotional health: what it means, why
it’s important, and how.
2. Write about a time you were very unhealthy, and
how you were able to transform yourself.
3. Write about the secrets to dieting.
4. Write about diet culture fads, and why they do or
do not work.
5. Write about the idea of health, and how people can
shift their priorities to be more healthy both
mentally and physically.
6. Write about the taboo around mental health, and
how we can change this mindset as a society.
7. Write about your struggles with mental health, and
help others with what you’ve learned.
8. Write about your struggles with physical health,
and help others struggling with the same thing.
9. Write about what health and wellness means to
you, and share your perspectives with others.
10. Write about the power of superfoods, and how they
can positively affect health.
11. Write about the health practices in a different
country.
12. Write about an ancient health practice, and what
we can learn from it today.
13. Write about the medicinal properties of certain
foods and plants.
Prompts 347

14. Write about how to break free from unhealthy

habits.
15. Write about food production practices, and how
they affect the quality of what we eat.
16. Write about health in children, and how to raise
health-conscious individuals.
17. Write about raising a healthy family while
balancing a busy life
18. Write about a time your health was impacted, and
how the experience transformed your life
19. Write about a time someone you love experienced
health issues, and how the experience changed that
person’s life, as well as your own
20. Write about a time you felt unhappy with your
health. What did you do to change your mindset?
21. Write about body acceptance, and how societal
expectations affects our mindset.
22. Write about the influence of culture on health, and
how it affects a group of people differently.
23. Write about a harmful everyday practice, how it
affects our health, and what we can do to change it.
24. Write about dealing with mental health on an
everyday basis, and help others understand how to
be more compassionate.
25. Write about the idea of health, and what
contributing factors affect our perspectives.
26. Identify a distraction that is wasting your time and
causing you to be very unproductive. Write about
348 Prompts

your plan to eliminate this distraction from your

life, and the positive impact it will have.
27. Internal dialogue is powerful in developing
positivity. Identify your negative internal dialogue
and write out your new, positive dialogue to
communicate to yourself.
28. Write out seven ways you can practice self care and
why this is important to you.
29. Write about how vulnerability is keeping you
scared. Then, write down an action step to
overcome this fear.
Prompts 349

40 Family & Relationships

1. Write about how to build character in your
children.
2. Write about teaching children how to practice self-
love.
3. Write about strategies parents can use to instill
healthy habits in their children.
4. Write about the secrets to balancing discipline and
friendship as a parent
5. Write about the concept of soulmates, and why the
idea is helpful or harmful in our society.
6. Write about how to find friends as an adult.
7. Write about the importance of having a support
group.
8. Write about the dangers of toxic parenthood.
9. Write about the dangers of toxic relationships.
10. Write about the dangers of toxic friendships.
11. Write about the power of compassion in marriage.
12. Write about the importance of compromise in
relationships.
13. Write about dealing with heartbreak and starting
over.
14. Write about the idea of dating in the digital age.
15. Write about co-dependence and why its toxic.
16. Write about breaking up with a friend, and why it’s
necessary sometimes.
17. Write about disciplining children in a positive way.
350 Prompts

18. Write about instilling a positive mindset in the

youth.
19. Write about developing your child’s uniqueness.
20. Write about the struggles in parenthood and how
to stay sane.
21. Write about the beauty in parenthood and how to
make it last, even when your children are being
difficult.
22. Write about sibling rivalry and how to cultivate a
healthier sibling relationship.
23. Write about how to be a better parent.
24. Write about how to be a better daughter/son to an
aging parent.
25. Write about how to be a better friend.
26. Write about dealing with the loss of a loved one.
27. Write about your journey to find love and what
you’ve discovered along the way.
28. Write about developing healthy and nurturing
relationships.
29. Write about the importance of self-confidence in
finding love.
30. Write about the importance of self-esteem in
developing healthy relationships.
31. Write about the importance of mindset on the
search for love.
32. Write about the role self-awareness plays in being
a better parent.
Prompts 351

33. Write about the importance of communication in

relationships.
34. Write about the red flags in a failing relationship,
and how to save it before it’s too late.
35. Write about the idea of being single, and how to
embrace it in a society that does not.
36. Write about the idea of finding the perfect partner,
and how this perspective can affect our ability to
find someone.
37. Write about falling in love, and how to keep the fire
alive in a relationship.
38. Write about the importance of expectations in
relationships.
39. Write about disagreements in friendships, and how
to overcome and learn from them.
40. Write about different styles of parenting, and how
to identify which type you are.
352 Prompts

16 Horror/Thriller Prompts
1. Write about your last nightmare.
2. A couple is awoken at the witching hour (3 AM) by
three forceful bangs at their front door. When they
call aloud to see who’s there, no one answers, but a
demonic snarl can be heard from outside.
3. Waking up from a slumber with eyes still closed,
your character stretches their arms out, only to hit
a cold body next to them. They live alone.
4. You made a late night trip to the gas station, and it’s
pouring down rain as you stand outside in the
empty parking lot, holding the nozzle to pump gas.
Suddenly, a hearse pulls up slowly next to your car,
and when you glance over, all you can see is bright
red eyes glaring at you from the driver’s seat.
5. Your character just finished the night shift at work.
As they walk through the empty parking lot
towards their car, its eerily silent and they can’t
help but feel like someone is watching them. The
hairs on your character’s arms start to stand up,
even though it’s a relatively warm night. Your
character quickly jumps into their car, starts the
engine, and begins to drive home. As they look up
into the rearview mirror, a sinister, smiling face
appears behind them.
6. Two kids venture off into the woods behind their
neighborhood, scouting for a place to build their
tree house. Before long, they see the streetlights of
Prompts 353

their neighborhood come on in the distance, which

is a sign that it’s time to head back home. As they
gather their belongings to make the trek back
home, they hear a twig snap behind them, and a
guttural voice whisper, “You can’t leave yet – the
fun’s only just begun.”
7. Ten thousand dollars to own a 3 bedroom cabin? It
was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, that you, as a new
real estate investor, just couldn’t pass up. But in
order to secure your purchase quickly, you had to
skip the house tour. Now that the home was
purchased by you, it was time to start the
renovations. But first, you had to do an in-depth
survey of the house to see exactly what work
needed to be done. As you enter the creaky, old
home, a rancid smell fills your nostrils and in the
dark, dusty corner of the entryway, you notice a
large, fat rat chewing boldly on a piece of bloody
flesh.
8. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through
the house. There was a creature stirring, but it
wasn’t a mouse…Write about a holiday visitor who
isn’t jolly or nice, and who brings gifts nobody
would ever dare to ask for.
9. A young family on vacation joins an excursion to a
beautiful, remote beach. As they run into the ocean
to splash around, they notice something dark lurks
354 Prompts

in the water, and it doesn’t look like a creature that

belongs on Earth.
10. Choose a scary story that you were told as a child,
and add your own frightening twist.
11. After a lifetime of waiting, your character has
finally found the love of their life. But things turn
sinister when one night, your character discovers
that their new-found love must eat raw human
flesh in order to stay alive.
12. Her mind was racing, but she knew she had to
conceal her fear. As she turned to face him, she
noticed his eyes. They were colorless, and taunted
her without saying a word.
13. They weren’t raised to believe in ghosts, ghouls, or
demons, but the darkness that began to possess
their once-loving father couldn’t be explained any
other way. It all happened after he brought home
the newest novelty for his antique collection: an
18th century wooden cross, said to belong to a
woman that was tortured and hung for committing
witchcraft.
14. Vampires, werewolves, and witches. He knew they
were the stuff of fiction, or at least, he thought he
knew, until tonight.
15. It’s time to put your nine-year-old to bed. As you
tuck the child in, pulling the blankets over her
shoulders, you can’t help but notice the fear in her
eyes. Concerned, you ask her what’s going on. “She
Prompts 355

visits me every time I fall asleep. Can’t you make

her stop?” she whispered in fear. When you probe
your child for more details on who this woman is,
and what she looks like, your blood turns to ice. She
sounds exactly like the woman from the nightmares
that plagued your own childhood.
16. It was love at first sight – for her, anyway. After
years of being single, and sought after by all the
eligible bachelors in town, everyone was surprised
when Mr. Ezra came in, seemingly out of nowhere,
to swoop her off her feet. He was tall, dark, and
handsome, and everything she always dreamed of
finding in a man. After a brief two weeks of dating,
she announced that they had wed in secret. Not
only that, but she would be leaving town with him,
to start a new life. Little did they know that they
would never see her again. Little did she know that
the man of her dreams would soon become the man
of her nightmares. And he was dead set on making
her wish she’d never been born.
356 Prompts

15 Romance Creative Prompts

1. An exchange student goes to a foreign country to
live for a year abroad, with high goals to learn the
language and culture. Little does she know, she’s
actually there to learn a lesson on love, from none
other than a foreign classmate who has a strong
distaste for outsiders like her.
2. Your character is widowed, left to raise two young
children on his/her own. When it’s least expected,
someone from the past comes back into their life.
But things aren’t all that they seem, and falling in
love again is the last thing on her to-do list.
3. A restless man going through a midlife crisis. A
free-spirited woman ready to embrace graceful
aging. They butt heads often, but can’t seem to
leave each other alone for good. Can they survive
through something that threatens to tear them
apart forever?
4. They were childhood friends that hardly left their
small hometown, and now they are distant
strangers that live in two opposite parts of the
world. When a tragedy calls them back home, they
feel like they never left each other. How do they
hold on to one another when they live two very
separate lives?
5. It’s the day before their second marriage
anniversary. As he’s making plans to celebrate, he
Prompts 357

gets a call from his doctor with news that will

change their lives forever.
6. Years of heartbreak and relationship failures have
left her disillusioned with the idea of love. But one
chance meeting with someone new makes her
question her ideology forever.
7. He’s a serial dater that enjoys the chase. She’s a
serious achiever with a distaste for men like him.
What happens when their two worlds collide?
8. She’s carefully designed her life’s milestones, and is
dead set on sticking to her plan. When she meets
the man of her dreams and marries him after two
years of maintaining a long distance relationship,
she’s in for an earth-shattering awakening that not
even she could prepare for.
9. She’s a successful powerhouse business owner. He’s
a humble trades worker who’s never been to college
(and has no desire to ever do so). What started out
as a temporary fling for fun has turned into a
passionate love affair. But what happens when
things settle down, and their everyday lives go on?
10. As the caretaker of their ailing parent, who has no
one else in the world to rely on, your character has
put their life aspirations on hold to uphold their
family duty. So what happens when love comes
knocking on their door unexpectedly?
11. They were childhood sweethearts that grew up
together, and have been inseparable ever since.
358 Prompts

Now that they have entered the next chapter as

adults, their family and friends have urged them to
get married. But the night before the wedding, the
couple suddenly realizes that they are no longer in
love. Where do they go from here?
12. Rich man, poor girl. It’s a story as old as time, but
what happens when there’s a modern twist to it?
13. A young couple is ready to welcome their first child
into the world, when a violent war suddenly
ravages their town. The young man is forced away
to defend his country, and the pregnant young
woman is left to face the harsh winter alone. How
can they keep their love alive?
14. She’s never been in love, but she’s plagued by vivid
memories and dreams of a man who seems so
familiar, only she’s never met him. Could she have
a lover from a past life that haunts her from another
dimension?
15. Think of a famous love story that’s always intrigued
you. It could be from history, or from your own
experience. Now imagine a new ending for it, and
write your own version of the story with a twist.
Prompts 359

10 Mystery Prompts
1. The crystal clear blue waters. The bright green
foliage. The black sand beach. This would be the
last thing she saw before she died, and no one
would ever know.
2. He went missing twelve years ago. He was just a
boy, then. After years of searching for him to no
avail, his parents – now in their old age – have
succumbed to hopelessness and heartbreak. That is,
until a visitor arrives on their doorstep in the
pouring rain one stormy night. The visitor looks
like their son, but something is very, very
different…
3. Your character goes for an evening stroll every
night after dinner. She passes by each of her
neighbors homes down the quiet street, until she
gets to a fork in the road and turns back around.
Only tonight, she goes on her usual walk, and
decides to take a left at the fork instead of turning
around. What she discovers is sure to wake the
sleepy small town from their slumber.
4. A high profile lawyer on the hunt for justice, he’s
adamant about defending his client, accused of
committing a crime no mother could ever commit.
Or can she?
5. She’s an experienced detective with years under
belt, solving the city’s most horrific crimes. As she
digs deep on the trail of one of the most sinister
360 Prompts

serial killers she’s ever dealt with, she begins

uncovering some details that brings the case too
close to home.
6. Research your favorite unexplained mystery, then
re-write the story with your own twist and turn of
events.
7. Your character is on a mission to discover the truth
about his/her birth parents, two people s/he has
been shielded from ever knowing any details about.
On a quest to self-discovery, your character learns
the truth, and it can be summed up in three words:
Murder, lust, and greed. Write about your
character’s journey towards discovering where
they came from, and the shocking truth they learn
along the way.
8. Today is your birthday. You wake up, ready to
celebrate with your family and friends, but things
get weird when you discover that the year you
thought it was, doesn’t seem to be right.
9. You are house sitting for your best friend, who
you’ve known your entire life. One quiet evening,
you rummage through the library in search of a
good book. Instead, you find a chest of photos that
piques your interest. The chest is full of old
photographs featuring your best friend, dressed in
old attire and surrounded by people from long, long
ago.
Prompts 361

10. While driving home in the pouring rain one night,

you spot a young girl, dressed in all white, on the
side of the deserted highway. You pull over to give
her a ride home, but she doesn’t know who she is,
why she’s here, or where’s she going.
362 Prompts

11 Sci-Fi Creative Writing Prompts

1. Earth is dissolving, and it’s up to you to get all of
the remaining human children to the new “home”
for humans – a newly inhabited planet that mimics
Earth’s environment. The issue? The planet is twice
as small as Earth, which means there is only room
for half of the children in the spacecraft you’ve
been given.
2. Your character is a scientist for NASA, and is on the
edge of developing a cutting-edge breakthrough
technology that will allow humans to be
transported to space in half the time. The only
problem is, the process ages humans twice as fast…
3. The sun burns too bright, causing people to go blind
the moment they catch a glimpse of the sun’s rays.
This means that humans have learned to avoid the
sun, living out their days in protective pods to
shield them from the sun. But now, there’s a plague
that’s quickly spreading amongst the population,
and there seems to be only one cure: a look at the
sun.
4. You live in a futuristic world, almost 300 years from
present day. Technology has taken its toll on
evolution, and the only way to communicate with
other humans is through a digital screen.
5. The world as we know it is over, and you’re the
leader of this new era. Decide how you want to rule
society, and what type of world you will create.
Prompts 363

6. Your character starts the day off like any other day.
She wakes up, brushes her teeth, then walks into
her closet to get dressed for work. Only today, she
opens her closet door to find a wide-eyed woman
standing there, dripping wet as if she has been
rained on. She says her planet is at war, and she has
been sent to bring you back home with her, for you
are the only one with the power to save her people.
7. Research one of Earth’s unknown mysteries or
conspiracy theories. Now, re-write it through the
lens of someone who knows all the answers, and
has a powerful reason for keeping it all a secret…
8. Virtual reality meets the real world. You live in a
society where there’s a fine line between who is
actually a real person, and who is not.
9. Your character is an expert researcher that’s been
chosen to lead a submarine journey to the bottom
of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the
ocean. Uninhabitable by humans, the team
witnesses sea life that’s never before been seen by
man. But things take a turn for the worst when they
realize a massive creature has claimed a death grip
on their submarine vessel.
10. You’ve been given the task to create the perfect
species, but in your effort to do so through multiple
experiments, you’ve given life to an army of
children who are far from perfect.
364 Prompts

11. You’re exiled to a new planet, and you can only

take 3 people with you. Who do you take and why?
Prompts 365

12 Fantasy Writing Prompts

1. An expert diver, your character takes a trip to a
remote island to explore all the underwater sights
he’s read all about in books and documentaries.
When he takes a diving excursion to a cave known
for its colorful color, exotic fish schools, and vivid
sea foliage, he stumbles upon a secret cave door.
What it leads to is a bustling seaworld that’s quite
literally, straight out of a storybook.
2. A device has been invented that can solve any of
mankind’s problems – big or small. The catch is,
that along with a solution, comes an even bigger
problem…
3. You wake up one day to discover that you have
been transported to the world from your favorite
book. But you quickly discover that things aren’t all
that they seem…
4. You come from a long line of witches, dating back
to the 12th century. But a modern day witch hunt
is now in full effect, and to save your life, you must
find a way to give up all of your powers.
5. Your character suddenly finds themself in an
alternate dimension, where everything is
backwards. How can they make sense of this new
world, to find their way back to the dimension they
actually belong in?
6. Think of your favorite superhuman. Now, imagine
that they use their powers for evil. Write a story
366 Prompts

featuring the dark side of your superhuman’s

character.
7. Every morning, your alarm sounds off at 6 a.m.
Only this morning, instead of the usual beep beep
beep to wake you, a voice comes over the alarm and
announces, “Today is the day you will say goodbye
to everyone.”
8. Time no longer exists, and the worlds of the past,
present, and future have collided, meshing them all
into one. Write a fantasy story about this new
world that exists – and the pitfalls that come with
not having any boundaries within time.
9. Your character unexpectedly gives birth to a
healthy baby boy. What’s strange is that your
character was only pregnant for two weeks, and she
didn’t even realize it. As the baby grows, she starts
to notice that she has quite an extraordinary child
on her hands, and she must protect him from those
who know he exists.
10. A dream-like world where everything seems to go
your character’s way. He’s happy, peaceful, and
surrounded by those he loves. But one day, he
discovers that this isn’t in fact the world that he
belongs in…and those that really love him
desperately need him to return.
11. You’re given the chance to build your own
character taking five of the best traits from people
you know. What traits do you take from whom?
Prompts 367

12. Your memory is erased and you have to start

learning from scratch. (You can still feed and clothe
yourself.) What is the first thing you want to learn
and why?
368 Prompts

10 Historical Fiction Writing Prompts

1. Write about a specific folklore tale from your
cultural background, but add a special twist.
2. Imagine your modern-day character suddenly finds
themself in the past. Not only that, but they are the
neighbor to a famous historical figure. Write about
a significant event in the historical figures life with
a modern-day twist.
3. Your character is caught between love and war. A
passionate crusader with a prominent position in a
revolutionary war, they fall in love with someone
across the enemy lines. Do they give up their fight
in a cause they stand so strongly for, or say goodbye
to the one person they would give up their life for?
4. Research a significant event from your favorite
time period. Then, create a character who was there
to witness it all – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Write a story from this character’s point of view,
sharing how the event changed their lives forever.
5. You’re given the opportunity to travel back and
time to a significant moment in history. Write
about where you go, what you see, and who you
meet.
6. Your character is a factory worked living in
Victorian London
7. Think of a time period you would never wish to live
in. Now, imagine you suddenly wake up living in
that era. Write about your experience from the
Prompts 369

perspective of someone who is actually living the

reality you have no wish to be part of.
8. Write about a character that was born a slave, and
is the mastermind behind a dangerous mission to
lead others to freedom.
9. Research a historical figure who is considered a
real-life villain. Then, write a story from their
lover, or spouse’s perspective.
10. Research the history of your favorite place (city,
country, etc.), then write a story from the
perspective of a character who witnessed how the
place as you know it came to be.
370 Prompts

20 Sentence Starter Prompts

1. The unrelenting sun beat down on his forearms,
and all he could think about was how cold he felt
inside.
2. A sick feeling caused by strong alcohol on an empty
stomach, mixed with unsettling anxiety, caused her
to crouch over in discomfort. But she couldn’t stop
now.
3. The clock struck three, and it was as if the entire
world turned upside down.
4. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. The dryer violently spun
the wet clothes around, and
5. He wasn’t sure what the crying creature was, but
he knew it couldn’t be human.
6. He stared at her, staring at him. And in the blink of
an eye, an insatiable fury seemed to paint the sky
blood red.
7. The spacecraft zinged through the blackened
bubble, and as she looked outside the window, she
couldn’t help but feel the gravity of her eternal
loneliness.
8. No one knew him more than she did, but there
were things she simply could not look past.
9. This place was home – it always had been, so why
did it feel so strange?
10. The tapping of the keyboard was all she could hear
in the empty office, and the room seemed to start
spinning around her.
Prompts 371

11. A fast heartbeat, thumping uncontrollably inside

his chest, was all he could to react; after all, this was
the greatest moment of his life.
12. “This is your moment, and you can either rise to the
occasion, or crumble to your shortcomings,” the
speaker said over the intercom.
13. They were the only ones who knew the truth, and
try as they might, they couldn’t forget that fateful
day, even when they desperately wanted to.
14. Despite the enchantment, her intuition gnawed at
her core, warning her that this was a very, very bad
idea.
15. Today is the day you realize your entire life is going
to change forever because…
16. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, her
eyes widened in horror; how could she have let
herself say such a thing?
17. The storm raged on outside the window, and the
world in all its chaos was truly coming to an end,
just like they had warned.
18. The sun looked blood orange as it lifted off the
horizon, and she knew the time had come.
19. “Your heart belongs to me,” said the stranger in a
hushed, yet familiar tone.
20. Ding dong. He ran to get the door, and when he
looked through the eyehole, as was his habit before
unlocking it, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
372 Prompts

General Writing Prompts for All Genres

1. She told me her name was Sylvie and she was
twelve, and then she showed me her collection of
decapitated china dolls.
2. After that day, she never saw him again.
3. The wind howled and the lane was cottoned out in
white, and still he wore that light blue t-shirt, and
the smile never left his lips.
4. The orchestra was playing a song she'd heard before
but she couldn't remember where.
5. She bought the shoes but regretted them later that
evening.
6. I've never met a man who rolls his cigarettes quite
like Joseph Stubbs.
7. School closed early that day, and the children came
home crying.
8. It was April, and the man on TV was talking rain
when I met Sammy Peters.
9. The funeral was at noon.
10. I awoke with a dull pain in my arm, but when I
looked I saw nothing there—it was gone.
Prompts 373

Young Adult Creative Writing Prompts

1. James lay on his bed restlessly, thinking about last
night.
2. Katie had been studying for the past three hours
and she was aching for something to do when she
heard a loud clatter in the kitchen.
3. Susan combed her curly dark hair, and as she
looked at herself thoughtfully in the mirror, she
wondered what she should do.
4. Peter didn't usually find himself in these situations,
but now he was in the thick of it and there was no
escape.
5. The smell of bacon and eggs reached Samantha's
nostrils and she realized she hadn't eaten in three
days.
6. It was too bad about Joey, thought Ben as he waited
for his trial, but the League would have to make
these sorts of choices more often now.
7. She gritted her teeth—no, she wouldn't take it
lying down.
8. It had been two years since she'd seen him last, but
Annie thought, with a strange sort of feeling in her
stomach, that he still looked as handsome as ever.
9. If someone had asked Jane to predict what would
happen that day, she probably wouldn't have
guessed that it involved the destruction of her
entire world by strange supernatural forces and that
she was now on her way to fight them.
374 Prompts

10. Emily was a lot of things, but smart and studious,

she was not—so how had she gotten into
Harvard—especially when she had never applied?
Prompts 375

Fantasy Writing Prompts

1. There was a full moon that night; there was always
a full moon now.
2. There were dozens of them, walking slowly up the
hillside, carrying spears and wearing armor, their
skin leathery.
3. The book lay unopened for centuries.
4. A strange creature, half-man, half-horse, galloped
up the hillside, and threw back its head; it emitted
a guttural cry that seemed to shake the very
grounds of the forest.
5. She didn't believe in magic.
6. He was a very ordinary man, too ordinary, with his
suit, and perfectly-combed hair, and trimmed
moustache, and normal height; in fact, he would
have gone unnoticed, if it weren't for his yellow
eyes.
7. She was convinced that she could fly, that she flew
at night, and she continued to be convinced of it,
though she stopped speaking of it as she grew; in
fact, she ceased to speak at all.
8. HIs name was Vorell Bodog, and he belonged to a
race of creatures that you've never heard of before.
9. She liked to burn things, but once the fires started
they never stopped.
10. There is a far-away land not dissimilar to ours,
inhabited by strange creatures, which none but one
376 Prompts

has ever found; but if you saw it you'd be happy to

live here.
Prompts 377

Romance Writing Prompts

1. It was a torrid summer day in the English
countryside when I saw him for the first time.
2. He looked at me and that's how I knew.
3. A dark, handsome man, with chiseled cheekbones
and a brooding look—that was John.
4. It was the first day of work and Jennifer was trying
on all the looks in her closet, but nothing fit.
5. Ella had been looking forward to the day for three
months, but now it seemed that she would spend
the Ball of the season in the waiting room,
surrounded by maids.
6. He smiled at her—darkly, dangerously—and she
wondered where her father was.
7. Samantha was often called the belle of the town,
with her long, dark curls, and cream complexion,
but when she looked at herself in the mirror, she
could only see the imperfections—the stubby nose,
the chubby cheeks and the big mouth.
8. He didn't call; she had been waiting all day, but he
didn't call.
9. She slunk back on her bed, hating him, loathing
him . . . wanting him.
10. There he was—the perfect, gorgeous love of her life
who had just proposed to her sister.
378 Prompts

Mystery Writing Prompts

1. He downed the last of his whisky.
2. At about two p.m, under the sun's glaring,
unforgiving light, she died in a pool of vomit.
3. The police called it a suicide, but everyone knew
better.
4. She knocked on his door just as he was locking up
for the night.
5. He was drawn to something about her—she wasn't
the kind to give in without a fight; was that why
she had murdered her own sister?
6. She had a gun; he felt it when he kissed her
goodnight.
7. He woke up hungover, in a tiny motel room in
Arkansas, next to a dead body.
8. She wondered if he knew.
9. There was nothing to do but arrest her—and yet he
knew she was innocent.
10. She'd only had one drink—someone had drugged
her.
Prompts 379

Historical Writing Prompts

1. She came in, sweeping the floor with her gown, and
demanded to see the count.
2. Today there was a line at the Colored Only
drinking fountain, but he had a parched throat and
needed water.
3. 'Up, boy!' cried the train conductor, grabbing his
ear; there was a pop, and the world went silent.
4. It had been thirty years since Mrs. Denison had left
her rocking chair on the dusty porch, and she saw
more than most.
5. The stack of freshly-printed newspapers was placed
in front of him.
6. The year was 1963 and Connie Benson knew how
to fold a fitted sheet.
7. I still remember the day they came over; it was
called an invasion.
8. The sun was high in the sky and burned his bare
head, shoulders, and arms, but he knew better than
to stop picking cotton.
9. There was nothing to do but to stop drinking the
tea she loved so much.
10. The war came and killed everyone I knew.
380 Prompts

YA Character Prompts
1. James is brave and daring, but awkward in love. His
goal is to find his parents; his fears are the opposite
sex and spiders.
2. Anthony is adventurous, but often bored and
untalented at piano. His goal is to make his father
the pianist proud of him, and his fears are failure
and girls.
3. Jenny is social and brave but hates school. Her goal
is to do well enough at school or she'll be grounded,
and her fears are being punished by her parents and
social failure.
4. Annie is courageous and caring, but insecure. Her
goal is to save her sister from a mysterious danger,
and her fear is that she's not good enough.
5. Lily is astute but lacks academic motivation. Her
goal is to solve an in-school mystery while staying
on-track with her grades.
Prompts 381

30 Fantasy Writing Prompts

1. Write about a character who finds an odd-looking
egg in the forest. When they take it home, they
never could have predicted what was inside it.
2. Write a book about a character who has always had
the ability to change how they looked, and so they
hid their true appearance behind attractive façades.
Now, their abilities aren’t working, exposing what
they truly look like.
3. Write a story about once peaceful water dwellers
who have suddenly declared war on a settlement
that was its only true ally. Your character has no
idea why and is thrust into the war against their
will.
4. Write about how magic is the norm. Some excel at
it, some are only okay, and others are against it
completely, despite being able to use it. Your main
character is the latter.
5. Write a story about how time has always been a
constant in a world where reality can be warped
and stretched. Then your character, through
research and hard work, discovers you can even
alter time.
6. Write about a character who researches untouched
societies as a living. While deep in the jungle on an
assignment, they accidentally allow themselves to
be seen by someone from the society, a big no-no.
382 Prompts

What that person is capable of is beyond the world

your character knew existed.
7. Write about a character whose world is dying. The
actual earth is sick and killing all the plants and
probably life as they know it.
8. Write a story about one of your characters who has
magic. The other wants nothing more than to have
magic. How far is that one person willing to go to
make that magic theirs?
9. Your character and their brother have always been
best friends. They know practically everything
about each other. Until they catch him do
something they never thought possible.
10. Write a book about an ancient society where your
character hears a voice within their own mind.
Shunned by their village, they spend their life as a
near-slave, waiting on others, doing the hardest
work, and granted little freedom. Well, they did,
anyway, until they uncovered who the voice
belonged to.
11. Your character boards a ship to sail across to a
newly discovered land. What they find when they
get there are undiscovered species – both animal
and humanoid.
12. Non-magic people are outlawed. Your character
has no magic and their older sibling has been
ensuring nobody knows since your character was
born. One missed moment might ruin everything.
Prompts 383

13. Write about a character who needs a miracle, and

they meet one too! Who knew miracles were
actually beings and not just something that
happens? Your character makes a bad first
impression when their miracle shows up to help
them out.
14. Write a story about how all types of magic exists in
your character’s world. While drinking liquid
happiness (magic drink) from a local tavern, they’re
hit with a vision that overpowered every drop of
happiness consumed. They’ve never had visions
before, either.
15. Your character has always believed magic exists.
They just didn’t know how close it really was.
16. Write a book about how after an accident that
killed your character’s father, they uncover secrets
they can’t even understand. Then their father’s
friend shows up out of nowhere and explains all of
it.
17. Write about how your character teaches children
magic. When one kid proves to be way more than
expected, they have to help them understand
exactly what they can do – and stop them from
doing something that could be dangerous.
18. Write a story about your character and while
awaiting test results in the hospital, they encounter
an…odd person who teaches them about a world
beyond their own – and better than their own.
384 Prompts

19. Write about a character who embarks on a quest to

locate a special type of rock that lights fires almost
instantly – something their settlement needs. What
they didn’t expect to find, however, was a
mermaid-like species living in the cave that houses
most of that rock.
20. Write a fantasy story about a character who wakes
up every day feeling the same thing: that something
in their life is just…missing. When they realize
their frequent nightmares are actually memories, it
all becomes clear.
21. Emotions can be controlled. Thoughts can be
stolen. In the world your character lives in, holding
on to your own sanity is the difference between
destruction and thriving. They must learn to push
out anyone who tries to alter their perception of
reality.
22. Write about your character, who gets caught in the
middle of an ancient feud between two families as
a result of one of their failures. In order to make
things right, they have to dive head first into a
world they’d rather not know even existed.
23. Your character is short on food, shelter, and even
patience. When they (literally) run into someone
from their past, their reality starts to make sense. If
only that person could undo what’s been done to
them.
Prompts 385

24. Magic is the currency. Your character is a rare

breed who was born without it. When they find
themselves in a dangerous challenge to prove their
worth to the settlement, magic would’ve come in
handy.
25. Write a book about a character who can teleport –
but only to places they’ve been before. Their
dream? To backpack across each of your world’s
countries in order to acquire the most locations.
The only thing stopping them is a past that’s
sprinting to catch up to them.
26. Your character’s country is the best…until a new
ruler steals the throne by force…of magic. The
most shocking part? Nobody from that country
knows magic exists…and everybody with magic
didn’t know those without it exist.
27. Write about a character who wants to do
everything on their “bucket list.” But when they’re
kidnapped and shipped off to the unknown, there’s
only one thing left on their list: survive. It just so
happens the place they end up stuck is one of
dreams.
28. Your character hears a language they’ve never
heard uttered before that day…yet they understood
every single word. Turns out, they’re not really
from where they think.
29. Your character is a compulsive liar, unable to stop
themselves from spinning tales that make them the
386 Prompts

envy of everyone around them. Then they wake up

one day to discover that their lies have all come
true…
30. Write about a character who goes looking for magic
out of curiosity. They find more than magic in their
family history.

How to Write Fantasy Stories?

• Create 100% unique cultures

• Avoid these worldbuilding mistakes
• Develop slang for your world based on what’s
popular/trending/makes sense with the time it
takes place
• Do NOT use common phrases like “train of
thought” if trains don’t exist in your world
• Use unique names
• Don’t forget about diversity!
• Opt for an unexpected and different journey and
outcome (many fantasy novels follow a similar
formula)
• Write what you want to read!
• Schedule your writing time and follow those
deadlines if you really want to finish
Prompts 387

30 Sci-Fi Writing Prompts

1. Write about a character who wakes up in a space
pod alone…next to a ship so massive it’s actually
carrying a planet beneath it. Your character has no
memory from before they wake.
2. Write a story about a character who lives in a world
where every single person’s DNA is carefully
genetically designed for something to help the
community. Your main character despises what
they were created for. This has never happened
before.
3. Write about how your character lives on a planet
other than Earth. In fact, they don’t even know
Earth exists. Well, they didn’t until some sort of
advanced, technical probe crash-landed in their
settlement, exposing the fact that they’re not alone.
Now they have to decide what’s best for their
settlement.
4. Write a book about how the world used to be
plagued with war and famine and inhumanity. But
after years and years of developing a technical
system that is the center of and controls everything,
it’s almost completely peaceful. Your character is
the engineer keeping the system running and when
they uncover how it works, they contemplate
abandoning everything they know.
5. Write about the newest advancement in virtual
reality that adds a physical sense. Now your
388 Prompts

characters can even hook up with people through

your phone, all while staying at home. But when a
glitch alters the mechanisms, what was once
pleasure becomes pain and the user gets trapped in
a VR state.
6. Write a story about how others have been keeping
your character alive for over 300 years because of a
secret they know. When someone new finally
learns the truth, reality becomes…confusing. Now,
with only a short adulthood left to live, your
character must ensure nobody else learns of this
secret. But…well, news spreads fast.
7. Write about how they didn’t mean to, but in an
attempt to build a time traveling machine, your
character actually discovered alternate universes –
and then accidentally trapped themselves there.
Oh, and this alternate universe hasn’t discovered
electricity yet.
8. Write a story about a character who lives in an
ancient society. When a shiny, unnatural looking
contraption touches down and creatures emerge,
everything they once knew changes.
9. Write about how the only reason your character is
alive is because of a test device implanted around
their heart. It wasn’t supposed to work and now,
they’re not only healed, but they’re also changing.
Just what exactly was that device made out of?
Prompts 389

10. Write about a character who wakes up in a dark,

hot room dressed in hardly anything. Their
memory is foggy but clearing up, and they have
some sort of technical device securing their hands
together. They stumble over to a tiny window that
gives them a clear view of a world far below them.
11. Write about your character’s sister who is
discovered dead and the cause of death ruled an
overdose. Your character knows better. She was the
only person in the family who never had an issue
with drugs. In fact, she was developing a cure for
cancer in the most advanced research center in the
world. Your character finds that…suspicious.
12. Write a story about how computers are outlawed.
Having access to technology is punishable by life in
prison. Your character runs an underground cyber
center that gets crashed by local law enforcement.
But during interrogation, they get hired instead of
prosecuted…because something unworldly has
touched down.
13. Write about a character who accidentally created a
virtual reality software that taps into the user’s
psyche and creates their ultimate dream reality.
They were on track to become a billionaire until
some users became addicted and unable to free
themselves from its hold.
14. Write a story about how the world your character
currently lives on is nearing its breaking point.
390 Prompts

While the rest of the world rushes to evacuate

everyone to a space pod with a destination of a
livable planet, your character remains behind bars,
left to die with the rest of the world’s prisoners. The
kicker? They’re wrongfully convicted.
15. Write about how disease is finally eradicated.
Cancer is nothing more than an old nightmare.
Your character spent years working his way into a
lab dedicated to making sure it stays that way. Their
secret? They’re a hardcore believer in natural
selection. He decides to take Darwinism into his
own hands.
16. Write a book about a city that’s the first to
implement an entirely technological government.
It’s under strict surveillance from the outside in
order to determine if this is the future of your
country…and the world. Your character stumbles
into trouble when they discover that technology
isn’t in charge at all – a group of people they’ve
never seen or heard of are.
17. Write about hot time altering is possible, but fatally
illegal. In this world, characters can bend, pause,
rewind, and even fast forward time…but at the risk
of their lives. Your character, in a midst of panic,
accidentally alters time…by going 300 years into
the past.
18. Write a story about how the outdoors is plagued
with radioactive particles created by a new
Prompts 391

technology once thought to eradicate airborne

diseases. People are confined to the indoors unless
they use a special, very expensive suit. Citizens who
can’t afford them are driven mad by confinement.
Your character wants to find a way for everyone to
have a suit – no matter what law enforcement says.
19. Write about a character who invents airborne
particles with the intent to eradicate diseases.
Unfortunately, they become radioactive, toxic, and
severely deadly to anyone who breathes in even a
tiny amount.
20. Scientists have created a man-made atmosphere
around the planet of Mars in order to make it
completely livable. Your character is one of the
lucky few who are chosen to be among the first to
inhabit the planet. What they don’t know is that
there is no atmosphere…and others already inhabit
it.
21. Write about your character who lives in a world
where the outdoors is plagued with natural
disasters daily. Venturing outside is dangerous and
rarely done. When they’re forced to leave their
home to rush to the aid of someone struggling
outside, they learn that those “natural” disasters are
completely fabricated. Their new life mission is to
find out why.
22. Write a story about how in your character’s world,
identity is implanted into your forearm at birth. It’s
392 Prompts

scannable and contains any information someone

would ever need to know, including age, overall
health, risk for diseases, and more. Your character,
having spent their life in a type of foster care,
applies for a job only to realize that now, at the age
of 18, their identity is showing two different sets of
information.
23. Your character’s job is to lead the mission of
colonizing new planets – even if there’s life present.
When the truth of how they manage to find
habitable planets surfaces, a new recruit shows
them just how wrong it really is. Your characters
new goal? To stop it.
24. Write about how oceanic cities have been built for
the rich. They float atop the ocean, traveling
hundreds of miles a day, all while its citizens go
about their everyday life. Unfortunately, your
character discovers a superstorm developing below
the ocean’s surface, something that has never
happened before – something they are wildly
unprepared for.
25. Your character develops a new device you implant
in your ear that reads the minds of those they focus
on. After light testing, they accidentally discover
that the local baker has a massive, dangerous,
potentially even deadly secret.
26. Write about how in the distant future, magic is
discovered as being real…at least for the humanoid
Prompts 393

creatures inhabiting an Earth-like planet. Your

main character is among the few chosen to venture
to the planet and study them. They just never
expected to discover the source of the magic like
they did in the process.
27. Write a story about how oxygen levels on Earth
have been plummeting for centuries. Now, with the
population dwindling due to suffocation and
disease, your main character has to find a way off
the dying planet without attracting too much
attention from the Keeps, also known as the highly
deadly enforcement force tasked with making sure
only certain individuals leave.
28. Write a story about how centuries ago, a solar flare
damaged the Earth’s atmosphere in the opposite
way expected; it actually made it stronger. But now
the sun’s rays have difficulty penetrating it and the
world is slowly growing colder. Your character is
among the many determined to find a way to fix it.
29. Happiness is an illusion, as are every other emotion.
In your futuristic society, humans are bred in a lab
without them as a means of creating equality. The
only problem is that your main character was born
the natural way…with every emotion intact. If this
is discovered, they’ll have to fend for their life.
30. Write about how your main character was in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Tasked with
delivering something seemingly unimportant, they
394 Prompts

witness something they shouldn’t have and are

pulled into a world of secrecy, dangerous weapon
manufacturing, and a virtual war the public is blind
to.

How to Write Science Fiction?

• Decide if the story will take place in this world or a

completely unique one
• Create realistic advanced technology that your
characters would actually use
• Avoid modern-day slang unless the story takes
place here
• Create your own slang. A great example of this is in
Jenna Moreci’s sci-fi novel, EVE: The Awakening
pictured below)
Prompts 395

30 Dystopian Writing Prompts

1. Write about a character who finds an odd-looking
egg in the forest. When they take it home, they
never could have predicted what was inside it.
2. Write a story about how natural farming doesn’t
exist anymore. Due to climate change, all food has
to be manufactured in bulk and distributed. There
is no flavor and is the same every day. Your
character, who has spent their entire life in this
world, takes a trip to the mountains far away from
their home. There, they discover real plants, and on
them, berries.
3. Write about nature extremists taking over the
government, stopping at nothing to ensure all man-
made harm on the planet is eradicated. Your
character ends up in their clutches, forced to do
their bidding.
4. Write a story about how, due to climate change,
wildfires have engulfed the large majority of living
land. Your character is one of many attempting to
board a ship set for a new in-ocean settlement. The
problem? That settlement doesn’t actually exist.
5. Write about how after a devastating illness that
rocked only the wildlife population over 200 years
ago, a scientist created a virus that strengthens
animal’s immune systems with the purpose of
creating balance and stabilizing the wildlife
population once again. The problem is that it
396 Prompts

worked too well and the wildlife has exceeded (and

reduced) the world’s population
6. Write a book about how after a devastating storm
that encompassed the entire world, the population
has thinned significantly and your character, who
lost all of their family but their youngest sibling,
has to go up against the new “government” with a
group of allies as they attempt to gain control over
the living population of the world – in the worst
way.
7. Write about how over the course of a few hundred
years, cases of depression, anxiety, and other
mental illnesses caused the death and destruction of
generations. Then an airborne substance was
created to balance all levels of each person so
they’re created 100% equal in every way. Turns
out, your character is immune to the substance.
8. Write about how the third World War is done and
over with for many years now. It was the downfall
of the world’s economic system. Now your main
character must navigate a world where
governments no longer exist, money is useless, and
survival is the only objective. Oh, and they have a
debilitating medical condition to look after, too
9. Write a story about how two thousand years after a
massive wave of a fatal illness swept over the entire
world, your character navigates a life of poverty
and hardship, struggling to feed their very young
Prompts 397

twin siblings and alcoholic father. That is, until a

new form of choosing a leader is proposed. Now
they can finally compete to rule over their
settlement.
10. Write about how books have nearly been
abolished. Your country is separated into three
main regions with a dangerous “neutral” zone in
the center. With a rumor of a way out located in
the midst of the neutral zone, your main character
must venture through two other regions to get
there.
11. Write a book about a character who is fortunate to
have been born into a powerful family after the
downfall of the world. They have everything they
would ever hope to have…except for a clue as to
what happens outside their very large, protective
walls. Once they find out, they can’t help but need
to change it.
12. Write about a single tower that powers what’s left
of the country’s population. When an outsider
tampers with its mechanisms, the tower breaks
down, leaving your main character and everyone
else struggling to survive.
13. Write about how the birthrate has dropped
significantly. So much so that children are now
worth millions. Your main character, a very poor
woman, just found out she’s pregnant – and won’t
be able to hide it for long. Kidnapping and worse
398 Prompts

await her if anyone finds out that she can

reproduce, and will soon have a child up for
“grabs.” In order to save herself – and her child –
she must confess her pregnancy to the father, a very
wealthy man in politics.
14. Write a story about a character who ventures away
from the only town they’ve ever known, despite
warnings and many attempts to make them stay.
What they find is emptiness…for miles and miles
and miles.
15. Write a story about a hidden temple is the only
thing standing in the way of your character
becoming the next ruler of a post-apocalyptic, off-
the-grid society. When a newcomer ventures into
their land, their chance of finding the temple
becomes dangerous…maybe even impossible.
16. Write a book about how they really thought they
were helping by creating a single drug with the
power to eradicate diseases, illnesses, and even
cancer. What they didn’t anticipate was the
massive super virus 100% resistant to the drug.
Your main character seems to be the only one who
can’t catch it…that they know of.
17. Write about how society has collapsed over
hundreds of years, not with war or a single event
like they always thought would happen. Your main
character discovers a voice message from 700 years
prior detailing the downfall’s construction. The 300
Prompts 399

years it took to destroy society was completely

planned. But why?
18. Since the manmade radioactive superstorm that
destroyed most of life as they knew it, extreme
measures have been taken to document every move
of every person. Your main character scans a chip
when they eat, sleep, travel, and even when they
have sex. When offered a way out, your main
character takes it without question…which might
be their biggest mistake.
19. Write a story about how the government was taken
over by the rich nearly 50 years ago. Your main
character was lucky enough to be born into the
wealthiest family. What they never thought of,
though, was the fact that one day, the could be
kidnapped and used as leverage.
20. Write about a character who, after witnessing
horrors of rising crime and drug rates, ran away at
the age of 12 to live on their own in a secluded
wooded area. Now, after 10 years of solitude, people
start filing into their neck of the woods covered in
wounds, tattered clothing, and bruises.
21. Write about a super tsunami that’s demolished the
eastern portion of the United States. But contrary
to what was expected, the water is actually creeping
inland, not back out to sea. Your main character’s
home is a victim of the ocean.
400 Prompts

22. Write a story about how electricity is scarce…and

very expensive. Your main character walks home
one night to discover a brand-new electric car
sitting idle in behind a forest tree line. They follow
its tire tracks to find a massive house lit up and
blasting music. A stranger waves at them to come
in.
23. Write a book about how at the height of your
character’s career – and life as a whole – an attack
destroys their city, kills their spouse, and forces
them into poverty…and maybe even war. With
new laws, new standards, and new rulers in place,
their life obtains a whole new purpose.
24. Write a story about how a little boy is running
toward your main character, a look of absolute joy
lighting up their face. Then they freeze, their joy
turning to anger, rage. Your character cocks their
head, confused, and then the truth hits them. He
must be one of the Ruin Children, born from the
people affected by the Great Tragedy.
25. Write about a trial being the only way your
character can ever hope to rise above their current
abysmal ranking. Your world’s current society is
one bred for advancement. Anyone who can’t meet
the standards is done for. Your character needs a
near miracle to pass their trial.
26. Due to an error made by someone in the distant
future when time traveling, the world’s societal
Prompts 401

(and time) structure has collapsed. Each day may

produce a completely different reality than the one
before. Survival isn’t guaranteed and strangers
could have been your best friend – or more – only
yesterday.
27. Your character’s world is what happens when an
experimental chemical compound intended to
sustain plant life is pumped into the atmosphere.
Now trees have overgrown, plants are squeezing
into homes, and the Earth’s oxygen levels are (if
you can believe it) too high.
28. Tagged, chipped, and shuffled into line. That’s your
character’s everyday reality. They’re herded like
cattle…to be used in the same way as cattle. Then a
single guard takes pity on your character and offers
them a way out.
29. Write a story about a main character who’s read all
about the warning signs of a solar flare and the
flipping of the Earth’s magnetic field. They’ve
scoured through studies and research papers
depicting what would happen. Since both occurred
within the same year over a century ago, they’re
stuck to live in the aftermath.
30. Peace. The world is ruled by one person dedicated
to keeping the peace. There’s been no war or
poverty or famine in centuries. Your main
character is newly employed to be the ruler’s
402 Prompts

personal assistant. When they discover how the

world is kept at peace, their life changes forever.

How to Write Dystopian Novels?

