The North Remembers

1. Set your story on a sailboat, large or small, and entirely at the mercy of the winds.

2. Write a story told exclusively through dialogue.

3. Italy is my favorite country; in fact, I plan to spend two weeks there next year.

4. Write a story where someone insists on giving your main character a ride to the airport, only for their car to break down.

5. Coffee is illegal and you have to single-handedly smuggle it into the country.

6. Write about two solo travelers who keep bumping into each other in the most unexpected of places.

7. Go back in time to the era of your choosing and describe how you live.

8. Describe what it’s like to sit in rush hour traffic in one of the busiest cities in the world.

9. Set your story in a lighthouse surrounded by powerful gale-force winds.

10. A three day visit to Budapest becomes a maritime adventure down the Danube River to the Black Sea.

11. Set your story in the woods or on a campground.

12. Your character wants to travel across the land. No forms of transportation have been invented yet.

13. Set your entire story in a car.

14. Start your story with someone trying to read a map.

15. Moments after taking off for a flight, the entire plane begins to shake dramatically. The pilot comes on the speaker and says, “This is very bad.”

16. Pick a country you'd like to visit and use it as your setting.

17. ‘The worst meal I’ve ever tasted.’ Imagine a zero-star TripAdvisor restaurant review: capture the customer’s evening out that compelled them to complain.

18. New Zealand is a beautiful country with much history. Find a spot there and let the story flow from you.

19. A trip to Antarctica!

20. Paris, Eiffel Tower, the country side! You want to explore it all quickly.

21. Write a story in which a certain food makes your character travel back in time.

22. To reach your destination you have to travel by car, plane, and a ...

23. Explain outdoor living to a person with an apartment in the city.

24. The rich and the famous live here but it's not Hollywood.

25. Your character is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The story takes place during a long-haul flight, with an open return-date. What happens?

26. You visit an old castle in...

27. Set your story in an airport, as someone rushes for a flight.

28. Scotland is calling your name, but their houses aren't to your liking.

29. A godforsaken town in Oklahoma and you're stuck there!

30. Write a story where your character is traveling a road that has no end.

31. "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crown-less again shall be king." J. R. R. Tolkien

32. Suitcase in hand, you head to the station.

33. Write a story based on the following quote: "A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." ~ George A. Moore

34. You arrive at a destination you promised an old friend you’d visit after they passed, only to find them there too.

35. Your plans get mixed up and you end up at a completely different destination.

36. The future looks quite different when you want to travel and have ??? money in your pocket.

37. Your friend invents a time-traveling machine and invites you to enter it. Which year do you travel to?

38. The fear of losing a tire when turning right and hitting the curb. I guess you better curb your enthusiasm.

39. You're on an adventure unlike any other. Hello, Amazon! (NO! Not the website! The Amazon rainforest. Tsk. Dummy.)

40. Write a story about two or more characters who don't speak each other's language (literally or metaphorically), but still find a way to communicate.

41. You're at a ____ and you see ____. Now you have no choice but to intervene. However you don't speak (which?) language.

42. What if you could travel anywhere by the flip of a switch?

43. We are on our way to Venice! Italy! And you've lost all your documentation.

44. Write about a character driving in the rain.

45. Every year on your birthday you've made the same wish but it's never granted. Until you turn 40. And you realize that home isn't always where the heart is.

46. While traveling through Europe, you decide to make a stop at the one place that knows to party. Munich, Germany, and it is Oktoberfest!

47. Travel to anywhere in the world! But mind your companions.

48. She comes thundering into the clearing atop a glorious white stallion. He puts down his sandwich as his jaw drops in awe. He slowly walks over to reassure his little cob pony.

49. You have a choice between the superpowers of invisibility, flight, and teleportation. Which do you choose? Why?

50. A young woman is drawn to an attractive man on the subway. Acting on a whim, she gets off at his stop and follows him to his destination

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

2. Write a story about a brilliant scientist making a startling discovery.

3. A visit to the alien marketplace.

4. Every day, you get one hour to revisit any moment from your life. What do you pick?

5. Set your story on a planet with no water.

6. Gravity no longer exists.

7. Write a story where a device goes haywire.

8. Technology becomes illegal.

9. Write a story set in a world with a dying sun, or where light is a scarce resource.

10. What if the universe as we know it is actually someone’s imagination?

11. In this world, the leaves on trees change color every fall based on the changing mood of the people.

12. Describe your perfect utopian world.

13. The year is 2200. What does the world look like?

14. Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

15. You've won the lottery and are now a proud winner of a ticket to space.

16. It is so far into the future that intelligent robots have been the only form of “life” for centuries. Humans have been forgotten. Until one day, one robot stumbles upon ancient evidence of human life. He goes digging and finds more. He gathers all the information he can and eventually “creates” the first human in hundreds of years.

