Welcome to 2026! Yes, I know we’re over half way through but family life has been busy so I’m only just getting back into the swing of things now, with a slightly panicked feeling that this month is being swallowed up so fast!
As I think I mentioned in… a previous post somewhere, I’m taking a wee break from the various novel projects over the next few weeks. Partly because January is quite event-heavy so I don’t want to dive into a new project in the midst of all that. Partly also because I’m feeling the well of creative joy is running a little dry and I want to nurture that by letting myself play and explore without pressure for a wee while.
I think there’s a danger for authors of becoming so tied in to the publishing cycle – the need to produce a book a year – that we do not have the space to stop and reassess our own writing. Not in terms of does this particular novel work but am I doing with my craft what I really want to be doing? Am I thinking through my themes and storytelling deeply enough, or am I scratching the surface or treading the same ground because I need to get this book finished by next month? Am I, perhaps, writing to meet the expectations of the publishing industry rather than to challenge and reshape my own expectations of my own writing?
One of my aspirations for my writing is that I get braver – both in terms of the questions I ask, and the way I tell my stories. I’m seeing these next few weeks of short fiction exploration, then, as a way to nurture my confidence, and perhaps find new voices for some of the angers and hopes I’m feeling at the moment. I really want to explore hopeful solarpunk properly, for example, and return to cyclic narratives. At this particular moment in time, watching the news, I want to play with blending spikier, angrier voices into hopefulness too.
One of the joys of short fiction is that you get the reward of finishing something in a short time frame, which can be empowering if the act of creating is feeling a little daunting. Another joy is that it is a much more flexible form than the novel in terms of playing with voice or form or reader expectations, and the stakes for experimenting with your craft are lower. Trying something way out of your comfort zone? If it fails, pftt you’ve lost a day or two, so no big deal. Or trying something wildly unconventional? It’s okay, it doesn’t need to work for 100,000 words, it only needs to work for 500, or 5,000.
I thought I might share with you some simple solarpunky/climate fic prompts I’m going to use, in the hope you might want to join me creating wee stories. Whether you have specific craft aspects you want to explore, or just want to play and see what comes to the page, I hope these prompts will give you some ideas. I will share some snippets of what I produce in a later post, perhaps some whole pieces (although that counts as first publication, so bear that in mind if you share your writing in your own blogs or newsletters).
SO without further ado…
Prompt 1: The dice game
Get a die, roll it three times, once for each column, and ta da! There’s your starting points for a story. See what questions come to mind and what you can build around these seeds. (yes I know a child isn’t an object per se. I was going to change it to a cat (also not an object tbf) and forgot. So consider it a schrodinger’s child/cat)
Prompt 2: Headlines!
From some recent New Scientist articles, pick one of these and keep poking it with a ‘What if?’ stick until you get past the first obvious ideas into something that feels fresh and intriguing. Like – What if a carbon border tax was on people not trade…, yes and now what if we paid in flesh/seeds/labour/lifespan…, yes and now what does that mean for this, and this, and… Just keep chasing that curiosity until something fun sparks.
Prompt 3: Concepts pick and mix!
Pick 2 or 3 of these random ideas, phrases, bits of tech or concepts, mash them together and see whether anything fun emerges from the chaos! If you’re struggling pick a historic era & imagine something from that time period in the future (solarpanel crinolines, anyone?), or a favourite piece of folklore (cat sidh but make it a manifestation in the space orbital), see if that helps something emerge.
Hope these give you some fun inspiration, or perhaps ideas for how to set up your own themed sets of prompts. If I were in a dystopia or dark academia mood, for example, these prompts games could easily be tweaked to feed that kind of story. I might be blending these prompts with other media like oracle cards or rune stone castings to force myself to leap in unexpected directions, so think about doing something like that too. Throw in something you overheard in a cafe, or a sign you saw, or a song lyric, an animal species name (moths, moths have some disproportionately poetic names) – these kinds of non-sequiteur prompts will help break your mind away from lines of thought it’s travelled before, and therefore help you stumble upon exciting new story ideas.
Happy writing and please let me know how you get on!
Thank you as always for your support. Because accessibility in publishing is important to me, I keep all my craft and publishing posts free, so any shares or tips are greatly appreciated. Wishing you a fabulous weekend.
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