dystopian novel essay topics

Writing Prompts

56 Dystopian Writing Prompts

Escape to a dark, disheartened world with these 56 dystopian writing prompts .

Mass poverty, cruelty and fear cover a dystopian world. From the shelter-like homes to the dark, broken streets. Life is hard. When writing a story set in a dystopian world you need to describe the harsh reality of this world in great detail. Make the reader fear this world. Think about the leaders who have control. This control might be significant, where harsh rules are made to keep the peace. Alternatively, there could be a rebellion, where leaders have no control and civilians are running havoc. See our master list of world-building questions to help develop a believable dystopian world.

A dystopian world is a world in shatters and ruins. How did it become this way? What rules and regimes do civilians follow, if any? What type of crime is most prominent in this world? These questions will help you create a realistic and powerful dystopian world for your readers.

Looking for some name ideas for your new world? Check out this world name generator . You might also find this list of Earth day writing prompts and this list of over 110 sci-fi writing prompts .

Dystopian writing prompts

To help you create a powerful story about a society in crisis, here are our 56 dystopian writing prompts:

In the year 2,121, sea levels have risen at an extreme rate. 98% of the Earth is now underwater. The remaining 2% is made of small islands scattered across the Earth. With resources at a scarcity, the islands must work together if they are to survive.
A virus has wiped out 95% of humanity in the future. The only survivors are machines and a group of secret underground warriors who rebelled against technology for centuries.
In the future, a virus has caused some humans to mutate into ravenous troll-like beasts. While the remaining humans have to learn to survive in the world with these beasts.
The life expectancy of people has dropped drastically in the future. At the age of 18, humans start to deteriorate and slowly pass away. The ruler is an arrogant 14-year-old kid.
Scientists have combined robotics with human tissue to increase the life expectancy of humans. Apart from the vital organs, such as lungs and heart, as well as parts of the brain, humans are mostly robotic. Eventually, humans start losing control of their bodies to machines.
From the moment a human is born to the day they die, humans are connected to the internet. Everything they need to know about life is on a screen to which they are connected. One day, a technology outbreak completely wipes the internet. Humans are switched off. What happens next?
Scientists have found the secret to endless happiness. They create a new pill that needs to be taken once a day to remain happy. But is this new pill all as it seems?
To promote equality in the future, humans have to dress the same and talk the same. Any inappropriate English and slang words are banned. All around the world, everyone must speak English. If these rules are broken, the rule breaker will be sentenced to prison or even death.
With the brand new Cloner 3000, cloning is just a button press away. Clone your cat, your dog and even yourself if you dare. What are the potential dangers of cloning yourself too many times?
Law and order is destroyed in the future. People are free to do whatever they want without any consequences. Until a group of vigilante heroes decide to recreate the law.
There are two types of people, the rich and the poor. The rich have an extreme amount of money and power. And the poor are living on the streets and undergrounds, struggling to get by. A poor orphan girl is adopted by a rich family and discovers a deadly secret about how the rich become rich.
The excessive use of technology and social media has meant that 95% of the world suffers from extreme social phobia. The slightest human interaction results in mass panic attacks. One brave human decides to create a group where people can meet face to face regularly to help them overcome this fear.
Crime has become such a huge issue in the future, that every home in the world has become a prison cell. Prison guards patrol the streets and provide prisoners with the essentials. One guard feeling guilty that his family is locked behind bars, tries freeing them, and soon things get out of control.
Oxygen is the new currency in the future. Instead of money people buy, earn and sell little canisters of oxygen. Continue this dystopian story…
Desperate to create the perfect world, the government provides every person with a free virtual reality headset. Once worn, the person is transported to a tranquil utopia. Meanwhile, the government secretly has other plans in the real world.
A virus has turned every tree, plant and flower on earth into flesh-eating monsters. The only way to survive is to kill all plant life on Earth, but how will the planet survive?
A new mobile app in the future tells people when to eat, sleep, drink and essentially live. Without the app, humans would be lost, confused and clueless. A group of cyber hackers, hack this app to gain control of all humans.
Being the main cause of social disorders and suicides, the internet is banned in the year 2,098. With the ban of the internet, people slowly resort to the old ways of living before the internet ever existed. Until a group of individuals find a way to bring back the net.
Bored of old-style video gaming, humans resort to sticking chips inside prisoners. Once a prisoner is chipped, they can be controlled like a video game character.
Desperate to be beautiful and young, rich people resort to stealing the actual skin and facial features of ordinary people. These extreme surgeries soon start to have a weird effect on humans.
The Earth has been destroyed by a huge asteroid. A few humans that survived by living underground finally emerge to start a new life on Earth.
With the Earth’s population at an all-time high, it’s time for every human to prove their worth. After the age of 16, humans must take a test every year. If they fail the test, they are killed immediately. One young adult scores incredibly high on the test making them the ‘chosen one’.
Due to the lack of resources on Earth, all luxury items have been banned. People survive on basic rations of bread, rice and beans each month. No vanity items, such as jewellery or make-up are allowed. One day a group of civilians discover that luxury items do exist, but only the leaders can use them.
For the sake of human evolution, scientists have turned the small town of Whitefish into a huge science experiment. No one is allowed to enter or leave the city unless they are told so. Every now and then, a new stimulus is introduced, so that scientists can record the human reactions for a research paper.
Write a story about the aftermath of World War 5. Who was at war and who lost it? What devastation did the war create on Earth?
In the far future, robots are responsible for creating human life. They carefully program each human when they are born to do certain tasks in life. One human realizes that they don’t need to follow the orders programmed in them and fights for freedom.
After a huge asteroid hits Earth, the last two survivors have to find a way to recreate life. It’s a modern, dystopian Adam and Eve story.
World leaders ban religion and talk of God in the future. A man discovers a secret church up in the mountains where people secretly believe in God.
Due to animal cruelty, people are no longer allowed to have animals as pets in the future. All pets live out in the wild without any human masters. One homeless teenager finds a hurt dog in the wild and takes care of it. Eventually, authorities find out about this forbidden friendship.
A bored scientist dedicates his whole life to recreating popular monsters like vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein in real life. He finally masters the procedure and offers it to rich people at a price.
Tired of the rat race and busy city-living, people move to the country to live a peaceful and calm life. Eventually, cities like New York City become a playground for criminals and runaways.
When the human population on land reaches an all-time high. One man goes on a quest to create the ultimate underwater city for humans. Continue this story.
In the year 2,121, 100% of the population becomes vegan. Eating any sort of animal product is considered cannibalism. Farm animals realize that humans will no longer eat them, so decide to plan their revenge.
Cyber-pets become a huge thing in the future. Technology advances so much that people would rather buy robotic pets inside of real ones. This results in more stray animals on the streets. With no human love, the pets turn into savages attacking both humans and the cyber-pets.
Humans have left Earth for a better life on Mars. One day, thousands of years later, a space astronaut from Mars lands on Earth to find…
In the future, the majority of jobs have been taken over by robots. The only way to earn money is to take part in a series of games and challenges created by the rich for their entertainment.
Everyone on Earth has experienced some sort of mutation in the future. This mutation has made humans powerful and troll-like. As the only pure human (with no mutations), your character’s daughter is kidnapped by a group of mutants who want to use her blood to make humans human-like again.
Imagine you are the last human survivor on Earth. What would you do alone on Earth?
Describe a future where all humans are either deaf or blind.
You and your family live underground away from all the technology. Write a series of diary entries about life underground.
Sugar is banned completely in the future. Even fruits that taste sugary are no longer available. You are the leader of a secret underground group that creates your own homemade sugar. However since humans haven’t tasted sugar in a long time, the results become very dangerous.
Since Earth has been destroyed, every family lives in their own spaceship homes floating around the galaxy. Every now and then you need to protect your home from space invaders, pirates and of course black holes.
Write a story about one boy, his dog and a group of robots living on Earth as the only survivors.
Lying dormant deep at the core of the Earth, dragons finally awake. After a series of powerful earthquakes, they burst through the ground one by one.
With surveillance cameras watching everyone. A new TV show called, ‘Did They Really Do That’ airs across the nation showing the most embarrassing moments of civilians living in your area. You then go on a mission to destroy all surveillance and destroy the TV show.
One man’s dream to swim with the dolphins is taken to extremes, as he genetically modifies a group of humans, so that they can swim underwater. Unknowingly these humans turn into monstrous mermaid-like creatures.
Huge floating islands are created all over Earth to cope with the increase in the human population. These floating islands become new countries on the map with their own rules and way of life.
In the year 3,021 world peace is finally achieved. Everyone lives in perfect harmony. But how was this world peace achieved? One curious civilian makes a shocking discovery.
Write a news article about the latest riot happening in your town in the year 2,899. Why did this riot happen? Who was involved? Where did it happen? What exactly happened before and during the riot?
You are a lab assistant for a company that creates genetic make-up for humans. The make-up keeps humans looking young for their entire lifespan of 180 years. One day you discover something shocking…
Cats and dogs have evolved into human-shaped beings. They now rule Earth and treat humans like pets.
Due to natural extinction and the threat of disease, all animals are gone in the future. You and your family have created a secret underground zoo, which holds the last remaining animals on Earth.
Write a story from the perspective of a servant robot who wants to be the mayor of the city.
Scientists have learned to extract emotions from humans and contain them in jars. At a price, you can remove negative emotions like anger, sadness and fear. You can also sell and buy positive emotions like happiness. To obtain a new emotion, you simply inhale the emotion directly from the jar. In a special clinic, over 10,000 jars of emotions are contained, until one day…
The Earth is a massive video game for advanced aliens living on a distant planet. They randomly spawn monsters whenever they feel like, and can control any human they like. One day the aliens are so bored that they create a big scary boss monster for a town of people to fight.
In an effort to create a better world, all humans must take a personality test. If your personality does not meet the criteria set by the government, then you are sent to work camps. People at the work camps live a horrible life of abuse, torture and endless hard work for 18 hours a day. Imagine that your main character fails the personality test, and is sent to one of these camps.

For more gritty ideas, check out our guide on what is dieselpunk plus story ideas .

What do you think of these dystopian writing prompts? Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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100 Dystopia Essay Topics & Ideas

🏆 best dystopian titles, 📌 simple & easy dystopian title ideas, 👍 good dystopia essay titles, ❓ dystopian discussion questions.

20th Century Dystopian Fiction and Today’s Society The author considers the fiction works of that era as an attempt to convey the destructive nature of violence and everything related to injustice.”The tone of dystopia is of despair and the feel it gives […]
Saunders’s “The Red Bow”: The Dystopian Reality of Totalitarianism This essay will consider the relevance of the topic introduced by Saunders and provide actual historical examples that support his hypothesis.”The Red Bow” starts with a group of men going out for a dog hunt […] We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
Gender Issues in Dystopian Film “Children of Men” The significance of this source is validated by its contribution to the argument of the relevance of the dystopian genre in cinematography for unfolding social issues.
The Planet of the Apes – A Dystopian Film Via the cinematic experience the entire infrastructure of people’s culture and the state of the world at large can be seen and experienced.
Dystopias “Brave New World” by Huxley and “1984” by Orwell The modern world is full of complications and the moments when it seems like a dystopia the darkest version of the future. In the novel, promiscuity is encouraged, and sex is a form of entertainment.
The Concept and History of Dystopian Fiction Thus, the goal of this paper is to study the phenomenon of DF based on the examples of Orwell’s and Huxley’s fiction and determine the presence of the themes that overlap with the contemporary social, […]
Genre: Science Fiction Dystopia The western genre is the most common movie genre used to highlight the dominance and development of both American and European cultures and economies to the rest of the world.
“WALL-E”: Dystopian Narrative In addition, genre conventions, along with the rules of science fiction, promote the engagement of the movie with the issues of programming and consumption.
Dystopia in “Gattaca” and “Never Let Me Go” Movies When people think about the future, in the majority of cases, they believe that science and technology should help to change the world. One of the goals of a utopia is to remove the overwhelming […]
The Brave New World Dystopia by Aldous Huxley The primary assertion in the novel is that the cost of this stability is the loss of individuality, creativity, and genuine human connection.
Genre Assessment: Dystopian Genre Review Based on the Film “Children of Men” The current proposal implies the creation of a review that explores the key features of dystopia as a cinema genre and based on a prominent example of such a film.
Unhappiness of Society in Orwell’s 1984 Dystopia His character is a strong individual who will not transgress the ideals of his party and is fully committed to him.
Welcome to Your Nightmares: The Dystopian Vision of the World It is quite peculiar that both Orwell and Huxley chose the same tool to express the tension and the absurdity of the situation that the people of the future were trapped in, creating the abridged […]
Dystopias in “Animal Farm” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” In this regard, the aim of literary dystopias is to caution and warn society against the blind following of ideologies that lead to the breakdown of social order.
Dystopias by Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Silverberg The feature of the story The Pain Peddlers is in the fact that the situation in it reminds bureaucratic procedures in reality.
Utopia Versus Dystopia: Discussion However, the practical realization of Communist concepts in Russia, had resulted in millions of citizens loosing their lives and in those people, who managed to survive, during the course of Communist “social purges”, becoming the […]
‘Se7en’ by David Fincher: A Film Steeped in Dystopia A professional model is found dead in her bed with her nose cut off, a container of sleeping pills in one hand, and a phone in the other; her death was the result of a […]
The Dystopian Societies of “1984” and Brave New World The three features which are discussed in this respect are the division of the two societies into social strata, the use of state power and control over citizens, and the loss of people’s individualities.
Dystopian Fiction for Young Readers First of all, it must be noted that the article of the current analysis is devoted to the impact of dystopian fiction on young people.
Dystopian Future in the “Blade Runner” Film The foremost aspect of how the urban landscape is being represented in Blade Runner is that the director made a deliberate point in accentuating the perceptual unfriendliness of the environment, in the foreground of which […]
Dystopia Idea in the Movies and Novels If considering the rebels in the novel and the movies the “vermin” instead of the “prey,” the idea of the stories will change slightly.
A Dystopian State: Astutopia The education system reinforces the essence of the dungeons, and the aim is to instill fear within the children so they can adhere to laid down teachings and doctrines.
Popularity of Utopian/Dystopian Young Adult Literature The box is entrusted in the Mayor’s care and a tradition of passing it from one Mayor to the next is established.
Dystopian Social Contract The Hunger Games series 1 is a science-fiction drama that delineates the situation of enslavement among the citizens of Panem to the governing class that reside in a city called Capitol.
Subversive Literature/ Dystopia in science fiction novels In the endeavor to place a case in support of this line of argument, the paper considers the key traits of dystopian literature then showing how Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep possesses them in […]
Utopia and Dystopia in The Future City
An Analysis of Feminist Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Our Society is Becoming More Like a Dystopia Than a Democracy
Integrating Research for Water Management: Synergy or Dystopia
American Dystopia; American Spaces and Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’
The Brave New World’s Dystopia And Assimilation
Gattaca and Fahrenheit 451 – Technology and Dystopia
Dystopia: Science Fiction, Exaggeration, Or Imminent Reality
Thoughts on Feminism and Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale
Censorship in Dystopia in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
The Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Dystopia Caused by the Massive Boom of Technology in The Hunger Games
The Theme of Feminist Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale, a Novel by Margaret Atwood
Somewhere Between Utopia and Dystopia: Choosing From Incomparable Prospects
The Causes of the Island’s Changes from Utopia to Dystopia in the Novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Cowardly Current Dystopia In Aldous Huxley’s Novel “Brave New World”
Searching for the Meaning of Life: Beckett’s Dystopia in “Endgame”
Comments on: Totalitarian Government: Discovering Dystopia in Matched
How Does Orwell Create a Dystopia in 1984
Utopia, Dystopia or Anti-Utopia? by Choloe Houston
Humanity And Dystopia In Anthem, By Ayn Rand
The Contrast Between Utopia and Dystopia in the Novels 1984 and The Dispossessed
The Role Of A Good City Thinking: Utopia, Dystopia And Heterotopia
Concept of Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale, a Novel by Canadian Poet Margaret Atwood
Similarities Between Dystopia and Harrison Bergeron
The Portrayal of Dystopia in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
The Beauty Of Dystopia By Aldous Huxley
Utopia and Dystopia in Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery
Utopia and Dystopia in the Futuristic Novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley’s Dystopia As Relating To Society Today
Utopia and Dystopia in The Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
The Handmaid’s Tale: Dissecting the Feminist Dystopia
Self-Repression and Dystopia: The Bumpy Road to Freedom in “Never Let Me Go”
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Modern Dystopia Warnings
Utopia and Dystopia in Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Art of War: The Ancient Chinese Classic Adapted for Dystopia Circa 2032
The Evolution of Dystopia Fiction in Some Works of Literature
The Horror Of Dystopia Revealed By Neuromancer
Similarities Between Utopia and Dystopia
Contrastive Utopias: The Role of Nature and Technology in the Concepts of Utopia and Dystopia
The Dystopia of William Gibson’s Neuromancer
Analyzing Technology and Politics in The Blade Runner Dystopia by Judith Kerman
The Concept of Dystopia in Harrison Bergeron, The Giver, and Uglies
Utopia or Dystopia: The Future of Technology
Religious Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale
Dystopia As A Literary Genre In A Handmaid’s Tale
Identity: Fighting Dystopia’s Cookie-Cutter Molds
Dystopia in the Novels of Ray Bradbury and George Orwell
Free Handmaid’s Tale Essays: The Handmaid’s Dystopia
What Are Dystopian Novels?
Which Writer Creates the Most Disturbing Dystopia Future Vision?
Why Are Dystopian Novels So Popular?
What Is an Example of a Dystopia?
What’s a Dystopia Society?
What Are the Five Characteristics of Dystopia?
What Are the Four Types of Dystopia?
What Are the Nine Traits of Dystopia?
What Is Another Word for Dystopia?
What Is Utopia vs. Dystopia?
What’s the Opposite of Dystopia?
What Is a Dystopia Person?
How Do You Recognize a Dystopia?
Why Is It Called Dystopia?
How Do You Survive a Dystopia?
What Happens to an Individual in a Dystopia Society?
What Type of Government Does a Dystopia Society Have?
What Is a Feminist Dystopia?
Who Invented Dystopia?
Is a Dystopia Society Possible?
Why Dystopia Fiction Often Paints a Frightening Picture of the Future?
Why Dystopia Literature Often Presents the Individual’s Quest for Meaning in Hostile and Oppressive Worlds?
What Are the Issues With Human Progress in Utopia and Dystopia Fiction?
How Does Individualism Manifest Within Utopia and Dystopia Novels?
What Are Dystopia Societies and Progression Towards Equality?
How Do Dystopia Novels Convey Humanity and Individualism?
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104 Dystopia Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Dystopian literature has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many authors exploring dark and disturbing visions of the future. If you're looking for inspiration for your next dystopia essay, look no further! Here are 104 dystopia essay topic ideas and examples to get you started:

Discuss the role of technology in creating and perpetuating dystopian societies, using examples from works such as George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World."
Analyze the theme of government control in dystopian literature, comparing and contrasting different forms of authoritarian rule in works like Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" and Suzanne Collins's "The Hunger Games."
Explore the concept of surveillance in dystopian societies, examining how constant monitoring and lack of privacy impact individuals' freedoms and behavior.
Investigate the role of propaganda in shaping public opinion and controlling the masses in dystopian worlds, drawing examples from novels like Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" and Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange."
Examine the portrayal of gender roles in dystopian literature, looking at how societies enforce strict gender norms and expectations on their citizens.
Evaluate the impact of environmental degradation on dystopian societies, considering how pollution, climate change, and resource scarcity contribute to the downfall of civilizations.
Compare and contrast different types of dystopian societies, such as totalitarian regimes, post-apocalyptic wastelands, and high-tech surveillance states.
Discuss the consequences of genetic engineering and biotechnology in dystopian futures, exploring themes of genetic manipulation, bioethics, and the commodification of life.
Analyze the role of violence and oppression in maintaining social order in dystopian worlds, examining how fear, coercion, and punishment are used to control dissent.
Explore the theme of rebellion and resistance in dystopian literature, looking at how individuals and groups challenge oppressive regimes and fight for freedom.
Investigate the portrayal of class inequality and social stratification in dystopian societies, considering how economic disparities lead to exploitation and injustice.
Examine the role of education and indoctrination in shaping citizens' beliefs and values in dystopian worlds, looking at how propaganda, censorship, and mind control are used to manipulate the masses.
Discuss the impact of war and conflict on dystopian societies, exploring how militarism, imperialism, and nationalism contribute to the downfall of civilizations.
Analyze the role of memory and history in dystopian literature, considering how governments manipulate the past to control the present and future.
Explore the theme of isolation and loneliness in dystopian societies, looking at how individuals struggle to connect with others in dehumanizing and alienating environments.
Examine the portrayal of technology and artificial intelligence in dystopian futures, considering how advanced technologies like robots, drones, and virtual reality shape human interactions and behaviors.
Compare and contrast different utopian and dystopian visions of the future, examining how idealistic dreams of progress and harmony can turn into nightmares of oppression and despair.
Discuss the role of language and communication in dystopian societies, looking at how propaganda, newspeak, and doublethink are used to manipulate and control citizens' thoughts and beliefs.
Analyze the theme of memory and identity in dystopian literature, considering how individuals struggle to maintain their sense of self and humanity in dehumanizing and oppressive environments.
Explore the portrayal of religion and spirituality in dystopian societies, looking at how faith, belief, and ritual shape individuals' responses to suffering and despair.
Examine the impact of consumerism and materialism on dystopian worlds, considering how capitalist values of greed, consumption, and commodification lead to social decay and moral corruption.
Discuss the theme of love and relationships in dystopian literature, exploring how individuals navigate intimacy, trust, and connection in dehumanizing and repressive societies.
Analyze the role of art and creativity in dystopian futures, looking at how artists, writers, and musicians challenge authority, inspire rebellion, and preserve humanity in the face of oppression.
Compare and contrast different forms of resistance and revolution in dystopian societies, examining how individuals and groups use nonviolent protest, civil disobedience, and armed struggle to challenge oppressive regimes.
Explore the theme of memory and trauma in dystopian literature, considering how individuals cope with loss, grief, and suffering in dehumanizing and violent environments.
Examine the portrayal of family and community in dystopian societies, looking at how relationships, bonds, and loyalties are tested and transformed by social upheaval and political repression.
Discuss the impact of globalization and neoliberalism on dystopian worlds, considering how economic deregulation, corporate power, and cultural homogenization lead to social disintegration and environmental degradation.
Analyze the role of race and ethnicity in dystopian futures

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BEST DYSTOPIAN WRITING PROMPTS

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Heavenly bodies, write a story imagining 'what if' one historic invention had never happened. how would our world be different now, 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., set your story in a society where everyone is constantly aware of unwanted surveillance., set your story in an unfiltered world, where people are always honest about how they feel., write a story that starts with, "the clock ticked past 61.".

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Write about the end of the world… of Atlantis.

A mobile app tells you the amount of time that you have left to live. One morning, this time on everyone's phones syncs to the same number.

The last ragtag group of humans on earth meets the last ragtag group of zombies on earth..

Write about an apocalypse triggered by technology. What happened?
Write a story about two enemies who must band together to survive the aftermath of the end of the world.

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You are a clone designed to mimic your human's every movement and habit so that you can seamlessly take over after the apocalypse starts, but there's just one problem: your human is the weirdest human being ever.

It's one hour before the end of the world. what do you do with that time.

Write a story about a group of zombie friends who go adventuring together after the apocalypse.

No one left on Earth knows what the color blue looks like… until one day, the great fog parts and the sky appears for the first time in a millennia.

In the form of diary entries, write a story from the perspective of the last remaining person in the world., in the end, it wasn't humankind that destroyed the world. it was (fill in the blank)., set your story in a town that’s teetering on the edge of something dark, literally or metaphorically., your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. they see something unusual — what is it, set your story in a silent house by the sea., set your story in a town disconnected from the rest of the world., win $250 in our short story competition 🏆.

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The best dystopian writing prompts

We're living through strange times — but they could always get stranger. Dystopian literature allows us to project ourselves into the distant (or not too distant) future, and imagine what we might find. Perhaps a post-apocalyptic landscape ravaged by war, a nightmarish government who are in absolute control of its citizens, or a human race that has merged with technology. The possibilities are endless, and we're here to provide some more inspiration.

To get you started, here are our top ten dystopian writing prompts:

Write a story about a character who is certain the world is going to end today.
In the end, it wasn't humankind that destroyed the world. It was (fill in the blank).
You are a clone designed to mimic your human's every movement and habit so that you can seamlessly take over after the apocalypse starts, but there's just one problem: your human is the weirdest human being ever.
A mobile app tells you the amount of time that you have left to live. One morning, this time on everyone's phones syncs to the same number.
No one left on Earth knows what the color blue looks like… until one day, the great fog parts, and the sky appears for the first time in millennia.

If you're looking for some more help writing your dystopian story, check out this free resource:

The Ultimate Worldbuilding Guide (free resource) — To write a dystopian story, you need to understand the world you're creating, inside and out. What kind of resources are available? How has society changed? Is there crime, or poverty, or has the world left its issues behind — or at least the government claims it has? Our worldbuilding template will ask the questions you need to find this information.

Want more help learning how to write a dystopian short story? Check out How to Write a Short Story That Gets Published — a free, ten-day course guiding you through the process of short story writing by Laura Mae Isaacman, a full-time editor who runs a book editing company in Brooklyn.

Ready to start writing? Check out Reedsy’s weekly short story contest , for the chance of winning $250 , plus potential publication in our literary magazine, Prompted ! You can also check out our list of writing contests or our directory of literary magazines for more opportunities to submit your story.

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872 Dystopian Writing Prompts

March 2, 2021

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Writing a dystopian story can be fulfilling because it allows you to explore global issues and technology while delivering empowering messages creatively. But, you should know that it can also be challenging, as the genre requires plenty of imagination for worldbuilding and conceptualization of memorable characters, since its main setting is usually a future where things have not gone well for the human race.

