The Inquisitor's Son
During the turmoil of the Spanish Inquisition, a converso family (Jews forced to convert to Christianity) secretly maintains their religious traditions. Write a story about how a teenage member of the family navigates this dangerous double life while forming an unlikely friendship with an inquisitor’s son.
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 dialogue sound of its time without becoming hard to read.
- Tell it from someone the history books ignored.
- Write it as a letter that took weeks to arrive.
Writing historical fiction
Step into another time and feel what it was like.
Historical fiction is set in the past, usually at least 50 years before it was written. Real events and people often appear, but the story belongs to its characters. Readers come for the immersion: the smells, the rules, the dangers of a world that's gone.
What readers expect
- A vivid, well-researched setting
- Real events as backdrop or engine
- Characters shaped by their era
- Details that feel lived, not looked up
A tip before you start
Research deeply, show lightly. One telling detail in a scene beats a paragraph of facts.
More European Historical Fiction prompts
- The Guard at the WallSet during the fall of the Berlin Wall, craft a narrative from the perspective of an East German guard who forms an unexpected friendship with a…
- Anne Boleyn's Last DayImagine you're a servant in the court of Henry VIII. Write a diary entry detailing the day Anne Boleyn was executed, including personal observations…
- Montmartre's Jazz Street ArtistWrite about a Parisian street artist in the 1920s who becomes embroiled in the city’s underground jazz scene, discovering love and betrayal amidst the…
- The Mapmaker's Hidden MessageWrite a story about a young apprentice mapmaker in Renaissance Italy who discovers a secret message hidden in one of the maps, leading to a dangerous…
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