The President's Buried Past
Imagine a scenario in which a newly elected president receives an anonymous threat that hints at a devastating secret from their past being exposed. As the president tries to neutralize the threat, they must deal with betrayals within their inner circle and decide how much they're willing to sacrifice to keep their position and their past buried.
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.
- Cut every scene the moment the tension drops.
- Put a clock on it: the hero has until midnight.
- Trap your hero in one place they can't easily leave.
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 Political Thriller prompts
- The Spy Mom Next DoorWrite about an ordinary suburban family that gets entangled in a spy conflict due to mistaken identity. The family matriarch, who has a secretive past…
- The Journalist and the AssassinWrite a story about a rookie journalist who stumbles upon a classified document detailing a government cover-up of enormous proportions. As they dig…
- The Campaign Manager's USBImagine a scenario where during a high-stakes election, the leading candidate's campaign manager finds a USB stick containing explosive information…
- The Diplomat's EscapeA low-level diplomat becomes the target of an assassination in a foreign country, and narrowly escapes with their life. Now, they must navigate a web…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
Chapterly gives a draft somewhere to grow: chapters, daily word goals, and readers when you're ready.
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