101 Writing Prompts for Fantasy and

Science Fiction Writers

By L. K. Grant

Text copyright 2012 L. K. Grant

Cover art copyright 2012 Geoffrey A.
Pratt
Cover design copyright 2012 L. K.
Grant

for the sweet ladies and gents from

various writing groups
who were kind enough
to be my guinea pigs
for Geoff Rugg, who opened his heart
and home to me
and who gave me reason to hope
again

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Using These Prompts
The First 25
The Second 25
The Third 25
The Final 25, and an Extra Prompt for
Good Luck
Thank You!

Preface
Dear Writer,
I wanted this book to be more than just a
list of writing prompts, though it
certainly delivers that.
I hope to show you, a writer of
speculative and outlandish fiction, a way
of generating your own prompts for
fantasy and sci-fi stories using history,
personal and anecdotal experiences, and
the fascinating origins of common words
and phrases.
Many pages of this book offer not just a

prompt but also the seed of the prompt,

showing you how I have used reality to
create reality-bending story ideas.
I have tried to derive many of these
prompts from real science, real
experiences and real people. Truly
engaging fantasy, science and
speculative fiction all contain one thing:
a grain of truth. When readers sense
verisimilitude, they will let you take
them to fascinating new worlds.
They will believe everything you tell
them.

Using These Prompts

If you downloaded this book, chances
are you already know how writing
prompts work. But as a refresher, here
are a few tips.
Give each prompt at least five minutes
of solid writing. If you find yourself
writing for a couple of hours as the
result of one prompt, great! Some of
them may even lead you to complete
stories or novels, and if that happens,
awesome. But give your brain a chance
to kick in to gear with each one. Even if
you sit in front of the computer for four
and a half minutes with nothing of worth
coming out, you are giving your brain a

workout. Your brain is like you probably

were in high school: it gets bored in
class and starts to daydream. While
daydreams got you in trouble when you
were a teenager, they are exactly what
your brain should be doing.
With many prompts, I ask several
questions. Feel free to answer some, all
or none of them.
Many writers use prompts to get the
creative juices flowing before sitting
down to the hard slog of writing. Others
use prompts to give their brain some
relief, especially if they find themselves
stuck within a longer piece of fiction.
With this in mind, I have written a lot of

these prompts with your character as

the main subject, so that you can take
your protagonist out of the novel/story
you are currently working on and plop
him/her down in another setting, just to
shake things up a bit and see what
happens. If youre just writing to get the
aforementioned juices flowing, this may
be a great way for you to meet new
characters, characters that may decide
that you are the one to write their story.
Some pages provide simply a strange or
underused word and its definition. The
dictionary is a great place to find
inspiration, and for these prompts I
suggest that you try one of several
methods: write the word into a scene,

use the word as the title of a book or

story, or use the word as a name for a
new character and write about that
character, showing how that character
does (or doesnt) live up to the name.
I have divided the book into four
sections for no other reason than ease of
navigation. There are chapter markers
every twenty-five prompts so that if your
place is lost, due to the magical
machinations of silly little Kindle
faeries, you can hopefully get back close
to where you were.
Good luck, and please feel free to
contact me at any time. Id love to see
what comes of these prompts and answer

any questions you might have.

~Laura
[email protected]

The First 25
***1***
There is a village in West Africa known
as the Land of Twins because an
unusually large number of twins are born
there, nearly four times the global
average. Additionally, some scientists
say that this high rate of twins is caused
by the local diet, specifically yams that
contain a hormone that causes a woman
to release two eggs at once.
Imagine a place called the Land of
Twins, where everyone is somebodys
twin. Now imagine that there is one
person who was born with no twin.

