SciFi/Fantasy – December 7

“The TrollTrace website is set to go online in less than fifteen minutes — the world is in complete chaos!” Gerald Broflovski was exposed as Skankhunt42 on this date in South Park’s 2016. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist escapes accountability for actions on a date which will live in infamy.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 6

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”- Khalil Gibran, born this date in 1883. Writing prompt: Describe the cultural assumptions about parents’ roles in their children’s lives in the world you’ve created by writing a scene featuring your protagonist and her/his parents.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 5

“There can be no understanding between the hand and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator.”- Maria in Metropolis by Fritz Lang, born this date in 1890. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s heart interrupts his/her hand in the middle of a brain-driven action.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 4

“A misfortune has occurred so unexpected and so horrible that my little escape of the morning dwindles into insignificance.”- J. Habakuk Jephson’s statement to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about his experiences aboard the brigantine Mary Celeste, which on this date in 1872 was found adrift off the coast of the Azores. Deserted — the captain’s table was set with an uneaten meal, and the...

SciFi/Fantasy – December 3

“It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it to be devoured by worms.”- Dr. Christiaan Barnard, who on this date in 1967 performed the first successful heart transplant. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must use an antiquated technology or process to accomplish a task that would be easy with any contemporary technique.

SciFi/Fantasy – December 2

Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World.Conant: How were the natives?Compton: Everyone landed safe and happy. The Atomic Age began on this date in 1942 when Enrico Fermi and his colleagues demonstrated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers under the stands at the University of Chicago football stadium. Writing prompt: Write a scene in...

SciFi/Fantasy – December 1

“Have you ever considered the analogy between an automatic telephone exchange and the human brain?” At 0150 GMT on Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s December 1, 1975, every telephone in the world started to ring. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a ubiquitous system that everyone takes for granted in the universe you’ve created creates havoc by ceasing to work in its intended...

SciFi/Fantasy – November 30

“Audiences are less intrigued, honestly, by battle. They’re more intrigued by human relations.”- Sir Ridley Scott, born this date in 1937. Writing prompt: Write a scene that explains an entire battle — who’s fighting and why, what the stakes are, and who’s likely to prevail — in a conversation between your protagonist and another character.