The Garden's Buried Map
An urban gardener discovers an old, encrypted map buried in a communal plot in a city park, suggesting a hidden treasure or a forgotten piece of the city’s history lies beneath the streets. With the help of a historian neighbor, they embark on a quest that delves deep into urban legends and the city’s past residents.
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.
- Write the scene everyone else would skip: the morning after.
- End on a small gesture rather than a speech.
- Give your main character a job you know well, and use its details.
Writing contemporary fiction
People like us, now, in trouble we recognize.
Contemporary fiction is set in the present day and deals with life as it's actually lived: families, marriages, friendships, work, loss. It sits between literary and commercial fiction, often shelved as book club or upmarket fiction.
What readers expect
- A present-day, realistic setting
- Relatable, flawed characters
- Emotional stakes over action
- Issues readers face themselves
A tip before you start
Today is your setting, so use it: the group chat, the parking ticket, the brand of cereal. Specifics make it feel true.
More Urban Fiction prompts
- The Corner GroceryCraft a story set in a gentrifying neighborhood, centering around a small, family-owned grocery store struggling to stay afloat amidst the changes.…
- Three Views of the Park SculptureA small, overlooked city park becomes the center of controversy when a local artist unveils a provocative sculpture. Write from the perspective of…
- The Bakery Money TrailAfter receiving an anonymous tip, a young investigative journalist discovers that a beloved local bakery is a front for laundering money. Delve into…
- The Café NotebookWrite about a young artist moving to a big city for the first time. On the first night, they find a mysterious notebook at a local café that contains…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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