The Planet Already Inhabited
After Earth's resources are depleted, humanity has taken to the stars in search of habitable planets. Your protagonist arrives on a promising new planet, only to find that it is already inhabited by human-like creatures with a mysterious, potentially dangerous technology that Earth needs.
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.
- Let the hero's plan work, and make that the problem.
- Tell it from the point of view of someone who thinks this world is perfectly normal.
- Shrink the stakes to one family, one street, one night.
Writing science fiction
Change one thing about the world. Follow it all the way.
Science fiction asks what happens to people when science, technology or contact with something new changes the rules. The spaceships are optional; the question is the point. The best of it says as much about today as it does about the future.
What readers expect
- An idea that drives the plot
- Technology or science with consequences
- Futures, other worlds or alternate presents
- Big questions about being human
A tip before you start
Show how your big change reshapes ordinary life: what people eat, fear and joke about. Scenery alone isn't world-building.
More Science Fiction prompts
- The Hidden AI ChildAn intergalactic treaty is formed to ban all creation of sentient AI after a devastating war with a rogue AI system. Centuries later, your protagonist…
- The Telepathic SecretSet your story on a distant planet where all forms of communication are done through a unique form of telepathy. Introduce a character from Earth who…
- The Memory BrokerIn an intergalactic society where memories can be bought and sold, a low-ranking memory broker stumbles upon a set of memories that reveal the truth…
- The Engineer's Reprogrammed RobotsSet on a colony ship traveling to an uncharted planet, the story follows a young engineer who accidentally self-reprograms a pod of service robots.…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
Chapterly gives a draft somewhere to grow: chapters, daily word goals, and readers when you're ready.
Plans from $9.99 a month. Cancel any time. Your words are always yours.