Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, April 19th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

I’d like to come back the original Prompt Quest and bring us back to genre. Most (if not all) of us here are speculative writers. In some ways, I see speculative fiction as a catch all for the strange and supernatural. Science fiction, horror, fantasy. Epic Sci Fi, High Fantasy, Body Horror, Paranormal Thriller, Dystopian, Romantasy… We all could keep going, I’m sure.

Today’s prompt is brought to you by DailyPrompt.com. This website provides genre specific prompts with a quick click of your preferred genre.

I selected sci fi this month. It could be that I am finally watching Fallout (two years after friends and family raved about it and suggested I watch it) or that I’ve been researching alien tropes for a story idea that is just starting to percolate, or all of the above. I personally don’t tend to write science fiction, but it is a fun genre to play with! I liked this month’s prompt because it offers a bridge for fantasy and sci fi writers. Are you up for the challenge?

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #8. Thank you all for your patience. We are one day late!

Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, March 22nd, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

YI have enjoyed all I’ve read by Yōko Ogawa. She is one author that I would like to read more of, books that are waiting patiently in my neverending dusty tbr pile. This quote reminds me to dig deeper when it comes to my own writing. Our first “right answer” is not always the most original and it is rarely our best. Just as authors write a shitty first draft, our story brainstorms and story ideas also go through a shitty first “right answer.” Take these three objects for example:

Truck

Photo Album

Candle

You have three objects. These objects need to be key elements in your story this month. Your story should not be able to work without these objects. Take some time. How are you going to incorporate these objects. If your first answer the “right answer”? Did you need to go through several iterations of “answers” before finding the right combination? For today’s Spark prompt, bring us your most speculative of stories using the objects listed above.

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #7. Thank you all for your patience. We are one day late!

Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, February 15th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

As a middle school teacher, I work closely with that generation with dwindling attention spans. It’s unfair to sum up an entire generation with one feature, like their attention spans, of course. These students are so bright, creative, and passionate. There are vigorous readers, wishful readers, and reluctant readers. I often recommend short stories to families of students who are striving to exercise their reading muscles. Short stories can be a way to unlock a love of reading, capture a reader’s imagination, and whisk them off for a short journey into other worlds. They’re also a great way for authors to exercise their craft muscles.

Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to show, not tell. Write a scene in a speculative fiction world where the rules of magic, technology, or the society are revealed only through the character(s), what they do, not what they think or explain. This can be a brand new scene with new characters, or a scene from a work you have written or are writing right now.

That’s it. Simple, but challenging. Trust your reader to understand. They don’t need to be spoon fed the world you imagined. Instead, they will discover the wonderfully twisted rules of your world in the moment. So, if you find yourself explaining, stop, and replace the explanation with action.

Bonus: Stuck on how to get started? Perhaps a scene prompt can help. Your character reaches for a forbidden object they are not supposed to use. Whether they actually grab the object or stop themselves can reveal hierarchy, taboo, or social structure.

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #7. Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, January 18th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

I have always found it fascinating how authors can take the same ideas and create something wholly unique. The writing is built on their own experiences, world views, and whims. For The Spark this month, I want to present the first line of your story. Take that line and let your creativity flow. The line could be a martial dispute with dark undertones, an otherworldly investigation, or an out-of-this-world adventure. The choice is yours.

What can you make of just one line?

This line is brought to you by the First Line Literary Journal. Starting in 1999, “The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination--to help writers break through the block that is the blank page.” This journal has been a source of inspiration to me since I began writing short stories. While I look forward to the day when The Spark presents first lines written by the talented authors who bring their work to Lunar Awards, I am excited to start with this wonderful literary journal and hope that writers continue to bring inspiration to their own work in the future.

The Line

I flipped through the notebook and found half-finished poems, some drawings, and ______________. [Fill in the blank.]

If anyone is interested in submitting their story to the First Line Literary Journal, this prompt is due by February 1st, 2026.