What would their life be like? Would

they be ostracized or worshipped?
For a new twist, imagine a food that
creates such a noticeable effect. Think
beyond yams and multiple births: what
other aspects of birth would people want
to control? What kind of food could
control this?
***2***
Gyrfalcon, n: (also gerfalcon, from
gerfaucun, girfaucon, gyrofalco) an
arctic falcon that occurs in several
forms, is the largest of all falcons, and is
more powerful, though less active, than
the peregrine falcon. Their wingspans

can reach 5-6 feet, and their eggs look

like dark gold stones.
In the 12th Century, a Chinese Emperor
demanded gyrfalcons as tax, seeing just
how profitable the birds were as hunting
companions. The rebellion of tribes
unwilling to hand over their falcons led
to a new dynasty.
Imagine a rebellion with falconers using
their birds as weapons. What sights and
sounds would your character see on the
battlefield?
For a new twist: many rebellions
involve some level of skulduggery. How
could rebels use falcons in subterfuge?

***3***
Blood oranges gain their eponymous
color overnight, and only when the night
is cold. They are sometimes called
vampire oranges.
Imagine an orchard tended by vampires
(or a similar night-dwelling creature).
What kind of fruit would these creatures
grow? What special properties or
powers could it have? How would they
defend it during the day? What about a
fruit that has certain properties when
harvested during the day and quite
different properties when harvested at
night? Eaten during the day vs. at night?

***4***
In 2010, Ladys Slipper orchids were
found on a golf course in the U.K.
Because they are endangered, and
because they fetch a high price for
poachers, local police were dispatched
to guard them around the clock while
they were blooming.
Imagine a plant so valuable that it had to
be guarded by force. What properties (or
even powers) could it possess? Write
about one of the guards. Write about a
poacher.

A new twist: what if the guards werent

protecting the flowers from people, but
instead people from the flowers?
***5***
Your character has to bathe in ocean
water every day. Twenty-two hours have
passed since he/she has been to the
ocean. The car wont start, and walking
takes too long.
Does he/she make it? Why does he/she
have to get there, and what happens if
he/she doesnt?
***6***

Write about a kid who discovers that he

has the ability to read mindswhile in
sex ed class. How many different
voices can you bring to life through his
mind?
***7***
Your character wakes up on a park
bench in a big city, surrounded by
joggers, moms, old ladies, dogs, and a
cop or two. He/she has no clothes and
no memory of the past 12 hours, although
there was a full moon the night before
***8***
A man has to convince a young princess,

who is eleven, not to behead his brother.

The setting is a court in a castle, with
members of the court looking on.
Now change up the genders and ages of
the characters. How do the dynamics
shift? Try this scenario with at least
three different sets of characters.
***9***
Your character gets into a carriage
headed out of a village. In his/her
satchel is a very special package. What
is it, how did he/she get it, where is
he/she going, and does he/she make it
alive

***10***
you character gets onto a subway car
in a metro area. In his/her briefcase is a
very special package. What is it, how
did he/she get it, where is he/she going,
and does he/she make it alive?
***11***
Your character has to spend the night
sleeping in a tree after two days of
running from the Kings guards. He/she
awakens to find that the guards have set
up camp beneath his tree, but do not
seem to know hes up there. What
happens next?

***12***
In a small house on the outskirts of town,
a brilliant but underfunded and
unrecognized botanist lives and works.
One morning, he heads out to his
greenhouse, where something
unexpected has blossomed overnight. As
he enters, describe: what he smells,
hears, sees, etc. Who will he tell first?
How will this discovery change him,
and the world he lives in?
***13***
Your character has a Polaroid camera
that can photograph ghosts. How does
he/she use it to get out of a sticky

situation?
***14***
Your characters escape pod has landed
on a strange planet. As he/she watches
his/her ship disintegrate outside the
planets atmosphere, he/she struggles to
set up a communication tower quickly to
signal the mother ship. This planet has
some notoriously hostile inhabitants.
***15***
Two men have just kidnapped a twelveyear-old for ransom. Little do these
abductors know about their victims
secret ability.

***16***
Coral inflates and deflates itself to move
around and get out of sticky situations.
Your character also has this ability. Send
him/her out on a blind date that goes
badly. Now send him/her to
Thanksgiving dinner. Have a cop pull
him/her over.
While writing, be sure to use your
descriptive powers to help your reader
know what is looks like, sounds like,
smells like, etc., when your character
inflates/deflates.

