The Spirit of the Unsolved Case
Explore the life of a professional medium who can communicate with the spirits of a city, leading ghost tours by day and helping unsettled spirits find peace by night. One evening, they encounter a spirit that doesn't want peace, but rather seeks assistance to complete an unfinished task tied deeply to the city’s most infamous unsolved mystery.
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 contemporary fiction
People like us, now, in trouble we recognize.
Contemporary fiction is set in the present day and deals with life as it's actually lived: families, marriages, friendships, work, loss. It sits between literary and commercial fiction, often shelved as book club or upmarket fiction.
What readers expect
- A present-day, realistic setting
- Relatable, flawed characters
- Emotional stakes over action
- Issues readers face themselves
A tip before you start
Today is your setting, so use it: the group chat, the parking ticket, the brand of cereal. Specifics make it feel true.
More Urban Fiction prompts
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- Trapped in the BlackoutDuring a massive blackout that engulfs the city for several days, strangers trapped in an elevator of a high-rise apartment building share stories…
- Clues in the BookshopA vintage bookstore clerk finds a series of notes hidden inside various books, supposedly clues left by a previous employee leading to an undiscovered…
- The Artist Who Stopped TrafficWrite a story about a street artist in a bustling city who unexpectedly becomes a local hero through an act of kindness witnessed by thousands on…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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