Month: June 2019

1. While at summer camp over a decade ago, five teenagers’ lives became irrevocably intertwined. Now their paths have crossed again, and they must all come to terms with what happened that summer.  

2. Someone is sitting on a park bench reading a news article about a recent string of crimes. This person knows who did it. 

3. As passengers disembark from a transatlantic flight, they start to experience amnesia— all of the passengers except one. The farther they go from the plane, the more severe their amnesia becomes. Will they risk forgetting everything? 

4. A writer loses the ability to distinguish reality from the fantastical worlds of his or her stories.  

5. The protagonist is obsessed with serial killers and decides to make a documentary film reenacting their most horrific crimes.  

6. Some relationships aren’t simple enough to be classified as toxic or healthy. Writing about a complex relationship is, well, complex. Give it a shot. 

7. In a country that rants and raves about freedom, the government decides that its people should not be allowed to drink liquor. Write a story set during Prohibition in the United States.  

8. The setting is a festive party honoring the holiday of your choosing. Something unexpected happens, and the guests are drawn into a weekend of pranks and hi-jinks. 

9. One kid in a big city is bored. School won’t be out for a couple of months. There are no holidays to look forward to. He or she wishes the family lived in the country. (Where do kids get these ideas?) 

10. On the first day of school, two best friends discover a frightening secret about one of their new teachers. 

11. Some stories rhyme. “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” is one example. Shakespeare’s plays are another. Try writing a story that is also a rhyming poem. 

12. It’s a cold, rainy night. A man and woman stand beside a car outside a convenience store, arguing. One of them pulls out a gun. 

13. Four friends on a nature hike discover a deep cave, complete with running water. As they go deeper and deeper into the cave, they find strange objects— human skeletons, an old computer from the early eighties, a gas mask, and strange mango-sized orbs that emit a glowing blue light. 

14. What if you discovered a portal to another world? Where is the portal? How does it work? What’s on the other side? 

15. Everyone is getting tired of the cold and eagerly anticipating summer. But this summer is going to bring more than sunshine and easy days at the beach because something terrifying and unimaginable is lurking in the water.

16. An elderly couple traveling through the desert spends an evening stargazing and sharing memories of their lives. 

17. Write about a historical natural disaster that caused death and destruction to a small number of people and therefore never received national or international attention.  

18. The protagonist is about to drift off to sleep only to be roused by the spontaneous memory of an embarrassing moment from his or her past. 

19. Write a children’s story about a bird and squirrel who live together in the same tree (like The Odd Couple). 

20. All the kids are looking forward to their winter break. There’s a school sponsored ski trip, and one girl is aching to go so she can try snowboarding for the first time. 

21. While shopping in a department store, a middle-aged man comes face to face with the guy who almost certainly kidnapped his child ten years earlier. 

22. The protagonist wakes up in a seemingly endless field of wildflowers in full bloom with no idea how he or she got there. 

23. A con man who convinces people they’ve been abducted by aliens and takes their money… is abducted by aliens. 

24. A school of dolphins is too trusting and approaches a boat whose crew is in- tent on capturing the dolphins and bringing them to a theme park for a swim with the dolphins attraction. Write the story from the dolphins’ perspective. 

25. Vampires, werewolves, and mummies are classic monsters. Create a classic monster of your own, and then write a story about it.  

26. Neither of them wants to marry a total stranger, but arranged marriage is the custom. Their lives will change dramatically on their wedding night, but will it be for the better or for the worse?  

27. The entertainment industry boomed in the twentieth century. Technology changed entertainment from an attraction you paid to see in a theater or other public setting to something you could enjoy from the comfort of your home. Every home had a radio. Black-and-white silent films evolved into Technicolor talkies. Now we have the Internet. Write a story centered on entertainment technologies of the past.  

28. An arrogant businessman hits a car full of old ladies. He gets out and approaches their vehicle, blaming them for the accident. Hilarity ensues when those old ladies show him what’s what. 

29. Puppies and kittens aren’t always born in spring. This winter, a special puppy is born, one that will change people’s lives. Write this story for children. 