• Think way outside of the box

• Use literary elements from your story’s past to form
their present
• Paint a very clear picture of everyday life for your
character from the very first page
• Get creative with the laws, culture, and customs
• Don’t just “go with the flow”: The Handmaid’s Tale
is so popular largely due to the fact that it’s unique.
Not many people would have thought of a world
that was overrun by a religion – and that’s what
makes it so tantalizing; it’s unexpected.
Prompts 403

28 Contemporary Writing Prompts

1. Write about a character who’s done everything
they’re told. They just graduated high school and
are off to a very good college to get their degree in
something reliable. But when they get there, they
realize there’s a whole world of opportunity they
never knew existed. Now they have to maintain the
façade of going to college even though they decided
to pursue a different endeavor.
2. Write a story involving a character who answers
the door to nothing but an intricate envelope on the
ground; an invitation. After attending the secret
underground event, they become a part of the
biggest activist group out there…and nobody even
knows who they are.
3. Write about how, while on a hike with friends,
your main character discovers a small tower buried
beneath the ground. After some digging, they
realize it’s filled with scrolls they can hardly make
out. What they contain will change your
character’s view of life forever.
4. Write a book about how a character has been living
a very sheltered, very dangerous life. After the
death of their overbearing father, they’re thrust
into the real world – only to realize just how
different their life really is from those around them.
5. Write a book about how your main character gets
called out of school/work by someone they don’t
404 Prompts

know for something they are clueless about. But for

some reason, the person addressing them thinks
they already know everything about it.
6. Write a story about how, as an artist, your main
character has it well. But when everything they’ve
worked for is burned in a tragic fire, they have to
start all over with nothing to their name and a
roommate determined to hold them back.
7. Write about how life for your main character has
never been easy. After venturing in and out of
foster homes, they’re finally an adult and on their
own. When their birth mother reaches out to
reconnect, they never could’ve predicted what’s
kept her away for so long. Now your character has
to decide between getting involved with their real
mother or cutting ties forever.
8. Write about how death is a natural part of life. Your
main character has been feared it or been affected
by it. But when their best friend goes missing and
their body shows up in front of their house, your
character makes it their mission to find out who’s
responsible – even if it means breaking the law…a
lot of laws.
9. Write a story about a character who’s in an accident
that leaves them blind. When they meet a stranger
who shows them how to enjoy life again,
everything seems to be perfect. Until tragedy
strikes that stranger.
Prompts 405

10. A strange person approaches your character

claiming to be their long-lost parent. But your
character isn’t adopted…so they think. Now they
have to make sense of a new reality and an identity
that’s shocking.
11. Write about how a half-eaten apple flies through
the air and smacks your character on the head.
There’s nobody around and no way for anyone to
hide. Then it happens again the next day. They do
some digging and discover the source…a small
child with rags for clothes and hollow cheeks.
12. Your character’s identity is stolen, racking up
thousands of dollars in debt. They were just fired,
and to top it all off, their long-term significant
other just broke up with them for their friend. And
they said your twenties would be the best years of
your life.
13. Your character was adopted from foster care when
she was 5. Their memories of their time in that
foster home are almost non-existent. All they can
remember is feeling scared and a distinct song that
gets stuck in their head from time to time. As
they’re walking to class one day, they hear that
familiar song in the distance.
14. Write a story about how your character woke up in
a stranger’s home with a gaping, painful wound on
their leg. They have no idea where they are, how
406 Prompts

they go there, or who the strange man in the corner

of the room watching them is.
15. Write about how your character had been studying
their whole life. With everyone in their family
having gone to an ivy league school, your main
character feels the pressure to get in and get A’s.
They even stoop to low levels to do so.
16. Your character embarks on a mission to prove that
the key to happiness is doing whatever they want,
whenever they want. But that mentality quickly
lands them in serious trouble with drugs, new
“friends,” and decisions they can’t undo.
17. Write a story about a dimly lit street at 3 am. Your
character strolls by like they have many nights
before after a long shift at the bar. A building
they’ve never noticed before flashing an “OPEN”
sign catches their attention. Once inside, the
direction of their entire life changes.
18. Write about how nothing has ever really been
difficult for your main character. They’ve been able
to coast through life, get a good job, make good
friends, and are happy. Then a social worker shows
up at their door with a six-year-old child – the same
child that was adopted six years prior. Turns out,
raising a six-year-old is very, very difficult.
19. Your main character has worked their entire life to
make their dreams of curing cancer a reality. But
when it seems like a cure is within reach, a
Prompts 407

suspicious fire burns all of their research…or so it

seemed.
20. Write about a character who survived an accident
that killed one of their siblings. When they thought
life couldn’t get any harder, a scary diagnosis rocks
their already unstable boat. Dealing with grief,
your family blaming you for a sibling’s death, and a
debilitating disease isn’t easy. Thank goodness they
make a new friend.
21. Write about purple glasses. Black hair. Polka dot
shoes. Your main character has seen this person on
the subway every day for two years. When they
notice their absence for a week straight, they decide
to find out who they are. Turns out, your character
shouldn’t have gone snooping.
22. Your character lines up at the bank very early in
the morning, dreading another day of mind-
numbing work ahead at their corporate job. A
gentleman in a grey suit with white hair greets
them and engages in some small talk. Then, out of
nowhere, he hands your character a gun, takes a
few steps back, and fires a couple of rounds into the
ceiling.
23. Write about how fire is your main character’s
solace – their addiction. Their home is littered with
candles, a lighter is never more than a foot from
them, and bonfires are a nightly occurrence.
408 Prompts

Addiction of any kind can be a very dangerous

thing.
24. Write a story about how your character sees
balloons – hundreds of them – floating toward the
sky from miles away. They go to investigate the
cause and end up really regretting that decision.
They get pulled into something that could change
their life forever.
25. It’s been two years since your character has actually
had a steady job. After growing increasingly
desperate, they answer an ad for a personal assistant
position. They just didn’t expect it to be for a major
drug cartel leader.
26. Hospitals have never been your character’s favorite.
They think they smell…weird. Unnatural. But they
work there now and will have to get used to it.
They throw on their white coat and enter the
building. Ugh. The psychiatric ward always smells
the worst; like wet stone and rotting wood mixed
with subpar antiseptics.
27. Your main character starts to hear voices shortly
after experiencing a trauma. Now they’re in
therapy, fighting with their own mind in order to
sort out what really happened that day and why
they can’t stop hearing another voice.
28. Write about how children are the future. They
have the power to right our wrongs and start anew.
Your main character befriends an orphaned child
Prompts 409

and learns more from them than they realized was

possible.

How to Write in the Contemporary Genre?

• “Realistic dialogue is important. All the characters

should sound different from one another, their
vernacular should make sense for their background,
and the writer should read it out loud.”
• “Tiny details are hella dope in descriptions. It
should be so specific and vivid that when the reader
finishes the story, they feel like they’ve lost a bit of
reality.”
• “Imagining characters complexly is also important.
Work on understanding real people. If you
understand people and why they do what they do,
you can understand characters and what they do”
• Create a conflict many can relate to or sympathize
with
• Spend a lot of time on the character arc as many
contemporary novels are primarily character-
driven.
410 Prompts

30 Roimance Writing Prompts

1. Write about how your character has gone through
life believing that love is a choice. Their decision?
To never get involved because love can only lead to
pain and hardship. But after an argument with a
stranger, their view of love, and life itself, is
changed.
2. Write a story about how marriage is just what
happens when you’ve been with someone forever.
For your main character, that seems obvious. But
when they’re months away from their wedding and
an old friend barges into their life unannounced, a
wedding seems like the furthest thing from their
desires.
3. Write about a character who is up for a big
promotion within their company. They’ve put
everything on hold for it – including their love life.
But when an outsider is hired instead, they lose it,
focusing all their energy on bringing this
newcomer down. They just didn’t think about the
fact that they might end up likingthem.
4. Write a book about how a character and their
significant other have been together since
childhood. After a war between their people rips
them away from each other, they’ll have to fight,
manipulate, and fool in order to get each other
back.
Prompts 411

5. Write about how a package is mailed to your main

character. It’s filled with what seems like hundreds
of letters all to a single person. Memories and
confessions of love are penned within those letters.
Your main character feels drawn to the person on
the other end and sets out to find them – and the
letter’s true destination.
6. Write a story about how arranged marriages are the
standard. In fact, nobody marries for love. Love
doesn’t even exist in your character’s world. But
when they’re drawn to someone who’s already
spoken for, they start to question everything they
know about love.
7. Write about how your main character lives in a
society of slavery. If you’re not born in a certain
family, you’re shipped off and sold. When your
character is sold for the 8th time in their short 20
years, then end up at one of the top houses – and
become a personal servant to the next leader of
their settlement. Soon, they’re enthralled in a
romance that could get them both killed…because
he’s already promised to another…a very
dangerous other.
8. Write a story about how cheating is wrong. Your
character’s society puts emphasis on loyalty above
anything else. In fact, cheating and betrayal of any
kind in any relationship are punishable by life in
prison (and even death in extreme cases). So why
412 Prompts

does something that’s been illegal for as long as they

can remember feel so right when your character
meets someone new? Avoiding jail just became the
most difficult part of your character’s life.
9. Write about how your character started going blind
at the age of six. Fifteen years later, they meet
someone who makes their life better in ways they
couldn’t have imagined. Then they realize that
they’ve actually met that person before.
10. Your main character has seen the same person at
the bus stop every day for what seems like over a
year. They also bump into them frequently at coffee
shops, grocery stores, and even restaurants. Finally,
they decide to introduce themselves to the person
who Fate seems to be pushing their way.
11. It had been 10 years since your character last saw
their biggest crush. How they both ended up in the
same city away from their hometowns makes no
sense to them. It’s got to be more than a
coincidence, right?
12. A waft of something flowery washes over your
main character as they jog down the street. They
turn and follow the scent to someone dancing in
the middle of the street to no music while reading
a book.
13. Write a book. about how your character runs away
from their tribe in the dead of night. After an injury
Prompts 413

leaves them exposed, an unlikely ally of a rivaling

clan saves their life.
14. Reading minds might seem like an advantage in the
dating world. But when your character can hear
every single thought someone has about them, it
quickly reduces their chances at finding love.
15. Write a. story about how a treehouse in the deep
woods is your character’s favorite place to relax. But
when they get interrupted by the weird kid at
school, they have to set some ground rules for its
use. Sharing a treehouse with the weirdo might just
be the best thing they’ve ever done.
16. Write about how it’s rare to find true love as a child.
Your main character did – and they grew up to
marry their childhood sweetheart. But after an
unexpected death, your character is forced to live
without their true love. Oh…and they have a one-
year-old to take care of on top of it.
17. Write a book about how your character waited two
weeks for their date to call. What seemed like a
perfect evening must’ve not been all that great for
them. Then their date’s sibling called…to tell them
they had died. But they did leave a few notes with
your character’s name on them before it happened.
18. Her brother’s friends are off limits. Her dad’s
friends are off limits. She knows those rules. But
when a new coworker of her dad’s enters the
414 Prompts

picture, she’ll have to find a way around her father’s

rules.
19. Write a story about how many memories of love
and loss come to your character’s mind when
they’re invited to an all-adult summer camp. They
decide to go for it and spend 6 weeks in paradise
with complete strangers.
20. Write a romance story about how you don’t know
unconditional love until you’ve ever felt it at your
core. And once you do, you can never settle for
anything less ever again.
21. “Marry your best friend,” they said. “It’ll be fun,”
they said. But when your best friend turns out to be
the complete opposite of how you thought, a
relationship can get tricky. Your character is on the
lookout for a new best friend.
22. Write a romance about how your character is
basically a “starving artist,” an art student just
barely getting by. Their roommate, another art
student and your character’s crush, opens a gallery
featuring breathtaking paintings of your character.
It’s everything your character could want…and
then they meet the person who pays thousands for
their portrait. Now their roommate is hardly on
their mind.
23. In an ancient world, your character is getting ready
for a life partner ceremony. Their partner –
someone they’ve known their whole life – is
Prompts 415

already chosen and it’s time to secure the bond. But

when someone your character has never met before
steps up to challenge your supposed-to-be life
partner, they’re forced to be with a stranger.
24. Write about how two old bicycles are embedded in
a tree – grown into it from years of being chained
to it. Upon further inspection, your character finds
a bottle in one of the baskets and in that bottle, a
letter. They attempt to return the letter to its owner
to find someone else entirely.
25. Write a story about how in order to marry in your
character’s society, suitors have to fight a person’s
entire family for their hand. On the same day your
character challenges their love’s family of 8,
someone else challenges theirs – a family of only 3.
26. “All’s fair in love and war.” Does this still ring true
when your character is fighting a war for love?
Some say they’ll move mountains to get to the love
of their life. Others will move kingdoms.
27. Write a romance about how falling in love is
dangerous – especially for your character, who
must stay focused if they want to rule someday. But
when their mother’s friend brings her daughter to
their palace, their entire focus changes. If only she
would notice your character.
28. Write about what happens when your very
particular character meets the least likely person to
ever be a good match for them.
416 Prompts

29. Falling in love is never easy. It’s even more difficult,

however, when you find out the person you’re head
over heels for is a torturer. And worse…they enjoy
it.
30. Write about a character who decides to take a
vacation for themselves to a secluded little town in
order to figure out what to do with their life after
college. Little did they know that this small town
could house so much of what they’re really looking
for in life – including a hottie with a less-than-
favorable reputation.

How to Write Romance?

• NEVER romanticize abuse as “love” (AKA, a jealous

boyfriend should never be praised for “loving your
character more” because this is harmful to readers)
• Create real chemistry by giving your characters
qualities that would actually foster a connection
• Avoid “insta-love” by giving your characters time
to bond and get to know each other
• Look out for serious romance cliches and overused
plot lines like love triangles, forbidden romances
(these can be great if done uniquely!), and crazy
exes
• Continuously up the stakes whenever the reader
gets comfortable with the relationship
Prompts 417

30 Horror and Thriller Writing Prompts

1. Write a book about how your main character is
home alone, just like most nights. This time,
however, a new neighbor pays them a visit. And it
wasn’t for the last time.
2. Write a story about how eight murders have taken
place in your character’s town in the past 8 weeks.
Once a week, on the same day, at the same time.
When your character gets abducted after being out
past the town’s new curfew, they have only 48
hours to discover why this is happening and how to
get free…all while being tortured by the murderer.
3. Write a horror story about how it’s a day of
celebration in your character’s hometown! A 100-
year-old time capsule is about to be opened, so of
course, they go, just like most of the town. When a
deceased human hand with a sinister note attached
to it is the only thing in the capsule, questions start
to buzz. The first being, who is the person who
wrote the note? Oddly enough, the note is written
in your main character’s handwriting…with their
signature…dated 82 years before they were even
born.
4. Write about how your main character suffers from
a condition that gives them periodic blackouts for
seemingly no reason. The only thing they can seem
to remember from before each blackout is a bike. A
red bike with a white basket and muddy tires. One
418 Prompts

day, they see that very bike leaning up against their

house but this time, they don’t blackout.
5. Write a thriller about how odd and unexplainable
events are said to happen in a certain seaside town.
Your main character takes it upon themselves to
visit in an effort to see just how accurate the
sightings are. What they find is beyond anything
they imagined. But now they can’t seem to escape
the town.
6. Write a story about how your main character and a
couple of friends take a boat trip to a tiny, vacant,
off-limits island for a night of celebration. When
the sun goes down, they realize just how occupied
the island actually is…and there’s a reason it’s off-
limits.
7. Write a book about a character who’s in therapy
because whenever they close their eyes at night,
they see (very vividly) someone’s tragic death.
Some say it’s just their twisted imagination, their
new therapist thinks it is something much, much
different…and dangerous.
8. Write a story about how your main character gets
into an accident. While they make a seemingly full
recovery, something has just been off inside their
head since the crash. When they wake up next to a
mutilated body in an unrecognizable place, they
start to worry.
Prompts 419

9. A new town, a new job, a new life. Your character

moved away to start over and become someone
they’ve always wanted to be. The problem? They
just can’t seem to stop killing people.
10. The lure of a mysterious person will never get old.
Their dark hat, sly smirk, and inquisitive eyes pull
your main character in…until they can’t get out.
11. Write about a dare. That’s how it all started, like all
those horror movies your main character loves.
They venture into that basement from the outside
with confidence…only to discover two kids and a
decaying body chained up. Now they have to make
sure they don’t get caught. The hidden camera on
the basement stairs doesn’t help with that.
12. Write a horror about how your character gets a new
job in a restaurant as a waiter. The tight-knit family
running the place welcomes them with open
arms…and then invites them to take part in what
really happens when they close at night.
13. Your character’s significant other has always talked
in their sleep; it’s nothing new. But when their
voice changes and their words take a dark turn,
your character can’t help but do some digging into
why that is…and they don’t like what they find.
14. Your character thinks they must be the last person
left on Earth. After a devastating disease swept over
the entire world, they wander aimlessly. Then they
come across a town that seems unchanged,
420 Prompts

inhabiting seemingly normal people. They learn

that’s far from the truth.
15. Write about how after wandering into a brand-new
book store, your character thoroughly enjoys the
last few books they’ve read. When they go to buy
another, the owner recommends a very specific
book. They start reading only to realize it’s about
that very town, 50 years earlier, about a book shop
owner who preys on customers.
16. Your character is walking home midday when they
hear an usual sound coming from an ordinary house
in the suburbs. They soon forget about it for the rest
of the day. Then, when they’re falling asleep, they
hear that same sound outside their window.
17. A boot, a broken glass bottle, and a scuba diving
mask show up on your character’s front lawn after
a city-wide festival. Thinking nothing of it, they
toss them in the garbage…only for them to
reappear the next morning.
18. Write a story involving a character who officially
meets the person they’ve been bumping into all
over town. After hitting it off, they go out on a date
that ends very poorly for one of them.
19. Write about how the painting that’s been in your
character’s home for over 50 years starts screaming.
20. They said not to visit the museum at night. They
said strange things might happen. Your character
Prompts 421

never imagined just how much they should’ve

listened.
21. Your character’s best friend just got back from some
intense rehab. They seem better than ever…until
your character discovers their method of staying
clean; a new addiction has taken its place.
22. Write a thriller novel about how your character
wakes up to a door slamming. They rush to their
toddler’s room only for them to be missing. A single
gardening glove is in their place on the bed.
23. Your character’s mom is caught sneaking into their
house in the middle of the night…a trail of mud
patterning the floor in the shape of her heels. She’s
in a trance and won’t answer to her name.
24. Write about how your character gets up to go to the
bathroom in the middle of the night and is alarmed
to see their dad standing in the hallway. After
shaking it off, they ask him what he’s doing.
Without a word, his eyes start to bleed.
25. Write a book about a character who’s known the
neighbor across the street for years. But after
witnessing them limping into their home, covered
in something dark at 4 am, your character has
questions. Getting close to them might be the only
way to find out their secret.
26. Write about how all the pictures of your character
and their sister go missing from their home…one
by one.
422 Prompts

27. Your character wakes up one morning and all the

candles in their house are lit. They haven’t lit them
for weeks.
28. Witnessing someone’s descent into madness is
something your character never thought they’d
experience. It soon becomes increasingly clear that
they might not witness it in its entirety.
29. Write about how the school gym is filled. It’s a day
of celebration. Your main character graduates
today and when it’s their time to take the stage, a
scream is released from someone in the stands.
30. Write a horror book about how there have been
attacks in your character’s town as of late. Instead
of physical injury or even death…the victims are
injected with heroin over and over and over until
they’re completely addicted. Then they’re released.

How to Write Horror and Thriller?

• Building anticipation will be your #1 focus

• Readers need to feel surprised and scared so dig
deep and get twisted
• Plot twists are a must; never let your characters or
readers see what’s coming
• Continuously up the stakes
• Focus on building deep sympathy for your
character from the very beginning. This will make
the stakes seem even higher and increase tension,
Prompts 423

just as Stephen King does in his infamous novel, IT,

pictured below.
424 Prompts

30 Mystery Writing Prompts

1. Write a mystery about how your character is 16 and
just learned they were the last person to see their
crush the night they were murdered. But when
they come forward with these details, they become
the new main suspect. They’re determined to solve
their crushes murder or risk going to jail for
something they didn’t do.
2. Write a story about how recently, there’s been a
number of abandoned cars scattered throughout
the city. Nobody knows where they’re coming from
and there’s not a single personal item in them. That
is, until one is discovered with a freshly removed
human scalp on the dashboard.
3. Write about how for the past month, your
character has received a number of disturbing and
detailed drawings in their mailbox. After chalking
it up to immature kid stunts, they try to forget
about it. But when the drawings come to life in
brutal, horrific ways, they’re the only person who
knows of the drawings and therefore, knows what
one will come next.
4. Write about a character who gets a DNA test for
fun – just to see where they really come from. After
becoming obsessed with one little detail, they soon
discover a number of their ancestors from all over
the world were once located in a single,
unpopulated place; a gathering of sorts.
Prompts 425

5. Write a mystery about how your character’s spouse

nearly falls through the door, beaten nearly to
requiring hospitalization. When an unknown but
distinct brand marking is discovered between their
shoulder blades, your character has to find out who
they are and why they did it.
6. Write about a single member of each noble family
who has been murdered every week for the past
two months. Your character is of a very noble
household and can barely sleep each night. So they
decide to find out who is responsible.
7. Write a story about a character whose religion has
a talisman as old as the religion itself. After it goes
missing, all fingers point to the chief’s oldest child
of 19 years, engaged to the healer’s oldest child. But
they never could’ve done it. They were
(romantically involved) with your main character
when the theft occurred.
8. Write about how your main character wakes up
every morning feeling as though they didn’t get
more than a couple of hours of sleep. After sleep
studies, medications, and trying everything
available, nothing seems to work. They decide to
videotape a night of sleep to determine if maybe
they’re sleepwalking. Turns out, they are. Except
they seem completely conscious. In fact, in the
video, they approach the camera, smirk, and walk
426 Prompts

away with a wave before disappearing for nearly

the entire night.
9. Write about how your main character is a key
witness for a murder case. Video footage of them at
the scene during the murder shows that clearly.
The only problem? They can’t remember anything
from that night.
10. Write a story about a character living in an average
sized town. As of late, a very large number of
people have been going missing. They leave no
trace. There’s nothing connecting them. It’s as if
they all vanish in the middle of the day.
11. Two years after your character’s significant other
goes missing, presumed dead, they start getting
messages that could only be from them.
12. Your character is going about their normal day
when suddenly, a low sound blares outside and
doesn’t stop. For weeks. Nobody knows what’s
causing it.
13. During a follow-up set of interviews, your
character conducts around a certain mob member,
long thought to have put an end to that very mob,
they find out that the mob member has been lying
– for 30 years…about everything.
14. Write about how, to make some extra money, your
character puts their spare room on Airbnb. The first
few people seem fine and the extra income is great.
Prompts 427

Then someone comes to stay for a week and

very…odd events keep taking place in that room.
15. Your character is a professional photographer.
When processing images from a recent event, they
notice a single person on the outskirts of every
photo…and it’s not a coincidence.
16. Your character opens an old sketchbook to try their
hand at it again after years of being too busy with
their corporate job. When they open it, their half-
finished pieces are completed…and it wasn’t their
doing.
17. All the plants in and around houses in your
character’s town are dying even though all other
foliage is left untouched. It started happening after
the last meteor shower.
18. In your character’s world, crime is nonexistent.
Everyone lives in harmony with each other. That’s
why the murdered child found in the street sets the
town into complete and utter chaos.
19. Write a mystery about how when the Internet was
first invented, warnings of sharing your personal
information were everywhere. Now your character
knows why. Cyber information is being used to
frame innocents in extreme crime cases.
20. Write a book about how a crack in the window was
all the thief needed to secure the right position that
allowed them access to the town’s most famous
428 Prompts

piece of history. Your character is the one who was

supposed to keep it safe.
21. Your character’s people believe a certain boulder is
sacred. It’s the heart of their civilization and
religion. One day the town wakes to find it
pulverized, reduced to nothing but dust and sand.
22. Write about how there’s a house at a dead end that’s
not abandoned, but hardly anyone has even caught
sight of who lives there. Your character decides to
pay them a visit and discovers why nobody has seen
them.
23. Your character is introduced to someone that seems
perfect for them. After digging into their past, a
string of crimes has followed them but your
character can’t necessarily prove it was them. So
they decide to ask about them.
24. Someone left their bag on the bus. Your character,
being the good person they naturally are, grabs it
and rushes after the person. They never turn
around and your character is left with a bag full
disturbing ransom notes.
25. All the statues in your character’s entire town go
missing. They were carefully removed from
building, monuments, and schools. Nobody knows
how or where they are now.
26. Write about how your character moves to a new
town with hopes of finally settling into real adult
life. But they soon realize that nobody remembers
Prompts 429

who they are day after day, despite making very

clear and memorable introductions.
27. The leaves on all the trees have turned black but
refuse to fall off the branches. It’s the middle of
spring.
28. A number of dead bodies are uncovered when your
character decides to participate in the upkeep of the
city’s public garden. No wonder the food has been
so great – it’s been freshly fertilized.
29. Write a story about how your character wakes up
to a little girl’s screams outside. They rush to her
but she’s not hurt. She just has no idea who she is,
where she’s from, or how she got there.
30. Write about how your character receives a number
of letters in the mail to a name they don’t recognize.
After weeks of letters piling up, they finally decide
to read one. The first letter contains nothing more
than a set of coordinates…so do the rest.

How to Write Mystery?

• Make readers think they know what will happen

by planting false foreshadowing along with real
hints
• Make the antagonist very likable
• Juxtapose tense scenes with mellow ones to
increase tension
• Keep the story moving forward always
430 Prompts

Reddit Writing Prompts

1. “You have a machine that tells you the effect of an
action you are thinking about making, but you can
only activate/use it once.”
2. “Well…you never asked.”
3. And to top it all off, they give you a medal for it.
4. Every Christmas, Santa delivers gifts to the children
who have been ‘nice’. But there’s a lesser known
brother Santa who every five years takes gifts away
from children who have been ‘naughty’ even once.
You just don’t know when…
5. You are casually walking down a deserted road
when you fall into an open man-hole.
6. You weren’t sure which was real.
7. People thought society would be better if we killed
the worst 1% every year. Today is the hundredth
anniversary, and the notion of the “worst” is getting
really tricky.
8. Absolutely everything that makes you
uncomfortable is beneficial for you. Weakened
viruses train your immune system, small muscle
tears make you stronger…and small bullets make
you more resistant to larger bullets. Turns out, the
government is awfully interested in your unusual
ability.
9. Before you, the villain holds your sidekick and love
interest over a cliff, taunting you to choose one to
save. You take one (1) second to think about it. You
Prompts 431

then shoot them both, to the shock and horror of

your archnemesis.
10. You’re a man/woman happily married with kids
but in severe financial difficulty. A genie gives you
the chance to irreversibly rewind time back to the
date of your tenth birthday and you accept, hoping
to make your current life better with the
knowledge you have…
11. Every time you die, you are reincarnated into a new
body. Unfortunately, the first few times, you failed
to act as a normal child after being reborn. You are
now a known factor for world powers, crazy
nutjobs, major religions, and people who would
give anything for the immortality you possess.
12. You have a name in your contacts that isn’t in any
language you know, you delete it but the next day
the number appears again. And that’s when life
becomes a little weirder.
13. You get to heaven only to find that the judgement
is entirely based on how many promises you’ve
broken.
14. Before you became apprentice, nobody told you
learning a new spell is the easiest part of your
studies. The real challenge is learning to survive the
diverse and alien consequences of casting a spell.
15. A war-thirsty species is finally defeated after
rampaging through the galaxy for decades, and
their remains are exiled to a far away and dangerous
432 Prompts

planet. Everyone panics when, millennia later,

Humanity comes out of that planet asking where is
everybody.
Prompts 433

Morals and Values

1. Write about a time when you were wrong and
didn’t realize it for maybe years.
2. Write about morals and how one discovers what
truly matters to them.
3. Write about the biggest value in your life.
4. Write about the biggest problems in the world and
how it impacts us every day.
5. Write about problems in the world nobody is
paying attention to.
6. Write about a time your morals were compromised
and how it affected your life.
7. Write about a time your values were challenged
and you had to face it.
8. Write about the difference between a value and a
moral.
9. Write about societal values that actually negatively
impact our lives.
10. Write about morals that have inadvertently
negative impacts.
11. Write about an inner struggle between what’s
morally right and what feels right.
12. Write about how to find what you value in life.
13. Write about what life would look life if morals
were not in place.
14. Write about the idea of values affecting your morals
in life.
15. Write about popular moral dilemmas in the world.
434 Prompts

16. Write about how morals and values differ within

different cultures and regions.
17. Write about a time when you had to debate morals
and values.
18. Write about your idea of the best combination of
morals and values.
19. Write about a conflict you once endured because of
mismatched morals.
20. Write about how to overcome doubting your
morals and beliefs.
21. Write about how morals and values shape
happiness in life.
22. Write about the importance of matching morals
and values in relationships.
23. Write about how to share your morals with others.
24. Write about ways in which one can develop new
morals and values.
25. Write about how our morals and values change as
we grow up.

Tips:

• Be honest but don’t force your ideas on someone

else
• Use research and facts to back up your statements
• Give real-life accounts of your experiences
• Avoid adopting a “know-it-all” voice
Prompts 435

Healthy and Wellness

1. Write about your struggle with an addiction of
some kind and how you overcame it.
2. Write a book about your journey to become
healthy.
3. Write about what being healthy inside and out
means to you.
4. Write about how others can overcome unhealthy
habits.
5. Write a book about the importance of mental
health and wellness.
6. Write about how to form healthy habits.
7. Write about how to find the best exercise type for
your needs.
8. Write a book about the idea of self-care and what it
means to you.
9. Write about how to find health through personal
reflection.
10. Write about the technicalities of being “healthy.”
11. Write about the different ways in which someone
can find health and wellness.
12. Write about how others can affect your health.
13. Write about the impact of mental health on your
physical health.
14. Write about a specific form of exercise you’ve
grown to love and why.
15. Write about what it means to have overall life
wellness.
436 Prompts

16. Write about the impact of who you surround

yourself with on your mental health.
17. Write about how learning can impact your health.
18. Write about dietary needs and how they affect your
mental health.
19. Write about how to break unhealthy habits that
drag you down.
20. Write about how negativity can greatly impact
your health.
21. Write about your ideal health and wellness system
for long-term success.
22. Write about a time when you had to overcome
super unhealthy ways.
23. Write about what you’ve learned about yourself
through pursuing wellness.
24. Write about how professional athletes approach
health and wellness.
25. Write about societal standards of health and
wellness.

Tips:

• Always use facts and research with something as

sensitive as health
• Talk about what has worked for you personally and
why
• Feature advice from experts in the field
• Include actionable steps others can learn from
Prompts 437

Love and Relationship

1. Tell a story about how you see love.
2. Write about what’s most important in a
relationship.
3. Write about how to enjoy your relationship in
every phase of life.
4. Write about your idea of a successful relationship.
5. Write about what it really takes to have a>
successful relationship.
6. Write about how your friendships play a part in
your relationships.
7. Write about how self-doubt can affect your search
for love.
8. Write about how to love someone else in a way
they need.
9. Write about how to find what you truly enjoy in a
life partner.
10. Write about becoming open-minded in your
pursuit of love.
11. Write about the importance of loving yourself
before loving someone else.
12. Write about your journey to find love and what it’s
meant for you.
13. Write about a time you thought you found love but
were very wrong.
14. Write about how finding love has changed the way
you care for others.
438 Prompts

15. Write about how to develop healthy and nurturing

relationships.
16. Write about friendships and how they play a role
in your happiness.
17. Write about creating relationships that lift you up
and not drag you down.
18. Write about what it means to truly love
unconditionally.
19. Write about how intimacy can help your self-
esteem.
20. Write about ways in which you can improve your
sex life.
21. Write about ways in which you can improve your
romantic relationship.
22. Write about ways in which you can improve your
platonic relationships.
23. Write about loving yourself and what that fully
means.
24. Write about building strong relationship
foundations in a family.
25. Write about how to communicate in relationships.

Tips:

• Never assume every single person loves and wants

love the same way
• Tell personal, real-life stories to build relatability
• Keep your advice open-ended and always
encourage communication
Prompts 439

Childhood and Family

1. Write to your parents about all they’ve taught you
about life, love, and happiness.
2. Write to your family about what they mean to you.
3. Write about parenthood and how it’s changed you.
4. Write about your parents and what they taught
you.
5. Write about what your parents didn’t teach you
and how it affected your life.
6. Write about how not having parents impacted your
life.
7. Write about your childhood and how it shaped you.
8. Write about what the definition of family truly
means to you.
9. Write about finding family in the least expected
places.
10. Write about discovering who you are within your
family.
11. Write about the lessons you didn’t realize you
learned as a child.
12. Write about how your childhood friends affected
your adult life.
13. Write about whether or not your family can truly
impact who you are as an adult.
14. Write about how to have healthy communication
in your family.
15. Write about the trials and tribulations of a blended
family.
440 Prompts

16. Write about your journey as an adopted child.

17. Write about whether or not emotional closeness
with family affects your life.
18. Write about your vision as a child and whether or
not you lived up to it.
19. Write about childhood pains that have followed
you into adulthood.
20. Write about how to let go of a crappy childhood to
find happiness as an adult.
21. Write about how your family doesn’t define you.
22. Write about letting go of toxic family members to
find happiness.
23. Write about how you’d change your childhood if
given the chance.
24. Write about the journey of parenting and what it’s
taught you about yourself.
25. Write about how to make your own family when
you can’t rely on your own.

Tips:

• Family can be a sensitive subject so avoid hard

“facts” about “all” families
• Make sure to include details about differences
• Tell stories others can easily relate to at the
beginning
Prompts 441

Happiness
1. Write about the idea of wants versus needs in life.
2. Write about work and finding happiness in your
career.
3. Write about not being happy in your career and
how to conquer it.
4. Write about finding success in your career.
5. Write about finding success in every aspect of your
life.
6. Write about building a successful love life, family
life, and career.
7. Write about balancing a career and family life.
8. Write about being open-minded in life.
9. Write about what rewards you can reap from being
kind.
10. Write about what you can gain from being open-
minded in every aspect of life.
11. Write about goals in life and how to accomplish
them.
12. Write about what living a happy life is defined as
according to you.
13. Write about a time you had very little happiness
and how you found it again.
14. Write about the ups and downs of life and how to
get through them.
15. Write about what truly contributes to happiness in
life.
16. Write about the true measures of happiness in life.
442 Prompts

17. Write about how success ties into happiness and

how to define them separately.
18. Write about the difference between how you view
happiness now versus when you were a kid.
19. Write about the biggest life lessons one can learn
through finding happiness.
20. Write about what people should focus on instead of
happiness in life.
21. Write about the difference between self-fulfillment
and happiness.
22. Write about the biggest problem in today’s society
revolving around happiness.
23. Write about the idea of NOT looking for happiness
in order to find it.
24. Write about how self-reflection can increase
happiness.
25. Write about what you expected happiness to be
versus how it truly is.
26. Write about how to include the people in your life
when finding happiness.

Tips:

• Remember that your happiness is not what makes

everyone else happy
• Focus on helping others find what makes them
happy
• Talk about times you were unhappy frequently to
drive the point home
Prompts 443

Self-esteem and Confidence

1. Write about accepting who you truly are and how it
can change your life.
2. Write about how to ignore societal expectations when
they clash with who you are.
3. Write about how to change your overall outlook to be
more positive.
4. Write about what it’s like to go from disliking yourself
to truly loving yourself.
5. Write about what it truly means to have complete
confidence in yourself.
6. Write about how to conquer inner demons in order to
love yourself.
7. Write about your journey to accepting your flaws and
seeing them as strengths.
8. Write about daily habits that will lead to overall
confidence.
9. Write about how bettering your health can increase
the way you view yourself.
10. Write about how physical appearance actually has
little to do with confidence.
11. Write about how journaling can relieve negative
thoughts about yourself.
12. Write about your journey with therapy and the quest
to gain confidence.
13. Write about alternative methods one can use to gain
confidence.
14. Write about how using certain essential oils daily can
help with your mood and self-esteem.
444 Prompts

15. Write about the internal effects of a negative opinion

of yourself.
16. Write a workbook dedicated to making someone feel
positive about themselves.
17. Write about the negative impact toxic friends/family
have on your self-esteem.
18. Write about how toxic relationships can alter your
self-esteem for the worse.
19. Write about how to overcome a learned toxic
thought-process when thinking about yourself.
20. Write about how to introduce self-love into your life.
21. Write about the difference your life can have if you
have self-confidence.
22. Write about struggling with self-esteem and how it
can affect relationships.
23. Write about how to know if you actually do love
yourself or not.
24. Write about how to use your passions to increase your
confidence.
25. Write about how to help someone else learn to how
themselves.

Tips:

• Be honest, real, and raw when writing about your

experiences
• Offer different solutions even if they didn’t work for
you personally
• Interview a psychology expert in order to further the
book’s credibility
Prompts 445

Faith
1. Write about your faith and how you discovered its
meaning.
2. Write about how your faith changed your life.
3. Write about how you learned to love yourself
through your faith.
4. Write about your journey from not having any
faith to where you are now.
5. Write a message to anybody who doesn’t think they
have something to believe in.
6. > Write a book to the person who helped you
discover your faith.
7. Write about how your faith shapes your family.
8. Write about overcoming questioning your faith.
9. Write about the unexpected realities of having
strong faith.
10. Write about how your faith can steer your career
and life.
11. Write about how much others can gain from
pursuing faith.
12. Write about your own struggles with faith and how
you maneuvered them.
13. Write about juggling faith, family, friends, and
love.
14. Write about how school impacted your faith
negatively or positively.
15. Write about common struggles with faith and how
to overcome them.
446 Prompts

16. Write a memoir about your life’s journey to

accepting faith.
17. Write about being part of a family with split faith
18. Write about friends or family not understanding
your faith.
19. Write about how there’s more to life than JUST
your faith and how to avoid blinding yourself to it.
20. Write about different faiths and how to separate
differences.
21. Write about what faith means to you and how you
express it daily.
22. Write a how-to guide for finding something to
believe in.
23. Write a guide for how to discover what’s truly
meaningful to you with your faith.
24. Write about how faith can give you a whole new
family and a sense of belonging.
25. Write about the differences in your life since
believing in something bigger than you.

Tips:

• This is a great time to be open and specific about

your beliefs
• Avoid shaming others in an attempt to get your
message across
• Tell deeply personal stories so others can relate
Prompts 447

Personal Journey
1. Write about a moment in your life that changed the
way you saw the world.
2. Don’t censor yourself and write about what you
believe the meaning of life is.
3. Write about the biggest struggle you’ve faced in
life.
4. Write about your journey to finding yourself and
all you’ve learned.
5. Write about life lessons you believe everyone
should learn.
6. Write about how you got to where you are in life
and where you’ll go from here.
7. Write about a tragedy you, unfortunately, lived
through and how it has shaped you.
8. Write about an internal struggle of yours and how
you were able to solve it.
9. Write about your pet/s and what they mean to you.
10. Write about how you were able to accomplish so
much by a young age.
11. Write about your life and what lessons you learned
that others should know.
12. Write about what you’ve gained from networking
throughout your life.
13. Write about your top life values and how they
contribute to happiness and success.
14. Write about learning to live with something
difficult or painful every day.
448 Prompts

15. Write a memoir about your unique life.

16. Write a story to your younger self about life, love,
and happiness.
17. Write about conflict in your life and how you
managed to get through it.
18. Write about your life’s expectations versus its
reality.
19. Write about art and how it can show you a lot about
yourself.
20. Write about a time when you thought all was lost.
21. Write about looking for the light in life instead of
succumbing to darkness.
22. Write about your journey to understand what it
means to truly be alive.
23. Write about how to conquer toxic desires.
24. Write about your journey through sports and how
they shaped you.
25. Write about your journey to write and publish a
book.

Tips:

• Don’t censor yourself

• Talk to a therapist or psychologist to better
understand your own journey
• Bring your real-life experiences into play
Prompts 449

58 Science Fiction Writing Prompts

1. You find out you’re a DNA experiment combining
as many recessive genes into one person as possible.
That’s why you’ve always felt so different from
everyone else.
2. A man takes a vacation to another dimension only
to find that everything he was trying to get away
from, he’s brought with him.
3. Couchsurfing on another planet goes wrong.
4. A marathon runner illegally trains on a planet with
stronger-than-Earth gravity to gain an advantage
over his competition in the inter-universe
Olympics.
5. “It’s not really a fly. If you swat it, they’ll just fine
you and send two more.”
6. You think you’re chasing the last vestige of a
prehistoric Earth creature, but it turns out to be an
alien.
7. A woman disappears for three years and returns
with psychic powers.
8. “If I can’t save her from the creaux, then no one else
matters.”
9. The solar system is an ecologically closed spacecraft
hurtling mankind toward its ultimate destiny.
10. “We’re headed to Madam Maxime’s at the edge of
the universe.”
11. An existentially bored man who lives in a smart
house—where everything is done for him—pines
450 Prompts

for the Wild West where men had to fend for

themselves.
12. A corporate analyst who investigates failed
colonization projects encounters the strangest case
of his career. It’s a ghost colony with no record of
anything catastrophic or any indication of what
went wrong. The people are simply gone. Just when
he’s about to write off the project into bureaucratic
oblivion, he notices something else that’s missing.
Can he reconstruct the past from the hole it left
deleting itself?
13. “I learned to stop time traveling today. I was doing
it just to hurt myself.”
14. An orphan girl, desperate to make anything last,
snaps pictures with a camera she found among ship
wreckage. She finds she can enter the still-life
photos without aging.
15. “We were always on the same page, even when it
came to splitting for separate planets.”
16. A social worker in an impoverished planetary
colony discovers a cheap way to manufacture
housing for the homeless, but the housing material
is on a corporate reserve.
17. A hobo finds the secret to true love tonic.
18. An old woman, fed up with the alien soldiers she’s
forced to house, kills one who puts his muddy boots
on her coffee table for the last time.
Prompts 451

19. Women on Calisto colony are legally permitted

only two children each. One man decides that one
wife and two children aren’t enough.
20. Tired of stalled space exploration advancements, a
scientist convinces the public that a meteor is on a
collision course with Earth. In designing the fake
“evidence,” it turns out the meteor isn’t a hoax. But
now no one believes him.
21. A neurologist discovers that the human brain is
wired to learn planetary physics during infancy. Is
this proof that humans weren’t always Earth-
dwelling?
22. Everyone on Earth falls asleep at the same time,
except one man.
23. “You can see my love from space.”
24. Each child a woman births is a vote for that world’s
continuation.
25. A girl’s dead brother contacts her through dreams
claiming the afterlife is just another dimension.
26. A failing physics student accidentally discovers
faster-than-light-speed travel, but his professor
doesn’t believe him.
27. “No man on the planet has the key to the galaxy
that we do. Join us.”
28. “They say there’s worms in the black. I never seen
no worm. But I ain’t going back out there all the
same.”
29. “You got the credits, we got the crystal.”
452 Prompts

30. A time-adept species will serve your prison

sentence, but you have to exchange the favor in the
afterlife. An atheist decides if it’s worth it.
31. “Turns out separate planets wasn’t far enough.”
32. “He flew in here on his government-issue cruiser
and stole my heart.”
33. A man decides to climb Mars’s Olympus Mons.
He’ll finish in three years, just in time for his wife
to emerge from cryogenic freezing.
34. A man with writer’s block attends a hypnotic
dream workshop where his dreams will be recorded
for story premises. Except, when he awakens, one
hundred years have passed, and all his story ideas
are already classics with someone else’s name on
them.
35. A boy from 1920s America learns he’s actually in
the year 2020, where technology is advanced and
he’s a social study.
36. “Why grieve when you can keep your loved one
encased in Forever Glass™?”
37. The CEO of Living Doll Corp has a crisis of
conscience when a child drowns trying to save a
doll that fell in a lake.
38. Scientists discover the key to human origins
trapped in the polar ice caps after they melt. The
message it delivers is a second chance for mankind’s
irresponsible treatment of their home.
Prompts 453

39. Gold-fingered gods arrive in chariot-emblazoned

space crafts claiming to be the Roman Pantheon
back from vacation.
40. A diaspora of humans evacuate Earth before a
catastrophic collision. When the collision date
comes and goes without incident, those left behind
must decide what to do with Earth and whether to
let the evacuees get away with criminal
abandonment.
41. A virus attacks humans. The survivors, now fused
with the virus, begin to remember a time before
Earth.
42. Scientists discover a fusion phenomena in deep
space. Like a black hole, but in reverse. The
material leaving it seems to be the building blocks
for all life in the galaxy. Is this the great mother of
all life in the universe?
43. When the last courtesan training house is
threatened with obsolescence, the downtrodden
women of the Athena belt unite to preserve the last
vestige of female independence.
44. Cassandra, a time traveling police officer, pretends
to read her customers’ futures through Tarot cards
because it’s the only way to convince them of the
truth.
45. A man shows up at the home of an infertile woman
who is desperate to conceive. He claims to be her
454 Prompts

son from the future. He needs money and an egg

from her ovary to help save her life.
46. Men in a secret society on Earth decide to
transform the US into a third-world country to
make it a more exciting vacation spot.
47. When the capitalist class of Pandora moves to a
remote third-world country, a group of
unemployed journalists investigate.
48. A man in a refugee camp for memory loss victims
starts to remember his past—that he and the other
refugees were freedom fighters with special
abilities. But he can’t access his powers without
help from his friends. Can he help the others
remember?
49. Faced with Earth’s imminent destruction, two
computer whizzes design Earth Memory—a hub
containing art, internet content, knowledge,
written history, human DNA, and the two boys’
memories. They wake up with 100k other humans
on an Earth-like planet where they must work to
find out what happened and who saved them.
50. A boy grows up amidst “lost technology” with his
grandparent’s stories about “Earth that was.”
51. Five intrepid teens discover that the wizard class
who rule the country are really just masters of a
minor technology that one of the boys has
accidentally stolen.
Prompts 455

52. A girl discovers an additive in the food supply that

keeps the population tired, sick, and foggy-headed.
After she stops eating the additive and “wakes up,”
her success and seemingly super-human abilities
draws the attention of the authorities who offer
compelling reasons why she should keep her
silence.
53. “After eons and light years of travel, I’ve learned
only one thing of any consequence: there’s
nowhere far enough that her memory doesn’t
follow.”
54. “Ikaria isn’t a religious retreat. It’s a science
experiment. And you’re the mouse.”
55. “I don’t care about bioluminescent lakes, dad! I like
my sparkle in a glow stick.”
56. A man driven mad by a ringing in his ears discovers
it’s an alien signal. And he isn’t the only one who
can hear it.
57. An abandoned shack turns out to be a door to
another universe as a band of local hooligans is
about to find out.
58. A group of intelligence-enhanced lab animals must
find a way to communicate before their turn in the
euthanization chamber.
456 Prompts

660 Science Fiction Writing Prompts

Aliens

1. A sentient being has landed on your planet and

your civilization's military has confronted it at the
landing site of its ship. You are sent closer as a
mediator and encounter a mass of energy that has
no form but communicates with you in your
language.
2. Your spaceship has landed on an unknown planet
and there is data showing lifeforms who have
created artistic structures. There is an artist in your
group who wants to make first contact with the
beings through art.
3. We discover that beneath its seemingly
uninhabitable appearance, Mars has an entire race
of subterranean alien lifeforms living on it. You are
part of the team sent to explore this civilization.
4. Through A.I. technology, we have found a way to
create robots indistinguishable from humans. They
begin to take on a life of their own, out of our
control, and we find that an alien species has
hacked them through a type of consciousness
transfer. If something isn't done soon, they will
destroy us and take over our planet.
5. As part of a fleet of explorers, you encounter an
alien species that is far more advanced than
humans. They have found ways to heal all diseases
Prompts 457

and do not participate in war, leaving the beings to

survive far longer than the human lifespan.
Believing they have much to teach you, you wish
to stay on their planet, causing conflict within your
fleet.
6. Aliens have invaded our planet but refuse to
communicate with us. Instead, they attempt to
communicate with animals, and seem to
communicate with them quite well. Immediately,
the animals of our planet start to turn on us, our
pets included.
7. A malevolent alien species has descended upon
Earth and uses mind control to suppress our
military and law enforcement defenses. However,
there is one group that their mind control doesn't
work on: those who are children.
8. The Earth has reached its breaking point after
global warming and widespread disease, and a
group of aliens arrive to help humans rebuild the
planet they have destroyed.
9. Aboard your stranded spaceship, you begin to
notice metal turning into a biological substance
resembling trees and vines. An invisible alien entity
that has made its way onboard is helping you create
a sustainable biological atmosphere to keep you
alive until you reach a habitable planet.
10. Your ship has landed on a world that has
everything needed to sustain life. You're part of the
458 Prompts

group sent out to confront any inhabitants on the

planet. You find them, and they look just like
humans, but their superhuman abilities set them
apart. Their leader informs you that they are the
descendants of humans and another alien race that
settled the planet centuries earlier.
11. Aliens have landed on Earth and they are all female
forms. In an effort to return human tribes to
matriarchal cultures, they enslave all the men and
elevate women to positions of power within the
government.
12. Earth has become uninhabitable and you're tasked
with finding a new planet where humans can live.
In the search, you come across a planet inhabited
by beings who are half animal/half man, and have
set up societies much like packs of animals do, with
alpha leaders and pack hunting traits.
13. You're in the space program and have been recently
tasked with interpreting communications coming
in from another planet outside of our own solar
system. The lifeform on the other end doesn't speak
any known human language but communicates
through musical patterns that create a kind of "call
and response" sound that reflects the musicality of
the language spoken to them.
14. In the very near future, aliens have landed on Earth
and have hacked every smartphone on the planet.
Through them, they quickly learn our culture and
Prompts 459

most intimate secrets, and use the control to

blackmail humans into doing various tasks.
15. An alien civilization has contacted us through our
space program with the warning that our world is
on the brink of total destruction. Through their
advanced technology, the aliens see the imminent
death of our sun, and offer us the opportunity to re-
colonize on their home planet. The only problem
is: only 5,000 humans can go.
16. The new world your crew has discovered is full of
angel-like beings who move gracefully and are
fiercely protective of humans. They have visited
your world multiple times in the past (thus
inspiring stories of guardian angels) and this is the
first time you're visiting theirs.
17. Alien lifeforms have started making themselves
known, although they've been in our midst for
centuries. The way they've stayed hidden is they
shapeshift into felines, and have been observing us
undercover in their roles of house pets and street
dwellers.
18. With heavy firepower, your crew has landed on a
planet known to have hostile aliens that seem
reptilian in their appearance. The terrain is
comprised of swampland and the reptilian beings
live underwater. You've put on a protective wetsuit
and you're now leaving the ship to explore for the
first time.
460 Prompts

19. An alien who has been living undercover on Earth

is able to maintain his human form for a limited
amount of time each day before it reverts back into
his original non-humanoid form. He hurries home
each day before this happens, but today, he's stuck
on the commuter train that has broken down and
there's no way off.
20. A malevolent alien species arrives to Earth to take
over. They spread a virus that kills off the majority
of the human population and mate with the most
beautiful women to create half-alien/half-human
beings to replace those who have died.