17. In this world, everyone is born knowing how old they will be when they die.

18. You answer the doorbell to find someone from a different universe. They say that you are their favorite book character and they want to change the ending to your story.

19. You’re allergic to oxygen.

20. Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

21. A dedicated astronaut dies on board his ship. In his will, he requested to be “buried in space.” They fulfill his wish and blast him into space. Years later, an alien colony picks him up and revives him. His only goal is to return to earth and ...

22. Set your story in a nameless world.

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

24. You accidentally invent a machine that can take you to wherever you wish but you're not sure if it can bring you back.

25. You’re walking down the street, when you spot a familiar figure. It’s another you. And they’ve come from an alternate reality to warn you about something.

26. Late at night you're watching the stars. It's a clear sky. All of a sudden you hear a scream! Someone is falling. You search and discover that the man in the moon is on his way down to earth.

27. Your character accidentally traps themselves in an alternate universe that hasn’t discovered electricity or technology yet.

28. On a simple walk in the woods you hear a noise and go to investigate. There, in the middle of nowhere is something that looks like an opening to another world.

29. You and your friends are playing football in the front yard and tossing the ball back and forth. Next thing you know, Jimmy gets hit hard and spontaneously combusts! Or did he?!

30. Set your story after aliens have officially arrived on Earth.

31. The world has developed a genetic system that engineers everyone for a specific job in the community. Your character hates what they were created to do. This never happens.

32. Your main character is in love with another human but afraid to admit it because it is not socially acceptable.

33. You find a magical portal in your bedroom one day. Do you step into it? What happens?

34. A shy, introverted tech guy develops a virus that can control human desires, impulses, and choices.

35. Set your story at the boundary between two realms.

36. Your character is dating a person not of this world.

37. Ancient Gods

38. Write a guidebook for someone from outer space who is visiting your neighborhood for the first time.

39. Write your own space adventure!

40. Your team reaches the end of space.

41. The ship you've been on reaches a black hole and it gets sucked into it. What's on the other side?

42. A small spaceship crash lands in your backyard with nothing inside but an instruction manual on how to rebuild the aircraft. Do you take it back into space?

43. Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

44. You watch an asteroid destroy the moon.

45. 500 years from now humans inhabited a new planet. They send out a signal into space which reaches earth in the past.

46. Write a story about a scientist.

47. You are born on a new planet where life is strenuous, but you keep having flashbacks of a life lived somewhere else.

48. Set your story beyond our own world.

49. Your character is the first person to land on the moon.

50. A space mission gone wrong.

1. If you opened a restaurant, what kind of restaurant would you open?

2. Start your story with someone looking at a restaurant menu.

3. Craft a 30-second pitch for yourself to a stranger in a coffee shop. How would you describe yourself in that 30 seconds?

4. You order a large cupcake-looking piggy bank for your shop but when it arrives it's full of money.

5. Your favorite chef asks you to join them on a culinary tour of the world.

6. You sip your coffee at your favorite hole-in-the-wall café across from a crumbling and congested elevated highway. It's nearly midnight, but you don't want to go home.

7. You're sitting at a restaurant about to enjoy your meal but...

8. Start your story with someone uttering a very strange sentence.

9. There's, what appears to be a homeless person, sitting adjacent to you in a restaurant.

10. Set your story in the lowest rated restaurant in town.

11. You move into a rundown town and try to improve it.

12. Your main character has never had a real job before.

13. A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron who is the Devil himself.

14. Write a story where someone shares a cup of hot chocolate with a friend.

15. Write about two people who run rival bakeries, but fall in love during their town’s annual holiday festival.

16. You've miscalculated, missed a turn, and now you're stuck in front of a creepy gas station with nothing else around it.

17. A huge storm has stopped traffic. Your character is stuck in the car with someone for an unknown amount of time. The person chooses this moment to confess their undying love. The feeling is not mutual.

18. Write about a character who’s attending a dinner thrown in their honor, but deeply embarrasses themself during their speech.

19. Three friends are out on the town for a night. Write about the most ridiculous series of events you can think of.

20. Describe the menu to a customer who simply can't make up their mind.

21. Write a story in which a character eats something that they shouldn’t have eaten.

22. According to a Czechoslovakian proverb, “Better a lie that soothes than a truth that hurts.”

23. Dinner for two.

24. A bus full of kids pulls up in front of your restaurant/store.

25. Include in your story a scene about a family's last meal before a significant change.

26. The world’s greatest detective finally meets his match: A criminal so stupid and so careless that the detective can’t ever predict what he is going to do next.

27. Your main character is a renowned medium and as such, is familiar with ghosts and spirits. There is one special ghost that has kept coming back over the years, acting as sort of a guardian angel.