30. A young man on his first hunting trip has a deer in his sight and suddenly remembers the day his dad took him to see Bambi. 

31. Write a story about a character who walks away from the life he or she knows and the people he or she loves. Why would a person give up everything he or she holds dear? 

32. A small team of graduate students is conducting research at sea when they are overtaken by a wild storm. 

33. The earth has been ravaged by war, famine, disease, and devastating natural disasters. In less than a decade, the population has dwindled from seven billion to less than 42,000. There is no law or order. The grid is gone. Everyone is struggling to survive. 

34. There is a magic talisman that allows its keeper to read minds. It falls into the hands of a young politician. 

35. The protagonist turns the key in the lock and opens the door. Beyond, he or she discovers untold horrors.  

36. A high society engagement threatens to fall apart when one of the betrothed falls in love with an outsider. Businesses, lives, and old family relationships could be destroyed forever. 

37. Write about characters living before Homo sapiens evolved or during a time when humans existed simultaneously with the species they evolved from.  

38. Write a satirical story about an orphanage that is managed as if it were an animal shelter, or write about an animal shelter that is managed as if it were an orphanage. 

39. Children are delighted when a mama cat gives birth to a litter of five orange tabbies and one little gray runt. 

40. A single mother leaves her two teenage children home alone for the summer. 

41. A woman has three children, all of whom are soldiers in a military that is at war. Within the span of three days, she learns that two of her children were killed in combat. Six weeks later, there’s a knock at the door. When she opens it, she finds her third child standing there— the same child who convinced the other two to en- list. 

42. The protagonist is raking leaves on the lawn. He or she pauses for a breath and glances at the neighbors’ lawn. They never rake their leaves, the protagonist thinks, and their dog is always using my yard as a latrine. The protagonist decides to do something about these inconsiderate neighbors.

43. The year is 1623. A visitor arrives in a small, tribal village in Nigeria. The visitor is wearing blue jeans, an old rock-band t-shirt, and a fedora and is carrying a pack that contains a solar-powered laptop computer. 

44. The protagonist walks into his or her house and it’s completely different— furniture, decor, all changed. It doesn’t look like the same house anymore. And no- body’s home. 

45. Scientists have figured out how to create hybrids: dog-people, cat-insects, and bird-fish. One of their experiments goes terribly wrong and unleashes a swarm of hybrid predators on the population.  

46. Two athletes competing (either at an individual sport or on opposing teams) get stuck somewhere together (broken-down bus in a remote location, elevator, etc.) and fall in love.  

47. The Great Depression filled the space between America’s Prohibition (which was still in effect during the Depression) and World War II. The Depression affected the entire world. Well-to-do people lost everything and found themselves standing in food lines. Ordinary people went to extraordinary measures to get a meager meal. Meanwhile, someone, somewhere profited. 

48. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Wait— no, it’s not! The holidays are cheesy. Bah humbug! 

49. Two siblings capture a butterfly and a moth and proceed to argue over which insect is superior. 

50. Write a story about two teenagers who are on their first date. 

51. A family of five is driving across the desert on their way to vacation in California. They get lost, and then the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Their cell phones are dead and the sun is setting. The kids are hot, tired, and hungry. Mom is scared and frazzled. Dad, an office worker with no survival skills, is frustrated and angry. An animal howls in the distance. 

52. In a highly competitive and lucrative industry, one executive squashes competitive young upstarts by murdering them. Will the detective on the case ever be able to prove it? 

53. Two children, a boy and a girl, decide to make a time capsule and bury it at the edge of a farm under a big oak tree. While digging, they unearth a metallic object the size of a shoe box. It’s shaped like a bullet and has the number eight engraved on it. It appears to be a container, since it rattles when they shake it, but there is no obvious way to open it. 

54. A woman is working in her garden when she discovers an unusual egg.  

55. Write a horror story about a family in which one of the family members slowly becomes creepier and crazier until he or she turns into a full-blown hell hound wreaking havoc on everyone else. 

56. An old-fashioned couple struggles with their child’s decision to marry— a marriage that defies tradition and their bigoted beliefs, which have been passed down for generations. 