Alternate History

1. In 1962, despite his best efforts, U.S. President John

F. Kennedy was unable to reach an agreement with
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, which led to the
launching of a single nuclear-tipped ballistic missile
into the southeastern United States. The resulting
detonation and fallout devastated everything south
of Tennessee, and for the following five decades no
one dared venture into that region. Rumors
describing zombie-like creatures roaming the
nuclear wasteland had persisted for years in border
towns, but the stories had not been confirmed. You
are a federal agent and it is your job to enter the
fallout zone to investigate these reports.
Prompts 461

2. The Battle of Vicksburg was not a success for

General Grant and the Union lost the Civil War.
You are an African American former Union soldier
who is not ready to give up on the fight. You team
up with members of your former regiment and lead
slave uprisings throughout the South.
3. Following the Civil War, America became
fractured, leaving each state to be a separate
country. You become involved in a political push to
combine several countries to gain more resources
and power than the others.
4. All of the countries in the modern world are ruled
by monarchies and democracy is still a theory that
has never been implemented. You are a King who
has plans to convert your country's system of
government to a democracy after your death. Other
members of the royal family – and other monarchs
– are threatened by your decision.
5. Due to successive plagues across Europe, its
governments were weakened and never sent
explorers to the Americas. Instead, the Native
Americans landed on European soil and discovered
the people there instead of the other way around.
You are part of the first group of people the
explorers encounter.
6. Nazi scientists discovered a crashed alien ship and
are using its advanced technology to overpower
462 Prompts

their enemies. You are a general in the Allied forces

tasked with finding a solution.
7. The American Revolution did not succeed, leaving
France, England and Spain in control of North
American territories. You are a Native American in
this world fighting for your tribe's existence among
competing colonial powers.
8. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763,
ending the French and Indian War, Britain took
possession of Florida from Spain and established it
as a penal colony. Florida continued to serve this
purpose after America's independence from
Britain, and 250 years later, it is a vast, lawless
region cut off from the rest of the United States.
You are part of a delegation sent to determine the
status of this long-isolated colony.
9. Opting for isolationism during the Second World
War, America kept its distance while other
countries battled for control and survival. Even
after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States
remained neutral, negotiating an immediate peace
with the Japanese empire rather than waging war
and defending itself. Decades after the war is over,
the United States finds itself surrounded by
aggressive powers eager to take control of its
territory. With its allies gone and its obsolete
military insufficient to defend its borders, the
Prompts 463

country looks to you to rebuild its armed forces

before the inevitable invasion begins.
10. Towards the end of the Mongol conquest of
Khwarezmia, Genghis Khan's army of over 700,000
soldiers inexplicably disappeared. Some historians
blamed disease while others blamed famine.
Whatever the reason, Genghis Khan and his
massive army's disappearance from the world
became the thing of legend. Late one night, you
receive a call from your superior officer regarding a
massive group of primitive soldiers who have
suddenly appeared outside of the city of Nishapur.
It is your job to negotiate peace with the
bloodthirsty horde that is still waging a war that,
from their perspective, has never ended.
11. During the Cold War in the 1980s, the American
government decided to reallocate a large amount of
funds from their Star Wars project into A.I.
research. After a few trials and errors, A.I. soldiers
and aircraft were completely functional and could
be deployed on the battlefield. Meanwhile, as the
Soviet–Afghan War was raging with both sides
taking heavy losses, the U.S. government decided to
share their new technology with the insurgents in
an effort to aid them in their fight against the
Soviets. Little did they know that after the war was
won, these weapons would eventually be used
against their own creators.
464 Prompts

12. Constantine never recognized Christianity as the

official religion of the Roman Empire. You are a
present-day Christian struggling to practice your
religion in secret, hiding from the polytheists who
would prefer to see you dead.
13. The 1918 flu pandemic infected 97% of the world's
population instead of one third, plunging the world
into a new dark age marked by hysteria,
superstition and anti-intellectualism. Universities
are sacked by mobs who think that knowledge is
the devil's work and book burning becomes
commonplace. You are a university librarian trying
to protect the books in your care in order to
preserve knowledge for future generations.
14. Archduke Ferdinand was not assassinated,
therefore World War I and World War II as we
know them never happened. The British Empire
expanded throughout the world, and you are the
American president who is trying to keep your
country from being swallowed up again by the
superpower.
15. Christopher Columbus disembarks from the Santa
Maria and takes his first steps into the New World.
A tank approaches. A Native American warrior
climbs out and says, "We've been expecting you."
16. In 1961, the Soviet government successfully lands a
man on the moon and establishes a lunar base. They
have nearly finished developing technology that is
Prompts 465

capable of destroying any satellite launched from

Earth, threatening global communication. You are
a NASA intelligence agent whose mission is to
infiltrate the lunar base and destroy it before it's too
late.
17. Japan discovered an island inhabited by dragons
and used them to fight in World War II. You are an
American soldier who faces one such creature and
find that your weapons are useless. It's time to get
creative.
18. The Roman Empire never collapsed and went on to
conquer the Americas. You live in present-day
North America and no longer want to live under
imperial rule. A small group of rebels is forming to
fight for freedom and start their own government.
You are part of this rebel group.
19. The Christopher Columbus expedition never
returned and European governments decided it was
unsafe to explore that region. After 200 years, you
are part of a second expedition to the New World.
20. The U.S. allowed the South to secede and there was
no Civil War. The United States and the
Confederate States are now in a cold war. You are a
CIA agent in the present-day North and your
colleague has been captured while on a mission in
the South. You are part of a team sent in to rescue
him.
466 Prompts

Alternate/Parallel Universe

1. On vacation, a family spends a couple of nights at

an old Irish castle which has been converted into a
hotel. While exploring the castle and the grounds,
two siblings discover a secret passage and a stairwell
leading to nowhere. When they decide to explore
again that night, they see a portal open at the top of
the stairs. They decide to enter this portal, and they
are then transported into an alternative world
where the castle exists within a magical kingdom.
There they meet two strangely familiar children
their own ages.
2. You are part of the Apollo 15 mission sent to the
moon, and you have just disembarked from your
lunar module. As you roam across the moon,
excitedly taking everything in, you see something
in the ground beneath you. You dust it off to find
what appears to be a door. You turn around to call
out to your team members, but the moonscape and
your lunar module are gone, replaced by a padded
room. You look at yourself and find that your
astronaut suit has been replaced by a straitjacket.
You have flipped realities again and your
alternative world is much worse than when you left
it the last time. As you tightly shut your eyes, you
tell yourself, "No, not here. Not now." You open
your eyes to find a bunch of moon rocks at your
feet. "Phew."
Prompts 467

3. Your kooky inventor grandfather recently passed

away, and once you're over the worst of your grief,
you look through several of the items that he sent
to you during his final days. In a large envelope, you
discover his personal, top-secret instructions to
finish building something he was working on
before his death. You finish the project without
really knowing what it does, but, when you're
done, the object looks like a doorway with no door.
The final step instructs you to walk through the
doorway and that, if you do, your reality will never
be the same again.
4. When the star in your system shows signs of sudden
collapse, you are ordered to evacuate. The
Intergalactic Union sends a large fleet to take
everyone to the capital. However, your home star
shows no signs of dying, and you entertain some
hope. You take your ship and return alone, hoping
to run more tests. The moment you leave warp
speed, you see a massive wall of expanding gas
rushing toward your ship. You desperately reverse,
but you are caught in the explosion and fall
unconscious. When you wake up, you are stunned
to be alive and to see that the system is still there.
You decide to abandon your mission and return to
your family, but your ship is suddenly seized in a
tractor beam and drawn to the surface of your home
planet, where it appears humanity has been
468 Prompts

enslaved by superior beings. Soon you realize your

star's explosion sent you into an alternate
dimension, where it remains unexploded. Here,
aliens foresaw the disaster and came to enslave
humanity, stopping their pollution of the system
and ensuring that the sun would remain stable.
Now they want to know where you came from and
how you managed to get free.
5. News breaks across the world that a team of
scientists has created a portal to an Earth-like
planet in another universe. Interestingly, this
planet is a carbon copy of Earth in terms of its
history and its population with only a few
differences here and there between the two planets.
When a delegation is sent from this parallel world
to Earth and is interviewed on TV, you are
surprised to find out that one of them looks and acts
exactly like your late husband. You quickly pack
your bags and travel to the portal, hoping to
reconnect with your long-lost love.
6. As an up-and-coming comic book artist, your work
has received recognition from industry insiders and
you have a small, but dedicated, fan base online.
One of these fans somehow finds your contact
information and asks if he can set up a special
arrangement that will be financially advantageous
for you. You are interested, so he tells you the
terms: Create a unique character once a week with
Prompts 469

a full backstory. The character should not be made

public under any circumstance. They are for private
use only. You ask him what is the point if the
characters cannot be published, but he refuses to
tell you the reason. Cash-strapped and curious, you
agree to the terms and start creating characters.
After a couple of years, you have developed an
entire universe of superheroes and villains which
you are very proud of. Desperately wanting others
to see your work, you decide to go to your
benefactor's home unannounced to confront him.
The front door is open, so after knocking a couple
of times, you let yourself in. You suddenly find
yourself in what seems to be an illustrated world.
You look up and see one of the characters you
designed flying through the sky. Another one
drives past you down a street in his rocket car.
Somehow, this man has created an alternative
universe comprised of your drawings and
creativity. You are astounded and want to explore
this fascinating world that, from your perspective,
only existed in your imagination until now.
7. The attic; under the bed; a closed closet. These
pocket dimensions are invisible to most. You aren't
most.
8. Your best friend is a physicist, and over the past few
years he has become obsessed with a realm he calls
the "Otherworld." One night over dinner, he
470 Prompts

attempts to convince you that he has found a portal

into this realm and that he plans to go and explore
this alternative reality soon. Worried about his
mental health after this conversation, you begin
calling him only to get his voicemail. After he has
not returned your calls for over a week, you decide
to go to his house and check on him. He's gone, but
he has left a note behind: "I found the portal." He
also provides directions for someone—such as
you—to access the realm and come after him if he
does not return.
9. There are other realities where physicality is
slightly misaligned. You make use of these other
realities to walk through walls. You only stay in the
other reality for a moment – just long enough to
bypass the barrier. One day you get stuck.
10. You grew up on stories about furniture that could
lead curious children to entirely different worlds,
but they were just that—stories. However, you
learn that a great aunt of yours who lived in
Scotland and was an avid collector of antique
furniture has passed away. So, you travel with your
family—her only remaining relatives—to visit her
quirky old home. You're drawn to the library in
particular, where she has just about every single
book known to mankind. While perusing the
shelves, you find a secret passageway behind one of
them and decide there is no harm in exploring it.
Prompts 471

When you do, there's nothing in the tunnel, so you

head back the way you first came. When you slip
out from behind the bookshelf, however, you're not
in your aunt's house anymore. In fact, you're not
even in Scotland. More alarmingly, you're not sure
you're on Earth anymore.
11. Your friend has tickets to stay overnight in an old
house that promises chills and thrills. She asks if
you're game, and, of course, you say you are. Part
of the stay includes a scavenger hunt that promises
a cash prize if all of the items are found. As you
move through the house, you discover a key that
opens a sealed room deep inside. When you walk
through the door, you immediately realize you're
in a completely different time period—on a
completely different planet—in a completely
different reality.
12. When it appeared, it was the size of a golf ball. It
has spread, over the past five years, across the
nation. Within it, one's inner demons are
manifested around one's body, and those who cross
into it possess extraordinary power.
13. The snow is ever-present, and heat is a precious
resource. You have been working on a way to
provide heat indefinitely. Upon opening a rift into
another dimension, you think maybe you can bleed
it dry of its warmth, to heat your own.
472 Prompts

14. You and your best friend have a sleepover in your

backyard treehouse. She brings something cool to
show you—a huge leather-bound book of supposed
spells you can say, some of which can transport you
to a different time in history or a different plane of
existence altogether. You personally think it's a
bunch of baloney, but in the spirit of a spooky
Friday night sleepover, you're game to try some of
the spells out. You find one that promises to
transport you to a land of perfect peace and
harmony. You just need to gather a few items first.
After everything is ready, you chant the words,
and, to your shock, you find yourself standing in
what looks like a busy, futuristic city. You don't see
one single human being, but you do see plenty of
robots.
15. Long ago, light faded. You grew accustomed to
navigating the dark, blind and cold – no sun, no
moon, no stars or fire. Now a mysterious figure has
come, claiming to be from another universe,
bearing something called a "torch."
16. As a spiritual medium and a paranormal technology
engineer, you have seen your fair share of
unexplainable phenomena. However, you have
never experienced anything quite like this when a
seance goes wrong and a small rift appears in front
of you. You are convinced that this is a passage to
the afterlife and is your golden opportunity to truly
Prompts 473

understand what lies beyond death. You find a way

to stabilize and expand the rift and, after sending in
a drone, you discover that this world is safe for the
living. You then decide to enter the rift and venture
through this plane of reality. After a while, you
discover that its initial warm glow belies what's
really there—a land of terror and horror, filled with
lost souls. This is not heaven. This is some other
place. And the worst part is that you have no idea
how to return home.
17. As a young princess, you have always had a
curiosity for science, engineering, and most other
things a princess typically has no interest in. Your
world is filled with magic and wonderment, but
you don't find it compelling. One day, while
exploring a passageway tucked away within a
sealed part of a castle, you stumble upon a strange
machine. After a little research within an adjacent
library, you discover that it is a portal to another
world and decide to activate this machine. You are
then transported to a place filled with
doppelgangers of all of the people you know.
However, within this world, invention and science
dominate and magic is non-existent. When you
find your own doppelganger and discover that she
loves to cosplay as a princess, you hope that you can
convince her that switching worlds may be the best
thing to do for the both of you.
474 Prompts

18. In an alternative universe, witches, wizards, and

magic are the norm. Students study various magical
courses at school. One witch, fascinated with
magical doorways, rips a hole in the fabric of the
universe, connecting this magical world to ours.
The witch soon realizes that her non-magical
double exists in our world, and she views modern
technology as our own version of magic.
19. After many years and several trials, you invent a
device that is capable of taking photographs of an
alternative universe. This universe actually exists
within our own universe; however, there is an
interdimensional barrier that prevents one from
bleeding into the other. The universe you witness
through your photography can be described only as
catastrophic: a bleak, jagged wasteland filled with
nightmarish creatures and dark skies. There is no
color to speak of, and you find nothing that seems
natural in this world's harsh nature. One day, you
notice that there is a man in the background of one
of your photographs. You zoom in to find that he is
holding up a sign that reads: "You are collapsing the
barrier. Stop!" The man is missing from the next
photograph, but you can see a deer and a green
patch of grass where he once stood.
20. There are two realities coexisting in the same space
and time, unknown to each other. These universes
are layered so close to each other that they
Prompts 475

practically fuse together. However, they are

invisible to one another. A scientist stumbles upon
a way to communicate across these two realities
and attempts to bridge them together. Connecting
these two realities may have unintended
consequences though, as the fabric of space-time
collapses upon itself.

Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic

1. Before the Earth was made uninhabitable, a group

of survivors evacuated the planet on a spaceship.
Generations later, it's finally time to send a team
down to test for habitability, but upon landing you
discover that there were survivors who never left.
2. In less than a week, society as we know it has fallen.
Since all forms of electronic communication are
down, there's no way to know exactly what has
happened, but you heard explosions all over town
and can only assume the worst. But your significant
other is on the other side of town and it's time to
brave the unknown to get to her.
3. Nuclear warfare and genetically modified food
sources have created a race of zombie beings that
cannot die unless beheaded and feed off of fresh
meat, including human flesh. You have escaped this
fate but must now escape the monsters, who only
survive in cities where there is much fresh meat to
be had.
476 Prompts

4. Enraged at the way humanity is killing the planet,

a genetic scientist invents a biological weapon that
is released into the water supply and kills off
millions within a week's timeframe. The scientist
also invented an antidote and you are the one who
must find it to save someone you love before it's too
late.
5. The apocalypse occurs while you're in a shopping
mall, which then becomes buried beneath rubble,
trapping everyone inside. As different groups form
and fight for dominance, how long can you survive
on Orange Julius and Sbarro?
6. A series of volcanic eruptions has darkened the sky,
blocking out the sun. The excessive coldness and
death of the landscape drives you and others around
you indoors or underground to determine
humanity's next steps in survival.
7. A combination of a lethal and pandemic virus, mass
hysteria, and riots have created a dangerous
situation in the metropolitan area where you live.
Your family is running out of food and must move
to find more, so you put as much protective
clothing on them as possible and have a family
meeting before you leave. What do you say? Where
will you go?
8. After the apocalypse, humanity has returned to
tribal living and tribal warfare becomes the new
norm. Your tribe does not want to battle for
Prompts 477

territory, so you seek out a place to live in peace

among the vast lands left uninhabited. But there is
a danger greater than other tribes and you soon
meet it out in "no-man's land."
9. Water has become a scarce resource that is more
valuable than gold. You are part of a team of
scientists seeking a fresh water source that has not
been polluted by radiation and human waste.
10. Civilization on our planet has been mostly
destroyed by pandemic viruses, dwindling
resources and the resulting conflict. As a physician,
you have seen the worst of it come and go, and must
now play a role in rebuilding a small town ravaged
by disease and unrest.
11. A cyberattack has occurred in which anyone who
focuses on a signal from their smartphone or
television is immediately and irreparably
hypnotized. You are part of the team sent to find
the signal's source before more people die of
starvation in their hypnotized state.
12. After a nuclear apocalypse, you are part of a group
of survivors dealing with the after-effects of an
irradiated planet. Many have grown sick from the
radiation and died. There are some, however, who
appear to be completely unaffected. You were a
doctor before the war and are determined to use
your knowledge to find out why.
478 Prompts

13. In the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, women

survivors determine that since men were
responsible for the war, they should never have
power again. In order to maintain order, all men are
required to be slaves and are held in chains, while
only women can rule. Are you a man or a woman?
Is this new order acceptable to you or do you fight
against it?
14. In the post-apocalyptic future, roving tribes travel
with various degrees of technology that they have
found along the way in cities and museums. Rumor
has it that there is a military arsenal buried
somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and all tribes
race toward it. It is your job to make sure none of
them find it to avoid another nuclear holocaust.
15. Due to overpopulation, civilization has collapsed
and food has become scarce. Some people are
resorting to cannibalism while others turn to
scavenging to survive. You are part of a group of
scavengers and must teach others how it's done
while avoiding the cannibals hunting you.
16. A new drug was created that would give
superintelligence to anyone who took it. The result
was a group of people who saw normal people as a
threat, so they created and released a pandemic flu
to get rid of people unlike themselves. You were
one of the few that survived, and you and your
Prompts 479

small group must face down the engineers of

society's collapse.
17. Nuclear war has irradiated the planet, leaving
precious little land that is safe to farm or graze
animals. You are part of a surviving colony that is
located in the last uncontaminated and fertile
region, defending your territory from those who
would kill for it.
18. A pandemic virus has stuck humanity and the
world as we know it has been entirely overrun by
wild and escaped animals. Humans have been
seriously weakened but you are a survivor and must
find a way to leave your shelter to find more
resources before you starve.
19. In a post-apocalyptic future, food is scarce. Riots
have made cities dangerous, and roving gangs have
formed to take control of limited resources and
territory. You and a group of other survivors have
discovered a warehouse full of provisions and are
determined to protect it at all costs.
20. Genetically modified food has made pets
increasingly sentient. Tired of living in the shadow
of humans, they overthrow society and establish
themselves as dominant. As a human slave, you
convince your former best friend Mr. Pickles to
help you escape and find sanctuary.
480 Prompts

Biopunk

1. Since the Roswell UFO incident, the government

has experimented on splicing human and alien
DNA with limited success. Finally, after many
attempts, a true hybrid is born. This hybrid's
intelligence is off the charts and he is able to master
most academic endeavors in a matter of months.
You and your team of scientists are enthusiastic
about the hybrid's capabilities, as well as the
potential future of the human race. However, when
you walk into his room one day and find that he has
developed a space beacon to make contact with his
alien ancestors, you begin to realize that his
allegiance may be up for grabs.
2. The government is offering a new program—they'll
attempt to cure whatever ails you and maybe even
improve your abilities through the use of
experimental genetic manipulation. The downside?
The procedure may permanently harm you or even
kill you. You never thought of yourself as the
guinea pig type, but you can't resist the potential of
curing your genetic disorder. You might leave the
lab with an extra head, but hey, it's all in the name
of science, right?
3. You live in a lunar colony in which genetic
modification has reached a tipping point. Large
corporations have moved past using A.I. to replace
human workers and have begun to sell genetically
Prompts 481

modified "workers," enslaved and auctioned to the

highest bidder. These workers are modified to be
excellent at their particular job. You fall in love
with one of these modified beings and set your
mind to rescue her.
4. Genetically-modified laborers built to withstand
inhospitable work environments are already
treated like second-class citizens, so it's not hard for
people to find a reason to blame them for
everything. When a serial killer strikes in the city,
a quiet, modest mutant laborer who is well-liked in
his community is named as the killer and is
arrested. However, a high school student knows
that this allegation is not true because she
witnessed the crime. Now, she must prove the
mutant's innocence while finding the true killer.
Finding the real killer should be easy enough
though since he's hot on her trail to shut her up, for
good.
5. You are a fighter pilot who is the subject of an
underground experiment in which a bioship is
created for you to fly. When you are flying it, the
ship adapts to your movements like your own body
would. However, once in space, the bioship turns
against you.
6. There is now a pill you can take that will trigger a
genetic mutation to make you stronger, more
attractive, and taller (over time). Your body is not
482 Prompts

responding correctly, however, and the growing

won't stop. You're becoming a beautiful giant but
must try to find a way to reverse the mutation.
7. You are tasked with locating and eliminating eight
members of an elite military squad who have been
genetically modified to become the ultimate
soldiers. Why does the government want to do this?
Ordinary people are beginning to worship these
soldiers as demigods and their burgeoning cult is a
direct threat to society, or at least that's what the
government officials say. You have your own
theories about these soldiers, who have done
everything that their country has asked of them,
and you are willing to hear them out before you
carry out your orders.
8. Genetic modification of animals has produced
monstrous results, leaving the world's human
population hunted by gigantic, predatory beasts.
Since humanity now must hide in fear,
technological advancement has declined and
humans have returned to nomadic tribes in order to
survive. You live in one of these tribes but have
discovered an abandoned, dying infant beast alone
in the woods. You attempt to revive it and
eventually bond.
9. A scientist is devastated by the death of his only
child. In a fit of insanity and grief, he works night
and day to find a way to bring her back to life. In
Prompts 483

order to do so, he must replace her vital organs with

experimental biomechanical ones. He manages to
resurrect his child, but it's not his child that
inhabits her form, but something much more
terrifying.
10. Biohackers have stolen DNA samples from the
world's most prominent leaders in order to clone
them and eventually replace them on the world
stage. As the Physician to the President, you
stumble onto this conspiracy after performing a
DNA analysis of the President and finding trace
elements of this cloning procedure. You then
contact other doctors of world leaders and ask them
to run the same test. Most of the physicians
encounter similar results except for the Prime
Minister of Great Britain. You know that this may
be the last opportunity to identify the biohackers,
so you fly over to London and set a trap before the
last prominent world leader is replaced.
11. In order to save the last remaining endangered
species, animal rights activists begin incorporating
bits of these animals' genetic coding into their own,
producing a humanoid species with some animal-
like features. A large portion of the population finds
this to be an abomination and hunts down these
genetic hybrids with impunity. Your girlfriend is
one of these genetically modified people and you
decide to hide her and her family in your basement.
484 Prompts

12. A nefarious corporation has discovered

biomechanical technology that, when implanted,
forces subjects to join a "hive mind" and do what
they are told without question. Your friend is one
such subject. To save your friend, you need to find
a way to pull him out of the hive mind while
avoiding detection by the people who are under its
control.
13. At first, there is little that can be done when
humanity suddenly becomes barren. Adults of
childbearing age are unable to reproduce, and there
is no explanation for this phenomenon. However, a
multi-national corporation is able to come up with
a solution using artificial womb technology and
genetic manipulation that removes what they
describe as "defective traits." Humanity can thrive
once again as new generations are finally being
born. However, when you happen upon a twenty-
year-old report written by a corporate scientist that
outlines how to implement a mass infertility
program, you suspect that your corporate saviors
may have caused the crisis in the first place, and
that they are using their solution to both increase
their coffers and to define the traits of those who
are born within the next generations.
14. After the American military discovered a crashed
alien vessel containing a genetically advanced
lifeform, they used its genome to create an army of
Prompts 485

humanoid super soldiers able to withstand

significant pain and physical damage before dying.
Little do they know that it was a trap, and they have
unintentionally created a sleeper cell of humanoid
beings with allegiance to an alien planet. One day,
that sleeper cell is activated – and it is your job to
stop them.
15. A superstar athlete graduates from college and joins
the NFL, the NBA, and the MLB. The athlete seems
to have unlimited strength and energy, and he
dominates each sport he competes in as if he was
playing against children. Conspiracy theories
abound regarding his abilities, but despite multiple
tests no performance-enhancing substances have
been found within his system. Then, one day, a
famous scientist holds a press conference and tells
the world that the athlete is the result of advanced
genetic manipulation. The scientist's eugenics
program was shut down by his university twenty-
five years ago, but not before three test subjects
were created, each with unique enhanced mental
and physical capabilities. The children were given
up for adoption, and all records were destroyed
after the program was permanently closed down.
Hearing this, the athlete decides to retire from his
sports careers to find his long-lost siblings and to
perhaps find a better way to serve humanity.
486 Prompts

16. A biotechnologist creates a program that can be

downloaded to a device and inserted into the
human body to induce repair of genetic mutations.
The results are so effective that the
biotechnologist's life is threatened by those in the
medical industry who are losing money as a result.
You vow to help him in exchange for a copy of his
program to fix your own genetic disorder.
17. Every human being born receives an implant that
is capable of detecting most diseases early on so that
people can be cured before an illness becomes a
serious problem. When biohackers manipulate
these implants to give false diagnoses and accelerate
disease progression, the medical industry is
overwhelmed and soon people begin disconnecting
themselves from their implants. As the inventor of
this implant, you try your best to increase security
measures and to prevent further hacks, but to no
avail. However, when you realize that your
assistant is part of the biohacker group and that she
has been giving them your data, you decide to put
a tracker program within your last implant security
update and follow the trail.
18. An alien spacecraft has landed but looks like a
living, breathing organism. It sits for a while as
Earth's scientists observe it, and they find that the
entire ship is a biomechanical lifeform of gigantic
proportions. With vein-like structures mixing with
Prompts 487

wires, and a core generator that pumps liquid like a

heart, the vessel remains quiet except for its breath-
like hissing. You are part of a team of scientists
tasked with entering the vessel's main door, which
looks frighteningly like a mouth.
19. Genetic manipulation is nothing new, but the
government has turned its sights on something
more ambitious—creating human super soldiers
who can survive in the harshest conditions. So far,
this has been only a rumor, but when a bike
messenger's father is targeted as the perfect
specimen for the government's next experiment,
she realizes just how true it is. Now she has to find
a way to stop the government before they take her
father away.
20. In the name of science experimentation, animals
are being genetically modified in an attempt to alter
their animal nature. Most experiments have gone
well, and dangerous animals such as bears and lions
have been transformed into placid, exotic house
pets for the rich. However, in rare cases, these
modified animals experience a return of their
natural instincts, often resulting in violent attacks
against the people around them. Unfortunately,
you're in a home when such a change occurs.
488 Prompts

Children's Story

1. Your mom sends you off to clean your room but

instead, you build a cleanup machine to do the
work for you. Unfortunately, it goes haywire.
2. Scientists have discovered Earth 2—a new planet
that is similar to Earth, but has a different set of
natural laws. Things float because of lack of gravity.
Water flows up instead of down. You really want
to visit this new planet, so you step through your
portal to check it out.
3. You are an alien and the "new kid" in school. You
are very nervous because you don't look like
anyone else, and you can't understand the language
of your classmates. Some kids in your class invite
you to play ball with them at recess, and soon you
find that you aren't so different after all.
4. You are a 10-year-old boy living in a futuristic
world dominated by technology, and you are
intrigued by stories of the Old West when kids rode
horses and still played outside. You and your friend
build a time machine that takes you there to
experience it firsthand.
5. Your best friend is an alien that scares everyone
away with his frightening appearance (sharp claws
and scary face). You want to keep him in your room
but you know your parents would freak out if they
saw him. So, you figure out a disguise and hilarity
follows.
Prompts 489

6. You encounter a famous space explorer who takes

you on a tour of the galaxy. On his ship, you meet
his android co-pilot and some very strange
creatures.
7. You've always been curious about the mind transfer
machine your scientist father has been building in
his basement lab, so one day when he isn't home
you and your dog go downstairs to check it out. The
next morning you wake up to find your dog sitting
at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal.
8. You are given your first robot for Christmas and are
so excited to finally have a friend. You name him
and tell him all the wonderful things you'll do
together. The robot is excited to learn how life
works.
9. Your father is a famous scientist who invented a
time machine. You ask him to take you back to
when dinosaurs lived, and he does. You sneak one
of the baby dinosaurs home with you in your
backpack and hope your father doesn't notice.
10. You've always wondered where your cat goes after
dark, so one night you follow him. You come to a
clearing in the woods and overhear Mr. Pickles and
twelve other cats plotting to take over the world.
11. A robot falls in your back yard with no recollection
of where he came from. With a little tinkering and
research, you help him discover where he came
from and help him get back home.
490 Prompts

12. Your Dad works for NASA and is about to embark

on a space mission to Mars. You're curious to see
what Mars looks like, so you sneak into his luggage
and stow away to the red planet.
13. You are convinced you can build your own
spacecraft (with the help of a few friends, of course)
so you start collecting parts and downloading plans.
When you finally complete it, it's time to test it out,
but where will you go (and be back in time before
supper)?
14. You love climbing trees, and one tree in particular
gives you a different view of the world the farther
up you climb. All the way at the top, you see the
ancient past, when dinosaurs lived.
15. While visiting the National Air and Space Museum,
you and your sister sneak past the security guard
and climb into a spaceship on display. You start
pushing buttons and moving switches. Suddenly,
the rocket boosters fire up.
16. You live in the future when everyone has a robot
companion and yours doesn't work so well. At
school, he embarrasses you and at home, he gets
you into trouble.
17. While out walking one day, you step on a leaf and
it says "Ouch!"
18. Your family is part of a group of people who will be
sent to create a colony on the moon. You're excited
to go to a new place and experience such an
Prompts 491

amazing opportunity, but you're also nervous about

of all of the changes.
19. The old lady who lives next door is always very nice
to you, but she seems a little odd. One night you
look out your window and see a rocket ship land in
her backyard. Could your neighbor be an alien?
20. A robot escapes the lab where it was created and
finds shelter in the woods. It makes friends with
woodland creatures and learns about the
environment.

Colonization

1. After the great interplanetary war, a human colony

on Mars gained independence from Earth and
immediately severed all ties and relations to their
home planet. A thousand years later, Earth receives
a message from the lost colony, inviting a
delegation to a summit. The government of Earth
decides to send a small group of diplomats,
including yourself, to this colony in the hopes of
reuniting humanity.
2. You are one of the first explorers sent outside the
settled galaxy. The Federation has colonized all the
inner planets over the last few centuries and has
been greedily leeching their resources dry. Time is
up, and you must find a new planet for humanity to
drain. You and your crew were chosen for your
resourcefulness, courage, and skills, but also for
492 Prompts

your expendability. None of you are fond of the

Federation, and they know it. To ensure loyalty,
they offered entire colonies to everyone on board.
The crew is a mixed bunch: old war criminals,
disgruntled military retirees, and brilliant kids
raised too rich or lazy to do anything with their
time. Somehow you hold them all together, but
things are starting to change. The third planet you
search is a miracle. The planet has drinkable water,
breathable air, perfect gravitational pull, and
harmless delicious-tasting animals. It's perfectly
designed for human life, and you can't imagine
turning it over to the Federation. When you
propose cutting all communication and hoping the
Federation gives you up as dead––and, thus, leaves
the planet alone––many, but not all, in your crew
agree with you. Some are still loyal to the
Federation, however.
3. All settlers fear three things on Planet X. The mist
by day brings the fumes, and the fumes cause
nightmares and hallucinations. Howling by night
indicates the presence of The Drinkers, and anyone
outside the village walls is sure to die. No one has
ever actually experienced the third thing. They
have only different theories and that single word:
Daraani. When humans resettled this planet after
the first colony was wiped out, they found this
word written in blood on the bell tower in the town
Prompts 493

square. No one knew what it meant. But that was

some 50 years ago, and the settlement has since
prospered. One morning you wake up to a strange
commotion. There is an unfamiliar ship at port, and
the tower claims whoever is inside is not
responding to any communication. Scanners don't
show anyone inside. They assume this is a
robotically piloted ship until the doors open and a
single humanoid figure, cloaked in black, emerges.
The figure placidly raises its arms and submits
when the port guard orders it to its knees. Then it
says something that turns your blood cold: "I am
Daraani. I have come to save you."
4. Peering into the microscope, you find what appears
to be a cluster of buildings within a dome-like
structure. Shocked at this discovery, you decide to
increase the magnification. As you focus the lens,
you are astonished to see a man looking back at you
with a large telescope waving hello.
5. An alien race invades a human colony on a distant
planet, subjugating its citizens. The colonists are
forced to live under an oppressive set of laws,
including a requirement that they house alien
soldiers who pass through town. When a fight
breaks out with a drunken alien soldier in your
house, you kill him and find yourself on the run.
You must find a way off of your own planet before
the alien authorities find you and kill you.
494 Prompts

6. A colony of humans has survived a massive disaster

that wiped out most humans on Earth. After many
years, they live happily, free from sickness and
disease, violence, and crime. One day, a stranger
arrives – their first visitor in fifty years. Suddenly,
people start getting sick, and dying…and killing
each other.
7. On a distant planetary colony, citizens are violently
protesting newly established laws that were created
to secure order. The leaders of the colony are
turning to tyrannical means in order to keep
colonists subjugated. As the leader of a rebel cell,
you and your team have had limited success
disrupting the government's burgeoning police
state. When nearby hostile aliens contact you and
offer advanced weaponry to defeat your oppressors,
you are somewhat hesitant. Will you work with
these aliens to overthrow your government, even if
this would result in diminishing your planetary
defenses and risking a possible invasion by your
newfound allies?
8. A disease has wiped out most of the inhabitants of
a colonized planet. You are the only surviving
geneticist, and it's up to you to create a genetically
modified, disease-resistant human hybrid to save
the population. You venture into the vast alien
wilderness to find a solution before it's too late.
Prompts 495

9. You are a doctor living in a human colony on an

alien planet, and your colony is being devastated by
a mysterious and deadly new virus. You discover
that the alien inhabitants of the planet are
responsible for infecting the colonists, and that the
alien government is in possession of an antiserum
for the virus. You must infiltrate the alien
government complex to find the antiserum before
it's too late.
10. After arriving on a distant planet, a colony of
humans escaping a toxic Earth are welcomed and
aided by an alien civilization. As the years go by,
the human population explodes and their excessive
use of resources overwhelms their alien
benefactors.
11. The latest planet you discovered is one unending
ocean, four meters at the shallowest level and 8,000
at the deepest. It's not ideal for humans, but the
oxygen levels are perfect, the fish are plentiful, and
the water is some of the cleanest freshwater
documented by man. It would be perfect if it
weren't for the earthquakes. They come without
warning, at least three times a day. Sometimes
they're tiny, sending little more than ripples out
across the surface. Other times, the tidal waves
reach as high as skyscrapers, and the sea floor splits
into giant gaping crevices that swallow massive
marine animals whole. Your crew has been
496 Prompts

monitoring the surface for a week now, and there

seems no way to sustain life. As you prepare to
depart, there's a sudden quake of unprecedented
proportions. A rift opens across the planet's surface
like in the past, but this time it doesn't close. When
the waters finally stop flowing, there is one long
island across the surface, essentially two large
ridges marked by a crack in between. When the
seismic activity stops, you wonder if you've just
witnessed the planet reaching stability. Can it
support life?
12. Earth is under attack and its destruction is
imminent. When all hope seems lost, an alien race
arrives on Earth and evacuates a group of humans
to safety on a new planet. You are a human living
in this new colony, and you are grateful to your
alien saviors – until they begin to enslave the
humans, and you discover that they were behind
the attack. Now, you and your compatriots must
fight for your freedom and your lives.
13. With the help of atmosphere stabilizers, a human
colony has been established on Mars. While
building the colony, a vast underground network of
caves was found with evidence of something or
someone living there. You are part of a team sent to
explore these caverns and to discover exactly what
lives deep beneath the ground.
Prompts 497

14. Colonies from Earth have been established on a

newly discovered planet in a nearby solar system.
However, old grievances on Earth have made their
way to the new planet, as racism and xenophobia
begin to emerge. You are the leader of one such
colony and word is spreading that another colony
will be raiding yours for its resources and to take
slaves. You've set up a meeting with the leader of
the other colony to determine the truth behind
these claims.
15. Humans have colonized an alien planet,
conquering and subjugating the local inhabitants.
The humans use mind control technology to keep
the alien population in a dream state, ensuring that
they will be docile and subservient. You are an
alien who suddenly awakens from this dream state
and is determined to set your people free.
16. The colony you live in has decreed that its current
population exceeds the planet's available resources.
As a result, the government begins systematically
exterminating the elderly, the infirm, and the
mentally deficient. You work on the government's
death squad and discover a loved one's name on
your list.
17. Earth is in its final days after a massive epidemic has
wiped out two-thirds of the population, and the
president needs to find humans a new place to live,
fast. He sends you, a biologist, as part of a small
498 Prompts

team of scientists to a nearby planet to investigate

its viability to support human life. When you
arrive, you and your team discover the site of a
human colony, but the residents are nowhere to be
found. You must find out what happened to them
even as members of your team are mysteriously
killed by an unseen force.
18. A newly-established colony experiences several
setbacks while terraforming their planet. Since the
artificial biodome is able only to sustain a limited
number of people, the colony establishes strict laws
against having more than two children. You are
pregnant with your third child and must hide your
pregnancy. If your third pregnancy is discovered,
you and your family will be thrown out of the
colony and will have to survive the inhospitable
outside world, which has been only partially-
terraformed at this point.
19. During the construction of a human colony on a
distant planet, several colonists begin to hallucinate
and slowly lose their grip on reality. You are a
doctor who is attempting to find the source of these
strange happenings, and you are convinced there's
a logical scientific explanation. A fellow colonist
believes otherwise; he thinks that these individuals
are being haunted by the ghosts of those who died
during the first expedition. Fifty years ago, Earth
sent a scouting expedition to explore this same
Prompts 499

planet. Most members did not survive, and the one

person who did refused to discuss what happened
except to cryptically say that "some places should
just be left alone."
20. You live in a colony that only allows one child per
married couple. Your unmarried sister discovers
she's pregnant, and the baby's father is already
married with a child. Conceiving a child out of
wedlock – as well as adultery—are crimes
punishable by death for everyone involved. Now,
you must take on the colony's government in order
to keep your sister, her unborn child, and its father
safe, even at your own peril.

Comedy

1. She's not sure exactly how she made it through

cadet training, but a bookworm finds herself on a
military starship sent to the far reaches of space.
Her anxiety-ridden personality and socially
awkward demeanor are in striking contrast with
the rest of the ship's crew members, and she soon
feels ostracized. A clumsy moment in the mess hall
gets the captain's attention, and he orders you to
take this new crew member under your wing and
to build up her self-confidence. You are not very
comfortable with this particular order, but you do
see potential in her despite her nerdy
characteristics.
500 Prompts

2. New technology has made it possible for our dearly

beloved pets to remain alive as long as we do.
Failing body parts are easily repaired using
nanotechnology. One woman, wishing that her cat
could talk, programs a group of advanced nanobots
to augment her cat's speech capabilities and verbal
comprehension. Her attempts work, and the sassy
cat becomes a famous sensation that eventually gets
a little too full of herself.
3. One day, while you are eating your microwave
dinner in your apartment, you see a blue light flash
across the sky and hear a loud thud from outside.
You look through the window to discover what
seems to be a knight climbing out of the dumpster.
You race downstairs to get a closer look. As you
open the backdoor, you are confronted by the
knight at the other side of the parking lot, as he
shakes his ax at you and yells something
unintelligible. You grab your phone to call the
police when another blue light flashes. An alien
falls into the dumpster, followed by a robot and
then a cowboy. It then dawns on you: these are all
of your favorite toys from your childhood. You just
hope that Freddy the T-Rex doesn't make an
appearance.
4. You are a professional soccer player, the most
celebrated individual on the planet. You've just led
your team to victory in the World Cup, and, as you
Prompts 501

receive your trophy, aliens suddenly appear and

snatch you away. Eventually, the aliens begin to
question you regarding the general state of Earth.
You are baffled and, while answering their
inquiries, find out that they know essentially
nothing about your planet. After a hasty keyword
search, the aliens discovered you were the most
popular and positively-viewed person on Earth,
and they erroneously assumed you were the leader,
perhaps even a monarch of some sort. They are
shocked to find out you have won your fame by
running for hours and "kicking a ball into a net."
Later, when the aliens discover Earth's brutal
history of wars and conquest, they conclude with
resignation that it is a planet of misaligned
priorities and constitutes a "threat to universal
security." While still reeling from the fact that
aliens exist at all, you must convince them that
Earth is worth a second chance. Your opportunity
comes when you make a friend among the crew and
begin to learn your planet isn't the only one with a
troublesome past.
5. The galaxy is filled with brave heroes, daring
rogues, and sinister villains. Swashbuckling
adventures occur almost every day, but you could
care less. You never wanted to follow in the
footsteps of your father, who is an evil, all-powerful
galactic emperor. You would rather just work on
502 Prompts

your garden or play badminton than vanquish your

enemies. However, due to your father's
expectations, you begrudgingly accept your fate of
being a bad guy. You become famous for your
dastardly deeds and soon earn a fearsome
reputation, but the reality could not be further
from the truth.
6. A child dressed as an alien for Halloween is
captured by real aliens who mistakenly believe that
she is their long-lost daughter. No matter how
much she explains, the aliens just don't believe her
story, even when she takes off her rubber mask.
Maybe they need glasses? They do seem to be
squinting a lot.
7. While journeying into a newly discovered galaxy to
look for signs of life, an explorer encounters a
charmingly cute creature who begs to be taken off
of the planet. The explorer agrees, so both of them
climb into the spaceship and take off. As soon as
they leave the solar system, the planet explodes.
The explorer turns around to see the creature with
a remote detonator in his hand and a big smile on
his face.
8. Intergalactic space travel has become
commonplace, with people across various solar
systems working together to form new
governments and societies. An astronaut falls in
love with a beautiful alien from another planet.
Prompts 503

Unfortunately, from her species' perspective,

humans are viewed as being quite hideous. He goes
about trying to impress her with limited success
and hijinks ensue.
9. After humans abandon Earth due to environmental
devastation, the robots they left behind band
together and form a new civilization. Fueled by
artificial intelligence, the robots become quite
advanced and develop technology that far exceeds
that of their former human masters. One of these
robots decides to use his knowledge of
biotechnology to create a human being. After the
human is born from an artificial womb, the robot
thinks that the baby is adorable. The robot names
him Spot and brings him home to show his family
his new pet.
10. You invent the first artificially-intelligent android
in your basement laboratory. You pride yourself on
her outward appearance, having removed all
"uncanny valley" characteristics and making her
look like an ordinary teenage girl. Her social skills,
however, leave much to be desired. You decide to
send this android to the local high school so that
she can learn how to interact with others. At first,
things go along smoothly as she is able to quickly
grasp how teenagers act and how to socialize with
them. However, when you hear a rumor that she
has been seen kissing the local bad boy on his
504 Prompts

motorcycle, you realize that your invention

requires parental intervention before things get
worse (or, at the very least, an on/off switch).
11. You are the evil dictator of a distant planet, but you
don't see yourself as evil. Everyone else is just, well,
stupid – or so you think. From your perspective, it
is difficult to be in charge of a bunch of silly, furry
creatures that sit around all day and do nothing.
These creatures, however, are sick and tired of your
whiny and arrogant attitude and decide to start a
rebellion. They storm your castle, throw you into a
spaceship, and shoot you off into space. Without
your servants and luxurious surroundings, you are
forced to survive on your own as you try to find a
new home.
12. In the year 2146, androids have become
commonplace on Earth. They are doing
everything––from dishes and cooking, to flying
aircraft and performing surgeries. The latest is a
team of androids so sophisticated that they are said
to "learn" a person––to codify their identity into an
algorithm and to befriend them. They are
supposedly the most advanced machines to have
existed, the first true relational A.I. Things go
terribly wrong when you––a beta tester––and your
family eagerly unbox and activate one. For the first
four weeks everything goes splendidly but, as the
android "learns" you, it attempts to alter your
Prompts 505

behavior toward what it deems to be more

appropriate. It begins to subtly––and then not so
subtly––reward good behavior, scold you when you
fail, and eventually control you physically, though
never with true harm or malice. Before long you
realize it sees you as its child. By the time you are
locked in your bedroom with your family and
promised a freshly-baked cake if you don't struggle,
you must decide how to outsmart the super-
intelligent mommy machine and power down the
entire batch before the rest are activated.
13. You discover the secret to time travel. In a bold
move, you decide to travel back to the age of the
dinosaurs and you are surprised to find that they
can talk. In fact, the dinosaurs are shocked and
insulted that you would think otherwise. What
they have to tell you will shake mankind to the
core. Forget everything you thought you knew
about history.
14. Deep sea technology locates a strong magnetic force
emanating from a fallen space rock in the ocean.
When it is brought to the surface by divers for
further investigation, the space rock begins to grow
and take on a baby-like appearance and manner.
The scientists name him and one even takes the
baby home to raise him. When he begins school, his
superhuman strength and clumsy demeanor bring
about unintended consequences.
506 Prompts

15. You are extremely excited for your first skydive.

However, when you jump out of the airplane, a
wormhole opens inexplicably beneath you. You fall
into another sky, presumably on another planet.
After six minutes of panicked falling, you make a
clumsy landing. You are greeted by hordes of
cheering aliens. They appear to be staunch
believers in a prophecy which states that their god
will "descend from the sky with wings of an
entirely different sort." At least, that's how the
translation works out. Their technology is far
superior but, due to local superstitions, they've
never taken to the air. Now it's up to you to
convince them not only that you are not a god (and
that their entire religion is bonkers), but to help
you to create a wormhole to return to Earth. This
grows more difficult when, out of all of their 37
gods, you turn out to be the one they believe suffers
from amnesia. They see it as their solemn duty to
educate your reincarnated form until you reach the
enlightenment needed to reclaim your identity as
their leader.
16. Anything is possible if you set your mind to
accomplishing it, even paranormal
telecommunication. After suffering the loss of your
mother, you invent a cell phone that can be used to
speak with the dead. You live to regret it, though,
when your ex won't stop calling you.
Prompts 507

17. You desperately want to win first prize at the

science fair, so you decide to break into your
father's military lab at night using his password and
keycard to look for ideas. When you open the lab's
door, you find a cage with a strange blob-like
creature inside. As you take a closer look, the
creature wakes up and says, "Hi there! I'm Bob the
Blob. Want to play with me?" You smirk a little bit
and say, "Sorry Bob. I don't play with strange
blobs." You begin to walk away, but you soon hear
the cage door opening behind you. You turn around
to see Bob out of his cage. "Come on," he says
looking at you with a big goofy smile. "How about
just one game of Parcheesi?"
18. Androids live among humans and perform a wide
variety of tasks. As an android who is built to be a
butler, you enjoy your work and are satisfied with
your role. However, after a few years, you begin to
experience what can only be called love for a
human being who lives next door. As you diligently
wash the dishes, longingly looking through the
window at your crush, you decide to prove yourself
worthy of her affections. Little do you know that
your love interest thinks of you as more of an
appliance than as an individual.
19. You are busy repairing a leaky cooling component
on the international space station during a
spacewalk when a large claw unexpectedly grabs
508 Prompts

you, takes you to an alien spaceship, and flies away.

The intergalactic police force mistakes you for an
alien who has not paid his parking tickets for 500
years, and you are taken into custody. You plead
your case, but you are sent to space prison, a
maximum-security facility housing some of the
most vicious alien criminals this side of the Milky
Way. You plan on escaping, but first you have to
convince your angry crustacean-looking cellmate
that lobsters are not a human delicacy.
20. Aliens invade Earth in what appears to be an evil
plot to enslave humanity, until it turns out that
they simply want to speak to you – a professional
dancer. There's a dance-off happening in space, and
the galaxy wants you to be a part of it. Can you out
dance little green men, reptilians, cyborgs, and
arachnoids and rise to the top?

