Sci-Fi Narrative Writing Assignment
For this assignment, you will write a science fiction narrative aka a story (lol). You may use one of the 15 prompts listed below, or you may come up with your own idea.
Whatever your topic may be, your story must stick to the following guidelines:
LENGTH: 1-3 pgs double-spaced. 12-pt font, 1 inch margins. No more, no less.
DIALOGUE: You must include at least one exchange between two characters, formatted correctly. If you need a refresher on how to include dialogue in a piece of narrative writing, click this lil’ link: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-to-write-dialogue
DROP INTO THE ACTION: You must begin your story IN A MOMENT OF ACTION. This action might fall at the end of the story arc, it might fall at the beginning, or it might happen somewhere in the middle. You may move forward or backward in time once you drop us in, but YOU MUST DROP US IN to begin the story.
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE RUBRIC ON TEAMS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR WORK.
REFRESHER: What Is Sci-Fi?
Sci-fi, short for science fiction, is a genre of speculative fiction that contains imagined elements that don’t exist in the real world. Science fiction spans a wide range of themes that often explore time travel, space travel, are set in the future, and deal with the consequences of technological and scientific advances.
15 Science Fiction Writing Prompts (if you want to use one)
An earthquake in the central U.S. reveals the framework of an ancient civilization far beneath the surface. As archeologists dig, they realize they’re unearthing skyscrapers.
Stars start disappearing from the sky, one by one. Then, one day, the sun disappears, leaving the whole earth in freezing darkness.
After the earth is rendered inhabitable from global warming, the last survivors get into a voyager spacecraft, hoping to find another planet to call home. It’s been thirty years, the ship is still searching, and they’re almost out of food.
Superheroes are becoming more and more common, and every city in the US is now rushing to have one of their own as their mascot. When one city fails to find a hero living in town, they hire the city-hall intern to pretend for a little while.
Astronauts finally land on Mars—only to find that exact copies of themselves have already arrived. science fiction narrative aka a story (lol).
Space ships are now mass-produced, and everyone has access to space travel at light speed. As new planets are discovered, people begin to settle down in new solar systems—but battles for ownership of the best planets have begun.
After World War III, the entire earth is united as one country. However, a secret society is bored with peace and starts planning ways to spread discontent.
An android escapes from a factory and hopes to blend in to avoid getting caught. The only problem? It escaped right before it could finish its software download, so it only knows human history up to the 1920s.
Cars now have artificial intelligence and will know where their passengers want to go without even being told. One day, every car in the world drives toward a specific point on Earth—and won’t let anyone out.
Scientists have discovered a black hole much closer to Earth than they thought possible. Everyone was so worried about the planet getting sucked into it—nobody was ready for something to come out of it.
An alien species comes to Earth, and, due to a clerical error, their ambassador shows up on the doorstep of a low-level government HR employee, who welcomes them in for snacks.
The dead have risen from their graves like zombies, but they don’t want to eat people—they just want answers about why the afterlife sucked.
The last person on earth walks across a desolate wasteland. One day, for the first time, a voice comes through her walkie talkie science fiction narrative aka a story (lol).
A high schooler spends all of his time in a virtual reality video game. One day his character gets injured and he can feel the pain in the real world. When he takes off the headset, he has the exact same injury on his body.
A large hole has opened up in the center of Alaska. People are saying they can hear whispers coming from down below. The last time a team of explorers went to investigate, they disappeared.
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons had started and I was the single witness to the Tsunami occurrence of tremors. I asked, what are the odds? The Telescope Dad had carried for me the birthday present and indicated that it is a special feature, or as mysteriously as he claimed. What feature, I enquired. I would unravel the mysterious feature, he retorted, before driving off to his part-time gig at NASA. Dad fund out him was at the ‘Gizmo Department’ as he awoke.
It took a short while!
Mar’s luminous became the second to showcase after the Venus’s Night; I occasionally used to train my new toy on the surface of mars. The visitation of mum meant that the house belonged to me as it was her sister’s abode in downtown Houston, with its spacious balcony, to me.
The vast cluster of the stars took my breath away, I had a conviction that I have landed on a second planet from the usual earth. On this planet, I was living in an area devoid of the ever harsh street lighting that gave an illusion. After a few minutes of focusing and calibrating on my favorite fantasy world, I fixed on the familiar pimple I got a recognition as the Mother of all Volcanoes in the entire solar system:16 miles high,6 times larger than Mount Everest, 4 billion years old, give or take. This specific telescope had a particular zoom lens; it soon dawned on me, like those that exist in a video camera. Hands on boost magnification, a fluorite refractor, (n sub for aperture) fast F/ratio, plus cam adaptor. I utilized them and my eyes were being transported to a vision which cloaked my senses that transformed and looked like renegade ink spot.
This was no trick of light. This was real. I’d seen those Hollywood conceptions of Mars. Nothing in them came close to what I was witnessing. Except that I felt as if I was being conveyed to a science fiction movie produced by George Pal or Steven Spielberg. The sensation of looking through the glass chilled my bones. Goosebumps sprouted along my arms and shoulders. I never felt more alone.
Through the eyepiece projection, black smoke billowed and obliterated Olympus Mons’s apex. I zoomed back from the dark, hazy smooch to gauge the overall picture. Sure enough, the magma rolled and widened at frightening speed, its diligence like a non-stop freight train from Hell, scorching everything in its path. I sprinted for the HD screen in my living room and tuned into CNN. No breaking news. Not yet. President Trump’s goodwill visit to Mexico would surely be preempted any moment. A phenomenon was taking place on Mars, damn it. I waited a few minutes before surfing the channels. Zero coverage. I tried again five minutes later. Nada.
I had to leave a message on Dad’s cell, my throat catching.
“Yo, Dad! Are you guys at NASA watching this? Olympus Mons is alive and belching! Call me back!”
I resumed my Mars watch and panned east to west along its sullied terrain.
I zoomed in. Something caught my eye.
I pulled on the focus ring and my gut burned. Fuzzy gray figures were scurrying, fanning out from the molten ebb. The slow ones were devoured while the faster ones scattered from view.
Then nothing!
The dense smoke obliterated the dance of death I’d been witnessing. Blackness prevailed from wherever I swiveled the lens to. I paused and played back in my frazzled mind what I’d seen. No life on Mars? Tell that to God. The exhilaration I felt matched the shock to my system. I felt privileged in owning a device that could showcase such an interstellar cannonball. Were there other telescopes like this? Was my father on to something when he assembled it? Or had he dismissed it as another of his b…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. science fiction narrative aka a story (lol).
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