57. The Industrial Revolution changed the world for everyone. Write a story about a character who had a hand in the Industrial Revolution—for example, someone working on the development of the railways.  

58. Politics is serious business, so try turning it on its head and making a comedy out of it. Start with an unlikely candidate running for office. 

59. Write a children’s story about people who are hiking in the woods when they are suddenly surrounded by hundreds of butterflies. 

60. Two best friends make a pact. When they get to junior high, they grow apart, but the pact haunts them. Will they fulfill the pact they made as children? 

61. A couple met in high school and married as soon as they graduated. Life wasn’t easy. They had five kids and money was tight. One worked as a domestic servant and the other worked in a factory. Every day was a financial hardship, but they loved each other. Three years after their youngest child leaves home, the couple wins the lottery— and wins big.  

62. Write a story about a detective solving a crime that was committed against his or her partner or a crime that his or her partner committed.  

63. A deadly virus hits a highly populated metropolitan area, killing thousands of people. After it passes, those who survived realize they have acquired bizarre talents and abilities. 

64. Fairies, unicorns, and elves are usually depicted as benevolent. Write about fairies, unicorns, or elves that are evil.  

65. A biological engineer sets out to create a superhuman, but something goes wrong, and instead, the scientist creates a vicious, all-powerful monster that can- not be controlled or stopped.  

66. Trapped in a stale marriage, the protagonist finds companionship outside of marriage and in the most unlikely of places.  

67. Write a story about a European monarchy in which siblings are willing to kill each other for the throne, or there’s a child heir who will inherit the crown but doesn’t want it.  

68. Suffering from amnesia, the protagonist is thrust into a strange and hilarious life that he or she has no memory of. 

69. Children’s stories sometimes try to help kids solve difficult problems. Write a story about children overcoming nightmares, getting potty trained, wetting the bed, losing a pet or grandparent, or attending the first day of school.  

70. A teenager who is obsessed with celebrities experiences conflict with his or her parents, who want to see more focus on academics.  

71. A little girl loses her sister to a rare terminal illness. The girl vows to become a doctor and find a cure for this disease. At the age of forty-two, she successfully develops a treatment. 

72. Someone is murdered and the only viable suspect is one of the victim’s close family members (parent, child, spouse, or sibling), but the detectives on the case are certain this suspect did not commit the crime. 

73. A traveler picks up a souvenir, a colorful rock with one side that is completely flat. As she goes about her travels, she realizes that when she has the rock with her, she can understand any language that people are speaking but can only speak her native language. 

74. After a car accident and a minor head injury, a teenager starts having precognitive dreams. Initially, family and friends insist the dreams are coincidences, but the proof becomes undeniable when a government agency steps in. 

75. A cult is formed by a small group of people who are obsessed with death. In one ritual, an individual must commit suicide so that the other members can bring him or her back to life. 

76. The protagonist is nearing the age of fifty. After a lifetime of living single, child- less, and focused on his or her career, the character has a sudden change of heart.  

77. The setting is the American Dust Bowl. Write about a family that decides to stay put as all their neighbors emigrate to the West Coast. 

78. Hilarity ensues when a group of friends from the big city sign up for a one-week survival course in a remote mountain setting.  

79. Three children are sitting on a log near a stream. One of them looks up at the sky and says… 

80. The kids were raised on the mantra “Family is everything.” What happens when they find out their parents aren’t who they pretended to be? Will the family fall apart? 

81. A ten-year-old boy comes home from school and heads out to the backyard to play with his beloved dog, but he finds the dog lying dead underneath a big, shady tree. 

82. Several high-profile research-and-development labs have recently been burgled, and trade secrets that could be dangerous to the public have been stolen.  

83. While on vacation on a tropical island, a young couple spots a strange bird that speaks their names. When the bird takes off, they decide to follow it. 

84. In ancient times, there were five portals to another world carefully hidden on Earth’s five largest continents. Those portals have since been buried, but their discovery is inevitable.  

85. A team of archaeologists is studying ancient caves that have been buried over the millennia when they are suddenly trapped deep underground. Terror ensues as the team faces earthquakes, rock slides, and monstrous creatures. 