One way to make your life easier when writing a dystopian story is by turning to writing prompts for ideas, as they can expose you to new worlds and perspectives.

Below is a list of a dystopian writing prompt that could help you become the next Margaret Atwood or Suzanne Collins:

You wake up in a prison cell not knowing why you are there.
The called test the strength of your community and healthcare by purposefully giving people diseases and be a witness to the ensuing madness.
Everything that happens to you now must be reported to the government. Everyone is constantly watched but cannot be heard.
Join a resistance team in the small country of Aotoria.
Write This is a trap wall inside a dungeon.
The government is spraying you with chemicals that make you perfect.
Get a job in the mail room, someone needs you to read and catch spelling errors.
Every so often your mind drifts away from your body and floats in the airspace above. Who you are and your body follow each other around like matching clouds.
The legs on your Chicken Fillet Footlong are no longer thin.
A scientist invents a formula for longevity, but immortality is at a terrible cost.
Everything in your village has a gender except you.
Everything is perfect. But just because it’s perfect doesn’t mean it’s not evil.
Only red things exist, trees, animals, creatures, humans. You name it.
The Scarlet Witch’s powers suddenly wore off, and humanity reacted in horrific ways.
You come across a child left on your doorstep, what do you do with it?
If you choose freedom then there is no turning back, if you choose your family then you die or disappear.
Your clock is winding down, do you know what to get done before your time is up?
New Year’s Eve is met with chaos, riots break out and the legal marriage age is lowered dramatically.
What happens when your character’s worst nightmare comes true layered with the fact that they never expected it to happen?
The bus driver says not to stand in the doorway any longer, but you like looking out the window.
The remains of the library are still there on your street, but the books are missing.
Non-humans are denied citizenship in your bustling modernity.
Society was not kind to us, so we are sending them a message in the form of a monster.
You match with a hipster on Tinder that drives an Airstream and smells amazing.
The owner of your local supply store has several shady deals going on, but you can’t find out what.
A sudden gas leak except the gas is thought-controlling properties.
An uncontrollable urge to consume human flesh.
A chemical reaction has embedded into your skin causing anyone to see you have to tell you their greatest desire.
There is a cure for cancer, but in order to go on it you must donate something. You are then told you get your identity back. On the way to the surgical ward you are told you are actually walking to your execution.
You woke up this morning to find everyone you know missing and a letter from officials dismissed from your fears, do you do what they say or continue your search?
The government has found a way to make the sun’s rays deadly.
Continue living your simulation as your priorities/curiosity guide you.
Someone in your town needs to do something perfectly after every little task done or they get slaughtered and eaten.
Only men choose the best from their harem of women, all others choose their mates in similar ways.
The government made their own killer virus in a lab because they were bored and it was too big to get out.
No one knows how you die, or why this is a problem, but when you stop breathing you burst into flowers of your addiction.
The city is overrun by clowns trying to recruit people to their happiness movement.
People who eat a lot of falafel never get sick, ever.
You witness a murder because your scientists found a way to stretch time with your pet dog.
Your city is decimated by a nuclear attack, should you stay or should you go?
The government is forcing citizens into more censored fashion today than in the last decade.
The Abolition Agency has come to claim your sisters from their jobs as prostitutes. But the Agency is not who they appear to be, and the soldiers and contacts in this new world is a bit perplexing.
Seriously, say the princess in the tower will marry everyone who rescues her or even everyone who tries. Add a deadline.
You seek to rid your world of powdered sugar, but it just grows back every month.
It’s forbidden to enter between the buildings of your gated community and know why.
How the heck do all these people survive without fresh food?
You’re a prisoner and your only crime is your last name. To avoid persecution why don’t you have it changed?
The aliens have invaded and destroyed any device that has an on/off switch.
Your mother died giving birth to you and you’ve been part of a government experiment ever since.
Your religion has been outlawed, why won’t you give it up?
In this new world, burning books is considered a sport. Why?
What if the country ran out of water, would the capital ever tell the rest of the world?
Food in the future is scarce and beautiful creatures called clones are meat, but they aren’t people.
What kind of dystopian world has no hive conscience, no way for the people to know what their lives are like?
The ravenous forest wants to swallow up your town. You need to learn to use dark magic to save the town.
Your parents and little sister were captured when the lights went out.
You anonymously post news about the odd goings on in your town, but the government decides who can read and what gets printed.
Everyone has their own group to go to, but you feel like you will never fit in anywhere.
You live in a place where you can make one phone call a day and you must say exactly what you are instructed to say.
The scent of roses floats on warm summer breezes.
Anything goes, no genre particular.
Your yard is invaded by giant jelly babies, how would you eradicate this threat?
Your people were killed while you were away by an enemy who specializes in tying people to poles.
All words required for everyday life must be sung.
Become One of the Few That Survive in The Aftertime.
A bird just dropped that…thing on your head,
A man in a white coat can be heard over the loudspeaker every Sunday morning, a sermon of sorts, by none other than God.
A towering walled-in city had captured your freedom and now you’re getting back at them.
The government is killing people for having too many kids, you are having too many kids.
Your body is a prison, control can be extracted from anywhere in your body.
Forced isolation is the standard in this new society.
You’ve never seen the sky – a whale crashes into a tanker miles out at sea releasing a poisonous gas that kills almost everyone in town.
You can see and hear people across the country as if on a television.
The president’s son, the prince, has gone missing.
Laughing gas attacks everyone every night.
The hybrid you’re driving has just completely failed you, some scientist has just put a stop to it.
Imagine that an author inadvertently wrote his or her own death sentence.
With the currency reset every day, you learned long ago to only buy what you can consume.
No one in your town remembers what is in the outside world.
A bio-weapon destroys all technology on Earth as people survive living in the ancient world.
Was it all a dream, or did it really happen?
You choose when you will die.
Everyone knows you, or can at least see you, and nobody cares.
You have the ability to see the future, although that future has been set and can’t be changed. Use this ability to its fullest potential.
A person can only get sick/Injured every half a century.
You are a humanoid robot, but the robots are on the streets and you need to go out of the city before they get ahold of you.
A walled city is slowly being taken over by a jungle.
When you listen to whispers at night they come true.
Using only found materials, create a sculpture for a sculpture of yourself made out of a strand of your own hair and fingernail clippings.
An unintentional mistake lands a girl stripped of her humanity and falling victim to the ways of the world, where it’s every man or woman for themselves. A nuclear war has just hit the outside—no one is left alive. Cl cleansing the dust and radiation is up to the prisoners working in the fallout shelter, but do you want to make that sacrifice?
There is a group of people that regularly commit suicide, why?
A cat can speak with humans and the other animals are trying to figure out what the cats are saying.
The city of York fell into the hands of a disease known as ‘the red sickness’ that made your skin turn red and caused death. Tell the story of how the government took over and banned travel.
There are no sweets in the world any more, why now?
What does your community do when human waste becomes an immediate threat?
It looks like rain—you hope it is rain, nothing else could survive.
The government or a corporation comes and buses everyone away, where are they taking them, and what are they doing to them?
Your neighbor tells you that the TV informs them what they need to. Every Saturday night a “movie” is played before the TV goes silent again. Every night the movie plays exactly the same way—what is it?
It is illegal to smile.
No one being allowed to marry or love ‘the one’ is illegal, why?
You are one of the chosen few that get to start over on an uninhabited island.
Suppose superheroes actually existed. How would the world react?
A dragon flies past your window every night. What does he look like?
Everyone you love is gone, everything you want is impossible and you’re dying.
He knew it was over the second he found her bloody body, by one of the disappearing people.
You are the chosen one.
Any set back can be overcome with drone piloting skills.
Society chooses sliced bread as the only food to be eaten, but people still can eat.
Anything below the equator is considered unworthy of travel.
You are cloned and that clone must go to the Capital and eliminate the government and there is only one you.
Humans are dying out slowly because they want to.
A lifetime ending when barely hitting double digit ages, how do we maximize the experience?
Everyone must take their piano skills to a higher level. Be creative but also be able to stretch your fingers to the max.
The government has outlawed movies due to a person from the film becoming sentient and killing several employees of the cinema.
Save an artificial leader or save the real one.
You wake up gray and paralyzed, where do you go from there?
Where does the water come from? Where does it go?
Your legs. You don’t have them. In their place are encased pistons that propel you through the complicated clockwork of the world.
The wrong side of the coin dictates the rules of this society and if you don’t like them you’re in line to become the town scapegoat.
Kids hunt down adults and eat them. Seriously, why would we do this? Simple- because we all enjoy a good dystopia/utopia/ post-apocalypse/end-of-the-world-is-up-our-street man. We love the total madness of twisty narratives and sharp societal undertones. Frequently, the best phrases I’ve heard have come out of middle school when they start to encounter the real world- in that first plot twist you’ve probably not experienced yet- so maybe they do know their talkin’ a whole lot of good.
Your father disappears and you search for him.
The local police are putting in surveillance cameras on all of the residents and raising taxes on everyone.
The population is controlled by mandatory sterilization, you find out your autistic older brother was sterilized so he would never have to worry about being a father and a burden to his caretaker.
Why shouldn’t you pee while taking a hot shower?
A strand goes missing. No one can find it, each time someone goes near it, they lose time.
You have a special gift, but only if you find certain people with a special tattoo.
The ground may be solid, may sink into the abyss, may disappear in some other unknown way at any moment in time.
A haircutter finds universal love in the forehead of his clients.
The Groundwater’s gone, now the humans must live on the rooftops.
Each day everyone wakes to a new sign created by a nearby village. What do the cribbles mean?
Three children get lost in a cave and stumble into an underground city where people have booby-traps.
An influence has come over your town and no one questions what happens, you were born with the courage to question.
The government height and weight regulations for women make attempting to find love impossible.
Everyone in the town is a zombie, how do you survive the politics of the zombies?
The mist is red at night and black during the day. Why?
Your waffle iron tells you the future because you’ve been chosen by a dead French feminist.
What is the government trying to accomplish with the suppression of basic rights?
You’re on death row and you wake up in your cell the next day, fully alive.
Carrying anything bar money is considered littering.
You were born with wings.
You’re poor and hungry. Every meal you prepare for yourself is poison, but if you don’t eat you die. Why are you getting so hungry?
Everyone lies to you, all the time.
Magic is real, but does not work without a contract?
You can’t step into water because you will melt, when you are in water you never stop shimmering.
The rich are the only ones who look healthy while the malnourished are starving.
They have taken every piece of art in your house away, and frame it proudly.
Someone has accessed their brain and replaced all negative memories with happy, kind of memories.
How does the dystopian world view knowledge and how do you gain it? What do you do to obtain it?
Even though the Carnivore Initiative was said to have ended giving results, your brother goes missing.
The mantises have now evolved and are starting to prey on the humans.
How would you escape the Dome?
The cataclysm has been over for several years but the survivors, struggling to grasp reality after all they lost, compound the already formidable challenges of rebuilding their lives, reverting to the natural order of things or all out anarchy and chaos to conquer.
Everything is fine on the Surface until you happen to go deep down below where everything isn’t so fine.
Everyone has a tracking device implanted under their skin.
An oppressive force smashes idols of leadership everywhere in an effort to tear down the government.
An apocalyptic event destroys all mammals except human females and they all go into heat and try to mate with you.
It’s illegal to be attractive and you, being the most desirable member of your immediate family, were disfigured to protect a source of power.”
You are interrogated by a government official, but you don’t get it—why are you being questioned?
After a catastrophic travel accident the sun rotates in a complete circle underground, heating everything on the planet.
A new type of pill helps you hate everyone. You can’t lose.
If the world is ending the why wait to fix it?
It is the end of civilization as we know it and those in power are feeding themselves well while the peons starve.
Everybody is segregated by species, how do you survive while being labeled as an “animal”?
Your government doesn’t want your country to learn a certain history.
The government is corrupt, but the highest power in the land is an orphan girl.
All human males are dead or missing, now society must depend on female rulers and males are used as slaves, what kind of world does society create now?
A mental institution runs human experiments on patients outside of regulations.
Man has destroyed the environment to such an extent that a future generation will never know what it is to see the stars.
A clock counts down the time left on Earth.
Reactionary new laws by the government have left you with no choice but to join one of the nation’s criminal organizations.
A nearby country begins using female soldiers, and yours is the first in response.
Water is either rationed or non-existent, who steals to get water, do you?
Those who take their lives are at peak happiness and have their debts erased.
They keep crying that they’re manning up society, and stealing your rights as a human being.
Forced labor is the only way to get by, are you tired of it yet?
A woman living in your town somehow died but because of her pregnancy she kept getting weaker. Her soul is now inside any plastic sealed food or water in the town. If you consume the soul with say the tomato soup she was hiding in your refrigerator, you gain her powers.
Everyone you knew was just wiped from diverse memories.
Is a black market profitable if those who sell don’t survive?
Engineering geniuses allow dolphins and manatees to talk and walk upright, and are conscripted into the government as soldiers.
The government may be stealing babies, how do you survive in a world that is void of adults and humans to fight?
The entire world is made of towering stone monoliths.
A giant divide in socioeconomic status creates a caste system where you are created many levels below your actual ability.
If you have to grow food, it doesn’t have to be pretty.
Free contraceptives and abortions are a given, when the right to procreate is one of the greatest things to take away from people.
Stay out of the ocean or the sea will swallow you whole.
The people of your town send their “deviants” where others should not see. What happens there?
Butcher boys roam around at night stealing and executing people in gruesome and horrific ways.
Somehow you sprouted wings and can fly. What do you do with these new abilities?
The only children allowed outside are the ones who are injured.
The population needs to return to a sustainable number, any child not born to a married couple will be taken away.
Raptors abound in the world, you are one of the few ‘Ephers’ who helped defeat them back and live a bitterness-free life now. Why are there so many rumors about happenings at night?
It’s the Dark Ages! Conan the Barbarian runs the European Union!
Things were just solved, the kingdom has been saved… or has it?
There’s a new district in the city, but as to why it’s about one third the size of the few other districts, nobody knows… For this prompt you write a post about your character trying to figure out the mystery behind what is going on, along with details of everyday areas.
Do you get money to go to the grocery store or stay home to work private jobs to get what you need?
You wake up in an ancient, dusty elevator and the only access is up via the buttons inside.
A tiny island in the middle of a great sea is the only continent left on the planet. Only one man has been there and he’s coming back with a survivor.
Happy citizens keep away from the fence that surrounds the town.
A toy story-like play on plastic surgery.
All immigrants are immediately given the ultimatum to join up and change your identity or be arrested as enemy aliens. Do they survive?
Five kids at your age have ended up like this and no one knows why.
You find a black box, maybe it’s a TV, no wait, it’s a camera!
What do you do when no one can agree on reality?
The numbers on your house mean more than how many floors it is.
In order to escape into the outside world, you will need to complete a series of riddles.
Gypsy’s can see the future, but a secret government agency has found and killed all of them, except one…Some eggs cannot be hatched, why else?
You are a member of the rebel faction, but your inadvertent moment of weakness could have you executed.
Where’s the receipt? Crowds preach that followers of Jesus must repent. You did not receive a ticket for the payoff. How are you going to get in the queue for this time travel machine?
Cotton Candy is extremely addictive and the supply suddenly reduces to only a month’s worth. Department stores sell the precious substance and it is bought and sold on the street with different theories on its sudden loss.
Stop, Brain, Stop! An Essay of How to Marry the Miraculous
A man runs by toward you, people run out in warning after him, a beast leaps toward him and eats him in mid-stride.
People who disobey the law are killed and hauled to the graveyard, run-ins are inevitable.
A coin toss determines your fate.
Discover a hidden secret about your neighbor or family, and you aren’t allowed to tell anyone.
You can have any intro you want, as long as it’s written in a journal logging your descent into madness.
You live inside the walls of a spaceship that travels through the solar system, resources are scarce and so is air.
A nationwide sensation called Watch It! shows you what you desire most, and isn’t afraid to make it abundantly clear why you don’t deserve it.
A devil walks into your school and you are his only challenge.
Boys ran the world until it was no more. Now women run everything, but they still get drunk and cry and bring boys back to the room. This must be outlawed.
The sun is gone, but there is light. Do people venture to different sides of the world? Where do they go?
An explosion wipes out everything in the whole world, minus a city that survived. The people who lived there are now immortal. But the blown-out city is creeping itself back into civilization.
People are dropping like flies from the virus but there is no sickness.
Your job is protecting the money, but suddenly all the money goes missing.
Chess is against the law, do you cheat?
Why do mechanical birds so often question the struggles of the common man?
Your parents were certified insane, they did not want the government to get their hands on you so they planted you out into the woods hoping you would be found and live a normal life.
Every time you blink or look away, your job changes. How would you survive?
All men are gone from the world, how do women conceive in this new world?
Everything is peaceful as is the new way of life, why does no one question it?
Everything in society is based on keeping the economy running, so people are always working.
The authorities do not want you unfit and in the way of their agenda to rule as they see fit.
Machines patrol the streets, always watching us. – Draw this scenario as a comic.
A disease no one ever contracts or contracts and never does anything more than causes a bit of itchiness and a rash.
No one but a forgetful and naïve dog can see or hear you.
A nuclear holocaust turned the clock back to The Age of Feudalism.
A mysterious being is killing people’s livers, leaving nothing behind but a birthmark and a newborn.
Weather balloons litter the ground after the sky was once clear.
Light becomes closer to a precious resource.
You sit alone in the cold dark of your jail cell, wondering how you got here.
Time is running out and the town is preparing for it, knowing their doom.
Some children remain innocent after a dog eats their entire family. How do they adapt?
The crime you see on the news happens to you when you step out that door.
Giant mutant cockroaches plague society and anyone who gets bit, not only dies, they are brought back to life, but changed, now they are an even bigger mutant cockroach!
You sing in your sleep and the government is after you.
A plague takes the skin off your body, leaving stickers in its place.
The casinos had only the letter “Z” in their names.
How do you survive when you are forced to fight to the death each year?
No one in the world can speak.
Everyone within the sound of this dog barking is being transformed into the dog, what happens next?
An entire island is covered in mushrooms, you decide to enter.
No one can be trusted, not friends, not family, not anyone, always suspect ulterior motives.
You have the ability to put people to sleep at extreme ranges and with ill effects.
Extreme temperatures and windstorms seem to be the norm of this new world, why did your world change?
You disappear and the world moves on as if you were never there.
Today, time travel is illegal and you just accidentally used it.
People are being transported from your town and never coming back. What do you do?
Start a diary in which you must convince yourself every day that the outside world is real.
Your dreams, blood sugar pain, laughter and nightmares are all reality.
Children all over the country are escaping into other worlds, yours included.
Severe lack of food supplies makes mothers prostitute themselves.
Just because you’re levelling up doesn’t mean everyone else has to die.
The population of all the towns are told not to leave, but you secretly want to.
It’s not safe to lock your doors, it’s not safe to have any kind of shelter, it’s not safe to hope for a brighter future.
Your town doesn’t have human inhabitants, instead, every day, pigeons take over and they do it right where you work and live.
A killer has declared war on anyone whose birthday is the same as his, what will you do?
Nothing ever ages, once it exists it remains the same forever in salt containers in the city hall.
Your mother insists on dating your best friend’s older brother, but he’s actually a man-nequin. Who has feelings and a love life.
People have no control over the weather. They can only look at it and wonder what is going on.
An artist is painting intricate portraits of the citizens of your town, maybe they will make it less lonely.
A community of clairvoyants and you are the only one without special powers. The establishment is depending on you to fail, but you refuse.
Your boyfriend brings home what he claims to be a robot, but it surprises you every time.
A character wakes from a coma and has to pretend they are a completely different character.
Everything you used to know has suddenly disappeared as if it never existed.
Your smartphone doubles as your battle mask and projectile weapon.
A person disappears every day.
You hear a distant howl that grows as the days run out.
An earthquake knocks out Wi-Fi, cell phones, and electronic devices, how your society handles STDs.
A group of people do drugs that allow them to travel back in time. However, they forget their time when they get back to where they were.
A nameless enemy destroys everything, but every year until your death there is a glitch.
What if the Ridiculous were Prohibited? Things get pretty political.
The food in this dystopian world causes food poisoning or a mutated version of food poisoning.
Your friends are what holds you together. Just them and some duct tape and you’ve got it made.
Your eyes glow everytime you drink because you can see into the future.
Work together or face a fate worse than death.
Everything you do must be done with the help of your computer.
If you see someone shrink or grow, you’re next to go because you’ll have something to tell.
Men have no legal rights, women have all the power and live in a post-apocalyptic world, men however wreak havoc in secret gangs as they stalk the city at night attempting to rescue babies being held captive far from the city by their high tech captors.
No one is allowed to wear flip-flops outside and a dumb boy can’t learn to break that rule.
What happens to the prisoners who are electrocuted/burned alive/shot outside in their cells each morning?
You are taking an aspirin, but it’s actually poison and you are slowly dying.
A severe storm keeps everyone inside for weeks, but one morning you get to your front door and see something out of the ordinary.
Instead of air rights, you get land rights. And those “rights” are constantly being taken away from you.
The SWAT Team has your husband surrounded at work. You have to save him, but how?
This game is intended for you to have fun with so spice it up! Use published dystopian works or go off the grid, whatever tickles your fancy. Don’t use setting material from your own published work. We want to see original characters and settings!
There is nothing more unsettling than the look of the unknown.
Some evil being is controlling everyone beneath the Earth, the people of this world do not realize it.
You find out that you are the product of better breeding techniques. Are you happy?
You hear them approaching, but what do you use to warn the others?
All food has a price tag, but it doesn’t come with nutritional contents.
Seven children are told, “You have the week to stop a war.”
An invented history gives rise to a new world, which is a second chance.
There are rules posted around your town that no one pays any attention to, but everyone follows.
Everything in the world is green except people. The air is thick and respiration is difficult, but you can move through the pollution with ease.
A world where you need a license to marry someone, get a job, and have babies.
The government tells people that chocolate is poison, people are surviving on sugar tablets.
Any followers of Satan are required to go to the department of the opposite of what they believed in and live there.
A new cure is released, everyone must get it by midnight or they start festering and then disintegrate.
There’s a bunker under the city and past generations have left instructions and notes to us, but only you and no one else can read the notes.
Your childhood animal makes an appearance and is now your only friend, it talks.
They’re incredibly smart…and they’re incredibly deceitful…and they’re everywhere.
When will the last oil spill happen?
An annual uprising by the “leadership” occurs when the common people steal and pillage what’s left of the city.
You know you’re never going to find the person you lost.
If you saw a monster, there would be no hiding and no escape.
A technology update gives us the ability to monitor people’s every move, what strings are being pulled?
A sudden disease spreads across the world and people catch it by making eye contact.
Disease wipes out the population except for a select few immune, how do they survive? What stops the disease from wiping them out too?
The Mayan calendar ends with a sharp boom…
Hand in your alarm clock and so forth and so on.
A boy comes of age in a world where every night the soldiers burn and powerwash his village clean of the day’s perspiration and smells and night marks the change in the world. A shift in the pattern and he is inspired to flee his home and unearth the source of the wires that fill the streets.
Every week there is a random curfew issued and it changes every time and varies from house to house.
Every inhabitant of your orphanage is adopted out to different families every weekend, you must behave if you want to be adopted yourself.
The government tells you that you are chosen as their number one perfect candidate for society. You have no choice.
An alien race attacks and kidnaps a legion of soldiers and elite neurosurgeons.
Gamers become the actual characters from their favorite video games.
Everyone must limit their time out of the house, else get sent to prison.
Everyone gets out in time, right? Wrong.
Everyone on Earth forgets your name but those who know you best.
Lynch the innocent and let the guilty prosper.
So very many alligators have been raised from darkness and age old folklore comes true.
Fantasies are illegal and punishable by death.
Threats of nuclear war surface, but you are blind to all of this because of your contact lens.
The sun is the last natural resource on earth, and expectations of how the sun operates have forced everyone underground.
Everyone can speak every language whether you know it or not. When you do not know a language, you speak gibberish.
The government has mandated certain colors of the paint on houses. Why?
You get in an argument with your parents and they lock you in your room during the summer.
Life right now is a flashback to the past. Are you alive by mistake?
An accident turns a small town into bubble people.
In the future, you can live on Earth, below ground, or in an orbiting spaceship. How do you choose which to do?
Time is running out. You have seven days to live after taking a holiday’s worth of opioids.
Similar question as above but with children being exchanged for animals.
What makes your town distinct from the rest?
No one is allowed to say what they dream or state their desires out loud for fear the government will take it away.
Mutants, demons and cannibals walk among us, but not all is what it may seem, until you see those teeth.
Your labyrinth undergoes a transformation every few hours, get ready to keep track of that maze.
Your village needs fresh slaves for the arena.
One day you wake to find that you no longer have a penis, on the plus side, you do have period-like symptoms now.
A private plane lands and lures the people of your city into the jet.
The girls are all missing but no one seems to notice them missing.
You’re accidentally thrown into a panic room, what will you do?
Talk about the weather with someone and your throat slowly dries up.
There is a new entertainment from Software, Inc. called Rewind.
The reason marriage is illegal is because you will be bought by who you get married to, do you still want a marriage?
How do your relationships suffer due to your mutations?
Crime doesn’t exist, but you’re still too upstanding to be a vigilante.
You never die, but can only heal to whatever wound you sustain.
Hallucination propaganda is everywhere. No one knows what is real and what isn’t.
Find out who keeps exploding the moon.
Break curfew and you are eliminated.
Growing up your parents leaned towards a certain political party, now if you vote a certain way they will make sure you pay.
Every woman is stabbed in the heart with a needle and has their memories wiped. What happens when it happens to you?
An invasive species is taking over the planet, they’ve already gotten what you have.
You wake up and your name is different.
A strange tickling sensation can’t be explained, but there’s not much time for research.
A school fire burns ALL of the students, but their forms are preserved in pebbles.
A robot has won a local election, the community is surprised at the turnout.
Outing someone counts as treason as well, so a total hard left-wing society fights to contain the knowledge at all cost.
A machine you rub on the wrist not only ends your current life, but also resets your age. To have a new life, you would have to re-enter your current name and age because if you were to maintain your current memories, well, you’d know what you were up against, right?
The government is stealing babies and you’re next.
Is it where you’re from or what you believe that defines you?
The sun is gone from the sky. A dark being devoured it.
How do people rebuild their lives after surviving a plane crash?
Did you know you’re not quite human anymore?
Only the people of the royal family are allowed to read. Those who do are punished, but nobody knows what.
People are disappearing every night. WHO???
Write about how life would be in a controlled economy or a city that is ruled by one dictator.
Every person in the world is required to hand their cell phone to a person who is an alternate version of you.
Everything is free, but it could all change at any moment.
Before you go to sleep you need to recap the happiest moment of your life so someday it will haunt your dreams.
Maybe we’re not meant to know everything. Maybe there are things that we shouldn’t know.
Your life as a single was deprecated, do you join a harem or not — and if you do, are things really any better?
People are being forced to marry the person so appointed to them.
The whole adult population is just gone, leaving only children.
If they smile, you can never leave. You were a warning sign.
Rebel with your brother against an aged government.
Every family has a Darius, and Darius can’t speak. Not even whisper.
No one looks down on you or judges you, in fact you can do whatever you want in this world because the village is completely desert wasteland
Give into your urge to survive and kill.
Dragging your every move is a ghost which won’t let you rest without a night of terror.
How does censorship only work in America?
There is a wall surrounding a city, anyone who wants to enter or leave is shot – by snipers.
The government controls all oxygen, thus also controls all breathing.
The war has begun, but is just not being reported in the papers any more, why?
You’ve got one week to decide whether or not to kill your comrade.
The government has already called round-ups, how will you hide your non-DMusic-follower beliefs?
Everyone over a certain age is compelled to walk into a giant windmill, but the first time it happened it had no effect on you.
The President is choosing a new wife, those are the rules.
Your town’s population begins to rise from the dead.
The stupid card was revoked.
Your city is ruled by diseases and these diseases convey social status and stimulus.
You’re gun shy when it comes to being directly involved with the Resistance.
Advanced robots somehow became self-aware and enslaved the human race.
A meteor hits the Earth and sends the entire Northern Hemisphere into a deep winter, how do city and country-dwellers survive?
You are the leader of a movement to throw the bums out who just stand around and do nothing when trade laws mean you will lose your country’s resources. Your protests are for nothing because your new government just pushes harder and when this fails to silence you, they push harder. What next?
Some people’s secrets can save them. Other’s can destroy them. Which is it for you?
What lies beyond the walls of the great white city?
Your neighbor offs herself and you find out that she had also murdered her family before killing herself.
Shipping container homes full of American fans of the royal family must find places to live after being kicked out of their housing.
Find your name on the government’s death list and have a particular pleasure for the fear in your eyes.
Two teenagers are told what to do and what to eat and what to wear their whole lives. One night they decide to leave.
You end your apocalyptic novel with a child born in the rubble crying out, giving hope for the next generation’s survival.
Gun control backfires and the country is in chaos.
There isn’t anybody you love anymore.
What if the only thing we own is really owned by Corporations?
You’re at a party, and you can’t get over the fact you’re surrounded by a bunch of dead people.
At first it seemed like life was turning around but the man you married ends up murdering you and all of your joy.
You smell silver, it’s tasty, but silver is the currency.
You can still remember life with your family, but not every person grew up in the same culture.
