Water from the Wasteland
Environmental disasters have turned the world into a wasteland, and water is now more valuable than gold. Your character, once a hydro-engineer, now a fugitive, possesses the knowledge to construct a device that can extract water from the atmosphere. Hunted by water barons, they must protect their secret at all costs while struggling with the moral implications of their invention.
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 person helping your hero the one to worry about.
- End a scene on a phone call, a knock or a name.
- Let the reader know something the hero doesn't.
Writing dystopian fiction
A society gone wrong, and the one person who sees it.
Dystopian fiction imagines a future (or alternate present) where society has failed: surveillance states, ruined planets, systems that crush the people inside them. It's usually a warning. The hero's choice is whether to survive the system or fight it.
What readers expect
- A society with a dark logic
- Control, scarcity or surveillance
- A hero who starts to question it
- A warning about today
A tip before you start
Build your world from one fear of today, pushed too far. The more recognizable the root, the colder the chill.
More Dystopian prompts
- The Memory DealerIn a future where personal memories can be bought and sold, the wealthiest citizens are able to erase their darkest experiences and live in blissful…
- The Feelers' RevolutionIn a world where emotions are regulated by the government through daily injections, your protagonist discovers an underground group of rebels known as…
- The Pill Factory RebelIn a dystopian future where emotions are regulated by the government through daily pills, the main character, a factory worker tasked with producing…
- The Wrong Genetic AssignmentImagine a society where everyone is assigned a role and job at birth based on their genes. Your protagonist, who has always believed in the system…
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