86. One character is a soldier, and the other is a citizen in a country ravaged by war. They are on opposite sides, but their love could change the tides for everyone. 

87. Write a story set at the point in history when Christianity split from Judaism. Write the story from the perspective of an ordinary person—in other words, not from the perspective of someone who was involved but from the perspective of an outside observer. 

88. The protagonist is digging in the garden and finds a fist-sized nugget of gold. There’s more where that came from in this hilarious story of sudden wealth.  

89. Halloween is just around the corner, and the protagonist has a lot do this year: candy, costumes, and pumpkin carving. The house smells like apples and caramel. While making preparations, he or she looks outside and sees something astonishing. 

90. Two adolescent siblings are visiting their relatives’ farm and witness a sow giving birth. 

91. Write a story about someone with a debilitating condition, illness, disorder, or handicap. The story starts on the day the character is diagnosed. 

92. The protagonist is obsessed with another person. When the object of the protagonist’s obsession is found dead, the protagonist becomes the prime suspect. 

93. A sixteen-year-old growing up on a ranch is out in a storm, gets hit by lightning, and survives. After that, the kid can hear other people’s (or animals’) thoughts. 

94. At first, they think a strange visitor is selling snake oil, but over time, they come to realize the magic is real…and it could be dangerous.  

95. Castaways on a deserted island find themselves stalked by ferocious wildlife. 

96. The protagonist has a plan: go to college, start a career in a demanding and highly competitive field, and retire with wealth and accolades. But then the protagonist falls in love, and the relationship threatens to derail all those carefully laid plans. 

97. Think back to the decade in which you were born. Now write a story about an adult protagonist living during that time.  

98. Try your hand at parody: choose any serious dramatic film or novel and retell the story as a comedy.  

99. A young girl and her mother walk to the edge of a field, kneel down in the grass, and plant a tree. 

100. Write a story set in juvenile hall. 

101. There’s an old man sitting in a rickety wooden chair, fishing through a hole in the ice on a frozen lake. A loud cracking sound reverberates across the lake’s surface, and he feels the ice shift beneath him. He scurries, but the hole expands too quickly, and he goes into the icy water. What happens next? 

102. When his or her commanding officer is found dead, one young soldier goes AWOL and launches a personal investigation to find out who did it. 

103. A surgeon who does not believe in miracles is diagnosed with an aggressive terminal illness and is given six months to live. Three years later, the surgeon is alive and perfectly healthy. 

104. At the height of human technological development, a special child is born who can communicate telepathically with computers and other mechanical and electronic devices. 

105. A teenager becomes obsessed with books, movies, and video games that depict graphic violence and murder, and the teen’s parents are not pleased about it. 

106. Two ambitious coworkers want the same promotion, and they’re both willing to do just about anything to get it. Then they fall in love. Does the competition heat up or die down? Will their romance survive office politics? 

107. Choose a period of history and a place that interests you, and write a multi generational saga about a family that lived during that era. 

108. Write a comedy about a rural, salt of the earth family moving to a big city and trying to get along with city folk who are sophisticated and refined. 

109. While shopping in a department store during the holidays, a child is separated from his or her parents and discovers a portal to a winter wonderland.  

110. A teenager’s beliefs are not in line with his or her parents’ religious system. Can we control what we believe? Can we control what others believe? 

111. Most of us have had a nemesis of some kind, whether it was a bully on the playground, a nasty coworker, or someone who caused us or our loved ones pain and suffering. These people make great models for villains in our stories. Fictionalize an antagonist from real life in a story. 

112. When marriage becomes a living hell, the protagonist attempts to kill his or her spouse by bringing on depression and encouraging overeating and other unhealthy lifestyle choices.  

113. Scientists discover that the galaxy itself is a living organism.  

114. All over the world, there are secret societies of people who have magical abilities. They’ve kept themselves hidden for centuries, but now something threatens to make their existence known to the public.  

115. An old man or woman confesses a lifetime of secrets— many of which involve violence, torture, and murder.  

116. A protagonist is forced to choose between family (or culture) and the one he or she loves. 

117. Write a story set in an orphanage anytime in history. 

118. In the 1970’s, someone started putting rocks in boxes and selling them as Pet Rocks, complete with care and training manuals. The business made millions. Write a story about an inventor or business person who comes up with a ridiculous product.

