The Town Beneath the Tide
A small coastal village hosts a secret every full moon: the sea inexplicably recedes to unveil an ancient, submerged town only accessible for a single night. Tell the story of a young historian and a local fisherman teaming up to uncover the submerged town’s lost legends and treasures.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Give your main character a job you know well, and use its details.
- Let a minor character change the ending.
- Set it all in one day.
Writing fantasy books
Magic is real, and it costs something.
Fantasy builds a world where the impossible works: dragons, spells, gods who answer back. It might be a whole invented continent or one enchanted door in an ordinary house. Either way, readers come for the wonder and stay for the people paying the price for it.
What readers expect
- Magic or the supernatural, with limits
- A world that feels lived in
- Quests, wars or a power worth fighting over
- Myths and history under the surface
A tip before you start
Give magic a cost. Readers believe in a power when they can see what it takes from the person using it.
More Contemporary Fantasy prompts
- The Talking Plant AppIn a future where technology and magic are fused, describe the journey of an app developer who invents a new app allowing humans to communicate with…
- The Dream Tax AuditorImagine a world where dreams are taxed by a mysterious government agency. Your protagonist, a rebellious dream auditor, starts to falsify reports to…
- The City That Appears Once**Echoes of the Lost City**: During a school excursion, a group of students finds themselves transported to a legendary lost city that appears every…
- The Purple Sea PortalA small coastal town holds a secret tradition: when the sea turns a peculiar shade of purple, a portal opens to an enchanted underwater kingdom. Write…
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