The Submarine's Target List
Develop a story about a military engineer who discovers a hidden, obsolete Soviet submarine on a routine mission. Inside, they find a list of targets and dates – some of which have already been struck, leading to a frantic race against time to prevent the next disaster.
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.
- Open with the threat already in motion, not the setup.
- Make the person helping your hero the one to worry about.
- End a scene on a phone call, a knock or a name.
Writing thriller books
Something terrible is coming. Can they stop it in time?
Where a mystery looks back at a crime, a thriller looks forward at a threat. The reader often knows more than the hero, and the tension comes from watching danger close in. Short chapters, high stakes and a ticking clock are the tools of the trade.
What readers expect
- A clear, escalating threat
- A hero under pressure
- Twists and reversals
- Pace: little time to breathe
A tip before you start
Put a clock on it. A deadline the reader can count down turns every scene into a race.
More Military Suspense prompts
- The Journalist's Hidden JournalDuring a peacekeeping mission in a war-torn country, a young army lieutenant finds a cryptic journal belonging to a missing journalist. The entries…
- Letters From the Last MissionWrite a story about a retired military officer who starts receiving anonymous letters that contain details only someone from their last covert mission…
- The Engineer Who VanishedA military engineer working on classified drone technology goes missing. His sister, a cyber-security analyst, uses her expertise to track his…
- The Analyst's Hidden MessagesCreate a narrative centered on a new intelligence analyst who stumbles upon a series of encrypted messages that no one else seems to notice. Through…
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