The Farmer and the Council
In a galaxy where each planet's government system is determined by a universal, sentient council, a farmer on a remote agricultural planet stumbles upon a downed scout ship carrying secrets that could shift the balance of planetary power. The farmer must decide whether to hand over the information or use it to challenge the council's control.
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 ordinary object and show how this world changed it.
- Start in the middle of the strangest moment, and explain nothing for a page.
- Write it as a document from the world: a letter, a field report, a warning sign.
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 Space Exploration prompts
- Judgment at the Edge of SpaceOn a remote outpost at the edge of the known universe, the crew discovers a signal indicating they are not only being watched, but judged by a vastly…
- The Mirror UniverseExplore a scenario where space explorers find a portal to a parallel universe during a routine mapping of the outer reach. This other universe is a…
- The Journalist's Hidden MovementDevelop a story about an intergalactic journalist who travels to war-torn planets to document the impacts of cosmic wars. On their latest assignment…
- Hitchhiking to the Cursed StarImagine a future where interstellar travel is common and "space hitchhikers" are the adventurous souls who thumb rides on cargo ships heading toward…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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