28. Set your story in a roadside diner.

29. The girl/boy you've been staring at all school year walks into your workplace.

30. Imagine that you have made it to the final round of interviews for a new job. What kind of job is it?

31. Most people walk through life without having a set goal. Not you! You intend to ...

32. You made a new discovery. You're thrilled to show it off, but it's a bad decision.

33. Your character never wakes up feeling rested, no matter how long they sleep for. Medication doesn’t help. They decide to film themselves one night. The next morning they watch as they get out of bed around midnight, smirk at the camera, and wave before disappearing out the door for hours.

34. Mr. Simmons has always been a nice guy. He's in his sixties right now, but the town is an uproar over ____ and you discover that _____.

35. Your main character works in a bookstore. A man comes in once a week, reads a book, and leaves. The manager asks her to tell the man he can’t do that anymore without buying anything. But...

36. Start your story with someone looking out the window and seeing the first snowfall of the season.

37. You've been burning bridges with people left and right. Now you're in a bind and have no one to turn to.

38. A young woman is at the bank when a robbery ensues. She is surprised when the masked robbers retreat as soon as they see her.

39. According to an old Greek proverb, “All things good to know are difficult to learn.”

40. It's summer! Kids are off school and you decide to open your, what you call a personal zoo, to the public.

41. Your character is passed over for a promotion. They grow bitter that the company decided to hire from outside rather than promote from within. They begin their quest to take this new person down – not at all expecting to fall for them instead.

42. The lady behind the counter keeps looking at you and smiles whenever she catches your eye.

43. Start your story with a character quitting their job or getting fired.

44. A new position opens up and you decide to apply for it. When you go for your interview ...

45. Your character works at a store where there's more going on than meets the eye.

46. A humble, lowly used bookstore owner is visited by an arrogant and pious official. Some false accusations have been made. Eventually, the prideful officer relents and begins to help the store owner clear her name.

47. A man gives his number to a woman at a party. She promises to call but never does. Weeks later they run into each other at the grocery store.

48. When paying for their groceries, your main character mentions to the clerk that there is a mess in aisle 11. The clerk is confused and explains that there is no aisle 11.

49. Your character works at a pizza joint and creates the most delicious pizzas. The boss gets jealous.

50. Your character goes to their usual coffee shop and orders “the usual.” The Barista smiles, nods, and slides something entirely different across the counter. She has never made a mistake before.

1. You and your ghost best friend are an infamous crime-solving team.

2. A city where paranormal is rather normal.

3. Write a story where someone’s paranoia is justified.

4. You find a Polaroid camera that seems to predict the future. It takes some time but it predicts what will happen in that same spot a year after the picture is taken.

5. Set your story in an oracle or a fortune teller’s parlor.

6. You start realizing that at least one aspect of every dream you have comes true the next day.

7. Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.

8. Start your story with a blast of lightning casting a graveyard in a flash of brief, white light.

9. You were the oldest person still living in the town and you remembered things no one else did.

10. You are on your deathbed and a man shows up, offering you a choice of second life.

11. Write a story about a magician who never reveals their secrets — until now.

12. You work for the CIA who send you undercover in the FBI, who send you undercover in M16, who send you undercover in the CIA, who are very confused that you are back after only two weeks.

13. About six years ago, he was turned into a vampire by his best friend. This is the story of everything that happened since.

14. It is hard for an aspiring witch when the black cat you have loved for 10 years suddenly dies. While burying him out in the garden, a spirit approaches you, informing you that he has been trapped within the cat for the entire decade.

15. Ever since childhood, a dark figure no one else can see has been following you around, whispering in your ear. Today you see it lying a few feet away, screaming and asking you to run.

16. Your main character has a secret superpower; the gossip they spread always comes true.

17. Write a short dark comedy in which a long-unsolved mystery is finally cracked.

18. Write a short story about a vampire hunter on a mission to kill the last remaining vampire in the world.

19. Raised in an orphanage, you know nothing of your magical heritage.

20. Write a story about someone who is haunted. Whether by a ghost or something else is up to you.

21. When the moon turns blood red and the cries of wolves can be heard echoing throughout the land, a young man/woman must

22. Looking through old family photos, multiple generations back, you notice there is a cat in almost every group photo. The same cat – color, pattern, one docked ear – that is currently purring on your lap.

23. Write about a group of witches meeting up on Halloween night.

24. Surely the new landlord didn't mean to lock you up inside a house with no windows.

25. Write a story about someone trying to raise the dead.

26. What appears to be a ghost approaches your car while you’re waiting at a stoplight.

27. Write about a character who uses a night where everyone’s in costume as cover for something sinister.

28. You're a billionaire. The world is a disaster. You decide to buy a large piece of land and build a new town for a community, but the spot you picked ...

29. Start your story with the words “Everything was ready for the ritual.”

30. Authorities are searching for a serial grave robber.

31. Make a character perform a ceremony to set something or someone free.

32. Your next door neighbor is cute, sexy, but there's some weird stuff going on at their house at night. You decide to investigate.

