The City That Mirrors Emotion
Write a story set in a futuristic city where every building and vehicle can change its appearance based on the occupants' emotions and desires. Introduce a character who can't control their emotions well, causing chaotic transformations that attract unwanted attention in a society that values emotional stability.
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.
- Start in the middle of the strangest moment, and explain nothing for a page.
- Write it as a document from the world: a letter, a field report, a warning sign.
- Make the magic or technology cost your hero something they can't get back.
Writing science fiction
Change one thing about the world. Follow it all the way.
Science fiction asks what happens to people when science, technology or contact with something new changes the rules. The spaceships are optional; the question is the point. The best of it says as much about today as it does about the future.
What readers expect
- An idea that drives the plot
- Technology or science with consequences
- Futures, other worlds or alternate presents
- Big questions about being human
A tip before you start
Show how your big change reshapes ordinary life: what people eat, fear and joke about. Scenery alone isn't world-building.
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- The Twenty-Fifth-Year LetterEnvision a society where every individual's path is predetermined by a celestial bureaucracy. At age 25, each person receives a letter that dictates…
- The Teacher of NowIn a world where every person can see both their past and future simultaneously, write about a day in the life of a middle school history teacher who…
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