***17***
Harlequin ladybugs were imported to
Europe to help with pest control, but
now they are nudging out the native
species of ladybug.
Your character is a native ladybug, and
he/she discovers that all the other
ladybugs in the neighborhood are the
alien species. How does he/she react?
Does he/she fight back? Does he/she
shut the blinds, drink his/her tea and
reminisce about the old days?
Interesting words to utilize: Harlequin (a
comic servant); Ladybird (the European
name for ladybugs)

***18***
Your character has an outer shell, and it
secretes a substance that is defensively
toxicbut only when he/she eats well.
What kind of environment makes this
defense necessary? If there is a dearth of
food, what will your character do to
fend off the enemies chasing him/her?
***19***
Scientists have discovered a massive
lake in the arctic beneath a mile of ice.
When they send down an exploratory
team (including your character), the
sonar and other navigational equipment

begins to pick up strange signals. Just

out of reach of the seacrafts lights,
something enormous looms.
***20***
Your character stumbles upon a large
nest with three huge eggs in it. He/she
stops to look at them because they
appear so strange. He/she notices two
sounds: a tapping noise from inside one
of the eggs, and the sound of air moving
behind.
***21***
Your characters horse has expired, so
its time to buy a new one. Locals say

that the farrier down the lane may have

one for sale. When your character gets
there, he/she is not immediately
impressed by the look of the horse, but
for such a low price
***22***
Your character is making a name for
him/herself as a professional fighter (or
if you prefer, an underground fighter),
and its all thanks to the injections he/she
gets everyday from Dr. Huckenspuds
latest experiment. He/she is winning a
lot of money, but the side effects are
quite strange.
***23***

One morning in Ms. Fullers science

class, a simple experiment produces an
unexpected burst of greenish red smoke.
None of her students seem hurt, but she
begins to notice that theyre exhibiting
some strange behaviors.
***24***
Goatsucker, n: any of a family of
medium-sized long-winged crepuscular
or nocturnal birds having a short, wide
bill, short legs, and soft mottled
plumage, and feeding on insects that they
catch on the wing.
Write about a goat that is afraid of birds.

This is a chance to anthropomorphize in

the extreme, so give him a house to live
in, a car to drive, and a rabid fear of
birds.
***25***
Your character pauses at the bank of a
small stream to fill his/her goatskin.
Suddenly he/she notices a small fox
sitting on its haunches on the opposite
bank. They watch each other for a
moment. Then the fox speaks.

The Second 25
***26***
Fracas, n: a noisy quarrel, brawl
***27***
swarm spore, n: any of various minute
motile sexual or asexual spores
***28***
Your character has found a way to bottle
stardust, and brings back a bottle of it to
his/her town. When a beautiful woman
buys it and rubs it onto her skin,
something unexpected happens.

***29***
Several characters are feasting on a
hillside in honor of a) a victory in battle,
b) an ascension by one of their number
to the position of chief or king, or c) a
wedding/birthday. Suddenly a ghibli (a
hot desert wind) hearkens the approach
of a massive storm. Write a two
paragraph scene.
Now write the ghibli as a character, with
human emotions and senses. How does
this feast look to your ghibli?
***30***

rhumb, n: any of the points of the

mariners compass
***31***
Your character falls asleep and dreams
of a man sprinkling sand over his/her
eyes. Upon awakening, he/she is no
longer where he/she fell asleep. A gritty,
white sand falls from your characters
eyes as he/she takes in the new
surroundings. Describe the dream.

***32***
samara, n: a dry, one-seeded winged

fruit (as of an ash, elm or maple tree)

also called a key
Your character approaches a tree, an
old, very thick tree, and sees a door
carved in the trunk. The elf/forest
creature/nymph that sent your character
here said that the key would be on the
ground beneath the tree, but all your
character sees are tiny seedpods, which
he/she knows are called samara
***33***
sangfroid, n: self-possession, especially
under strain, from the French for cold
blood

***34***
squamation, n: the state of being scaly.
the arrangement of scales on an animal
Use this as the first sentence: At first,
all ________ could see was a vague,
gray squamation filling his/her vision
and moving in and out of focus, as if
something very large was breathing
***35***
Tree surgeons trim trees, cutting
branches in such a way that helps the
tree grow healthier by controlling decay
and preventing the spread of disease.

