African writing prompt
Gold and Salt Across Mali
Develop a narrative centered on the trade routes of the medieval Mali Empire. Follow a merchant who, along with his camel caravan, travels across vast deserts to trade goods like salt, gold, and manuscripts. Along the way, he encounters different cultures, faces natural disasters, and builds friendships that defy boundaries.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
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Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- 1Write it as a letter that took weeks to arrive.
- 2End with a choice that history would never record.
- 3Let your character believe something about their world that turned out to be wrong.
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