The Civil War Diary
Set your story in a small, isolated mountain town in the Appalachians during the Great Depression. The main character finds a mysterious diary dating back to the Civil War hidden in their attic. As they unravel its secrets, they discover unexpected connections to their own family and community.
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.
- Write it as a letter that took weeks to arrive.
- End with a choice that history would never record.
- Let your character believe something about their world that turned out to be wrong.
Writing historical fiction
Step into another time and feel what it was like.
Historical fiction is set in the past, usually at least 50 years before it was written. Real events and people often appear, but the story belongs to its characters. Readers come for the immersion: the smells, the rules, the dangers of a world that's gone.
What readers expect
- A vivid, well-researched setting
- Real events as backdrop or engine
- Characters shaped by their era
- Details that feel lived, not looked up
A tip before you start
Research deeply, show lightly. One telling detail in a scene beats a paragraph of facts.
More Historical Fiction of the Americas prompts
- A Violin in Jazz Age New YorkWrite a story set in the bustling streets of New York City during the roaring 1920s. A young immigrant arrives, carrying only a violin and a dream of…
- A Harlem Jazz DreamCreate a tale set in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Develop a character who is a jazz musician struggling to gain recognition. Intertwine their…
- The Creole Nurse of New OrleansTransport your reader to New Orleans in the early 1800s, at the height of the yellow fever epidemic. Tell the story of a Creole nurse who defies…
- The First Ships ArriveWrite from the perspective of a native tribe in pre-Colonial America. The arrival of European explorers disrupts their ancestral lands and ways of…
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