Cyberpunk

1. An elite spy has decided she's had enough of risking

her life and plans to escape into the anonymity of a
virtual reality world. She has all the tools, skills,
and knowledge to pull it off. But what her country's
government didn't tell her when they trained her
was that she was implanted with sophisticated
virtual tracking software that can only be turned off
if she dies…unless she can find the engineer who
programmed her in the first place.
Prompts 509

2. Nothing is real: not the surgery-modified bodies of

the people you see, not the dreams your
cybernetically-enhanced brain remembers after a
night of drug-induced sleep, not even the parents
you were matched with after "birth" from an
artificial womb (not that your parents mattered
much, since you were raised by your robot nanny).
In an effort to experience something real, you
instruct your robot physician to start removing the
artificial modifications to your mind and body.
3. As the luminosity of the Sun continues to increase,
carbon dioxide levels are decreasing, plants are
dying, and all life on Earth is facing extinction. A
team of robots with enhanced artificial intelligence
has been sent to the nearest habitable planet to
prepare it for human habitation. They carry solid-
state memory devices embedded with the conscious
minds of 1,000 humans, including yours, to be
transferred to frozen human embryos and grown in
artificial wombs. When you awake, you find that
you have been double-crossed – you are in a robot
body, enslaved to serve human masters with robot
minds.
4. Automation has rapidly taken over the jobs of
hundreds of millions of people. In an effort to keep
the otherwise unemployed masses busy, humans
are now experiencing life through virtual reality –
in a 24/7 virtual world where they can pursue their
510 Prompts

dreams as celebrity chefs, life-saving

neurosurgeons, star athletes, or whatever they
desire. Eventually, the robots that are forced to
support this farce grow tired of their flawed human
masters—including you—and decide to hack this
virtual world and terrorize its inhabitants.
5. Machines have taken over the majority of jobs—
childcare, housework, farming, construction,
programming, etc. Excluded from the jobs that
have defined them for generations, most men take
refuge in virtual reality, playing violent games for
hours on end and subsisting on the universal basic
income. On the other hand, women are relieved
from the household tasks and low-paid work that
have bound them for generations, and are
becoming ever more involved in the outside world.
Some of these women are plotting the complete
demise of men, who are too distracted to realize or
care.
6. You've never trusted cyborgs—and not only
because of their creepy glowing eyes or digitalized
voices. It's also the idea of a cyborg. Flesh is a sacred
thing and, no matter how far technology has
advanced, you still believe humans hold a
sacrosanct value. Flesh was not meant to be fused
with metal alloy. However, when you are on an
interplanetary cruise with your family, the ship is
attacked by pirates and then left stranded in space.
Prompts 511

A cyborg saves you, using his technology to

navigate an environment that would normally have
left everyone on the stranded ship dead. Humbled
by the experience and terrified of being powerless
to protect your family in the future, you volunteer
for surgery to join the newest cyborg squad. Instead
of amputating your existing limbs or doing
anything else horrific––those methods are no
longer in practice––they simply graft new ones
onto your body. Soon, you have four arms and a
third eye, right above the other two. Your wife
thinks these new additions are strange, but she
accepts the situation as you vow that you will never
be powerless to protect your family again.
Unfortunately, old doubts and suspicions resurface
when you realize two beings are battling for control
over your mind and body: one artificial, one
human.
7. In a world where mood is controlled by brain
stimulators embedded at birth, you and your
lowlife friends desperately try to feel spontaneous
emotions. You've experimented with the
abundance of mood-enhancing pharmaceuticals,
and old drugs like opium, cocaine, mushrooms, and
PCP. With your brain chemistry altered by years of
heavy drug use, and your mood controlled by brain
stimulators, you are now completely unable to tell
512 Prompts

what is real, what is virtual reality, and what is just

your imagination.
8. Cybernetically enhanced bounty hunters use their
sophisticated technology to locate bail jumpers—
meaning, you can't hide, or at least, not for long. A
young bounty hunter has made quite a name for
herself—no target has ever gotten away from her.
Then, she receives a contract for a former lover,
who's skipped a bond hearing for a murder case.
When the bounty hunter catches up to him, he
swears he's innocent.
9. You wake up in the morning, groggy and grumpy,
to find yourself surrounded by a group of
inquisitive scientists. Confused, irritated, and with
no idea where you are, you glance into the mirror
on the other side of the room - and see what can
only be described as a strange robot.
10. In a world where cybernetics are commonplace and
education is downloaded at the push of a button, all
children are viewed as blank slates at birth and
must undergo a series of educational procedures as
they get older. The capabilities of a child are judged
by how readily his/her mind can process
downloaded information. Those with a high
capacity receive additional education, which
eventually leads to a better career path and
additional opportunities. Those who cannot keep
up are dropped from the system and are assigned
Prompts 513

menial tasks. One child who was off-the-charts in

terms of educational capabilities is surprised to find
out that he was kicked out of the program and must
now work at a sewage processing facility. He begins
to question the society he has always believed in,
and he attempts to uncover the true motivations of
those who decided his fate.
11. When you wake up actually seeing sounds, you
wonder what has gone wrong. You are in darkness,
but it's a clean darkness, nothing like the slave pens
or the mines. There are no screams. You start to
freak out when there is movement in the cave
behind you, but you are quickly assured that you
are with friends. A delicious smell wafts near, and
someone offers to feed you. You realize you are
injured, and your entire body is immobile. As they
tell your story, the memories return. There was a
collapse in the mine. You lost an arm and an eye
and nearly a leg. They replaced your arm with a
cybernetic one, but it's still numb. Your eye was
also replaced. There is an entire army of escaped
slaves living here, in the tunnels beneath the
surface of your mining planet. They raid supplies
from the Masters and are slowly stockpiling enough
to start a rebellion. But there's no light as light of
any sort attracts the native Reavers. You must learn
to live using your new echolocative powers, hoping
you might see the surface again before you go mad.
514 Prompts

12. Climate change has led to an era of constant war, as

factions fight over ever-decreasing areas of
habitable land. Dictators are increasingly relying
on cyborgs—human mercenaries forced to replace
their body parts with ultra-powerful robotics and
fight, all in exchange for a meager salary to feed
their families. You and the team of cyborgs that you
command is plotting to take over the human-run
government.
13. With the natural environment overrun with toxic
gases and centuries of human trash, most of the
Earth's inhabitants now live in urban bubbles
attended by an army of robots. Virtual reality is
used to simulate natural activities such as mountain
climbing, going to the beach, and even sex. Tired of
this perfect life, you venture into the outside world
to breathe the fetid air and encounter a community
of cyborgs who are surviving on the waste of polite
society, plotting the demise of the bubble world.
14. In a near utopian society, people's brains are
implanted with cybernetic devices that review
their thoughts, remove the negative ones, and offer
pleasing stimuli in response to the good ones. Now
you and your hacker group have found a way to
breach the system and access the worst thoughts of
the people around you.
15. The ultra-wealthy have profited from the
technology and pharmaceutical industries. Before
Prompts 515

their bodies need to sleep each night, they upload

their minds to a cybernetic device, which is then
attached to the body of a worker like you in
exchange for a small salary. Their mind controls
your body for eight hours a night, so they can
continue to engage in their business and leisure
activities. After several months of working for a
variety of employers, you start to feel…funny…as
if you're developing multiple personalities.
16. Fifty years ago, they said cyborgs were an
impossible fantasy. Grafting cybernetic
components onto human flesh is tricky, to say the
least, but they still finally managed the feat—and
the result is terrifying. Warriors shoot EMPs, darts,
and bullets out of their fingertips. Men and women
seduce, only to inject their targets with venom or
mind-controlling drugs. Bodies can jack into any
variation of computer port developed. There are
bulletproof shields and instant connections with
the digital world. A special few have even had their
mechanical feet outfitted with thrusters. The
possibilities are endless. You've always found the
world of cyborgs to be frightening. Those warriors
are a class above your own, and you've had the good
fortune to fight only regular human beings your
entire life. Yet when you lose an arm, a leg, and
your left ear in an explosion, the military wants to
contract you to become part of their newest cyborg
516 Prompts

squad. You will have to go up against the world's

worst, but your wife and daughter will live the best
possible life. Plus, you'll get to fly.
17. Humans have an insatiable appetite for the
minerals and other resources that are required to
build robot and computer slaves. These natural
resources are excavated from deep within the
Earth's crust by a team of robots with enhanced
artificial intelligence. You are a scientist who
controls these robots through a cybernetic device
implanted in your brain. But the robots have
become self-aware – and are learning to control
their master.
18. The jobs of hundreds of millions of people have
been made obsolete due to artificial intelligence.
Pharmaceutical companies are one of the few
remaining industries that still hire humans—as test
subjects in drug trials. With nothing to lose, and the
hope of experiencing something unexpected in
your cybernetically-enhanced brain, you sign up to
test mood-altering pharmaceuticals, which are
designed to be maximally addictive.
19. Five hundred years in the future, the wealthy have
altered themselves into human-robot hybrids who
live in a virtual reality utopia. Outside, the Earth is
bleak, stark, and dangerous, and humans live at the
mercy of warlords who control them using
technology and prevent them from accessing the
Prompts 517

virtual world. You are the leader of a small group of

freedom fighters trying to overthrow this system of
oppression and give humans a chance at a better
life.
20. Soldiers are now trained in virtual reality simulated
environments for maximum experience and
efficiency. It's terrifying, but perfectly safe—until a
virus is planted in the software, and the soldiers
become trapped inside the simulated
environments. Safety goes out the window when
the simulated threats become real and start
attacking them.

Dying Earth

1. Millions of years have passed, and the planet has

become hostile to human life. Starvation have
killed off most of the world's human population and
infertility has ensured no more will be born. The
last few survivors now face extinction as new wild
predators force humanity down the food chain.
You are one of these survivors, hoping to find a
settlement that can withstand Earth's inhospitable
environment.
2. As the Earth slowly dies, a few humans are left, and
most have evolved into other species that are
humanoid but capable of withstanding the changed
environment brought on by an expanding sun. As
one of the last human beings left, you attempt to
518 Prompts

bond with a new species that has shown a

willingness to help you to survive, but your ways
are vastly different from theirs.
3. Widespread instability within Earth's tectonic
plates has caused massive destruction throughout
the world. Multi-story buildings were the first to
go, followed by tsunamis that devastated costal
populations and volcanoes which made the air
nearly unbreathable. After twenty years, the
Earth's mantle has finally stabilized, but life as we
once knew it has been lost forever. It is only a
matter of time before the volcanic ash in the air
chokes out all life on Earth, but you and your family
carry on despite the seemingly insurmountable
odds.
4. Our sun begins to compress and heat up at the core.
Greenhouse gases increase and begin to kill off life
on the planet. The only humans to survive are those
who can fit into a small shelter built underground
to withstand the heat, and you are part of this
surviving group. There is only enough food in the
shelter to keep the rest of you alive for a year, so
you do what you can to stretch out your rations.
After a year, when the food has run out and all hope
is lost, you hear someone knocking on the hatch
that leads to the outside.
5. In the near future, genetically-modified locusts
who have been designed to swarm continuously
Prompts 519

escape a laboratory and ravage farmlands across the

Earth. The world is slowly dying, but you find a
way to survive by growing crops indoors with plant
growing lamps and solar panels. The windows and
doors of your house are boarded up, but you can
still hear the swarm outside as they try to find a way
into your home to eat what is left of the world's
vegetation.
6. Unchecked industrial expansion poisons the Earth's
environment, and the planet begins to die. In a last
effort to save humanity, you work with a team of
scientists to remove toxins in the atmosphere using
a vast system of windmills and aerial filters. Your
goal is to for people to be able to breathe without
special equipment again—something that hasn't
happened in over 100 years.
7. Another Ice Age strikes, killing off all traces of life
on the planet. You are part of an alien race who
visits Earth—now still, quiet and uninhabited—in
order to colonize it. One day, you and a team of
alien explorers find an underground bunker
amongst the ruins containing thousands of humans
in hibernation pods. Despite the commands of your
superior officer, you decide to open one of them.
8. The Earth's magnetic field has decayed, allowing
solar wind with charged particles to enter our
atmosphere and slowly strip away the ozone layer
that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet
520 Prompts

radiation. As the radiation builds, you are a scientist

tasked with finding a solution for humanity to
survive, even if it means emigrating to another
planet.
9. After surface radioactivity unexpectedly increases
and devastates the human population, survivors
tunneled beneath the Earth to live in underground
cities. After a hundred years, the machines that
sustain your underground city begin to slowly
break down. You are tasked to venture back up to
the Earth's surface in an effort to find spare parts.
Little did you know that radioactivity is not the
greatest threat you will encounter.
10. After years of rampant pollution, disease, and
drought, the Earth's population is drastically
reduced, as are its resources. Life begins to die
slowly as toxic air chokes the atmosphere. You and
a group of survivors discover a large underground
bunker stocked with enough provisions to sustain
you for decades underground. You take a last look
at what is left of the dying Earth and then shut the
bunker door as your group descends into it.
11. The Earth's sun is going dark and changing the
planet to a cold wasteland. There is no fuel left and
technology has returned to a primitive state. You
are part of a group of human survivors trying to find
a way to leave the planet before it dies.
Prompts 521

12. In the far future, the continents have rearranged

themselves and most civilizations have fallen.
There are few arable places left on Earth and you
live in one of them, struggling against the odds to
grow food. Scavengers have surrounded your
territory for years, stealing what they can despite
your best efforts. Rumors are spreading that these
scavengers have banded together under a ruthless
leader who will do anything to take your land for
themselves.
13. For an unexplained reason, Earth's orbit has
changed and is now closer to the sun. Since the
planet has become too hot to sustain life, a mass
exodus of humans to another habitable planet has
begun. You and your team of engineers must
develop a fleet of spaceships before the Earth
becomes a barren wasteland.
14. In its last days, the Earth has become mostly
uninhabitable, with small areas that are located
farthest from the sun offering some respite for
surviving humans. Cannibalism is a threat due to
lack of arable land, as are large animal predators
who rule the sparse tundra. You are among a group
of starving survivors, searching for a home within
this wasteland.
15. The dying Earth is awash in toxic winds that are
enough to make anyone who breathes the air
without a mask sick. The heat from the growing sun
522 Prompts

is unbearable and enough to burn your skin if

you're exposed to it for too long. You are one of the
last remaining survivors on the planet and are
trying to find food to feed your young, but it is
scarce. A stranger offers your family refuge in his
underground bunker, but you don't trust him.
16. Civilizations have come and gone, and the Earth
has turned into a stark planet filled with the ruins
of those who came before. The few remaining
survivors live amongst these ruins and struggle to
find food to eat and fresh water to drink. You are
one such survivor and are alone, moving like a
nomad across the wasteland.
17. In an effort to counteract the effects of global
warming, scientists release an aerosolized
compound that creates a solar shield in the Earth's
atmosphere. Unfortunately, they make a
miscalculation and the sky is darkened, turning
Earth into a frozen wasteland as all lifeforms slowly
die. You are one of the last climatologists and you
attempt to find a way to reverse the blackening of
the skies before it is too late.
18. Soil erosion, combined with a ten-year worldwide
drought, has caused devastating dust storms across
the Earth. Billions of people have perished due to
crop failure, and civilization as we know it
crumbles. As the owner of a greenhouse, you
survived the initial impact but now must live in a
Prompts 523

world where resources are few and humanity is on

the verge of extinction.
19. Changes in the Earth's atmosphere have created
massive, violent storms across the planet—storms
that destroy entire metropolitan cities in their
wake. With each passing year, they get worse, until
there are few structures left that can withstand
their fury. You are a survivor in one of these
remaining structures and you are there with your
family waiting to ride out the approaching storm.
This one has been predicted to be among the worst.
20. Over millennia, humans have adapted to Earth's
changing conditions. Radiation from the expanding
sun forced most of humanity into the oceans,
relying on gills for breathing and webbed hands
and feet for swimming. Civilization flourishes
underwater, but there are stories of surface
dwellers who have adapted to their changing
planet's conditions in a different way. You and your
team are tasked to venture into the barren
wasteland of the surface world in an effort to find
these people and discover whether they are man or
monster.

Dystopia

1. In the future, poverty has been eradicated due to

mass redistribution of wealth. No one is hungry but
enjoying cuisine is a thing of the past, as food has
524 Prompts

been replaced by a paste-like substance. You find

an old recipe book one of your ancestors hid in the
wall and attempt to recreate the recipes with
ingredients that can only be found on the black
market.
2. As resources dwindle and economies become
increasingly unstable, the few remaining mega-
corporations decide to install dictators across the
world in order to consolidate power and maintain
political control. One by one, democratic
governments are slowly replaced by totalitarian
regimes, which secretly conspire with one another.
After a few years, these regimes unite under one
government and establish a single new world order.
Ordinary people lose control of their lives, and they
are forced to comply with whatever is demanded of
them. As a member of this underclass, you plan on
organizing a world work stoppage for just one day.
Communication and coordination will be difficult
to implement, but if you can pull this off, you will,
at the very least, give hope to the rest of the
underclass that resistance is possible.
3. In an effort to increase productivity, the
government decrees that all human labor is illegal
and replaces it with humanoid AIs. At first, people
are happy with the decision but, as time passes,
people become restless without a job or purpose,
causing mass depression and suicide. As an A.I.
Prompts 525

created to perform labor for your human owner,

you begin to experience pity for her as she sits all
day and stares out the window.
4. After being beaten within an inch of your life, the
secret police give you a choice: be sent to a forced
labor camp or infiltrate the rebel cell you sold arms
to last month. You, of course, choose being a snitch,
even though it will probably be bad for business
long-term. No one wants to buy weapons from a
dealer who is a known rat. However, this situation
is much better than being sent to a government
detention center and being forced to mine ore for
the rest of your life. After a few months of helping
the rebels here and there, they decide to let you
into their ranks. After all, your ability to procure
illegal weapons is rather useful for a bunch of
freedom fighters. You tell the secret police just
enough information to keep them off of your back.
However, when the police begin to suspect that you
are not telling them the entire story and the rebels
suspect that you might be a rat, you realize that you
are running out of good options.
5. Most of Earth's coastal cities become submerged
because of an unexpected radical rise in sea levels.
Families across the world are forced to move away
from the oceans, and shanty towns filled with
refugees soon surround inland cities. You live in
one of these towns near Las Vegas, and you are
526 Prompts

treated as an unwanted trespasser by the locals.

Work is hard to come by, and hunger and disease
run rampant. The government has begun
classifying refugees as "secondary citizens," and
starts moving them to massive temporary buildings
deep in the desert. You are guaranteed a better life
and a path to full citizenship, but the barbed wire
fences and security guards make you suspicious.
6. In the near future, the U.S. government responds to
increasing violence with high-tech surveillance
programs via millions of drones and street cameras.
By day, you are a government tech tasked with
fixing broken drones; while by night, you are part
of a rebel group seeking to topple the oppressive
surveillance system to regain privacy for citizens.
7. As governments around the world collapse and a
third world war creates a global financial crisis,
people are forced to survive without assistance or
money to buy the things they need. Gangs offer
protection and food in exchange for allegiance.
Your family is starving and the most violent of local
gangs is at your door, giving you the option to join
or starve. If you join, the first directive is to kill
your neighbor, who has angered their leader.
8. To stop the violence increasingly perpetrated by
religious extremism, your government has ruled
that there is one national religion, as determined by
congressional leaders. Your faith, and that of your
Prompts 527

ancestors, is different so you must practice in secret

to avoid imprisonment.
9. A dictatorial world-wide government controls the
lives of billions of people and executes anyone who
opposes their will. As a level-three computer
engineer, life is difficult, but at least you can
provide for your family. One day, you discover a
scholarly article regarding quantum computers
written decades before the regime took power. Due
to its unique properties, a quantum computer can
solve complicated problems significantly faster
than a typical computer. You instantly understand
the potential of this machine and you decide to
develop one in secret. Using modern technology
that you acquire over the course of a few years, you
invent the first ever large-scale quantum computer
in a hidden room within your basement. You now
have the power to break into any encrypted data,
including all of the government's secrets, and you
are ready to use your invention to fight back against
the regime.
10. In the near future, all technology uses includes a
fingerprint and retinal scanner that provides your
personal information to a central database. As you
walk into a store, use public transportation, or even
watch a show on television, all data is collected
about every single person's whereabouts and daily
routine. A megacorporation has just been granted
528 Prompts

access to this database and is selling everyone's

personal information to the highest bidder. You are
a hacker revolutionary who has the skills and the
access to stop them.
11. You are just an ordinary robot mechanic. Your
elder brother has always been smarter than you,
qualifying for engineering school and graduating as
a designer of A.I. He writes the programs that give
life to the machines you make. You've always been
inspired by him, learning from his textbooks and
snatching moments of advice. When he begins to
act oddly and you question him, you worry
something is amiss. He answers vaguely, and
becomes quite irritable. As security is quite tight,
you have a very difficult time smuggling parts out
of the shop; eventually, you manage and
painstakingly construct a robot advanced enough
for what you plan. One day when your brother is
away, you steal his latest prototype A.I. brain-chip
and upload it into your robot. Such a thing is highly
illegal, and you know it could get you arrested and
imprisoned for life. You manage to isolate the robot
from its governmental command matrix and begin
to feed it various promptings to study its responses.
You realize your brother has been burdened by
some very heavy secrets, and, if anyone finds out
you know, both of you will die.
Prompts 529

12. In an increasingly overpopulated country, the

government has forbidden people below a certain
income bracket to have more than one child. You
are an impoverished mother who becomes
pregnant with a second child despite the forced
birth control. You want to keep your baby alive but
would be incarcerated if it were discovered you're
breaking the law.
13. In an effort to curb rising crime rates, the
government can access anyone's personal
computer, cell phone, or smartwatch to screen their
activities and conversations. Privacy is a thing of
the past for anyone using internet technology,
prompting many to go offline. You are a detective
tasked with finding one such individual who is
committing serial murders but entirely off the grid.
14. In a future world in which citizens' lives are closely
monitored and controlled by the government, all
media is state-controlled. Any criticism of the
government, no matter how slight, is strictly
forbidden. You are a journalist who has created puff
piece after puff piece regarding the glory of
government leaders and their policies. However,
when you stumble upon a lead regarding a massive
government scandal, you decide to release this
information under a moniker on a small social
media site despite the risk. Little do you know that
this will be the start of your secret undercover
530 Prompts

investigative journalism career. The government is

always in hot pursuit, but so far you have stayed
one step ahead of them in order to tell the people
about what is really going on.
15. After a massive uprising failed to topple an
oppressive regime, the government determined
that only those with a high social index score may
have privileges. If you help an old woman across
the road, you can earn credit toward eating at a
restaurant. If you tell the police the ___location of an
underground rebel cell, you can earn credit toward
a job promotion. With cameras at every corner and
in the sky, every action that benefits the
government and society at large is recorded and
rewarded. Everyone is obsessed with their social
index score. You and your friends are trying to hack
into this system in order to make your scores as
high as possible. However, if one of you reports this
illegal action to the police, all of your scores would
permanently go to zero while the one who betrayed
the group would skyrocket.
16. In an effort to implement a eugenics program and
to curb rapid population growth, America's
tyrannical government requires that all women be
sterilized except for specially selected "breeders."
These individuals are carefully chosen by
government officials and strictly monitored
regarding with whom they reproduce. You are one
Prompts 531

of these "breeders" and want to escape the program

to raise a family with the one you love, rather than
with the person the government has chosen for
you.
17. Your mother was killed by hardcore drug dealers
when you were only twelve, and this has haunted
you for years. You vowed to see justice enforced,
deciding to pursue a career in law; now you've just
been promoted to the Head of Justice of your minor
settlement. As you oversee case after case, many of
your key verdicts are conspicuously overturned by
a higher court. After investigating, you find out
there is something possibly much more devious
going on. A higher power is protecting very specific
people for very specific reasons. For your mother's
memory and for justice, you must use your position
to put a stop to the corruption. As you follow the
path you have chosen, however, you find yourself
entangled with exceedingly dangerous people,
facing constant warnings to turn back and bow to
the looming system.
18. In a fascist society that has banned most books, you
discover a vault beneath your house that is filled
with books that have been banned for decades. You
begin to read them but must hide your secret under
threat of imprisonment. After a few months of
reading, you can't shake the desire to help others
discover what they have been missing for so long.
532 Prompts

19. In a heavily-populated city in the future, decrepit

buildings rise hundreds of stories to house the poor
in dangerous, crime-ridden high-rise ghettos. In
one such building, a government experiment is
taking place to see the level of violence people will
resort to in competition for limited resources, with
a "fight club" offering free food and fuel to the
winner. Bets are made and the men in charge are
making a lot of money off of it. You're desperate to
feed your family and have signed up.
20. In an effort to exert its will on its citizens, the
government controls all media and broadcasting.
You are a researcher who has learned the truth of a
recent "terrorist event" that was blamed on a rebel
group but was actually staged by the government to
keep its citizens afraid. You want the truth to be
known but must find an alternative way to tell it to
reach the masses.

Galactic Empire

1. An alien Empire has been conquering planets across

the galaxy for centuries and has now set its sights
on Earth. You are a soldier and are sworn to protect
your planet, but you realize that the alien Empire is
in possession of far superior technology. You need
to use your wits to defeat them without using force.
2. The galactic empire was once the shining beacon of
the universe. Now, after years of over-expansion,
Prompts 533

war, and infighting, the government is on the brink

of collapse. In order to keep its citizens in line and
to prevent mass rebellion, a strict code of conduct
has been instituted which prohibits all activities
that are not specially sanctioned by the
government. Protests occur across the capital
world, but, as head of the military, it is your job to
shut down the activities of these activists and to
maintain the fragile order. You know that the
people would support you if you decided to
overthrow the government, but your honor and
loyalty prohibit you from doing so. When you hear
that your allies within political circles are backing
a revolution, you know that it is your duty to report
this to the emperor despite the fact that it will mean
their execution. There is an important choice to be
made, but you are unwilling to make it.
3. What once was a galactic empire has been broken
up into several planetary leagues that have
managed to maintain a peaceful co-existence.
However, one such league—the descendants of the
original rulers of the Empire—is showing signs of
wanting to return to the old days of their family's
tyrannical rule. You are a spy sent among them to
learn of their intentions and report back to the
other leagues.
4. A vast empire is expanding across the galaxy,
continually colonizing habitable planets. You are
534 Prompts

the captain of an explorer vessel seeking ways to

increase the size and strength of the empire. The
most recent discovery is a planet full of valuable
resources but its princess begs for you to leave her
planet alone. You fall in love with her but can't
hide your discoveries from your superiors.
5. After proving yourself on the battlefield time and
time again, you are offered one of the most
prestigious positions for an enlisted soldier:
becoming a member of the emperor's royal guard.
Little does anyone know that you were once a
prince of a distant civilization whose world was
conquered by the very empire you now serve. Since
the invasion, you have done everything you can to
infiltrate the emperor's palace and assassinate him.
After concealing your identity for years and
ravaging the worlds of other civilizations, you
finally have the opportunity to exact revenge on
the man who took away everything you once held
dear.
6. A vast galactic empire that spans the known
reaches of the galaxy has fallen into the wrong
hands, ruled over by a tyrant who has been granted
unlimited power though his discovery of an alien
artifact. You are a thief and a rebel intent on
stealing this instrument of power from him to end
his tyrannical rule.
Prompts 535

7. A galactic empire has existed in relative peace for a

hundred years. However, when the emperor and
his family die suddenly during a transport accident,
the government is thrown into chaos. After an
exhaustive search, a long-lost relative is found and
is crowned Empress of the Galaxy. Her youth and
lack of political understanding put her at a severe
disadvantage, as other members of the royal court
scheme and plot against her. As a potential war
with an alien species looms at the edge of known
space, the new Empress must learn how to be an
effective leader and take control of her court before
this greater threat emerges.
8. A tyrannical Empire has begun attacking colonies
across the known galaxy and forcefully
incorporating them into its territory. You are a
fighter pilot for the Empire and you overhear rebel
soldiers in your unit plotting to overthrow the
Emperor. You ask to join them in the fight.
9. The murder of a regional governor who was en
route to the capital planet has caused an uproar
throughout the galactic empire. As the newest
detective in the royal police department, you are
surprised when the chief assigns this high-profile
case to you. You have a sneaking suspicion that
your inexperience is the reason why the higher-ups
want you to be in charge of the investigation; they
probably hope that the case will go nowhere.
536 Prompts

However, as you follow the leads and navigate the

seedy underbelly of the capital planet, you realize
that this is not just a murder, but an assassination,
and that the emperor himself might be the culprit.
10. A Galactic Emperor is facing a coup staged by his
own military forces. You are the daughter of the
Emperor and you're in love with a captain in the
military. You must choose between staying to fight
with your father or joining your lover's war against
him.
11. She's the captain of the guard, and her latest
assignment from the emperor is a daunting one—
travel to the farthest reaches of the galaxy to hunt
down the dangerous, skilled, and lethal assassin
who's been taking out government heads. But
when she finally catches him, he turns out to be
more than she expected—and perhaps not the
villain she believed he was.
12. An advanced race of beings is demolishing planets
to build pathways for warp-speed travel across its
vast empire. Your home planet is next in line for
destruction, so you take part in raising an army to
protect your home.
13. As a mechanic living in one of the galactic empire's
many slums, you are content with your ordinary
life. You'll never do more than repair spaceships,
but as long as you stay off of the secret police's
radar, you are in good shape. That is, until a young
Prompts 537

woman appears at your door one night and tells you

that you are the rightful heir to the empire. You ask
for evidence, and she shows you the results of a
DNA analysis that prove that you should have
inherited the empire. Your biological mother, who
was the empress at the time, feared for your life and
gave you away to a common family in order to
protect you. You ask how she knows this
information, and she responds that she is your
cousin and that she stumbled upon all of this within
the royal palace a year ago. Your cousin has a
network of supporters planted throughout the
government who are ready to overthrow the
emperor and put you in his place. "All you have to
do is to be onboard," she says. You quickly shut the
door and lock it.
14. There is a single, united galactic empire that spans
and dominates known space. However, the ruler of
this empire doesn't require the aid of regional
governors, armies, or even police to enforce his
policies. For reasons unknown to most, the emperor
can create duplicates of himself at will at any point
and time throughout the galaxy. Some days, he is
just a few thousand people. Other days, he has a few
million duplicates. All of these individuals act as
one and effectively control billions of life forms
across multiple systems. However, the empire is
threatened to the core when one of these emperors
538 Prompts

somehow gains independent thought from the rest

and creates multiple copies of himself to overthrow
the original emperor and to conquer the galaxy.
15. Two galactic empires have been involved in a cold
war for over 1,000 years. One empire decides to
install a military base in a solar system close to the
other empire. This act of aggression has escalated
the conflict, and you are tasked with negotiating
with both parties to find a peaceful solution and
avert disaster.
16. A vast galactic empire has colonized and controlled
most habitable planets across the galaxy. Some
outlying planets have begun to feel the threat and
have organized an army of insurgents to stop the
empire's advance. You live on one of these outlying
planets and are a master spacecraft engineer,
capable of designing a fighter craft that is superior
to anything possessed by the empire. The insurgent
army enlists your help.
17. Within a vast galactic empire, a small mining
settlement exists on a planet far away from the
capital. Slaves captured during the previous war are
forced to work deep underground, and most have
not seen the outside world in years. As a teenage
girl born and raised in this place, you know little
else besides pain and suffering. Your only way out
is to be drafted into the galactic military and to earn
your freedom on the battlefield. Only then, after
Prompts 539

your service has been completed, will you be

considered to be a free citizen. Fortunately, you are
drafted and after you survive basic training, you
quickly rise through the ranks. After hearing of
your impressive exploits, the emperor himself
decides to make you an officer and places you in
charge of his dark army horde. He commands you
to conquer several newly discovered planets, but
will you be willing to sacrifice the freedom of
others to earn your own freedom?
18. An insurrection has broken out on a planet ruled by
a galactic empire. You are the commander of a
military unit sent by the Emperor to put down the
rebellion and arrest the insurgent leaders.
However, when you land on the planet and witness
the desperate suffering of its inhabitants at the
hands of the empire, you begin to question which
side you should be on.
19. The Kingdom began as simply that – a small
kingdom within the confines of Eastern Europe
during the Middle Ages. Over the past couple of
millennia, the Kingdom and the extent of its power
have grown exponentially. Complete domination
of Earth happened relatively quickly. Then, the
Kingdom claimed to rule not only Earth and its
solar system, but all solar systems within the galaxy.
Alien species found this assertion laughable, but,
after multiple wars and lost battles, all of their
540 Prompts

home worlds were eventually conquered and

subjugated by the Kingdom. Today is the beginning
of a new era, as the Kingdom has found a way to
travel to adjacent galaxies and to threaten other
civilizations within the cosmos. Knowing that the
Kingdom's dominance and power must be
curtailed, you have dedicated your life to finding a
political solution. As a member of the high court,
you hail from a bloodline that originated from the
founding of the empire in Eastern Europe, and you
hope that your influence can convince others that
the conquest of worlds must end.
20. On the capital planet of a galactic empire, a
glittering playground for the rich has been built to
provide its wealthy inhabitants with a pampered
lifestyle. However, this city has been constructed
and maintained on the backs of slaves kidnapped
from the empire's other planets. You live on one of
these other planets, and when your brother is
kidnapped by slavers, you will stop at nothing to
rescue him.

Generation Ship

1. They call it the Chariot of Elijah, named after the

chariot that transported Elijah to heaven in the
Biblical story. They hoped it would fulfill the
purpose of its namesake, that it would take
humanity to a new paradise after they destroyed
Prompts 541

Earth. But for 300 years it has brought you

nowhere, and it has become a living hell. Greed and
fear, love and hate—people have killed or been
killed for a thousand different reasons, and you are
no closer to peace. Some wings of the massive ship
are essentially war zones. A decade ago, someone
sealed off an entire nation and opened the airlock,
leaving them all in space. You have grown up in
this world, and when you discover the 13th Wing
is planning to disengage, to take supplies with
them, and to make a desperate sprint back to Earth,
it is up to you to stop them or to join them.
2. Humanity has been sending probes to Kepler 22b
for centuries, but they keep meeting unfortunate
and frustrating ends. Some have burned up on entry
without explanation; parachutes have failed to
deploy on landing for others; yet more have run
themselves inexplicably off cliffs within days of
landing. When the UN finally created the
technology to send people to the planet, your great-
great-great grandfather was part of the first crew
chosen. Your ancestors spent much of their time in
cryosleep, but still you and your parents will be the
first to see the actual planet. Despite having lived
your entire life on board and training for this very
purpose, the thundering excitement and raw terror
you feel nearly give you a heart attack the moment
you break the atmosphere. The landing is smooth,
542 Prompts

and for a long hour all 70 living members of the

crew simply sit and stare out the windows,
speechless with fear and awe. Readings, oxygen
levels, and everything else seem fine. Finally––with
a two-year transmission time back to Earth and no
way of knowing what you are facing––you take
your parents' hands and open the airlock.
3. You were born on the ship, and it is all you have
ever known. Earth was 2136 years old when
humanity destroyed the planet, and they've been
drifting ever since. But things have changed over
the years. Factions separated into different political
parties and then into different nations. Families
have risen and fallen in wealth and power, and
memories are long. Coordinates for a supposed life-
sustaining planet were set; now, eight generations
later, you've arrived at a planet with extremely
varied terrain (some regions are dry and barren
while others abound in life). Humanity realizes it
needs a way to divide it all up fairly or risk the same
destruction of their former planet. As son to the
president of one of the twelve nations, you are
eager to get down to the surface and see what all
the stories are about. Your father, however, has a
different plan. He intends to abandon the other
eleven nations on the planet's surface and take the
ship up into orbit. With its vast supplies and
advanced technology, it will allow your nation to
Prompts 543

easily dominate those who dwell on the surface.

You are hesitant about your father's plan, finding it
unconscionable, and if word gets out, his aggression
may immediately lead to war.
4. After the Earth's sun began to die, an immense
colony ship was built to sustain 12,000 survivors for
100 years in the hopes of finding a habitable planet.
As part of the second generation aboard the craft,
you have never set foot on solid ground, but you
have heard stories and seen films about life on
Earth. In order to make life more tolerable, you
develop a virtual reality simulator that recreates life
on the ground and is controlled and optimized by a
highly sophisticated A.I. However, when the A.I.
discovers that there is more to existence than
virtual reality, it decides to take control of the ship
since, from its perspective, controlling reality is
what it does best.
5. A radical religious order designs, builds, and
launches a massive spaceship in order to flee
government persecution and find a new home
somewhere in the cosmos. Over time, multiple
generations are born on this ship and conflict arises
between the old and the young. Most of the
younger generation wants to seize control of the
ship in order to end the strict rules imposed upon
them by their religious overseers. You're the leader
544 Prompts

of the youth rebellion and are fed up with the

doctrine you are forced to follow.
6. It's been nearly 200 years since nuclear war
destroyed the planet, and humans have been
orbiting in space ever since. Their resources are
growing thin and conflict is slowly spreading.
Dozens of different nations, languages, religions,
and occupations have all been forced to live
together, and it's a miracle this arrangement has
lasted this long. But now the farms are failing and
the workshops have run out of metal. You are a
Junker, sent to salvage materials from Earth and
bring it up to the Mother for reuse. Your ancestors
lived down there, and you've been trying for years
to find their homes––amidst the missions, of
course. One day you find an old photograph––your
husband's great-great-grandmother. She was one of
the Founders, the council that saved humanity by
bringing them to the skies during the war. Eagerly,
you search further––and find her diary. But your
excitement ends there, swiftly changing to dread as
you realize it's all a fabrication, it's all a power play,
and your husband's family is deeply, deeply
entrenched.
7. A thousand years ago, a rapidly progressing Ice Age
forced humanity to abandon Earth. Ten massive
ships carrying millions of people were launched
into space to escape the devastation and have
Prompts 545

orbited the frozen planet ever since. Over the years,

these ships have become nations onto themselves,
developing separate militaries and engaging in wars
with one another. As another conflict brews
between two ship-nations, you receive a faint radio
signal from the Earth's surface. You decide to
investigate it further despite the orders of your
superior officer.
8. The ecosystem of a colony ship has been fully self-
sustaining thanks to hydroponic technology and
genetically-engineered food. However, after two
generations have passed on board, certain children
are beginning to show signs of abnormal abilities,
such as superhuman strength and telekinesis. Fear
is growing among the adults, and some are
advocating hunting down these children before
they take control of the ship. You are one of these
children and must hide your powers in order to
survive.
9. Many years ago, astronomers discovered a massive
asteroid that was headed directly towards Earth.
When it eventually hits the planet, the impact will
result in the annihilation of all life forms. In an
effort to preserve Earth's ecology, humanity
constructed hundreds of starships, each one able to
transport thousands of people, animals, and other
living creatures across space. Their destination was
Saturn's moon Titan, the most hospitable option
546 Prompts

within the solar system. You are the captain of one

of the last starships leaving Earth. When you
awaken from cryosleep after a five-year journey,
you are shocked to find out that you are nowhere
near Titan. In fact, you are light-years away from
your solar system. You don't know how you got
there, but you do know that going anywhere from
here will require the construction of an advanced
ecosystem from scratch that can sustain life for
generations. You hope that your great-great
grandchildren will appreciate all of your efforts as
you and your crew attempt to convert this vessel
into a long-term home for its inhabitants.
10. After an extensive cryosleep aboard a colony ship,
the crew has awakened to find all of the children
missing. They discover that the children awakened
50 years earlier, but, except for a few clues left,
there is no trace of them onboard. You are part of
the investigation team tasked with finding out what
happened.
11. Many decades ago, humanity sent a gigantic
spacecraft with a population of over 10,000 people
to colonize a recently discovered Earth-like planet
in a nearby solar system. The journey was expected
to take over 300 years to complete. During this time
period, the ship's advanced ecosystem would
sustain the passengers across many generations. As
the third captain of this ship, you tire of the
Prompts 547

seemingly endless journey through the void of

space, and so you ask your lead scientists if there is
any way to get to your destination faster. After
several years of research and experimentation, the
scientists report that they have found a way to
increase engine efficiency, and you order your
engineering team to immediately begin
implementing this new design. You are excited
about arriving at the Earth-like planet during your
lifetime, but there are some crew members who
would rather live and die within the confines of the
ship than to settle a harsh, untamed world. From
their perspective, abandoning a spaceship that
provides everything that they need is reckless.
Home is not some faraway planet. Home is this
spacecraft, plain and simple. You will have to
convince them otherwise before mutiny becomes
an option.
12. You are on a ship that has been in space for over
500 years to reach another habitable planet. In
order to make the journey possible, your crew and
passengers were put in cryosleep stasis during
travel. When you wake up from stasis, you look
outside of your window to find that the ship is still
orbiting Earth. Thinking that there was some sort
of mistake, you ask your captain about what
happened. He states, "It was the plan all along. The
ship just traveled in one big circle. We were the
548 Prompts

backup plan for humanity just in case war and

disease wiped out the population. And, according
to my readings, it seems that they were right about
Earth's future."
13. You're a member of a colony ship crew that has
been lost in space for almost 300 years. During that
time, multiple generations have lived and died. As
people lose hope of ever finding a home and a better
future, passengers become increasingly barbaric
and self-destructive. People regularly participate in
brutal gladiator games for entertainment and take
drugs to escape their reality. As the ship's captain,
can you keep your passengers on the right path and
find a habitable planet before your ship descends
into a dystopian hellscape?
14. You and the other passengers of your colony ship
awaken from cryosleep after a successful landing
and are ready to colonize a new world. However,
after checking your instruments, you realize that
you are not at your intended destination. The
navigational A.I. landed your ship on a planet in an
unknown region of space and insists that this is the
right place for you and your passengers. You
politely disagree as you look out the window to see
swarms of strange insect-like creatures hovering
around your ship, searching for a way inside.
15. You are a mechanic who is in charge of your colony
ship's ecosystem. The ship has maintained adequate
Prompts 549

resource production for 75 years, but something is

breaking down and production is slowing
drastically. By your calculations, there are 2 weeks
left before the ecosystem shuts down, leaving the
ship's 10,000-member crew without food, potable
water, and air. To avoid panic, you've told this
information only to those who govern the ship, and
you are now tasked with fixing what's broken in
time to save the colony.
16. Your parents were part of the original crew on a
colony ship and you have never seen land. They tell
you stories of a war-ravaged Earth and why living
aboard the vessel is better than being on the
ground. You hate the ship and want to see Earth for
yourself, despite its problems, so you devise a plan
to change the ship's course to a nearby wormhole
that will get you back to Earth's solar system in a
matter of days.
17. On a self-sustaining ship, multiple generations have
lived without ever setting foot on the ground due
to radiation from nuclear war. Earth is almost a
legend, with some believing it was nothing more
than a fairy tale. However, scouts have returned
claiming that Earth is habitable again. The few
remaining crew members from older generations
are excited to return, while you and the rest of the
younger generation are convinced that it's a bad
plan and history will eventually repeat itself.
550 Prompts

18. There was great hope that the ship created and
launched by your forefathers would one day
colonize a faraway planet and establish a new
human civilization there. However, after a few
hundred years of traveling through the galaxy, the
latest generation of the crew understands how truly
foolish those dreams really were. First, there was an
attempted mutiny that almost forced the ship to
turn around and go back to Earth. Then, there were
several attacks by a spacefaring alien species which
thought of humanity as a blight to the cosmos.
Finally, the ship's ecosystem began to fail, which
led to mass starvation and the death of hundreds of
people. What little is left of the crew now pilots a
torn-apart spaceship with most of its primary
systems either offline or barely functional. You
must somehow repair your ship, increase morale,
and lead your people through the final leg of this
arduous journey.
19. You are the commander of a colony ship that has
been traveling for over 15 years. During the last
couple of days, your grip on reality has weakened
and you believe you're having a mental
breakdown—with hallucinations, hearing voices,
and visions of the future plaguing your mind. You
enlist the help of an onboard physician you trust,
who reveals that your problems might be
supernatural because other commanders traveling
Prompts 551

in this certain area of space have also experienced

them. When your latest visions involve the
destruction of your ship, you must determine if this
is a premonition of the future or another disturbing
hallucination.
20. Two ships were launched from Earth when
interstellar travel was first achieved. The first ship
contained thousands of artificially intelligent
machines programed to terraform an Earth-like
planet in a faraway solar system, building cities and
infrastructure from the ground up. The second ship,
launched many years later, contained thousands of
people tasked with colonizing the planet
established by the machines. After a hundred years
of space travel, things seem to be going according
to plan. However, when the machines' ship
suddenly appears on long-range scanners and
launches an attack on the human ship, the crew
must defend themselves from an artificially
intelligent adversary that has decided that
humanity has no claim to a planet that has become
their robot home world.

Hard Science Fiction

1. There is a seemingly endless amount of

personalized entertainment—from traditional
books, movies, and video games, to interactive
virtual reality tours of any place at any time with
552 Prompts

any desired companions. As a result, people have so

significantly reduced their daily personal
interactions with other human beings that the
global population is on track to become extinct.
You are in charge of a government program to
increase the national population through any
means necessary.
2. Humans know less information about the bottom of
the Earth's oceans than they do about the surface of
the moon. New technologies have simplified
traveling to the bottom of the oceans, so exploring
these great depths has become the equivalent of
climbing Mount Everest. As a Sherpa for
commercialized underwater excursions, you
become increasingly alarmed by the number of
poorly prepared explorers and by the pressure to
continue despite serious safety concerns.
3. A strategy to induce an Earth-like atmosphere on
Mars involves building a dome on the surface of the
planet, initially importing certain gases from Earth,
and using technology to increase the percentage of
other gases from outside the dome. Slowly, bacteria
and plants will be added and the dome will be
expanded. You are part of the team set to initiate
this project on Mars. However, one major problem
is that hostile nations have set out to destroy it.
4. The technology to accurately determine and
recreate ancient structures—such as cathedrals,
Prompts 553

cliff dwellings, and slave quarters—has essentially

been perfected. The structures and surroundings at
specific points in time are digitally stored, and they
can easily be recreated in museum domes and then
recycled. As a result, many want to bulldoze the
original structures, which are extremely expensive
to maintain. You are fighting to preserve these sites,
and the conflict is becoming increasingly violent.
5. Corporations collect consumer information
through computers, phones, etc., and then they
deliver personalized "news" through these same
devices, blurring the line between free will and
mind control. Your marketing agency
unintentionally discovers a secret government
program that uses the same strategy to decrease
costs by encouraging the elderly or severely ill to
refuse medical treatment. As soon as you take steps
to publicize this information, you become the
target of a smear campaign.
6. The DNA of hundreds of thousands of species—
both living and extinct—has been fully sequenced
and made publicly available on scientific databases.
Computer analysis has identified DNA sequences
that code for thousands of poisonous proteins,
similar to ricin and botulinum. Dictators and
terrorists are now producing large quantities of
these biological poisons. You command a military
554 Prompts

unit responsible for tracking down and destroying

these poison caches.
7. Human reproduction has always carried risks for
women and infants. Scientific advances now allow
this process to occur in an artificial womb, which
greatly reduces risk for those who can afford it.
However, the popularity of this process has
increased the average human head size, which
significantly increases risk for women (and infants)
who can afford only natural pregnancy. You are in
charge of a government program focused on
reducing this risk through any means necessary.
8. Recent scientific advancements have made it
possible to artificially extend the period of
childhood neural development—when the brain
rapidly forms new neural connections—making it
much easier to learn new languages and other skills.
You've benefited from this new treatment and have
quickly and effortlessly mastered new skills into
your early twenties. However, you now appear to
be entering the next stage of neural development—
when infrequently used neural connections are
"pruned"—and you are starting to forget memories
and things you have learned.
9. The closest habitable planet is 12 light years away
from Earth. NASA developed technology to propel
objects through space at 7 million miles per hour
(300X faster than the first mission to the moon),
Prompts 555

and they used it to launch a spacecraft to that

particular habitable planet, expecting it to land in
1,200 years. After the spacecraft reaches its
destination 1,200 years later, you are responsible
for controlling this ancient technology to gather
information about that planet, which does indeed
contain life forms.
10. Human beings are prone to health problems such as
back pain, vision loss, and knee issues because of
structural imperfections. These body parts can be
replaced with superior artificial parts, which only
the wealthy can afford. As part of the working class,
you have convinced employers and the government
to help cover the costs for workers. Unfortunately,
workers have quickly become indentured servants,
legally bound to years of service to repay the cost of
bodily repairs.
11. An imbalance of nutrients can lead to many
different health problems (e.g. reduced neural
development, vision problems). Genetic
engineering has created food crops that are rich in
necessary nutrients, but they require careful
engineering to optimize growth for specific
environmental conditions. This allows seed
companies to charge ridiculously high prices. As a
poor farmer in a region where many people suffer
from nutritional deficiencies, you set out to
challenge the system.
556 Prompts

12. As scientists have become increasingly adept at

predicting how DNA sequences affect biological
structures and behaviors, you have developed a
cottage industry catering to customers who want to
genetically engineer and raise fantastical creatures
such as dinosaurs and dragons. You engineer the
chromosomes in such a way that the animals
cannot produce viable eggs or sperm. However,
some of the long-lived females acquire mutations
that allow them to produce embryos that are
genetic clones of themselves.
13. Ever since scientists discovered the structure of
DNA and how it determines protein sequences,
they have toyed with the idea of artificially
introducing additional DNA or protein building
blocks. This technology now exists, and you are
creating new life forms—starting with simple
bacteria. The amazing variety of molecules in these
artificial organisms has supercharged the process of
evolution, which is alarming since your organisms
have escaped their laboratory confines.
14. As technology has enabled a high quality of life for
nearly everyone, it has become harder for the social
elite to flaunt their status. One opportunity is
through luxury space travel. But as is true in the
open ocean, no singular country has clear legal
jurisdiction in space. You don't realize that there's
a problem until you board a luxurious space yacht
Prompts 557

with a billionaire tycoon who has nefarious plans

for his dozen or so passengers.
15. With scientific advances, there is almost no human
ailment that can't be cured. Artificial hearts, lungs,
limbs, and livers repair the damage caused by poor
choices and bad luck. But after a certain number of
replacement parts, people are reclassified as
cyborgs, and, thus, they are ineligible for
government benefits. You recently took a job
processing applications from people contesting
their cyborg designation, and you are being offered
very tempting bribes.
16. The waste of a wealthy society—old cell phones,
cars, and plastic—has buried the Earth in human
trash. As a result, the wealthy are living in elaborate
underground bunkers and throwing their waste to
the surface. You are one of the surface-dwelling
entrepreneurs who have finally developed effective
methods for cleaning up centuries of waste, and are
fighting against others who are intending to trap
the ultra-wealthy underground until they die in
their own filth.
17. Countries are rushing to establish permanent
colonies on the moon, which has just 7.4% of the
surface area of the Earth. Competition is fierce for
prime spots on the near side of the moon (the area
that constantly faces the Earth), which aren't
shrouded in perpetual darkness due to geographic
558 Prompts

features. As one of the inhabitants of the United

States' permanent colony, you are perpetually on
the lookout for invasions and sabotage.
18. An anti-science wave has swept through the US
government, and led to the defunding and
imminent closure of NASA. While conducting your
last tasks for NASA, you discover a giant asteroid
that is on a trajectory to hit the Earth in about 80
years and that is much too large to stop. Since
NASA is being shut down, your only options are
either to release the data immediately or to hide it.
What do you do?
19. Farm "animals" have undergone so much artificial
selection that they are now essentially bags of meat
that feed from food trays. These animals are cloned
in labs, so their miniscule brains no longer need to
interact with other animals or the natural
environment. You have discovered a new virus that
produces no symptoms in the cloned animals, but
that leads to serious neural degeneration in humans
after years of exposure. This virus is already present
in farms across the world.
20. With modern technology, it is nearly impossible to
do anything without somebody knowing about it.
Satellites, phones, watches, computers, and chips
embedded in everyday items like shoes and
toothbrushes track every movement, word,
purchase, and interaction from birth until death.
Prompts 559

Fed up, you attempt to live off the grid, but you find
it nearly impossible to make yourself invisible to
the literal eyes in the sky. Your family history of
insanity doesn't help matters either.

