A Convict’s Australian Diary
Imagine you are a convict on one of the first fleets arriving in Australia. Describe your perilous journey at sea and the first few months of settlement through a series of diary entries. Include your thoughts on the new environment, encounters with the native people, and the challenges of building a new life.
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.
- Choose one real detail of the period, like a price, a law or a song, and build a scene around it.
- Keep the famous event offstage and show its ripples.
- Make the dialogue sound of its time without becoming hard to read.
Writing historical fiction
Step into another time and feel what it was like.
Historical fiction is set in the past, usually at least 50 years before it was written. Real events and people often appear, but the story belongs to its characters. Readers come for the immersion: the smells, the rules, the dangers of a world that's gone.
What readers expect
- A vivid, well-researched setting
- Real events as backdrop or engine
- Characters shaped by their era
- Details that feel lived, not looked up
A tip before you start
Research deeply, show lightly. One telling detail in a scene beats a paragraph of facts.
More Australian and Pacific Historical Fiction prompts
- Building the Sydney Harbour BridgeSet your story in Australia during the early 20th century, focusing on the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Follow a character who is an…
- The Sydney Gold NuggetIn the bustling heart of 1850s Sydney, amidst the chaos of the gold rush, a young child from the local Indigenous tribe discovers a nugget of gold.…
- The Victorian GoldfieldsWrite a story set during the early days of the Australian gold rush in the 1850s. Describe the life of a family who left their home in Sydney to find…
- First Encounters on CountryWrite a story set in the late 18th century, detailing the life of a young Aboriginal child and their family as they encounter the first British…
See all 20 Australian and Pacific Historical Fiction prompts
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