The Hidden Star Map
In a universe where space travel is accessible but still hazardous, your character, a young, ambitious cartographer, discovers a hidden coordinate in ancient star maps. This leads them to embark on a perilous journey to a forgotten planet that allegedly holds the secrets to the universe’s origin.
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.
- Let the hero's plan work, and make that the problem.
- Tell it from the point of view of someone who thinks this world is perfectly normal.
- Shrink the stakes to one family, one street, one night.
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
- The Forbidden Ocean ExpeditionWrite a story in which humanity has lived in a domed underwater city on a distant oceanic planet for centuries but has forgotten the true reason why…
- Life Inside a CometImagine a society living inside a comet moving through space. Describe their culture, beliefs, technology, and annual celebration when they pass by…
- The Miner's Hidden GenesPicture a society where people are born with a predetermined role and station based on their parents' status and planet of origin. The protagonist…
- Dreams of the Ancient PlanetThe new planet promised a fresh start for all; free from the Earth's turmoil and strife. However, upon arrival, settlers find the landscape strangely…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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