Imagine a character that takes this title to

the extreme, performing more delicate
and intense operations on trees. Perhaps
the tree is capable of feeling the
surgery, or even speaking.
Now imagine a species of tree that
becomes powerful or dangerous as it
grows. Who does the local village send
out to trim the wild wood?
***36***
yurt, n: a circular domed tent of skins or
felt stretched over a collapsible lattice
framework and used by Mongol nomads
of Siberia

Your character awakens in his/her yurt,

which is warm and smells like breakfast.
A quick peek out the door flap confirms
that it snowed again last night. In the
distance, something strange: a lone man
on horseback, riding as fast as he can
towards the yurt, as though the hounds of
hell were close on his heels
***37***
Yggdrasil, n: a huge ash tree in Norse
mythology that overspreads the world
and binds earth, hell and heaven
together.
A tree this large could (and does) fill
many books, but for this prompt, just

write about your character as he/she

transitions from one of the three places
to another via the tree: earth to hell,
heaven to earth, hell to heaven, etc. Why
the shift? What does he/she see along the
way? What are the physical sensations?
Emotional? Spiritual? Who does he/she
encounter? Does the past come back to
haunt him/her?
***38***
youngberry, n: the large, sweet, reddishblack fruit of a hybrid between a trailing
blackberry and a southern dewberry,
grown in western and southern U.S.
Your character is old, and by chance

stumbles upon a youngberry bush, and

eats a few berries. You decide: does
he/she know the effect the berries will
have?
He/she begins to grow young. Is it fast or
slow, does it hurt or feel amazing? How
do others react?
***39***
Your character is outside with a friend,
hunting (or another pastime/task of your
choice). A sudden cloudburst comes
over them. Before they have time to find
shelter, the rain washes away the
disguise worn by the friend, revealing
his/her startling true identity: the sworn

enemy of your character. Who is he/she?

How does your character react?
Now switch this. Your character is
fighting his/her sworn enemy when their
disguise falls away to reveal your
characters dearest friend.
***40***
Your character awakens in a hospital to
find that his/her left arm and leg have
been replace with robotic limbs, and no
memory of the surgery. Your character is
horrified by the loss of limbs, but
fascinated too, because the limbs seem
to respond directly to his/her thoughts.

Now bring in a nurse or doctor, who

tells your character what happenedor
doesnt, your choice.
***41***
darkle, v: to become concealed in the
dark; to become cloudy or gloomy
Your character has the ability to hide in
the shadows. He/she uses this ability to
follow a queen and her lover as they
discuss murdering the king.
***42***
daughter, n: an atomic species that is the
immediate product of the radioactive

decay of a given element

***43***
dead letter, n: a letter that is
undeliverable and unreturnable by the
post office
Your character works in the dead letter
department, night shift. One night, a bin
of dead letters arrives, and as your
character sorts through and prepares to
destroy them, one of the letters begins to
glow and grow warm to the touch.
***44***
Apple names make great character

names, as well as great titles. Looking

below, choose two names to put together
(like Ashworth Foxwhelp), and then take
five minutes to write about your new
character. Do this three more times, at
least.
Now pick a name (or two) from below
and use it as your title. Write for five
minutes at least, and see where the story
goes.
Laxtons
Fortune
Egremont Lemoine
Levering
Redstream
Limbertwig
Lord

Abbondanza Dulsis
Alamanka
Ashmead

Ashworth

Fallawater Lambourne

Beating
Hammer
Beautiful
Arcade
Belle of
Boskoop
Black Mac
Blue
Pearmain

Flower of
Kent

Macoun

Foxwhelp

Maidstone

Bramley
Buckley
Giant
Cheals
Golden
Gem

Freeborn
Jonared
Goldspur
Greene
Spy
Hereford
Redstreak
Red
Cortland
Holdfast

Maigold
Penrome
Quindell
Astrachan
Rosilda
Scarlet
Crofton

Chehalis

Honora

Signe
Tillisch

Delawine
Densmore

Idared
Jonwin
Keswick
Codlin

Starking
Talman
Taunton
Cross

Derman

***45***
One of the lunar plains is named Hell.
Your character works at a space station
built in Hell, along with about 200 other
astronauts, scientists and moon
colonists. Your character is in the
cafeteria when the power suddenly goes
off. Out the giant windows of the
cafeteria, the Earth is slowly setting at