119. Children love to pretend and play grown-up. Write a story about a child playing grown-up and pretending to have a particular career: teacher, veterinarian, artist, etc. 

120. In the midst of a natural disaster, a classroom is locked down and everyone inside is trapped until they are rescued three days later. 

121. A woman is walking alone on a beach in the summer twilight (or at dawn) when something happens that completely changes her life.  

122. The protagonist is blamed for a murder but doesn’t remember committing it— even though every shred of evidence along with a hazy memory suggests other- wise. 

123. A young girl starts having recurring dreams about a dragon. In one of the dreams, the dragon says, “You made me.” The girl becomes obsessed with dragons and decides her life purpose is to become a genetic biologist so she can, in- deed, make a real dragon. 

124. A man who sees ghosts checks himself into a mental institution, oblivious to the fact that the facility has been closed for almost thirty years. 

125. The protagonist wakes one morning gagged and tied to the bed, and there’s a maniac sitting in the bedside chair.  

126. Love saves the day when the protagonist is helped out of dire circumstances by falling in love with someone wealthy and powerful. But when the relationship falls apart, the protagonist realizes that it’s better to rescue oneself and build a relationship on companionship instead of dependency. 

127. Write a story about an interracial relationship set in a time and place where such relationships were scandalous or even illegal. The relationship could be a romance, friendship, or a business partnership.  

128. Fed up with being bullied by coworkers, the protagonist plans a series of pranks to embarrass his or her colleagues.  

129. After learning his or her parents are struggling to make ends meet, a child prodigy decides to fix the family’s finances. 

130. They were a normal, happy family until one of the parents was injured in a terrible accident and became severely disabled. Write the story from the perspective of one of the children. 

131. It’s the season of snowmen and sleigh rides. Children are out gallivanting on snowy slopes and making snow angels in their backyards. One child longs to join them but cannot, so he or she watches from a lonely upstairs window. Why can’t the protagonist go outside? 

132. A group of young adults gets together to rent a cabin for a weekend. They drink and party, and the next morning one of them is found murdered. In the months that follow, the friends suspect each other and question themselves. Who did it? Will they figure it out before the police do? 

133. In a thousand years, Earth is controlled by nanobots that live in the blood of world leaders. Write the story from the nanobots’ perspective. 

134. You probably have beliefs about what happens to human consciousness after death. Write a story about a protagonist who dies, showing what happens after death.  

135. A physicist who’s ridiculed by scientific colleagues discovers a parallel universe, a universe where the beasts and creatures of human mythologies and folklore actually exist. Horror ensues when the physicist opens the portal between the two worlds.  

136. Romance stories are usually about someone looking for love or avoiding it and falling into it anyway. Write a love story that takes place after the search for love is over.  

137. Nowadays people go to college or trade schools to prepare for a career. But there was a time when most careers required apprenticeship. Go back in time and write a story about a mentor and his or her apprentice.  

138. Survival stories are often gritty and tragic. Write a survival story that is funny. Start your story by bringing the characters into a situation they must survive: a natural disaster, for example.  

139. During a field trip to a museum, a group of kids (who are not friends with each other) gets lost and goes on a grand adventure through time and space.  

140. There are lots of stories about parents who pressure kids into law, medicine, and sports. Write from the perspective of a kid whose parents are pressuring him or her in a less conventional direction (music, art, etc.). 

141. Write a story in first-person point of view from the perspective of someone who is your complete opposite physically, politically, spiritually, or in some other significant way. 

142. The protagonist buys an antique trunk from a junk shop and discovers a mummified body inside— a body that was murdered.  

143. An asteroid and a meteoroid collide near Earth, and fragments rain down onto the planet’s surface, wreaking havoc. Some of those fragments contain surprising elements: fossils that prove life exists elsewhere in the galaxy, for example.  

144. In the fantasy genre, sometimes all the wizards seem the same. Write a story about a wizard who doesn’t have a long white beard, doesn’t wear robes, and is not a mentor or guide.  

