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Writing Prompt 1: They Fight Crime!
This is not the original They Fight Crime!, but it’s still amazing. Spend a little while clicking through until you find a pair– or a solo hero, or a trio– that makes you want to write that story. You...
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Writing Prompt 2: Tell me this story.
A comet burned in the sky and snakes fell from the heavens the night of my birth. Problem is, there were another couple hundred thousand people born that night, too, and I think maybe the comet was for...
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Writing Prompt 3: Immortality
What happens when humans figure out immortality, but you can’t get younger and you can’t have kids afterward? No, really. A lot of immortality schemes involve eternal youth, but as Tithonus discovered,...
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Writing Prompt 4: The Lost City
Pick a lost or abandoned city. Set the story there, but maybe not in its last days. Atlantis, Port Royal, Pompeii, Machu Picchu, Helike, Camelot, El Dorado, Troy, Songo Mnara, Angkor, Great Zimbabwe,...
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Writing Prompt 6: Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig has flash prompts each week. Find one you like in the archives, or use this one. The story includes a botanical garden, fatherhood, and something talking that doesn’t normally talk. Online...
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The 2014 Worry Thread
Step 1) Send in a complete application to Alpha, including a story. Step 2) Freak out. Step 3) End the freakout by posting here! This is a thread for your worries. The application committee will not...
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New Strange Horizons editor… me.
Since 2011 I’ve been a first reader for Strange Horizons. It’s a good job and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what editors look for in a story– you read a lot of fiction, rate it, and...
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The 2015 Alpha Worry Thread
It’s a few days late, but here’s a thread for people to fret, commiserate, encourage, and generally talk about worries. Feel free to talk about your application story, too– the judges don’t read this...
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The Alpha 2016 Share the Wait Thread
It’s a little late this year, but here’s a thread for people to fret, commiserate, encourage, and generally talk about worries. Feel free to talk about your application story, too– the judges don’t...
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