the moons far horizon. Soon, it will be

out of sight completely.
***46***
Rhinotillexomania, n: an uncontrollable
urge to pick ones nose.
***47***
cortege, n: a train of attendants, a retinue
Your character is in the cortege of the
king, behind about twenty knights, lords
and other members of the kings court.
He/she has one task: protect the king
from assassination.

***48***
Your character is mining cadmium on a
distant planet. Like the other men and
women in the mineshaft, your character
misses his/her significant other, the sight
of the twin suns that this plant circles,
and the feel of a cool breeze coming off
of the glacial lake he/she lives near.
Your character has been working
underground for two weeks, and has
only five hours and thirty-five minutes to
go before work is over. What could
possibly go wrong?
***49***
Your character is exploring a jungle on a

distant planet, a place that until now was

unseen by human eyes. He/she spies a
strange sight: the nuptial plumage of a
huge bird, called an Alamanka Macoun
(see what I did there?), nearly twice the
size of your character. Though not much
is known about the Alamanka Macoun,
they are known for being very
aggressive, especially during mating
season
***50***
Your character, who is the mayor of
Hometown, wakes up one morning to
find that Nextdoorville, the sister city of
Hometown, has completely disappeared.
Though the missing town is only ten
miles away from Hometown, no one

remembers hearing anything the night

before. What does your character do
next?

The Third 25
***51***
Your character is at the beach, walking
along the shore, when he/she spies a
bright object shining in the sand. The sun
is setting/rising, yet the object seems to
glow with its own bright warmth.
***52***
Your character is walking down a road
when he/she finds a long bundle laying
in the ditch. Upon opening the bundle,
he/she finds a sword
***53***

Your character is walking down the

sidewalk when a car suddenly jumps the
curb and barrels toward him/her. He/she
reaches on arm out, grabs the bumper
and stops the car in its tracks.
***54***
Your character dreams that he/she can
fly, and wakes up floating two feet
above the bed.
***55***
A young girl walks through a forest
collecting herbs and roots in a basket.
As the day grows dark, she heads home,

where her mother has a large, bubbling

cauldron hanging over a great fire.
***56***
A family is eating dinner when they hear
a loud thud on the roof. They go outside
and find a woman with butterfly wings
lying next to the house, unconscious.
***57***
Your character has heard that the old
woman at the end of the lane makes the
strongest armor in the realm. She uses a
magic spell to swear everyone who
comes to her to secrecy, though, so no
one has been able to replicate her armor.

Your character enters her shop, promises

never to tell, and orders a suit of armor.
She tells him/her to stand in the middle
of the room, within a chalk circle on the
floor, and then brings out a wooden box
the size of a loaf of bread. There is a
strange clicking noise coming from the
box. When she opens the lid, a huge
spider, the size of a house cat, crawls
out and begins to weave a suit of armor
over your character.
***58***
On the outskirts of the village, there is a
field where nothing will grow, neither
crops nor weeds. Your character is
walking past the field one day when

he/she notices a small, bright green

seedling pushing up through the soil. As
he/she approaches it, it seems to grow
before his/her eyes.
***59***
On the same night that a mysterious
stranger rolls into town, everyone above
the age of twenty-seven loses all of their
hair, including eyebrows and beards.
***60***
For a science project, a sixth grade boy
designs a car that can run on water. He
comes home with a first place ribbon
from the science fair to find his parents

missing and two men in dark suits and

sunglasses sitting in his living room.
***61***
Your character gets into his/her car one
morning to go to work and notices a big
red button on the dashboard that wasnt
there before. It blinks at him/her
invitingly.
***62***
The light is dying. In a few moments, the
sun will be behind the horizon. Your
character is running as fast as he/she can
through the streets, but every door is
barred, every window boarded up.

