Genre is not a box; it’s a playground. These plot generators give you a complete story prompt for horror, sci-fi, fantasy, or romance — because no matter if you are building a world of rogue robots, battling eldritch horror crawling out of crawling out of otherworldly dungeons, questing for magic or drafting the perfect love story, every story starts with a single idea. It does not even have to be a spark that anyone else would notice; it just speaks for you. It is also fun to just write without thinking of the prompts, and that practice helps you come up with new ideas easily. This tool gives a complete plot prompt for a genre of prose: horror, sci-fi, fantasy or romance.

Each terminal below is tuned to the specific tropes and rhythms of its genre. Scroll down to choose your generator; Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Romance. Our D&D story tool based on 5th edition SRD and is found on a separate page.

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Sci-Fi Prompts

The Edge of the Unknown 

We write on the thin line between the hope of “to the galaxy and beyond” and terror of the vastness of space. What lies in the stars? Is in hope and salvation, new frontiers or a cold impersonal void that will swallow us in deep space. Are we alone? Are there aliens, friendly or not? These and many others are the central questions of sci-fi, an allegory really of what human is, that is the deepest question of sci-fi, a mirror we hold and examine who we are. As Rod Sterling intro’d with in the Twilight Zone.

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ‘The Twilight Zone’.”

Or, perhaps you just want to write a spaghetti space romp, these prompts cover almost everything.

Horror Prompts

Things that Go Bump in the Night

Along the edges of our regular lives, there are lurking shadows—or at least, maybe the probability of their existence. It is the shiver, the worry, and the enjoyment of being scared; the wondering if there is more than the mundane that drives us. After all, from the first humans, Gilgamesh onward, that we know of, early man most likely knew the value of a good scary story. A lurking beast, dark bumps in the night, or the terrors of our own technologies gone rogue, morality mixed with good vs. evil: we enjoy it.

Science Fiction and Horror both rely on the unknown. One looks at the promise and perils of technology; the other looks at the normal world—no longer safe and tame, but wild, where humans are the hunted.

Fantasy Prompts

A Quest of Brave Adventurers

Magicians, spells, clerics, potions, dragons, fighters, fair maidens; a whole universe in its self, just waiting for us to peek in. We can find our better selves in these stories, and the world can be just as immersive as or own. Why do we like fantasy, my opinion is we all desire for adventure, that inside all of us in the will to join a battle of good and evil, one that fights the evil we see in our own lives and we want to be the brave adventurer and slay the dragons. That we have in ourselves to be brave and persevere through terrible conflict and peril and grow through the experience to be strong and brave and triumphant.

It also can be immersive and enjoyable and just fun, the prompt below get you started.

Romance Prompts

To Love, Perchance to Dream

What could be sweeter true love? Love is after the final goal of many, to be with someone who sees us as an extension of themselves, who would die for us and create a new family go forward into time. Romance can be fun, a silly good beach read, or it can be a tearjerker that leaves us with a broken heart. In either direction, romance and love are books of hope and heartbreak at the same time.

These prompts can get you started of your next true love story.