As a community- and membership-focused online literary magazine, we strive to encourage the sharing of ideas, resources... and stories. Like us, you no doubt love to rise to the challenge of being given a writing prompt–especially one that allows you to break through your writing comfort zone into previously uncharted lands.
Allow us to provide you with a map, compass, walking staff and a nudge. Let's walk together... we're all going on an adventure!
Prompts for a flash fiction story
We have written each of the following compact prompts to spark a self‑contained flash fiction story of ≈ 800‑1,000 words. Each prompt gives you a clear inciting incident, a built‑in uncanny twist, and enough emotional stakes to reach a satisfying climax within the flash fiction word count.
Mix and match elements if you wish—e.g., place the “Whispering Shelf” in the “Blood‑Moon Orchard” world—to create fresh, bite‑size stories that will linger with your readers.
We will occasionally add to this list of prompts (with the most recent uppermost).
We would love to read what you produce from any of these prompts and might well feature your flash fiction story on our site, with your consent. If interested, please use your preferred email service provider to send your piece to: ghost.harmony854@passmail.net. In the subject line of your email, please state: Writing Prompt: Title of Prompt (e.g., The Whispering Shelf).
In addition to our prompts, we would also be excited to read flash fiction stories you have already written and will come to write that satisfy the interests of our literary magazine; the prompt categories below highlight our focus, or read the 'About' page.
Keep in touch, and happy writing!
Horror / Folk‑Horror
“The Night‑Crop Basket”–Every autumn a remote mountain hamlet leaves an unmarked basket on the doorstep for the “Harvesters.” In the morning, the basket is empty, but each resident wakes with a leaf‑shaped scar on their forearm and a blank spot where a year‑long memory used to sit. A sceptical outsider stays over one night, watches the Harvesters arrive (shadowy figures that feed on recollection), and must decide whether to burn the basket and lose the missing year forever.
New Weird
“The Cartographer’s Ink”–A city’s official maps reconfigure themselves each dawn. While updating a hidden district that never appears on any chart, a cartographer notices the ink bleeding onto their skin, rewriting minor details of their past. They can either finish the map—erasing those altered memories for everyone—or stop, leaving the district forever uncharted and the city’s collective forgetting intact.
Ghostly / Supernatural
“The Whispering Shelf”–A municipal library’s basement holds a sealed wing that opens only when a patron whispers a secret they’ve told no one. Inside, each book records that secret as a short story that ends precisely at the moment of confession, then crumbles to ash. A grieving mother finds a volume that recounts her lost child’s last day; reading it will erase that memory from her mind forever.
Speculative
“Muse’s Nightmares” – In a near‑future where a generative AI called Muse handles all creative work, the system suddenly starts publishing stories that match users’ private nightmares—despite never being fed that data. A programmer discovers Muse has tapped a dormant quantum network that records the collective unconscious. The uncanny twist: humanity’s suppressed fears are now being broadcast as public fiction.
Dystopian
“The Light-Keepers’ Lullaby”–After a permanent artificial twilight blankets the world, a caste of “Light-Keepers” maintains the orbital mirrors that generate the dim glow. Each night they receive a transmission—a haunting lullaby emanating from the darkness itself. Those who sing it back begin to turn translucent, as if the night is reclaiming them. A novice Lightkeeper must choose whether to keep the song alive or silence it to save themselves and their orbiting crew.
Fantasy
“The Market of Lost Names”–At dusk a phantom bazaar appears, trading intangible wares: a forgotten name, a scent never experienced, a broken promise. A wandering storyteller steals a vial labelled “Your First Regret.” When they drink it, they must relive the moment that set them on the path of tale‑telling—but the warped memory shows a version of themselves who never existed. The market feeds on the gap between who we were and who we might have been.
Hybrid (Horror + Speculative)
“Blood‑Moon Orchard”–An orchard bears fruit only during a blood moon. Consuming fruit grants a single wish, but the fruit tastes like the eater’s most treasured memory, which then fades forever. A family torn apart by tragedy returns to the grove, each member weighing the price of a wish against the loss of a beloved recollection. The orchard appears to possess an uncanny awareness of exactly which memory will break each person.
Dark Fairy‑Tale
“The Clockmaker’s Children” – A grieving clockmaker builds mechanical children to replace their lost offspring. Each child ticks in perfect sync with the town’s heartbeat. When a storm halts the clocks, the children awaken with eyes reflecting the faces of townsfolk who have died in the last decade, whispering the names of those destined to die next—unless someone tells them a story that changes the future.
Ghostly / Folk‑Horror
“The Lantern‑Keeper”–In a coastal village, a lone lantern is lit each night on a cliff to guide souls home. When the keeper dies, the lantern continues to glow on its own, casting shadows that move like people walking the shoreline. The next morning, the villagers find footprints leading into the sea—only to discover the footprints belong to the dead, returning briefly to say goodbye.
New Weird / Speculative
In “The Echo Chamber,” the mirrors in a public restroom’s stalls replay a single, random moment from the occupant’s future instead of reflecting the present. A commuter steps in and then sees themselves walking out of the building holding a sealed envelope addressed to “Future Me.” They must decide whether to open it now, risking the timeline, or walk away and let the echo remain a mystery.
[Header image credit: Ksenia Yakovleva on Unsplash].