He/she knows that people can see and

hear him/her calling for help, but no one
will open their door and offer shelter.
The sun finally slips below the horizon.
***63***
Your character has just spent his last
dime on three beans in a plain white
paper package. The man who sold
him/her the beans swore up and down
that they would bring him/her great
wealth. Your character is having some
severe regret about the impulse buy, but
plants the three beans in a small hole in
the front yard that night anyway. The next
morning, a glimpse out the window
reveals a shocking sight.

***64***
Your character comes home from work
one afternoon to find an extra door in the
living room. When he/she opens the
door, he/she beholds a spiral staircase
winding upwards.
Now write it as if the staircase wound
down.
***65***
H.M.R. (His Royal Majesty) RexGoliath a 47-pound rooster belonging
to a Texas circus, purported to be the
largest rooster on record.

A small girl lives on the farm where Rex

Goliath was hatched and raised. She
longs to get away from her cruel parents.
One day, while feeding the chickens, she
hops on R.G.s, and he starts to run.

***66***
The first sentence of a story or novel is
vitally important. It sets the tone, grabs
the reader and pulls her kicking and
screaming into the story.
For this prompt, grab a stack of fantasy
or sci-fi novels off of your bookshelf. If
you have a collection of short stories,

that will work just fine.

Write down the last sentence of a story
chosen at random from the
novels/collections you gathered together,
and then use it as the first sentence of a
new piece. Write for at least five
minutes. When youre done, repeat this
four more times.
***67***
Try Prompt #66 using a different genre.
If you dont have a bunch of books in a
different genre, visit your local library
and snag a stack from the romance or
mystery genre. Literary fiction also
works well, and this exercise is a lot of

fun if you use the last line of a poem.

***68***
Your character wakes up to find that
he/she is the last person on earth. What
happens next?
***69***
Your character is a novice monk who
has been sent to a village far from the
abbey. Rumors about the village have
circulated for years, talk of witches and
sorcery. Describe what your character
sees while approaching the town.
Describe an encounter with a farmer on
the edge of the village.

***70***
Your character visits the National
Gallery of Art and gets separated from
the group. He/she has wandered into a
room with only one large painting on the
wall, and no other visitors. Your
character is drawn toward the painting.
Then, the man in the painting moves.
***71***
Your character lives in a suburban
complex built for upper-middle-class
families, far from the rabble. Rather than
hire unwashed undesirables, your
characters family purchases a

housekeeping robot to clean and cook.

Write about a morning for your character
as the house gets ready for work and
school.
***72***
Write prompt 71 from the robots
perspective.
***73***
Five years ago, an army of aliens
invaded Earth, destroying most of the
major cities and enslaving hundreds of
millions of humans. Your character lives
in the middle of Nebraska, and has
escaped the notice of the aliensso far.

One morning, your character is in the

field tending to the family crops when
he/she finds an alien scouting ship,
which has landed in the middle of the
field. The cockpit is empty, but the corn
behind your character is rustling.
***74***
A young girl goes to the circus with her
family. She is soon separated from the
group, and finds herself in a small tent
by herself. As she begins to look around,
she sees that there are a number of
cages, each with a creature more unusual
than the last.
***75***

Creating Cool Creatures The crownof-thorns starfish (or seastar), feeds on

coral by climbing on top of it, pushing
its stomach out of its body and onto the
coral, and secreting digestive enzymes
that help it absorb nutrients from the
coral. The crown-of-thorns is one of the
largest starfish in the world, and can
grow to over a foot wide. They have
long spines full of toxin. They have seen
an increase in their population because
some of their natural predators have
been over-fished, and they are now
wreaking havoc on large portions of the
Great Barrier Reef.
Imagine a world where the crown-of-

thorns starfish have decimated the Great

Barrier Reef, and now have to travel on
land in search of food. On land, they
grow larger, as large as a man. Humans
become their favorite prey.
Write a scene in which a family of four
is spending the day on the beach, and
they are stalked by a crown-of-thorns
starfish. How long can you sustain the
suspense before the starfish claims its
first victim? Does anyone survive?

