Sci Fi Writing Prompts
Character (The Who and/or What)
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Setting (Time + Place + Culture)
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According to the Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction, Characters are developed via four main methods of characterization: thought, speech, action, and appearance.
Invent a character who is on "ship" either leaving Earth for another planet or diving into the Mariana Trench.
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The setting and scenario:
Alpha Centauri has exploded (gone Super Nova). Alpha Centauri is our nearest stellar neighbor. We would have 4.3 years to watch the light from this “magnificent event spreading across the sky, as if tipped from a giant can” (Bryson 36). We would also have 4.3 years to prepare for our impending doom. The prompt: Write for about 45 minutes about what happens for/to a character or two or three (human or nonhuman) in those 4.3 years.
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Science (What it Means to Be Human)
Find a scientific fact that fascinates you. Or find out about a debate in scientific communities on the ethics of a particular potential scientific breakthrough. Write a story about that fact or that debate.
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Technology (Inventions, Re-inventions, & More)
Take the "character" prompt and develop a technology that will enable the character to travel to another planet or to the depths of the Mariana Trench.
TIP: Go beyond the general spaceship idea for leaving Earth. |
Sub-genre & Mixed Genre Writing Prompts
NOTE: some of the prompts have been taken and/or modified from "660 Science Fiction Writing Prompts..." Click HERE to see all of the prompts. A few other prompts were taken and/or modified from HERE.
Hard Sci Fi Writing Prompts
Scenario-based prompts:
Alien Invasion Prompts
Scenario-based prompts:
Parallel Universe Prompts
Romance-meets-Sci-Fi Writing Prompts
Time Travel Prompts
Alternate History Prompts
Space Western Prompts
Lost Worlds Prompts
Biopunk Prompts
Slipstream Prompts
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Soft Sci Fi Writing Prompts
Scenario-based prompts:
Dystopian Sci Fi
Scenario-based prompts:
Alien Conspiracy Prompts:
Scenario-based prompts:
Military Sci Fi Prompts
Social Science Prompts
Cyberpunk Prompts
Steampunk Prompts
Reto Futurism Prompts
Robot Fiction Prompts
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Take inspiration from one or more of the images below to start your own Science Fiction story.