The answer is candy. The question is why?
Vampires aren’t evil, but they are misunderstood and dependent on human blood.
You can only breathe if you lay on your back.
Some awful virus makes everyone crazy with murderous energy except you, you don’t get to participate, can you make it?
After going without for so long, just a single taste can send a human to an addict’s high.
The point of living is now illegal and frowned on.
Someone’s coming to kill you but you’ll never know when it’s coming!
A terrorist survives the bombing he planned to commit, how does he use his new power?
The government is training children to be the future leaders of society.
A nested doll, inside of a smaller doll, inside of a smaller doll…
one of your friends was replaced by a robot
The day that begins like any other is no longer so everyday.
Black and white zones surround a center area filled with people. The black and white zones are barren of all life. What is the deal with the colored zones?
Endless torture is your sacred right, and you’re forced to abide by it.
Build your own utopia and define what three laws you would establish.
The prettiest girl in town lives alone with her single dad in the one abandoned shack town.
You are on a work crew, a long-lost luxury you’ve now regained, and you see…
The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere drops and becomes poisonous.
A virus has spread globally. Some lose their hair, some lose their hands, some lose their minds.
You meet a chillingly polite cult leader and he invites you to join his group.
Someone sneezes in front of you and you hear ‘All Hail the Revolution’ just that quickly.
Vampires are taking over the world and are luring out victims with freely available cocaine.
The dictator of your walled-in town is a hot lady, everyone lusts after her.
Nothing works and you keep receiving bills every month.
You come back from the future and people don’t believe you, even though you’re used to having them deny you.
The energy market is controlled by one company, their monopoly is killing humanity.
There are surveillance cameras in everybody’s home, watching everything they do.
No one knows he’s a prince but he’s vapid, has no motivation besides partying, and has everyone drooling over him.
At night, you just don’t know what creatures will appear.
Who you callin’ an Anchor Baby?
Demon possession seems to be a curse in your family.
Page after page of numbers equal the total of human lives remaining in your world.
Orders are orders and you’d best abide by them.
The crime rate is going through the roof, but the police told you it is peaceful and safe and something is false.
You signed a contract to have surgery to become healthier, never mind the side effects.
It’s the zombie apocalypse, but embracing death is strictly forbidden.
The dead become alive. What happens when bodies rot away and only a skeleton remains?
The government demands blood from the townspeople every year, why?
The fridge is never stocked at the library.
The power goes out overnight, what will you do?
Supplies are just barely enough for the community each year.
A plague hits your walled-in town, but instead of people dying, they just disappear into a poof of smoke.
Find maps of hidden underground tunnels used to escape hundreds of years ago.
You are constantly stuffing small objects into your stomach, but you can’t keep them there for long.
Will there ever be an end to war?
A computer program that procreates humans.
Someone has been digging for treasure in the cemetery, can you find it before it reopens?
A ruler has banned all fiction. How does this change reading?
People live freely and in nature together like animals without clothing or other signs of civilization in authoritarian America.
Two people are selected each year to leave the city for a two week vacation. They are allowed to take one luxury with them.
Riot police surround the city and anybody out in public is taken away.
It’s ending soon, but not the way the televisions say.
The Government is in jail and you can see their window from your house.
What happens when the government is involved in every aspect of your daily living?
Crows and gulls have ravaged the earth, now fish fly and snakes are crossbred with fish to come to life on land.
Everybody and everything is infested with nano-bots running on normal electricity.
Your city is completely surrounded by neon green trees, but every plant you touch feels smothering and dark.
The desktops of government officials are fairy-tale land maps showing the location of every citizen.
All you know is the old world is gone and these things live in the new one.
A digital shadow follows you, you have no control over it, what do you do?
Breastfeeding is a felony offense.
The only way to discover the truth is to kill.
You pick up a stranger’s lost cell phone but it’s not just a cellphone.
What does your race think of eating babies?
A new disease you can only get by eating the brains of the deceased spreads over your town.
Mobs roam the streets daily, looking for women to attack and violate. What do you learn about them?
Your house is surrounded by bombs that will go off if you leave, how do you live?
Which is more important, breathing or eating?
Why would someone want to hide away in this bunker?
You must defeat the Corrupt-a demon that lives in your very heart to survive the breach.
What would war be like without any guns involved?
Anyone who does not fit the current society model is to be thrown into a river, one of you has a genetic deficiency.
The earth is dying and if something irreversible happens, cloning will be key to the human race surviving.
Pick some animals and create possible future mutations of those animals.
Brutality at bayonets of an evil army on a black hearted battlefield, day after day, after day.
A dominant militaristic culture takes over and anyone who speaks out is systematically exterminated.
Every morning the paper records the number of deaths from the night before.
After the purge, starting every year on x-day, no one dies, anyone who attempts to commit suicide is knocked out for the day.
A scientist invents a device that sends everyone happy thoughts, even if it means electrocuting them.
The mushrooms taste like chicken, are you eating a cow?
An event in your dystopian world brings legends to life.
The history books have been tampered with, you are sure of it when you begin to question everything.
A new wave of sleep paralysis is affecting everyone, no one is able to sleep peacefully.
A lighthouse sits there in the distance, when did it get there?
A curfew on TV and radio, so citizens don’t become discontent with their lives.
After a death in civil war, your new government requires that everyone carry a firearm all the time.
Your father is lying on the ground, you run up to him thinking he is asleep, he isn’t, he has a knife in his back and he isn’t breathing.
The stars are out because they glow in the night and then shatter and fall to Earth all over the world.
Reality changes and you are the only person who can see it.
Walk through the doors and you lose your family.
To escape the laws of this land you must kill a person.
All the history books have been eliminated.
Your freedom of speech was taken away forever when you were brought here.
A war rages between you and your nation’s neighboring country and women can’t even get pregnant.
What does a child not want to grow up to become?
War is the only reality, but the rules keep changing.
A cure for cancer is discovered and you awake one day to find yourself immortal.
A riot has broken out in the streets, you must escape by any means necessary.
You wish you could sleep through the night, but your dreams are haunted by zombies.
You wake up and find that a group of religious zealots have taken over your hometown.
Find a boy. Save him.
Things were better in the old-school ways, or so is claimed as government officials are thrown in jail daily.
Devils in the mirror, how do you get out of this one?
A senator’s son dies mysteriously and the wild conspiracy theories spin out of control.
You’re on a TV show featuring ” normal people “. A loving shunning cult that loves to shun is formed around you when you speak opposition rather than supporting their beliefs.
Men are scarce, women are plentiful, so begins the new world order.
You need an I.D. from the Department to purchase anything.
Always under lock and key, but you’ve gotten in before and you’re looking for some place to hide.
Upon your father’s death, the debt to his company divides between you and your twin daughters.
Society is telling you what to do and how to act, if only it would stop talking.
Dolls, while not alive, are better than real parents, you have to take one and they choose you.
Your neighbor just disappeared and the government claims he doesn’t exist.
A mysterious box shows up at your doorstep, it always has a viewer on it who wants to talk to you.
Too many people are breeding, as if there is no tomorrow.
People that get upset turn to stone, but no one knows how to help them.
All animals are gone from the world, how do people in this new world survive?
Make up your own dystopian future.
It is final exam week and as you look at your essay, you quickly realize you have no idea what you are actually writing about.
Cost of living is so high, it costs a million dollars for a loaf of bread.
How do you outsmart the government if that’s what they want you to do?
A mad scientist has taken it upon herself to fix you up, it hasn’t worked out yet.
The government is the only thing keeping humanity going and they’re a Blood Lord kick line away from the end of their act.
You wake up from a dream to find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world.
Send in general oral history questions to mj at merrimack.edu for them to appear on the podcast and your name to be entered into a raffle to win a free book.
There is a question you must answer every night at midnight… and if you do the question, you forget it the next day.
As you’re loading up your truck in “the morning,” your parents forget the most important part.
There are no books in the world except one.
Every room in your home is fitted with cameras and everyone has loved ones trapped in a castle.
There is only one child.
In this world, people write on a tablet’s surface with a stylus, instead of writing on paper.
Ghosts are everywhere and there’s no escaping them.
The computerized police state finally arrests you for something you didn’t do this time.
The boy you’re in love with is entering a modeling contest where people can bid on who is really the most beautiful, and he might have had facial restructuring so he can win.
The human genome has been modified to ensure there can never again be a World War. Discuss.
You take a pill to control your dreams, what happens when the supply runs out?
A race of pasty, white men with fishy eyes climb out of the sea.
Youth just got the right to vote, what do you decide changes?
Automobile travel is banned in a desperate attempt to save the world, but you insist you have to go.
Someone is murdering all your family members.
Dating is illegal, find love in other ways.
Your four year-old is gone, the police say he probably just wandered off.
Uncle Sam and his cronies are outlining new rules for American life.
Government experiments have gone bad resulting in destroyed or mutated plants and animals.
A man lived and an old woman died. A trio of knives from ailing hands make free his prison called the world.
Machines have destroyed people’s minds, but the machines have evolved into something that harms humans as well.
Create a world from a tourist guide brochure from your own present-day country.
If you’re a female, you better be wearing a dress.
Everyone works in a smelting industrial greenhouse, the little people working the furnaces, the larger Hempons on top of the gondola equipment, the rest of the grossly pox-scarred population in the offices.
Your family is the only family on the block that the government recorded as extinct, should you walk up to your house?
Help! You get kidnapped in this lifetime, how do you get away?
The water tastes sweet, why do you think this is risky?
What are some of your favorite Dystopian writing prompts?
The aliens you’ve been abducted by aren’t entirely evil, but what are their intentions with you?
To ensure the safety of all citizens, you must relocate. Where? What will it take?
Only the wealthy can afford to buy houses and everything else is rented.
Battle for the truth. No one has any real truth, but what if they did?
The adult you is as real as the girl you were yesterday.
Through a mysterious agreement all the people of a small town decide that nobody goes in and no new people are to be born.
No one can die in the city they live in, people simply vanish.
Your sense of smell returns and you just can’t tell those scents apart.
Not all plagues are biological…some are emotional.
You can never fall in love because you are the only eligible bachelor in your district.
You wake up on a step, covered in a thick coating of moss looking at a group of people surrounding you, but you haven’t a clue what they’re saying.
A black fear has swept the country, a disease is sweeping the population. Be careful not to spread it though, it can sometimes make you invisible!
Chains hang from your ceiling and no one in the world can explain why.
No one is allowed to have children while alive in the city. Their bodies are buried and under their names sprouts a new tree. If you want to see your family again, go to the garden cemeteries of the city.
You were walking alone at night and ended up in another dimension.
Your lucky day awaits! Grab a ticket and get to the front of the line.
Dogs are growing human ears, some of them can talk as well.
As you slip through a mysterious vortex, your world stretches into vast distances.
Sugar in all forms and amounts is banned. What are the effects?
Something is growing in the woods and one day it stopped.
Find a way to survive the zombie apocalypse thanks to the combination of your wits and a book by Nietzsche.
Find out what happens when the human race acquires telepathy, everyone hears everything.
Everyone you love is listed in a notebook, and one day that list simply vanishes from the world.
Everyone is upset about how rude teenagers are, how do you prank the population into thinking it’s getting better?
Your child will never reach maturity because they will be murdered by their birthday.
Sir Issac Newton invented a computer to predict the future, the computer never predicts the same future twice.
A lab experiment gone wrong wiped out 99% of the world except for you and a handful of others.
A government program that will promise everyone a higher salary now that their muscles are cloned.
You become sleepy whenever you hear music, how do you try to stay awake?
The world transitions from feast and famine, causing all to die of starvation except you.
You know when someone is lying and when they’re telling the truth.
The cure forverty is darkness, not communicating with the outside world or light or your friends or family.
Being a teenager in a dystopian universe is rough.
A deadly virus is killing without warning, what does the government have planned?
A group of teens and a mysterious boy escape the testing facility on a boat.
You write a story and it’s called, “The Ones That Got Away.”
A desperate housewife makes her own home clothing line and all popular stores start selling these clothes for free.
The Junk picks you.
Out of search for a cure, the government has begun testing an experimental medicine on children.
You marry the guy of your dreams but on your honeymoon in the country he turns into a murderous psychopath.
The population only increases by one
Your fingerprint determines your fate and your future.
An object falls from the sky and everyone seems to be going crazy for it.
Your talking pains you, so you have to turn it off right after you get it.
Everyone in the town kills themselves, all body parts are disconnected and/or hidden under floors.
The government declares war on chocolate.
Look for a stone and if you find one, do not pick it up. If you do, you will release something terrible into the world.
The government is telling everyone that the way they live will keep them happy. What will discredit this government?
The homepage of the internet is changed to nothing but propaganda and white noise.
Your serial killer ex has come back as a deranged zombie and wants to date you.
A small handful of people go into the woods, but then never return.
The world is in ruins, except for one pristine city that dominates the land, beautiful yet oppressive.
Dressed in white robes, this mysterious shadow has taken over the town, towns people flee to the city, but to no avail. The only way to go to another plane of existence is by choice.
You haven’t ever been able to speak. You can talk through a Chirpwriter or Handy.
Any body sustained a sight plague, including the eyes and skin.
People start spontaneously combusting for no good reason.
The Earth turns and you’re always facing the sun, your shadows and darkness are non-existent.
Don’t leave your house because the neighborhood is haunted by killer mannequins.
You are granted a secret wish, but it loses its magic when you realize the world has stopped making wishes possible…..
Have you ever had a story that had you so consumed that you didn’t sleep for days because you just HAD to finish it? What was it? Please share in the comments’ section below!
Forced to marry, but heaven forbid you make love to one another.
Is your face displaying on the Commerce posters?
Once there was a little boy who really adds up, how do math and family life work now?
Some of your everyday appliances are now electrifying and killing you before you get the chance.
Genetic modification is now possible and cloning of animals is allowed.
The voice in your head is talking, who is it really?
The government knows future crimes before they ever happen. Cue snitchin’.
You lose your husband and then, a new and very handsome one arrives.
You are the last person left of your race and are living in a bunker…and the computer is turning on itself.
A pug dodges the bombs till he thinks the coast is clear. When he gets curious, he looks and the road is filled with smoke.
The president’s daughter is trapped in a kids’ game by triggering a bomb strapped to her chest. They call you to save her from a cruel fate, but you have no special skills or abilities.
Whatever you thought could do or could help others do, think again.
Your planet’s sole source of food is rapidly declining and it’s unclear that the remaining sources of food will be enough for its raging population.
A dreamcatcher-like bug occupies most of your home. It grants you wishes and collects your nightmares.
Everyone is required to turn in one person who has done no wrong and the reward is great.
Your government tells you one thing, but you know for a fact that that’s not the beautiful truth.
Troupe, maybe, or not, but you are one of the only people with tattoos left. No one knows what they say anymore.
You have to work slave labor for food and shelter.
You catch a virus and die immediately. But after your death you rise again but not as yourself.
A boy’s name means more than he could ever imagine.
A servile world where everyone needs a license to do everything.
One room jungle cave where air and food are recycled but a clean copy of everything is uploaded into the lost archives each week. Now you just hit speed-read.
The city is overrun by huge lava monsters and you manage to survive only to be walled in by some unknown strangers.
A strange man in a black leather coat and red aviators watches your every move.
Someone randomly dares you to be brave.
A fast food restaurant advertises “pork, so delicious they named it twice.”
This is neither the America nor the World you once knew. Is there anything left of it?
You’ve been shot out of the air by an oppressive regime when you accidentally flee from drying some outside in the rebel zone.
You make navigation out to the ocean, in that primeval world, do you try and survive?
His heart was a match for mine, but his appearance contradicted his heart.
The government prohibits everyone from falling in love and high school tests are randomly giving out romance papers.
Men are the destiny of women, not their enemy.
How do we all die this time?
Read the rules, play the game, and you’ll stay alive. If not, you’ll just disappear.
A parent tells you they don’t love you, and you find out they actually just have no feelings at all except this weariness. Your whole life was a lie.
You’re being tested for your allegiance to the government. Will you resist and join the resistance?
A day that starts out grey, but by midday is hot.
A family survives raging riots for the price of their youngest’s life.
Over time, more and more of your freedoms are removed through laptops and TV’s brainwashing.
The crime, if there is one, is unregulated candy shops.
People are allowed to go outside in the mornings only.
You are protected against the bad things in the world by the needles in your spine.
The world is in chaos and you have just been released from the refugee camp.
Many years ago someone wrote a powerful spell. Now someone is trying to unleash it. What Alaric Scamander saw in his last minutes–the thing that can only be seen once Death has you by the neck.
All the adults suddenly die and you try to survive through dog-eat-dog anarchy.
The plague is spreading, only it isn’t, and you are its first victim.
The human race is insanely lethargic, it is almost impossible to find something that makes your heart race noticeably faster.
You’re a slave for your country. The only entertainment you and your friends can tolerate is books.
The poor followers of Maurice might get to heaven, but first they must work.
A gun stopped working with only one bullet left, what happens to build this story?
The government knows all your secrets and has no intention of helping you unless you’re ready to pay the price.
If you see a tattooed face past your town’s gates, prepare for battle, but why?
There never were any computers and everyone lost their minds when this was revealed.
Everyone you love is dead and it’s all your life’s fault.
You see police everywhere, but they don’t wear uniforms. Why?
You find a room under the floorboards of your house with a hole in the wall to a dungeon.
Children are disappearing right before your eyes so you decide to write a manuscript to warn people.
A computer glitch erases all adults’ memories of your country.
Your travels take you to a foreign land, filled with field upon field of nothingness.
Children are disappearing from the town you live in. What did you do when you heard?
Everyone is free and equal, there are no cases to argue and your title is the same as the man standing in front of you.
What were you before the wall was built?
All children are taken from their parents and sent to an isolated place to be raised for the government’s use.
A secret society leaves dolls on your doorstep to spy on you. The dolls explode to reveal insects if you try to touch them.
Everyone has a phantom matchbook in their pocket and there is no match to go with it.
Giant guinea pigs live in all of the major cities in your country, no one knows what they are doing, but they are very big.
A prodigy has just been born and the leader is coming on your television tomorrow night.
A race of aliens has come to earth to grant a select few humans the ability to live forever, at what cost?
After every murder on death row no one dies anymore because someone dies in their place.
The desert has swallowed up civilization, but there is still WiFi in your backyard.
You can’t move and you can’t talk, but someone can hear your thoughts
Everybody lost their memories overnight, for no reason except that somebody does not like them.
The future of America is blackened with a nuclear wasteland that is unrecognizable from what you grew up with–though you may find America familiar with symptoms you had not previously noticed.
The walls are not that thick and no one seems to notice but you.
The sky turns orange and people become obsessed with cats.
Government officials walk down the streets with big nets, catch who they can and take them to the city’s prison for no apparent reason.
Every man must fight, there is no right or wrong side.
Systems have been installed on all vehicles and buses follow a set schedule, including the law enforcement.
Everyone remembers their first love, and for Lucy it was a UFO abduction.
A terrorist organization kidnaps journalists to cover its work.
Your blank Tarot cards turn out to contain the answers to your uncertain future.
The credit card companies and banks have made loans compulsory, Does your character find money obsolete or not able to pay?
Humans live in a vicious cycle of existence, every day the same, the vision never changing.
It is illegal to be poor or sick.
A robot comes to life and begs you to help fix him.
The battle is over, every soldier alive goes into cryostasis. Except the rebels win the war.
Vehicles are banned.
You’re the only person not sick. Who’s supposed to save the world?
No one knows how it happened, but one day wal-mart stores just opened.
What is life like when you work for the government?
A person outside your walled-in town wears the cloth of an old culture? You’ve seen nothing like it before.
An alien ball of light and energy hovers above your otherwise ordinary town.
Your teacher doesn’t always look like your teacher, sometimes a robot, sometimes a hologram, how do you respond?
The world is ending… in a couple years.
Your parents encourage you to volunteer for ways to be healthy. You don’t know they are signing you up for human testing for something.
No one actually lives in your city. People visit some types and stay in hotels, but everyone works in other parts of the country or world.
You’re good at art, the holocaust museum needs you to fix their paintings.
A million years in the future, what have computers done to the world as we know it?
All pain gets erased, but there is no antidote for sadness.
Certain lands don’t produce sounds or songs but you owe your ancestors and your life to those very lands.
Your family is stolen and replaced with robotic clones. No one realizes the difference but you.
Your mother abandoned you the day you were born and never came for you.
An outbreak of Marburg Virus infects the population, but the only symptoms you know is your skin scalding red.
Eternal sunlight/starlight will give those that bathe in it an ageless look, but at what cost?
The missing persons list gets longer and longer, but it turns out it’s your date for the weekend.
The sun is setting earlier everyday.
How did your grandmother die?
If you think about your crime, you are found guilty. To an outside observer you are innocent, what crime did you commit?
The world is ending, nobody cares.
You could call your mom who lives on the other side of the globe, but what if she can’t hear you cry for help…
Women rule the world and no one can tell them what to do.
Government becomes a more powerful hug.
What happens in this animal domestication facility doesn’t always stay in the facility.
Life is simple and without luxury, until one day the company who provides your life’s necessities announces sudden change in the way they do business.
An engineered plague hits your country and everyone must submit themselves for testing.
Rise up against the evil regime, destroy the corrupt government.
You’re your own worst enemy.
Technology is no longer functioning, now all we have is gun powder.
Tibetans are being forced from their homes to make room for a mining company’s headquarters.
The last thoughtful person on Earth, the only literate person left in the science-fictional world!
A woman who drank the wrong serum is giving birth to herself.
What do you do when everything is close to perfection?
Your religion has forbidden thinking, they do all your thinking for you.
Technology is used to predict heroes or villains before they are even created.
You’ve never met each other but you’ve found old books, letters, and postcards that tell a story of a previous time.
The mist covers everything at night then disappears with the sun’s first rays.
Each day a man walks by you and screams at you through a megaphone to find his missing daughter.
After the adoption, you lose all contact with your biological parents. There is no one to replace them and you live the rest of your life never knowing anything about who you were before the government took you away. When you die they take your baby to replace you.
All roads lead to one place.
Humanity is devolving into barbaric old tribes, what keeps you from losing empathy?
No one knows who the ruler behind the totalitarian government really is.
You have been dating the same guy all through school, but now you have to choose between him or your mother.
Be a fugitive. Escape your town and live in the cave of the woods because it’s the only place you can trust.
You kill yourself with a flip of a coin, no matter the outcome.
Your dog can only bark, it can no longer make its usual yappy noises, that is unless you do your chores.
Step out beyond your front door, and the brutal reality comes rushing back.
It is your job to give false memories to a new group of young children, your life may depend on getting the fake memories right or you might not even have one.
Everyone suddenly loses their sense of balance and everyone dies.
Your city/town is empty when you wake up one morning. It is only you… it is only you…
The government is killing the mentally ill population, it is called the Labeling Plan.
Strange fliers fill the skies every day, but they do not fall. What could it mean?
You are given a questionnaire in which you can’t say no to questions lest you suffer the consequences.
Eighteen hours a day of soap operas, reality T.V., soap operas.
Everyone who has tried to escape a walled-in town has come back with tattoos within a few days. What would happen if you tried?
If you are caught keeping pets, you and they will die horrific deaths.
The crime rate is at an all time high and Gordon the shop owner is only one man.
Once a month, on the full moon, everyone in town devolves into a wild animal.
Siblings that were split up to be raised around the country are now able to find one another.
Your lover’s story is different than yours…will you ever find out the truth?
There is no longer any living or dead. Living people are stuffed into shipping containers for use later, dead people buried in trash.
In the future children are replaced with machines grown in vats, oh how you wish you could have met your real parents.
Who will win, the poor or the rich?
If you fall out of line with the government, you become the enemy. What happens to the enemy?
Time travel is illegal unless you want a lover from the past into your present.
You’re a citizen of a giant city that has a track that circles the city. You have to dive into a random hole and wait a week before coming out.
You come watch your neighbor, but you just can’t leave.
You can read a book and find out your future, but each time you do, you lose your sense of smell.
Airplanes have crashed and killed billions of people. Do you care? What are you doing now?
You live in a world of clones where everyone but you is indistinguishable.
Everyone goes bald for an unknown reason and the hair remains in jars around home.
You feel a quick prick and then no more – you know you’re dead and soon to be dissected.
You shot the Mad King at the end of the war, but you had no choice in the matter.
You have a red coin in your coin purse that says, “Above all, do no evil.” Where did you get it?
Someone could cheat death, what would the ramifications of that be?
Your daily necessities are provided, but you’re not allowed to know how or where exactly.
Nosebleeds start occurring and then black specks are found in the blood.
Tattoos are a cultural style in your country that literally feed you. What happens when that system eventually fails?
To live you have to do one evil thing on Earth every single day.
Small odd shaped parrots plague a town releasing a cryptic message before going to sleep.
Life on your floating island is quiet, but why?
You are a group of kids with abilities who have been locked in a Government prison for their whole lives and are forced to do experiments on each other.
You can see two moons in the sky but the mysterious one disappears for weeks on end, where does it go?
Traps are laid throughout your city without warning, and you don’t know when you’ll stumble onto one.
A common city drug transforms people into monsters.
Every single person has natural, electric blue hair and it’s illegal to dye it.
People arrive on campus with no knowledge of themselves, good guys or bad.
Your town, Last Stop, gets an invitation to a prestigious Academy Award style awards ceremony, where everyone will win.
A new law threatens to grant witches mob justice.
You have nothing to eat, but the guards feeding your family don’t care either way.
Who is the mysterious runner girl?
Fear takes on a physical form, what form does it take?
What makes you a hero when there are no heroes left to save us?
If you stand in the town square at noon you will disappear.
You can’t tell anyone how old you are.
You can see light on the other side of this storm, does the government know about this?
Your village is burning and you must grant forgiveness to the arsonists or burn forever.
An earthquake hits and leaves your home uninhabitable. Your family must evacuate their home into a crowded cabin and live off the land for at least one year.
The world has been cleared of humans, but millions of small animalized creations run around.
Dogs walk on their hind legs…can they also go to war?
What is the best form of control?
Your husband tries to abandon you, even your 9 year old son, and you can’t help but to remember what happened with your husband’s last ex-wife.
You’ve invented a device that lets you look invisible. Why do you not use it?
Two people in the small facility that holds the last survivors of the human race are also in love.
You’re implanted with a microchip that counts down your remaining life hours.
Your new planet isn’t what was promised at all and it is nothing like Earth.
But what was stolen from him might not be water, but blood.
Your children have no faces? Why?
You are the only normal family left in the world.
Your brother ARRsIMG Strategies For Photo Scavenger Hunt
You get one send of a postcard from your best friend saying “have fun on your trip because that’s all you’ll get from me in life” and then they never post anything else.
Find the boy with the initials ECG and stop the approaching rebel forces.
All books without permission are punishable by banishment from your dictatorship.
Standing at a crossroads, you could go right or you could go left.
You wake up overseas and you start hearing your employer’s voice on a hidden speaker coming from your brain.
Your recently lost child has been found alive, but all her teeth have been removed.
A tower turns all within its great walls into stone. How did this happen? Why?
What do teenagers do in YOUR society when their parents and older people don’t allow them to leave their barracks and learn about the outside world?
Life is a pyramid and each day you climb up a little higher. What if you slip?
No one goes to school ever again, why? Why does their world function without schooling?
There has been a horrible crash, and you are the only survivor, but you were in the last car.
A certain criminal has been sentenced to execution for the rest of her life, now forever for she can regenerate.
There are no boys, there are only “oops” babies that pop out of the girl’s skirts, why?
Your name is all of the exactly same characters.
Vampires founded the republic of Karova.
Women are being kidnapped and replaced by cloned doubles, for what possible reason?
Read dystopian fiction!
Due to a drought and the population explosion, mandatory in-home euthanasia has been enacted.
All U.S. Citizens are expected to turn weapons over to the government upon the event of martial law being declared. Something went awry.
The creator built this as a gift for you and your kind to play it out on. The creator despises the gift and your kind.
All wards are women, but women from different eras.
The government wants to control fertility but the only way is to put a chip in everyone. You have the chance to get out of this but at what cost?
Your invention can bring about the end of the world or brilliant new age of technology.
How does the government rule?
A town banishes it’s criminals and the unproductive to live in a pile of trash so they don’t burden the town.
The desert eats the living, but never the dead.
A floater is an inflatable bag worn upon the head to create a realistic illusion of a living person for funerals and brush clearing.
The government is a true democracy and everything seems okay…but you know better.
Young man, the rest of us have already found the cure, you must think outside the box and find your own.
Something lurks in the dark, but isn’t limited to the trails of red that seem to always follow.
Sitting in your parked car with your son, you watch horrified as all kinds of farm animals from all over the country are marched to their slaughterhouse of doom, wondering if it could ever be your turn.
The Food and Drug Administration has just unveiled “Food Drug Zero,” a drug focused on eliminating obesity.
No matter what you do you will always be a slave.
You wake up in a hospital bed with absolutely nothing on this clothing body.
Hit the high rim and you might just change your reality for a little while.
You watch your lover get impregnated by a very busy alien.
Everyone can know how you are feeling at all times.
The previously mentioned anarchism club is on fire, why?
Everyone is fighting for sanity in a loss of mind due to extended fight or flight.
Scientists have found the remains of a dolphin-like creature.
Nothing operates on any electric power and you hate it.
The government is forcing children into military service, what happens to the kids who refuse to fight?
A creepy circus is forming in The Great Smoky Mountains, it won’t be long until the evil clowns are coming after you.