The Final 25, and an Extra Prompt for

Good Luck
***76***
Lamarckism is the scientific theory that
an organism will pass on characteristics
gained during its lifetime to its offspring.
Although Lamarckism is often associated
with Darwinism, it is considered by
many to be a less than solid scientific
theory.
Imagine a world where people can
modify their appearance or bodies and
pass that on to their offspring. Write
about a couple who go through a series
of body modifications in the hopes of

passing these changes on to their

offspring.
***77***
Your character books a flight with a
time travel tourism company, and then
something goes horribly wrong. He finds
himself 20 years in the past without his
tour guide, and without a way to get
home. Who does he meet? How does he
explain his situation? How will he get
back home? Write in first-person POV.
***78***
Now write prompt #77 from the
perspective of a person who has met the

time-traveling tourist. Do they see the

tourist arrive? How do they react to
what he has to say? Write in first-person
POV.
***79***
Now write prompt #77 from the
perspective of the scientist who
eventually invents time travel tourism.
The character from prompt #77 has
found the scientist, who has no idea he
will eventually invent a method of time
travel. How do they react to what he has
to say? Does this visit affect the
scientists understanding of their work
up until now? Write in first-person POV.

***80***
Famous 16th Century astronomer Tycho
Brahe lost part of his nose in a duel over
the legitimacy of a mathematic formula.
Neither he nor his opponent could prove
their case, so they dueled to decide the
matter.
Write about a duel (your choice of
weapon) between two men/women of
science who have decided to settle an
intellectual matter with physical
violence. Focus on fleshing out the two
characters. There might be other people
observing, but concentrate your energy
on the duelists. What kind of
man/woman would settle a matter of

science in such a non-scientific way?

Describe the duel itself, and then the
outcome. Is the matter simply settled
between them personally, or does the
duel itself change some law of the
Universe?
***81***
A zoophyte is an animal that looks like
a plant (such as a sea anemone), but for
many renaissance and medieval
herbalists and doctors, the word was
used to describe a plant that bore
animals as its fruit. Perhaps the most
famous example of this is the Vegetable
Lamb of Tartary, a plant that was reputed
to grow a fully-formed lamb, made of

flesh and blood and attached to it by an

umbilical cord. Some people believed
that it would die with the plant or if
removed from it, while others believed
that it could be harvested alive.
First, brainstorm a quick list of six
plants and six animals. Take no more
than a minute to finish both. Then roll a
pair of dice to match one item from each
list. Write about your newly created
zoophyte for five minutes. Where does it
grow? What kind of nutrition does it
require? What does it look like, and
what kind of noises does it make? Now
do this three more times.
***82***

Choose one of your new zoophytes from

#81. Your character comes across this
zoophyte, which he/she has never been
before. Describe the discovery.
***83***
Choose a zoophyte from #81. Your
character is on the hunt for this zoophyte.
What properties does it have that make it
valuable to a hunter? What happens?
***84***
Choose a zoophyte from #81. Your
character grows/raises this type of
zoophyte in a greenhouse. One night,

he/she hears someone breaking into the

greenhouse
***85***
The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice:
Eurydice is bitten by a snake on her
wedding day and dies. Her husband,
Orpheus, goes into the underworld and
begs Hades to let Eurydice go. Hades
agrees, on one condition: Orpheus must
lead her out and not look back.
Unfortunately, the closer he gets to the
surface, the less certain he is that she is
still behind him. Just before they are
free, he looks back and she disappears
forever.

Lets put a twist on this myth. What if

Orpheus (or your character) has to bring
someone to Hades (or another
underworld figure of your choice) as a
trade for his wife? Write about their
descent into the underworld. Is the
traded person aware of the exchange, or
has he/she been tricked?
Inspiration note for this prompt: Orpheus
was famous for playing beautiful music,
and in fact his music was part of the
reason why the gods of the underworld
allowed him to try and retrieve his wife.
***86***
A lot of fantasy and science fiction

involves a journey. Your character is far

from home, and daydreams about being
back there. Who has he/she left behind?
What does home look/smell/sound like?
Will he/she ever be able to go back?
***87***
Your character sits down in front of
his/her loom one morning with a new
batch of wool, just purchased from the
market. The old crone who sold your
character the wool asked a premium
price, and swore that it had magical
properties. As your character weaves,
the rhythm of the shuttle moving back
and forth lulls him/her into a trance.
What happens next?

