The Creole Nurse of New Orleans
Transport 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 societal expectations and prejudices to care for the sick, learning secrets of the city’s underbelly along the way.
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.
- Let your character believe something about their world that turned out to be wrong.
- Give the hero a rule of the era they have to break.
- Choose one real detail of the period, like a price, a law or a song, and build a scene around it.
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
- 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…
- The Conductor's Final MissionCraft a tale centered around the Underground Railroad. Your protagonist is a fearless conductor who has already led many to freedom. On what they vow…
- The Broker Before the CrashThe year is 1929, just before the Great Depression hits. Narrate the life of a stockbroker on Wall Street who has insider knowledge about the upcoming…
- The Artist at the World's FairTake your readers to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World’s Fair) in St. Louis. Imagine a story about a Native American artist who must…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
Chapterly gives a draft somewhere to grow: chapters, daily word goals, and readers when you're ready.
Plans from $9.99 a month. Cancel any time. Your words are always yours.