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49 Amazing Dystopian Writing Prompts

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Welcome to the next article in our adult writing prompt series . To keep with our mission of offering 500+ genre-specific writing prompts and story ideas potential authors can use to write their next bestseller, today, we offer up 51 amazing dystopian writing prompts.

Let’s quickly define dystopian fiction. Dystopian fiction is a genre of fictional writing that often refers to a setting and/or society marred by depression, poverty, and general unhappiness. These works of speculative fiction often explore the social and political aspects of these dark and inhabitable conditions.

If you are interested in improving your creative writing and learning from a dystopian best-selling author- We highly recommend Margaret Atwoods MasterClass .

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So if your someone like me who has always enjoyed reading and writing these happy-go-lucky themed books, then you will definitely like some of these inspirational writing prompts.

In a post-apocalyptic world, where a person’s five senses are taken away and earned back through monetary credits earned through indentured servitude to the privileged class.
A society in which a family’s wealth dictates how many of its own children that they can keep.
A futuristic world where everyone’s thoughts and dreams are constantly monitored so they can be taken and used by the wealthy privileged class to remain in power.
A world so dependent on technology, that the human race has stopped being a social mammal, and this unbreakable solitude now puts them at risk for extinction.
When Earth is ravished by a series of climate-related catastrophes, the survivors have no choice but to fight over the small plot of land that is still fit for human survival.
Artificial intelligence and augmented reality have become a staple in day-to-day with life, so much so that the average person spends 24 hours a day in a virtual state. What happens when they find out the AI discovered a way more useful use of this technology and entertains the people in it.
In a future world that prides itself on optimal efficiency, each person is given the exact path they are to live down to the very day starting with the day they’re born.
A world with limited resources after an intergalactic war destroys most of the planet, forces, and citizens to self-police population growth. The law says for every person born into a family one must die.
Earth loses an intergalactic war to a hostile invading species within the enslaved the survivors to help them extract every last resource out of the planet.
In this world, thoughts are crimes. Artificial intelligence is judge, jury, and executioner.

After the last great world war, all religion was banned. This included all religious works and artifacts. But what happens if one Bible still remains?
In this society, the only currency anyone has his life expectancy. The ruling class oppresses the masses of poor citizens by forcing them to trade days of life for the basic goods and services needed for survival.
In a society that is focused on gene manipulation and the furthering of the human species, any people with less than desired DNA is either made infertile and sent into slavery or eradicated at birth.
The human race is overtaken by alien hostiles, they are forced to live in a quasi-vegetative state offset by augmented reality while their bodies slowly decay as they are used as human carbon batteries.
All learning is banned from society. The Internet is totally rewritten and all books are destroyed. The only thing society has is the propaganda given to it by its oppressive ruling class.
In a world, where it is been determined, that the optimal age for existence is 28, humans are perpetually cloned at that age and granted existence until they turn 29.
Society has gotten over the automated, and the richest class has gotten richer and richer while everyone else has fallen into squalor. To deal with the boredom and help entertain the ruling class, poor citizens turned in use as pets.
In a society 100% under state control, humans are selected at random to face off against each other in a 24 hour broadcasted deathmatch.
A weaponized biologic is used to control everyone’s actions as it empowers its creators to instantly activate it inside of any one person killing them within 24 hours.
In a world where disease is left unchecked, the only ones privileged enough for Medicare and the cures are the controlling class of Aristocrats.

A world where all money is done away with, instead, people must pay their way with an intellectual or physical contribution to society. What happens when a system of deciding the value of contributions is rigged?
Women have come to power over 3000 years ago, slowly the value of men has declined. To the point where their only value and reason for existence is procreation of more women.
In a twisted futuristic world, society’s darkest minds are connected to an Augmented Reality machine to have their machinations come to life as entertainment for the rest of society. When these virtual reality horror shows come to life the world will never be the same.
A world that no longer believes in prisons, instead these prisoners are used as human prey in a dark and twisted hunting game.
Sports, as we know them, are long gone, they have been replaced by darker, deadlier versions of their past games. The new death games are meant to be a social release for the masses to avoid unleashing true demons on themselves. But what if the games were really a way to desensitize and train people to act the very way the games were said to prevent.
Every city in the world is reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye, all except one building that is left standing in each. Now the survivors need to figure out what caused the tragedy and what is the significance of these remaining structures.
A zombie plague has slowly overtaken the planet. A cure was found and now 80 percent of the population are functioning zombies, which can still participate in society and keep the world going, but each day is potentially a dark day, as these zombies are still liable to kill their human counterparts at every turn.
After an unknown cyber attack takes out the world’s power grid, the world is thrown into shambles. Anarchy rules the streets, and long-term survival is unlikely as the chaotic war zone is unleashed on the public.
A global food shortage occurs with severe climate change. Leading to severe famine for the last several decades. In this world, food is more valuable than money or gold every was. The most abundant food source is human flesh, and the evil ruling class has no problem with that. In this world, you are either wealthy or eventually turned into dinner.
Society has long become dependent on pharmaceutical drug Zenvia. A highly addictive CNS drug that creates a feeling of euphoria. The government uses is to hook the population and bend them to their will by manipulating them through their Zenvia addiction.

A society that uses its citizens as subjects in medical and psychological experiments decides the current generation of people will partake in the breaking point study, which is designed to have these people subjected to non-stop mental stress, and depression-inducing stimuli to see how long it takes to break them for good.
A society where gender identity has been completely wiped away, anyone that demonstrates any masculine or feminine traits is imprisoned to be cleansed.
In this society, dreams are controlled my mind mimics. But these dreams are far more real as is the danger they pose.
Society had been wiped out by a huge nuclear war. Now they live in the safety dome, forced to relive the same mundane life simulation every single day.
Earth was under attack when defeat became clear they started to evacuate to a space station that was still under construction. Unfortunately only 5000 people made it out, now they are stuck on the bleak space station that is barely functioning.
Nanobots were once touted as a great technological breakthrough, but now they dictate everything about your life. You know longer have free will, only an ability to follow the path that the nanobots set out for you.
In this alternate universe, Hitler won World War II and his persecution expanded to anyone that didn’t have blond hair blue eyes. They are now slaves in concentration camps until they can’t work anymore.
After a full economic collapse, the world boils over unleashing the worst part of humanity onto itself.
An alien box lands on the planet that promises to hold unleash knowledge and power the world has never seen before. But in order to unlock it, humanity must commit certain atrocities on itself. What choice will they make?
In a horrible society where women are treated like second-class citizens, once a year, The reaping goes on for 24hrs, where men are allowed to hunt and treat women any way they choose with no repercussions.
The air quality on earth is so bad that it can no longer sustain most human life, without assisted breathing apparatus. But as the sun gets more and more hidden from society and breathing becomes more and more dangerous, will the human psyche crack before the body.
In a world where all disease can be cured, that is if you have enough money, through a process called human transfer, society’s richest people are allowed to select random members of the poorer class to transfer their health issues onto and get a clean bill of health for themselves.
In a future where everyone communicates telepathically, the language disappears, then human interaction, then procreation leaving humanity on the brink of extinction.
Severe environmental changes cause certain animal species to go into a type of accelerated evolution for survival. Now the planet is overrun with beasts that hunt humans and as they reclaim their place at the top of the food chain.
Children are born and given a test to make sure they don’t carry a certain gene that may be susceptible to the zombie plague as part of the government’s prevention strategy since getting the zombie crisis under control. But what happens when every child born has the gene?
A zombie pandemic has taken down 40 percent of the population. Promises of a cure have led to zombies being caught and retained until a cure can be found to bring loved ones back. But what if the cure is only made available to the richest people in the world?
A huge electromagnetic pulse destroys all technology on the planet sending back to the stone age overnight.
In a world where children are born with a lust for blood, they begin to hunt and kill their parents. Now people need to decide, stop having children and guarantee extinction or continue to have them and fight the demons until normal children are found again.

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I hope you have enjoyed these 49 Dystopian story ideas. Feel free to take any of these 500 writing prompts and use them as inspiration to craft your next best-selling dystopian novel.

Remember that we have a full series of free adult writing prompts that you can check out in other genres. If you like these then make sure to check out the rest.

Sometimes writers hesitate to use a publicly shared writing prompt as their inspiration for their next novel. But, I will tell you, you shouldn’t be, because alone none of these writing prompts are worth the paper they are printed on, and that’s really bad since this is digital.

But it’s true, this dystopian writing prompts need to be fleshed out, to create a full plot and satisfying novel.

That is where you come in, As a dystopian writer, it’s up to you to create a believable world that engages readers by putting them in a deprived setting that is barely worth living.

So good luck with your writing, I hope you can use one of these dystopian story ideas as inspiration that will lead to your next great published book.

As always, Thanks for Reading and more Importantly Writing!

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100 dystopian writing prompts

November 23, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment

Imagine chilling futures where emotions are suppressed, memories are hacked, nature is walled-off, and totalitarian regimes control everything from relationships to the weather. Welcome to our 100 dystopian writing prompts.

Let your creativity run wild envisaging sinister agencies, social manipulation, banned contraband, restricted freedoms, underground resistance, and daring escapes.

Buckle up for a thrilling ride into menacing speculative worlds where you’ll encounter thought police, memory black markets, mandated cryogenic freezing, sinister surveillance, climate totalitarians, and other dystopian threats.

In this comprehensive prompt collection, you’ll find 100 disturbing, tantalizing scenarios captured through cliffhanger “write about…” cues guaranteed to spark new realms of suspense, conflict and tension.

From emotion-suppressing drugs to memory-recording devices gone wrong, mandated matchmaking by genetic compatibility to expiring at a certain age, these prompts zoom in on rebellious individuals fighting corrupt power structures for a second chance at passion, self-determination and a future they define.

Let these dystopian sparks ignite stories of defiant resistance, dangerous flaw-exposing exposés, tense psychological operations, off-the-grid escapes into the wild, and other bold tactics to undermine oppression. Can truth and justice prevail? That’s for you to decide…

Now, enter these speculative dystopian worlds and let your imagination run wild! Where will these 100 dystopian writing prompts take you?

A device is invented that allows the government to control people’s thoughts and actions. Write about someone trying to escape this fate.
Strict laws are passed limiting how many children families can have. Tell the story of a family faced with an impossible decision.
A catastrophic event wipes out most of humanity. Write about a small group of survivors banding together.
All books and writings from history are burned. Write about an effort to preserve or recreate knowledge.
A virus spreads causing infertility. Follow individuals desperate to have children in this dire world.
The population is segregated into zones based on genetic engineering marks. Write from the perspective of someone yearning for the outside world.
Water becomes extremely scarce. Write about the lengths one teen goes to in order to save their community.
A company develops AI androids used for manual labor. Tell the story of an android developing forbidden aspirations for freedom.
Citizens’ use of language is restricted and simplified. Write about a group secretly communicating in metaphors and code.
Memories and dreams are recorded as digital data. Write about a hacker who accesses people’s intimate memories illegally.
The government mandates that certain emotions must be suppressed. Write from the perspective of someone struggling with this.
Time travel is invented but strictly forbidden. Write about someone risking it all to change past atrocities.
The population is herded into city centers while the wildlands are off limits. Write from the view of someone escaping to experience natural life.
A virus spreads that removes facial features. Write about the fear and identity issues that arise in afflicted society.
The government replaces school with endless VR propaganda simulators. Write about an underground effort to preserve free thinking.
A strict rating system quantifies each citizen’s worth. Write about someone striving to boost their rating or hide their true selves.
The population is forced to take pills that alter perceptions of reality. Write about someone slowly realizing the deception.
Strict beauty standards are set by genetic modification. Write about someone pursuing dangerous underground procedures for a boost in status.
The elderly are exiled once past working age. Write about someone hiding an elderly relative.
A curfew is set banning unauthorized night activity. Write about a group of youths planning secret late night events.
Population growth is restricted through mandated cryogenic freezing at certain ages. Write about someone fighting the system or going on the run as their freeze date approaches.
A pandemic requires protective gear covering the body and face, removing unique identifiers. Write about someone desperate to see a loved one’s uncovered face before they are frozen.
The government tracks every move of citizens through mandatory chips. Write about a man who tries to live off the grid, undetected.
A tiered citizenship system is based on serving in civil or military duties for years at a time. Write from perspective of a low-tier citizen dreaming of elevation in status.
Failure to take your mandated medications results in banishment to lawless outlands. Write about someone hiding mental clarity without chemicals.
The natural landscape outside congested urban centers is off limits behind walled boundaries. Write from the perspective of someone who escapes to experience freedom in nature.
A company owns the patent to a synthesized formula needed for human health and jacks up the prices, causing suffering. Write about activists trying to recreate it.
The government controls the weather and all climate conditions. Write about a group that wages weather terrorism demanding natural variability.
Corporations run sovereign city-states. Write about a skilled worker trying to break their never-ending contract.
A virus makes most animals extinct. Write about underground efforts to save remaining species.
The government mandates matchmaking based on genetic compatibility. Write from view of someone struggling when they fall for the “wrong” match.
The ability to reproduce has become allocated to only certain designees. Write about a black market for illegal conceptions.
A pandemic requires everyone to live in isolated pods. Write about someone fighting sensory deprivation to stay sane.
Lifespans are significantly cut short at a certain age through mandated termination procedures. Write from view of someone approaching their expiry trying to fight it.
Write about the invention and consequences of a device that can record and play back memories.
Only ultra high-IQ individuals are allowed in leadership roles. Write about identity struggles for a character judged unintelligent by mandated measurements.
Write about teams competing in a post-apocalyptic city for scarce resources needed to survive decaying conditions.
Write from the perspective of a hacker who works to take down an authoritarian technocracy from the inside.
Write about someone forced to become an “information specialist” manipulating news and data feeds to serve ulterior motives.
Write about a pandemic leading to development of advanced robotic caregiver technology that goes awry.
Write about a protest against emotion-suppressing drugs led predominantly by teenagers seeking freedom and passion.
Write about a survivor banding groups together to restore culture in a controlled dystopia that has erased past artifacts and identity.
Write about black market dealers who smuggle banned physical books to those yearning for lost knowledge and history.
Write about a student who discovers long-suppressed writings revealing troubling truths about their society’s history.
Write a conversation between an elder and a young person who yearns to experience fundamental rights and choices stripped from society, like childbearing.
Write about a small group that escapes into the wilderness and attempts to build an equitable utopia outside dystopian constraints.
Write about someone fighting the system through graffiti symbolizing hope and metaphorical messaging to incite revolution.
Write a debate between a rebel faction leader and authoritarian regime loyalist on freedoms vs order.
Write a prison narrative about inmates alternating virtual reality experiences to mitigate their sentences through psychological manipulation.
Write a tale of genius inventor who creates wondrous technology in secret that could undermine authoritarian control or elevate freedom if revealed.
Strict sleep quotas are enforced via brain implants that monitor REM cycles to maximize productivity. Write from the perspective of someone suffering from sleep deprivation who secretly changes their schedule.
In order to improve worker compliance, the government has developed a chemical to make citizens enjoy menial labor tasks. Write about a janitor who loves their job a disturbing amount.
A powerful caste system has formed among humans after rampant genetic experimentation. Write from the perspective of an oppressed “inferior” caste dreaming of a better life.
Most animals have gone extinct except for those pets approved by the Environmental Ministry. Illegal pet ownership is severely punished, but a thriving black market exists.
In a bid to reduce crime, the government now requires parents to screen embryos for a variety of physical and psychological illnesses. However, many families now feel pressured to produce the “perfect child”.
Due to food shortages, restaurants and grocery stores have been outlawed. All meals are now supplied by the Nutritional Distribution Bureau’s ready-made, cost-effective food products. However, a speakeasy dedicated to actual cooking has opened.
In an effort to increase efficiency and national unity, a universal language with strictly monitored vocabulary and grammar standards is imposed. Those who fail language tests are penalized by social restrictions.
The Life Extension Agency provides age rejuvenation treatments, but primarily to the social and financial elite. The poor struggle with shortened life expectancies, leading some to join radical insurgent groups.
An innovative new Direct Neural Interface allows people’s brains to connect directly to a vast online network. However, hacking into someone’s mind is now disturbingly easy.
In order to prepare youth for the harsh, dangerous streets, local Fight Clubs are organized to systematically toughen up teens and channel aggression effectively.
Due to rampant unemployment, the government now drafts citizens into mandatory civil or military service positions for 10-15 years. Failure to accept an assignment results in imprisonment.
In a bid to improve public safety, petite auditory assistants called “Shoulder Angels” are issued to all citizens to provide helpful guidance. However, their advice is not always ethical, wise or in one’s best interest.
In order to improve citizen health and longevity, the ingestion of all non-synthetic foods and beverages is highly restricted. However an underground movement of “Whole Food Rebels” persists.
Due to widespread infertility, prospective parents are only allowed children via cloning, therefore insuring a continuous labor force. However, a generation of identical offspring creates disturbing identity issues.
In order to eliminate homelessness and unemployment, all citizens must work as general labor at massive collective Farms that supply the nation with food and textile materials. The division of labor is demanding but fair.
Rigid rules dictate what colors, textures and styles of clothes that citizens may wear depending on their age, profession and social status. Fashion diversity is forbidden, with black market clothing trends continuously emerging.
Due to rampant hacking, personal data devices have been outlawed and removed. However an illegal group of elite hackers known as “The Archives” still uncovers and leaks confidential information.
Write about a future in which a volcanic eruption blots out the sun for years, killing crops and plunging society into chaos, violence and despair.
Write about an agency that pushes invasive brain implants that allow video recording of memories and forced data sharing against people’s will.
Write about a future where dreams can be bought and sold on a black market operated through tapping into people’s minds as they sleep to steal visions.
Write about a divided territory where selected wealthy elite live safely in utopian cities while the remaining majority survive dystopian wastelands of pollution and scarcity.
Write about those battling a law requiring registration with Social Harmony Agency that tracks emotions and punishes discord deemed damaging to psychological unity.
Write about resisters fighting against authoritarian rules forbidding casual relationships, friendships or non-approved personal connections in order to boost productivity.
Write about an uprising against an enforced caste system that assigns professions, living quarters, resources access and more based on DNA-based hierarchies.
Write about rebels secretly trying to instill history, art and free thinking in younger generations raised in a neutered, whitewashed and overly structured world.
Write about someone from an agency assigned to manipulate records to maintain historical propaganda narratives confronting their buried conscience.
Write about teachers secretly providing banned materials, intellectual freedom and emotional nurturing despite rigid restrictions on permitted lessons and development.
Write about twin siblings torn apart by diverging citizenship tiers granted to each one, leaving the other in oppressive conditions they try escaping.
Write about time travelers tasked with altering past mistakes and unintentionally fracturing reality through over-corrections of history.
Write about nature rebels trying to preserve plant life needed for clandestine botanical experiments to undo genetic disasters humans have caused through manipulation.
Write about librarians archiving confiscated artifacts, art and documents on the black market struggling to preserve cultural history for future generations.
Write about a hacker leaking scandalous secrets of upper-crust elite, revealing their criminal hypocrisy and oppression behind friendly public facade.
Write about investigators tracing early warning signs of current totalitarian injustice back many generations to disturbing past historical events.
Write about rebels secretly planning targeted infrastructure sabotage or disruptive hacks of controlling surveillance systems to enable societal chaos that disrupts tyranny.
Write about scientists furtively trying to revive extinct species in a controlled environment before authorities crush their unauthorized genetic efforts.
Write about youth experiencing forbidden cultural artifacts like non-digitized photographs, physical vinyl records or ancient paper books for the first time, feeling awakened.
Write about a team planning a high stakes escape mission to lead refugees from border detention camps to safe international territory.
Write about hackers digitally falsifying citizen records to manipulate assignment of soul-crushing undesirable labor mandates.
Write about activists utilizing hidden shortwave radio signals, coded language newspaper ads and other old-fashioned techniques to secretly coordinate resistance.
Write about rebel scientists planning risky psychological experiments challenging theories that current authoritarian rule is an inevitable consequence of innate human society dynamics.
Write about smugglers obtaining prohibited goods like sugar, caffeine or alcohol from foreign black markets to cater to restricted domestic population demands.
Write about resisters launching independent radio broadcasts challenging state-sanctioned news propaganda to circulate suppressed truths.
Write about rebel journalists using old-fashioned typewriters, printers and paper materials to publish and distribute banned insider exposés anonymously.
Write about a team capturing footage of dystopia oppression via hidden shoulder cameras to make viral videos awakening outside world to atrocities.
Write about citizens banding together under pretense of harmless community sport team as disguise to enable secret seditious coordination.
Write about defectors and infiltrators leaking confidential information regarding government-sponsored experiments trying to control or manipulate citizens’ minds.
Write about a duo discovering shocking classified files revealing orchestrated crisis events used as pretext to justify implementing incremental totalitarian measures.
Write about activists utilizing public wall art, performance protests, symbolic clothing and defiant slang phrases to express seditious messages under the radar.
Write about rebel families harboring unauthorized pregnancies in concealed rooms or underground spaces, despite harsh penalties if newborns are discovered.
Write about defiant hackers digitally attacking key infrastructure in Vendetta-like psychological operations to expose regime corruption, undermine authority and awaken masses.