145. The protagonist wakes up one morning in a parallel universe that is similar to our own but much darker and more terrifying.  

146. One man or woman is nearing the age of sixty. Decades after giving up career aspirations to focus on family, he or she suddenly has a change of heart and decides to go for the dream abandoned years ago. 

147. Spaceships, planes, and men on the moon: We started out traveling around on foot. Then some clever Neanderthal invented the wheel. Now, we soar through the skies and tear through space. Write a story about a long journey set in an era when planes, trains, and automobiles weren’t readily available.  

148. Two characters who loathe each other get locked inside a department store overnight. Hi-jinks and hilarity ensue. 

149. A child pretending to be a spy discovers incredible secrets while surveilling his or her parent, who conducts top-secret research for the military.  

150. The story starts when a kid comes out of the school bathroom with toilet paper dangling from his or her waistband. Does someone step forward and whisper a polite word, or do the other kids make fun? What happens in this pivotal moment will drive the story and have a deep impact on the main character. 

151. A doctor puts his hand on his patient’s arm and says, “You or the baby will survive. Not both. I’m sorry.” 

152. A newlywed receives word that his or her spouse was killed in action. A few months later, the widowed protagonist starts receiving communications that could only be from his or her dearly departed spouse. 

153. A team of researchers in a submarine is caught in a deadly sea storm. The instruments on board go haywire. The submarine submerges deep into the ocean in search of calm waters until the storm passes. Afterward, the submarine surfaces, but the instruments are still not functioning properly. They can’t get a fix on their location or find land, which should be nearby. When night falls, the researchers realize there are two moons in the sky and the constellations are completely unfamiliar. 

154. We’ve seen cute and cuddly dragons, mean and vicious dragons, and noble dragons. Write a story about a different kind of dragon. 

155. A scientific experiment meant to give animals the ability to communicate with humans goes wrong. The animals gain the power of human speech, but their intelligence also skyrockets, and they are determined to take the planet back from humans. 

156. After three failed marriages and countless broken hearts, the protagonist has given up on love. It’s been years since he or she so much as considered going on a date.  

157. Revolution could be defined as a war between a state and its people. Revolution often occurs when people are oppressed to the point of mass suffering. Choose one such revolution from history and write a story about the people who launched it. 

158. Some of the funniest stories have simple plots that are humorous because the protagonist figuratively (or literally) gets gum on his or her shoe every step of the way. Ideas: the protagonist wakes up by rolling off the bed, spills coffee on his only clean shirt, realizes he is wearing two different shoes after arriving at work, etc. 

159. Write a story about a child and his or her imaginary friend.  

160. Kids start realizing their identities around junior high. That’s often when the friendships of elementary school fade as kids forge bonds and form into cliques more suitable to their personal interests and social status. Write a story about best friends from grammar school who are drifting apart in junior high. 

161. A person who lives in a metropolitan apartment connects with nature through the birds that come to the window. 

162. The world of politics is fraught with shady deal making. How far will a career politician go to save his or her job? Is framing someone for murder too far? Is committing murder too far? Or is that just how it’s done? 

163. Will humans ever settle on another planet? Write a story about interstellar  colonization.  

164. You’re flying somewhere— anywhere— but when your plane lands, you and the other passengers quickly realize you didn’t reach your intended destination. In fact, you’ve arrived in a strange, wondrous (or terrible) world that you never knew existed. 

165. Write a story about a kind, loving protagonist who blacks out and commits heinous crimes, which he or she cannot remember later. Be sure to provide a scientific or fantastical explanation for this odd phenomenon. 

166. The protagonist is desperate to get married and have kids and employs every tactic imaginable to meet his or her mate. Write a story about these adventures in dating. 

167. Sometimes it seems like real-world villains never get what’s coming to them, especially when heroes are taken down by madmen, including political or religious zealots and revenge seekers. Write a story that contrasts what happens to a benevolent historical figure with one who is seen as evil.  

168. Write a funny story about a dysfunctional family that has just won the lottery. 

169. The protagonist is only two or three years old but all he or she cares about is candy. What do you want for your birthday? Candy. Where do you want to go for vacation? Candy store.  