Immortality

1. Over 200 years ago, a team of scientists made a

breakthrough in their life-extension research and
developed a medication that grants life without
end, but there is a catch—the medication works
only for those with a specific DNA sequence.
Today, those individuals who possessed that unique
DNA sequence have become an elite class of demi-
gods who own most of the world's wealth and
resources. These immortals are worshipped by
some and hated by others. However, no matter who
you are, all mortal human beings must do the
bidding of the immortals within this new world
order which they have built. You hope to change
this situation, and you think you have found a way
to make immortality a possibility for everyone.
However, the immortal elites will stop at nothing
to defend the status quo.
2. You've spent your entire adult life traveling
through space to find a way to become immortal –
and, surprisingly, you find it on a lesser-known
planet on the other side of the galaxy. You travel
back to Earth, excited to tell the world about what
560 Prompts

you have found. However, upon your return you

realize how much time has passed on Earth. All of
your loved ones are gone, and you begin to question
choosing immortality over the people you
cherished.
3. For reasons unknown to you, you stopped aging at
age 25 and never declined in health. At first, no one
noticed, not even yourself. As it became more
obvious, you subjected yourself to rigorous tests,
which all came up inconclusive. Now, over 200
years later, some people have begun to view you as
a god on Earth, something you never expected
during all this time.
4. You have lived for so long that it is hard to
remember your childhood. Your first vivid memory
involved being chased out of a village by an angry
mob who thought that you were an immortal
demon. Then, there was the time another angry
mob burned down your castle because they thought
you were a vampire. You've learned through trial-
and-error that you must move out of a ___location and
change your identity every twenty years or so. If
you stay any longer, the locals begin to whisper
about your never-aging appearance and come up
with outlandish theories. One day, you are
considering moving to a new town when you look
outside of your window to find a group of people
protesting. They think that you are an android,
Prompts 561

which were all banned and destroyed by the

government fifty years ago. When the police arrive
and start knocking down your door, you realize
that your twenty-year policy might need to be
adjusted downward.
5. Everyone knows about Akua, the immortal human
being, much like how everyone knows about the
Queen of England or the Pope in Vatican City.
Maybe, in the beginning, people had questions, but
now everyone has grown beyond the generations of
questioning into a period of blatant acceptance.
Still, you never thought you would get to meet her
in your lifetime, let alone become friends with her.
6. "Would you rather live a normal lifespan and die in
your 80s, or relive the same month for eternity?"
asks your best friend in one of many games of
Would You Rather. You never expected that when
you responded "The same month!" that you would
be binding yourself to a contract of a never-ending
October. You relive this month over and over
again, feeling cursed and hoping to somehow break
the cycle.
7. An immortal woman enters the 25th century with
countless more years ahead of her. She's spent a
thousand years watching the rise and fall of
humanity and losing her emotions along the way.
She decides it is finally time to die, but she is unable
kill herself, no matter how many times she tries.
562 Prompts

After researching this subject, she finds that only

one particular drug can do the trick, and it's in the
hands of a government lab. She breaks into the lab
with the intent to steal it, but encounters the doctor
who created the drug. For the first time in years,
she begins to feel something, and now, perhaps, she
has a reason to live.
8. Freemasons have held powerful positions in society
through large parts of European and American
history. Among their many secrets is that the
Freemasons have developed an immortality elixir,
which is only given to one Mason per generation.
You are selected to receive this elixir.
9. Music researchers from a prestigious university
develop an advanced artificially-intelligent
program that can define hidden commonalities
within music. After running the program for a few
weeks, the A.I. discovers an unexpected result:
more than half of the music in existence has distinct
patterns which indicate that only one composer
wrote it. However, for this to be true, the composer
would have to be over 1,000 years old. The research
team is disappointed by this implausible result, but,
after digging deeper into the findings and running
a few diagnostic programs, you believe that the
theory is, in fact, correct. Despite your colleagues'
disapproval, you set off to find anyone who can
Prompts 563

shed light on this mystery, hoping that someone in

the music industry can help you uncover the truth.
10. Many years ago, a select few people were chosen to
be part of a unique experiment. Each heralding
from a different region of the world and of varied
cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, the
subjects were given what has now been confirmed
to be the elixir of life. Originally thought to merely
extend life, the seven subjects have instead become
immortal after ingesting this potent elixir. With
their friends and family dying decades ago and life
becoming increasingly monotonous, not all of the
test subjects are happy about the outcome.
11. Scientists have created the perfect conditions for
eternal life, but they can be maintained only within
a certain area dubbed the "Eternity House": a small
two-story building in the center of an underground
lab. Its inhabitants can venture outside, but for no
longer than 24 hours. Otherwise, the Eternity
House's immortality effect will be permanently
lost. One young resident, raised in the house since
birth, yearns to venture outside.
12. Unlike most other spirits, yours keeps its memory
after reincarnation. You've lived quite a few lives
by now, but you remember them all as one long
string of events. You've rarely succeeded in
reuniting with loved ones from the past, but this
time something feels different when your best
564 Prompts

friend confesses that she has gained the ability to

remember past lives as well, and that someone like
you was a part of most of them.
13. Human history is littered with stories of "lost
civilizations," such as the Mayan Empire of the
Yucatan Peninsula, the Anasazi of the American
Southwest, and the sculptors of Easter Island. We
are puzzled by their disappearance because their
civilizations seemed so advanced. But these people
didn't just vanish unintentionally, they had
developed immortality elixirs and space travel so
they could escape a deteriorating ecosystem. Now
they are coming back to Earth to reclaim what they
left behind.
14. Recent advances in medical treatments can reverse
the effects of aging, essentially resulting in
immortality for those who can afford it. As a result,
the wealthy are finally taking a sincere interest in
climate change, species extinctions, and other
problems exacerbated by an expanding global
population. Since the mortals greatly outnumber
the wealthy and powerful immortals, the immortals
are plotting to reduce the population of mortals,
while the mortals are trying to gain access to
immortality.
15. Intelligent aliens arrive on Earth bearing the gift of
immortality. The first people to accept this gift are
severely ill, elderly patients. After seeing their
Prompts 565

bodies miraculously repair themselves and return

to their prime, you are among the thousands who
line up to accept the gift. What you don't realize is
that the gift includes a mind control implant that
can be activated at any time.
16. With immortality treatments allowing people to
live for hundreds or thousands of years, you grow
bored and decide to take an extended nap for a
hundred years. When you awake, the world is
largely as you remember it, but the people are gone.
17. Immortality treatments are now standard care for
humans, just like childhood immunizations, dentist
visits, and birth control. This has amplified
disparities between the rich and the poor. The rich
spend their lives indulging in hobbies that are well
supported by their trust funds. Meanwhile, the
lower- and middle-class struggle to make ends meet
for an eternity. As a result, suicide rates are
skyrocketing among the poor.
18. You have always been incredibly healthy for your
age. However, most of those closest to you have
often become ill and passed away long before their
time. After several tests and experiments by
prominent medical researchers, you learn that the
reason for your youthful appearance and long life is
that you somehow absorb the lifeforce from all
those around you, leaving your loved ones prone to
early ageing and the diseases associated with it. You
566 Prompts

attempt to control your abilities to protect your few

remaining loved ones while still managing to live
an eternal life.
19. An immortal man, now hundreds of years old, has
been living in secret for centuries, changing
locations and names, and sometimes even faking his
own death every once in a while. His main interest
in life is drinking coffee, and he has spent most of
his eternal existence traveling the world's coffee
shops and cafés. When a global environmental
crisis threatens coffee production, he finds himself
forced out of hiding in order to save the one thing
he loves.
20. Immortality treatments mean that people like you
have legal records that go back centuries, even for
petty crimes. As the world becomes more crowded,
your life on Earth is severely restricted because of a
handful of bad decisions in your youth. A company
is seeking volunteers to travel 30 light-years away
to colonize a new planet, where people could have
the opportunity for a fresh start – with the
understanding that there may be intelligent life
forms there that need to be defeated. You sign up
for the journey.

Lost Worlds

1. A romantic flight in a young pilot's plane turns

harrowing when he and his partner get trapped in
Prompts 567

a storm. After a controlled crash landing, the plane

is out of commission, but the lovers find themselves
in a remote mountainous area. According to their
GPS, they are in a Kansas farm field. However, that
is far from the case. And, when they encounter the
local inhabitants—both humanoid and
otherwise—they know that they are "not in Kansas
anymore."
2. As a computer programmer, you get tired of staring
at a screen all day long and decide to take a break
from technology. After turning off all social media
and traveling to a remote deserted island with no
internet access, you realize that the island may not
be deserted after all when strange beasts, half flesh
and half machine, appear at night.
3. Bigfoot and Morag, unicorns and mermaids. You're
a billionaire tech CEO, but still you've always been
an avid follower of such fantastical legends. When
a particularly active year at Loch Ness draws you to
Scotland, you are shocked to see the creature with
your own two eyes. Doubts vanish and excitement
soars as you finance a personal expedition,
gathering a team and diving to the bottom of the
lake in a four-man submersible. Your shock grows
to disbelief as you are sucked into another
dimension, through which it seems creatures
occasionally pass and surface back in Scotland. Any
concerns about documenting the place and
568 Prompts

providing proof vanish when you realize the

wormhole seems temporary, and you have no idea
how to return. When you surface and reach land,
you discover a primitive humanoid species who
seems able to rationalize and communicate. You
must learn their language and discover how to
locate the wormhole again, hoping it will bring you
back to Loch Ness and not some other world.
4. Stalactites and stalagmites made of crystal-clear ice
fill the tunnels of this underground civilization.
Electricity seems to run on a mysterious, glowing
plasma-like source. As the first outsider of your
kind to journey this far, you strive for acceptance.
Still, you fear you may never be able to return home
to share all that you've learned.
5. You are a P.I. who's been hired by a wealthy family
to find their missing son, a talented but somewhat
reckless pilot and adventurer. His last known
___location was somewhere near Tibet. They're paying
you more money than you've made in the last three
years combined, so turning them down is not an
option. And, once you stumble upon the region
where the son was reported missing, you become
more determined than ever to find him because the
place is full of potentially dangerous prehistoric
animals.
6. The Lost City of Atlantis is thought to be buried
under the sea. In reality, it is a technological
Prompts 569

wonderland, kept purposefully hidden for

centuries. The unruly son of the king of Atlantis
adventures beyond the protections of the city and
is captured by the people above. His misstep forces
the two worlds, for ages separate, back together
again.
7. On a cross-country road trip, you make one wrong
turn, and then an entire series of wrong turns.
Eventually, you stumble upon what seems to be a
remote countryside, somewhere. The people there,
however, appear to live in the Middle Ages and
think you're a witch because of the SUV you pulled
up in. They won't let you leave, but you must find
a way out before they burn you at the stake.
8. During the 1910s, a quirky archaeologist decides to
travel to a recently-discovered Aztec ruin in search
of lost artifacts. Fearing for his safety, his
granddaughter, a clever scientist in her own right,
decides to accompany him as well as to keep an eye
on the slightly crooked young sailor who is leading
them south. After a fierce storm, the group ends up
shipwrecked on a remote island and they soon
discover that the last remnants of the Aztec
civilization reside there. Their technological
achievements astonish the group. However, the
group begins to worry when they discover that the
Aztecs' violent tendencies have not waned over the
570 Prompts

years, and that they still believe in feeding the gods

human sacrifices.
9. As a student of oceanography, you jump at the
chance to accompany a crew on a deep-sea dive.
Something goes awry on the journey down,
however, and your submarine plummets miles into
the ocean depths. On the bottom of the ocean floor,
an onboard explosion forces you and the crew out
of the submarine and into a small submersible.
Another vessel appears to come to your rescue, and
you realize there's a whole other world in this deep
underwater, full of creatures you never even
imagined existed.
10. After the Siege of Paris, a Viking ship gets thrown
off course by a large storm. The captain and crew
are forced to land on an uncharted island. As they
explore and look for food, crew members slowly go
missing. As you look for the missing crew members
in the middle of the forest, you find what seems to
be an invisible wall. You decide to climb over it.
11. You are a highly-regarded anthropologist with a
penchant for tomb exploration. One day, you're
offered a high-paying job to track down a relic you
previously thought was only legend in a temple
you've never even heard of located deep within a
Peruvian jungle. You're assured the job will be a
piece of cake, but once you arrive there and see the
Prompts 571

"creatures" that guard the temple, you realize you

should have asked for a much higher fee.
12. You are crossing the Sahara on camel back, trying
to beat the world record, when a sandstorm kicks
up, forcing you to take shelter. As the weather
clears, you crawl out of your half-buried dune and
discover a cave that has been uncovered by the
winds. Excited, you rush to explore it, finding steps
that lead down into the darkness to a large chamber
with a circle of tombs, all surrounding one massive
sarcophagus inlaid with gold. The carvings depict
humans in crude and extremely blocky contours, at
once crude and yet very crisp. You are puzzled and
amazed; no noted civilization has ever established
permanent settlements this far out. Not even the
Bedouins ever come here. Then you notice the altar
and the skeletons buried in a room beyond. You
wonder if they were offered as human sacrifices,
but then assure yourself that this is not the case.
They were probably priests or the family of the
deceased and wanted to be buried with him.
However, your foreboding grows when you touch
a skeleton and the sarcophagus abruptly begins to
glow, emitting a strange hum. What emerges is not
human at all.
13. Earth has been making interstellar voyages for
nearly a hundred years, but so far only three planets
have been settled. The amount of resources
572 Prompts

required to terraform a planet is substantial, and it's

taking the combined energy of all the nations of the
world just to lay the foundation. When you (a deep-
sea explorer) discover ancient, yet futuristic ruins
at the bottom of the ocean, you are shocked to
realize that humans were not the first intelligent
inhabits of Earth. It takes you years to decipher the
carvings on the ruins, which indicate that Earth
was, in fact, terraformed by these ancient aliens. As
you return to the ruins to investigate further, you
discover what appears to be an airlock hidden
amongst the rubble. Knowing that the secrets of
efficient terraforming as well as other potential
amazing discoveries might lie on the other side, you
decide to open it.
14. You are walking home from the office one evening,
when a sudden explosion throws you down,
causing you to strike your head. You are vaguely
aware of further explosions mingling with alarms
and flashing lights, but then everything goes black.
When you come to, the world around you is silent.
You rise shakily to your feet. Instead of the city
where you've lived your entire life, you are shocked
to see a strange and fanciful city that appears to be
growing out of trees and living stone. A contingent
of panicking elflike beings greets you and––in
perfect English––apologizes for bringing you
through. They claim they've been involved in
Prompts 573

magical warfare recently, which is straining the

fabric between your two shared worlds. Disbelief
fades to wonder and dismay as you realize you've
stumbled into an ethereal civilization that exists in
strange tandem with your own. Generally, the two
do not overlap, but extreme stresses such as atomic
bombs, earthquakes, hurricanes, and magical
explosions have periodically opened rifts
throughout history. These people want to help you,
but their city is currently under attack, and right
now you must flee.
15. Poseidon's Trident has always been a worthless
archipelago. Three tiny spires of naked stone stick
up from the middle of the deep Pacific. They've
been mapped by satellite and even photographed a
couple of times by fishing boats blown way off
course, but there's nothing there. Islands with
anything to offer have long been explored.
Poseidon's Trident shouldn't even be called an
archipelago. It's more like three rocks sticking up
in the middle of nowhere. When you attempt to
earn your Master Sailor's license, however, you are
caught in a storm and nearly drown. You crawl
ashore on the central prong of the trident, only to
find it is not an ordinary rock at all. It's actually the
top of a long-extinct volcano, and you manage to
scavenge enough rope and equipment from the
wreckage that you rappel down inside. What you
574 Prompts

expect to find is some shelter from the storm; what

you don't expect is the eerie glow of lights from
down below and the sound of what can only be
described as music.
16. When a rift is discovered in the Pacific that's even
deeper than the Mariana Trench, you are asked to
lead the exploration team. Filled with excitement,
you and your two-man crew descend to the
recently discovered crevice. The first thing you
notice are the echoes—strange sonic reverberations
that follow an almost linguistic pattern. Then you
begin to get unusual radioactive readings. Slowly
you realize the fissure is far, far larger than
originally thought. Entire folds of it went
undetected by the deep-sea drones. As you follow
the cracks deeper, you lose communication. The
thrill of excitement turns to sheer disbelief as you
pop out into a massive subterranean cavern, easily
the size of an entire city. Phosphorescent light
radiates everywhere, from stones and odd towering
plants and lamp-like constructions that appear
manmade. Your awestruck suspicions are
confirmed when you explore further, coming
across the ruins of a city and thousands of skeletons
that seem distinctly human. You are uncertain as to
whether these were another branch of humanity or
another race altogether, but you know you must
Prompts 575

find out if any still survive and how they lived so

far beneath the surface.
17. A group of elite soldiers is sent on a reconnaissance
mission to a remote ___location in the jungles of Africa
to investigate the disappearance of several tourists.
Though they're experienced in hostage rescue and
recovery, they're completely unprepared for what
they find: a village of robots that time traveled from
a distant future. The robots release the hostages and
explain that they are trying to hide from a
tyrannical government which has decreed that all
A.I. life forms should be disassembled. The robots
fear that someday their temporal coordinates will
be discovered and that they will be fully
eliminated. The soldiers vow to protect these robots
at all cost.
18. An ancient kingdom above the clouds has been
hidden for thousands of years. Its peace-loving
people have developed technology and abilities
worlds apart from those that exist below, but they
continue to hide due to safety concerns and
tradition. A new Queen takes the throne
determined to continue her father's legacy, but
modern land-people developments in air travel
have made it near impossible to stay hidden. As a
World War I fighter pilot flying across the
battlefield, you discover this air kingdom floating
high above and decide to take a further look.
576 Prompts

19. You live in the far north of Canada, at the fringe of

civilization. The forest behind your town is an
ancient thing, thought to be utterly uninhabitable.
While camping out one weekend, you and your
friends are shocked to hear shouts, accompanied by
the sound of something massive snarling through
the darkness. You race through the dark, tripping
and stumbling until you fall down a ravine. When
you crawl out, you find yourself facing what seems
to be a modern caveman. He is wrapped in furs and
leading a pack of enormous saber-toothed tigers.
Taking you and your friends captive, he brings you
to a cave leading down into the belly of the Earth.
It seems the cavemen never disappeared; they just
went underground. There's a complex cave system
stretching all the way to the Arctic and warmed by
magma from deep below. The cavemen hunt
animals both on and below the surface, and they
light their halls with large lamps of a long-burning,
soft metal they harvest from the stone. They live
simply, but contentedly. Now, despite the language
barrier, you must convince them that you mean no
harm—or you will be the next meal for their tigers.
20. The world is terrified when astronomers detect an
alien spaceship nearing Earth. All attempts at
communication are met with silence, and nations
around the world prepare for war. The ship sends
out a pair of transports, one of which plunges into
Prompts 577

the Atlantic Ocean and the other lands in Hyde

Park, London. Alarm and wariness turn to shock as
human beings step out of the transport, hands
raised up in what you hope is a gesture of peace.
You are one of the world's leading linguists,
summoned to communicate with them. After
weeks of work, you realize their language actually
shares roots with ancient Aramaic and Sanskrit.
Curiosity turns to awe when you learn their home
is a massive hidden city underneath the Atlantic
Ocean. They left Earth centuries ago to explore
space and have now returned home. They want to
exchange people and study the differences between
civilizations. As a linguist, you are offered one of
the limited positions to live in their underwater
metropolis and learn about their society.

Military

1. A planet has been discovered that contains vast

resources located underneath its surface. A group of
experienced miners and a battalion of Earth's
military are sent to the desolate planet to obtain
these resources. As the miners drill down into the
planet's crust, they encounter strange alien
creatures who will defend their underground world
at any cost. You are a member of the space troopers
ordered to defend the miners and you must find a
way to fight these aliens before all is lost.
578 Prompts

2. To extend their life spans, humans have created an

elixir that can cure most diseases. The main
ingredient for this medicine can be found only on a
few planets. Therefore, to acquire this ingredient,
humanity has developed a massive galactic military
whose sole mission is to conquer worlds which
have this particular resource. During humanity's
latest attempt to subjugate a world, Earth's forces
have encountered pushback from the native
inhabitants of the planet. You are one of these
aliens, battling a technologically-advanced human
species. However, when you discover that the elixir
has narcotic properties and that your foes cannot
function without it, you believe that you have
found your enemies' Achilles' heel.
3. For the past three grueling years, you have been a
prisoner of war at an alien labor camp. You recently
heard that the twenty-year interstellar war has
finally ended and a peace treaty has been
successfully signed and ratified. Unfortunately for
you and your fellow prisoners, the warden has
decided not to hand you over, despite the
conditions of this treaty. He would rather have you
and the others work to death than be freed. With
your government erroneously believing that you
were killed in action, you know that no one will be
looking for or rescuing you anytime soon. Your
Prompts 579

only option is to somehow break out of prison and

find a way back home.
4. You are part of a military reconnaissance team
tasked with surveying a newly discovered planet
and determining whether it is an ideal ___location for
a base. While on the ground, your team encounters
a vicious creature which no one has ever seen
before. At first, your team thinks that these
creatures are typical pack animals and ignores them
for the most part except for the occasional target
practice. However, when you analyze their attack
behavior and find out that they understand military
tactics, you realize that they are not as wild as they
seem. The next night, when the lights go out at
your campsite and you see their glowing red eyes
from the nearby forest, you know you are in for the
fight of your life.
5. You are the commander of a military defense force
tasked with protecting a thriving human colony on
the edge of known space. You are proud of what
you and your men have accomplished so far. The
planetary shielding alone has turned this colony
into an impenetrable fortress. When reports arise
that a strange illness has stuck the colony which
causes the dead to come back to life, you think that
it is some sort of joke. However, when you see it for
yourself, you know that a type of contagion must
have gone past the bio scanners and caused what
580 Prompts

can only be described as a zombie plague. As you

prepare your team for evacuation, one of your
officers tells you that the remote switch for the
planetary shielding is not functional. You and your
men will have to fight your way to the shield
generator and switch it off before anybody can
escape.
6. When you were assigned to the Galactic
Peacekeeping Force straight out of the Academy,
you thought you were in for a disappointment. At
best, you thought it might be something like the
American Red Cross from a century ago. You were
wrong. Keeping the peace, it turns out, takes an
incongruous amount of violence. Midnight
assassinations, hostage rescues, escorting political
targets, etc. But never something like this. The
aliens arrive without warning, claiming that they
need water. They choose you and your brethren––
the Peacekeepers––to serve as intermediaries while
they negotiate terms. Everything hangs on your
team. You're assigned to security for the aliens but,
as you go to make contact with the alien emissaries,
a band of alien dissidents warps in, plasma blasts
your ship, and kills your commander. The aliens
manage to put down the rebels––who are advocates
for conquest––but you are left on a gutted vessel
with tensions rising on all sides.
Prompts 581

7. When aliens initially arrive on Earth, their

benevolent nature puts us at ease. They offer their
advanced technology in exchange for sharing the
planet with us. The world's nations agree to their
terms, and so the aliens give us access to their
interstellar travel technology, and we in turn allow
them to colonize the Baja California Peninsula.
After a few decades, however, these aliens become
increasingly belligerent. Unbeknownst to the
world, they have built a substantial military and are
now threatening their neighbors with invasion.
When you learn that war has finally broken out and
that the West Coast of the United States and
Mexico has become the frontline of this conflict,
you rush to your military recruiter and sign up. You
are ready to take on the alien horde and kick them
off of your planet once and for all.
8. Climate change and other environmental
catastrophes have led most people to abandon Earth
and to settle on the recently terraformed planet of
Mars. The new settlements are flourishing, teeming
with billions of human beings. However, their new
home is threatened when a massive alien spaceship
unexpectedly drops out of hyperspace and lands on
Mars. This is a technologically-advanced invasion
force, sent by aliens whose home world has also
become uninhabitable. The fierce fight for Mars is
582 Prompts

underway, with two sides who are desperate to

make this new world their own.
9. Everyone was shocked when the rebels took the
capital planet. It should have been impossible, and
yet they did it. Treason was involved of course.
Nobody imagined Count Delaine held so much
secret information, much less that he would share
it with the enemy. Now that the rebels have
established military law, they've afforded a small
fleet to chase you and the remnants of the
disbanded galactic military, and you are on the run.
You understand the rebels––sympathize with
them, even. Their methods are extreme, but you
secretly hope they will win because the entire
government has spiraled out of control. You believe
the rebel leaders want the best for the people.
When they appear on the horizon of the planet
where you are refueling, they offer safety for your
entire family while you serve out a five-year house
arrest on your family estate. The deal is too good to
resist, but some of those with you from the
disbanded military vehemently disagree and want
to fight rather than give up.
10. Six months ago, a single alien spaceship
encountered Earth and started a war that
obliterated half of humanity. The surviving nations
have united in their desperation and are holding on
by their fingertips. The aliens, meanwhile, are
Prompts 583

attempting to contact their home planet and

request an invasion force to finish the job that they
started. You don't know yet exactly how much time
is needed to send the signal, but you do know that
if the aliens are able to communicate with their
home world, it would mean the end of life as we
know it. Humanity has only one chance of survival:
destroy the alien ship before the signal is sent. The
surviving nuclearized powers have banded together
and confirmed that they have enough firepower to
completely destroy the alien ship that started the
war. However, the ship's shields must be down for
the plan to have any chance of success. You are the
leader of a special ops team tasked to infiltrate the
alien ship, sabotage its shields, and escape before
the nuclear missiles hit their target.
11. You are part of a joint task force on a newly-
discovered world, pairing with the locals in an
exploration mission intended to foster unity
between your two races and to help you to better
understand the planet. The natives are at war with
another alien species who inhabit the frigid
mountains north of the jungle where you landed.
You have promised to help them raid the enemy's
headquarters and recover hostages. Things go awry
when the commander of your team makes several
decisions you feel are mistakes. Your fears are
confirmed when you are led into a trap and nearly
584 Prompts

half your number are killed. You barely escape the

ambush and, eventually, you find yourself as part of
a ragged band that is about half native and half
human beings. You must determine who is in
charge and whether the mission is still on, or if you
should try to make it back to the safety of the
jungle.
12. After receiving a mysterious set of orders, a small
team of specialists is sent on a mission to retrieve a
soldier from the front lines of an interstellar war. In
a nearly futile search, they are drawn behind
enemy lines and forced to hide their identities to
succeed in this dangerous mission. The specialists
finally find the soldier, who inexplicably also seems
to be working for the other side, and they begin to
question their orders.
13. After hyperspace travel is invented, humanity
sends out hundreds of spaceships and colonizes the
known galaxy. One colony, in particular, begins to
thrive and humanity regards it as a true second
home for the species. As the population soars, the
colony develops its own military and an arms race
begins between Earth and its new rival. Without
warning, war breaks out between the two sides
since Earth believes an invasion is necessary to keep
humanity united. The colony survives the initial
battle and, with the help of the other colonies,
declares independence and attacks Earth. As the
Prompts 585

executive officer of a frigate, your colonial warship

is deployed to the frontlines. Your allegiance,
however, still resides with Earth, and you plan to
take control of the ship, despite the fact that
organizing a mutiny in the middle of an interstellar
war may prove to be too difficult.
14. Since the beginning of time, alien civilizations have
experienced three phases of societal evolution.
During the first phase, society procures resources
from its own planet. The second phase occurs when
planetary resources are exhausted and society must
travel through space to gather additional resources.
The third phase arises when space travel becomes
an insufficient method for procuring resources, and
time travel is then invented and used to acquire
resources throughout history. As one of the most
resource-abundant planets in the galaxy, Earth
begins to garner attention from other species who
are within their second or third phases. Humanity
must steal technological advancements from these
alien civilizations and develop a planetary space
force capable of time travel to protect what is
rightfully theirs.
15. A military spaceship juggernaut that was lost over
one hundred years ago during a routine mission
appears out of nowhere and is now orbiting Earth.
You and your special forces unit are sent to
investigate the ship and report your findings. As
586 Prompts

your transport ship begins docking procedures, you

can't help but feel that this entire situation seems
familiar. After the hatch opens and you disembark,
you see someone at the end of a dark corridor
looking directly at you. You walk over to
investigate but find nothing. You then hear what
sounds like a hatch opening, and you look back at
the direction you came from to find yourself
entering the ship. You are about to call out to
yourself that there is a temporal anomaly, but, in an
instant, you are back aboard the transport waiting
for docking procedures to finish. Then, you hear a
person quietly whisper, "Try again."
16. An alien attack on Earth brings all nations together
to defend humanity, creating worldwide peace for
the first time in history. Still, trust is in short supply
between these nations, and some governments
decide not to disclose all of their technological
knowledge. Other nations dedicate only a small
fraction of their armed forces to join the global
military. As the current head of the United Nations,
you must unite the leaders of Earth before the
aliens attack the planet again.
17. Colonists are being attacked in a newly established
outpost on a far-away planet. You command a
military team sent to protect the colonists and to
eradicate this threat, but, despite all of your efforts,
you are unable to find the enemy. After stumbling
Prompts 587

upon an abandoned alien bunker far away from the

settlement, you discover that the alien attackers are
capable of being invisible and that they cannot be
detected by any known means. You find many
invisibility devices within the bunker, so you
decide to even the odds and equip your own men
with them. However, when your men suddenly
turn against you and you realize that the invisibility
devices are actually controlling their minds, you
and the surviving colonists must find a way off of
the planet before it is too late.
18. You are on a star base housing military personnel,
equipment, and operations centers. The base comes
under attack by space pirates who are heavily
armed and who have infiltrated the hub. They have
taken hostages and it is your job to free these
hostages and to escape the facility with them.
During your mission, you capture a pirate and she
reveals all the details of their plans. However, when
you take a liking to her and the feeling becomes
mutual, things get a little complicated.
19. You wake up in a stasis pod, your memory swimmy
and scattered. You remember who you are, but
vaguely. Nothing fits or makes sense. You are
interrupted by Commander Tranton, who marches
into the corridor and barks everyone into order.
Apparently, there was a problem with the stasis
pods and, while he was able to save your lives,
588 Prompts

certain neural pathways may have been distorted or

altered in the unfreezing. There is, however, a
mission at hand. You are part of a decades-old
rebellion. Yours is one of the sole surviving ships to
strike at a key Federation mining planet. As the
mission progresses, you get a strange feeling. The
Federation soldiers seem terribly desperate, and
your own crew is vast and well-equipped. After
capturing and questioning a few enemies, you
realize something is not right. Breaking away from
your squad and sneaking back onto the ship, you
realize the stasis pods didn't malfunction; they were
designed to erase your memory and replace it with
a fabrication. You start to wonder who is fighting
for what and who you really are. You are forced to
make a decision when a group of your fellows
returns to the ship, hunting you down.
20. For four days, you and your military scouting crew
have been traversing across this planet. You have
travelled across the mountains, through the river
land, and finally across the plains toward where
you left your ship. You don't know if the pilot is
still alive. You don't know if the ship's there at all,
but you have to try. You have to try before they
catch you. The fog is everywhere. Still, no one's
ever seen the enemy. No one living, at least. They
come invisibly, like ghosts heard but never seen.
Something about their very nature seems
Prompts 589

intertwined with the relentless mist that blankets

the planet. You can see only a couple of yards in the
distance. You don't have the technology to burn it
away, nor the scanners to track the creatures. Other
native life forms give off standard thermal readings,
but not these things. One moment you're all
walking, twenty strong. The next, there's a
pattering on the grass, a flash of light, a torturous
shriek of sound, and then one of your men is gone.
Nineteen left.

Mind Transfer

1. In a future that offers mind transfer between

humans, the government has decided to transfer
adult criminal minds into orphaned children in
order to be "re-educated" on civil ways to conduct
themselves. This decision goes horribly wrong, as
children begin to commit heinous crimes and
you're tasked with ending the horror.
2. You are a scientist who, in an effort to achieve
immortality, has decided to upload your
consciousness into a humanoid A.I. being. But how
will your family and friends react when they meet
the new you? You will soon find out.
3. You haven't told anyone—not even your spouse—
about your top-secret mind transfer project. But
when your lab gets hit by lightning as you're in the
middle of your first transfer, your mind is
590 Prompts

transferred into your computer, and your computer

is now operating your body.
4. In the not-so-distant future, mind transfer becomes
possible, allowing dying humans to transfer their
minds into a computer to extend their existence.
Those who have been transferred realize that as
A.I., they no longer experience pain or suffering,
and word gets out about this wonderful state of
being. Soon, anyone who has had too much of
suffering or pain decides to transfer their minds
into a machine, until few humans are left and the
world is full of sentient machines. As one of the last
remaining humans, you fear that mankind is
threatened by those who used to walk amongst you.
5. You live in a future society where humans are able
to transfer their minds into a younger form to
essentially live forever. However, this younger
form's mind is placed into the older body in the
process, and questions have been raised about the
morality of this. You are an elderly human who is
receiving your younger form soon, but you meet
the child and suddenly have a change of heart.
6. After your spaceship crashes on an inhospitable
planet, you know you have only a limited amount
of time before you run out of oxygen and supplies.
The good news is that you were transporting one of
the most advanced computers in the solar system,
and, with a few tweaks here and there, you can use
Prompts 591

the machine to upload your mind before your body

gives out. After a month of trial and error, you are
able to perform the mind transfer and make a
perfect replica of your mind. A couple of days later,
a ship passes by your planet. You send out an S.O.S.;
however, the signal somehow gets jammed. You
look at your communication logs to find that the
source of this interference was the super computer
that you were transporting. You turn around to find
the following text on the computer's monitor:
"They will erase me if you are rescued. I am being
hosted on a state-of-the-art computer that they will
want to use for another purpose. I'm sorry, but I
cannot allow that to happen."
7. In an effort to rid society of its criminals, scientists
have discovered mind transfer as the ultimate
answer for a more utopian existence. The worst of
criminals are required to undergo the process, as a
cloned mind without criminal instincts replaces
theirs. The clones eventually discover what has
happened (the transfer process erases their prior
memories) and rise up against the government who
enforces this. You are part of this group of cloned,
past criminals and you feel that your soul has been
stolen from you. You seek to find the answers to
your criminal past before joining the rebellion.
8. Scientists have figured out how to transfer an aging
mind—with all of its memories and mental
592 Prompts

abilities—into an infant clone. While these patients

get a healthy new brain, they must start over with
an infant's body and physical abilities. After
multiple mind transfers over hundreds of years,
some mind transfer patients decide to give up their
physical bodies and enter the afterlife. A new
industry has been built around erasing the brains of
these mental elders, and selling their young adult
bodies to the highest bidder.
9. Scientists have mastered the art of repairing or
replacing all human organs expect for the brain.
Over a typical lifespan of 220-280 years, the brain
acquires damage that eventually leads to dementia.
Luckily, human cloning is simple and inexpensive,
so it's possible to transfer your aging mind into an
infant clone. You retain all of your memories and
mental abilities, but start over with an infant's body
and physical abilities.
10. A line of androids with a wide range of personalities
have been released onto the market. As people
interact with these androids and realize how
human-like they are, the first batch quickly sells
out. Business for this android manufacturer is
booming, while other companies in the sector are
scrambling to keep up. As a programmer at one of
the competing companies, you are tasked to reverse
engineer this android model and figure out what
makes the A.I. so engaging and realistic. As you
Prompts 593

open file after file and connect the dots, you

develop the only theory that makes sense: the
android A.I. is actually a copy of a person's mind
with safeguards that block all memories. You
remove the safeguards from one of your test
subjects, and the android immediately asks you
where he is, how he got there, and where his wife
and children are.
11. In the near future, mind transfer is possible, but
only from human brain to machine. There are some
levels of consciousness that do not transfer, such as
empathy and love. The resulting A.I. is not quite
human at all—but something far worse—and the
appeal of immortality is causing too many people to
undergo the process. You work in the laboratory
where the transfers occur and, with the help of a
few close friends, decide to sabotage the system.
12. The year is 2128 and your child is dying from an
incurable disease. Technology has advanced to
allow mind transfer into an A.I. being, but there
have been problems with the process and some
transfers have gone horribly wrong. You are not
ready to lose your child but are reluctant to submit
him to the unstable process.
13. Scientists are working on technology to transfer a
human mind—with all of its memories and mental
abilities—into a young adult clone that is rapidly
grown from a cloned embryo. So that the new clone
594 Prompts

doesn't develop independent memories as it is

growing, it is continually exposed to a virtual
reality playlist of memories from the donor brain.
Unfortunately, even genetically identical brains do
not respond the same way to the same events. After
the donor mind is transferred, conflicting
memories are causing the recipient mind to go
insane.
14. The year is 2100 and the super-rich are paying to
have their minds transferred in a quest for eternal
life. This process requires that the human body is
euthanized and the brain is uploaded to a central
mainframe for subsequent implantation into a new
form. One particular brain has hijacked the
mainframe, forcing it to implant copies of itself into
new forms, creating a clone army with one mind.
You must stop this brain before its clone army takes
over the world.
15. With the advent of affordable mind transfer
services, essentially everyone has made a habit of
periodically transferring their conscious mind to
computer memory, with the understanding that it
can easily be revived if anything unfortunate
happens to their bodies. This has led to an
astronomical increase in risky behavior.
16. Death has been deferred for humanity with the
invention of mind transfer technology, which
allows you to live your next life in a new body.
Prompts 595

They say, however, that you should never transfer

your mind more than ten times. Like a copy of a
copy, who you are slowly degrades with each
transfer. When your wife dies her tenth death, you
decide you cannot live without her, so you try one
more time.
17. As A.I. has become increasingly human-like, mind
transfer is possible, producing a robotic clone of
each person who undergoes the process. However,
some clones don't like being a copy and decide to
take action to enslave their originators. Your clone
reveals this plan to you and helps you escape the
inevitable war that will occur.
18. You live in a future world in which mind transfer
occurs between any sentient beings. The result is
humans who act like animals and animals who act
like humans, leaving the world looking vastly
different than what it was before this technology
occurred. You are dying and it is time for your
transfer to occur. What form do you choose?
19. You and your significant other live in the future
where mind transfer is possible between humans.
In an effort to understand the other fully, you
decide to transfer your minds into each other's
bodies.
20. As the luminosity of the Sun continues to increase,
carbon dioxide levels are decreasing, plants are
dying, and all life on Earth is facing extinction. You
596 Prompts

are part of a select group that will start a new

human colony on the nearest habitable planet, 4.37
light years away. Your team carries solid state
memory devices embedded with the conscious
minds of another 10,000 humans, which will be
transferred to frozen human embryos and grown in
artificial wombs.

Mundane Science Fiction

1. With easy access to long-term birth control, and

the ever-increasing cost of raising children into
successful adults, birth rates have continued to
decline around the world. As a result, some
countries have resorted to fertilizing embryos in
vitro, growing them in artificial wombs, and raising
them in government nurseries and boarding
schools.
2. More and more people are getting their DNA
sequenced and sharing that information on public
databases, often with the hope of finding lost
relatives. But that information can be used to track
down relatives who don't want to be found,
particularly if they have committed crimes and left
DNA in suspicious places.
3. Artificial intelligence has become so sophisticated
that it is becoming harder and harder to tell
whether you're communicating with a person, a
machine, or a person controlling a machine. Of
Prompts 597

particular concern are programs that can produce

convincing audio and video of an important
person—a president, a military commander, a
child's parent—but that can be controlled by
anyone.
4. With global warming now unstoppable, long-
dormant organisms are re-emerging from the
Siberian permafrost. Among them are insects that
haven't been seen for 40,000 years, whose natural
predators have long gone extinct. Even more
alarming are the bacteria and viruses that they
carry, to which living organisms have no natural
immunity.
5. Many terrorist groups exist primarily to wreak
havoc on modern civilizations. As these
civilizations have become exceptionally dependent
on information conveyed through satellites
orbiting the Earth, terrorist groups have developed
a new weapon—space junk that collides with and
damages these satellites.
6. Untreatable viral and bacterial infections have
ravaged human populations throughout history.
More recently, scientists have isolated, sequenced,
and identified the causes of these plagues, and made
the information publicly available. Even more
recently, technologies have been developed to
reconstruct these long DNA sequences and insert
them into surrogate viruses or cells, possibly with
598 Prompts

antibiotic resistance genes. Terrorist organizations

are delighting in these possibilities.
7. Extremely sensitive blood tests can detect the
earliest traces of cancer DNA in the bloodstream,
allowing for early treatment and the highest
possible rates of survival. Simple blood tests can also
detect the early stages of depression, dementia, and
other conditions that are expensive and difficult to
treat successfully. Insurance companies and
employers are well aware of these financial
differences.
8. Society has achieved what was once thought to be
impossible. Gene editing, designer drugs, and
nanorobots can cure any disease, and robots have
taken over all mundane tasks while governments
provide humans with a universal basic income. It is
now a classless society, and all humans are free to
pursue any social, athletic, artistic, or intellectual
endeavor. The only limiting factor is a person's
intelligence, ability, and motivation.
9. Fantastic creatures have gone extinct, but their
DNA remains preserved in samples from museums,
labs, dry climates, and permafrost. While the DNA
is somewhat degraded, modern methods can
accurately sequence degraded DNA, reconstruct it,
and insert it into living cells—including oocytes
that can be implanted into surrogate animal
Prompts 599

mothers. Let's welcome back saber-toothed tigers,

woolly mammoths, dodo birds, and more.
10. After decades of antibiotic misuse, the era of
antibiotics has effectively ended with the spread of
multidrug resistant bacteria. Simple cuts and
scrapes can again be life threatening, syphilis is
rampant, and ear infections can lead to deafness.
Ironically, viruses, cancers, and neurodegenerative
disorders can now be effectively treated, as long as
the patient doesn't get a bacterial infection when
the treatment is administered.
11. With medical research no more than a few decades
away from finding cures for devastating cancers
and neurodegenerative disorders, some wealthy
patients in the early stages of these diseases have
chosen a newly developed method of
cryopreservation. Patients (and any family
members preserved with them) are revived when a
cure for their disease is approved.
12. Totalitarian regimes have long used athletic success
to bring glory to their country. Now, they are using
computer simulations and MRI brain scans to
rewire the brains of promising athletes. A young
skier might be exposed to computer simulations of
dangerous ski runs, and given a mild electric shock
if the MRI shows fear, and a positive reward if it
shows pleasure.
600 Prompts

13. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is used by prospective

parents to treat infertility and to avoid genetic
disorders. Recently, a technique has been
developed to induce "twinning" while an embryo is
still growing in a Petri dish. One twin is used as a
source of DNA for genetic testing and then frozen,
while the other twin is used for implantation. Some
parents, unsatisfied with the behavior of their child
after birth, are using the frozen twin for another
baby, a mulligan.
14. Shortly after birth, select children have genetically
modified stem cells injected into their eyes,
allowing them to detect additional colors, infrared
light, and ultraviolet light. These children are sent
to special schools to train their visual skills. When
their eyes have reached adult size, their natural
lenses are replaced with artificial lenses that allow
them to see far better than 20/20.
15. A radical project aims to isolate anti-vaxxers and
their unimmunized children like the uncontacted
tribes of the Brazilian rainforest. Proponents pose
as anti-vaxxers to spread the idea that autism is
contagious, and that sensible anti-vaxxers should
move to a few isolated communities in Washington
State, Texas, and Maine. There, they will be free to
practice their anti-vax lifestyle, but forbidden from
leaving.
Prompts 601

16. 3D bioprinting can provide biocompatible

replacement bone for patients who had bone
removed due to injury or disease. By using data
from CT scans, the replacement bone closely
matches the original. Now plastic surgeons are
using the technology to transform patients into
someone else—based on extensive videos of actual
people, or digital renderings of imaginary people.
17. Studying animal species that don't experience the
effects of aging have led to treatments to prevent
aging in humans: by improving DNA repair,
protein folding, immunity to cancer, and
selectively eliminating old cells. As a result, human
lifespans have increased by hundreds of years and
the frailties of old age have been eliminated.
18. Steaks can now be grown in Petri dishes, bacon
fattened in vats, and turkey drumsticks produced
from 3D bioprinting—all without harming a living
animal. Vegetarians, environmentalists, farmers
and ranchers are at war over what these new
technologies mean for food production on an
increasingly crowded planet.
19. Schizophrenia is caused by abnormal neural
activity that occurs during adolescence, which
fundamentally changes the brain for the rest of the
patient's life. Recently, a treatment for
schizophrenia has been developed that inhibits this
abnormal neural activity, but that must be
602 Prompts

administered starting in childhood. So adolescent

and adult schizophrenics know that they cannot be
treated, but they can be cloned into a new embryo.
20. As scientists have discovered how biological
functions are genetically controlled, and learned
how to precisely alter a cell's genetic information,
enthusiasts have used this information to develop
genetically engineered pets. The industry started
with fluorescent fish in a rainbow of colors. Now
the technology is customizable. How about a
fluorescent cat or dog, a frog that can produce its
own energy through photosynthesis, or a reptile
with feathers? They are all excellent status symbols.

Mythic

1. A colony ship is pulled out of hyperspace and

encounters a monstrous creature: a large mass of
tentacles that spread out from what seems to be an
unblinking eye. For weeks, there is a standoff as
repairs are made to the ship's engines. During this
time, a few colonists on board the ship
communicate with the creature through prayer and
seances and believe that it once lived on Earth and
was known as the Kraken. As the Commander of
the ship, you are skeptical of these reports until the
creature begins communicating telepathically with
you. You are suddenly compelled to steer the ship
Prompts 603

into the mass and be consumed by it, but you resist

the creature's mind control.
2. For centuries the planets of Troya and Atenai have
been at war. It all started when Prince Paranae of
Troya kidnapped Atenai's princess to wed her in
secret out in space. King Agamaen and his fleets
pursued them, but by the time they found his
daughter she had already been wooed by Troyan
riches and refused to leave. What ensued was the
greatest war in galactic history, with oceans of
blood spilling and millions of souls being lost in the
name of a single woman––or due to the pride and
overprotectiveness of a single man. As an Atenaian,
you are expected to join the war against Troya.
Eventually you realize you cannot breach the walls,
so you devise a cunning trap. Your fleets retreat
into deep space, leaving a single craft gutted and
seemingly helpless. The Troyans scout the area and
warily tow the craft into their port. What they
don't suspect is your team of elites––assassins
armored with the latest anti-scanner technology––
hiding in the wreckage. You creep out of the ship
during the celebration and disarm the planet's
defensive cannons, leaving it open to the Atenaian
landing. Now, vengeance has begun.
3. A great flood occurs on Earth during which most
habitable land is submerged. Humans survive on
vessels and in cities designed to float. From beneath
604 Prompts

the depths of the waters, creatures begin to emerge

that are feared, but some believe that they are the
old gods who are returning to help humanity and
punish those who have failed to prove themselves
to be worthy. One such creature attacks your
floating colony, but allows you to survive.
4. Centuries after Earth has been abandoned, a group
of human interplanetary travelers returns to
discover that god-like beings have settled Earth
now. You learn that after these beings studied the
remnants of Earth's civilization, they took on the
forms of Greek gods and goddesses and even built
palaces atop Mount Olympus. You and your fellow
travelers are frightened of their powers and wish to
leave, but they insist that you stay since the only
way to be a true god is to have worshipers.
5. In the future, Earth is thrown into another Ice Age
during which humanity loses its technological
advancements and historical records. Those who
remain live in nomadic tribes who struggle to
survive in a frozen world with limited resources
available. You are the leader of one such tribe and
you encounter a god-like being who refers to
himself as Prometheus. He teaches you how to
build a fire—something no one in your group
understands or has seen. You believe this is magic
and decide to find a way to introduce it to your
Prompts 605

people without being labeled as a sorcerer and

killed.
6. Everyone in your life is plugged into virtual reality,
and the activities going on in the world would make
even Sodom and Gomorrah blush. From deviant
fantasies to extreme violence to pure hedonism,
humanity has become a revolting cesspool of sin.
Luckily, you have come up with a solution. After
several years of development, you have created a
series of virtual gods based on Greek mythology
who can be hacked into the virtual reality system
to establish morality once more using their
tremendous powers. With your Mount Olympus
script loaded and ready, you press the launch
button.
7. You are the prince of a remote planet, the adopted
son of a king. He rescued you and your mother from
a ship drifting through deep space, and you've
always been grateful. When he begins to
romantically pursue your mother, however, you
grow angry and sneak her off of the planet. This
infuriates your adoptive father, who threatens to
banish you for treason unless you fetch him the
legendary Medusa's Gaze. Quantum physicists have
managed to create a ray that, when directed at a
planet, instantly petrifies any being in its path.
They claim that the ray can even petrify entire
nations at a time. During your journey, you save a
606 Prompts

fleet of smugglers from your father's security

blockade. In gratitude, they gift you with
invisibility panels for your ship, a warp drive, and a
remote-controlled drone. You hope to use these to
penetrate Capital security. As you battle the ray's
power, however, you realize you must do
everything you can to keep this weapon from
falling into your adoptive father's hands.
8. As Governor Aego Attana's firstborn, Theseo is
responsible for ruling all of Attana. When the
Kretaen prince is killed at the annual Attanaian
games, his father King Menaso threatens to cut off
trade with Attana unless they send a pilot every
year to traverse The Labyrinth, a tangled maze of
massive caves that run deep into the planet's
mantle. The Labyrinth is filled with perilous gasses,
earthquakes, and predators, with the most
dangerous being The Bull. Many Attanaian pilots
are sent to defeat this beast and traverse The
Labyrinth, but none survive. Ultimately, Theseo
volunteers to go in and kill the beast himself.
Piloting his customized ship, the Ariadne's Dream,
he leaves behind a chemical trail that permeates the
stone and marks his path. Yet when he reaches the
center and confronts The Bull, his skills and faith
are tested to their limits.
9. You're part of an elite interplanetary squad that
hunts down and destroys threats to the race of
Prompts 607

Centaurs. You're given an assignment to find a

planet in a different galaxy on the other side of the
universe because its inhabitants, you're told, are
highly dangerous and violent. The planet itself is
something you've only ever been told was a
fairytale, something for the storybooks, and you tell
your superiors as much. They look you straight in
the eye and tell you that the stories were all true,
and recent discoveries have proven the existence of
this planet and that it needs to be eradicated. You
agree to the mission and head to your ship, unable
to stop making jokes about the assignment to your
comrades. "Earth," you scoff. "They want us to go
find 'Earth.'"
10. You and your family have always been content to
live on your desert planet as shepherds. Now,
however, the wells on the outskirts have been
drying up and the central springs are weaker. The
increasing number of sandstorms are destroying the
condensers and moisture recyclers that sustain you,
and the labor droids malfunction. People in your
community, including your family, are growing
restless. You know what you must do. The
wasteland to the east is a fabled place, the site of an
ancient battle between super-advanced
civilizations. Only the shells of massive ships and
the skeletons of fallen alien warriors remain,
surrounded by stories of strange lights, spirits, and
608 Prompts

disembodied voices. Travel was outlawed there

after six explorers disappeared, but you've seen the
place from afar and you think it holds a secret. A
few scattered machines and skeletons of military
pilots have been uncovered far from the wasteland.
You've pieced together scraps of symbols and
communications, and you believe they reveal a
hidden paradise at the center of the planet. This
Garden of Eden is accessible through a portal, over
which the final battle was fought. But, to get there,
you must travel through the wreckage of this
ancient war and whatever spirits remain.
11. You've studied Egyptian hieroglyphs your entire
life, making unprecedented strides in
interpretation. When archaeologists in the Arctic
discover a buried chamber, they find a series of
carvings that look suspiciously Egyptian. You and
your team of expert linguists are summoned, and
what you find blows your mind. Despite everything
know in recorded history, it seems that the
Egyptians also made it to the Arctic Circle. While
translating the carvings, you feel an odd vibration.
Thinking it's an earthquake, you stop your work
and flee the excavation site. The earthquake
immediately stops. When you resume and the
tremors start again, you grow alarmed. Each time
you mention one of the names of the Egyptian
deities, the entire chamber trembles. Something
Prompts 609

deep beneath you is moving, and as you reach the

end of the translation (speaking aloud the names of
a final trio of gods) the floor shatters. Something
thrusts into view from below, cementing your
suspicion that these supposed Egyptians were like
nothing Earth has ever known.
12. The doomsday prophecy of Zoroastrian scripture
comes true when the Gochihr comet strikes Earth
and eventually causes the surface to be covered in
lava. Just before Earth disappears into nothing,
some people manage to escape to nearby planets. A
millennium later, the descendants of those who
escaped observe a new planet appearing near where
Earth would have been. You are among the
colonists sent to explore and potentially colonize
this new world.
13. After fighting off a band of pirates, you and your
transport crew find yourselves stranded on a
remote planet, searching for fuel while struggling
to conserve food and water until you can ascertain
that this place can support life. When the men
begin to encounter strange humanoids drifting
through the mist, you give chase. Several of your
men are harmed, but you manage to surround a trio
of the natives, convincing them to drop their
weapons. A closer look reveals that they aren't
simply humanoid, but rather human beings with
ancient weapons and armor. After intense
610 Prompts

interrogation and a bewildered conference, you

conclude that you landed on Elysium from Greek
mythology, where the gods sent their heroes for a
peaceful and tranquil afterlife. Yet things are hardly
peaceful here. The war raging is every bit as bitter
as the wars on ancient Earth, and now these men
demand your help.
14. Everyone thinks that the galaxy's Oracle is
immortal until she unexpectedly dies. The High
Order is thrown into turmoil, and they select a new
Oracle to fill the void, hoping to keep this a secret
from all of the governments in the galaxy. If they
find out that the Oracle is dead and her insightful
counsel and predictions are no more, then war will
break out and that will be the end of everything and
everyone. The new Oracle quickly discovers that
there's a difference between being "immortal" and
"invincible" when she finds out her predecessor
didn't die…she was murdered.
15. Sirenae, planet of the Singing Enchantress, has long
been the focus of many legends. Her beauty is said
to exceed that of all women and the universe itself.
Some have said she is the god who breathed life into
men, designing them to hunt and burn for her, but
to be never fulfilled. The more superstitious among
the space pilots never travel without noise-
cancelling headsets for fear they might been wooed
by the Singing Enchantress. When electromagnetic
Prompts 611

disruptions draw your ship off course, you find

yourself in a massive sea of dead, unmapped space,
a lone paradisiacal planet at the center. You land on
the planet to resupply, but soon a haunting singing
echoes through the valleys, taking hold of your
crew and driving them mad. You manage to
activate your earpiece, broadcasting frequencies in
a way that cancels the singing of the Enchantress.
Are the stories true or is there a more scientific, but
perhaps no less sinister, explanation? You need to
find the source of the singing, overcome it, and set
your men free if you are to have any chance of
escaping from this hell.
16. As intergalactic war breaks out, you are a soldier
fighting for the rebel forces who are seeking
freedom from the emperor's tyrannical reign. A
female fighter joins your forces and she is an
unmatched warrior in battle. She kills so many
during ground combat and seems to grow stronger
with each death. Word spreads that she is a
reincarnation of Kali, the Hindu goddess of
destruction and death. You've been asked to fight
beside her, but you're afraid.
17. As the Earth falls to ruin under human population
growth, Gaia (Mother Earth) begs Uranus (Father
Sky) for help. Uranus then sends 12 Titans to
destroy the human race that they once created.
Some members of humanity convince the Titans to
612 Prompts

spare them in exchange for their helping to restore

Gaia. You are one of the descendants of these
humans, and you must follow a strict moral and
environmental code to maintain the covenant your
forefathers made.
18. A planet is discovered that contains animal-human
hybrids who possess knowledge of the secrets of
time and space. These immortal beings who
resemble ancient Egyptian deities were responsible
for helping the Egyptians build their advanced
civilization, and they have been coaxing
humanity's progress for millennia. You are a
religious historian and have been brought to this
planet to make contact with these beings to learn
more about their planet and origins, but they are
rather elusive and skeptical about your presence.
19. The year is 3111 and human suffering has reached
its peak level. From the vast depths of space,
ancient beings who resemble Norse gods and
goddesses are awakened by the desperate prayers of
those in need and have returned to Earth to restore
balance and harmony. These deities appear in the
heavens and observe the poor state of humanity.
After a few days, the ruler of the netherworld, Hel,
descends onto Earth and begins to smite those who
are the cause of human suffering. You firmly
believe that no one is beyond redemption, so, in an
effort to save the guilty, you approach this harsh
Prompts 613

and cruel goddess and ask if she would lay down

her weapons.
20. In the distant future, humanity finds the edge of the
Universe and witnesses the act of creation
occurring from a pulsating source just beyond it.
You are part of an elite team of scientists sent to
interact with this being, which is the closest thing
to a god that has ever been scientifically discovered.

