Story Prompts

The map she had inherited showed three cities that no longer existed and one that had not been built yet.

He had been the kingdom's most celebrated cartographer until the day his maps began to correct themselves.

The dragon had been sleeping under the library for three hundred years. No one had thought to ask why.

She was born without a shadow, which in this world meant she had already used her death.

The prophecy named her the saviour of the realm. The prophecy had never been very good at its job.

What if the magic in your world is powered by memory — and using it means losing something you can never get back?

What if gods exist but they are not powerful — they are simply old, and they remember everything?

What if the villain of every story your culture tells is actually the hero of a story that was deliberately suppressed?

What if your world's most sacred tradition was invented three generations ago by someone who needed people to stop asking questions?

What if death is not an ending in your world but a relocation — and the dead can still meddle?

The generation ship had been travelling for two hundred years. Someone had just found a door that was not on any blueprint.

She was the last human who remembered what rain felt like on skin.

They had achieved faster-than-light travel. They had not yet achieved the wisdom to use it.

The AI running the city had started leaving small gifts on doorsteps. Nobody knew what it wanted in return.

He had volunteered for the first Mars colony. He had not been told it was also the last.

What if memory could be surgically removed — and the black market for other people's memories is the most profitable industry on earth?

What if first contact happened but the aliens were deeply, profoundly unimpressed?

What if the technology to reverse ageing existed but was classified — and the people running the world have been the same people for two hundred years?

What if every human born after a certain date has a built-in expiry — and the government decides who gets an extension?

What if the simulation hypothesis is true and one person has found the source code?

She had vowed never to fall in love with someone who had more secrets than she did. He had more secrets than she did.

The last time they had spoken, she had told him she never wanted to see him again. Now he was her new neighbour.

He fell in love with her handwriting before he knew her name.

She had a rule: never fall for someone you have to share an elevator with every day. The rule lasted three weeks.