SciFi/Fantasy – January 25

“Men have an extraordinarily erroneous opinion of their position in nature.” -William Somerset Maugham, born on this date in 1874. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s erroneous opinion of her/his position in nature puts someone else in mortal danger.

SciFi/Fantasy – January 24

“The way was the strangest she had ever known. There was, she thought, no such passage in all the world save here.” -Catherine Leigh Moore, born this date in 1911. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must travel through a passage unlike any other in her/his world.

SciFi/Fantasy – January 23

Rutger Hauer was born on this date in 1944. Among his most famous roles, he played replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, a machine that proved more human than its human pursuers. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist observes a mortal enemy’s celebration of something your protag thought uniquely his or her own.

SciFi/Fantasy – January 22

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” -Robert E. Howard, born this date in 1906. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is treated discourteously by a person your protag believes to be much weaker.

SciFi/Fantasy – January 21

This date marks two milestones in transportation history: In 1954, the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus, launched in Connecticut; in 1976, the world’s first and only supersonic passenger plane, the Concorde, entered service in Europe. Writing prompt: Write a scene that demonstrates how citizens of the world you’ve created perceive a revolution in transportation that radically changed their...

SciFi/Fantasy – January 20

On this date in Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s 2065, a solar flare alert is issued to the guests of the Shimizu Hotel. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is warned of an impending natural disaster about which your protag can do nothing.