33. You stumble across a website that contains clues to some very disturbing crimes.

34. A vampire and a werewolf walk into a bar.

35. You encounter a real life Baba Yaga. (No, it's not John Wick, sorry!)

36. A stranger who keeps yelling out about the end of the world to the passersby gets struck by lightning in front of your eyes.

37. Your character's not a witch, not a vampire, not a demon, but something completely new.

38. Write a story from a ghost’s point of view.

39. A giant wolf roams the street of a small town at night.

40. You think it curious when you see a Leprechaun looking man running down the street, but when you get closer, you find gold coins on the ground. You decide to follow its path.

41. Your main character becomes possessed with an angry spirit. The twist? The spirit is in love with her and demands they live the rest of their lives like this.

42. Start your story during a full moon night.

43. Write about two characters who have each promised their firstborn children to separate witches. They end up falling in love with each other and having a child together.

44. Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

45. A walk down the Red Light District.

46. A fortune teller falls in love with their client who has their palm read every month.

47. Write a story that includes the line “I think someone’s listening/watching.”

48. Local gravestones begin disappearing.

49. Incorporate a Voodoo doll into your story.

50. A murder has happened on your last day of vacation.

1. "Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who's the ________ of them all?"

2. Write a story that involves a reflection in a mirror.

3. Write about a character who keeps ending up in the same place.

4. 20 years after your daughter was abducted, a detective finds you to reopen the case. The detective turns out to be your daughter.

5. The reason no one has ever seen the real Santa Claus is because everyone who sees him dies. You just saw him

6. What happens when you sneeze?

7. Start your story with a student discovering a hidden room in a university library.

8. Write a story that involves a secret or magic ingredient.

9. A masked stranger appears at your front door with a knife.

10. Set your story in a world devoid of logic, where feelings govern all decision-making.

11. Set your story in a town that’s teetering on the edge of something dark.

12. A chilling voice appears in your head. It won’t go away. One day, it tells you that you have to run.

13. Begin a scene with a non-visual sense. Describe a specific sound, smell, taste, etc to capture your setting, then expand the story out from there.

14. While watching the evening news, the anchor looks directly at the camera and begins screaming before the camera cuts to black.

15. Write about a character who wakes up in their past life, or as a future reincarnation of themself.

16. Write a time-travel story where a character from the present finds themselves in the 80s or 90s.

17. Write a story about someone who finds a secret passageway in their house.

18. Write a story about a character who is experiencing glitches in their reality.

19. Write a short story with an unreliable narrator that readers can never quite trust.

20. Start your story with an ending and work backward toward the beginning.

21. Greatest fear comes true.

22. Set your story in an unfiltered world, where people are always honest about how they feel.

23. Looking into a mirror she suddenly hears a voice calling her name wistfully. Is the object possessed, or is it something else?

24. Write a story titled ‘The Locked Door.’

25. You wake up to discover a completely different, unknown face staring back at you from the mirror.

26. All clocks suddenly stop. Write about what happens next.

27. Write a story about a character who one day notices that their reflection has taken on a life of its own.

28. One day at work, you look across the street to see a hooded figure in a black coat pointing directly at you.

29. A mysterious benefactor will pay $100,000 to anyone willing to stay in a haunted house overnight.

30. Your character makes a living faking psychic powers. One morning, they wake up with real ones.

31. You find strange, muddy footprints leading up to your front door.

32. Set your story in a creepy mansion — except nothing horrifying takes place in it.

33. Gemini's (No offense to Gemini's! ) are known to have two personalities. Bring it!

34. Set your story in a labyrinth that holds a secret.

35. Set your story in a house of mirrors and make the atmosphere increasingly eerie.

36. Write a story where the characters start to realize that they are, in fact, just characters.

37. You're clocking out of your night shift at the hospital. Once you do you see a chart with your name on it.

38. Set your story in a deep, dark wood.

39. Write a story where the readers are in on a secret that the characters are unaware of.

40. Set your story in a world where contacting the dead is as easy as making a phone call.

41. The phone won't stop ringing, but it's not plugged into the wall.

42. A message in a bottle dated 3024.

43. Write a story about someone making a deal with the devil.

44. Begin your story with a character having a gut feeling they cannot explain.

45. Write about a character who leads a secret double life outside of their day job.

46. Write a story about a character who finds guidance in an unlikely place.

47. Write about a character who always wears a mask.

48. Set your story in a world where everyone’s decisions are made for them. One morning, your character wakes up, and chooses not to go to work. Wait…chooses?!

49. One day, the sun rose in the west and set in the east.

50. You are given three wishes, but there's a catch: one of them won't come true for the rest of your life, and you don't get to pick which one it is. What do you wish for?