20th Century writing prompt
The Dancer's New York Defection
In the 1980s, at the height of the Cold War, a Soviet ballet dancer decides to defect while on tour in New York City. Describe their first 48 hours in America, the fears they face, the unexpected allies they find, and how they deal with the threat of being followed by their own countrymen.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
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Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- 1End with a choice that history would never record.
- 2Let your character believe something about their world that turned out to be wrong.
- 3Give the hero a rule of the era they have to break.
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