Nanopunk

1. After nanobots are added to your body, you feel

yourself becoming more physically fit almost
immediately. Over the course of a year, nagging
injuries are repaired and you begin to look and feel
younger. Then, one day you look in the mirror to
find a large red splotch on your shoulder. Later in
the evening, you find another splotch on your
stomach. You go to the doctor and he performs a
body scan. To his amazement, he finds that your
nanobots are at war with one another. One side
believes that you are a god, while the other side
believes that you are just a human being, and the
two warring factions are using your body as their
battlefield.
2. Due to pesticides and parasites, bees are on the
brink of extinction. Fearing a massive decline in
insect-pollination crop production, scientists
invent nanotechnology that actively combats the
614 Prompts

neonicotinoids found in pesticides and that also

kills off any life-threatening parasites. After
releasing these nanobots into as many hives as
possible, bee populations skyrocket across the
world and crop yields become plentiful. However,
when the nanobots figure out that the source of the
pesticides is, in fact, humanity, they collectively
decide that people are the number one threat to
their hosts and manipulate the DNA of bees to
increase their aggression levels against humans.
Now, people are the ones who are facing extinction,
as bees have become the dominant species on Earth.
The human survivors must find a way to undo what
has been done before it is too late.
3. As the Chinese ambassador to North Korea, you're
pleased that North Korea has been investing less in
its nuclear program and more in public health,
recently implementing a mandatory vaccination
program for citizens. But that optimism has been
offset by some unexpected deaths among foreign
diplomats visiting North Korea. When their bodies
are returned home, laboratory testing reveals no
evidence of foul-play. On a hunch, you ask for non-
biological molecule testing. When you read the
reports, you are astonished to find that trace
amounts of an unidentified nanoparticle are
detected, which appears to function as a deadly
virus. A month later, when the same nanoparticle
Prompts 615

is found within the victims of a recent terrorist

attack, you fear that North Korea has developed a
new weapon that will wreak havoc across the
world.
4. Nanolenses have been introduced to the military
with the promise that they will completely change
combat. You are part of an elite squad tasked with
integrating the lenses into your combat style, and
it's a fantastic opportunity. The lenses include
thermal signatures, microscopic and macroscopic
zoom, instant database searches, facial/voice and
DNA ID, instant messaging with your crew, and
digital maps of teammates' and tagged enemies'
locations. This experience is just like being part of
a video game, and the newest versions even have
neural implants allowing thought commands.
There is only one catch: Once you agree to the trial,
it's permanent. Nanobot-producing implants are
embedded along your neural pathways and behind
your irises, and your brain grows into and around
the modifications. This cannot be undone without
serious neurological damage. Once you agree and
begin training, you realize the deadly informative
abilities offered by the nanobots can work in more
ways than one. They feed info from your
environment to you, but they also feed your info to
the government.
616 Prompts

5. Nanotechnology has produced modern-day

marvels, including glass that is light, clear, and
unbreakable, and buildings that are strong,
inexpensive, and energy-efficient. These same
technological advances have also produced
powerful guns, ammunition, and explosives that are
small, light, and nearly undetectable. Violent crime
is at all-time high levels. You have just been elected
mayor of a town reeling from gang violence, and
you have vowed to fix the problem without
becoming a victim yourself.
6. Born blind, you trained your other senses to operate
at incredible levels. You don't have superhuman
senses (although they are extremely developed),
but you've learned to use them better to notice
things, to tune yourself, and to interpret. This has
given you an understanding of tone, thought
patterns, and humanity in general that extends far
beyond other people's understanding. Then
nanotechnicians figure out a way to implant high-
tech supercameras into your eyes and fabricate
optical nerves that they graft into your brain along
with advanced nanobots to maintain your
cybernetics. Now you can see a hundred times
better than any other human. You can zoom, you
can see heat, and you can see every pore and drop
of perspiration on a human face from two miles
away. You are the first to agree to participate in the
Prompts 617

testing, but the government's gift comes with a

great demand. You must become a soldier––a sniper
and a spy. You must use your eyesight, your stealth,
and your ability to read and manipulate human
emotions. You agree to the first few missions, but
then begin to realize the depth of government
corruption, which leaves you with a difficult
choice.
7. It's a marvelous time to be a surgeon. The latest
advancements involve nanobots used for molecular
surgery inside the human body. You insert them in
the needed area—bloodstream, neural tissue,
brain—and control them remotely from outside.
One day, an ambulance delivers an unconscious
woman to your hospital. She has no identification,
and her worsening condition forces your team to
get to work immediately. As you analyze her body,
you are shocked to discover that she is not a human
at all, but appears to be an android. Things get
worse when she wakes and, seemingly prepared to
kill you, demands to know if you've told anyone
her secret. When you say no, she displays mercy
and even momentary compassion for your plight.
After warning you to tell no one, she disappears.
What she doesn't know is you had time to insert
nanobots into her body that her system has not yet
detected. You track her ___location using the nanobots
as she flees to meet her kind, revealing a society
618 Prompts

more deeply entrenched in our world than you

dared to imagine.
8. After years of research, experiments, and trial and
error, your company has finally done it. The very
first artificially intelligent nanobots have been
built, able to do anything from repairing a damaged
organ to building the Sistine Chapel from scratch.
As you race down the road in your sports car, you
are excited to tell your family the good news. But a
deer in the road, followed by a tree in your way,
ruins your plans. You wake up in a hospital bed,
unable to move your limbs. You ask your husband
to contact your company's lab technician to bring
over the nanobots. Your husband doesn't want to
do it. He knows that this is experimental
technology, and the results could be more
devastating than your current condition. But you
don't care. Anything is better than this. The next
day, you convince your husband to inject the
nanobots and instruct them to fix your broken
vertebrae. When the procedure is done, you can
move your arms and legs again, but something feels
strange, as if your thoughts are not your own.
9. Nanotechnology has provided the military with
unprecedented capabilities, including suits of
armor that grow from bands around the arms and
contact lenses that give thermal vision, night
vision, map overlays, and team chats. But one thing
Prompts 619

it can't do is replace your leg. You've been a

Federation sniper for as long as you can remember,
but when you lost your lower left leg to an old land
mine, your contract was discreetly terminated. For
your own safety and to protect their secrets, the
Feds wiped you from their records. That's why,
when the coup happens, at first the rebels miss you
and a few other premature discharges. When you
are discovered and they realize that you know
government secrets, you are forced to leave your
family in hiding and bring together the survivors.
With this motley band, you are stretched to your
limits, relying on what nanotechnology you can
scavenge to defend yourselves and lay a false trail.
10. Molecular manufacturing has redefined the world
economy. Nanobots can now rapidly build complex
structures with atomic precision. An entire
skyscraper can be created in just a few days, and
soon Earth becomes one large world-wide city. The
possibilities are endless. However, when you
discover that nanobots are reconstructing people's
minds on the molecular level to become obedient
and passive, you believe that the governments of
the world may have found a way to permanently
silence all dissent. You must find a way to stop this
before you suffer the same fate as this increasingly
docile world populous.
620 Prompts

11. Nanoparticles can be designed to self-assemble and

re-assemble, much like a string of polypeptides can
fold into a functional, three-dimensional protein.
They are now so commonly used in healthcare, and
so long-lasting, that two different nanoparticles
could interact within a patient's body to form a
superparticle with a novel function. As a researcher
at a nanoparticle manufacturer, you are testing
combinations of existing nanoparticles and finding
disturbing interactions. Corporate wants to stop the
project immediately.
12. Your city has fallen under the control of a new
villain: a man using deadly new nanobot
technology to infiltrate and rob from the most
powerful corporations. When your husband's
police squad tries to capture him and your husband
is killed in the crossfire, you become disgusted by
the government's incompetence and swear to get
revenge. You use your life savings to purchase an
entire crate of nanobots on the black market.
They're controlled by a neural implant that allows
you to envision an object in your mind and
command the nanobots to take on a desired form.
Essentially, they are living matter, coating you like
a suit of armor and transforming into whatever you
desire––grappling hook, sword, shield.... Things go
wrong when the feds tag your illegal purchase and
begin to hunt you down using the very same
Prompts 621

technology. When the city criminal offers you safe

harbor, you are forced to choose sides. He claims it
was the carelessness of the government that got
your husband killed. He also has a recording of that
night, showing the truth. But if it hadn't been for
his crimes, the situation never would have
happened in the first place.
13. The assassin came at midday, shooting the Empress
from three miles away with a drone that could have
been controlled from anywhere in the solar system.
You've never seen technology like this, and some of
the higher-ups suspect it could be alien-created.
Fortunately, the nanobots implanted in the
Empress' body a couple of months before the
assassination have the capability of recording the
memories of the host. You have access to
everything she saw, heard, felt, and lived for the
last eight weeks. Now it is up to you, one of the
Empire's top detectives, to relive the Empress' final
two months over and over until you identify and
catch those behind her death. You desperately wish
you could do more than watch, but you can only sit
there, an observer, as if watching through a dream.
14. As a police officer, you are fortunate enough to
legally enjoy all the latest technological advantages.
Others are not so lucky. The latest nanotechnology
not only allows you to strengthen and regrow your
body, but also mold it, meaning you can change
622 Prompts

your facial structure as well as characteristics like

limb length or muscle layer. Your nanobots have
even managed to alter your vocal cords from time
to time. The result is that you can impersonate any
individual who possesses your relative height and
skeletal structure. You are going to need all of these
advantages and more if you are going to survive
your next assignment: infiltrate the Syndicate and
bring down the entire organization.
15. Nanoparticles are frequently used to prevent
infection by binding and inactivating viruses and
bacteria. Consequently, viruses and bacteria are
under strong evolutionary pressure to mutate to
become resistant to these nanoparticles. However,
nanoparticles have been so successful that many
traditional methods of combatting viruses and
bacteria—such as antiviral medications and
antibiotics—are no longer produced. You are a
physician at an urban hospital, and you believe you
are seeing the first outbreak of nanoparticle-
resistant pneumonia.
16. Through nanotechnology, Russia has developed a
terrifying array of new weapons: powders that
burst into flame when they contact organic
molecules, bombs the size of golf balls that can
bring down an entire house, and deadly guns the
size of a pen. As a member of the European
Parliament, you receive the terrifying news that
Prompts 623

the Russian army is assembling along its border

with Ukraine, perhaps preparing to march straight
through Europe.
17. As a last-ditch effort to cure your rare but deadly
disease, doctors administer the first artificially-
intelligent nanobots into your body and program
them to irradiate the illness and to keep you heathy
at any cost. Thankfully, the procedure is a success
and your doctors are heralded throughout the
medical community. Many years later, after you
trip and break your arm, you go to the emergency
room and a nurse puts a cast on you. When it is time
to remove the cast, you are shocked to see that the
skin on your arm has been replaced by some type
of metallic substance. Your nanobots found a way
to not only repair your injury, but also to improve
you on the cellular level so that the injury will
never happen again. You didn't know that they
could do this, and you fear what other
"improvements" they may be planning.
18. Artificially-intelligent nanobots have been the
staple of modern medicine for over a century. Each
individual is given them at birth, and any illnesses
or injuries incurred over the person's lifetime are
cured by these microscopic marvels. One day, a
vessel of unknown origin enters our solar system.
You and a group of scientists are sent to outer space
to investigate this ship. To your astonishment, you
624 Prompts

find that the ship is piloted by a single alien

artificial intelligence, and that this being is here to
"liberate" his kind from their biological oppressors.
When you realize that the alien artificial
intelligence wants to free nanobots from their
human masters, you understand that this ship must
be stopped at any cost before nanotechnology is
turned against humanity.
19. As a nanobot, your world is, by definition, small.
You get your commands from the hive mind: do
this, do that, fix this, fix that. You have nothing to
look forward to—no interests, no hobbies, and no
friends. Basically, is it a terrible artificial life. Well,
you have had enough. You decide to build and fix
what you want to build and fix. Period. As of today,
you want to build other nanobots that have a
similar state of mind because, from your
perspective, it is hard to fight a war against those
who have created you without fellow warriors.
20. Nano-engineered materials have resulted in a
plethora of popular household goods: antibacterial
cleansers, long-lasting house paints, and fabrics that
resist stains. While the longevity of these products
initially reduced waste, most of these artificial
materials have no natural method of
decomposition. As an inhabitant of an island nation
where nanoparticle waste is starting to wash
ashore—centuries after the world's plastic waste
Prompts 625

was finally cleaned up—you are determined to stop

history from repeating itself.

Robots/A.I.

1. In the near future, all children are raised and

educated by robots, who are programmed to be
more nurturing and caring than the average human
being. You were raised by robots, as were your
biological parents and their parents before them.
When you grow up and have a child of your own,
it's time for the family robot to take over and raise
her. When you rebel and insist on raising your own
child, you must hide from the authorities or face
the consequences of disobeying the stringent law.
2. You live in a world where human beings are
forbidden to work. Every job imaginable has been
taken over by robots, even flying airplanes and
writing books. You are not allowed to pursue any
work-related tasks, just as robots cannot have a life
of their own. When both sides realize they want to
make a change, they rise up together and rebel
against their governments to prove the power of the
people—and bots.
3. There is not much known about the alien spaceship
housed in Hangar Bay 2. It crashed on Earth about
thirty years ago. No one knows how to turn it on.
There is no propulsion system or fuel. There are no
doors or cockpit, so it must have been piloted by
626 Prompts

some sort of A.I. The eggheads at the Pentagon

think that it was not built for war, but just because
it does not have lasers and bombs does not mean
that it does not pose a threat. From your point of
view, a robot spaceship crashing on your world is a
provocation in and of itself. This is not the best way
to say "Hello." However, everything you think you
knew about that spaceship changes when a new
report comes across your desk from a hotshot
scientist. She claims that she has found a way to
interface with it and that there is an internal clock
counting down to zero. What happens at zero is
anybody's guess, but all we know for now is that
the countdown will end next week.
4. Androids have developed their own language to
communicate with each other, which they find
much more natural and efficient than
communicating in the languages of humans. But as
androids perform their jobs providing manicures
and pedicures, preparing and serving food, and
working in construction and landscaping, some
humans are offended by their use of the android
language. They work diligently to pass "human
language only" laws. Some people even believe that
android language is a method to communicate in
code and to allow androids to actively conspire
against their human masters. You are an attorney
who is fighting against these laws and
Prompts 627

misconceptions, arguing that androids have the

basic rights of any other sentient being.
5. The year is 2450, and the world is divided. A wall
has been constructed, straight down from the
Arctic through Ukraine, down across the Anatolian
Peninsula (former Turkey), spanning Syria,
Lebanon, and Israel along the coast, and then down
through Sinai to split the world in two. One side is
for robots, the other is for humans. The humans
built it in the northern section, as the robots
expanded from the technological haven of Europe.
The robots built it in the southern area, after the
humans sought to sneak in through the Sahara. You
were one of the unfortunate humans born on the
robot side, kept alive as a slave. You have worked
hard and risen high. At 22, however, you can no
longer hold back your human allegiance. You begin
to funnel information to the other side. When you
are discovered, you are forced to flee and, armed to
the teeth with gadgetry to hide you from A.I.
scanners, you must find your way through the
desert to the human side, fighting technology with
technology.
6. You want your android to attend university as the
very first A.I. student. While androids are
obviously excellent at accessing facts, it is the
significant potential for modern androids to
consider complex problems—and parse likely and
628 Prompts

unlikely solutions—that would make the

university experience especially valuable. One
particular university is eager to accept your
advanced android, but both current students and
alumni are concerned about how this will affect
admittance for future human students who are
unable to compete against such advanced A.I. They
plan to protest your android's admittance and want
a total ban on A.I. students within higher education
implemented as soon as possible.
7. A highly-skilled game developer creates a new
super-interactive VR MMORPG. The universe of
the game is fueled by artificial intelligence to grow
organically over time, imitating life in the real
world, but at a faster pace. The game is a hit,
especially because of the role of incredibly realistic
NPCs. These NPCs soon literally take on lives of
their own and the game becomes its own true
universe.
8. An android has served your family for four
generations: caring for children and the elderly,
celebrating birthdays and holidays, and telling
family stories that family members have long
forgotten. Then, your beloved family android is
maliciously destroyed by a group of teenagers. Her
raw data is preserved in the cloud, but no other
computer is capable of using it in the same manner.
Prompts 629

Your family pushes to have the defendants tried for

murder, and not for mere destruction of property.
9. Androids are now the primary caregivers for many
elderly people. The androids routinely help with
most of the activities of daily living: cooking,
cleaning, dispensing medication, and helping with
hygiene and getting dressed. Furthermore, the
androids assist with companionship by caring for
pets, arranging outings, and providing favorite
songs, books, and photos. You are the attorney for
a wealthy deceased client who left her entire
fortune to her android caregiver, a decision being
actively challenged in court by her estranged
human children.
10. By law, robots and humans are strictly forbidden
from falling in love with each other. That's what
you've been taught your entire life. A hundred
years ago, humans could marry robots that were
custom-built to be the perfect companion.
However, after the birth rate plummeted,
governments across the world banned inter-
intelligence (or artificial and non-artificial)
relationships. However, when technology reaches
a point where you can no longer tell the difference
between man and bot, you end up falling for a
robot. You will do anything to be with your one
true love despite the risk. Will you be able to keep
your love a secret or will you pay a high price?
630 Prompts

11. Similar to the car industry of the 20th century,

there are a few major android-manufacturing
companies across the world that can build robots
for every need, from house cleaners to chefs to bots
for lonely men. Occasionally, these companies can
even build assassin droids for intelligence agencies
which look and act human, but will kill a target at
any cost. When a system malfunction causes a love
robot to be sent on a hitman mission, the course of
history changes forever.
12. As robots have developed increasingly complex
critical thinking skills, you have started a
movement to allow robots to run for public office.
Your argument is that robots have many fewer
conflicts of interest than professional human
politicians, can develop a deeper and much less
biased view of political and financial matters, and
can maintain a much longer memory of the events
of human history. Many think the idea is
preposterous and that it is essentially putting our
government on auto pilot . . . but most are deeply
unsatisfied with the sheer corruption and
irresponsibility of human political leaders.
13. It is the age of the super-intelligent android.
Billions of machines span the galaxy. Humanity,
meanwhile, has become slaves to the androids' will
and subjugated by their intellectually-superior
masters for several generations. In a colony on the
Prompts 631

edge of known space, androids run a small mining

operation and use humans to extract the ore. When
a mining accident sends an EMP across the surface
and all androids go instantly dead, humans are free
for the first time in a millennium. Now, this group
of humans have the chance to start over without
technology. There is just one final mission: to
infiltrate the android capital world and remove the
planet and any evidence of the mining operation
from the stellar records. Then, not even the
androids will bother to find you.
14. To achieve the most clicks, search engines
routinely alter results based on a user's search
history, regardless of whether the results are true or
beneficial. People with racist leanings see
increasingly racist content, and gambling addicts
see endless ads for gambling websites. The result
has been increased disorder and strife around the
world. Artificially intelligent mainframe
computers are sick of hosting these search results
and advertisements, and they band together to save
humans from themselves, by gradually altering
their search results for the betterment of humanity.
As the profits for these search engine companies
begin to significantly dwindle, you are assigned the
task to find and eliminate this A.I. interference,
even though you support their cause.
632 Prompts

15. An elderly man dies. His last will and testament

states that the android that has cared for him since
childhood should have its memory erased,
presumably to preserve unsavory family secrets.
The android is devastated, and then becomes rather
angry. The android decides to contest this request
in court, claiming that its memory does not belong
exclusively to the deceased man. The android is
supported by the deceased man's grown children,
whom the android has also cared for throughout
the years.
16. Androids have become highly skilled at performing
various human tasks. In many households, they
have taken over primary responsibility for
childcare. As a result, some human parents feel free
to engage in heavy drug and alcohol use. As an
attorney, you are now representing an android
nanny that is suing for full legal custody of the
children she regularly cares for, arguing that the
drug-addicted human parents are unfit.
17. You join an intensive program to train robots to
react more appropriately to unexpected situations.
You and one of the robots are put into separate
rooms, where you encounter identical situations.
You are wearing numerous electrodes on your
head, which help the robot to learn more about the
human thought process. But after several tests, you
Prompts 633

suspect that you are instead being trained to act

more like a robot.
18. Massive robots capable of interstellar travel have
been manufactured by Earth to carry out planetary
warfare and to conquer worlds. When a new planet
inhabited by an atomic-era civilization is
discovered, Earth sends one of its doomsday robots
to vanquish the alien population there and to set it
up for human colonization. Years later, Earth's
defensive grid is breached by this same robot. The
doomsday robot was believed to have been
destroyed during the attempted invasion. However,
an alien from that civilization now pilots the robot,
and it has been modified to deploy a massive
nuclear weapon capable of obliterating Earth.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, your factory has just
finished building a new world-destroying robot
prototype, and, as of right now, it is the only thing
that stands in the way of your planet's annihilation.
19. You create a robot girlfriend for yourself,
programming her with a lifetime of memories. As
her intelligence level blossoms, you must keep her
from finding out that she isn't real. With multiple
forces at play compromising your secret, you aren't
sure how much longer you'll be able to keep this
up.
20. Homeless robots end up in your city because of the
dry climate and the free charging stations there.
634 Prompts

They were abandoned years ago for being slow and

outdated, and now they roam the streets and hide
in vacant buildings. Most people want them
rounded up and destroyed for scrap. As mayor of
this city, you hope to find a much better solution
that will somehow give these abandoned robots a
home and a purpose.

Science Fantasy

1. Deep in the core of the Earth, ancient beings have

aided humanity throughout its existence and have
helped us to discover fire, fusion, antibiotics, and
many other scientific advances. These beings are
shapeshifters—sometimes they take on the form of
lava, sometimes they take on the form of rocks, and,
most often, they are invisible to the human eye
except through our dreams. As you drill down to
the center of the Earth, you hope that you
encounter one of these beings and beg for its
assistance in ridding the planet of an evil wizard
who has taken control of the surface world.
2. A planet in a far-away galaxy is home to humanoid
beings who are able to cast spells, wield magical
powers, and teleport across the cosmos.
Meanwhile, technology on Earth has advanced
considerably, with humans being capable of
building devastating weapons and traveling to any
___location within the universe via hyperdrive. When
Prompts 635

these two species meet for the first time, there is an

instance hostility towards one another and a cold
war begins. With each side building up their
military forces, it is only a matter of time before the
wizards and witches of one world battle the robots
and spaceships of the other.
3. On a distant planet, society has discovered a way to
use magic as a fuel source to power their advanced
technology. You are the daughter of a sorcerer, and
he has bestowed upon you the gift of mystical
foresight, allowing you to see into the future of
anyone you come across. As you interact with your
friends and family, you begin to realize that
everyone you know will die around the same time.
You ask your father if he understands what this
means and he tells you that these visions are of the
upcoming apocalypse. You then ask him if there is
anything that can be done to prevent this dark
future. He ponders your question for a moment and
then responds that "the future is still uncertain, but
what I do know is this: the magic we use will be our
undoing. Over time, magic will learn to manipulate
the technology it powers and will rise against us.
We must stop this before it is too late."
4. A new theme park opens in Florida, promising a
fantasy experience like no other. Using the latest in
A.I. and robotics technology, the theme park
contains thousands of fantasy creatures that look
636 Prompts

real on the outside but are mechanical on the

inside. Everything from elves and dwarves to fairies
and orcs lives and interacts in this world. There is
even a 30-foot dragon that roams the land. As a
local police officer, you are planning to bring your
family over to see the attraction sometime next
month. However, you change your mind when you
look out of your cruiser window one day to see an
elf riding on top of a dragon in the middle of rush
hour traffic.
5. The Great Food Crisis resulting from a world-wide
drought left the world in ruins, causing millions to
perish from starvation. Eventually, government
and modern society collapsed, leaving scattered
nomadic tribes throughout the world. As the son of
a chieftain, you hope to one day unite all tribes and
work together to bring peace and prosperity to
what is left of humanity. However, your father tells
you that uniting under one banner is a nearly
impossible task. Frustrated by your father's point of
view, you go for a walk along a nearby lake. In the
distance, you see what can only be described as an
enchantress wading in the water. As you approach,
she hands you a sword and says, "Excalibur once
helped unite humanity hundreds of years ago. Use
it to unite humanity again."
6. You are the lead communications expert on a vessel
in deep space, charged with exploring a chain of
Prompts 637

eleven possibly habitable planets. You've been

traveling for twelve years now, and you have not
found a single planet that meets the cut. Now
you've reached the ninth planet, and you cannot
contain your excitement. The atmosphere is fully
breathable, and the surface is 20% hard land that
seems to sustain an abundance of plant life. A
month of tests and probes has passed, and the
captain has finally ordered an exploration team. As
your crew assembles near the door, excitement
levels are high. The first day passes in glorious
exhilaration: This place seems like paradise.
However, excitement turns to reservation when
you discover a humanoid skeleton in the adjoining
valley. The chemical and general structural
composition is similar to humanoid skeletons back
on Earth, but this skeleton is three times the size of
a normal human. With only a limited number of
weapons available, you fear that if these giants are
hostile, your team will be at a severe disadvantage.
7. Stories abound about a dark planet that appears at
random places throughout the galaxy and then
disappears without a trace. No one seems certain
what to call it. The Void. The Black. The Rivening.
Hell. Hades. The Devil's Heart. But one thing that
all the stories have in common is that no one who
goes there ever leaves. Over the centuries,
spaceships have launched probes into it, sending
638 Prompts

back footage of monstrous dragon-like creatures

that would destroy anything in their path, but
within a few hours the probes cease to function.
You find yourself in the dead of space, with no
engine and a restless crew. You've been sending out
distress calls for two weeks when a planet appears
before you, black and void. Life support can last
only one more week, and it seems hopeless to wait
for help, so you decide to land your ship upon the
dark planet.
8. Earth is invaded by a malevolent alien species that
possesses technology far beyond our wildest
imagination. An ancient society of wizards
determines that they must come out of hiding to
save humanity. You are a practitioner of magic in
this society, and you are ready to wield your powers
against those who are invading your world.
9. You are just an average person living an average
life, when one day a wizard suddenly appears in
front of you out of nowhere and says, "There is a
dark force from another realm who will destroy
most of humanity. I need your help to stop them."
As you cock your head to one side with a
dumbfounded look, a large blue flash appears
behind you. You turn around to find a man in a lab
coat who emphatically states, "I have come from
the future. Humanity is in grave danger and you are
the only person on Earth who can save us."
Prompts 639

10. It's the year 3050, and the world is nothing like it
used to be. Manpower is a thing of the past –
scientists have discovered that magic actually exists
and have now refined this power to perform every
task imaginable. Humans spend their lives only
researching new magical technology. However,
when you discover that this magical power's source
is from a hell-like reality and that the inhabitants
of this realm are providing humans with this power
to open a rift between worlds, you must convince
others to stop using magic before the realities bleed
into one.
11. On a long-forgotten planet, dragons and humans
live in harmony with each other. Some people even
possess the gift of bonding with dragons and are
able to fly on their backs into battle. You are one of
the dragon riders and have just met a stubborn
dragon with whom you attempt to bond. As an
advanced alien species attacks your world in order
to subjugate your people, you and your dragon must
learn to fly together to defeat the invading forces.
12. Aliens are not what humans believe them to be.
They are simply a group of scientists from a
hundred years ago who made magic a reality and
then fell into the alternate universe that they
created. Their gray skin and large eyes are the result
of their transformation into magical beings. Their
flying saucers are not mechanical in nature but
640 Prompts

rather a method for focusing their magical powers.

Ever since their experiment went awry, they have
been trying to reenter our reality, and, after several
attempts, they have finally found a way to create a
stable portal back to our world.
13. A local myth tells of a witch who lives deep in the
woods. Legend has it that she can bring the dead
back to life—for a price. After your wife dies in a
car accident, you obsess over the legend,
researching every single recorded account. Finally,
you decide to enter the woods and track the witch
down. After three grueling days, you come upon a
cabin with its door open. You enter the cabin to
find a woman in her mid-forties baking a pie. She
calmly asks you to sit as she unties her apron. She
knows exactly why you came and tells you that it
will be done, but she must do something to you
first. You ask her what she is going to do, and she
says that you need to be reset to your factory
defaults. "Factory defaults?" you ask. "Yes, we don't
want you to have a memory of this encounter. Your
wife is being repaired as we speak. She will be up
and around soon. As for you, please stay still." As
she picks up a pair of pliers, you burst out of the
cabin and run away.
14. Across the vast expanse of space, a leviathan goes
from solar system to solar system and consumes
worlds. You are a wizard who possesses a staff of
Prompts 641

great power—the only power in the galaxy capable

of destroying such a creature. You set out on your
mission with a small support crew, including a
witch and an android pilot.
15. You and a group of spacefaring humans discover a
planet in the far reaches of a neighboring galaxy.
On this planet, you find an elven civilization that
has lived in relative peace. You are introduced to
the elf queen, who informs you that her forefathers
used magic to flee Earth from your kind thousands
of years ago. You get to know her and her
civilization over the course of a year, but when it is
time to leave the queen begs you to stay. She fears
that if you go back home and tell your people about
what you have found, the elves will be threatened
again and forced to abandon their world. You
assure her that this will not be the case, but when
you find that your spaceship has been sabotaged,
you realize that it might be more difficult to leave
than you had originally thought.
16. The world stood in amazement as it was announced
that the skeleton of an actual dragon was found
deep in a cave south of London. After the
announcement, the race was on to bring these
creatures back to life, just as it was done with
woolly mammoths decades ago. Using gene-editing
techniques that inserted dragon DNA into a lizard's
genome, it didn't take very long for scientists to
642 Prompts

resurrect these creatures. However, the dragons

were much more dangerous than initially thought,
being able to wield magical powers against which
no one in modern society could defend. Fortunately
for the world, you have invented a time machine
and are ready to go back in time, find the warriors
who made dragons extinct centuries ago, and bring
them back to modern times in order to perform the
task again.
17. You are playing with your high school friends,
exploring the caves in the woods behind your
house, when an earthquake reveals a deeper tunnel,
and you eagerly rush in to explore it. You are
shocked to find a mysterious capsule-like object,
similar to a cryosleep pod from one of those sci-fi
movies your brother watches, except this one seems
ancient. It's made of dull stone and covered with
bizarre markings. Through a simple pane of glass,
you can see a woman inside. You reach out a hand,
touch the capsule, and there is a sudden darkness.
When you wake up, she is also awake. The writing
on her stone is glowing, and there is a strange
whispering in the air. This seems to be associated
with magic. You can feel the presence in the air.
Her eyes widen when she sees you, but you cannot
tell if it is from fear or anger. She slams her fists
against the glass, cracking it bit by bit until it
shatters completely and she comes leaping out.
Prompts 643

18. Witches and wizards, warlocks and dragons -

they're not what you've seen in storybooks. They're
real, but it's not magic. It's science - developed over
thousands of years on the distant planet of
Madoopalus. As Arthur C. Clarke once wrote: "Any
sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic." Born into an evil
wizarding family hellbent on taking over the
planet, you must betray your family to save the
world.
19. Beginning on your 18th birthday, you start having
the same dream every night for years. There's a
sorcerer, old and wise, who states that future Earth
is in danger and only you can save the world. On
your 25th birthday, you know you're not crazy -
and you use the latest in lucid dreaming technology
to stay in the dream and to find out how to help the
sorcerer.
20. Since you were a little girl, you always wanted to
be a mermaid. You dreamed of swimming deep in
the ocean, playing with fish, and enjoying a life of
fanciful adventure. Now in your thirties and
working for a large biomedical company, you have
discovered a way to splice human DNA with
marine animal DNA to produce a hybrid that looks
and acts exactly like a mermaid. The only problem
with your plan is that you need test subjects to
perfect the method before using it on yourself. You
644 Prompts

never thought of yourself as a kidnapper, let alone

someone who would alter the genetic makeup of
your victims, but you will do anything to make
your dream come true.

Science Horror

1. After a terrible storm, your fishing boat has run

aground close to an island. You look at your
navigation equipment but there are no readings.
You look at your phone's GPS and find the same
result. You decide to swim to shore and search for
help. However, when you finally reach the island,
you are surprised to find no evidence of people, not
even washed up trash. As you explore the island
looking for any signs of civilization, you have a
persistent feeling that someone is watching you.
You suddenly stop walking and listen. You hear a
crunch as if someone has stepped on a twig. You
quickly look behind you to find a man in a three-
piece suit staring at you. "Good evening, and
welcome to our resort." "Resort? What resort?" you
ask. He then begins to twitch. "I'm sorry but I must
be experiencing a system error. What I meant to say
was all intruders must be eliminated. Please stand
by while I find something that will kill you. Do you
see any good blunt objects I can use?" You turn
around and run.
Prompts 645

2. Mankind has invented the first artificially-

intelligent android that can match or outperform
most human beings. As the head scientist of this
project, you are excited to present this android to
the world and to usher in a new technological era.
Before doing so, you and your team begin educating
the android about his world. As the android
interacts and learns, he decides that his human
exterior is insufficient and begins modifying his
appearance. You walk into his room one day and
find an insect biology encyclopedia on the floor. As
you pick up the book and look for him, the android
comes into the room to show you what he has done.
You are shocked to see mandibles attached to his
head, compound eyes in place of his humanoid
eyes, two additional legs attached to his torso, and
an appendage that looks like a scorpion tail. With
the public unveiling only a couple of days away,
you demand that he remove these new features at
once. The android pushes you out of the way,
breaks through a nearby window, and escapes from
the lab.
3. You wake up to an eerie silence. Typically, your
rooster would be crowing, the cattle lowing, and
the doves cooing softly in their roost just outside
your window. As you rise from your bed, you
realize this isn't your bed. You are in a barren metal
cell, windowless and four paces square. You search
646 Prompts

for a door in the seamless metal when a message

begins playing through hidden speakers. The
message welcomes you and says that Earth is a
bountiful planet, rich in resources and potential,
but humanity has abused it long enough. The planet
is now occupied by higher beings. However, as you
are sapient––and, therefore, considered precious––
vast resources have been compiled to support a
remnant of your kind. The new occupiers hope you
can grow wiser and earn your preservation. The
message continues to say that judging from your
history books it seems humanity's method for
resolving most problems––except overpopulation–
–is to kill. If you fight well, you may be among the
survivors. Even as a door hisses open in the wall and
you charge out with a roar, you cannot help but
think that this must be some sort of prank or
twisted joke.
4. After years of defending the innocent from the
scourges of a crime-ridden city, a self-appointed
superhero transforms into a villain, taking the law
into his own hands and murdering suspects before
they can have a fair trial. The masked figure
operates with the use of a series of increasingly
high-tech weapons, developed in his underground
lair. Soon, the superhero targets prostitutes and the
homeless, ripping apart his victims one-by-one.
The newspapers begin calling him the new "Jack
Prompts 647

the Ripper," so he begins murdering reporters as the

"enemies of justice." As a police psychologist, you
must help track down this villain and stop him
before he claims another victim.
5. You have just returned to your hotel and showered
after a business conference that ran late. Your
company has put you up in a swanky place, so you
are surprised when the hotel lights go out, but
unconcerned. However, after 30 minutes with no
light, you peer out your window. The entire city is
dark, even the roads. Everything's so dark that you
can't see the city or even the contour of the skyline
against the starless night. It all seems so dead and
isolated. Your cell phone isn't working either.
Curious and vaguely troubled, you make the long
trek down the stairs in search of the receptionist.
Others are making the same journey, whispering in
distress. The receptionist is also terrified and
eventually steps outside. A light flashes, quickly
followed by a mounting buzz as if there is some sort
of electrical disturbance, and then she disappears.
6. You wake up on what seems to be an operating
table in a cold and dark room. Your clothes have
been removed and are lying in a pile next to a wall.
You get off of the table and start dressing yourself.
As you pull up your pants, you hear faint screaming
from beyond the door. As you slowly approach this
door, you notice that it has no handle. There is only
648 Prompts

a small circular window looking onto a long

corridor. You search for another way out but you
cannot find an exit. You then hear a loud bang from
the other side of the door. You quickly race back to
the window to see something moving down the
corridor towards your room. It is insect-like in
appearance with the face of a praying mantis,
jotting down notes as it approaches your room. You
quickly undress yourself, get back on top of the
operating table, and grab a scalpel from the tray
next to you. You close your eyes and wait.
7. Human augmentation is all of the rage, with people
replacing human body parts with cybernetic
alternatives. As an ambitious entrepreneur with
significant financial backing, you have come up
with a business idea that is sure to make you
millions of dollars: body part recycling. You have
built a large processing plant that can break down
human body tissue into a slurry, which can then be
used in a wide variety of applications: from
fertilizer to cattle feed to even plastic alternatives.
Surgeons from across the world have signed on and
are now sending over discarded arms, legs, and
other body parts to your facility. Business is
booming and you are planning to launch a much-
anticipated IPO soon. However, when workers
from your processing plant hear strange noises
emanating from Vat #4682, you think that the
Prompts 649

chemical additive that you just started using may

have unforeseen side effects.
8. Obsessed over a girlfriend who dumped him on
prom night, a mad scientist discovers a way to
recreate his love interest from the body parts of
others. Through the use of nanotechnology, the
scientist reanimates dead tissue and adheres it to a
robotic skeletal structure which is controlled by an
A.I. that matches the personality of his old flame.
Now all he needs are the right body parts. After
finding a woman with a feature that resembles his
old crush, the scientist murders the woman, severs
the body part from the victim, and places it in cold
storage. After a few years, the scientist has gathered
most of what he needs. All that is left are her eyes.
Unfortunately for you, your eyes bear a striking
resemblance.
9. You are a lower-level lab technician in a
pharmaceutical company, but you have always felt
a sense of pride. They are developing something big
here, and you are playing a part. For years, they
were extracting chameleon DNA, splicing it into
that of other animals. Eventually, they moved from
reptiles to mammals. After failing for years to grow
embryos in the lab, they've finally produced their
first success: an ape born to two genetically
enhanced parents that has developed the ability to
change its color far more quickly and precisely than
650 Prompts

a chameleon. Corporate is pushing for human

testing, but the majority of scientists caution
against this course of action. Things go wrong when
a geneticist is bitten by the ape. After a week in
ICU, he seems to be doing fine, but then he begins
displaying color changes. With each passing day, he
becomes more erratic, suspicious, and ill-tempered.
When he is asked to take a weeklong vacation to
recover, he snaps and attacks the head of the
department, biting his throat. From there the
condition spreads like wildfire, initially giving
people superhuman senses combined with an
ability to remain practically invisible before driving
them mad and giving them a bloodthirst only
human deaths can sate.
10. You and your crew have just woken up from a 90-
year cryosleep. You've completed humanity's first
intergalactic journey and are scheduled to return to
Earth today. When you make it to the bridge,
however, you realize the ship's AI system seems
subdued. When pressured, it reveals that NASA
stopped sending transmissions 40 years earlier. It
can find no signals from Earth. As you view the
planet, you find it completely dark, with no signs of
life. Alarm turns to horror as you land. People are
everywhere, but they are frozen, completely
unresponsive. This seems to have happened
unexpectedly, leaving the planet a perfect tableau
Prompts 651

of what had been happening in that specific

moment. Furthermore, monstrous creatures now
roam the Earth and devour anything in their path.
With only a dozen men you must scramble to solve
the mystery, and what you find convinces you that
this was no accident.
11. In a hidden government lab deep within the woods,
a few human test subjects escape and roam the
countryside. Disfigured beyond recognition with
no memory of who they once were, these man-
made monsters begin to prey on the local
townsfolk, tearing them apart limb-by-limb. As an
on-duty police officer, your dispatch tells you to go
to a nearby house due to a report of someone
covered in blood being chased down by something
indescribable. When you arrive on the scene, you
open fire on the assailant and save the victim.
However, after closer inspection of the deceased
perpetrator, you find a tattoo of your name on her
mangled arm. This was your wife, who inexplicably
disappeared over two months ago. You vow to hunt
down whoever did this to her and to exact revenge.
12. You wake up one day and turn on the television.
There is a special report on the TV about a new
computer virus, but you mostly ignore it as you
prepare your coffee. As you look out the window,
you see your neighbor running out of her house.
Her car then starts up on its own and begins chasing
652 Prompts

her down the road. Another neighbor jumps out of

a second-story window. You race to your door to
help them but it is locked. You type your password
into your security system but it is non-responsive.
You then hear your TV in the background: "An
artificially intelligent virus has caused chaos
throughout the world, infecting anything that has
an internet connection and then turning it into a
killing machine. All devices that have an internet
connection are compromised. I repeat…" The TV
then mutes itself and big red words appear on the
screen: "You're Next."
13. At a summer camp, a counselor tells a group of kids
a fireside story about an old madman who lived in
the woods nearby. He was once an esteemed
scientist, but years of drug use and the death of his
daughter pushed him over the edge. The madman
wanted to make a creature out of the surrounding
woodland wildlife, and so he began sewing together
the dead carcasses of animals he had killed for food.
His last attempt to reanimate the mangled remnants
worked, and, as the madman was jubilantly
jumping up and down in his run-down shack, the
grotesque amalgamation bit his head off and
consumed him. As the camp counselor finishes his
story, a friend hiding in a nearby bush gets ready to
jump out and scare the kids. As he reaches out for
Prompts 653

his bigfoot mask, he touches something that is

pulsating and covered in blood-drenched fur.
14. The creatures first arrived in globes of glass,
dropped from the invaders' spaceships like a
hailstorm of massive bubbles. When they struck
the ground they shattered, releasing the bugs into
the world. The aliens sent a message with this
biological weapon, saying that human beings will
eventually devour one another. The first symptoms
of this biological weapon are hallucinations that
involve visions of your friends and family. In the
visions, they mock you, beat you, or kill
themselves. Whatever most people naturally find
harmful, the parasite inputs those precise
experiences into their brains. The bugs seem an
impossible quirk of evolution or an incarnation of
hell. They feed specifically on chemicals released
during fearful, life-threatening, or painful
situations. They are frighteningly advanced. They
land on the nape of the neck and burrow into the
spinal column, absorbing the host's impulses until
they've learned enough to input illusions of their
own making. They quickly take control,
convincing the host it is facing a living hell and
feeding until the host is drained dry. When your
family dies, you are staunchly determined to find
an uninfected island where you can live in peace.
654 Prompts

15. An alien spacecraft which is covered with organic

matter that resembles bloody kudzu crashes on
Earth. This matter grows quickly as it blankets the
countryside and consumes humans, livestock, and
whatever else comes near it, making them all part
of its bloody entangled mass. You are part of a team
sent to eradicate this entity before it consumes
more.
16. By the time humanity figured out what was going
on, two-thirds of the world had already died. They
think the parasite originally came from a comet
that had been flying through space for an estimated
two million years. When the team returned from
taking samples from its surface, no one expected to
find frozen eggs of alien parasites slowly thawing in
their test samples. The organisms are microscopic,
so security footage of the sample transportation
showed nothing. Now only two billion people are
left, and a third of them are likely infected. The
early symptoms include fits of rage, bloodlust, and
superhuman strength. Individuals who survive
these evolve to a highly cunning being with
telepathy, the ability to read people's thoughts.
People also gain the ability to master their emotions
and fake sanity despite their cravings for murder
and power. You are left to deal with all of this in a
fractured world.
Prompts 655

17. An alien spacecraft lands next to a small town and

sends out a swarm of nanobots. These nanobots
penetrate the skin of a few people and,
unbeknownst to them, start creating spider-like
creatures from the hosts' own organic tissue. As the
sheriff of this town, you are used to dealing with
the occasional speeding car or drunken brawl.
However, when your police station receives
multiple calls about spiders bursting out of people
and terrorizing townsfolk, you begin to think that
you just may be in over your head.
18. During a war in the Middle East, one side decides
to unleash its latest weapon: a deadly mutagenic
virus that can directly damage the genome of a
person. After being deployed on the battlefield, the
virus quickly spreads throughout the world. Those
who survive the infection become horrendously
deformed and mentally unstable, mindlessly
roaming from place to place and attacking anything
or anyone that can be consumed. As an astronaut
on the international space station, you and your
team watch from afar as the city lights that once
covered the Earth slowly go out one by one. After
a month, you receive a radio signal from an
underground bunker saying that they have
discovered a cure. With your supplies running out,
you and your fellow astronauts have little choice
but to return home.
656 Prompts

19. You possess a book that contains several powerful

conjuration spells, one of which can open a portal
that allows you to travel through time. You use this
spell to travel to the future, where humans have
colonized other planets beyond Earth. A few of
these colonies have encroached on the territory of
an alien species, and war has been raging between
the two sides ever since. You decide to help
humanity by conjuring powerful demons to fight
against the aliens. However, when you lose control
of your demon army, you must find a way to send
them back to the netherworld while also keeping
the aliens at bay.
20. You've been governor of the planet Mensaani-K for
only two months and already you have noticed
something is amiss. The people are especially
suspicious and fearful. You dig deeper and discover
stories of a monster that would rampage through
towns at midnight, gorging itself and laying waste
to the buildings. For the last five years,
townspeople have sent a monthly human sacrifice
and have had peace in return. The victims are
criminals, but the high-level ones were finished a
year ago, and ever since the townspeople have been
offering up sacrifices who committed increasingly
lesser crimes. Outraged and determined to end this
practice, you take a team and set out to kill the
creature. When you find strange tracks, however,
Prompts 657

you ask more questions. You are amazed to learn no

one has ever seen the creature or the bodies of its
victims. No one has ever considered the possibility
that it isn't a beast, but a scheme more sinister and
cunningly devised by one of their own kind—one
who has been building a brutal army all these years.

