SciFi/Fantasy – February 11

“I am not what you call a civilized man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!” – Captain Nemo, who on this date in Jules Verne’s 1868 piloted the Nautilus into the Mediterranean Sea through the Arabian Tunnel. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your...

SciFi/Fantasy – February 10

“All the best of the monsters played for sympathy.” – Lon Chaney, Jr., born this date in 1906. Writing prompt: Write the scene in which your protagonist first encountered the monster that most terrifies the children of the world you’ve created.

SciFi/Fantasy – February 9

“Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.” – Brian Greene, born date in 1963. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which a crackpot describes to your protagonist the “theory of everything” that predominates in the world you’ve created.

SciFi/Fantasy – February 8

“Liberty is worth paying for.” -Jules Verne, born this date in 1828. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must pay dearly for some form of freedom.

SciFi/Fantasy – February 7

“You wouldn’t abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn’t control the winds.” – Thomas More, born this date in 1478. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist gives up because of circumstances beyond your protagonist’s control.

SciFi/Fantasy – February 6

“I’m armed with more than complete steel, / The justice of my quarrel.” -From Lust’s Dominion, originally attributed to Christopher Marlowe, reknowned playwright and celebrated influencer of Shakespeare, born on this date in 1564. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s emotions make him/her braver than justified.

SciFi/Fantasy – February 5

“We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.” -Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in “The Manifesto of Futurism,” published by Gazzetta dell’Emilia in Bologna, Italy, for the first time on this date in 1909. Writing prompt: From your protagonist’s perspective on the milestone date on which your protagonist’s culture marks the transition from...

SciFi/Fantasy – February 4

Writing prompt: Finish this scene, started by Robert Coover (born this date in 1932) in his 2010 book Noir: “You are at the morgue. Where the light is weird. Shadowless, but like a negative, as though the light itself were shadow turned inside out.”