An Eight-Year-Old's Eightieth Birthday
Imagine a world where people age backwards. The story begins on the day the protagonist, who looks only eight years old, is celebrating their 80th birthday with a lifetime of knowledge and memories. Explore their final days as they grow younger and how society treats their diminishing wisdom and maturity.
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.
- Shrink the stakes to one family, one street, one night.
- Choose one ordinary object and show how this world changed it.
- Start in the middle of the strangest moment, and explain nothing for a page.
Writing science fiction
Change one thing about the world. Follow it all the way.
Science fiction asks what happens to people when science, technology or contact with something new changes the rules. The spaceships are optional; the question is the point. The best of it says as much about today as it does about the future.
What readers expect
- An idea that drives the plot
- Technology or science with consequences
- Futures, other worlds or alternate presents
- Big questions about being human
A tip before you start
Show how your big change reshapes ordinary life: what people eat, fear and joke about. Scenery alone isn't world-building.
More Alternate Reality prompts
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- The Sunset SymphonyEnvision an alternate reality where colors are not seen but heard. Detail the experiences of a famous conductor who becomes the first to compose a…
- The Dream WeaverWrite a tale set in a universe where dreams are not personal but shared among communities. Describe how different towns and cities cultivate different…
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