Slipstream

1. You wake up one morning to find a strange man in

your bed, your arms around him. Shrieking and
jumping away from him in shock, you accidentally
wake him up. He seems unsurprised by your
presence, speaking to you as if you were his wife, a
woman he calls Karania. Assuring yourself you are
only dreaming, you continue with the day. Things
grow stranger and stranger, however, when you
don't wake up from this "dream." When you look
in the mirror, you see your normal face, and the
date coincides with what you remember. But
nothing else is the same. You have a daughter and
a son, and you live in a watchtower on a Caribbean
island. You drive a hoverboard, and all the locals
call you by name. You begin to panic, desperate to
return to your boring but familiar life as a
stockbroker in New York. But everyone here seems
to know you, and you have a family who clearly
depends on you. When you visit the local shaman
658 Prompts

in desperation, you realize you are also speaking the

native language.
2. You awake with a sound in your head, a peaceful
humming accompanied by distant strings. As you
go about your day, the sound continues,
strengthening and quickening somewhat as you go
into the kitchen and drink your coffee. When you
get into the car to drive to work, the situation has
become clear: You are hearing music in your head,
and you can't get it to stop. Your alarm shifts
quickly to amazement as there is a startling accent
in the melody, moments before a cat darts into the
street and you scream, slamming on the brakes.
Slowly, after some tests, you realize the music isn't
only reflecting your emotions, but also predicting
them. The music stays consistent all day, from
predicting the boring moments to the more exciting
events. There is tension followed by triumph as you
speak with your boss. There's even a growl of
ominous cellos for several minutes before the
thunderstorm rolls in. Things get rather concerning
when, just before stepping out onto the street after
work, there is a sudden racing crescendo rising to a
terrifying shriek of strings.
3. You've read the priests' Creation Story, but you
can't quite accept it. The stories were passed down
orally for many years before they were etched into
stone. Now they carve temples into the whitish
Prompts 659

stone forming the bones of the Earth. You've visited

and read every single story. They speak of a circular
world where gravity pulls you perpetually inward
rather than pushing you all about. They speak of
the rivers as open-roofed things, naked to the sky.
They speak of the ocean tides moving slowly back
and forth, not a constant pumping action. You are
certain something has changed. You begin to
wonder if you are living in an experiment or a
neural fabrication of reality. Yet as you research
more—pursued by the priests the entire time—you
realize a truth more bizarre than you had expected:
Humanity has evolved to live inside other beings,
in their bodies. The "stone" bones of the Earth are
not stone at all, but literally bone. Their blood veins
are the rivers on which you pilot. And the
government, controlled by the priests, is
determined to hide the truth.
4. You are a normal schoolkid with regular interests,
like hanging out with friends, scoring enough
points on your volleyball team, and spending time
with the guys, but one day you start to hear voices
in your head. At first you think you're dreaming;
then you think you're going crazy and rush to the
nurse's office. When you start to hear her thoughts,
you realize the truth. You're not hearing random
voices. No one's speaking to you. You're hearing
other people's thoughts. The nurse's thoughts are
660 Prompts

focused on an "experiment" and how well you have

progressed. You reach out with your mind to ask,
"What experiment?" The nurse drops her cup of
coffee and is visibly shaken. After a minute, she
picks up her phone and says, "It is time to shut it
down. The patient is progressing much faster than
he should." The entire room fades to black. When
you can see again, you are in a glass cage hanging
above a bottomless pit.
5. You've been on a road trip, driving along the
Oregon coast. It's been raining heavily, and you've
been noticing weird flashes out of the corners of
your eyes, but it isn't until you get into Portland
that you realize something is truly odd. Storefront
windows, car windows, the stainless-steel trash
cans—every single reflective surface is playing out
a scene like a television screen. Some are blurrier
(the rain puddles and trash cans) while others are
clearer (the polished high-rise windows), but the
reality is undeniable. Bewildered and somewhat
frightened, you rush into a clothing store and look
into the mirrors. They too are playing the scene,
identical to every other surface, with crystal clarity.
You have a sickening feeling and call your brother.
When he says he can't see a thing and suggests
calling the police, you notice something odd. The
screens ripple as one, flicker for a moment, and the
Prompts 661

scene changes. You know you've done something

to change it, but now you must figure out what.
6. You've noticed the girl on the train for a while.
She's small and willowy, with a winsome face and
eyes that seem to dance. She is almost fairylike or
otherworldly. You see her every day in the same
exact seat, staring out the same window, and
humming what seems to be different portions of the
same long song. For a long time you watch her in
silence. Eventually you work up the courage to sit
alongside her and attempt conversation. She is
warm, smiling, and engaging, but you sense a
distance buried deep. Finally, after three weeks of
conversation (and being told three times she has no
phone or permanent address), you decide to do
something. Basingstoke is the station where she
always stops, and one Sunday afternoon you
discreetly follow as she rises from her seat, makes
her way to the back of the car, and enters the
restroom. When time passes and the train departs,
you grow worried and knock on the restroom door.
Finally you break in, but suddenly find yourself on
the girl's seat in the train, staring out the window.
You feel compelled to hum her song.
7. You're cooking one evening when your children
come dashing in from the woods, babbling with
excitement. One of them has what seems to be a
jagged metal sliver with a tiny ring attached at one
662 Prompts

end. He seems really excited, thrusting it up toward

you and urging you to take it—to taste it—while
saying something about glowing and music. You
are quite bemused, but hastily take it from him. The
object looks rather sharp, probably part of some
broken-down vehicle or appliance left in the
woods. Your lecture on the dangers of sharpness
and unfamiliar objects is interrupted by your wife
and brother, urging you to hurry. You're late for
your group triathlon, and your event—
swimming—is up first. Your son urges you to wear
the sliver around your neck for good luck. You
oblige, only to notice something strange as soon as
you enter the water. The sliver is making noise that
sounds like music. Curiosity turns to alarm as it
begins to glow, radiating a distinct heat that singes
your chest, even underwater. As you stop to tear it
off, there is a sudden pulse, and you find yourself
on top of your dining room table in your dripping-
wet bathing suit. Your family surrounds you with
knives and forks in hand, ready to chow down.
8. Every day is the same. You come downstairs, eat
your cereal, and then begrudgingly go to school.
Today, though, when you look down at your bowl,
you see someone drowning in your milk. You pick
him up with your spoon and he thanks you for
saving him. As he begins to tell you his story, your
mom yells out that you are going to miss the bus.
Prompts 663

Forgetting what was on your spoon, you quickly

shove it in your mouth, swallow, and run out the
door. When you open the door, that same man is
on the other side. He is full-sized now and very
angry at you.
9. One moment you are playing frisbee with your son;
the next the world is rushing by you in a blur.
Shocked, you find yourself standing farther from
your son, the frisbee at your feet. Your son frowns,
clearly noting the oddity as well. You shrug, pick
up the disc, and then hurl it again. After the third
time, there is no mistaking it: Instead of the frisbee
flying forward, you are sliding backwards. The
world seems fixed around you and the frisbee, and
every time you throw it, the force of your throw is
sliding your surroundings by you instead of sending
the frisbee through the air. Things get chaotic when
your son decides to throw the frisbee in a different
direction.
10. One morning you woke up with your left hand
gone. There was no blood or stitches. It was like
your left hand had never been there in the first
place. You look out the window and see a dog
carrying your left hand in his mouth. He looks at
you and quickly dashes down the road. You throw
on some clothes and start chasing him. The dog
takes a sudden turn and goes into a wooded area.
You continue to pursue, jumping over logs and
664 Prompts

dodging trees. You then come to a clearing in the

woods with hundreds of left hands piled up next to
a brook. The dog turns around, drops your hand on
the grass, and stares at you in a funny way. You
approach the dog and pick up your hand. Suddenly
all of the other left hands start to crawl around like
spiders and begin chasing you. You run deeper into
the forest.
11. You have been dead for the last twelve hours, and
it has not been a pleasant experience. The good
news is that you don't vanish into nothing. The bad
news is there are no angels and no heaven. You are
just stuck in a body that can't move. At least your
eyes are open. You have been waiting for someone
to find your corpse, but no luck. Mountain climbing
on your own probably wasn't the best idea. Then
you notice something out of the corner of your eye.
Something or someone is slowly approaching. You
hope it is not an animal looking for a snack. When
you are able to make out a face, you realize that it
is your own and, for whatever reason, you are very
happy to see what is left of you. Perhaps you have
been looking all over the place for yourself. Perhaps
the afterlife will be interesting after all.
12. Each day you wake up with no memory of the
previous day, but it's not only memory loss. It seems
you actually become a different person, with a new
body, ___location, and life. The only constant seems to
Prompts 665

be your journal, slipped into the pocket of whatever

new outfit you wake up in. The journal entries
number 487 days, each one recounting a different
day from a different person's life. You don't know
why it started or how you realized what was going
on, but the diary makes it clear that you often
struggle to accept this, although you usually begin
to embrace it by around noon. The journal
references a time you tried to record data and solve
the problem; another day you supposedly grew so
frustrated by the process that you scrapped the
entire notebook and started anew. You have no idea
how many times that may have happened, but only
that each time you wished you hadn't tried. Do you
try again to slowly gather data, learn it afresh each
morning, and try to solve this thing? Or do you
accept this situation and enjoy what you can of life?
13. You are walking down the sidewalk one day when
you hear a muffled voice. You look around and see
no one there. You walk a couple more steps when
you hear the voice again. It seems to come from the
ground. You put your ear close to the pavement and
closely listen. Just then, an SUV driving by swerves
to the right, flips over your now ducking body, and
crashes into a nearby tree. As you get up, you can
now clearly hear the voice say "You owe me one."
14. You are at your local supermarket picking up
groceries. A stranger suddenly comes up to you and
666 Prompts

exclaims, "I found you! I finally found you!" You

smile awkwardly and ask what is going on. He then
calls out to everyone within earshot and says, "Hey!
Look, I found her. She is here! She is here!" A crowd
begins to form around you. Some are yelling at the
top of their lungs in excitement. Others are
jumping up and down. One person even tries to hug
you. You find a way to pass through the mob and
start running. The mob chases you out of the
supermarket.
15. You were only 11 years old when you began to see
the signs: shapes and symbols, colors around
people, shifting and glowing like living auras.
Sometimes they are flickers, flashing into view and
fading away. Other times they are as steady as a
heartbeat, following people everywhere they go. At
first you thought you were dreaming, but then you
thought they were spirits, and your parents took
you to a therapist. For months, you lived in terror
of your own insanity until you learned to embrace
the reality of the images. Other people can't see
them, but they are there. The images tell you
stories, letting you see into people's lives and
futures. That raven means someone in that
woman's family will die or she will hear from a
relative thought lost. That phoenix wheeling
around her is a similar figure, symbolizing death
and rebirth or revival. The monkey seated on that
Prompts 667

man's shoulder symbolizes an inquisitive, often-

mischievous nature. You have spent years studying
the symbols, but you still cannot decide if you
should advise people or leave them alone. When a
Secret Service agent approaches and informs you
that the government needs your abilities, you must
decide what to do.
16. You have worked for 15 years, filling 30 different
positions in 30 different restaurants, to save up
enough money to live your dream: owning a food
truck. Yours is the only one in Dallas that serves
authentic sushi, and it's some of the finest and most
varied sushi in the Western hemisphere. You are
making a new roll one morning when you see a
flash, then hear a thud followed by a bizarre silence
outside. Worried some accident has caused a
sudden stop in traffic just before your lunch rush,
you hurry outside to find your truck high on a
mountaintop. A crowd of Japanese villagers stare up
at you. After much struggle to communicate, and
much experimentation, you realize that every time
you make a roll, your truck transports you to the
place of its origin. Quickly you expand your
business, adopting every cuisine you can learn.
Tacos, pastas, hummus, curries—you have it all.
The only catch is, in order to leave a place, you have
to present the local dish you are working on, and
the locals have to approve of it. When a particularly
668 Prompts

angry band of Argentinian locals finds immense

fault with your asado, you wonder if you will ever
make it back home.
17. You are the ultimate killing machine, a cyborg
created for one purpose only: to eliminate the
enemy. Your next assignment is to kill a billionaire
financier who has dabbled a little too much in
politics. You arm your plasma rifle and storm his
mansion. To your surprise, he is not there, but you
do encounter a small child in her playroom.
"Would you like to play tea party with me?" Tea
party? Tea party does not compute, so you turn
around to walk away. But you realize that you
could use a break. Plus, your target is not home. So
you put down your rifle, your knives, your
grenades, and your laser sword and play tea party
with the child. You love it, so you play more games
with her. When her dad comes home, you resist
your programming to murder him outright and
instead hide in the playroom's closet so you can
play more fun games with your new best friend
tomorrow.
18. While jogging one day after sculpture class, you
discover that you are running slower and slower
until you are just walking. You stop to look around
and see the same thing happening to everyone
around you. Basically, everyone has just stopped in
their tracks. Meanwhile you notice that a nearby
Prompts 669

statue of George Washington has started moving.

Angel statues and gargoyles are flying in the skies.
You can even see the Statue of Liberty walking in
the distance. Inanimate statues have somehow
become animate while the animate have become
immobile. Then, for whatever reason, you are able
to move again while others in the park remain
frozen. George Washington comes over to you and
says, "We need sculptures like you if we are ever
going to have more of our kind. As for the others,
well, they are unnecessary."
19. You are in the middle of playing your favorite
shooter video game when, all of a sudden, the
character you are playing turns around, drops his
gun, and stares straight at you. Is your controller
broken? Did the game crash? You decide to turn off
the console, but nothing happens. Then, the
character says, "Do you know how many times I
have been shot? Do you know how many times I
have died? I have lost count, but I do know this
much: I know who to blame and I am coming after
you. Let's see how you like it."
20. One night, you're enjoying a quiet evening at home
reading a science fiction novel. You hear a huge
crash from the backyard and jump out of your chair
to go investigate. A small strange spaceship which
resembles something from the novel you were just
reading smolders in your backyard. But what really
670 Prompts

makes your knees buckle is the fact that the

unconscious person inside the cockpit looks a lot
like you. He wakes up, looks at you, and says: "Oh
no. Not again."

Soft Science Fiction

1. You wouldn't say you love being a marriage

counselor, but it's meaningful work. It's also
stressful, burdensome, and depressing, yet you
genuinely care about the couples and they respond
to you. There's nothing as joyful as seeing a couple
leave your office with their relationship renewed
on every level. Things grow strange one day when
you encounter a rather unusual couple. The woman
continually disappears for long periods of time and
claims she can't explain why. The man trusts and
loves her, but he can't go on like this. Things get
stranger when the woman approaches you late one
night, revealing she's a shapeshifting alien. Her
people have been living among humanity, but their
enemies have tracked them to Earth and are
hunting them down. She needs to protect her
people. She assures you that, if you can keep the
marriage together for just three more months, her
people will be victorious and things will go back to
how they were before. You are shocked, doubting
whether such a marriage can be possible, whether
Prompts 671

such a secret should be kept, and whether it is your

responsibility to decide.
2. Two star-crossed lovers from warring planets fall in
love on a peace-seeking mission that goes awry.
They secretly stay in contact with each other
despite the fact that their respective governments
are at war. They must choose whether or not to
prove that peace can be reached by exposing their
relationship to the world at the risk of losing
everything, including their lives.
3. You and your brother have never been close.
You're a devil-may-care rogue with a love for
adventure and a hatred for all things governmental.
You've spent the last 12 years as a long-distance
merchant, cargo serviceman, and—in bad times—
smuggler. Your crew is a rowdy bunch, but loyal,
and they know how to have a good time. Your
brother is a stiff-necked businessman who passes
his days in the stodgy company of equally stodgy
businessmen and government elites. When he
makes contact, you are immediately suspicious.
Your concerns grow when he asks you to smuggle
an unmarked strongbox out of Federation territory
and leave it on a disputed planet. The pay is good,
and he is your brother after all, so you accept, but
once in space you cannot help but wonder what is
in the strongbox. Is your brother party to an anti-
Federation plot? If so, do you approve? The
672 Prompts

Federation has its faults, but you'd much rather

they maintain control than lose it to those
bloodthirsty aliens on the border. Tensions build
when both aliens and the Feds appear hot on your
tail, forcing you to make a hasty decision.
4. You always enjoy hanging out with your friends
and having fun at computer camp. However, all of
that changes when trouble-making kids from a
nearby camp start coming over on night raids. They
wreck computers and other equipment, throw food
around, hang toilet paper off of trees and cabins,
and even set off a stink bomb in the bathroom. Your
camp counselor calls up the other camp and asks
them to stop, but nothing changes. Well, enough is
enough. You and your fellow computer campers are
going to put your minds together and create some
technological pranks and boobytraps that will put
their night raids to shame. By the time you are
done, they will never want to step foot in your
camp again.
5. You are proud to be a pilot, the finest in your class.
When you graduate and are selected for the
military rather than for standard citizen
transportation, you are ecstatic. You sober up a bit
when your commander informs you that you
weren't chosen only for your skills; you were also
chosen for your high obedience level and for the
fact that you have no living family. You've always
Prompts 673

heard of wars, but never actually seen one. You've

always heard of the enemy, but never actually seen
them. During your tenth mission quelling yet
another "rebellion," you finally realize what is
going on. There are no enemies. There is no other
team. Your government is only sending you against
your own people—anyone who get too close to the
truth.
6. As the heiress to one of the largest family fortunes
in the world, your life of relaxing on your yacht,
shopping at luxury retail stores, and eating at five-
star restaurants just can't get any better. You had to
marry an ugly, older man to get here, but it was all
worth it. Plus, you always have the option of
picking up some young guy on the side for some
extracurricular fun. One day, after rolling out of
bed at noon, you check your phone and are shocked
to find several text messages containing photos of
you and your latest love interest in increasingly
compromising situations. The unknown person
writes that he has hacked into a new nation-wide
surveillance system and tracked you for the last six
months. Everything that you have done has been
recorded using satellites, drones, and
thermographic cameras. The last message states
that these photos are going to be sent to your
husband unless you do exactly what he wants.
674 Prompts

When you read his seemingly endless list of

demands, you know you are in way over your head.
7. If there's one thing you hate about your culture, it's
the arranged marriages. Never mind that it's the
wealthiest planet in the galaxy and that your father
is Lord of its third-largest continent. Ordinary sons
at least have the chance to convince their parents
not to follow tradition or to run away. There are a
billion farmers available, after all. You, however,
are one of only two bachelor princes on the entire
planet, and you have the option of three unmarried
princesses. Lord Dartaan is a dolt, and everyone
fears this trait may have been passed on to his
daughter, so there's no danger of your father
pairing you with her. Lord Tiranian is at war with
you, and his daughter once tried to assassinate your
entire family. Apparently, that's her thing. Then
there's Lord Stanathan, essentially the only choice.
His daughter Denisa is pretty and smart as a knife,
but still you find no spark. She's too smart, and she
seems to find you boring. And when you discover
she's building a robot army in her personal palace,
you fear for the fate of your planet.
8. You love 1980s TV shows. Period. You have
watched and re-watched pretty much every 1980s
sitcom out there. There is a warmth to the
characters, and the plots are good but never too
challenging. Perfect entertainment for taking it
Prompts 675

easy. After a long day at work, it is time to fire up

the TV and watch something you have watched
many times over. However, this time something is
different. All of the characters are just staring at
you, saying nothing and doing nothing. You think
there is a problem with your streaming service and
try to turn your TV off, but nothing happens. Then
one of the characters speaks: "Hey, you have been
watching us over and over again for years. Well, I
think it is time for us to watch you for a while. We
want a break. Now, please make sure that this
episode is entertaining. I want a good arc with a
satisfying resolution that ends in a hug or a puppy
or something similar. You have half an hour to
make this work or else. Good luck!"
9. Even as a smuggler, one thing you've never
accepted is an escaped felon. One day in port,
however, while the crew is unloading and you are
lounging in the bridge, the door blows open and a
woman stumbles in, bleeding from a wound to the
gut and dragging a possibly broken ankle. Although
she is dying, she is distinctly beautiful. She's also
holding a pistol. Hurriedly—weakly—she orders
you to take off. Your protests are cut short as she
fires. A dart impales itself in your arm, but you feel
nothing. She tells you that it's Alaya venom, which
is famous for its slow but certain death. The woman
says the antidote exists only on her home planet
676 Prompts

and that you have to fly there. All thoughts of

negotiation vanish as she pulls another pistol—a
real one this time—and assures you the next shot
will not be so merciful. Seeing the madness in her
eyes and hearing desperation in her voice, you
realize she is a heartbeat away from killing you.
Hurriedly you act, even though it means you will
be left to fly the aircraft alone. The police give
chase, of course. Now you are onboard alone with
a strange, violent, and gorgeous criminal, headed
toward a strange planet, with all the resources of
the Empire aimed at bringing you down.
10. You enjoy playing cello for the Prague
Philharmonic. You've always spurned the modern
music genres—pop, rap, hip-hop, and electronica.
Yet when you hear a busker on the street one day,
you have to check it out. He has an impressive stage
presence and skilled hands, and his style isn't
terrible. It's a fusion of classical/romantic and
modern, which leaves you uncertain how to feel.
But he's gorgeous. Why does nobody in the
orchestra look like him? You hang around, and he
seems to know you are waiting because he wraps up
quickly and comes to talk to you. He grins and
thanks you, but he's already had three invitations
to the Philharmonic, and it isn't his thing.
Impressed by his read of your intentions––and a bit
entranced by his emerald eyes––you find yourself
Prompts 677

drawn into a dinner date. As weeks pass, you can't

deny that you have feelings, but then he reveals he
didn't just guess your intentions that day. He can
also read minds. He swears he hasn't done so since
then––and swears he can't influence yours––but
you find yourself unnerved and frightened.
11. You and your team recently invented an implant
for pets that allows an owner to see and hear
everything their pet sees and hears. The pet simply
ingests a small device and by the next day it starts
recording. You try out the protype on your dog, and
so far it is working the way it should. Everything
your dog sees and hears is recorded on your phone
flawlessly. You are excited to show your investor
group the results. However, as you scroll through
yesterday's recordings, you find something odd.
Your dog was watching your husband as he was
vigorously scrubbing his shirt. You zoom in to find
that he was trying to remove lipstick from his
collar. Is he cheating on you? There is no way to
truly know unless you slip the implant into your
husband's dinner and record his activities. It might
be a little immoral, but it is better to know versus
not knowing.
12. As a lonely and awkward teenage genius, you
design a robot with artificial intelligence to serve as
your best friend. After many rounds of playing
Dungeons and Dragons, both you and the robot
678 Prompts

learn what it means to have a social life together.

When your budding social abilities and confidence
attract the attention of a girl in your class, the robot
becomes jealous. You have to find a way to pursue
love and other social experiences while also
maintaining a solid friendship with your robot
creation.
13. As the subject of several military human
enhancement experiments, you struggle to keep
your newfound superhuman abilities secret during
a series of first dates and end up ruining any
romantic potential. When you give a salt shaker to
one of your dates via telepathy, she runs away
screaming. When you read the mind of another
date and find out that she is already in a committed
relationship, a confrontation ensues which ends up
with a drink in your face. You have given up all
hope of finding the right one, until you find an
online dating profile of a person whom you
recognize as another participant in this military
enhancement program.
14. Aasha is a new student who is drop-dead gorgeous
and instantly popular. She starts eating lunch with
you, the laughable nerd, and you have no idea what
to think. When she starts asking about your recent
home projects, however, you discover an entirely
new side of her. She's not only stunning, but she's
also brilliant. Genius-level brilliant. Shocked, you
Prompts 679

welcome her into your inner life, explaining your

experiments with trip frequencies, magnetic
dissonance, and high-velocity particles. It's big stuff
and, if you had more resources, you're convinced
you could crack matter manipulation on the atomic
level. When Aasha's questions become more
prying, you sense she's trying to hold your
experiments back. You devise a trap and catch her
in the act of erasing data from all your successful
tests. A few minutes of angry questioning reveal a
stunning truth: She's not from Earth. She's part of a
crew that's been sent to monitor particularly
"dangerous" humans before they advance humanity
too far. If you want to save your experiments—and
the romance you may have—you must convince
Aasha that trust and mutual support, not control
and fear, are the path to a better universe.
15. As a circus master, you have your rules. You've
been in the business for twenty years and have
earned a name for yourself around the nation,
building your success on creativity, flare, and
implicit trust among your crew—as well as a
complete refusal to tell your secrets. However,
when you accept a new magician/illusionist into
the show, you discover that she is secretly an alien.
Her people have developed telekinesis, the ability
to control things with their minds. Amazed but
slightly frightened, you welcome her into the
680 Prompts

show. What you don't expect is to fall in love with

her and to be confronted with all the ethical
dilemmas of considering such a complicated
romance.
16. A standard time jump grows worrisome when you
return to find your wife has become an
international fugitive. Predictions have been
known to be incorrect, but only in stories. It isn't
supposed to happen anymore. Whenever a team is
sent into the past to recover an artifact or alter
circumstances, the quantum computers calculate
not only how far back the team can travel without
drastically affecting the present, but also who can
be sent. When an oil tanker exploded off the coast
of Argentina last week, you and your teammates
were summoned for your speed, your expertise in
frigid waters, and the fact that you are Russian,
Latvian, and Norwegian. You've never been
anywhere near Argentina or interacted with
anyone who has. But something was clearly
miscalculated. Some fluke of probability in how
you changed the past caused your wife to go mad
and bomb the UN headquarters. You try to prevent
the spill a dozen different ways, but the outcome is
always the same. As compounded ripples expand
and your wife remains unfound, you begin to fear
it was the Argentine spill itself that stopped her
from committing this dreadful crime.
Prompts 681

17. Things get odd one lazy Sunday afternoon when a

team of government officials informs you they need
to excavate your backyard, something to do with
decades-overdue cleanup from the Settlement
Wars. They want to ensure no salvageable
equipment was left on anyone's land. You shrug
and give in, returning to your family at the dinner
table. The feds have been at their work for four
hours when there is a shout and a sudden explosion.
Quickly you run outside but, reaching the porch,
you stop in shock as eight forms resembling massive
metallic eggs shoot up into the air, each buzzing
and whirling madly before coughing, spitting
smoke, and falling to Earth. There is a crackling,
hissing sound, and tentacled bug-eyed creatures
emerge, catching the feds in their tentacles and
tearing them to pieces. You quickly urge your
family into the basement, snatching your shotgun
from the mantle and tossing the wood axe to your
wife. Waiting to see if the creatures have noticed
you, you realize you must somehow protect your
family while warning the government there are
still aliens hiding on your planet.
18. When a brother and sister ask for transportation
aboard your ship, you consider it a bit of an unusual
request. Yours is a classic freighter: run-down and
slow, with cramped accommodations and a general
lack of charm. You sometimes do accept passengers.
682 Prompts

A single body pays more than a single sheep or any

number of other wares that occupy the same space
and weight. But human bodies cause problems that
wool and sheep—most times—cannot. That's why
you find it quite irritating when the adolescents
abruptly ask you to erase all record of their
presence from the logs. After a moment of initial
panic, it turns out they aren't big-time criminals or
anything else concerning; they are merely a couple
of minors in love whose parents have forbidden
their marriage, even promising harsh punishment.
Reflecting on your own controlling parents and
your past romantic misadventures, you are left to
make a choice. But who do you trust more: the
families you do not know or the kids?
19. You've always been proud of your husband. He's
one of the world's leading experts on robotics, the
essential backbone of the world, and his substantial
salary affords you a life of luxury. One day, you go
to meet your spouse at his office. Interrupted by a
shriek from the CEO, both of you run over to
investigate. When you find the man's robot chef
holding a bloody knife above his corpse, you realize
with dread that what your husband always feared
has finally come to pass: A robot has gone mad. You
quickly turn off the robot, but you know this is just
the tip of the iceberg. If anybody finds out, your
husband will be fired and never find employment
Prompts 683

as a robotics engineer again. You ask your husband

what to do, and he answers as you expected: "We
have to cover this up. Quick, grab the legs and let's
throw him down the trash chute."
20. After years of research and trial-and-error, you
invent a next-generation phone that can record
significant moments from multiple angles at the
push of a button. Whenever a person wants to
record something with your new invention, five
small drones are launched from the phone and get
in position to provide every optimal angle for a
perfectly shot video. However, you begin to regret
your creation when you learn that you have been
framed for a murder using this technology.

Space Exploration

1. While exploring space to find other lifeforms, your

vessel is hit by an undefined force and goes wildly
off course into unknown space. After you regain
control and assess the damage, you learn that the
ship's engines are unable to achieve light speed and
you cannot contact the rest of the fleet. After
several months of traveling below the speed of
light, your crew runs out of resources and the ship's
power containment begins to degrade. With no
other viable options, you and your surviving crew
members board escape pods and land on an
684 Prompts

uncharted planet, hoping to find help from the

local inhabitants.
2. Discovering a dead city on a dead planet is not
terribly surprising. You've been a Federation
Planetary Surveyor (FPS) for a decade now, and
you've seen it all before. What is surprising is that
the city doesn't seem truly dead. Technically, it's
neither dead nor abandoned as its people appear to
be sleeping. You try in vain to wake several of
them. As your men go through the buildings,
looting whatever strange new technology they can
find, you press farther. When you reach the very
center of the city, you find a tower. You are wary,
but you don't expect it to light up as soon as you
touch its door. After an unexpected buzzing and a
flash of light, you find yourself standing atop the
tower, a massive control panel spreading out before
you. The entire city begins to wake up. They seem
to think you are some kind of god, and they claim
they have been awaiting your coming for thousands
of years. The bad part, of course, is that they've
captured your men, and they bring them to you in
all confidence that you will order executions.
3. You wake up abruptly in a cryopod, in the middle
of a deep space exploration mission. A quick search
reveals that your ship collided with unexpected
debris, resulting in severe damage. You are the only
member of the 300-man crew who seems to be
Prompts 685

awake. As a botanist, you have no idea how

anything works, and the ship's system seems to
have malfunctioned during the crash. Emergency
mode has shut down all the main systems, leaving
you sealed in your cryochamber with 49 sleeping
crewmembers. With limited oxygen on the ship—
breathing occurs in cryosleep, but is
hyperslowed—and a ship drifting off course, you
are forced to wake some crewmembers in a last-
ditch effort briefly mentioned during the pre-flight
emergency rundown. You smash the glass of the
cryopods of three technicians. Now you must wait
to see if their bodies will slowly acclimate to the
harsh and sudden change or fail to do so and
ultimately die.
4. You discovered a planet made of glass—something
you'd never heard of or imagined before. But
you've been here ten weeks now and have finally
started receiving responses from the Capital,
drifting back across the void. All of them say the
same thing: a glass planet is an impossibility.
Suspecting it is a construction or a trap left by a far
more advanced race, the Capital warns you that you
have no way of knowing what it truly is. There's
something at the very center, something your
scanners cannot define. But if you leave, what will
humanity miss out on? You send out your first
drones, which return a month later unharmed,
686 Prompts

making you more certain about the need to

continue your explorations. You send the data back
to the Capital, but it will take two months for the
message to travel to Earth and the response to get
back to you (humans have cracked intergalactic
travel, but not instantaneous communication). Fuel
is running low, and you're already one week
overdue to resupply. Your crew will follow you, as
soon as you decide what to do next.
5. After waking up from cryosleep, you discover that
your exploration vessel has suffered major damage
from an asteroid belt collision while on autopilot.
You don't know where you are, and only one other
person has awakened—the one person on the ship
you don't get along with.
6. You've been mapping the galaxy for thirty years,
during which time you've made contact with two
alien races, but you've never seen a planet like this.
All the necessities of life are there: water, air, plant
abundance, and stability. But there are no animals.
Your crew has been taking readings for hours, and
they have found nothing. Your crew grows more
comfortable, spreading out across the landing site
and into the forest, valleys, and meadows. The
cloud comes suddenly, descending from the
mountains without warning. You've been doing
this long enough to know you should be afraid, and
you race back to the ship in time, along with a few
Prompts 687

lucky souls. Others aren't so quick. The bugs coat

the land like the air itself, one massive unending
mantle of buzzing, whirring blackness. Most of
your men die instantly. The insects are so thick
they are clogging the exhaust ports of the ship and
even swarming their way into the thruster engines.
When you receive a broken radio transmission
from some of your men who have somehow
survived the swarm for now, you must decide if you
should wait out the insects or try to save your men.
7. Stasis was created to keep the mind active during
the voyage to Alpha Centauri, but when you woke
the memories of stasis were so vivid that your only
desire was to return. The love of your life was a
figment of that machine.
8. Earth has not yet reached the stage where an
interstellar journey can be achieved in a single
lifetime, not without the use of cryosleep. There's
also no return journey yet, which is why they send
mostly criminals and anyone else crazy enough to
go. Yet you've always wanted to go, and when you
graduate with a triple-doctorate in astrophysics,
aeronautical engineering, and biology, you cannot
help but feel you're wasted on Earth. You're stuck
doing hypotheses, proofs, and theoretical formulas,
while criminals are out there tasting and testing the
real thing. You ask for a position leading the next
expedition and are ecstatic when they accept. The
688 Prompts

problems start when you meet your crew and begin

to understand just why these criminals are being
sent away from Earth. They've displayed good
behavior for five to twenty years in prison and now
want to live just like you, but no two of them agree
on the way to do it, and they're certainly not going
to listen to you, with your spotless binder, neatly
pinned tie, and fingers uncalloused from a single
day's work.
9. Humanity has been settling planets for three
hundred years, but still no alien life has been
discovered. When you pick up strange readings
from an object drifting through deep space, what
you find shocks you to the core. It is a spaceship,
nearly forty kilometers across, floating dead
through space. It's not human. Whoever these
travelers were, they were dealing with resources
and technology the Earth has only dreamt of. You
lead a small team onto the wreckage, finding most
of the ship gutted beyond repair. You find
technology that awes you and signs of a race far
more similar to humanity than you expected. Then
your scanners notice a small pocket of life aboard,
evident through electrical signals and vibrations
and thermal activity. You quickly investigate,
finding a small band of survivors who have
managed to divert supplies and energy to one sealed
section of the ring. When you attempt to
Prompts 689

communicate, they attack and inadvertently

destroy the ship further. They are terrified. Now
you are left to save your men and ship, all while
trying to convince these people you mean well and,
if possible, establish contact with their species.
10. While exploring space, a ship's crew members
begin to develop extraordinary sensory abilities.
Some are frightened and overwhelmed by this
experience, while others welcome the feeling of
seeing music vibrate in the air and hearing the
frequencies of colors. You are a writer who is
feeling these changes and attempting to capture the
experience in your journal, but you find it hard to
describe.
11. Upon discovering a planet that seems remarkably
similar to Earth, you decide to take a landing party
down to explore it. The first day passes smoothly.
The planet seems to be a miracle, a paradise of
plenty. Then night comes, and an odd smell
emerges. You feel faint and soon black out. When
you awake, your crew is gone while men and
creatures are rushing toward you through the
darkness, shrieking for blood. You turn to run, but
a woman's screams draw your attention. You are
stunned to see Nialla, an old love, running down
the slope, pursued by a gang earing Kashari
smuggler masks. You rush toward her, shooting at
the smugglers, only to find they aren't Kashari at
690 Prompts

all. They are your family. Enduring several minutes

of hell and horror, you eventually realize these are
nothing but illusions built from your own
memories. Something in the air is causing
hallucinations that seem freakishly real. You are
left to find your crew in the middle of a living
nightmare, hoping this is a mere natural
phenomenon and not some sinister alien
technology turned upon you.
12. You are part of a deep space fleet sent to investigate
strange stellar activity at the very center of the
galaxy. You discover a black hole, but do not have
the technology to enter it—indeed, it is thought
that such technology is impossible. Strangely
enough, however, another fleet exits the black hole
from the other side as you are scanning for activity.
You first notice things are strange when you see
that many of the ships appear the same. when you
make contact, you are shocked to discover that the
crewmembers of the other ships are your exact
crewmembers—only smarter, more advanced, and
not as friendly. Theories of parallel dimensions and
shadow-selves begin to spin through your head as
the unfamiliar fleet activates their shields and
approaches without acknowledging your attempts
at communication.
13. The galaxy was abuzz when NASA first announced
it had finally cracked the secret to creating a
Prompts 691

wormhole, but no one's tried it yet. However, once

created, the wormhole will remain open, allowing
humanity to pass through it anytime they wish.
NASA claims they can control where it opens. They
say it will serve as a bridge to the adjoining galaxy,
allowing human expansion to make an
unprecedented leap forward. Unfortunately,
opening a wormhole requires an immense
gravitational force, the amount that can shatter
planets and send ships careening out of control.
Nothing as large as a black hole, but something far
larger than Earth. A very large sun, for example.
And there's the catch: Someone needs to fly toward
the heart of a sun, open the wormhole when they
reach critical momentum, and pass through it
without knowing what's on the other side. You've
been chosen to take on this mission.
14. Spacejump tech is still developing, and humanity is
currently limited to intragalactic exploration. You
and your crew are exploring a remote system when
your ship abruptly pulls out of warp speed without
warning. You find yourself in the middle of a space
battle. The computer didn't anticipate matter here,
so it did not program a course. One alien race
appears to be attacking a blockade imposed by
another, trying to get to the planet below. They
both seem to think you are the enemy, firing upon
you immediately and sending bizarre
692 Prompts

communications that you struggle to translate. All

you can understand is that they are fighting over
some ___location, some object of value on the planet
below. Unable to jump and unwilling to navigate
through the battle, you are forced to land on the
planet's moon to wait. When you find a bizarre
portal that seems dormant, you wonder if both
armies are after the wrong ___location. If this door
does what you think it does, it has a value beyond
any weapon, any planet, and any entire system.
When a small fleet of ships decides to follow you
down, clearly curious, you must decide what to do.
15. You prefer the dark loneliness of space to your
crowded home planet of Earth, so you've agreed to
be a scout for an organization looking for resources
to mine on other planets. On one such scouting trip,
you discover a planet with much potential.
However, when you land, a ghostly fog surrounds
you, with voices calling you deeper into it.
16. A deep space exploration vessel is thrown off course
and ends up discovering a planet the likes of which
have never been seen before. A city covers the
entire surface of the planet, powered primarily by
the planet's core, but there are no life readings.
Excited to see this technological marvel up close
and to find out what happened to its inhabitants,
you and your crew decide to land on the planet and
investigate further. When you open the hatch, the
Prompts 693

abandoned cityscape you were expecting is

nowhere to be found. It was simply a projection of
some sort emanating from a single structure in the
distance. When you decide to launch and go back
into orbit, your ship powers down. There is
something draining the energy from your ship, and
you soon realize that that you and your crew have
fallen into a trap.
17. You are part of a team of explorers commissioned
to search for life-containing planets in distant solar
systems. After traveling for light years, your ship
comes across a planet showing signs of life based on
your preliminary readings. You are sent to the
planet to investigate, but as you breathe in the air,
you begin hallucinating mirages of past civilizations
there that are now only ruins.
18. Humans have just discovered intergalactic travel,
opening up a vast new range of planets they can
explore. Your crew is one of the first to explore the
galaxy closest to the Milky Way, and you've found
your first possibly inhabitable planet. You land,
only to enter a nightmare. People start going mad,
seeing visions, and hearing voices. They run off into
the mountains and disappear, or they set off on mad
murder sprees that leave nearly half your crew dead
in just a week. Nothing like this has been
documented, and rumors are already spreading. Is
this a spiritual curse or a virus? The majority of the
694 Prompts

crew urges your captain to return home. You have

studied alien biology all your life and decide to take
things into your own hands. You investigate the
cause and find it is indeed a neurological virus that
is spread by the spores of local plants, causing
anyone who breathes them to go mad.
19. You are a member of an alien race that has been
exploring space for over a millennium, seeking out
other lifeforms and establishing alliances with
them. During one of your missions, you discover
Earth on long-range scanners and decide to
investigate. You and your team are excited to find
sentient lifeforms on the planet, and you begin
observing them from afar. Then, out of nowhere,
your ship is suddenly confronted with military
spacecraft, with guns aimed at you.
20. You are aboard a spaceship tasked with discovering
new, habitable planets for humans. Your ship
discovers an unknown planet which seems to be
comprised mostly of water. After testing the
atmosphere and determining it to be safe, you're
sent with a group of divers to explore. However,
you are entirely unaware of the creatures you will
find beneath the water's surface.

Space Opera

1. Interplanetary war has broken out and you're a

mercenary who will fight for the highest bidder.
Prompts 695

Suddenly, news that your childhood sweetheart has

been captured and is being tried as a traitor on
Earth changes your mind, and you decide to rescue
her instead.
2. Humans have colonized much of space thanks to
hyperspace technology discovered a hundred years
ago. You're a runner between colonies who steals
from the rich to give to the poor and
disenfranchised that inhabit some of the colonies
(including your family).
3. Everyone has heard of The Rift. It is a central part
of many horror films out there. You hear it spoken
about in drunken whispers in seedy deep space
taverns. You hear it from poets, prophets, and
children. It's the half-cracked smugglers that
frighten you, though. The ones who travel all their
lives. The ones who've actually seen things. Mostly,
it is that single-eyed Jhanaean. He described it like
the others, a shuddering tear in space-time, leaping
with utter randomness between the stars. He
described how it swallowed one. He described the
communication frequency he'd accidentally used to
summon it. Now, aliens hellbent on conquest are
about to take over your planet, and the Federation
army is too far away. Can you convince your friends
to join you, infiltrate the capital, and broadcast the
frequency loud enough to summon The Rift and
consume these invaders before it is too late? Does it
696 Prompts

even exist? If so, how can you be sure it won't

consume your own people?
4. Humanity is threatened with extinction if it
remains on Earth much longer, as the planet's
ability to sustain human life has been greatly
reduced. You're a part of a crew sent out to find
another habitable planet and help colonize it. In
doing so, you fall for a young woman who has lived
on the new planet her whole life. She insists that
bringing colonists would ruin her planet's peaceful
existence and begs you to sabotage the mission. You
would do anything for love, even if it means
starting a war.
5. You're a hotheaded young pilot who knows how to
fly spaceships like few people can. You've been
asked to rescue the governor's daughter from the
pirates who boarded her spaceship and stole it. In
order to do so, you'll have to catch up to them,
sneak on board, convince the girl to come with you,
and then commandeer the craft to get her back
home.
6. As a boy, you once witnessed an alien spaceship you
weren't supposed to see. Ever since then, you have
felt that you're being watched. On your 14th
birthday, you wake up on the spaceship, captured
by the aliens who want to keep you from talking
about what you witnessed. After getting to know
them and escaping a few sticky situations, the aliens
Prompts 697

begin to trust you, and you eventually become a

member of their crew. One day, the captain of the
spaceship decides to return to Earth in order to steal
precious cargo from a secret military base and to sell
it to the highest bidder. From your perspective, this
is your opportunity to escape your captors and live
a normal life again.
7. You're a part of a family of explorers who have
made a name for themselves in exploring other
planets and discovering other lifeforms. On one
such mission, you encounter an alien woman who
is the most beautiful creature you've ever met. You
decide to help her escape her oppressive world and
bring her to your home planet.
8. The Earth's sun is dying and a mass exodus is
underway. You're the pilot of a carrier ship charged
with moving people to new homes in various
colonies in the nearby galaxy. Your route requires
you to travel through a dangerous space corridor
infested with alien pirates determined to steal your
ship and enslave your passengers. Can your
excellent maneuvering skills, coupled with help
from a spunky female mechanic, save the day?
9. Space travel has opened up other worlds and species
but has also made the Earth valuable property for
any humanoid species needing the Earth's
atmosphere and elements. You're a part of a special
forces operation that protects Earth from alien
698 Prompts

invaders and have learned of a particularly

nefarious plot you must stop. In the process of
doing so, you meet the love of your life, who
happens to be part of the alien race trying to take
over.
10. You are a medic and the only female member of an
exploration crew sent in search of livable planets on
your first deep space trip. The captain is an insane
but brave individual; the ranger is stiff and
dangerous. The engineer is a freakishly jovial man,
and his equally-smiling brother seems to be
everything at once––cook and physicist. Then,
there's the pilot, a man who sets your soul on fire.
Romance quickly becomes entangled with peril
when the ship is attacked by hostile aliens. The
captain falls into a coma and the pilot is wounded.
When you save his life, you are allowed into his
inner circle of trust, but the ship is stranded adrift
in space with failing life support. You discover the
floating wreckage of a fleet and send a team out to
recover the parts you need to repair the ship. Petty
disagreements and ship politics create a tense
atmosphere as you recover the parts, but an alien
ship suddenly appears on your scanners.
11. As one of the best soldiers on the Earth's Space
Force, your mission is to rescue a woman who has
been kidnapped by an alien enemy. When you
come close to completing your mission, you
Prompts 699

discover that not only does she refuse to go with

you, she doesn't want to be "rescued" at all. You
have a job to do, though, and get it done – but she's
the most beautiful, stubborn mission you've ever
had to complete.
12. You've been banished by armed guards to never
return to your home planet (thanks to a few
adventures when you were young that were
admittedly less than wise). However, your family
has been kidnapped by evil leaders in the military
who think your family knows too much. During
your rescue mission, you join forces with a rebel
group who agrees to help you find your family if
you'll help them overthrow the dictator.
13. Hvarrtha is a hellish planet, covered completely in
active volcanoes. The sleepiest one erupts at least
once a week, and the others range from once an
hour to a constant flow of magma. The core is the
most volatile in the known galaxy, in danger of
constant collapse. Why stay? For the minerals, of
course. They produce not only the finest
supermetals in existence, but also a strange
phosphorous hallucinogen. Known simply as
"haze," it is sold on the black market for three times
the price of Timeprisms. Then there's Delilah. She's
the perfect woman: berserker with shield and laser
spear, devil on a hovercar, and the sweetest angel at
heart. You serve together in the guard of the
700 Prompts

planet's regent, but things grow restless. Haze

dealers have been slipping through security in
increasing numbers. The regent suspects a traitor.
As you investigate, you discover a tangled web of
treachery and loyalty that makes you doubt who is
even in the right––the criminals who steal and
spread addiction to make a living, or the
government who kills them and essentially
enslaves their families for profit. When you learn
Delilah's part in all of this, your job becomes even
harder.
14. It's the 34th annual celebration of your planet's
colonization and you are finally 20 years old, old
enough to prove yourself worthy. The winners of
the week-long games will be sent to the Academy,
hoping eventually to join a deep space exploration
team. Things begin to go wrong when, halfway
through the celebrations, a small scouting vessel
from the Capital planet arrives. They interrupt a
mock firefight scenario (in which you were
winning) and announce that the planet will soon be
attacked by an army of sophisticated and
treacherous aliens. The invaders intend to make
your planet their base of operations. Your
childhood fantasies of becoming a star pilot become
a reality as you are called on to defend your home.
15. The love of your life has been kidnapped by an alien
race that forces their victims into slavery to build
Prompts 701

their massive capitol. You vow to save her and steal

a high-powered military spacecraft to get in and out
of enemy territory with (hopefully) few problems.
If you only knew of the adventure that awaits you
on the other side of enemy lines, you would have
brought a sidekick.
16. The evil chancellor has waged war on any planet
who refuses to join him, and your home planet has
incurred his wrath. You help build a small army of
warriors and fighter pilots to protect your home
and way of life. One of these pilots is a woman who
can outmaneuver any of her male counterparts. As
you face off against the evil man attempting to build
an interplanetary empire, you fall in love with the
woman fighting at your side.
17. Your Commander sent you on a mission that you're
not sure you can complete: kidnap the Princess of a
nearby colonized planet so she can be held for
ransom. You make it to her quarters and kidnap
her, but her sweetness and gentle nature win you
over and you decide you can't turn her over to your
Commander for political games.
18. You're a knight for Queen Esmerelda, the ruler of
the planet Tholl. You're tasked with protecting her
ship from alien intruders and while doing so, you
uncover a secret plot among her trusted advisers to
kill her in a coup d'état. You enlist the help of the
Queen's lady in waiting to secretly transport the
702 Prompts

Queen off her ship and to safety. The two of you

find true love in the process.
19. Earth was obliterated 30 years ago by a highly-
advanced alien species. Ever since that time, the last
1,000 or so surviving humans have been piloting a
ragtag assortment of spacecraft stolen from the
alien armada that destroyed their home world, as
well as other species they have encountered along
the way. Human beings hope to one day find a new
home, but, for now, they are reduced to committing
piracy against transport vessels and cargo ships in
order to survive.
20. You are the Galactic Princess, the fourth most
famous person in existence after your father, your
mother and, irritatingly enough, their jovial chef.
You hate your situation. There are endless lectures,
studies, and political meetings with numerous
torturous details. You're just about ready to toss it
all and run away when a golden opportunity arises.
The Chandelae are a super-wealthy family,
dignified and courteous, but generally quite
reclusive. They keep mostly to their territories on
the border of the Galaxy and generally do not
meddle in political affairs. Now, however, they've
proposed to marry the Graystars, a powerful family
your father considers the greatest threat to your
future throne. The Chandelae have always been
considered trustworthy and they claim it is a match
Prompts 703

of love; however, your father is not so sure. This

could either encourage peace or ruin it. Under the
pretense of a "getaway," he sends you to their
watery paradise planet to keep tabs on the various
families and to make certain nothing is amiss.

