Disappearances Under the Dome
After global economies collapse, cities are sealed off under domes run by different corporations. Your protagonist is a detective in one such city, tasked with investigating a series of mysterious disappearances that seem to be linked to the city’s ruling corporation. Dig into the dark underbelly of corporate control and the fight for truth.
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.
- Make the person helping your hero the one to worry about.
- End a scene on a phone call, a knock or a name.
- Let the reader know something the hero doesn't.
Writing dystopian fiction
A society gone wrong, and the one person who sees it.
Dystopian fiction imagines a future (or alternate present) where society has failed: surveillance states, ruined planets, systems that crush the people inside them. It's usually a warning. The hero's choice is whether to survive the system or fight it.
What readers expect
- A society with a dark logic
- Control, scarcity or surveillance
- A hero who starts to question it
- A warning about today
A tip before you start
Build your world from one fear of today, pushed too far. The more recognizable the root, the colder the chill.
More Dystopian prompts
- Water from the WastelandEnvironmental disasters have turned the world into a wasteland, and water is now more valuable than gold. Your character, once a hydro-engineer, now a…
- The Memory DealerIn a future where personal memories can be bought and sold, the wealthiest citizens are able to erase their darkest experiences and live in blissful…
- The Feelers' RevolutionIn a world where emotions are regulated by the government through daily injections, your protagonist discovers an underground group of rebels known as…
- The Pill Factory RebelIn a dystopian future where emotions are regulated by the government through daily pills, the main character, a factory worker tasked with producing…
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