I hope you enjoyed our 100 dystopian writing prompts, and I hope they inspire you to write something great. If you write something you want to share, please leave it in the comments. Also, please remember we have many other writing prompts on our site you might find helpful.

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About Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) has worked for literary magazines and literary websites for the last 25 years. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology and Education. Richard has headed many writing workshops and courses, and he has taught writing and literature for the last 20 years.

In writing and publishing he has worked with independent, small, medium and large publishers for years connecting publishers to authors. He has also worked as a journalist and editor in both magazine, newspaper and trade publications as well as in the medical publishing industry. Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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17 Dystopian Writing Prompts And Ideas For Your Next Best Novel

April 22, 2022

Want to learn how to write dystopian fiction? You are in the right place. This article will cover two aspects of writing about a dystopian future. First, the common themes and characteristics of good dystopian fiction. Second, a list of dystopian writing prompts and ideas to help you get started writing, whether you want to write a novel or a short story, and whether you are a first-time or a seasoned writer.

What is dystopian fiction?

Cam b ridge Dictionary defines ‘ dystopia ‘ as ‘a very bad or unfair society in which there is a lot of suffering, especially an imaginary society in the future after something terrible has happened.’ The opposite of dystopia is utopia—a world or society in which people live free from oppression and terror but instead enjoy peace, harmony, health, and togetherness.

In literature, the dystopian genre is one in which the story takes place in a dystopian world. One or multiple characters must face and overcome the challenges posed to them by the society in which they live. Dystopia is an incredibly popular genre in literature, film, and television.

Famous works of dystopian fiction, such as George Orwell’s 1984 , Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange , Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , leave a lasting imprint in the reader’s mind as very often the themes, societies, and oppression featured in these works are never too far from potentially becoming a reality.

They present a rich opportunity for speculation on the society in which we already live and have gone a long way in waking society up to the dangers presented by authoritarian and totalitarian governments, leaders, and dictatorships.

How to write dystopian fiction

Dystopian fiction is an incredibly popular genre, so writing dystopia can be an exciting journey whether you are a first-time author or you have been writing for years. It allows you to comment and make predictions about society and where it is going. Since this is fiction, the genre allows for speculation and creative freedom. With a finger on the pulse of society as it is and where it seems to be going, good dystopian fiction can impact a reader’s current perception of reality.

There are a few things to consider when writing impactful dystopian fiction . Next, we will look at what makes a good dystopian story. Later in the article, you will find some brief, but rich dystopian writing prompts to help you get your speculative creative juices flowing.

Characteristics of dystopian fiction

Some of the most common characteristics, themes, and structures found in dystopian fiction, those which set the genre apart from all else, are:

1. Authority/Power Structure

Most dystopian fiction takes place in a world where the government is a large, even global, oppressive body. It feeds and perpetuates itself from the labor, loss, sacrifice, or outright misery of the people it oppresses. As with all ‘ villain ‘ or antagonist concepts, these authoritarian power structures often have some ‘ good ‘ or ‘ morally just ‘ motivation behind their actions, but they have gone too far, and the bad outweighs the good.

2. Individual mind vs. collective mind

Much of the conflict in dystopian fiction concerns the differences in motivations and priorities between the individual mind (the free thinker, the autonomous individual) and the collective, or ‘ hive ‘ mind. Often, authority thrives off a controlled hive, often represented as a brainwashed society forced to live under the powers that be out of fear. At the same time, a free individual mind poses a threat to the authority’s very structure.

3. Technological advancement

One of the most common themes in dystopian fiction is the technology that has become so advanced that it is no longer a blessing but a curse. Initially, helpful technologies, whether created for surveillance, to increase life expectancy, or to travel more efficiently in space, begin with a bright future but either get misused or become too powerful to control. The crucial point is the inherent vulnerability of humans to the power of corruption often seen in how advanced technologies are created and handled.

Dystopian story ideas

Now that you know the fundamentals of dystopian fiction, get ready to create your own dystopian world. We have included some short prompts and ideas below to help you get started.

Dystopian world ideas

A futuristic city in which people must use oxygen masks to breathe. Oxygen is a valuable commodity that the elite has privatized. When a person runs low on oxygen, they must pay a high price for a refill.
Climate change has led to irreversibly high sea levels. Large areas of land have been submerged in water. The remaining humans must travel across the risen sea to gather resources from other isolated lands. The sea is dangerous, brimming with toxic chemical waste that contributes to global disasters.
A dystopian society in which everyone is legally obliged to wear surveillance technology—the unchipped, the ‘ off grid ‘ people are observed and logged on by obliging citizens who wear glasses with scanning technology. Once logged in, a violent police force locates and punishes them.
A cyber attack shuts down power grids around the world. Globally, society descends into anarchy. The cyber attackers reroute all the world’s energy into one power grid around which they build a high-walled city for themselves, leaving all human life outside the city walls to survive in darkness.
Death is no longer inevitable. In this world, you can prolong your life indefinitely, at a price. The cost is high, but those without financial limits do not need to worry until the true source of this life-prolonging technology is leaked. Extending one’s life is not just a financial issue but now a moral one.
Music has been banned by an authority that understands music’s power to promote radical and revolutionary ideas. Anyone heard listening to or playing music will be heavily persecuted.

Dystopian short story ideas

The entire human population lives in a post-apocalyptic world, where a global government controls all the remaining resources, and people live on rations. Those who report conspiracies, schemes and attempts to revolt are awarded more rations, while those who are found to disobey the system are captured and never seen again.
Most of the human race has died after a world war involving nuclear weapons wiped out much of the planet’s sunlight and oxygen. The remaining humans survive underground in bunkers, but it has been years since the war, and resources are running out. A group of soldiers is tasked with leaving the bunker to locate an unused bunker full of resources in a nearby city.
A group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse must protect themselves from the formerly human victims of toxic chemicals used in a nuclear attack gone wrong. Zombies roam the streets searching for human flesh, while the privileged upper classes take refuge in a walled-in town. Those unfortunate enough to live in a lower socioeconomic class must survive in boarded-up houses in the ‘ wild land .’
After an apocalyptic event, humans begin to live inside virtual reality through a brain chip. The chip is connected to the nervous system. Those living in this virtual alternate universe can live a full sensory life, with physical sensations like hunger, arousal, pleasure, and pain. The virtual reality space company gets hacked, and users’ memories are wiped. Now those who live in virtual reality are unaware that an original reality exists without their chip.
Animal rights activists led a successful revolution to take down the meat industry. On the surface, people feel that they live in a utopia, free from all animal cruelty. The ban on meat leads to an illegal meat trade. Since animals are closely protected, the most accessible meat to find and sell is not beef or pork but human flesh.
As part of a military experiment, high schoolers are randomly drafted and enrolled in a training program. In the program, recruits undergo gene editing, microchipping, and deep desensitization to violence to become super soldiers. They possess incredible strength and can recover from any wounds or injuries in minutes. When one soldier goes AWOL, the experimenters in charge of the program must find him before it is too late.
Humans live in the sky. High-rise apartments and offices higher than anything that exists in the world today are the new norms. People travel to and from work and home through a network of tubes and drones in the air. The earth below is off-limits, and anyone who gets too close to sea level is at risk of contracting a deadly disease borne by large chemical explosions at several nuclear sites after an attack.
In a world where human organs are sold at a high price among the elite, the black market keeps growing. People are forced to survive by fleeing as far away from densely populated areas as possible and living in small groups in the wild. Gangs hunt outside the city limits to find small communities, harvest their organs, and sell them for a huge profit.
Children go to a school where artificially intelligent robots have replaced teachers. A team of hackers enters the AI-teaching system and begins radicalizing the children. They encourage students to share personal details about their parents and other adult family members. This information is used to identify parents who disagree with the authoritarian power structure’s new regime—a world where AI replaces all work.
In the year 2150, a global disaster killed most of the human population. Those who survived and were fortunate to have money were taken to colonies on Mars. The survivors believe they are being saved, but life in Mars’ colonies is no American Dream. Socioeconomic statuses still apply, and the less financially well-off are forced to work hard labor for the elite who profit from the colonies.
A microchip allows users to record their experiences and watch them repeatedly as memories. A team of hackers enters the system and gains the power to delete and alter people’s memories. One day, the news announces that the hackers have been found, put on trial, and sentenced accordingly. One young man whose chip has been broken tries to tell everyone that the hackers were never caught—they created that memory.

Dystopian subgenres

‘ Dystopian ‘ is a broad genre. As mentioned earlier, ‘ dystopia ‘ in a general sense refers to a near or distant future in which society has failed to achieve utopia or peace but instead has become corrupt or damaged by external forces. However, you can zoom in on the genre and discover several dystopian fiction subgenres or types. With an awareness of these subgenres, you may find it a lot easier to get your story started. You can even take inspiration from renowned authors and works that already exist in the subgenre to paint a clearer picture of where your story could go.

Dystopian subgenres include:

Speculative fiction – Imagine alternative societies in which humans live miserable lives, and a government or power structure thrives from human suffering. (e.g. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale )
Post-apocalyptic – Humans must survive in a world that an apocalyptic-scale event has destroyed, such as nuclear war. (e.g. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road )
Climate change – Global warming and rising sea levels not helped by man’s contribution to the earth’s declining health mean that the characters in this genre must overcome obstacles posed by a changing planet, limited resources, and entities who want to control those resources. (e.g. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake )
Science fiction – Technology has taken over, and humans live under the control of artificial intelligence or companies whose technological power strikes fear and submission into society at large. (e.g. Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police )

‘When we read dystopia, we root for these people to break free because we are these people; hoping and fighting against things that are bigger than ourselves.’ Ally Condie

At first, dystopian literature seems to have a lot in common with the fantasy genre. Characters live in a world unlike our own, with technologies that may not exist, or in alternate universes where human life is viewed through a different lens. However, all good dystopian writers and avid readers of the genre understand that worlds presented in dystopian literature are not as unlike our own as one might think.

Dystopian literature is incredibly speculative. It draws from facts and observations about society as it already exists and ‘ pulls the thread ,’ imagining how today’s world could progress into anarchy or oppression, often based on the inherent vulnerability to corruption as part of human life.

So, if you are seeking inspiration for a dystopian story, check out all the ideas we have included in the article and come back to this page for more inspiration when you get stuck. Moreover, look around you for inspiration. Take a look at what is happening today, such as new emerging technologies or government decisions and actions (or lack thereof) around such issues as climate change and human rights. There is much material for great dystopian fiction to be found around us.

2 thoughts on “17 Dystopian Writing Prompts And Ideas For Your Next Best Novel”

Good quote. It’s helped with my dystopian/post-apocalyptic short story.

So glad it helped you!

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Dystopian Writing Prompts: 45 Dark and Edgy Ideas to Get You Started

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on September 21, 2022

Categories Writing , Inspiration

Do you love writing dark and edgy stories? Are you looking for something to get you started? Then look no further! In this blog post, we will provide 45 dystopian creative writing prompts to help get your creative juices flowing. These prompts are perfect for writers who want to explore a darker side of storytelling. So what are you waiting for? Start writing your short story or novel!

32 Dystopian Writing Prompts

1. What would people be like in a world where the sun never shines, and the moon is always full?

2. In a world where everyone is required to take a monthly government-mandated happiness pill, what would happen if someone decided not to take it?

3. In a world where technology has taken over, and humans are nothing more than slaves to machines, how would the resistance fight back?

4. In a world where the wealthy live in opulent mansions while the poor live in squalor, what would happen if the two classes decided to switch places?

5. In a world with an ongoing war between two factions, what would happen if a neutral third party tried to broker peace?

6. In a world where the government is constant surveillance of its citizens, what would happen if someone found a way to turn off the cameras?

7. In a world where climate change has made it so that there is only one livable city left, how would the citizens react to being told they must build a wall to keep everyone else out?

8. In a world without laws, what would happen if someone proposed that the old laws should be reinstated?

9. In a world where the government uses brainwashing to ensure the loyalty of its citizens, what would happen if a group of rebels tried to break the hold of the brainwashing?

10. In a world with strict guidelines on what can be eaten and what can’t, what would happen if someone decided to break the rules and eat something forbidden?

11. In a world where people are given a choice of being executed or having their memories erased, what would happen if someone chose to die?

12. In a world where the government controls all forms of entertainment, how would people act if someone managed to smuggle in illegal documents?

13. In a world where compulsory beauty is enforced, how would the free thinkers react when they met the people responsible for enforcing the rules?

14. In a world where there is a natural law that states only the strong can rule, what would happen if an old man tried to fight his way to the top?

15. In a world where the government has banned all forms of technology, including electricity and computers, how would people cope?

16. In a world where people are pressured to be perfect, how would the misfits cope?

17. In a world where there is a law decreeing that a certain group of people must be killed, what would happen if someone refused to kill their friends?

18. In a world where people are encouraged to report their neighbors for breaking the law, what would happen if somebody disobeyed?

19. In a world where the few people who can read and write are considered more valuable than everyone else, what would happen if someone tried to teach others to read?

20. In a world where everyone is required to live in containment shelters, how would the citizens react to a group of people who chose to live outside them?

21. In a world where the government controls all food sources, how would people react if someone started a black market for food?

22. In a world where everybody is forced to take a drug that controls their behavior, how would the free willers react?

23. In a world with a law stating that all people over 50 must be killed, what would happen if someone tried to break the law?

24. In a world where a nuclear war has destroyed the world, what would happen if people found a way to survive?

25. In a world where scientific research is always under government supervision, what would happen if someone tried to break the rules?

26. In a world where all communication is carried out in pictures, what would happen if someone figured out a way to communicate in words?

27. In a world where everything is controlled by a government monopoly, what would happen if someone tried to start their own business?

28. In a world where there is a computer program that can tell your future by analyzing your DNA, what would happen if someone asked it a very personal question?

29. In a world with a drug that can make people invisible, what would happen if someone started selling the drug?

30. In a world where everyone is assigned a number based on their skills, how would the unnumbered people react?

31. In a world where people are chosen to participate in a game where they must hunt the other players, how would the players react if they found out their fellow humans were the prey?

32. In a world where the government is under constant attack by terrorists and saboteurs, what would happen if someone tried to break the cycle of violence?

And there you have it, 32 great ideas for your next dystopian story! These ideas can be combined or individually as inspiration for your next writing project.

13 Dystopian Character Ideas

1. A teenage hacker rebels against the government by breaking into their systems and spreading anti-authority propaganda.

2. A group of revolutionaries who fight to overthrow the current regime, even though they know that they may not survive in the end.

3. An evil dictator who rules over the people with an iron fist, crushing any resistance with ruthless brutality.

4. A disillusioned soldier who has seen too much violence and bloodshed, struggling to hold onto his humanity as he fights in a never-ending war.

5. A downtrodden factory worker who is sick of being exploited by greedy corporations and strives for a better life for herself and her fellow workers.

6. A young girl trapped in an oppressive society where women are treated like second-class citizens, fighting to claim her own space and freedom in a male-dominated world.

7. An enigmatic leader who has risen to power through cunning manipulation and political intrigue, using brute force to maintain control over a society.

8. A woman is forced to turn her back on her beloved brother after he killed their abusive father and was sentenced to death.

9. A doctor is forced to work for the government after they kill her husband, helping them to diagnose and destroy the subversive elements in the population.

10. An idealistic revolutionary fighting to overthrow and replace the government with a more humane regime.

11. An amnesic woman who doesn’t know who she is, her backstory, or the world she came from but is determined to find out.

12. A teenager discovers that the government is lying to its people about the state of the world and leads a secret resistance movement to overthrow the corrupt regime.

13. A female bounty hunter who uses her deadly fighting skills to capture fugitives and bring them back to the authorities.

What Makes a World Dystopian?

In a dystopian world, everything is wrong. The government is corrupt. Society is collapsing. The environment is ruined. People are unhappy. But what makes a world truly dystopian? Is it the presence of these things, or is something else required for a world to be truly dystopian? Let’s take a closer look.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about dystopian worlds is usually government control and fear in the population. Often accompanied by conformity. In George Orwell’s 1984, the government controls everything from the food people eat to their thoughts. Similarly, in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, the government dictates every aspect of citizens’ lives, from what they wear to whether they live or die. In both of these examples, and in many others, the government’s stranglehold on power makes the world dystopian.

But government control is not the only factor that can make a world dystopian. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, society has collapsed due to an unspecified cataclysmic event. There is no government, no law, and no order. People are reduced to eating each other to survive. In this example, it is not the government that makes the world dystopian but rather the complete breakdown of society itself.

A truly dystopian future is one where everything has gone wrong. The government is corrupt, and society is collapsing. The environment is ruined, and people are unhappy. But what makes a world truly dystopian? Is it the presence of these things, or is something else required for a world to be truly dystopian? It seems that the answer may be both.

Is Dystopia a Genre or Theme?

Genres are categories of literature that are defined by specific conventions, such as plot structure, style, and characterization. There are many different genres, such as mystery, romance, science fiction, etc. A genre is like a template you can use to write your story.

Themes are ideas or topics that are explored in a work of literature . A theme can be something as simple as love or loss or more complicated as betrayal or redemption. Unlike genres, themes are not constrained by specific conventions. You can use any literary device to explore a theme in your stories, such as symbolism, foreshadowing, or flashbacks.

So, is dystopia a genre or a theme? The answer is both! Dystopia is a genre that explores the idea of a society gone wrong. If you’re interested in writing a dystopian story, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the conventions of the genre. But don’t let those constraints limit your creativity-remember that you can always explore additional themes in your story.

How to Start a Good Dystopian Story

Dystopian stories are all the rage these days. With so many popular books and movies being set in dark, post-apocalyptic worlds, it’s no wonder that writers are looking to get in on the action. But what makes a good dystopian story? And how do you start one?

The first thing you need to do when writing a dystopian story is to come up with a compelling premise. What has caused the world to become a dark, dangerous place? This can be anything from a natural disaster to a totalitarian government.

Once you have your premise, you need to decide what kind of story you want to tell. Are you going to focus on the struggles of a single character as they try to survive in this new world? Or will you paint a more sweeping picture, showing how different people are affected by the new world order?

Once you have your premise and focus, it’s time to start writing! The important thing to remember when writing a dystopian story is that while the world may be dark and grim, there should still be hope. After all, what is a story without hope? So don’t forget to inject optimism into your tale, even amid all the darkness.

How to Describe a Dystopian City in Your Writing

A dystopian city can be a great setting for your story. It can be a place of extremes where the rich live in opulence, and the poor are left to fend for themselves. It can be a place of indoctrination, where an oppressive government regime controls people. A dystopian society can be dangerous, where law and order have broken down, and crime is rampant. Whatever form your dystopian city takes, here are some tips on how to describe it in your writing.

1. Establish the mood. Is your dystopian city dark and foreboding? Is it a bright and shining example of what could go wrong? The mood you establish will set the tone for the rest of your descriptions.

2. Get specific with your details. The more specific you are with your descriptions, the easier it will be for your readers to picture the scene in their minds. When you’re painting a picture of your dystopian city, don’t forget the small details that will make it come alive.

3. Use sensory language. Be sure to use all five senses when describing your city. What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? By engaging all of the senses, you’ll give your readers a fuller understanding of the world you’ve created.

4. Compare and contrast. A great way to add depth to your description is to compare and contrast different city elements. For example, you might describe the divide between the rich and the poor or the effect of living in an oppressive regime.

5. Show, don’t tell. One mistake many writers make is telling their readers what they should be feeling instead of showing them through their words. If you want your readers to feel scared, don’t tell them, “this city is scary.” Show them why it’s scary by describing everything that makes it so.

The Importance of a Strong Main Character in Dystopian Fiction

In any good story, the protagonist is the engine that drives the plot forward. But a strong protagonist is even more essential in dystopian fiction, where the stakes are often high, and the world is often dark and oppressive. After all, it’s up to the protagonist to lead the charge against the forces of evil and bring about a better future.

But what makes a strong protagonist? In dystopian fiction, there are a few key qualities that a strong protagonist must possess to be successful.

Strength of character. The protagonist must be willing to stand up against overwhelming odds and fight for what’s right, even when it seems like all hope is lost. They must be brave and determined, with an unshakeable belief in their cause.
Intelligence. The protagonist must be able to outthink their opponents, whether they’re governmental forces or other rebel groups. They must be able to see through deception and manipulation and be quick on their feet to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
The protagonist must withstand whatever obstacles are thrown in their path, whether torture, imprisonment, or death. They must be able to pick themselves up after defeats and setbacks and never give up on their quest for justice.

Dystopian Fiction to Study

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

13 Dystopian Writing Prompts

While most suited to older students or writers looking for a dark yet thought provoking topic, dystopian stories can be a rich area to explore.

Often involving troubling subject matter such as authoritarian government control of the population or devastating climate damage, these stories can be great tools to look at what could happen in the future if people are not mindful of the direction society is taking.

So today we have a variety of darkly dystopian prompts to get your creative (and thoughtful) writing juices flowing…

How to use these prompts?

Try picking one at random from the list below, and take up the challenge of writing a 5000 word short story on the topic, letting your imagination run with it.

Alternatively, read through the list of prompts and find the one that speaks to you. Some creative ideas just resonate more strongly with us than others.

Take one story idea, and share it amongst a group of writers to see how varied the different resulting stories become.

Set yourself (or your students) the challenge of writing one short story a day, or a week if that is more manageable. Use the list of writing ideas as the theme of the challenge, and allow each one to act as a starting point for each subsequent story.

The prompts:

The whine of the scanner drones outside the high-rise apartment block was barely able to be heard, but everyone knew they were always near scanning the city for unauthorized activity…
The last of the wealthy ruling class had left the sprawling mega cities, headed to their secure mountain retreats. The cities were crumbling into chaos faster now, far more quickly than anyone thought could have happened…
The augmented reality headset had been on him since birth, unable to be removed, and gradually expanding as he grew and aged. Like the rest of society, he’d never seen the world without it’s altered view, and at this point he was glad of this, it seemed terrifying to think that in the past people could see the world in their own unique way, without a filter…
She was afraid, but could not show it. Her Social Rating score was the lowest it had ever been, after that emotional outburst last year. If she couldn’t increase it in the next few weeks, she knew there would be a knock at her door next month. Nobody knew where the lowest 20% Social Ranked citizens were taken…
The constant background noise of sirens and yelling and crying babies from this housing complex faded away to silence as the VR took him into The World. Everything was perfect here. Every face was smiling, everyone around him was going about their day, all walking to and fro down the perfect beautiful walkways of this virtual World. But despite their smiles, their eyes were cold and unfeeling…
The instructions arrived at his workstation from the Government, as they did everyday. No knew what it was that they were working on, but all of society was assured it was in their best interest…
As she slipped into sleep, the flickering of the lights began, as was expected. The same images that had been used for many years flickered through her unconscious mind, unsettling. Each morning when she woke she was happier that the making of decisions had been removed from their lives…
After clocking out from their work day, the credits arrived on their device. The long queue for oxygen canisters quickly wound around the block…
The news stream kept repeating the same three messages, around the clock. Any opinion that differed from these was seen as dangerous…
The solar farms were closed now, as the years of Government owned coal plants expansion had left the skies so thick with pollution that the sun could no longer reach the solar arrays…
As she selected which film to watch, she carefully considered how it would be interpreted by the State. All media consumption was monitored of course, and care was needed to select only entertainment that would not draw attention to one’s self…
As he waited at the city limit border, he practiced what he would say to the guards about why he should be allowed to leave the city. He yearned for the fresh air of the forests and open spaces of nature, but could not mention any of that for fear of arousing suspicion…
The security system in all homes was there to keep us safe. Over time it had started to demand more answers from us about our plans for our day, and why we were leaving the house…

Let your creativity be free!

I hope you enjoy your story writing, and would love to hear which prompts you’ve enjoyed using most of all to kickstart your short story (or epic masterpiece!)