170. Write a story about a youth who is about to age out of the foster care system. 

171. A group of college students launches a project to grow their own food because they think it will earn them good grades in their science class. 

172. Over the course of one week, five high-profile CEO’s go missing. Were they abducted? Killed? Did they all run off to escape their high-pressure lives? 

173. A spaceship is hurtling through the galaxy in this tale of adventure. Write a story about its crew. Are they civilians? Are they lost, or do they have a destination? Do they visit various planets or stay aboard their ship?  

174. An elderly patient with dementia is whisked back and forth between the real world and a magical world where anything is possible and people live forever.  

175. Horror stories often deal with monsters and maniacal killers. Write a horror story in which the villain is nature and the characters are being killed off by storms and other natural phenomena.  

176. A young teenager falls in love. His or her parents disagree with each other 
about the relationship and whether it should be allowed to continue. Could a child’s love tear a family apart? 

177. Can you imagine what it would have been like to live during a time when humans hadn’t yet started building huts— let alone houses? Write a story about ancient humans living on the land and in caves. 

178. A family of five from a large, urban city decides to spend their one-week vacation camping. Hilarity ensues.  

179. Write a story about sibling rivalry from the perspectives of two to four small children.  

180. Write a story about a teen struggling with poverty. A tragic ending would have the teen growing up and staying in poverty. An uplifting ending would show the teen finding a way to make a good living. 

181. A misfit teenager is seduced by a cult like church. Can this impressionable protagonist be saved? 

182. The protagonist is the star of the police department, someone who solves every murder that comes across his or her desk, until a killer unleashes a series of mastermind murders that seem unsolvable.  

183. Write a story about how humans could breathe in space without having to wear bulky, uncomfortable space suits.  

184. The real oceans of Earth are a fantasy land in their own right. Most fantasies set in the sea focus on mermaids. Write a story that includes sirens, serpents, and other fantastical water creatures.  

185. Lots of horror stories are about a group of teens in the woods or some other remote location. What if horror was unleashed at a business conference or fan convention?  

186. They say that rebound relationships are doomed to fail. Write about a protagonist who enters into a new relationship shortly after a difficult breakup.  

187. There was a time when most people believed the earth was flat. Write a story set during the time when the idea of a spherical earth was spreading.  

188. Write an adventurous comedy about a group of friends on a hunting trip.  

189. Every day at preschool, a group of friends plays a game of make believe in a magical wonderland of their own invention. 

190. It’s not easy being an adolescent. Write a story about an adolescent protagonist whose friends are growing up— dating, partying, and thinking about college— while the protagonist would still rather play with toys and watch cartoons.  

191. Write a story about two people who care deeply for each other but who, for whatever reasons, move on and away from each other. 

192. Write a story about a lawyer who must defend a heinous criminal, even though everybody knows the suspect is guilty. 

193. Scientists finally master DNA and human genes, and they invent a treatment that fundamentally changes people, making them smarter, more energetic, less violent, more beautiful, etc. It can even change people’s beliefs. Write about a scientist who takes it upon himself or herself to secretly unleash this treatment upon the population. 

194. Write a story from the perspective of a banshee or the Grim Reaper. 

195. The closest most of us get to a real-life horror story is a nightmare. Write a story about nightmares leaking into the characters’ real lives either literally or figuratively. 

196. Two candidates for the Senate, embroiled in a nasty campaign leading up to a close election, fall in love. 

197. Think about some famous historical animated films (for children), especially the Disney princess movies. Most of those stories are based on old legends and fairy tales. Re-imagine any of them with a more realistic take (no magic!).  

198. Write a story about four elderly people who were once tough and wild party animals.  

199. The protagonist is a child who likes to solve mysteries around the house, at school, and in the neighborhood. Who ate the last cookie? Why was there a substitute teacher for over a month? Who keeps letting their dog use the next-door neighbor’s lawn as a bathroom? 

200. The protagonist is driven to finish school, get a scholarship and an education, and eventually achieve a stable career. But there are many distractions in high school.