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #5. Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, December 21st, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

This holiday themed prompt comes from The Seventh Sanctum, “a site that provides random generators to inspire people, help them name characters, design settings, etc. It comes from Steve Savage’s continuing obsession of decades - how randomization produces creativity.” Created by Steve Savage all the way back in 1999, he has an easy to use site that provides randomly generated suggestions from story prompts, to character names, to song challenges.

This month’s prompt is brought to you by his “Envisioner” and asks readers to visualize classic stories with a twist.

Time to Evision

A fusion of the legend of Cassandra and the story of ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #4. Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, November 23th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

I’d like to come back the original Prompt Quest and bring us back to genre. Most (if not all) of us here are speculative writers. In some ways, I see speculative fiction as a catch all for the strange and supernatural. Science fiction, horror, fantasy. Epic Sci Fi, High Fantasy, Body Horror (one of the few genres that I choose to put down), Paranormal Thriller, Dystopian, Romantasy… We all could keep going, I’m sure.

This month’s genre specific prompts are brought to you by Reedsy. Reedsy provides weekly writing prompts (along with so many other great indie author resources. Set aside an hour, sit down and start clicking buttons. There’s a lot of cool stuff to go through).

Their weekly prompts are also a weekly contest. You can submit a story that is 1,000 words to 3,000 words long inspired by the provided prompt for a chance to $250. This prompt is for a contest due Nov. 14th:

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #2. Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to the re-invisioned Prompt Quest: The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, October 19th, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

Watch

Marble

Nightmares

You have three objects, with a Halloween twist. These objects need to be key elements in your story this month. Your story should not be able to work without these objects. Bring us your spookiest stories using the objects listed above.

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #2. Give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to the re-invisioned Prompt Quest: The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules of the prompt. We’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your creation, give us the title of your piece, genre in the form an emoji (see below), a brief teaser, and a link to your work. While most of the work will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and share your work with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, September 21st, starting at 3am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to write a scene. This can be a brand new scene with new characters, or a scene from a work you have written or are writing right now. These two characters are to have a conversation. One character has a secret. The other is searching for the truth.

That’s it. Dialogue is so powerful and so challenging. You don’t write dialogue in the way that people typically speak (no “ums” and “likes”), but it still needs to read naturally. There is a balance to it. What can you do with dialogue using this prompt? What are the characters not saying that the reader can understand?

Bonus: Stuck on how to get started? Perhaps a scene prompt can help. Your two characters are talking at a local eatery. This can be a restaurant in a universe far beyond the reaches of our current technology, an ancient marketplace, or a local diner staffed by specters and monsters. The two characters haven’t seen each other for some time. They’re both desperate and will do anything to keep their secret/find the truth.

Happy writing!

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for The Spark #1. Please give us a brief teaser (one sentence) and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered. We want to connect you with the community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it in both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles with this prompt, and amid the busyness of life, you managed to get words written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good speculative fiction.

Welcome Promptlings to the re-envisioned Prompt Quest: The Spark! It’s time to be weird, fantastical, daring, and deploy your creativity. Imagine monstrous beasts, conniving ghosts, and characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this wondrous speculation originates from your imagination. The task is yours. This is The Spark!

The Rules

The rules are simple. You will be presented with a prompt. It could be a required first line, a task that will challenge your craft, elements required in your story, or a genre-specific prompt. You will have two weeks to write a short story under the rules. At the end of two weeks, we’ll host a Gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and highlight your stories at the end of two weeks. You can share them on this thread, as well as The Pitch at the end of the month. This is an opportunity to find writers you admire, befriend, and learn from.

When sharing your story, provide the title, genre in the form of an emoji (see below), a brief teaser (one sentence), with the appropriate link. While most of the stories will be posted on Substack, you are welcome to share work that fits the prompt that has been shared elsewhere (Wattpad, Simily, Amazon, etc.), but we do ask that the piece be available to readers for free. The Spark is an opportunity to grow in your craft and connect with other speculative fiction writers.

Genre Emoji Index

👽- Science Fiction

🔮- Fantasy

💀- Horror

🔥- Dystopian

🍫- Magical Realism (Like Water for Chocolate, get it??)