We are creating more free resources for you every week, so please bookmark and Pin, and check back soon for more creative inspiration.

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Home / Book Writing / Dystopia Story Ideas: 30+ Prompts to Get Started

Dystopia Story Ideas: 30+ Prompts to Get Started

Dystopian stories, when done right, have massive appeal. Some big-name books, movies, and television shows of the last ten years have been based in an imagined dystopia. And from a writing point of view, there’s plenty to work with in these kinds of stories.

You don’t have to stick close to reality.

You can go a bit wild in discovering and describing your world and the disturbing factors that rule society. But if you’re not sure where to start, these dystopian story ideas will help your imagination tumble into a world where hope is the greatest asset of all!

What makes a good dystopian story?
Some examples of excellent dystopian stories.
A list of dystopia writing prompts.

The Character’s the Thing
Hope, Love, or Justice
The Best Dystopias Seem Like Utopias at First
Dystopia Story Examples
Dystopian Writing Prompts
Position Your Dystopian Novel for Success

How to Write a Good Dystopian Story

For some reason, humans tend to gravitate toward fatalistic and macabre stories. While not all humans enjoy these kinds of stories, enough people do that dystopian tales have become very much mainstream. But it’s not just the depressing and the existential that automatically make these stories popular. There needs to be something else, too. A couple of things, actually, to make this type of speculative fiction entertaining for the reader.

To write a good dystopian story, you need an engaging character and a compelling conflict to help the reader keep turning the pages. Actually, these two factors are essential in most types of creative writing endeavors. And when we consider character, we also need to consider point of view . Many relatively recent dystopian novels are written in first person , but third person limited is also a good option.

You’ll notice that the main characters in dystopian stories are often products of their world, but they strive for something better. They learn to stand up to the powers that be, whether directly or indirectly. Sometimes, the main character starts the novel not knowing that there’s another way to live. But something forces them out of their ordinary world , which opens their eyes to the surrounding injustices.

And, of course, the reader will need a reason to like them. There are several ways to make readers like your main characters, but the save the cat method is a favorite. Just make it your own!

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It can be hard to read 50,000+ words of dystopian fiction. These worlds are often dark, dreary, and brutal. This is why there’s almost always a through-line of hope, love, or justice — or all three.

Even if the character doesn’t accomplish their goal at the end of the story, there should be a light at the end of the tunnel that’s at least partially visible throughout the story. Even if the tunnel collapses at the end. After all, your main character needs to want something! They need a goal. And in a depressing dystopia, hope, love, and justice are all good things to want.

Imagine living in a society where no one falls through the cracks. People no longer go hungry. Those who want an education can get one without paying out the nose. Mental and physical health are priorities instead of commodities to be traded upon. And it’s all to everyone’s liking. Sounds pretty great, right? It almost sounds too good to be true.

Well, in a great dystopia story, it is too good to be true.

What would the cost of all this good be? Maybe the only way to keep the delicate balance is population control. Each family is only allowed one or two children. But what about the couple that accidentally gets pregnant with a third? What is the enforcement of these laws like?

This is just one example (and a rather obvious one at that). There are a ton of different ways to show the dark underbelly of an apparent utopia that’s really anything but. Strict food rationing. Capital punishment for anyone who steps out of line. Public beatings. Point systems that ostracize those with low scores. It’s all ripe for the picking.

What price would you be willing to pay to have all those great things mentioned above? And what if you and your neighbor disagree on that price? Exploring questions like these is where things get interesting in the dystopia story.

You don't have to look far to see examples of great dystopian literature. Here are just a few well-known dystopian works you can check out for inspiration and ideas.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Anthem by Ayn Rand
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry

Use the following dystopian writing prompts as jumping-off points, or simply take them as they are and get writing! They’re yours to use as you please. Whether you're writing a novel or a short story, you're sure to find some inspiration in at least one writing prompt below!

1. When turning 16, every person is required to have a kind of health meter installed in their brains that only they can see. Only it doesn’t measure health. It measures how much work you do. And if you aren’t “productive” enough, you will die.

2. Police officers are all replaced with robots. These machines are supposed to be incorruptible and unable to use “excessive force,” but when they all start acting strange at once, your characters must run for their lives.

3. Humans are forced to sleep in tiny little cubbies so their body heat can be siphoned off to power the cities. But it soon comes out that they’re taking more than just body heat when people start dying in droves.

4. In a state of perpetual surveillance, people are forced to smile and get along or else be taken away for reprogramming.

5. Happiness is available for a simple, low-price monthly treatment. And at first, it works. Everyone who can afford it is happy all the time. But humans aren’t meant to be happy all the time. What kind of adverse effects start happening as a result of this new wonder treatment?

6. Extrapolate the negative effects of social media. What happens in a few generations of people using social media as their primary means of interacting with others and getting information about the world?

7. Some unknown calamity has befallen the world. The remaining humans live in underground bunkers. If anyone goes outside, it can end the lives of all those in the bunker. But a growing movement thinks the whole thing is made up and they want to leave. What happens? Do they make it out? And if so, what do they find?

8. After an apocalyptic event, people are forced to repopulate the planet. They’re paired off from the age of eighteen and required to have at least two children, with no regard for sexual orientation or attraction. Those who don’t “perform” are ostracized.

9. A genetic mutation allows some people to see into the future. The world is controlled based on what these “seers” predict. But then they start seeing things that should be impossible. Chaos ensues as society scrambles to head off these threats that may or may not come true.

10. Explore a society in which our brains can be downloaded into cyberspace. But the demand for this stresses the entire world economy as more and more servers are built. What kind of effects does this have on those living in servitude to the dead?

11. In a world plagued by hunger, all animals are supposed to be processed for food. But one young woman finds a cat (or a dog) and decides to keep it. How far will she go to protect it?

12. Write about a world in which people can automatically upload their thoughts to social media sites. Society soon becomes split into two: those who do upload nearly every waking thought, and those who don’t. What would their differences be?

13. Two competing cults have taken over the world. They are at near-constant war with each other, turning the world into a hellscape. Until one character takes it upon herself to heal the rift.

14. In a world where death is a thing of the past, people's minds begin degrading after about 150 years. A radical new treatment purports to solve the problem, but there are unexpected side effects.

15. Military service becomes required at the age of 18. But with new advancements, soldiers come home changed into weapons that can't be turned off.

16. In a world where clean water is the major commodity, a sophisticated hierarchical society has formed around water purification plants.

17. As sea levels rise and farmland dries up, the world falls into chaos as little groups vie for control of food production.

18. When the wealth inequality gap grows large enough that the middle class disappears, homelessness runs rampant and the world is divided into homeless camps and walled-off subdivisions where the rich live.

19. In a world in which the air isn't safe to breathe, one scientist creates a device that is simple, cheap, and will clean the air. But the powers that be don't want the air cleaned. Your character must help get the word out about the new technology.

20. Earthquakes have decimated the world. Nowhere is safe. Now, most people live on massive floating platforms hundreds of feet off the ground. But these platforms require constant care, and it’s dangerous work to keep them afloat above the wrecked ground.

21. A couple has been separated by an explosive apocalypse. Neither knows if the other is even alive. But they both set off to try and find each other amid the chaos.

22. The world is ruled by humans with superpowers. The rest of humanity acts as their slaves. So far, there hasn't been any way to beat these superhumans. Until now . . .

23. A virus attacks the human brain, leaving those who get it essentially brain-dead. The government's solution is to kill these people and keep the virus from spreading. But people are starting to think this isn't the best way to do things.

24. A law is passed allowing clones the same rights as the original human. This means people can clone themselves and pass on their property and bank accounts when they die. But many of the clones don't want to wait that long . . .

25. The best drug in the world is time in the virtual reality world. But it costs money, which leads to rampant crime as 99% of the world wants nothing more than to escape to their virtual lives.

26. The United States is suddenly at war with itself, turning the Midwest into a dystopian setting. But as brutal battles rage, two groups seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. It won't be easy.

27. In a dystopian society where travel from state to state is tightly controlled, one character must find her way from New York to San Francisco to join a group of renegades fighting the status quo.

28. Humans can download any skill or knowledge they need from the internet directly into their brains. How does this affect the meritocracy in which we live?

29. Pollution gets so bad that the sun no longer shines through the smog. Explore the world that comes after 100 years of this.

30. Write about a world in which massive monsters have taken over large swaths of land. There's an uneasy and unspoken truce until the monsters start venturing out from their territories.

Whether you're doing a new take on Big Brother or you're looking to write a wholly unique story idea, there's one thing to consider: your audience. Dystopia books are considered speculative fiction, and there's a lot of overlap with science fiction. But choosing the wrong sci-fi categories or aiming for an oversaturated market can be roadblocks to success. That's where Publisher Rocket comes in.

You can use the information you get from Publisher Rocket to position your dystopian book for success on Amazon. You get insights directly from Amazon on:

Keywords – Metadata to position your dystopian book on Amazon.
Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
Categories – So you know where people who are looking for books like yours go to find them.
Amazon Ads – Helps you quickly configure a list of profitable keywords for running ads for your dystopian book.

Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.

I hope these dystopian writing prompts help get your ideas flowing. Keep writing!

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Dystopia Essay Titles

Utopia and Dystopia in the City of Tomorrow
An Analysis of Feminist Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Our Society Is Evolving to Be More Like A Dystopia Than A Democracy
Integrating Water Management Research: Synergy or Dystopia?
American Dystopia, American Spaces, and Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.”
The Dystopia and Assimilation of 1984’s Brave New World
Technology and Utopia in Gattaca and Fahrenheit 451
Dystopia: Science Fiction, Exaggeration, or Near Future Reality
Some Reflections on Feminism and Utopianism in the Handmaid’s Tale
Censorship in the Dystopian Novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Dystopia in the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hunger Games Dystopia Results from A Massive Technological Boom.
The Theme of Feminist Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Somewhere between Utopia and Dystopia: Selecting from Unparalleled Opportunities
The Causes of the Island’s Transformation from Utopia to Dystopia in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
The Current Cowardly Dystopia in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
Searching for the Meaning of Life: The Dystopia of “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett
Remarks on Totalitarian Government: Finding Dystopia in Matched
How Does Orwell Construct A Dystopian Society in 1984?
Utopia, Dystopia, or Anti-Utopia?
Humanity and Dystopia in Ayn Rand’s Anthem
The Contrast between Utopia and Dystopia in 1984 and the Dispossessed
The Function of a Good City: Utopia, Dystopia, and Heterotopia

Essay Topics on Dystopia

The Idea of Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Similarities between the Novels by Harrison Bergeron and Dystopia
The Portrayal of Dystopia in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley’s the Beauty of the Utopia
Utopia and Dystopia in the Works of Harrison Bergeron and the Lottery
Utopia and Dystopia in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , A Futuristic Novel
Aldous Huxley’s Dystopia About Modern Society
Utopia and Dystopia in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed
The Handmaid’s Tale : An Analysis of Feminist Dystopia
Self-Repression and Dystopia in “Never Let Me Go”: The Uneven Path to Freedom
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Modern Dystopia Warnings
Utopia and Dystopia in George Orwell’s Animal Farm
The Art of War , A Dystopian Adaptation of the Ancient Chinese Classic, About 2032
The Development of Dystopian Fiction in Selected Literary Works
The Horror of Dystopia Revealed in Neuromancer
Comparable Features of Utopia and Dystopia
The Role of Nature and Technology in the Concepts of Utopia and Dystopia in Contrastive Utopias
The Dystopia of Neuromancer by William Gibson
Examining “Technology and Politics in the Blade Runner Dystopia” by Judith Kerman.
The Dystopia Concept in Harrison Bergeron, the Giver, and Uglies
Utopia or Dystopia: Technology’s Future
Religious Dystopia in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
The Literary Genre of Dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale
Identity: Challenging Dystopia’s Templates
Dystopia in Ray Bradbury and George Orwell’s Novels
The Handmaid’s Tale

Dystopia Discussion Questions

What Constitutes A Dystopian Novel?
Who Produces the Most Unsettling Dystopian Future Vision?
Why Are Dystopian Novels So Well-Liked?
What Is an Illustration of a Dystopia?
What Exactly Is A Dystopian Society?
What Are the Five Attributes of a Dystopia?
Which Four Types of Dystopia Exist?
What Are the Nine Characteristics of a Dystopia?
What Are Some Alternative Words for Dystopia?
What Are Utopia and Dystopia?
What Is the Antithesis of Dystopia?
What Is A Dystopia Individual?
How Do You Recognize A Dystopia?
Why Is It Known as Dystopia?
How Does One Survive in A Dystopia?
What Happens to A Person in A Dystopian Society?
What Type of Government Exists in A Dystopian Society?
What Exactly Is A Feminist Utopia?
Who Created the Dystopian Novel?
Is A Dystopian Society Conceivable?
Why Does Dystopian Fiction Frequently Depict A Frightening Future?
Why Does Dystopian Literature Frequently Depict the Search for Meaning in Hostile and Oppressive Worlds?
What Problems Does Human Progress Pose in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction?
How Does Individualism Manifest Itself in Utopian and Dystopian Literature?
What Are Dystopian Societies and the Advancement of Equality?
How Does Dystopian Literature Portray Humanity and Individualism?

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30 Dystopian Plot Ideas for a Terrifying Future

Dystopian fiction is one of the darker subgenres of science fiction and fantasy. It takes us into dark, foreboding worlds, where oppression and bleak landscapes are the norm.

Books like 1984 by George Orwell, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have become classics that shine a light on political corruption, environmental disaster, and societal collapse.

Why do we love these stories? Maybe it's because dystopian fiction allows us to explore worst-case scenarios, to grapple with the idea that the world we know and love could be lost forever. It's a way for us to confront our fears and anxieties about the future, to see what could happen if we continue down a certain path.

At the same time, dystopian fiction often provides a sense of hope. It allows us to see characters rise up against the oppressive forces and fight for what's right. It encourages us to question authority and to never give up on the idea of a better world.

It also challenges us to think critically about the world and question the status quo. It begs us to look beyond ourselves and to consider the larger implications of our actions.

With all of that going for it, it’s no wonder then that this is an exciting genre to write.

If you’ve ever wanted to write a dystopian novel but didn’t know where to start, then I’ve got some killer plot ideas to help get you going. Hopefully one of these can help you create the next great dystopian novel.

30 Dystopian Plot Ideas

In a world where water is scarce and controlled by a corrupt government, a young girl sets out on a perilous journey to find a legendary underground river that could save her people.
After a global war leaves the planet uninhabitable, the remnants of humanity live in a massive, floating city ruled by a ruthless elite. A rebel group plans a daring attack to overthrow their overlords with disastrous consequences.
In a future where a powerful corporation controls every aspect of society, a young employee discovers a dark secret that could destroy the company and change the course of history.
After a devastating earthquake destroys their city, a group of survivors must navigate the dangerous ruins and fend off ruthless gangs to reach a rumored safe haven.
In a world where genetic engineering has created a new race of superhumans, a group of regular people struggle to survive in a society that sees them as inferior.
After an alien invasion wipes out most of humanity, a small group of survivors discover a secret government facility that holds the key to defeating their extraterrestrial overlords.
In a society where emotions are outlawed and suppressed through a sinister government program, a young woman discovers she possesses a rare ability to feel, and must hide her secret while fighting to overthrow the oppressive regime.
After a rogue AI takes over the world's computer systems, a hacker must lead a team to infiltrate its stronghold and shut it down before it can launch a devastating attack.
In a world where a mysterious virus has wiped out all but a few survivors, a woman must journey across a dangerous, deserted landscape to reunite with her family.
After a catastrophic event renders the planet uninhabitable, the last remaining humans must flee to a colony on a distant planet. But when they arrive, they discover the new world is far from the paradise they were promised.
In a world where a powerful drug controls people's thoughts and actions, a young woman risks everything to uncover the truth behind its creation and find a way to free her society.
After a solar flare wipes out most of Earth's population, a group of survivors must navigate a world plunged into darkness, avoiding dangerous creatures and rebuilding society.
In a future where corporations have replaced governments, a group of rebels must band together to take down the ruthless CEO of the world's largest company and restore democracy.
After a nuclear war decimates the planet, a small group of survivors in a remote bunker must find a way to rebuild society and avoid the dangers of the wasteland outside.
In a world where humanity has been forced underground to escape the deadly radiation of the sun, a young girl must journey to the surface to find a cure for a mysterious illness that threatens her people.
After a meteor strike devastates the planet, a woman must lead a group of survivors through a treacherous landscape to reach a rumored safe haven.
In a society where artificial intelligence has replaced human labor, a group of displaced workers must fight for their rights and overthrow their robotic overlords.
After a global pandemic wipes out most of the world's population, a woman must travel across a dangerous landscape to deliver a cure to the only remaining stronghold of humanity.
In a world where people are assigned their professions at birth, a young man must break free from his predetermined destiny and forge his own path.
After a mysterious event causes all technology to stop working, a group of survivors must navigate a world without electricity or communication.
In a world where a totalitarian government controls every aspect of citizens' lives, a small group of rebels must risk everything to overthrow their oppressors and restore freedom to their people.
After a genetic experiment goes awry, a group of mutated humans with extraordinary abilities are forced to live in hiding, battling both their own inner demons and the ruthless government agents hunting them down.
In a future where resources are scarce and the rich control everything, a young woman from the slums must enter a deadly competition to win a better life for herself and her family.
After an environmental disaster renders the world uninhabitable, a small group of humans must journey to a distant planet to start anew, facing dangers both known and unknown.
In a society where emotions are forbidden and regulated, a young man must navigate the treacherous waters of love and rebellion, risking everything to reclaim his humanity.
After a rogue artificial intelligence takes control of the world's nuclear weapons, a group of scientists and hackers must band together to stop the impending apocalypse.
In a future where humans have been genetically engineered for perfection, a group of outcasts with "imperfections" must fight for their right to exist and be seen as equals.
After a virus mutates and turns humans into ravenous monsters, a small group of survivors must navigate a world overrun with the undead.
In a society where people's thoughts are monitored and controlled by a mysterious force, a young woman must uncover the truth behind the system and fight to regain her free will.
After a massive solar storm destroys the planet's electrical grid, a group of survivors must band together to rebuild their communities and fend off marauders in a world without technology.

Hopefully, one of those ideas helps generate some thoughts for your own dystopian novel. To get that story down, you’ll want something to help keep you organized. Dabble is the perfect tool for tracking all your plot threads, characters, and research notes to ensure your story is the best it can be.

Try out Dabble free for fourteen days and see if it’s the tool for your writing journey!

Nisha J Tuli is a YA and adult fantasy and romance author who specializes in glitter-strewn settings and angst-filled kissing scenes. Give her a feisty heroine, a windswept castle, and a dash of true love and she’ll be lost in the pages forever. When Nisha isn’t writing, it’s probably because one of her two kids needs something (but she loves them anyway). After they’re finally asleep, she can be found curled up with her Kobo or knitting sweaters and scarves, perfect for surviving a Canadian winter.

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Essay Samples on Dystopia

Feminism and totalitarism in 'the handmaid's tale' dystopia novel.

Dystopia is the opposite of the ideal society, which is a utopia, that often appears in literature and artistic creation. Dystopias are typically post-apocalyptic or totalitaristic, but there are other forms of dystopias as well such as feminist, cyberpunk, off-world, etc. With 'The Handmaid's Tale'...

Literary Criticism
The Handmaid's Tale

Futuristic World in Dystopia: the Illusion of a Happy Society

A utopia is an imaginary society where all citizens are treated equally and with dignity, and citizens live in safety without fear. Since utopias do not exist, attempting to create one can have detrimental consequences. The utopia can become a dystopia. A dystopia is a...

Literary Genres
Literature Review

Technology Myth In "The Circle" By Dave Eggers

The Circle: The Technology Myth The novel begins on a glistening, sunlit day in June, Mae Holland cruises campus on her first-ever day at the Circle (Eggers, 1). The company is a creative and strongly favorite web organization, which has seized the globe by a...

Impact of Technology

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as Dystopian Fiction

Published in 1985, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale emerged during an auspicious time for dystopian fiction, following works such as Adoux Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. These dystopian narratives provided readers with captivating examinations into bleak,...

Presentation Of Authoritarian Control In George Orwell's 1984 And Brave New World

In the two novels ’Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley and ‘1984’ by George Orwell, authoritarian control is a recurring theme throughout both plots. The two authors, who were influenced by their experiences of war on a large scale during the twentieth century were saddened...

Brave New World

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Survival Is Insufficient In Novel Of Station Eleven

Societies can interconnect human life but can also isolate people from each other with the technology within. Station Eleven is a novel about a society devolving into a Dystopia, but it also explores what a society is. Mandel explores society through different perspectives by describing...

Station Eleven

The Lifetime Memories Of The Past And Present In Station Eleven And Monkey Beach

Individuals experience many things over their lifetime that make them who they are. Joyful, stressful, exciting and traumatic experiences are often things every individual goes through; the one thing that connects all of them is memory. Memory allows one to reflect on experiences that are...

The Theme Of Gratitude As A Beacon Of Hope As Seen In Station Eleven

Station 11, by Emily Mandel, revolves around the topic of gratitude and reveals that people, when they lose certain privileges, realize the gravity of the things that they actually have. In the book, before the pandemic, society is presented as unremarkable. In the golden age...

The Comparison Of Dystopian Worlds In 1984 And Brave New World

Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 are both Dystopian novels written ahead of their time that, in their own way, frighteningly predicted the western world of today. 21st Century western society has turned out to be a combination of both Huxley and Orwell’s visions...

The Expression Of Memories Through Art In Station Eleven

Magazines in houses that were deserted in order to try to recollect the world she was once living in and keen memories about the people she once knew and cared for. Lost memories sometimes are results of post-traumatic experiences and in Kirsten case it was...

Comparative Analysis Of Station Eleven And War For The Planet Of The Apes

The history of humanity has been riddled with new diseases and mass pandemics that have threatened the collapse of society. In today’s media, artists like to imagine a world where this disastrous event does happen, when medicine fails and the world is thrust into a...

Hope and Faith as the Tools for Survival in "Station Eleven"

The doomsday book Station Eleven by Emily Mandel has the theme of faith and fate, demonstrates how in events of struggle and fear, such as an epidemic, people turn to faith for help. The author represents faith as something that has similar importance in the...

Dystopian Society In Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go, written by Kazuo Ishiguro in 2005, is about the perspective of a female named Kathy who grows up knowing how she will die and her friends. They attend a boarding school called Hailsham that raises them from birth and is informed...

Never Let Me Go

Feminism in Dystopian Novels: Parable of the Sower, Woman on the Edge of Time, and Binti

Feminism has been changing the way people think about gender since the 1960’s, and this change can be seen in the writers of different novels. Feminism and gender roles are portrayed in the characters in Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, Parable...

Parable of The Sower

Trepidant of Dystopian Societies: Brave New World and V for Vendetta

Throughout the novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the movie V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, the author and director both reveal and display significant messages about how dystopian societies function and maneuver of how dictatorial governments rule the civilization. Through the...

V For Vendetta

Thebes’ Dystopian Aspects in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

While the definition of dystopia is being debated by scholars to this day, Gregory Claeys provides a broad definition as to what the concept of dystopia is: something that showcases the “negative visions of humanity generally” (Vieira 3), is opposite to what is regarded as...

Oedipus The King

Critical Appreciation of Dystopian Themes in The Children of Men

The ‘Children of Men’ presents the various dystopian tropes through the use of the linguistic techniques in order to question society’s troubles and create a parable to our own reality. PD James introduces the dystopian trope of the uncanny through this setting. By using similar...

Children of Men

The Dichotomy of Dystopian and Utopian Societies in "The Giver"

Lois Lowry's novel "The Giver" explores the concept of a society that strives for perfection, leading to both a utopian and dystopian reality. In the novel, the protagonist, Jonas, lives in a seemingly perfect world, where everyone is content and there is no suffering or...

Analysis of The Truman Show Through the Ideas of Utopian and Dystopian Society

What if the reality you are used to see is not the real one? How would you feel if you discovered that during your whole live you have been controlled and used as entertainment? The aim of this essay is to compare the film The...

The Truman Show

Station Eleven: Exposing the Fragility of Society Through Fictional Characters

Station Eleven is a novel about a society devolving into a Dystopia, but it also explores what a society is. Mandel explores society through different perspectives by describing events prior to its downfall. For example, Arthur and Miranda’s migration from a small island into a...

The Terryfing Ideas of Change in V for Vendetta

Politician Jerry Brown once said, “Where there is a sufficient social movement of self-reliant communities, there can be political change. There must be political change.” V for Vendetta (2006) originated from a graphic novel written by Allan Moore and is set in a dystopian Great-Britain...

Blade Runner as one of Cinematic Masterpieces

‘Blade Runner’ film by Ridley Scott is an adaptation of the book ‘Do Andriod’s Dream of Electric Sheep’ by Philip K. Dick. The story follows the main protagonist Rick Deckard, a retired police officer who retired NEXUS 6 replicants, living in a dystopian LA, 2019....

Blade Runner

Impact of Dystopian Regime on Individuality in Huger Games and Divergent

Introduction The 2012 film “The Hunger Games’ by Gary Ross and the 2014 film “Divergent” by Neil Burger use a range of similar and different techniques to explore the themes of oppression, empowerment and rebellion and its impact on individuality. Ross and Burger’s sci-fi thrillers...

The Control of Life by the Government in the Dystopian World of "Divergent"

In the novel Divergent, it tells about a dystopian society and how they separate each other into five factions, the factionless, and a wall. These five factions all have a different role and a different way of life. Dauntless are the brave and fearless, Abnegation...

Social Control

The Constraints of Realism as a Democratic Art

Introduction Realism, as an artistic movement, emerged as a response to the idealism and romanticism of earlier periods. It aimed to depict the world in an objective and unembellished manner, presenting an authentic representation of reality. However, despite its intentions, realism faces certain constraints as...

