The Officer's Encrypted Messages
Write a story about a retired military officer who suddenly receives encrypted messages from an unknown source, hinting at a government conspiracy involving the squad he once led. As he unravels the messages, he must decide if exposing the truth is worth risking the lives of his former comrades.
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.
- Put a clock on it: the hero has until midnight.
- Trap your hero in one place they can't easily leave.
- Raise the stakes from personal to public halfway through.
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 Military Suspense prompts
- The Submarine's Target ListDevelop a story about a military engineer who discovers a hidden, obsolete Soviet submarine on a routine mission. Inside, they find a list of targets…
- The Journalist's Hidden JournalDuring a peacekeeping mission in a war-torn country, a young army lieutenant finds a cryptic journal belonging to a missing journalist. The entries…
- Letters From the Last MissionWrite a story about a retired military officer who starts receiving anonymous letters that contain details only someone from their last covert mission…
- The Engineer Who VanishedA military engineer working on classified drone technology goes missing. His sister, a cyber-security analyst, uses her expertise to track his…
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