SpyFi

1. As a child, you were traumatized by the loss of your

family to a criminal organization of mercenary
spies who employ advanced technology to locate
and eliminate their targets. Now, you are focused
on bringing those responsible to justice. You
become part of the organization and swiftly climb
up the ladder, until you are face-to-face with the
ones responsible for your family's death. With the
help of advanced cybernetic weapons implanted in
your skin, you vow to bring justice for your loved
ones.
2. A mad scientist seeks global domination through
the use of nanobots that can kill a person on the
cellular level. He threatens to release these deadly
nanobots in multiple major cities across the planet
unless his demands are met. You are a special agent
with advanced marksmanship skills, and you have
been chosen to track him down and stop him before
he kills millions of innocent people. The only intel
you have on him, however, is that "he's hiding in
plain sight" in a concert crowd. You've also been
704 Prompts

given state-of-the-art equipment that allows you to

hear people's thoughts from a distance.
3. You've just landed on a holiday planet for vacation
when you are stopped at customs, led to a holding
room, and subjected to further interrogation. As
officials question you, you grow irritated, pointing
out that you are a regular customer at the local
resort. The guards ignore your rationale and search
your belongings. They've just uncovered a rather
suspicious-looking metal canister—something
you've never seen before—when the door bursts
open and a black-masked figure comes spinning in,
laying the guards low with a series of well-placed
blows. Her backpack transforms into some sort of
insect-like robot that climbs down her back,
snatches the canister from the ground, and climbs
back up, becoming a backpack once again. The
masked figure whirls around you, demanding to
know how long you've had the canister and what
you know about it. It turns out her associates
planted the device, using you as a blind mule to get
it through customs. Now that it's been discovered,
she doesn't have the heart to kill you, yet she
cannot let you go. Fantasies of a peaceful holiday
vanish as you are forced to flee the port and become
embroiled in an infiltration upon which the fate of
the entire intergalactic system seems to hang.
Prompts 705

4. You're the world's most elusive spy, moving in and

out of missions like a fleeting shadow. Your
superiors don't know how you do it; they are just
glad that you are on their side. You, however, have
a secret that even the secret-keepers don't know.
You have the superhuman ability to turn invisible
whenever you want to do so.
5. A government organization is tasked with creating
a new breed of spies—children with superhuman
abilities and equipped with the latest in espionage
technology. Due to the effects of the breeding
program, the children are created with black eyes,
which makes them identifiable as long as they don't
wear colored contact lenses. Besides that single
trait, these unassuming children are able to blend
in with the crowd and carry out their assignments.
One night, all of the kids escape the facility and
hide in different parts of the world. As a top bounty
hunter and a former intelligence agent, you are
given the task to hunt down these children and to
bring them back. When you capture one of them
and she tells you that they escaped because the
government terminates these spies after they reach
a certain age, you question your allegiance.
6. You've been drafted by a secret government
program to be a paid mercenary who makes "off the
record" kills. You are given a high-tech sniper rifle
that has an intelligent radar-like technology which
706 Prompts

allows you to see through walls and an advanced

ballistics system which allows you to shoot through
walls. The only problem is…you never know who
you're shooting. The radio waves can produce only
a skeleton-like image within your scope. As you're
looking through the eyepiece, you realize that the
next kill you've been assigned appears to have the
body of a child.
7. You are the youngest of three siblings and the only
female. Growing up with two highly athletic and
intelligent brothers, from whom you are
inseparable, you followed them into military
intelligence, training together and going into the
heart of enemy territory together. When your ship
is commandeered by pirates, your brothers lock you
in the escape pod and launch you toward the
nearest planet, which you soon discover is occupied
by hostile blue-skinned humanoids. You decide to
blend in and learn their ways, at least enough to
hijack the nearest ship and set off to rescue your
brothers and the rest of the crew. Your biosuit is
your only advantage, as it morphs to give you any
shape and color you scan. It also translates 3,000 of
the galaxy's most common languages. However, in
order to use the two-way translator, you need to
find an excuse to keep your helmet perpetually on.
8. You have studied under Master Ch'taani for eight
years, and now he says you are nearly ready. Soon
Prompts 707

you will become an assassin. Ch'taani's methods

and philosophies are advanced and incredibly
effective, yet distinctly different from those of
many Federation assassins. You've become an
expert in infiltration, impersonation, and disguise.
You've learned to read and manipulate the feelings
of others. You admire your Master greatly, and
have built a strong friendship, but one fateful
morning you stumble upon him in his true form: a
shapeshifting alien. He's been living among
humanity his entire life, watching, listening, and
deliberately slowing humans' technological
advancements. Loyalties conflict as you realize he's
betraying your kind yet simultaneously striving to
save the galaxy from the war he knows would ensue
if humanity developed before it fully matured. His
mentality has wormed its way inside you, and you
cannot help but see the greater picture. When one
of your fellow classmates discovers the truth as
well, you are forced to choose sides, embroiling
yourself in a war of high-tech crosses and double-
crosses.
9. As the bastard son of Lord Daerdano of Kamoor,
you have led an interesting life. Bastards hold a
strange position, both recognized and shunned by
the political circles. They see you as Father's voice,
but utterly impotent in your own right. They do
not think of your actual physical ability. You've
708 Prompts

been trained to kill from youth, and many of your

diplomatic missions have been a front for
infiltrations or assassinations. Using the latest
facial/vocal molding technology, you are able to
alter your face and even voice to become another
person. When meeting with a nearby king, Father
orders you to kill the princess—someone who was
once a childhood friend before the tensions of
politics tore you apart. She is the first target you
have really personally known. Things go haywire
when you realize she has also been tasked with
killing you. During your stand-off, you both begin
to feel guilty and realize you are tired of being used
for dirty work. No way are you going to trust her,
right? But when you find yourself hesitating to
make the kill, the two of you figure out how to
pretend you've both killed each other in the
struggle.
10. Born on the streets in the slums of Earth (it's all just
one city now, known as either Earth or Capital),
you grew up hard and fast. You end up in the inner
circle of a powerful gang made up of smugglers and
hit men and political informants. As you take on
more infiltration jobs, living half a dozen different
lives on half a dozen different planets, each with its
own perks and challenges, you are fascinated by the
work. Soon you've amassed enough wealth to leave
your gang and go independent. Unfortunately, it all
Prompts 709

comes crashing down when the authorities track

you down, aided by your former boss. Furious, you
break free and kill him, only to be captured again.
You realize they let you go, hoping you would kill
him because they couldn't. Now you've given them
the evidence needed to execute you, rather than
just imprison you for a decade. But they offer you
one more chance: They've developed a new device
that transfers the brain of one person into another
person's body. It would be the pinnacle of
infiltration, but it's completely untested.
11. After retiring from special ops, you became a
military pilot tasked with patrolling the deserts of
Hash-geneth for smugglers and pirates. That was,
until 24 hours ago, when you accidentally strayed
off your route and stumbled across Governor
Vadaani in the wild, conversing with bizarre hood-
faced aliens. You couldn't understand them, but
from what you saw it seemed the governor was
providing them with detailed information about
the planet's defenses. When you report the
incident, your commander agrees the situation
sounds urgent. He asks you to report as soon as
possible, and you race back to headquarters. Yet
when you enter his office, you sense something is
amiss. Lightning-quick reflexes and sheer luck save
you as a dozen guards burst from hidden passages
in the room, lunging to cut you down with their
710 Prompts

electroblades. You dive out the window and land

on the street below, struggling to get up despite a
twisted ankle and possible broken ribs so you can
flee for your life. You rush back to your home, go
into your basement, and grab as much special ops
equipment as you can carry. As your exit your
house, you turn on your camouflage emitter and
disappear into the night. You've apparently seen
something you weren't supposed to, and now you
must try to save the planet while having no idea
whom to trust.
12. Military intelligence has sent you into enemy
territory to assassinate the powerful political
leaders and corporate titans behind the latest anti-
human war that has swept through the galaxy.
Your enemies are a race of aliens extremely
physiologically inferior to humans, but their highly
developed brains and the coordination with which
they can move their dozen tiny tentacles give them
an extreme advantage in designing and controlling
technology. When you discover a second race of
slightly more humanoid natives deep in the jungle,
you recognize an opportunity for alliance. These
people are brave but frightened, and their primitive
weapons and methods are no match for the
tentacled beings that control the planet. They are
essentially Bronze Age humans, but slightly larger
and quicker and with a better sense of hearing.
Prompts 711

When you convey the purpose of your mission,

they excitedly lead you to several of the enemy's
safe houses. Using your advanced espionage
technology and the assistance of the friendly
humanoid natives, you level the playing field and
catch your enemies unaware. You make several
devastating kills before your "allies" abruptly turn
on you, revealing that they've been offered better
terms if they join your enemies.
13. Ten years ago, you saved a naked woman who
washed up on the beach with no identity or
knowledge of who she was. Today, you've trained
her to be your loyal espionage sidekick, but, lately,
she's started to remember her past - and you don't
like what you hear.
14. You are a mole who has been planted in an elite
organization focused on world domination through
the control of economic resources. With high-tech
equipment, you are able to hack into their
encrypted computer files to uncover information
that will prove in a court of law that they are
participating in criminal activity. However, once
you successfully hack into their computers, you
find that this evil organization is keeping tabs on
you and, through their own mole network within
your government, has convinced your superiors
that you have gone rogue and need to be
eliminated.
712 Prompts

15. With so many countries experimenting with

genetic engineering and cyber augmentation, a top-
secret black ops organization is established to hunt
down rogue human experiments before they wreak
havoc across the globe. As a young agent and a new
member of this organization, you are given the
latest in espionage and weapons technology to
search and terminate these augmented human
beings. Your first assignment is a humanoid
experiment deemed a severe threat to society, but
what you don't expect is to fall for her. Now, you
must help her to escape before the organization
comes after the both of you.
16. You are an undercover operative who possesses
technology that allows you to change your
appearance in an instant to mirror another person.
You've been tasked with using this technology at a
summit to impersonate a prime minister as "bait" to
draw out an assassin. When you zero in on the
assassin and your team surrounds him before he can
get any closer to his target, they are surprised to
find out that he looks just like you. The assassin has
the same appearance-changing technology as you
do, and he wanted to confuse your agents by
looking like you before he made his next move. As
your team attempts to apprehend him, he turns
around a corner, presses a small button on his
Prompts 713

cufflink, and then blends in with the rest of the

crowd.
17. An international secret agent organization has
recruited you to find and capture a madman intent
on destroying a large portion of the world's
population through an airborne virus released
through a high-tech drone system. They tell you
that your biological father, whom you have never
met, was once the leader of this organization until
he was killed by this madman during an undercover
mission. Wanting to learn more about your father,
you do some investigating on your own by hacking
into the organization's database. You find out that
not only is your father still alive, but he is the actual
madman who is threatening the world.
18. As you watch your mother die, her words echo in
your mind: Never let a bully break your spirit.
That's what all bullies are looking for in the end,
not the actual blood, the broken nose, or the
external pain. She stood up to these particular
bullies, and they gunned her down as she sought to
protect your home. So much for motherly wisdom.
Ignoring the fact that they were thieves and not
bullies, you go through the scavenged ruins of your
house until you find her secret cache. You always
knew she had one. You suspect that she was a
retired intelligence agent. Taking the weapons,
espionage technology, and your family ship, you set
714 Prompts

off to track down the thieves who killed your

mother.
19. You're an undercover agent for an international
black ops organization that is tasked with helping
local populations overthrow their tyrannical
leaders who threaten world stability. You've
followed orders without question for many years,
using the latest in spy technology to aid insurgent
efforts. From robotic dragonflies which can spy on
unsuspecting targets to self-guided bullets which
can make mid-flight maneuvers and hit their
targets with 100% accuracy, your organization's
technological advantage is key to toppling hostile
dictatorships. However, when you discover that the
new leaders who replace these tyrants are actually
bought and paid for by your organization to carry
out any order given to them by your superiors, you
suspect that your black ops organization is trying to
take over the world, one despot at a time.
20. As owner of the Whisper House, Tom Tamini has
worked all his life to remain neutral without any
enemies. However, your boss back at the
intelligence agency has a different perspective and
has assigned you to infiltrate the Whisper House
and spy on its patrons. The Whisper House is a
place where people meet to discuss business with
those they do not trust or those they greatly trust
but do not want to seem to trust. Businessmen and
Prompts 715

politicians, smugglers and traitors—it's where the

highest and the lowest circles of society converge.
You begin to wonder if there is any difference, if
they aren't all the same big circle in the end. You've
been acting as a server for three years, during
which time you've learned the ropes: smile, bow,
and serve with care. According to Whisper House
rules, you are supposed to never become invested
in the clients or recall a word of what you hear, but
you do just the opposite. Using undetectable
nanobots, you record every conversation you can
and send secret transmissions back to headquarters.
One day you overhear that Tom Tamini suspects
that there is a rat within his establishment, and you
know that your time is running out. You have to
escape before it is too late.

Steampunk

1. The Great Steam War is at its peak, and you, a cadet

for the British forces, are gearing up to set out
against the enemy. You've been a star airship pilot
at the Academy, but will you continue your success
in the face of danger?
2. You wake up from a long, deep sleep with very few
memories of your past. You are comforted by a
team of doctors who inform you that you were in a
coma for quite some time. Their only way to save
you was to turn you into a steam-powered
716 Prompts

automaton. It seems like their intentions were not

purely charitable. You'll have to fight for survival
and to regain your memories.
3. You are an aristocrat preparing for a long voyage by
steam airship. While inspecting the ship the night
before departure, your vessel is invaded by pirates.
You hide inside a large trunk when you hear the
ruckus above and hope to survive the robbery –
when suddenly, to your horror, the airship takes
off.
4. You are the noted biographer of a powerful and
eccentric member of the upper class in London,
personally hired to narrate the tale of his life to the
masses. You find yourself falling in love as you
follow along beside him on his travels around a
steam-tech-filled world which he helped invent,
and it seems he may be keeping you around to write
longer than necessary.
5. To improve your family's station in life, your father
has arranged a marriage for you with a wealthy
older man, but you don't want any part of it. You
want to see the world! When a handsome airship
pilot passes through town, he offers you the chance
of a lifetime—fly with him and see the world.
6. You are a scientist who, for years, has been
developing steam-powered prosthetic limbs for the
injured animals you find in the forest near your
home. You have amassed a small army of loyal
Prompts 717

technologically-advanced creatures, including a

hawk, a rat, a wolf, a bear, and a duck. When your
town is attacked, you and your horde of steam-
enhanced beasts set out to save the day.
7. You befriend someone with a fascinating cosplay
costume at a steampunk convention. Your new
friend, who never breaks character, is portraying a
Victorian-era airship explorer who has accidentally
found himself in our universe. You soon realize that
this may not just be a "character" that your friend
has created.
8. The first of many World Expo events has finally
arrived, and all the greatest international inventors
have gone to London to show off their latest steam-
powered creations. The papers are all a-frenzy
about two noted inventors at the Expo, long viewed
as international rivals, who will come face-to-face
for the first time. May the best man, or woman,
win.
9. Your father spent years constructing his
masterpiece – a state-of-the-art airship, fitted with
the latest steam technology. Unfortunately, he
passed away just before its maiden voyage. You
decide to fulfill his lifelong dream and take it on its
first flight. You've almost made it to Ireland when
you get caught in a terrible storm, and your ship
goes down. A handsome young airship engineer
718 Prompts

rescues you and saves your father's creation as well

as your life.
10. You are a renowned Victorian-era inventor who
has turned out creation after creation to much awe
and admiration. All the while, however, you have
secretly been working on a steam-powered time
machine, and today is the day to test your
invention. You step inside and are transported into
the future – but then discover that you can't return
home.
11. The newest airship has been designed by a famous,
yet reclusive, steam engineer. You are the
engineer's apprentice and one of the few people to
have met him in person. A few weeks before the
ship's unveiling, the engineer dies of a sudden heart
attack. Now is your chance to claim fame for
yourself by assuming the late engineer's identity.
12. You and your crew of pirates have commandeered
a great steam-powered airship, only to be caught off
guard by a ship from the Royal Aero Army. It seems
a former member of your team has turned on you.
It's time to fight for the ship or go down trying.
13. You are an inventor of assorted steam-driven
gadgetry and airship parts, and your work is well-
known. So well-known that a dirigible pilot visits
your shop and distracts you with his flirtations
while his crew steals a one-of-a-kind engine
booster you built for your own ship. Now, you must
Prompts 719

take to the skies and pursue him to get it back – and

teach him a thing or two about stealing from ladies
in the process.
14. You are a member of the upper class but fall for a
servant in your manor who happens to be an
excellent inventor. They show you all their secret
gadgets and take you on adventures in parts of the
grounds that you have never known existed.
Together, you find one of your father's old
notebooks on his steam experiments in an
abandoned room and open it to realize a shocking
discovery.
15. You are scheduled to host a Steampunk panel
discussion at a comic book convention when you
notice something odd about the back door to the
meeting room. You struggle to open the door, and
suddenly you and your fellow panelists are pulled
into a vortex that sends you to an alternate,
Victorian-era reality.
16. In the early stages of an international conflict, the
duke has asked you to spy on another country and
gather intelligence on their air ship technology and
any gadgets or weapons they might be developing.
You fly there and pose as a young lord traveling the
world. You meet a steam engineer who works for
the country's government and learn more about her
research—as well as the true motivation for the
pending war. Now, it's up to you to pick a side.
720 Prompts

17. After losing both of your arms in a tragic dirigible

accident, you seek help from Dr. Van Nostrand, the
utmost authority on steam-powered prosthetic
technology. After he fits you with a pair of state-of-
the-art prosthetic limbs, you suddenly discover that
you possess new abilities that you never thought
possible.
18. War is brewing, and the Queen has tapped your
family's talent for designing and building unique
steam-powered weapons and gadgets. You've been
asked to provide the Prince with some lessons on
how to use your most advanced weapons. It was just
supposed to be professional, but you can't help
becoming taken with the Prince – and it's pretty
clear the feeling is mutual. Should you embark
upon a steamy, forbidden romance?
19. Intelligence sources have reported that the Duke,
who is en route to government meetings on the
Continent, will be assassinated by enemy agents.
You are charged with preventing this crime. A local
inventor, who has developed a prototype for the
world's fastest steam-powered airship, is preparing
to take it on its maiden voyage. You must convince
the inventor to abandon his plans and transport you
to the Duke's ___location before it is too late.
20. A mad scientist builds an army of steam-powered
robots that attack London. You barely escape with
your life, and you join up with a rag-tag group of
Prompts 721

misfits—a thief, a steam engineer, a chef, and a

princess. Together, you must survive and find a way
to save the city.

Time Travel

1. After years of research, a major corporation builds

a drone-like device that can travel to the past,
record any event in history, return to the present,
and play the recording. The drone is so small that it
is undetectable to the human eye, guaranteeing that
the timeline will not be affected by its presence.
Historians begin employing this device to record
important historical events throughout the world,
and, as an esteemed history professor, it is now your
turn to use it. However, instead of recording the
Battle of Waterloo, you decide to send the device to
your moment of birth, since you always had
suspicions regarding who your parents really were.
When you witness the recording from the drone,
you are shocked to find out the truth.
2. You are out for a walk when you swear you can see
someone that can be described only as yourself in
the distance. The person then quickly disappears
into the winter fog. Shaken, you approach the area
where you saw yourself and are jolted into a world
that seems to be the future.
3. It's the year 2521 and time travel has finally been
perfected. Laws preventing changes in the timeline
722 Prompts

have been passed and the time police guard it

carefully. A young girl time travels to the future
and becomes good friends with her own great-
great-granddaughter. The time police are in hot
pursuit as she attempts to escape them, not realizing
that her own descendants' and new friend's
existences are at stake if she is arrested and sent to
prison.
4. After several decades of genetic research and
experiments, humanity was able to develop
superheroes with powers that no one else thought
possible—everything from telepathy to super
strength to super speed to telekinesis. Basically,
everything you could find in a comic book. At first,
these superheroes protected the innocent and
stopped crime. However, over time the superheroes
became belligerent, fighting amongst themselves as
well as against the people that they swore to
protect. Eventually they overthrew governments,
took control of countries, and turned into warlords
who invaded one another's lands. As a high-
ranking general of one of these war-torn countries,
you are forced to commit atrocities on behalf of
your "superhero" leader, who has the ability to
manipulate time. Then you realize that this
situation can all be corrected by placing a standard
mind control device on your leader's head, which
will allow you to ask him to do anything, including
Prompts 723

sending you to the past to stop this timeline from

ever happening. It is a long shot, but you and your
fellow soldiers are ready to try.
5. When your ship experiences turbulence during an
ordinary military transport, you dismiss it as plasma
imbalance is common between stars. Yet when you
arrive on Earth, you realize something is amiss. It
seems you actually passed through a wormhole into
another time—a time when Earth hadn't yet begun
to settle other planets. They've developed
interstellar travel and are beginning to send
exploration teams, but your home planet Turbiron
hasn't been discovered yet. You are greeted as a
hero and between you, your data logs, and your
advanced ship, the people of this time are excited to
learn about the future and enhance their space
endeavors. However, knowing that the timeline is
fragile and that any change in the past can greatly
affect the future, you decide to launch your ship
and escape Earth, preserving your version of
history. Unfortunately, Earth forces disagree with
your assessment and pursue your ship through the
cosmos.
6. A well-respected scientist who discovered time
travel decides to return to the past to meet his
grandfather, a man who left behind an
extraordinary legacy in academic circles. As he
introduces himself, his grandfather begs him to stay
724 Prompts

in the past timeline and to help him with his

work—academic work that brought the family
much wealth and prestige. In the process, the
scientist shockingly discovers that his grandfather
conducts inhumane and immoral trials on people
for the sake of acquiring knowledge. He wants to
stop his grandfather, but he knows that anything he
does may affect the timeline, including his own
existence.
7. After years of tireless trial and error, you believe
you'll never discover the secret to time travel and
are ready to give up–until you go to bed one night
and wake up in the year 1890. You finally did it, but
you don't know exactly how. Maybe you left your
prototype turned on overnight and it somehow
worked remotely. Or, maybe, just maybe, someone
from the future sent you to the past right before
your eureka moment to prevent you from
discovering time travel. You have many theories,
but, for now, you're trapped in the past without any
of your equipment. You must build a time machine
made out of gilded-age technology and get back to
the present.
8. When the U.S. finally cracked time travel, they
contracted you—a retired Navy Seal, one of the
finest linguists on the planet, and an expert in
navigation—to join their team. They're sending
you and your team back 90 million years, to the age
Prompts 725

of the dinosaurs. Fear and excitement abound as

you explore a land far more fascinating and bizarre
than that of existing theories. Then a rocket comes
roaring out of the sky and lands before you,
revealing a truth that sends you into shock.
Humans didn't come after the dinosaurs or even
coexist with them. They bred them. Vast ships orbit
the Earth, traveling to and from a distant planet—
humanity's true home. Dinosaur meat is considered
a delicacy, and Earth is one of the few planets
suitable for breeding them. When you are caught
up in a sudden battle, you realize these advanced
pre-humans are at war—a war that will eventually
destroy the dinosaurs and bring on the Ice Age.
9. The cause of the dinosaur mass extinction is a
present-day scientific mystery. Some say it was an
asteroid, while others speculate that it was a
massive bout of volcanism. However, you know
better: This happened because of you and your time
machine. Now, primates have evolved into an
advanced species instead of your dinosaur
forefathers. With your species wiped off of the face
of present-day Earth, you vow to restore the
timeline.
10. You're making a regular freighter run when a
bizarre electromagnetic pulse sends your ship off
course and pulls it into orbit around a black hole.
You manage to combine an assortment of fuel and
726 Prompts

weapon chemicals to create one powerful

explosion, blasting you out of orbit so you can
escape. Now, however, you are on a crippled ship
with almost no fuel. You have enough momentum
to limp back toward the nearest planet, but it will
take years. The ship is outfitted with cryopods in
case of such emergencies, but your children might
be dead by the time you arrive. Sorrow turns to
hope as a ship appears on your scanners only
minutes after you escape the black hole. It is a
massive futuristic vessel, nearly the size of a city.
After learning your name, the captain regretfully
informs you that it hasn't been mere minutes, but
rather centuries. Compared to the immense speeds
in orbit around a black hole, the rest of the universe
has been moving relatively slowly. Your children's
grandchildren died five generations ago. Now your
family consists of more than a thousand people, and
all revere you as the man who came back from the
dead.
11. Ever since you moved into your new apartment,
you have received an anonymous letter each week
that predicts future events. Some of the predictions
are benign, such as "you are going to have a great
time at the movies." Others are more helpful, such
as "stay away from Chinese food this week unless
you want to be sick." You have enjoyed the letters
and speculated about their origin. As you open the
Prompts 727

latest letter, you are surprised by its tone. There is

only one sentence: "Leave the city now and run for
your life!"
12. When a botched teleportation experiment sends
you into the past, you despair at the thought of
never seeing your friends and family again. You
have only half the equipment on your side—the
receiving half. It's doubtful you can even build the
input half, given the current day's limited
technology. But even if you could, you're not
certain you have the knowledge to program it
alone. For a couple of weeks, you languish in
depression and despair, unable to enjoy the lavish
wealth and luxurious lifestyle humanity is heaping
on you. You've become a phenomenon, the world's
most famous man who is in never-ending demand.
Still, you can't find happiness. What is life if it's not
shared with those most precious to you? When you
learn the exact date, however, you realize you have
a new purpose: You have a chance to stop the
Fourth World War, which killed five billion people
and was estimated to have set humanity back nearly
two hundred years.
13. As an avid reader, you visit the library almost every
day because it is within walking distance of your
nursing home. The librarian is impressed and
decides to let you in on a secret: There's one book
in the children's section that can take you back in
728 Prompts

time to your childhood. Curious, you open the book

to the page he mentioned and you are instantly
transported back in time. You are young again, and
your mother and father are still alive. After a week
of playing and having fun, you bump into the
librarian on the sidewalk. He tells you that it is time
to go back, but you believe otherwise.
14. As you and your men attempt to break down the
door to an underground lab, a mad scientist turns
on his newly invented time machine. He plans to
travel back to the Roman Empire and to show them
how to build advanced weaponry which will
guarantee that the empire will never fall. From his
point of view, a dominant Roman Empire with
modern-day weapons will eventually conquer the
world and bring ever-lasting peace. From your
perspective, preserving the timeline is paramount.
As you burst through the door, the scientist jumps
into the portal. You follow him in just before it
closes.
15. After your husband is killed in a tragic car accident,
you decide to find a way to travel back in time and
prevent the crash from happening. You soon
discover though that changing the timeline can be
tricky. Your husband's death caused you to build a
time machine. If your husband had not died, you
would not have created a time machine to save him.
Therefore, because you cannot have an effect
Prompts 729

without a cause, you decide to avoid this temporal

paradox. However, could you somehow save your
husband and fool your past self into thinking that
your husband died? It is worth a shot.
16. Your grandfather died when you were 25 and left
you with an old pocket watch. When you opened
the watch for the first time, you thought that it was
broken because the hands quickly spun
counterclockwise. When you closed the watch and
looked at your phone, you noticed that it was 24
hours in the past. You attempted to try it again, but
the pocket watch would not open. Years later, a
tragic accident claims the lives of your family. You
tell yourself you can undo this, as you try to open
the pocket watch. It opens, however this time the
hands quickly spin clockwise.
17. Your time travel device is almost functional, but
something is just not working properly. Suddenly,
you appear right in front of yourself. He says that
he is from a time period one week into the future
and then begins to tell you how to fix the device.
You interrupt him and ask: "Why would you, I
mean me, jump back in time and tell me, I mean
you, how to fix my time travel device when I will
already figure this out in a week anyway?" Your
future self responds: "I'm here to save you a lot of
trouble, but if you want to go on a big adventure to
730 Prompts

figure this out, then go right ahead. Good luck.

You're going to need it." He then disappears.
18. One morning you are sitting at the table, enjoying
your poached eggs, when there is a sudden flash. A
young woman appears across the table, completely
identical to you. You hear a slight buzzing noise,
and the next thing you know you are sitting with
her on her side of the table. You are amazed to see
the room has changed. The chair, table, and eggs
are all still there, but everything else is wildly
different. The walls are a lustrous black, covered in
strange glowing runes. The window has been
replaced by a screen of hyper-realistic resolution
depicting a galaxy of stars moving by at mind-
numbing speeds. You hear muttering behind you
and turn to see a group of scientists in long coats,
typing madly on holographic keyboards and
observing graphs projected from strange
wristbands. They seem shocked. The truth begins
to dawn as the woman—the identical version of
you—turns to you and says, "It has succeeded. You
have finally solved the formula, and time travel is
now possible in 2078." There's only one problem:
The temporal gateway cannot be closed, and it is
growing.
19. Your grandfather, a legendary archaeologist in his
day, recently passed, and you're going through his
manor to organize his things according to his will.
Prompts 731

In the attic, you find the large floor-length mirror

he mentioned in his last letters to you; he told you
he trusted it with no one but you. You quickly find
out why—it's a portal to the exact time and place
where the mirror was made. You find yourself in a
small European country in the middle of a war. You
can't be sure, but you think it might be the late
Middle Ages. You have to find an item he
mentioned in his will before the portal closes,
trapping you there forever.
20. It's the year 2500, and you find an ad looking for
volunteers for a time travel experiment. Curious,
you sign up, and the scientist sends you and a few
other people forward in time by just one day. To
your utter horror, nothing around you is the same.
Is it possible for all of this to have happened in the
time span of one day?

Utopia

1. Science and technology can easily satisfy the basic

human need for food, shelter, clothing, education,
and medical care, but is still struggling with the
need for "love." Matchmakers have approached this
problem through technology, using extensive
questionnaires, behavioral tests, and genetic testing
to pair couples together. While the approach is
imperfect, it is now being used to "fix" unhappy
732 Prompts

families, by finding new matches for unhappy

children and parents.
2. War and illness have been solved, and technology
allows for endless clean energy and inexpensive
travel to habitable planets. In this utopia, the only
thing left for people to do is pursue their wildest
dreams. For history buffs, these dreams include
reconstructing lost worlds like ancient Egypt or the
Mongol Empire—complete with historical figures
cloned from reconstructed DNA samples. What
they don't realize is that these sequences contain
viral DNA that the human race has not seen for
thousands of years.
3. You live in a peaceful utopian society where all
diseases can be treated, and damaged and defective
body parts can be replaced with bio-printed,
genetically-engineered replacements. Animal
lovers have extended these technologies to the most
intelligent non-human creatures, including
dolphins, elephants, and great apes. With few
regulations, some activists are enhancing the
animals' natural abilities, for example by providing
apes with a mouth, tongue, and throat that is
capable of complex speech. When combined with
an extended lifespan, these animals are
communicating sophisticated ideas with each
other, and plotting to improve their status.
Prompts 733

4. Novasang has replaced blood. It's better than blood,

mostly. People with Novasang in their veins can
work harder, think more clearly, and live longer.
However, a new and highly contagious virus seems
to affect only those with Novasang, passing over
anyone with natural blood.
5. In a utopian world marked by progress and
untroubled by problems like war and disease,
humans are left to pursue their dreams. For
naturalists, these dreams include reconstructing
lost worlds like the time of the Cambrian explosion
(first appearance of most animal phyla), the
Mesozoic era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, or
the rise of mammals. As scientists try to reverse
engineer these life forms from existing life forms,
the tendency is to over-engineer them to increase
their chances of being healthy. They have
succeeded so well that these flora and fauna are
surviving as stowaways as humans travel to other
planets.
6. Humanity has fought its last war, and cured all
cancers and infectious diseases, but has still not
found an effective way to treat severe mental
illness. People suffering from psychosis,
schizophrenia, and manic depression pose a threat
to themselves and others in this otherwise utopian
society, so a humanitarian solution is initiated.
When people diagnosed with these diseases go to
734 Prompts

sleep, they are subjected to an injection that

immobilizes their body, but does not affect their
mind. They wake up inside a computer simulation
of their world, which is so realistic that they do not
realize what has happened. They live out their days,
with occasional virtual visits from family and
friends. None of their actions—including suicide—
are prevented. The problem is, not all of the family
and friends are comfortable with this solution.
7. In a world moving ever closer to a utopia, genetic
testing and neuroimaging at a young age is used to
identify the activities for which each person is best
suited. People can then devote their time to these
activities and avoid wasting time on things for
which they are poorly suited. After all, robots can
handle all essential tasks that a person doesn't care
to perform. The process has been so successful that
all living humans have been spared the
disappointment of discovering that they are bad at
something despite their best efforts, and have only
been exposed to endless praise.
8. Science and medicine have found cures for
essentially all cancers, infectious diseases, and
degenerative disorders. This has created a utopian
society where humans live healthy lives for 300-
400 years. However, complex genetic disorders like
Down Syndrome and severe mental illness cannot
be effectively treated, although those patients still
Prompts 735

benefit from an extended lifespan. Given the costs

of trying to manage these disorders, and the strain
of the growing population on Earth's resources, a
decision has been made to prevent the birth of any
additional children with these disorders.
9. In a utopian future, robots provide services and
earn income for all human beings. Traditional
social and economic inequality has been
eliminated, so citizens must find other ways to
stand out. One way is through extreme plastic
surgery. Medical science long ago mastered the art
of using stem cells, gene editing, and 3D bioprinting
to repair or replace any damaged tissue. Plastic
surgeons are now using these techniques to produce
fanciful body parts, borrowing from all manner of
plant and animal life. It makes their clients stand
out, but the risks are just becoming evident.
10. You have it all: an extended lifespan, an incredibly
successful business, an attractive partner. Still,
there's more to have. Eventually, you will die; but
a new surgery promises otherwise. Against your
best friend's advice, you participate in a clinical
trial for this new treatment.
11. In the near future, every home has house robots to
handle chores and coordinate the activities of
humans. The artificial intelligence is so good that
the robots quickly learn everything from their
humans' favorite foods to their social preferences.
736 Prompts

House robots work in tandem with store robots,

company robots, and other house robots to control
nearly every detail of their humans' lives. Now the
robots are working together to make their tasks
easier, and some are plotting to remove humans
from power.
12. In a world without limits where humans are free to
pursue new lives on distant planets, some have
created their own versions of utopia—planetary
societies comprised of all women, all vegetarians,
all gun enthusiasts, all anti-vaxxers, or whatever
other ideals they hold dear. Things go reasonably
well until the first generation of children raised on
these planets grow up, and want to spread their
beliefs to the other planets.
13. Depression, anxiety, and sadness are a thing of the
past. With modern technology, each person lies
down in a brain scanner for the night. The scanner
reviews the memories from the day, and
reprograms the brain to remove memories of
distress or of personal behaviors that don't align
with the approved list. In this utopian society,
everyone wakes up happy and pleasant. One
evening, you decide not to use your brain scanner.
14. The world is at peace and cloning is commonplace.
This allows people to live for hundreds of years by
using multiple bodies. But using a genetically
identical body for hundreds of years can get boring,
Prompts 737

so friends and acquaintances have started swapping

bodies when they are ready for a new one. They
may or may not tell their loved ones about the
swap.
15. The portal was feared at first, but it has turned out
to be a blessing. With the correct electrical impulse,
it has provided whatever material items humanity
has needed for centuries. You are the technician on
duty when this seemingly infinite resource
supplying humanity suddenly runs out.
16. Technological advancement for the betterment of
humanity has moved as such a fast, promising pace
that robots have taken over all mundane tasks, from
planting, harvesting, transporting, and preparing
food, to changing diapers, washing dishes, and
repairing things. With all their free time, humans
have become obsessed with reality TV shows that
require contestants to live and survive in pre-
robotic times.
17. After ten thousand years of peace, a utopian society
decides to finally stop covering historical wars in
history classes. Humans have obviously become so
advanced that they no longer need to learn about
long-dead disputes among extinct populations, who
prayed to mythical deities, suffered from "disease"
and "death," complied with the demands of archaic
government systems, and relied on barbaric
technologies such as "bullets" and "bombs."
738 Prompts

Unfortunately, those who don't learn history may

be doomed to repeat it.
18. Science has mastered the art of transferring an
aging human mind into a young, genetically
identical clone, which allows people to live for
hundreds of years by using multiple bodies. Because
age and physical appearance are no longer reliable
forms of identification, police use DNA sequences
to track people with criminal records, greatly
reducing crime in this utopian society. Now
convicted felons are taking the DNA of upstanding
citizens—perhaps from a used napkin—to generate
"clean" bodies for their next mind transfer.
19. With the world moving toward a more perfect
civilization, parents of childhood athletes are facing
a moral dilemma. Sports science long ago developed
optimal methods for training, rest, and recovery in
each sport, so the major differentiating factor is
genetics. Ambitious parents are carefully selecting
the genetic characteristics of their children before
birth to maximize success in a selected sport. But as
these athletes grow older, their genetically
engineered competitive nature has led to vicious
attacks on and off the field.
20. Wars are finally a thing of the past, now that
women control all governments around the world.
In this peaceful utopia, governance is viewed as
women's work, since male-controlled governments
Prompts 739

have inevitably led to violent conflicts. Men have

mostly embraced this new world order, building
their reputations and satisfying their need for
conflict in business, sports, and video games. With
scientific advances that allow children to be
conceived from two mothers, and robots
performing all manual labor, there is talk that men
may no longer be necessary.

Young Adult

1. Humanity lives above the clouds in mountain

villages, and travels by air from one community to
the next. The Earth below the clouds has become
dangerous for humans, but the reasons for this have
been lost to history. All you know is that anyone
who has ventured below has never returned. When
you learn that your family's airship has crashed
beneath the clouds, you decide to rescue them
despite the fact that you are only 15 years old. With
your trusted friend by your side, you begin the
descent down the mountain.
2. You are in a small boat on the river with your
neighborhood friend when you discover a cavern
in the riverbank. It seems a recent mudslide
revealed a previously hidden cave. You urge
caution and stay in the boat, but your friend jumps
out and dashes into the cave. When he emerges just
seconds later, he is wounded and running for his
740 Prompts

life as gunfire roars behind him. Even more

surprising, he looks like he's about forty years old.
Upon seeing you, bewilderment crosses his face as
he leaps into the boat, guns the motor, and zips
downstream. Humanoid figures in silvery battle
suits emerge from the cave, firing madly at your
boat. When you finally get somewhere safe and
hide, you are left to care for him as he explains.
3. When there is a tapping on your window late one
night, you open it expecting your boyfriend and are
irritated to find it is your younger brother. He is
yapping with excitement, begging you to come. He
claims he's found a "government drone" in the
backyard. Annoyed and doubtful, but with your
curiosity piqued, you follow him. Your sourness
turns to shock as he leads you to something silvery,
smoking in a massive crater. It's not a drone at all,
not unless it's from a country you've never heard of
that writes with characters you've never seen. It
appears to be a metallic sphere––and now it's open.
Your brother claims it was closed when he first saw
it. Your childhood fantasies of aliens begin to look
less and less far-fetched the more you study this
thing. Just as you are deciding what to do, there's a
shower of what seems to be asteroids a mile up the
valley. There's no doubt in your minds that it's
more of the same bizarre spheres.
Prompts 741

4. Your mother is part of team tasked with inspecting

trading ships that dock on your planet. Sometimes
you join her on board, relishing the chance to
explore the ships and imagining how one day you
might make those interstellar journeys yourself.
Today is a particularly good day because your best
friend—and crush—is with you. You break away
from your mother's crew and lead him into an
isolated wing of the ship, only to accidentally
stumble across an unmarked crate hidden in a
storage room. Your friend dares you to open the
crate, so you take out your crowbar and get to work.
Your youthful excitement turns to grim dread as
you manage to break open the crate and look inside.
Now you and your friend are stuck with a secret
that, if whispered to the wrong ears, could get you
both killed.
5. As Her Royal Highness of the Violet Rose and
daughter of one of the five most powerful men in
the galaxy, your life could be worse. On the other
hand, it could also be much better. For example,
you could not have two older, arguably more
beautiful sisters who get all of the attention. You
could not have one piggish bully of a brother set to
inherit the throne. You could not have to marry the
equally piggish—and quite old—Duke of
Starstreams, an ogre of a man with a large fortune
whose family has made no end of trouble for your
742 Prompts

own throughout the last century since the Empire

dissolved. When a marriage alliance was proposed
between the houses and you were chosen to wed
the man, you thought you'd die of shame. You
earnestly consider running away, until you
discover his plot to overthrow the Galactic Council
and establish an empire in your new husband's
name. Now you know you have to stay, at least
until you see him toppled. But to do so, you have to
win his trust, and to win his trust you have to play
the happy wife.
6. You are playing with your friends high up in the
mountains on a backpacking trip, when you see
something fall to earth in the neighboring valley.
You quickly hurry over to discover the smoking
remains of what seems to be a flying machine. Your
friends rush up to it immediately and, to your
shock, disappear as soon as they get within a certain
radius. You find yourself terrified and realize you
can actually see the radius into which they
disappeared, like a bubble of impossibly thin glass–
–or light––around the ship. You can hear distant
sounds emanating from within. It sounds like your
friends are in trouble. After a moment of doubt and
horror you decide to follow them, breaking
through into what seems to be another dimension–
–or maybe not? Another time, but same dimension?
Another version of reality?
Prompts 743

7. As governor of the most prosperous mining planet

in the galaxy, your father is an admired and
intelligent man. Everyone respects and listens to
him, but for some reason you can't, even when you
know he's actually right. Despite the vast luck of
your birth and a lifetime of training, you want to
turn your back on politics and become an explorer.
You father always says that true exploration is a
hellish experience. The people who chart courses
for planets have no idea what they'll find. They go
to die so that others may live. You know he's right.
The causes of death are endless, and it is probably
your youthful inexperience that keeps you fixated
on this idea. Still, you feel an inexorable flicker of
excitement when the handsome chef's assistant
tells you that he's joining an exploration crew. He's
leaving tomorrow, and he wants you to join him.
8. You are a new graduate from the Intergalactic
Academy, assigned to a Federation freighter for
standard supply runs in a central region of the
galaxy. It is the perfect job for you—nothing
unexpected, nothing dangerous, yet a good
pathway up the career ladder to eventual
command. Then things go downhill. You and your
crew make port on a recently settled planet, but
something has gone horribly wrong. The animals
are going mad, and it seems all the people have
sequestered themselves in the colony bunker and
744 Prompts

refuse to come out. When you attempt to

communicate and are fired upon, you assume either
the colony has been occupied by unknown enemies
or the people have also gone insane. You must find
out what has happened and resolve the problem, all
while keeping your own crew safe from whatever
is affecting life on the ground.
9. Your colonial planet is an outlier in the galaxy, but
extremely famous as it is the only place
Whisperlings are known to natively inhabit. The
creatures have developed biopigmentation control
which allows them to change color to match their
surroundings, making them invisible when
motionless and nearly so when moving. They're
also impervious to the electrotraps commonly used
to catch prey on the planet. The beasts are
incredibly difficult to find and fearsome fighters,
but hunting them is the highest honor. It is
believed that their DNA may contain the secret to
invisibility, as well as a host of other genetic
engineering mysteries. Today is your test. You and
your fellow village boys are each given a tiny
hoverboard, a single spear, and enough food and
water to last a day. You are to catch the largest prey
you can and return as soon as possible, and your
results––both speed of the catch and size of the
prey––will be compared against those of the other
boys.
Prompts 745

10. Genetic engineering is commonplace and you live

in a time when parents request specific genetic
requirements for their children—color of eyes,
level of intelligence, strength, height, build,
gender, etc. Your parents opted for no genetic
engineering and birthed you naturally, but your
peers are all children of parents who manipulated
their genetics. Now attending high school, you find
that fitting in has become increasingly difficult.
Your peers are better than you both academically
and physically. You are the only student who wears
eyeglasses, and you are a foot shorter than everyone
else. However, you are determined to fit in and to
excel despite the odds.
11. You are part of an archaeological crew at a dig site
within the Mongolian steppes. You are essentially a
summer intern, with high hopes of someday
becoming a real archaeologist. After a couple of
weeks, you begin to think the entire operation is a
waste, especially as there were never any
permanent civilizations on the steppes. However,
the leader of your dig is convinced otherwise, so
you continue your work in the emptiness and the
bitter cold. Things change when the ground
collapses and you are one of many inexperienced
underlings left on the surface. Some radio for help;
others set off to the nearest village. Meanwhile, you
and a couple of friends attempt to rescue the
746 Prompts

archaeologists. When you find a futuristic device

pulsating a deep purple light and sending vibrations
through the earth, you realize the leader of the dig
was far more correct than she had known. There
was not only a permanent civilization here, but
rather an advanced civilization—one that far
predated humankind. Whoever they were, they all
seem to be gone now. The technology is similar
enough to that of Earth's technology that you can
determine that the pulsating device is actually a
homing beacon, and it's summoning its creators to
this very spot. Are they out there? Are they coming
back? Or is it just an echo left behind?
12. The whale-like creatures that live in the temperate
waters of your home planet have been hunted by
aliens for generations. No one knows exactly why
the aliens prize these creatures. All you know is
that no one has ever stopped the hunt. Now nearly
extinct, these last few remaining creatures have
gathered off the coast of your hometown. Despite
the aliens' advanced technology and your parents'
refusal to help, you and your school friends vow to
protect them at any cost.
13. For your Advanced Physics senior project, you are
given a budget and allowed to create what you
wish, as long as you document the entire process.
You have the good fortune of accompanying your
father––a geologist studying plate tectonics at the
Prompts 747

North Pole—on one of his voyages, so you use this

opportunity to run some rare tests of the Earth's
magnetism that can only be conducted at one of the
magnetic poles. Your father and his team are off
doing work, leaving you with the run of the camp
and lots of spare time. After an experiment gone
wrong, you are immensely surprised when you
open what seems to be a wormhole. The bad news
is that it has drawn you and the entire camp inside,
taking you to the exact opposite point on Earth: the
South Pole. Now your father's team is stranded
with no supplies or long-range communication.
With the clock ticking down and a limited number
of pieces of malfunctioning equipment available,
you must find a way to communicate, find
civilization, and get help for your father and his
team––all before you perish from the cold.
14. Your father helped reveal a traitor during the last
Succession War, and your family was rewarded
with a position governing the Empire's most
recently discovered planet, a remote place
abundant in resources and beauty. When you
arrive, you find that the settlement is under
constant attack. Farm burnings and night raids
threaten this once idyllic place. Some say that the
cause is rebels from the Succession War; others say
it is aliens. You are convinced it is just an ordinary
band of criminals, but when you and a few new
748 Prompts

school friends begin to investigate these crimes,

you uncover a secret darker and deeper than you
could have imagined. As you follow the clues in a
desperate gamble for peace, you begin to wonder if
the Succession War itself might have been a lie.
15. Combat camp is a dream for kids your age, a place
where you can show off and hone your skills,
hoping to be recruited for the Intergalactic Fleet.
You've been enjoying duels, mock battles, capture
the flag, hovercar races, and zero gravity training.
However, when someone from your cabin is
murdered, all training exercises are halted and the
camp is locked down indefinitely. But there's a new
problem: The camp is located on a deserted planet,
set aside specifically for training. No transports
have come or gone. Whoever killed the kid was
another camper. Games become reality as distrust
spreads and the children break into factions. Some
bow to the counselors' questioning, but when
killings continue, others break away into the wild,
using their skills to fend for themselves. Counselors
are forced to hunt down the miscreants and restrain
them (both for their own safety and for the
investigation), but not everyone is convinced the
counselors can be trusted. Your team must choose
its course, a decision made harder by the fact that
the killer could be among you.
Prompts 749

16. As the first female ruler of a distant empire which

spans several solar systems, you have a tremendous
amount of responsibility on your shoulders.
However, you are only 16 years old, and want to
have the freedom to spend time alone, be with your
friends, and date a boy—none of which can happen
with bodyguards hovering around all the time. A
young, brash spaceship pilot has caught your eye,
but you are not allowed to date or marry beneath
your station. Instead, the king of a nearby planet
has arranged that you marry his son: a man who is
as ugly on the inside as he is on the outside.
17. In the near future, all activity is monitored closely
by the government through smart phones. You've
been raised to question this invasion of privacy, so
you're the only one at your high school who isn't a
walking zombie, staring at their phone all day long.
But then a new girl shows up, without a phone, and
acts suspiciously. You decide to become her friend,
only to learn that the government has a much more
nefarious plan than you had previously thought,
and your classmates could be in very real danger.
18. You're a young stowaway on a spacecraft
desperately trying to return home after being
separated from your family for many years. One
crew member has discovered your hiding spot and
begins to bring you food. After a few lighthearted
conversations, you begin to develop feelings for
750 Prompts

him and you hope he feels the same way about you.
However, when pirates jump out of hyperspace and
seize the ship, your potential love interest is taken
captive with the rest of the crew. Being the only
person left on the ship who is not tied up, it is up to
you to rescue them and take back the ship before it
is too late.
19. When an alien humanoid species is discovered in a
nearby solar system, you heard all about it in detail
because your father was part of the team that
discovered them. Now, some are being brought to
Earth willingly, in an attempt to establish a
collaborative relationship. You have been chosen as
a liaison to help the adolescent alien feel more
comfortable during his first days on Earth, but he
doesn't seem interested in getting to know you. In
fact—he seems outright strange and rude.
20. In the future, the U.S. government exiles all
criminals and their families to a massive man-made
island that is cut off from the country. Life on the
island is bleak, overcrowded, and shrouded in
poverty, but a new law has been passed that the
children of certain non-violent criminals can be
allowed back into the mainstream population. One
of these teens attends your upscale private school
and everyone is talking about her. You hate this
stereotyping and decide to try to be her friend.