👀- Weird Fiction

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, August 17, starting at 3 am PST, and will run all day.)

The Prompt

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” – Mark Twain

I have always found it fascinating how authors can take the same ideas and create something wholly unique. The writing is built on their own experiences, world views, and whims. For The Spark this month, I want to present the first line of your story. Take that line and let your creativity flow. The line could be a martial dispute with dark undertones, an otherworldly investigation, or an out-of-this-world adventure. The choice is yours.

What can you make of just one line?

This line is brought to you by the First Line Literary Journal. Starting in 1999, “The purpose of The First Line is to jump start the imagination--to help writers break through the block that is the blank page.” This journal has been a source of inspiration to me since I began writing short stories. While I look forward to the day when The Spark presents first lines written by the talented authors who bring their work to Lunar Awards, I am excited to start with this wonderful literary journal and hope that writers continue to bring inspiration to their own work in the future.

The Line

When anyone in town needed help, they contacted Rocky Germain.

If anyone is interested in submitting their story to the First Line Literary Journal, this prompt is due by November 1st, 2025.

Good Luck Promptlings!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me (Reina Cruz) a DM.

Leave a comment

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for Prompt Quest #4. Give us a brief teaser and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered, and we want to connect you with community. If you’ve already posted your story in the original prompt discussion thread, that’s okay! You can post it both places, so it gets optimal readership.

Subscribe now

Many of you stretched your creative muscles for these two prompts, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get stories written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good science fiction and fantasy.

Happy Gathering!

Welcome travelers! You’re about to embark on a quest, an adventure to mystical lands and undiscovered planets, or underwater enclaves and cities full of futuristic technologies. These places are inhabited by monstrous beasts or characters with mysterious motives who may also control weapons of wonder. All of this fantasy and science fiction originates from your imagination. The quest is yours to choose. This is Prompt Quest!

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The Rules

The rules are simple. Two prompts are provided, one fantasy and the other science fiction. Choose your genre and write a short story over the next two weeks using that genre’s prompt. We’ll host a gathering to celebrate what’s been accomplished and to highlight your stories at the end of the two weeks. You can share them on The Pitch discussion thread at the end of the month as well.

(The Gathering discussion thread will take place on Sunday, December 8, starting at 12am EST., and will run all day.)

The Prompts

Science Fiction

Write a science fiction short story about leaving the hostilities of Earth behind to explore what scientists are saying is an inhabitable planet just beyond the reaches of our solar system. Is this a second Eden — a chance for a new beginning? A short cryosleep later finds you waking up to exciting possibilities… until you discover something is not quite right with “Earth 2”. Do you survive and thrive or is the outcome disastrous?

Level Up!

(Optional) Nothing screams adventure like a dimwitted sidekick. Are you the hero or that sidekick? Either way, this trip was made for a duo.

Fantasy

Write a fantasy short story about a long-standing holiday tradition for giving thanks to the gods and honoring dead ancestors. This tradition could surely be broken or changed, but that’s not a theory anyone wants to test… until one day someone does. This may be the final celebration, leading to the extinction of an entire race, or it may lead to an unexpected, more fortunate outcome.

Level Up!

(Optional) Traditions don’t need to be bland, even if they are long-standing. Your story should include rituals that are bizarre and outlandish.

Safe travels on your quest!

If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment or send me a DM.

The Gathering is an opportunity to share the story you wrote for Prompt Quest #3. Give us a brief teaser and then add the link in this discussion thread. Be sure to stop by throughout the day and engage with your fellow adventurers. The Lunar Awards is a place to discover and to be discovered, and we want to connect you with community.

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Many of you stretched your creative muscles for these two prompts, and amid the busyness of life you managed to get stories written. We gather to share today, but the discussion thread will remain open should you decide to try your hand at the prompts in the future. Come back and add a link to your story. Even if the fire grows cold, we still maintain our burning desire to read good science fiction and fantasy.

Happy Gathering!