Urban writing prompt
Three Days Without Power
Describe the intertwined lives of residents in an urban high-rise during a citywide blackout that lasts for three days. Explore their interactions, crises, and the community that unexpectedly forms in the dark.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
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Pick a sprint, start the clock and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
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Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- 1Write the scene everyone else would skip: the morning after.
- 2End on a small gesture rather than a speech.
- 3Give your main character a job you know well, and use its details.
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