***88***
Starter sentence:
The sky was blue, but the breeze
brought with it the stench of corpses and
the ever-louder grinding of machines.
***89***
You character is a sellsword who finds
two orphans in the burnt out shell of a
village. A week before, an army had
come through, burned the village and put
all the villagers to the sword.
Right away, your character can tell that

these children are strange. They both

have pitch black hair, pale skin and ice
blue eyes.
***90***
She kept digging. It seemed like shed
always been digging. But she could tell
she was close: the talisman around her
neck was glowing brighter with every
fistful of dirt.
***91***
Your character is a thief and a
pickpocket. He has just returned to his
den (a room in a boarding house, a cave
in the woods, your choice) with his haul

for the day. He sifts through his newly

acquired treasure, and finds a mysterious
black bag that he doesnt remember
stealing.
***92***
For nearly two decades, humans have
been embroiled in an inter-galactic war
with an alien race. Your character is a
crewman/crewwoman on a spaceship,
and the ship has just been spotted by an
enemy armada. Your characters ship is
so outnumbered, there is only one
choice: run! Ahead is an asteroid field,
and the alien fleet is closing in on three
sides.

***93***
Write #92 from the perspective of the
captain.
***94***
Write #92 from the perspective of the
alien captain
***95***
Scientists at the University of South
Carolina have developed a form of
cotton which is highly conductive. They
believe they will soon be able to
develop clothing that can generate
energy for devices like phones and

tablets, and even store energy like a

battery.
Your character is a mercenary with a
war conglomerate, and imbedded deep
in a hostile country. Your characters
weapons are powered by batteries built
into his/her clothing, which are
kinetically charged through movement.
The battery is running low, and the
enemy is closing in.
***96***
Your character is a scientist in a deepsea exploration and research facility.
He/she works in the main building,
which is connected by pipelines, cables

and tracks to outposts where scientists

and miners conduct studies, and collect
precious metals and minerals.
A stock train has not returned from a
supply run to one of the furthest outposts.
Write about your characters attempt to
find out what happened.
***97***
She turned the page, and was stunned to
see the writing begin to glow.
***98***
Your character is a henchman for an evil
queen. Tonight, she plans to sacrifice a

child during a ritual that will give her

immortality. One problem: Your
character has just lost the baby. What
happens next?
***99***
A lichgate (sometimes licht-gate) is a
gate to a churchyard with a roof and a
bier where a corpse would be place to
await an escort into the yard by a
clergyman. A licht is an undead creature
that often possesses supernatural
powers.
Your character awakens under the
lichgate in the dead of night. She does
not recall how she got there, or why

shes wearing a long, flowing white

dress. She looks down to see that the
white lilies in her hand are dead and dry.

***100***
Your character is on a boat in the middle
of the ocean. Describe an encounter with
a mermaid.

Now a merman.

Your character is a mermaid. Describe

an encounter with a fishing boat.
***101***
He blinked and drew a deep breath,
and then plunged into the eery red
smoke.

Thank You!
Yes, you, writer. Thank you, for
spending your hard-earned cash to
purchase my book. I hope we got the
juices flowing (insert lewdly winking
emoticon here), and that youre now
bursting with great stories.
As I said in the preface, Im here to
answer your questions, and Im dying to
read what you came up with. Please
send an email my way
([email protected]), or visit
https://editsbylauragrant.blogspot.com to
read more about writing, editing and
what I had for breakfast.

I have several volumes planned,

including more prompts for fantasy and
sci-fi writers, prompts for supernatural
and horror writers, and a book of visual
prompts with Geoff Pratt, the cool dude
who drew the cover art.
Speaking of cover art by cool dudes,
visit Geoffs portfolio:

http://www.wix.com/geoffpratt/design#!dr