Locked Inside Father's House
Two estranged siblings reunite to settle their deceased father's estate only to find themselves locked in his secure, tech-savvy house. As they try to navigate the sophisticated and bizarre security system, they unravel secrets their father left behind—secrets that some people would kill to protect. Explore their tense relationship and their struggle to survive as they rediscover their familial bond.
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.
- Make the person helping your hero the one to worry about.
- End a scene on a phone call, a knock or a name.
- Let the reader know something the hero doesn't.
Writing thriller books
Something terrible is coming. Can they stop it in time?
Where a mystery looks back at a crime, a thriller looks forward at a threat. The reader often knows more than the hero, and the tension comes from watching danger close in. Short chapters, high stakes and a ticking clock are the tools of the trade.
What readers expect
- A clear, escalating threat
- A hero under pressure
- Twists and reversals
- Pace: little time to breathe
A tip before you start
Put a clock on it. A deadline the reader can count down turns every scene into a race.
More Thriller and Suspense prompts
- The Journalist's False InformantA young journalist receives an anonymous tip about a high-ranking government official’s involvement in an international smuggling ring. As she delves…
- The Detective's Missing KeyImagine a scenario in which a retired detective receives a mysterious letter that contains a key and an address. Upon visiting the address, the…
- Midnight CoordinatesA retired detective receives a mysterious letter that only contains a single GPS coordinate and a time stamp for midnight, three days later. Driven by…
- The Catastrophe FilesDevelop a story about a professional hacker who is hired to steal data from a seemingly benign software company. During the heist, they uncover a…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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