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Best Science Fiction Writing Prompts

Join our ongoing contests and win up to $1,500. Flex those creative muscles with these writing prompts.

Showing 62 prompts reset

This week's contest:
Win $250

Before Summer’s End

65 contest entries /
56 stories

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View contest
Closes at 23:59 - Jul 03 EST

Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

– 27 stories

Set your story beyond our own world.

– 49 stories

All clocks suddenly stop. Write about what happens next.

– 45 stories

Write a story where a device goes haywire.

– 29 stories

Write about a character whose dreams are portals to other worlds.

– 54 stories

Write a story about a team tunneling down into the centre of a planet.

– 6 stories

Set your story in a world living with the consequences of a climate apocalypse.

– 131 stories

Write about an android just trying to blend in with their human companions.

– 221 stories

Your character has just realized the app they’ve been developing has become self-aware. How do they react?

– 74 stories

Write a science fiction story where all human behavior can be predicted — until your character does something the algorithm did not expect.

– 137 stories

Write a space adventure story that features a visit to an alien marketplace.

– 123 stories

Write about a character putting something into a time capsule.

– 139 stories

Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).

– 108 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story that features zombies.

– 176 stories

Write a story about someone who travels to the future, and isn’t happy about how they’ve been remembered.

– 131 stories

Every year, one person is sent to the moon. This year, though you hid in terror, it is your turn to enter the rocket.

– 124 stories

Two people who thought they were the last people left on Earth end up meeting by chance.

– 147 stories

Write about a person experiencing the 'overview effect' (a feeling astronauts report having when they first view Earth from outer space).

– 48 stories

Write a story set in the dark recesses of space where the two main characters are often at odds with each other in humorous and comedic ways.

– 70 stories

Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice.

– 44 stories

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