The Machine to the Sky Islands
In a world divided into floating islands in the sky and the Depths below shrouded in perpetual darkness, there is no communication or travel between the two. Create a tale about a daring individual from the Depths who invents a machine to visit the Sky Islands, discovering a shocking truth about how their society is governed.
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.
- 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.
- Choose one ordinary object and show how this world changed it.
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 Teacher of NowIn a world where every person can see both their past and future simultaneously, write about a day in the life of a middle school history teacher who…
- The Dream DetectiveIn a reality where dreams are tangible and can be recorded, bought, and sold, follow a "Dream Detective" tasked with solving a mystery involving a…
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