441. At age thirty, the protagonist has done everything that was expected, including finishing college and finding a spouse. Now the pressure is on to start a family. This character comes to realize this is not the life he or she wants. It’s a life of someone else’s design.
442. Soldiers returning from the war are being picked off by a new kind of serial killer. The murders happen miles apart, indicating there is more than one suspect involved. Military officers, agents from the CIA and FBI, and officials from other government agencies must work together to find the killers and bring them to justice.
443. Write an alternate-history, science-fiction story set in the present day by eliminating or introducing technologies at different points in time. What if the atomic bomb had been available during World War I? What if television had been invented a century earlier? What if we’d achieved deep space travel by the late 1970’s?
444. There have been many takes on ghost stories: romance, horror, even comedy. Write your own ghost story.
445. The protagonist is a demented time-traveling serial killer hunting down saints and martyrs to erase them from history.
446. What happens when a devout believer in (any) religion and an atheist develop feelings for each other?
447. There are always casualties in war, but there are always survivors, too. Choose any war in history and write about the survivors, people whose lives were forever changed by war.
448. The protagonist, a former fun-loving free spirit, has become a workaholic who rarely leaves the house. Friends step in with plans for a makeover and a weekend getaway in a story packed with laughs.
449. Why do kids love things that creep and crawl? Write a story featuring bugs, lizards, snakes, and mice. It could be an adventure or a story about an animal family.
450. A teenager or college student has dreams and ambitions, and taking over the family business is not one of them.
451. Write a story about two high school sweethearts who reconnect in their old age.
452. Government spies keep their eyes on other countries, but what happens when they start spying on each other? The CIA watching Homeland Security, the NSA watching the FBI…
453. Fantasy stories often concern themselves with magic. Science fiction some- times addresses similar concepts but explains their workings through science. Write a story about science or technology viewed as magic by a primitive species (alien or human).
454. The veil between the ordinary world and the magical world has grown thin. Creatures from the other side are slipping through. Write a story about a bounty hunter who is hired to round them up and return them to their home world or dis- pose of them.
455. Situated on a long and lonely stretch of desert highway are a run-down gas station and convenience store. Some of the patrons who stop there never come out again.
456. After the protagonist learns his or her significant other is a crazed killer, he or she vows to never get involved in a romantic relationship again.
457. Write a story set in Hollywood around the time when silent films were giving way to talkies. This technological advance changed things for a lot of people, including actors, directors, and writers.
458. Write a list of the funniest things that have ever happened to you or that you’ve ever witnessed—including your most embarrassing moments. Use all those funny moments in a fictional story.
459. One of the best ways for children to learn language is through rhyming. Write a story that rhymes for kids.
460. Write a story packed with all the things teenagers struggle with: their changing bodies (hair, pimples, etc.), hormones, conflict with parents, difficulty focusing on studies, and trying to get through high school in one piece.