The Ecosystem Beneath Earth
In a world recovering from a near-catastrophic environmental disaster, an environmental scientist discovers a hidden ecosystem beneath the Earth's crust that could revolutionize how humans coexist with the planet. As they explore this subterranean world, they must protect it from exploitation while encouraging a new way of life above ground.
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.
- 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.
- Make the magic or technology cost your hero something they can't get back.
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 Science Fiction prompts
- Alone Near the Black HoleYour character wakes up on a space station alone, with no memory of how they got there. The station is drifting towards a black hole. Through clues…
- The Martian Peace TalksHumans have started terraforming Mars, but an ancient, dormant Martian technology awakens, recognizing the terraformers as threats. A historian…
- The Dream Thief's DiscoveryDescribe a world where dreams can be recorded, shared, and even sold. Your main character is a dream thief, someone who illegally extracts and sells…
- The Unchosen ChildImagine a world in which people are able to customize their children before they are born, selecting traits like intelligence, appearance, and…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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