The City That Appears Once
**Echoes of the Lost City**: During a school excursion, a group of students finds themselves transported to a legendary lost city that appears every hundred years in a different place on Earth. The city is vibrant and alive, unaware of its own myths. The students need to blend in and find a way back home before the city disappears again, but some of them begin questioning if they want to return at all.
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.
- End on a small gesture rather than a speech.
- Give your main character a job you know well, and use its details.
- Let a minor character change the ending.
Writing fantasy books
Magic is real, and it costs something.
Fantasy builds a world where the impossible works: dragons, spells, gods who answer back. It might be a whole invented continent or one enchanted door in an ordinary house. Either way, readers come for the wonder and stay for the people paying the price for it.
What readers expect
- Magic or the supernatural, with limits
- A world that feels lived in
- Quests, wars or a power worth fighting over
- Myths and history under the surface
A tip before you start
Give magic a cost. Readers believe in a power when they can see what it takes from the person using it.
More Contemporary Fantasy prompts
- The Purple Sea PortalA small coastal town holds a secret tradition: when the sea turns a peculiar shade of purple, a portal opens to an enchanted underwater kingdom. Write…
- The Glowing Moonlit SeaA small coastal town is known for its peculiar weather and the myths surrounding it. Every full moon, the sea glows brightly, attracting tourists and…
- The Power SwapIn a contemporary city where everyone possesses a mild superpower, your protagonist wakes up to discover they have swapped powers with a stranger.…
- Dreams Above the CityCreate a story about a city where everyone's dreams are projected in the sky above them while they sleep. One night, the dreams start swapping between…
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