The Historian Who Changed Time
Write a story set in a reality where historical and future events can be visited like destinations, using a time-travel-like technology. Describe the experiences of a historian who uncovers unraveling errors in the timeline only to realize someone is deliberately altering history. Each scenario presents challenges and mysteries, driven by the rules of their unique alternate realities.
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.
- Give the villain a reason that would convince you, if you lived there.
- Let the hero's plan work, and make that the problem.
- Tell it from the point of view of someone who thinks this world is perfectly normal.
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.
More Alternate Reality prompts
- The City That Mirrors EmotionWrite a story set in a futuristic city where every building and vehicle can change its appearance based on the occupants' emotions and desires.…
- The Machine to the Sky IslandsIn a world divided into floating islands in the sky and the Depths below shrouded in perpetual darkness, there is no communication or travel between…
- The December Sky RacerIn a world where people are assigned their professions based on their birth month, describe the life of a rebel born in December who refuses to…
- 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…
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