The Enemy's Trench Diary
A soldier finds an enemy’s diary after a battle in the trenches. Despite not understanding the language it's written in, he keeps it and tries to learn about the man through the sketches and symbols left behind. As the war progresses, he becomes obsessed with piecing together the life of the man he never met.
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.
- Choose one real detail of the period, like a price, a law or a song, and build a scene around it.
- Keep the famous event offstage and show its ripples.
- Make the dialogue sound of its time without becoming hard to read.
Writing historical fiction
Step into another time and feel what it was like.
Historical fiction is set in the past, usually at least 50 years before it was written. Real events and people often appear, but the story belongs to its characters. Readers come for the immersion: the smells, the rules, the dangers of a world that's gone.
What readers expect
- A vivid, well-researched setting
- Real events as backdrop or engine
- Characters shaped by their era
- Details that feel lived, not looked up
A tip before you start
Research deeply, show lightly. One telling detail in a scene beats a paragraph of facts.
More World War 1 Historical Fiction prompts
- A Village at WarA small village in France becomes the unexpected site of a battle. Detail the 24 hours from the perspective of different villagers, each grappling…
- London Friends on Opposing SidesSet in London during WW1, tell the story of two childhood friends who find themselves on opposing sides of a protest, one supporting the war and the…
- Stories from the Allied TrenchImagine a group of soldiers from different Allied countries stuck in a muddy, isolated trench during a relentless rainstorm. Each soldier tells a…
- A Nurse at WarWrite a story from the perspective of a nurse on the front lines during World War I. Show one long night in the field hospital and the patient she…
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