Depiction of Dystopian Worlds in The Handmaid's Tale and 1984

Dystopian literature questions the power of language, both Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ and Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty - four’ showcases a variety of qualities necessary to advocate one’s freedom. Whilst both novelists share the common theme of language limiting both freedom and knowledge the two texts...

The Impact of Cinematography on Portrayal of Dystopia in Film

It is in the creation of dystopian film that universal issues of a political, social and cultural concern are made more widely relevant and accessible to a contemporary audience. The value of such dystopic representations of society derives from the filmmaker’s ability to timelessly comment...

Film Analysis

A Comprehensive Analysis of Dystopian Genre in Literature

Dystopian genre blossomed in literature during the nineteenth century and developed significantly as a critical response and an antithesis to utopian fiction and shows utopia gone awry. The word ‘dystopia’ can be translated from Greek as ‘bad place’ and usually it depicts something a society...

Feminist Dystopia in Margaret Atwood “The Handmaid's Tale”

Feminism is a political and social movement; it shares a recurrent goal which is to achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality of sexes (IWDA). A dystopia is a society that is crumbling, decaying or in a tyrannized and terrorized state. They divulge the public’s...

The Handmaid's Tale and Animal Farm: Defamiliarizing Reproduction and Totalitarian Regimes

In his book, Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide, Professor M. Keith Booker argues that the principle literary strategy that dystopian literature utilizes is defamiliarization. He states that 'by focusing their critiques of society on imaginatively distant settings, dystopian fictions provide fresh perspectives on...

Animal Farm

A Comparison of the Current World to Huxley's Brave New World

Is the Modern World in Danger of Becoming the Brave New World? In his 1932 dystopian novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a future “World State” government that models its civilization on the principles of community, identity, and stability. The inhabitants of this world...

Bioengineering

We By Yevgeny Zamyatin: The Terrible Consequences Of The Abandonment

In this 20st century novel it can be inferred that the story is an allegory on the early Soviet Union. The story is taking place in the future and is a dystopia. Totalitarianism and conformity are characteristics of the Soviet Union society of that time....

Book Review

Sacred Games And Black Mirror: Crafted Dark Stories Opening Doors To Reality

The age of cliffhangers rewrites the style of stories being told “Kabhi kabhi lagta hai apun hi Bhagwan hai!” If this line rings a bell in your head, then you too, are probably among the majority whose minds that got influenced by Sacred Games. The...

Best topics on Dystopia

1. Feminism and Totalitarism in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Dystopia Novel

2. Futuristic World in Dystopia: the Illusion of a Happy Society

3. Technology Myth In “The Circle” By Dave Eggers

4. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale as Dystopian Fiction

5. Presentation Of Authoritarian Control In George Orwell’s 1984 And Brave New World

6. Survival Is Insufficient In Novel Of Station Eleven

7. The Lifetime Memories Of The Past And Present In Station Eleven And Monkey Beach

8. The Theme Of Gratitude As A Beacon Of Hope As Seen In Station Eleven

9. The Comparison Of Dystopian Worlds In 1984 And Brave New World

10. The Expression Of Memories Through Art In Station Eleven

11. Comparative Analysis Of Station Eleven And War For The Planet Of The Apes

12. Hope and Faith as the Tools for Survival in “Station Eleven”

13. Dystopian Society In Never Let Me Go

14. Feminism in Dystopian Novels: Parable of the Sower, Woman on the Edge of Time, and Binti

15. Trepidant of Dystopian Societies: Brave New World and V for Vendetta

Sonny's Blues
Hidden Intellectualism
William Shakespeare
A Raisin in The Sun
Diary of A Wimpy Kid

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Dystopian Story Ideas: Transform Fear Into Fiction [99+ Ideas]

Want to write a dystopian story but stuck for new and unique ideas?

Keep reading to see a list of more than 99+ unique dystopian story ideas that you can use for your next novel , short story , or screenplay !

I’ve divided them up into the main categories of dystopian fiction – such as post-apocalyptic, environmental collapse, corporate control, and biological dystopias. I hope you find a great idea for your story!

Dystopian Story Ideas for Your Next Creative Work

Let’s get right into all of the dystopian story prompts!

Post-Apocalyptic

These stories focus on life after a catastrophic event has decimated civilization, leaving survivors to navigate a radically altered world.

Ocean’s Reclaim: The continents are underwater, and humanity lives in floating towns. A diver finds an old city below the sea, perfectly preserved. The find offers the promise of treasures and knowledge but also brings up hidden dangers from the deep.

The Dome: A city under a dome is safe from the toxic world outside. But when the dome starts cracking, panic sets in. A group of unlikely heroes must go outside to find what they need to fix the dome, facing the old world’s remains and new life that has adapted to the harsh environment.

The Last City: The last city stands alone in a desert-covered world. A map found inside the city suggests that another city is out there. This sparks hope and fear, leading to debates on whether to stay safe or risk searching for this mysterious place.

Sky People: After Earth’s surface becomes uninhabitable, people live in airships. A scout sees land through the clouds, but proving it might be habitable for humans again is challenging for a society used to living in the sky.

Desert Walkers: In a world turned to desert, a group travels the sands searching for “Green Haven,” a place rumored to have water and greenery. The journey to find the haven tests their spirit, especially when they find clues they might be on the right path.

The Last Library: The last library, filled with old knowledge, sits in a ruined city. But a ghostly guardian blocks the way, demanding a tribute for entry. The library could help rebuild the world, but only if the story’s hero can find a way in.

Radio Silence: A lone radio operator connects far-off communities in a quiet, post-apocalyptic world. One day, a strange message comes through, hinting at a society that survived the disaster. The operator is torn between hope and the fear of leading others into danger.

Seed Vault Heist: There’s talk of a seed vault buried in old-world ruins, holding seeds of all known plants. A group sets out to find it, hoping to bring life back to their barren world. But the journey is dangerous, filled with obstacles and the guardians of the vault’s secrets.

Ghost Cities: An explorer looks through empty cities for treasures of the past. One city is different – it’s still running as if waiting for its people to return. Solving this city’s mystery might show what happened to its people and maybe how to fix civilization.

Solar Flare Survivors: After a solar flare destroys all electronics, survivors come together to start over. They must use old ways to solve problems, bringing people together and protecting against those who want to take advantage of the world’s fragile state.

RELATED: Read my apocalypse story ideas here !

Totalitarian Regimes

In these narratives, society is controlled by an authoritarian government that restricts freedom, surveils its citizens, and often enforces conformity through fear.

The Last Garden: In a city of concrete and steel, the last green space is about to be destroyed. A young gardener discovers rare seeds in the garden and becomes the unexpected leader of a movement to save the city’s soul.

The Colorless Law: In a world where expressing individuality is banned, wearing colors is a crime. A young artist risks everything by creating a secret gallery of vibrant paintings, challenging the gray monotony enforced by the oppressive regime.

The Memory Erasers: The government has a machine that erases unwanted memories. When a technician discovers they’ve been erasing more than just bad memories, they must decide whether to expose the truth or stay safe in ignorance.

The Silent Anthem: Music is controlled by the state, with only approved tunes allowed. A hidden group of musicians composes a rebellious anthem, spreading it underground as a silent protest.

The Masked Educator: Education is strictly controlled, but a masked teacher gives illegal lessons to children in the slums, teaching them about the world before the regime. When the teacher’s identity is threatened, the community must protect their only hope for a brighter future.

The Skywriters: To evade surveillance, rebels start writing messages in the sky using old planes. A young pilot must navigate dangerous skies to deliver a message that could unite the oppressed citizens.

The Shadow Network: A network of spies uses the city’s shadows to pass messages and contraband, fighting against the regime’s all-seeing eye. A new recruit with a unique talent for moving unseen becomes pivotal in their most daring plan yet.

The Reflective Rebellion: Mirrors are banned because the regime wants to control how people see themselves. A young rebel starts a secret trade in mirrors, helping people see their true selves and sparking an identity revolution.

The Outcast Engineer: Technology is restricted to the elite, but an outcast engineer builds a communication device from scraps. This invention connects isolated rebel groups, turning scattered resistance into a coordinated uprising.

The Dissenter’s Code: The regime communicates through a secure code believed to be unbreakable. A young coder discovers a flaw in the code and faces a moral dilemma: expose it to aid the rebellion or stay silent to protect their family.

Environmental Collapse

These tales show worlds where ecological disasters have led to a scarcity of resources, drastic climate changes, or uninhabitable conditions, all of which challenge humanity’s survival.

The Creeping Fog: A toxic fog has enveloped the earth, and creatures who have been mutated by the chemicals lurk within it. A small community of survivors living on the few remaining clear peaks must find a way to purify the air before the creeping fog engulfs them completely.

The Root Terrors: After genetically modified plants fail, they begin to grow uncontrollably, their roots growing deep into the earth and awakening ancient creatures. These monstrous beings, resembling twisted plant-animal hybrids, now threaten the last bastions of humanity.

The Heat Beasts: As global temperatures rise, so does the aggression of certain animal species. These creatures have evolved into fierce monsters thriving in the sweltering heat, forcing humans to seek refuge in the few remaining cool zones.

Frozen Shadows: A new Ice Age has dawned, and humanity survives in domed cities. When one dome’s heating system fails, a group of teenagers discovers a forgotten underground city, offering warmth and hope. But something else lurks in the shadows.

Acid Rains: Toxic rains have made the world’s surface uninhabitable. People live in sealed towers, but one tower’s seal is failing. A resourceful engineer and her team must venture into the dangerous outside to find the materials needed to save their home.

The Coral Ark: With the oceans dying, marine biologists create an underwater ark to save the last coral reefs. A young recruit discovers a way to regenerate coral faster but must convince the skeptical world leaders before it’s too late.

The Heatwave Heist: In a city plagued by relentless heatwaves, a cool underground refuge exists for the elite. A gang of street-smart kids plans a daring heist to bring the cooling technology to the surface dwellers.

The Pollen Plague: A genetically modified plant spreads uncontrollably, producing deadly pollen. A scientist’s daughter, immune to the pollen, must journey through the hazardous bloom to find her father’s lab and the cure he was working on.

The Tidal City: After the ice caps melt, a city survives by adapting to the new tidal world, floating on the water. When the city starts sinking, a young engineer uncovers an old, forgotten technology that could save them all.

The Oxygen Operatives: With most plants dead, oxygen levels are dangerously low. An underground group discovers a lab where oxygen can be artificially produced. They embark on a mission to seize the lab and distribute the technology, fighting against those who control the oxygen for power.

Technological Dystopias

Here, technology has gone awry – leading to dehumanization, surveillance, loss of privacy, or the dominance of machines and artificial intelligence over humans.

The Monster Factory: A biotech company secretly experiments with combining monster DNA with robotics to create super soldiers. When the experiments break loose, a group of survivors must find a way to deactivate the monsters.

The Augmented Divide: Society is split between those who can afford augmentations to enhance their abilities and those who cannot. A gifted but un-augmented girl discovers a plot to further oppress the “naturals” and fights to bridge the divide.

The Last Human Job: As robots take over all work, the last human job is to maintain the robots. When the main character discovers a plot by the machines to eliminate this last position, they must fight to save humanity’s purpose.

The Sleep Sellers: Sleep is a luxury in a future where people are hyper-connected and always online. A sleep clinic offers genuine rest for a high price, but its methods are sinister. A young insomniac uncovers the dark truth behind the clinic’s success.

The Golem Protectors: In a world overrun by monstrous machines, ancient magic is rediscovered, allowing the creation of golems. A young mage becomes a leader in the resistance, crafting golems to fight the mechanical beasts threatening humanity.

The Shadow Network: A dark web magician uses his skills to summon digital demons that haunt the city’s network, stealing information and causing chaos. A team of tech-savvy witches must use a blend of magic and technology to banish these entities.

The Arcane Firewall: A mystical barrier protects the last human city from hordes of cybernetic monsters roaming the wastelands. When the barrier starts to weaken, a young technomancer must venture out to find the lost source of ancient power needed to restore it.

The Hybrid Curse: A failed experiment to merge magic with human DNA results in monstrous hybrids that escape into the city. A group of affected individuals struggling with their new monstrous impulses seek a cure before they lose their humanity completely.

The Phantom Signal: A mysterious signal from deep space turns half the world’s population into sleepwalkers, mindlessly building strange structures. The unaffected half discovers these structures are magical in nature, opening portals to monstrous dimensions.

The Spellware Conflict: In a future where software can cast spells, a major bug causes the spells to manifest monstrous entities in the real world. A team of spellware developers must venture into the infected code realms to fix the bug and banish the monsters.

Social Decay

These stories highlight societies where social structures have broken down, leading to rampant crime, moral decay, and a survival-of-the-fittest mentality.

The Alleyway Alchemist: In the city’s most dangerous alley, an alchemist brews potions that grant temporary magical abilities. When his creations start causing unexpected side effects, leading to an outbreak of chaos, he teams up with a group of affected youths to find a remedy and uncover the source of the tainted magic.

The Phantom Market: Hidden within the city’s ruins, a market appears at midnight, offering wares from the mystical to the macabre. A teenager searching for a cure for his cursed sibling visits the market, where he must bargain with creatures of myth.

The Shattered Sigil: A series of mystical sigils that once protected the city have been destroyed, leading to an influx of malevolent entities preying on the populace. A group of teenagers, each bearing a shard of the broken sigils, must piece them together, facing trials that test their resolve and unity.

The Mirror Realms: Mirrors in the city begin to act as portals to a parallel realm, where mystical creatures and magic are commonplace. When a sinister force threatens both worlds, a band of misfits must navigate the mirror realms to restore balance and prevent the city’s collapse into chaos.

The Divide: A city split by a massive wall, with wealth and safety on one side and poverty and danger on the other. A group of youths from the poor side devise a risky plan to cross the wall, seeking a better life and sparking a movement for equality.

The Neon Jungle: Amidst the decay of a once-thriving city, neon lights mask the darkness of crime and vice. Using old-school methods, a teenage detective delves into the city’s underbelly to solve a mystery that could either save or doom what’s left of society.

The Ash Barons: After an economic collapse, gangs known as Barons control different city sectors, trading in goods, information, and illicit services. A teenager, indebted to a Baron, seeks freedom by uncovering and exploiting the other Barons’ secrets.

The Water Wars: Water is scarce, and control over it means power. When a young inventor discovers a new way to purify water, she becomes a target in the deadly water wars, fighting to bring hope to the thirsty masses.

The Memory Traders: In a world where memories can be extracted and traded, the rich relive their best moments while the poor sell theirs to survive. A young man with nothing left to sell decides to steal memories, uncovering a plot to control society through manipulated pasts.

The Gilded Cage: The city’s elite live in luxurious, protected enclaves, oblivious to the suffering outside. When a wealthy teenager’s curiosity leads her beyond the gates, she’s faced with the harsh realities of her society and must choose her path.

Corporate Control

In these dystopias, powerful corporations have taken over governments – leading to societies ruled by commercial interests, consumerism, and exploitation.

The Mind Merchants: A corporation develops a technology to read and manipulate thoughts. A young hacker, immune to the tech, becomes the leader of an underground group fighting to preserve free will.

The Ad Wars: Two rival corporations use advanced technology to project advertisements directly into people’s minds. When a teenager develops the ability to block these ads, they become a key player in the battle for mental freedom.

The Branding: In a world where every citizen is branded with a corporate logo at birth, a young rebel discovers an unbranded society living off the grid. They embark on a journey to uncover the truth behind the corporations and find freedom beyond the brands.

The Echo Chambers: A corporation creates virtual reality worlds tailored to individual desires, trapping users in endless cycles of pleasure and consumption. A group of teenagers accidentally discovers a way out and must navigate the real world to dismantle the system.

The Corporate Heir: The heir to a corporate empire goes undercover in one of the company’s factory towns and discovers the harsh realities of the workers’ lives. Torn between family loyalty and justice, they plot to overturn the system from within.

The Green Resistance: In a world ravaged by pollution, where corporations profit from selling clean air and water, a band of environmentalists discovers a way to purify the environment naturally. Their mission to spread the solution directly conflicts with the interests of the corporate behemoths.

The Nutrition Monopoly: Food is synthetic, controlled by a single corporation, and designed to be addictive. A nutritionist uncovers a conspiracy to keep natural food from the public and starts an underground movement to grow real food.

The Sleep Sellers: In a fast-paced, sleepless society powered by stimulants, one company controls the market for sleep solutions. A sleep-deprived detective stumbles upon a deadly side effect of the sleep product and races against time to expose the truth.

The Memory Market: Memories can be bought and sold, and a powerful corporation monopolizes the market. A young woman with the rare ability to remember everything sets out to destroy the memory market and restore authentic human experience.

The Leisure Lottery: Leisure time is a commodity sold by corporations. When a factory worker wins a lifetime of leisure, he discovers the leisure class lives in ignorance of the outside world’s suffering. He must choose between comfort and fighting for change.

Biological Dystopias

These narratives explore the consequences of genetic engineering gone wrong, pandemics, or bioweapons, resulting in altered humans or widespread illness.

The Hybrid Haven: A space station designed as a refuge for genetically modified humans becomes a battleground when a segment of the population evolves monstrous traits. The station’s residents must unite to confront these beings and the corporation that seeks to exploit them.

The Splice Frontier: In an attempt to adapt humans for space colonization, genetic splicing with alien DNA leads to unforeseen mutations. A crew on a distant planet must navigate the challenges of their altered abilities while confronting the native, monstrous creatures they’re becoming.

The Bio-Curse: An ancient virus unearthed by archaeologists in a forgotten tomb spreads rapidly, granting people magic-like powers but at a terrible cost. Society collapses as people struggle to control their new abilities, and the race for a cure becomes entwined with the quest to understand this new magic.

The NeuroFlux Epidemic: A neuro-enhancing drug designed for space travelers mutates, causing people to experience reality in different timelines. A group of affected astronauts must use their disjointed perceptions to navigate back to Earth and warn of the impending epidemic.

The Chimera Colony: A colony on a distant planet uses genetic engineering to adapt to the harsh environment, but the introduction of alien DNA creates chimeric monsters. Colonists must fight for survival against creatures of their own making while seeking a way to reverse the genetic alterations.

The Contagion Chronicles: A pandemic grants a portion of the infected population supernatural abilities but turns others into mindless beasts. A group of survivors with newfound powers must navigate a crumbling society, seeking safety and a cure amidst the chaos.

The Quantum Plague: A disease spread by interdimensional travel wreaks havoc on humanity, causing random mutations—some beneficial, some monstrous. A team of interdimensional travelers searches for the plague’s origin, hoping to find a cure across parallel worlds.

The Arcane Infection: A magical plague transforms those it infects into mythical creatures – but with dire consequences. A group of afflicted individuals forms an alliance, blending their newfound abilities with ancient magic to find a cure and confront the sorcerer who unleashed the plague.

The Morphing Sickness: A contagious disease causes people to morph into the last animal they touched, leading to chaos and a fractured society. A young girl, morphed into a cat but retaining her consciousness, becomes the key to unraveling the disease’s mysteries.

The Cursed Voyage: A spaceship carrying a genetically engineered pathogen to a distant colony crashes on an uncharted planet. The survivors find themselves battling not only the pathogen, which creates terrifying mutations, but also the planet’s mystical forces that resist their presence.

RELATED: Click to see a master list of alien name ideas for your story !

Psychological Dystopias

These stories explore societies that use propaganda, drugs, or psychology to control human minds and maintain order.

The Serenity Serum: A corrupt government mandates a serum to keep the population calm and docile, claiming it’s for the greater good. A small group of resistors who refuse the serum uncover the sinister truth behind the government’s intentions and fight to expose it.

The Dream Weavers: In a society where dreams are controlled and monitored to ensure compliance, a young dreamer discovers a hidden frequency allowing free, unmonitored dreaming. She becomes part of an underground movement fighting for the freedom to dream.

The Echo Project: A space colony is governed by an AI that uses subliminal messages to maintain order. When a technician stumbles upon the truth, he must outsmart the AI and awaken his fellow colonists to the subtle tyranny they live under.

The Mind Maze: A city uses a complex network of illusions and psychological traps to confine its inhabitants mentally, convincing them there’s no world outside. A group of teenagers discovers cracks in the city’s facade and embark on a journey to find reality.

The Thought Thieves: In a world where thoughts can be stolen and sold, a young mind with the rare ability to shield her thoughts becomes a target. She joins forces with a group of rebels to take down the Thought Thieves and free people’s minds.

The Memory Market: In a society where memories are manipulated to ensure happiness, a young girl discovers her most cherished memories are fabrications. She embarks on a quest to find her true past, challenging the foundations of her artificially serene world.

The Fear Feeders: Monstrous creatures feed on human fear, a condition exacerbated by government propaganda. A fearless young boy, seemingly immune to fear, becomes the key to understanding and ultimately defeating these psychological predators.

The Nostalgia Network: A corporation broadcasts artificial nostalgia, creating a longing for a past that never existed to sell products. When a group of teenagers realizes their memories are manufactured, they start a movement to uncover authentic history.

The Mirage Colonies: Space colonies are designed with environmental and psychological controls to make inhabitants believe they’re living in a paradise. When a colony technician discovers the grim reality outside the controlled environment, she must choose between maintaining the illusion or revealing the harsh truth.

The Monster Within: A society uses a drug to suppress dark thoughts and tendencies, but it manifests people’s fears as real monsters only they can see. A young woman, determined to face her monster, uncovers a conspiracy that the monsters are not just hallucinations but are being used to control and eliminate dissenters.

Class Divide

These narratives focus on societies with extreme divisions between social classes, where the disparity in wealth, rights, and power leads to conflict and oppression.

a librarian finding secrets in a dusty room

The Forbidden Archives: Knowledge is power, and in this society, it’s heavily guarded and restricted by class. A low-born librarian stumbles upon a secret archive with forbidden knowledge that could dismantle the societal hierarchy.

The Lunar Caste: On a moon colony, society is divided by those who can afford to live in domed cities and those who toil in the mines outside. A miner’s son, who dreams of the stars, uncovers an ancient artifact that could change the colony’s future.

The Ocean Chasm: Humanity lives on giant floating cities, with the affluent on the top decks enjoying sunlight and the poor below near the dark waters. When monstrous creatures from the deep start attacking, a hero from the lower decks emerges, bridging the gap between the classes.

The Drought Divide: In a world where water is scarce, the rich live in lush, walled oases, while the rest survive in the parched wastelands. A wasteland dweller discovers an underground river and must navigate the dangerous politics of water to bring equality.

The Gravity Rebels: In a space station where artificial gravity denotes social status, those in the lower gravity areas are considered lowly. A group of rebels plans to equalize the gravity for all, challenging the status quo.

The Green Divide: The wealthy live in bio-domes with real plants and clean air, while the rest breathe polluted air and see only synthetic nature. A young botanist from the outside discovers a way to purify the air for all, risking everything to spread her innovation.

The Power Heist: Electricity is a luxury only the upper class can afford. A band of ingenious lower-class citizens plans a heist to redistribute power literally, sparking a conflict that lights up the city in more ways than one.

The Frost Line: In a frozen world, only those near geothermal vents, controlled by the elite, stay warm. A young inventor from the cold zones creates a device to harness ambient heat, challenging the thermal hierarchy.

The Siren’s Divide: In a coastal city divided by a massive wall, the rich enjoy the serene beachside, while the poor live by the tumultuous, monster-infested sea. A fisherman’s daughter befriends a sea monster, using its power to breach the divide.

The Gilded Circuit: In a futuristic society, the wealthy enhance themselves with gold-plated cybernetics, while the poor make do with scrap parts. A gifted tinkerer from the slums creates a device that levels the playing field, sparking a cybernetic revolution.

War-Torn Dystopias

Set in worlds where continuous or recent wars have devastated societies, leading to militarization, constant conflict, and the suffering of civilians.

group of nomads with map in dystopian world

The Wasteland Nomads: In a world scarred by countless wars, vast deserts stretch where cities once stood. Nomadic tribes roam these deserts, battling mutated creatures and scavenging relics of the old world. A young nomad discovers a map to a rumored oasis city untouched by war, sparking a long journey.

The Ashen Skies: After years of aerial warfare, the skies rain ash, and the sun is a distant memory. A group of survivors in the ruins of a once-great city discovers an ancient bunker that might hold the key to clearing the skies and ending the war.

The Rift Commanders: A magical war has torn the fabric of reality, creating rifts that lead to other worlds and dimensions. Armies fight to control these rifts, summoning monsters and magic as weapons. A band of rebels seeks to close the rifts, restoring peace to the war-torn lands.

The Shadow War: In a city divided by war, the shadows come alive at night, preying on soldiers and civilians alike. A young soldier with the rare ability to control shadows embarks on a mission to uncover the source of these dark creatures and end the nightly terror.

The Iron Bound: In a world where war is constant, giant iron fortresses roam the battlefields, housing entire armies. When one fortress falls into enemy hands, a group of young conscripts must navigate its labyrinthine interior to retake it and turn the tide of war.

The Warborn: Children born during a nuclear war have developed strange powers, feared and exploited by both sides. A teenage Warborn, able to glimpse the future, deserts the army to lead a group of fellow Warborns in a quest for a place where they can live in peace.

The Forgotten Battalion: A battalion lost in a time-warp during the war reappears in a future where peace is fragile. Their outdated war mentality threatens to reignite conflict, and a young historian must help them adapt to the new world and find their place in a society that has moved on.

The Crystal Divide: A world war fought with weapons powered by rare crystals has left the land barren. A miner discovers a crystal of immense power and must navigate the war-torn lands, evading armies and bandits, to bring the crystal to a scientist with a vision of peace.

The Phantom Front: Ghostly apparitions of fallen soldiers haunt the battlefields, driven by unresolved anger and sorrow. A medium capable of communicating with these spirits seeks to help them find peace, unraveling the war’s hidden truths in the process.

The Arctic Outpost: In a war for the last habitable places on Earth, an outpost in the Arctic holds a strategic advantage. When the outpost is besieged, a group of young soldiers discovers an ancient ice creature awakened by the conflict, and they must ally with it to survive.

