The Climate System Failure
In a world reliant on advanced technology to control the climate and keep natural disasters at bay, a catastrophic failure causes the system to break down. Describe the chaos that ensues and the group of engineers who must venture into dangerous conditions to restore order.
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.
- Shrink the stakes to one family, one street, one night.
- 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.
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 High-Tech Sci-Fi prompts
- The Rebel Who Chose AgeIn a society that has achieved immortality through highly advanced technology, explore the life of a young rebel who wants to experience natural aging…
- The Rebels Who Still AgeHumanity has achieved immortality through advanced genetic modifications, but at the cost of being able to reproduce naturally. As society struggles…
- The Weather-Shifting MachineA scientist invents a device that can alter the weather, but every change comes with unpredictable side effects impacting personal relationships.…
- The Computer Wants to DieOn a distant planet, humanity has finally created the first sentient supercomputer. However, the computer's first request is to be shut down. Write…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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