Bradley Ramsey's Power up Prompts

Element 1: Setting

Your setting this week is the Scorched Wasteland. This is a world burned by nuclear fire. Nearly all of Earth’s surface has become a wasteland, with sparse skeletons of cities still standing, though long abandoned.

Some pockets of life still exist, but it will be centuries before nature is able to reclaim and undo the damage that has been done to the world.

Element 2: Character(s)

Your character this week is The Nomad. This is someone who lost everything when the bombs fell. They wander the wasteland as a silent shadow. No one knows their name, and since they wear a mask, no one knows their true face either.

Only they know the pain and suffering they carry. Only they know what they’re searching for. Until they find it, they will continue to wander.

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict this week is Playing or Sabotaging the Game. Should you choose to use this element, your character must learn of a warlord who is hosting a grand race across a vast stretch of the wasteland. Everyone must bring their own vehicle, but if they win, the warlord promises to grant them any wish they desire.

According to the warlord’s people, his resources are infinite and his power is vast. Some say he can even bring back the dead. Will you decide to join the race and try to have your wish fulfilled? Or, will you choose to infiltrate the game and sabotage it from within? Is this all a ruse meant to cash in on a desperate few?

These questions are yours to answer in your entries this week.

Element 1: Setting

Your setting this week is The Atelier. This is a quaint workshop, filled with all manner of impressive inventions and odd machinery. It is a place that houses ideas both fantastical and grounded, each sitting beside one another on shelves that line the walls.

However, this is not simply a museum of industry. No, it primarily serves as a clock shop. The owner is an accomplished clockmaker and repairman. Even with all the amazing new inventions of this era, people still need to tell time, after all.

Element 2: Character(s)

Your character this week is The Clockmaker. This is someone who has become quite the recluse in their later life. Their Atelier is a monument to all of their accomplishments, but none of it will bring back what they lost.

For you see, their one and only love passed away some time ago, leaving them alone in the world. In their grief, they threw themselves into their work. While their skills have grown exponentially in the decades since they lost their love, the pain has yet to subside. And deep down, they know that no amount of technology will ever be able to heal them.

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict this week is The Price of Progress. Should you choose to use this conflict, your character must come into possession of ancient blueprints that detail a brand new type of invention. Something that could change the world. The only problem? They are encoded in a way that cannot be easily broken.

In their desperate search for answers, your character discovers that the key to unlocking the blueprints lies in a possession left behind by the lover they lost. This can be anything: a locket, a ring, a photograph, etc, but in order to decode the blueprints, this priceless object must be destroyed.

Will they sacrifice their last connection to the one they lost for the sake of progress? That is for you to decide.

In the Beginning....

Setting: The First Moment

Whether it is a place beyond time, a forgotten archive, the instant before existence, the distant future where the truth has finally been uncovered, or something else entirely is yours to decide. Somewhere in your story lies the answer to one of existence's oldest questions: How did everything begin?

Character: The Witness

Perhaps they are a scientist chasing impossible evidence. Perhaps they are the last survivor who remembers what came before. They might be a deity, an ordinary person caught in extraordinary circumstances, an artificial intelligence, an explorer, or someone who was never meant to learn the truth.

Whatever form they take, they stand closer to the beginning than anyone else.

Conflict: The Cost of Knowing

The truth about creation is not merely interesting, it changes everything.

Perhaps revealing it would shatter civilizations, destroy faith, rewrite history, awaken something ancient, or force your character to sacrifice what they love most. Perhaps the truth is so beautiful it hurts, or so horrifying that it cannot be allowed to spread.

Your story should explore not only what the beginning was, but why discovering it matters.

Genre: Psychological Horror

Prompt written by Gary Mucklow.

Element 1: Setting

Your setting is The Listening Room.

Hidden inside a neglected sound archive, the Listening Room is where damaged and deteriorating recordings are examined. Its walls absorb almost every sound. Inside, even breathing seems intrusive.

The archive holds thousands of donated tapes, many poorly labelled and some with no recorded origin at all. Voices wait in boxes for someone to give them their attention again.

Element 2: Character

Your character is The Archivist.

They are skilled at identifying edits, distortions and gaps that an ordinary listener would miss. Years ago, before entering the profession, they were the principal witness in a criminal case. Their testimony helped secure a conviction.

They remember being certain at the time. They can no longer remember why.

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict is The Missing Minute.

While processing a newly donated collection, the Archivist discovers an unlabelled recording connected to the old case. They recognise the place and the voices gradually, having begun their examination believing it was merely another damaged tape.

One minute is missing.

When they compare it with the official recording, they find the same precise absence, even though the two recordings came from different sources. As the damaged tape is restored, fragments of the missing minute begin to surface.

One of the voices belongs to the Archivist.

What it says does not agree with the testimony they gave, or with the life they remember living afterwards. They must decide how much of the recording they truly want to recover, knowing that the missing minute could overturn the case, expose a carefully buried lie, or reveal that their own memory was never entirely theirs.