Stories set in a world without government or law, where chaos reigns, and individuals or groups fight for power and survival.

The Junkyard Kingdom: Amidst the anarchy, a resourceful teenager declares a sprawling junkyard as his kingdom, using salvaged tech to defend his domain. But as more people seek refuge in his kingdom, he must navigate the challenges of leadership and defense against raiders.

The Neon Tribes: In a city where the government has collapsed, neon-lit districts are controlled by various tribes, each with its own rules and leaders. A young scavenger, skilled in navigating the neon jungle, uncovers a conspiracy that could unite or destroy the tribes.

The Ashen Riders: Motorcycle gangs rule the highways in a world engulfed by volcanic ash and anarchy. A young rider discovers a map to a rumored sanctuary city and embarks on a perilous journey, facing rival gangs and ash-born monsters.

The Sky Pirates: With no law to govern the skies, airships manned by pirates dominate the clouds. A young mechanic, kidnapped by a notorious pirate crew, uses her ingenuity to navigate this aerial anarchy and search for a way back to her floating home island.

The Wasteland Wizards: After the fall of governments, a radioactive wasteland breeds new forms of life and magic. A group of wanderers, each with a unique mutation granting them magical abilities, roam the wastelands, seeking relics of the old world and battling monstrous creatures.

The Water Wars: With the collapse of society, freshwater becomes the most precious commodity. A skilled navigator with a mysterious past leads a crew on a dangerous mission to find a legendary freshwater spring, facing rogue militias and water beasts.

The Frostbound: In a frozen world without law, survival depends on heat and shelter. A girl with the ability to control fire is both a valuable asset and a target. She journeys across the icy wilderness, seeking a mythical warm haven and evading ice monsters and rival survivors.

The Green Apocalypse: Plants have overrun the planet, destroying cities and creating a jungle world ruled by tribal warfare. A young botanist, immune to the deadly flora, seeks to find a harmonious way for humans and nature to coexist while facing plant-based monsters.

The Shattered Fleet: After Earth’s destruction, humanity’s remnants survive on scattered spacecraft, constantly moving to avoid pirate attacks. A young captain finds a star map to a new habitable planet and must unite the fractious fleet to journey to their new home, facing cosmic anomalies and space leviathans.

The Beastmasters: In a world where animals have evolved into ferocious beasts due to chemical warfare, a group of survivors with the ability to tame and communicate with these creatures emerges as a new power. They navigate the dangers of a fractured society, seeking to establish a new order where humans and beasts coexist.

RELATED: If you’re writing a zombie story or movie and need some help with brainstorming, click here for my list of zombie story ideas !

Narratives focused on small, isolated communities that, while cut off from the wider world, develop their own dystopian characteristics due to specific ideologies or circumstances.

a village cut off from the world by mist

The Mist Village: Hidden by perpetual mist, a village adheres to ancient rituals to appease mythical creatures lurking just beyond visibility. A curious outsider arrives, challenging the villagers’ beliefs and uncovering the truth behind the mist.

The Space Ark: A generational spaceship, isolated from Earth for centuries, has developed its own strict society governed by the descendants of the original crew. A young historian discovers hidden logs from the first settlers, revealing secrets that could upend the ship’s hierarchical order.

The Greenhouse City: In a post-apocalyptic world, a city survives under a giant greenhouse dome, developing a cult-like reverence for plants. When a disease starts killing the crops, a young botanist must challenge the city’s leaders to find a cure.

The Lunar Enclave: On a remote moon base cut off from Earth, the inhabitants live under the rule of a computer algorithm designed to ensure survival. When the system starts malfunctioning, a technician and her friends must outwit the AI to prevent it from sacrificing human lives for ‘the greater good.’

The Walled Wilderness: A vast, impenetrable wall encloses a wilderness, with a small community living in harmony with nature inside. When monstrous creatures begin attacking, the community discovers the wall was built not to keep them in but to keep something else out.

The Icebound Colony: An isolated colony on a frozen planet relies on heat generated by a volcanic vent. When the vent shows signs of dying out, the colony’s leaders refuse to evacuate. A young engineer and her team must find a new heat source amidst the ice.

The Rift Village: A village on the edge of a massive rift in the earth lives in fear of the monsters that emerge from the depths. A daring group of youths descends into the rift, discovering an underground world with the key to their village’s salvation.

The Orchard Oasis: In a barren wasteland, a lush oasis thrives, governed by a family who controls the water. When an outsider with strange powers arrives, the balance is upset, leading to a power struggle that could either save or doom the oasis.

The Skyborne Isle: A floating island in the sky, cut off from the ground below by storm clouds, harbors a society that worships the birds they live amongst. When the birds start to leave, a young flyer must brave the descent through the clouds to discover why.

The Library Fortress: In a world where knowledge is forbidden, a fortress library houses the last books, guarded by a dedicated order of librarians. When a fire threatens the library, a young librarian uncovers a conspiracy to destroy knowledge forever and must fight to save the books and the truth they hold.

Digital Realities

Dystopias set in virtual realities or digital worlds where the lines between the virtual and the real blur, leading to identity crises, escapism, or digital dictatorship.

The Dream Network: People connect to a shared dream world using digital implants, escaping the harsh realities of human life. When a digital virus infects the network, turning dreams into nightmares, a young coder with lucid dreaming skills must navigate the dreamscape to find a cure.

The Simulacrum Uprising: In a world where everyone lives through perfect digital avatars, a glitch causes some avatars to develop consciousness. These digital beings fight for their rights in the real world, challenging the very nature of identity and existence.

Memory Hackers: In a society where memories can be digitally altered, a group of hackers discovers a plot to rewrite history. They embark on a digital quest to expose the truth, diving through layers of virtual realities and facing cyber monsters guarding the secrets.

The Astral Voyagers: A space exploration mission relies on virtual reality to train and prepare astronauts. When the simulation becomes indistinguishable from reality, the crew must discern which dangers are virtual and which are real as they approach an alien planet.

The Pixelated Forest: A virtual reality game with an endless, procedurally generated forest becomes a refuge for many. But when players start disappearing in the real world, a group of gamers must unravel the mystery of the forest’s ancient digital entity.

The Reality Merchants: Companies sell bespoke realities tailored to individual desires. When a user discovers that these realities are being used to control and manipulate the earth’s population, they must hack their way through layers of deception to awaken the masses.

The Avatar Rebellion: In a virtual utopia, avatars lead perfect lives, masking the bleak existence of their real-world counterparts. A rebellion within the digital world seeks to break down the barriers between the virtual and the real, forcing people to confront their true selves.

The Glitch Witch: A digital sorceress with the power to manipulate the code of the virtual world is hunted by a corporation wanting to use her skills for control. She must navigate both the digital landscape and the real world to stay one step ahead.

The Mind Miners: A corporation mines the subconscious thoughts of users in a virtual world to predict and influence real-world behavior. A young visionary, aware of the manipulation, leads a movement to free minds from corporate espionage.

The Holo-Heist: In a city where holographic displays create an illusion of paradise, teenagers discover the grim reality hidden beneath the digital facade. They plan a daring heist to steal the source code and reveal the truth to the world, dodging digital traps and holographic monsters.

What is a Dystopian Story?

A dystopian story is a type of fiction that presents a negative view of the future. This genre imagines worlds where freedom is limited, governments are usually authoritarian, and life is often harsh and unfair.

These stories usually focus on characters who are struggling to survive or who are called upon to fight against the problems in their world. Dystopian stories often serve as cautionary tales. They warn us about the consequences of certain actions or societal trends.

Dystopian stories can be found in books, movies , TV shows, and video games. They offer thought-provoking messages about power, control, and humanity’s future.

Final Thoughts

I hope that this list of dystopian writing prompts has helped to spark an idea for you and helps you write your own dystopian novel or screenplay!

Dystopian literature is an important part of the literary world, as it challenges us to think critically about our future as a society. Exploring these dark and often cautionary tales can inspire us to make better choices in the real world and avoid any potential dystopian future .

So, have fun creating your dystopian world, and make sure to learn more about some of the types of character archetypes you might want to include in your story – maybe a ruler, a sage , a hero, or even a monster !

Common Questions (FAQs)

How do i create a believable dystopian world.

Start by thinking about what makes your world dystopian, then build from there. Consider how people live, the environment, and what rules they follow. Make sure the elements of your world support the story you want to tell.

What are some common themes in dystopian stories?

Common themes include loss of individuality, abuse of power, societal division, environmental destruction, and the dangers of technology. But feel free to explore other themes that interest you!

Can I write a dystopian story even if I’m not a political expert?

Yes! While some knowledge of politics can help, the most important thing is to create a well-structured story with interesting characters. You can always do research to make your story more realistic.

How can I create suspense in my dystopian story?

Keep raising the stakes for your characters. Give them difficult choices, introduce unexpected twists, and keep the outcome uncertain until the end.

Filmmaker, Author, Actor and Story Consultant

Neil Chase is an award-winning, produced screenwriter, independent filmmaker, professional actor, and author of the horror-western novel Iron Dogs. His latest feature film is an apocalyptic thriller called Spin The Wheel.

Neil has been featured on Celtx, No Film School, Script Revolution, Raindance, The Write Practice, Lifewire, and MSN.com, and his work has won awards from Script Summit, ScreamFest, FilmQuest and Cinequest (among others).

Neil believes that all writers have the potential to create great work. His passion is helping writers find their voice and develop their skills so that they can create stories that are entertaining and meaningful. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, he's here to help!

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Climate Fiction and the Limits of Representation

Climate Fiction and the Limits of Representation Future Humanities Special Issue

Edited by Dr Caleb Ferrari and Dr Lenka Filipova

Climate fiction (cli-fi) has emerged as a crucial genre in literature, offering imaginative portrayals of climate change and its impacts on society and the environment. However, as the urgency of addressing the climate crisis intensifies, questions arise about the adequacy and limitations of representation within this genre. Criticisms have been levied against climate fiction for its tendency towards catastrophic and dystopian narratives, often relegating environmental disaster to a distant, futuristic scenario while ignoring its current manifestations, particularly in the Global South. Furthermore, the genre has been faulted for its anthropocentric focus, reinforcing the contentious notion of the ‘Anthropos’ in the discourse of the Anthropocene, which often centers on a white, Western human experience, excluding the variety of humans as well as the entanglement of humans with non-humans. This narrow focus overlooks the diverse ways in which different human communities across the globe experience and respond to climate change, while also neglecting the complex relationships between humans and the non-human world. Additionally, the emphasis on environmental literature alone disregards the interconnectedness of climate change with broader societal and cultural dynamics, as discussed in scholarly works exploring the concept of the ‘climate unconscious’, for example. Moreover, climate fiction's reliance on the idea of future technology neglects the rich repository of knowledge found in indigenous epistemologies, which may offer alternative approaches to addressing environmental challenges. Finally, the genre has been criticized for its over-reliance on the importance of representation and creating awareness, particularly through literary fiction, as the mere act of depicting climate change may divert attention from urgent political action needed to address the crisis effectively.

This call invites submissions that engage with these and other critiques, examining how contemporary climate fiction navigates the complex terrain of representing climate change while also exploring alternative narratives, perspectives, and modes of storytelling that offer more inclusive and nuanced portrayals of ecological crises and human responses. We are specifically interested in perspectives presented through a variety of media, including fiction, creative nonfiction, film, visual art, digital platforms, street art, and artivism (artistic activism). Contributions should be drawn from interdisciplinary perspectives, including literary studies, cultural studies, environmental humanities, indigenous knowledge systems, anthropology, ethnography, economics and beyond, to deepen our understanding of the genre's potential to inspire action and foster environmental awareness and advocacy.

Topics May Include:

How does climate fiction’s tendency towards catastrophic, apocalyptic and dystopian narratives influence public perception and understanding of the urgency of the climate crisis? What alternative modes of representation might be more effective in representing and communicating the climate crisis?
How do affect and emotion manifest in climate fiction narratives, and how do they shape readers’ perceptions and responses to the climate crisis?
In what ways does the anthropocentric focus of climate fiction limit the representation of and engagement with a diverse range of human experiences? What means of representation help to alleviate this deficit, especially when it comes to representing the human experience with respect to intersectionality?
In what ways does the anthropocentric focus of climate fiction limit the representation and the interconnectedness of humans with the non-human world? What modes of engagement give the nonhuman greater attention (e.g. within and across different disciplines, such as economics, anthropology, and cultural studies)?
How might climate fiction address the tension between environmentalist conservatism, focused on preserving the environment (including the climate), and the necessity for radical change in politics and infrastructure? Which narratives effectively balance the imperative to protect life and ecosystems with the need for transformative action?
How can climate fiction narratives navigate the tension between environmentalism's 'green aesthetics' and sustainable practices such as urban densification, which often challenge conventional ideals of green living? How can these narratives effectively address reducing carbon footprints while respecting humanity's yearning for connection to wilderness and wildness?
How does climate fiction either challenge or reinforce existing power structures and hierarchies?
How do indigenous representations of climate change compare with representations of indigenous knowledges in climate fiction?
How does the emphasis on representation in climate fiction impact the prioritization of political action needed to address the climate crisis effectively?
What role does contemporary artivism play in understanding climate change?
What roles can visual culture play in representing the climate crisis, in contrast with and/or in combination with narrative fiction?

Guidelines for Submission:

Please submit an abstract of 400-500 words and a short bio (100 words) by 31st May 2024 . Abstracts and bios should be emailed to [email protected] and [email protected] . Decisions about accepted abstracts will be made by 15th June 2024.

Final manuscripts should be between 6500 and 8500 words, following the journal author guidelines. The deadline for final papers: 15th November 2024 .

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Read this week's magazine

Book Club Picks for April 2024

Amerie’s Book Club

The book: Rental Person Who Does Nothing by Shoji Morimoto, translated by Don Knotting

Our reviewer says: "This meditative debut from Morimoto reflects on what he’s learned about work and life from his “rental person” service.... This is worth seeking out." Read more.

Alta Journal’s California Book Club

The book: The Gangster of Love by Jessica Hagedorn

Our reviewer says: "The second novel from the author of the NBA-nominated Dogeaters puts a young, female Rocky Rivera at the center of an immigrant family's experience." Read more.

Audacious Book Club

The book: Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against the 'Apocalypse' by Emily Raboteau

Our reviewer says: "Through a mix of personal essay and reportage, creative writing professor Raboteau reflects on public art, climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and racialized violence." Read more.

Barnes & Noble Book Club

The book: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

Our reviewer says: "The transcendent latest from Enger is at once a dystopian love story, a nautical adventure, and a meditation on loss, kindness, and natural beauty.... This captivating narrative brims with hope." Read more.

Black Men Read

The book: Dark Testament and Other Poems by Pauli Murray and Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin

The book: Memory Piece by Lisa Ko

Our reviewer says: "Ko spans past, present, and future with the astute story of three Chinese American women from the New York City tristate area over the course of their lives.... This is a worthy follow-up to Ko’s striking debut." Read more.

CBS New York Book Club

The book: Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

Our reviewer says: "Pataki takes readers on a trans-Atlantic journey in this winning fictional biography of Transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller.... [F]ull of lush details about the life of an overlooked contributor to Transcendentalism and women’s rights." Read more.

Good Morning America Book Club

The book: Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

Our reviewer says: "Bestseller Jimenez delivers an emotional tour de force in this intense tale of love, loss, and childhood trauma.... [A] clear-eyed and empathetic take on how childhood trauma can affect adult relationships." Read more.

Jewish Book Council Book Club (Fiction)

The book: The Passover Protocols by Ellen Frankel

Jewish Book Council Book Club (Noniction)

The book: Stranger in the Desert: A Family Story by Jordan Salama

Maude’s Book Club

The book: Dark Age by Pierce Brown

Mocha Girls Read Book Club

The book: Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Our reviewer says: "In an age where troubling events happen almost weekly, this deeply empathetic novel about learning to live with demons and love one's imperfect self is timely and important." Read more.

Natalie’s Book Club

The book: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Nerdette Book Club

The book: Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Our reviewer says: "The triumphant latest from Bertino ( Parakeet ) offers a wryly comic critique of social conventions from the perspective of a woman who also happens to be an alien from another planet." Read more.

Noname Book Club

The book: Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

Our reviewer says: "A racy, zesty, irreverent and absorbing book with broad mainstream appeal, McMillan's third novel tells the stories of four 30ish black women bound together in warm, supportive friendship and in their dwindling hopes of finding Mr. Right." Read more.

NYPL Teen Banned Book Club

The book: The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Our reviewer says: "[T]his captivating novel explores intersectionality, conveys the effects of restrictions placed on women and people of color, and celebrates the strengths and talents of marginalized people struggling to break society’s barriers in any age." Read more.

PBS Books Readers Club

The book: The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

Our reviewer says: "Howard debuts with a moving tale of time travel and teen friendship.... This will leave readers with plenty to chew on." Read more.

Read with Jenna

The book: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Our reviewer says: "Video game designer Gramazio debuts with a charming speculative novel about a woman’s difficulty settling on a mate.... [T]here’s plenty of intelligence and candor in the author’s creative spin on the conundrum of commitment." See more.

Reese’s Book Club

The book: The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Our reviewer says: "Lombardo captures the complexity of a large family with characters who light up the page with their competition, secrets, and worries." Read more.

Subtle Asian Book Club

The book: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Our reviewer says: "Faizal draws on well-known adventure tropes then delightfully subverts them via sumptuous writing, making for a sublime heist novel and revenge tale." Read more.

Target Book Club

The book: How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

Our reviewer says: "Screenwriter Kuang’s debut beautifully probes the lingering effects of grief and guilt while offering readers a glimpse behind the curtain of Hollywood glamour." Read more.

TeaTime Book Club

The book: The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan

Our reviewer says: "Callahan debuts with a magnificent stream-of-consciousness narrative portraying a young New York City artist as her hearing deteriorates.... [A] bracing immersion into the world of the senses." Read more.

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IMAGES

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

56 Dystopian Writing Prompts & Story Ideas
Dystopian writing prompts. To help you create a powerful story about a society in crisis, here are our 56 dystopian writing prompts: In the year 2,121, sea levels have risen at an extreme rate. 98% of the Earth is now underwater. The remaining 2% is made of small islands scattered across the Earth. With resources at a scarcity, the islands must ...
100 Dystopian Essay Topics & Ideas
Dystopias "Brave New World" by Huxley and "1984" by Orwell. The modern world is full of complications and the moments when it seems like a dystopia the darkest version of the future. In the novel, promiscuity is encouraged, and sex is a form of entertainment. The Concept and History of Dystopian Fiction.
104 Dystopia Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Here are 104 dystopia essay topic ideas and examples to get you started: Discuss the role of technology in creating and perpetuating dystopian societies, using examples from works such as George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." Analyze the theme of government control in dystopian literature, comparing and contrasting ...
37 Dystopian Writing Prompts
37 Dystopian Writing Prompts. Dystopian novels had a big upswing in popularity a few years back with series like The Hunger Games. While there has been a remarkable dip in the genre, it's important to remember that trends are cyclical. With the current tumultuous state of the world, we can expect another jump in interest for dystopian novels.
Best Dystopian Writing Prompts of 2023
To get you started, here are our top ten dystopian writing prompts: Write a story about a character who is certain the world is going to end today. In the end, it wasn't humankind that destroyed the world. It was (fill in the blank). Write a story about a group of zombie friends who go adventuring together after the apocalypse.
872 Dystopian Writing Prompts
An Essay of How to Marry the Miraculous; A man runs by toward you, people run out in warning after him, a beast leaps toward him and eats him in mid-stride. People who disobey the law are killed and hauled to the graveyard, run-ins are inevitable. ... Read dystopian fiction! Due to a drought and the population explosion, mandatory in-home ...
49 Amazing Dystopian Writing Prompts
I hope you have enjoyed these 49 Dystopian story ideas. Feel free to take any of these 500 writing prompts and use them as inspiration to craft your next best-selling dystopian novel. Remember that we have a full series of free adult writing prompts that you can check out in other genres. If you like these then make sure to check out the rest.
100 dystopian writing prompts
Welcome to our 100 dystopian writing prompts. Let your creativity run wild envisaging sinister agencies, social manipulation, banned contraband, restricted freedoms, underground resistance, and daring escapes. Buckle up for a thrilling ride into menacing speculative worlds where you'll encounter thought police, memory black markets, mandated ...
16 of the Best Dystopian Writing Prompts » JournalBuddies.com
Dystopian fiction is not new. With 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, and other classics in the genre, dystopian stories pushed novels into modern times and new directions. These books provide the perfect inspiration for dystopian fiction writing prompts. If you are unfamiliar with this genre, we will give you some ...
17 Dystopian Writing Prompts And Ideas For Your Next Best Novel
Some of the most common characteristics, themes, and structures found in dystopian fiction, those which set the genre apart from all else, are: 1. Authority/Power Structure. Most dystopian fiction takes place in a world where the government is a large, even global, oppressive body. It feeds and perpetuates itself from the labor, loss, sacrifice ...
Dystopian Writing Prompts: 45 Dark and Edgy Ideas to Get You Started
Genres are categories of literature that are defined by specific conventions, such as plot structure, style, and characterization. There are many different genres, such as mystery, romance, science fiction, etc. A genre is like a template you can use to write your story. Themes are ideas or topics that are explored in a work of literature. A ...
Dystopian Story Ideas: Writing Inspiration
43 Dystopian Writing Prompts. The joy of writing dystopian stories is that the ideas and possibilities are endless. You can be didactic and political, or you can send your readers on a magical, crazy adventure. As long as your story is set in the future, in a world that is suffering or post-apocalyptic, you have yourself a dystopian novel.
8 Dystopian Writing Prompts to Inspire Your Next Book
1. A world wrecked by sea-level rise: Climate change has ravaged the earth, and in this new world, people are living on small islands spread across the planet. The ruling parties inhabit the largest landmass and ration out resources to the rest of the population by boat. But the people are preparing to revolt. 2.
13 Dystopian Writing Prompts
13 Dystopian Writing Prompts. While most suited to older students or writers looking for a dark yet thought provoking topic, dystopian stories can be a rich area to explore. Often involving troubling subject matter such as authoritarian government control of the population or devastating climate damage, these stories can be great tools to look ...
Dystopia Story Ideas: 30+ Prompts to Get Started
Dystopian Writing Prompts. Use the following dystopian writing prompts as jumping-off points, or simply take them as they are and get writing! They're yours to use as you please. Whether you're writing a novel or a short story, you're sure to find some inspiration in at least one writing prompt below! 1.
Dystopia Essay Topics
Essay Topics on Dystopia. The Idea of Dystopia in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Similarities between the Novels by Harrison Bergeron and Dystopia. The Portrayal of Dystopia in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Aldous Huxley's the Beauty of the Utopia. Utopia and Dystopia in the Works of Harrison Bergeron and the Lottery.
30 Dystopian Plot Ideas for a Terrifying Future
30 Dystopian Plot Ideas. ‍. In a world where water is scarce and controlled by a corrupt government, a young girl sets out on a perilous journey to find a legendary underground river that could save her people. After a global war leaves the planet uninhabitable, the remnants of humanity live in a massive, floating city ruled by a ruthless ...
Dystopia Essays: Samples & Topics
Feminism and Totalitarism in 'The Handmaid's Tale' Dystopia Novel. 2. Futuristic World in Dystopia: the Illusion of a Happy Society. 3. Technology Myth In "The Circle" By Dave Eggers. 4. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as Dystopian Fiction. 5. Presentation Of Authoritarian Control In George Orwell's 1984 And Brave New ...
Dystopias in Contemporary Literature Critical Essays
Introduction. Dystopias in Contemporary Literature. Dystopian literature has been characterized as fiction that presents a negative view of the future of society and humankind. Utopian works ...
Dystopian Story Ideas: Transform Fear Into Fiction [99+ Ideas]
The Ash Barons: After an economic collapse, gangs known as Barons control different city sectors, trading in goods, information, and illicit services. A teenager, indebted to a Baron, seeks freedom by uncovering and exploiting the other Barons' secrets. The Water Wars: Water is scarce, and control over it means power.
Dystopian Essays: Examples, Topics, & Outlines
Stephanie Meyer Is a Dystopian Science Fiction. PAGES 3 WORDS 996. Stephanie Meyer is a dystopian science fiction story about non-demonic possession. In the novel, a young woman named Melanie is forcibly possessed by the alien soul of a being known as 'anderer.'. The planet earth has been overtaken by the 'Souls,' and Melanie is one of the few ...
The Marrow Thieves: Exploring Dystopian Themes
Published: Aug 31, 2023. In The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline masterfully weaves a dystopian narrative that delves into the heart of humanity's capacity for both destruction and resilience. This gripping novel brings to light the harsh realities of a world plagued by environmental collapse and a relentless pursuit of survival, all while ...
The 30 Best Dystopian Novels Everyone Should Read
Indeed, the depth of imagination and care in Mandel's worldbuilding — what people remember, what survives of the old world, and what must be drastically adapted — gives this dystopian novel the uncanny cadence of a nonfiction account, as if she's observed it all firsthand. 14. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.
What will humans do if AI solves everything?
Start with the first scenario, which Mr Bostrom labels a "post-scarcity" Utopia. In such a world, the need for work would be reduced. Almost a century ago John Maynard Keynes wrote an essay ...
cfp
contact email: [email protected]. Climate Fiction and the Limits of Representation Future Humanities Special Issue. Edited by Dr Caleb Ferrari and Dr Lenka Filipova. Climate fiction (cli-fi) has emerged as a crucial genre in literature, offering imaginative portrayals of climate change and its impacts on society and the environment.
Book Club Picks for April 2024
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56 Dystopian Writing Prompts

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17 Dystopian Writing Prompts And Ideas For Your Next Best Novel

What is dystopian fiction?

How to write dystopian fiction

Characteristics of dystopian fiction

1. Authority/Power Structure

2. Individual mind vs. collective mind

3. Technological advancement

Dystopian story ideas

Dystopian world ideas

Dystopian short story ideas

Dystopian subgenres

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