Bradley Ramsey's Power up Prompts

This week’s genre is Eco-Fiction. This is a broad genre that treats both the natural world and ecological issues as more than just a setting. It makes them integral to the story, highlighting the careful balance between living things and their environment. It’s also often a genre that showcases the cost of hubris.

You can blend this concept with sci-fi, with horror, or with other genres as well. I encourage you to take the prompt and make it your own!

Element 1: Setting

Your setting this week is The Putrid Delta. This is the location of an ecological disaster. For years, a government research facility was dumping toxic chemicals into this river, thinking it would be swept out to sea and that their sins would be forgotten. But nature never forgets.

Instead, the chemicals built up at this delta, where the river meets the ocean. The local wildlife began to mutate in horrific ways. Humans who tried to swim or fish here experienced horrific symptoms. Before long, the government had to step in and admit what they had done.

It was too little, too late. A dam was built to stop the chemicals from flowing into the ocean. A massive quarantine wall was erected around the perimeter of the delta. The public was forbidden from entering for their own safety.

Government vehicles still come and go all the time, but no one knows what’s going on in there. Is the damage really contained? Or, did they find something born from their sin within those waters? The answer to those questions is up to you, my friends.

Element 2: Character(s)

Your character this week is The Bookworm. This is someone who has been following the events surrounding the Putrid Delta for most of their life. One of their role models is a scientist who managed to break into the area and transmit a short video back detailing what they found.

In the video, they showed footage of a new life form. Something that defies description. The video ended before they could finish their thought, and they were never seen again. The Bookworm was hooked. They started reading every book they could get their hands on about this topic.

They devoured every research paper the scientist had written before their untimely disappearance. They started to feel a connection to this person, and the seed of an idea started to grow in their mind: what if the scientist is still there?

They couldn’t shake the idea. They had to know the truth, and if this scientist is still alive, they had to save them.

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict this week is Knowledge Versus Experience. Should you choose to use this conflict, you must explore the difference between reading about something and actually doing it.

Our Bookworm character is incredibly knowledgeable about the Putrid Delta and the events that have transpired, but is knowledge enough for them to successfully complete their mission? That’s the true question.

And of course, what happens when the truth defies all the knowledge you’ve obtained thus far? What happens then? You will need to reconcile this as well, should you choose to leverage this elements in your story or poem.

Element 1: Setting

Your setting this week is The Mountains that Remember. This is a place that attracts all manner of tourists and thrillseekers. The entire region is technically off limits to the public, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to uncover its secrets (and many of them dying in the process).

The history around the area is murky, but the stories are fairly consistent. People who visit often see inexplicable time anomalies during their travels. Some stories tell of entire scenes playing out on loop with ghost-like apparitions simply reliving the same moment over and over.

Others have seen rivers running backwards, avalanches that move uphill, and trees that are growing backwards. The stories are wide and varied, but it all seems to point to a fracture in time.

This theory is confirmed by stories that tell of an ancient workshop somewhere on the mountains. It is said that the gods of the realm, now long gone, experimented with technology beyond our understanding and somehow broke time in this specific region before they disappeared.

Of course, all of that is speculation. No one really knows the truth behind these mountains that seem to capture memories and moments in time…

Element 2: Character(s)

Your character this week is The Guide. This is someone who is widely known for creating the only existing maps of the region. They live near the base of the mountains, and for the right price, they’ll guide you safely through some of its more well-trodden areas.

Their past is shrouded in mystery, but many believe they know a lot more about the mountains than they let on. When they’re not taking groups up the mountain, they live alone, and they prefer it that way.

Their eyes carry a heavy weight, a weight that seems to span lifetimes.

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict this week is The Sins of the Past. Should you choose to incorporate this element, your story must explore what happened in the ancient workshop somewhere on these mountains. Specifically, this conflict should be related to the hubris of the gods who broke time.

No one likes to admit it, but the boundaries of these time anomalies are creeping beyond the base of the mountains. It’s spreading, and the only person who can do anything about it is someone who knows the truth of what happened here.

Will they step up and atone for the sins of the past? Or, will they continue to ignore the problem and hope it goes away? The choice is yours, my friends, but remember:

Some sins refused to stay buried…

Element 1: Setting

Your setting this week is The Forlorn Island. This location exists on a planet where the native beings (human or whatever you like) are always born in pairs. From the moment they draw their first breath, they know who their soulmate will be.

This island is the site of a festival that occurs once every hundred years during a solar eclipse. The festival is meant to honor the goddess

The festival is meant to honor the goddess Linara. The story goes that she came to this world alongside her twin flame. Together, they brought life to the world, but her soulmate died tragically during an eclipse many eons ago.

Her heart was broken so utterly that she changed the very fabric of reality to ensure no one else would feel the same loneliness. She declared that all souls would be born in pairs and live equal lives so they would never have to be alone.

As the legend states, she then turned herself to stone. A material as cold as her broken heart. That same statue rests at the center of the island to this day.

Element 2: Character(s)

Your character this week is The Lonely One. This is the first person in the planet’s history to be born without a soulmate. Their existence was hidden from the world. If anyone knew, it would incite panic. Fear would spread like wildfire.

They grew up without answers, living a life of pure loneliness. When they asked about why they didn’t have a soulmate, they were told to be silent or threatened by their foster parents.

Now fully grown, they’ve arrived at the Forlorn Island seeking answers. They go to the statue of the goddess, only to discover she’s no longer stone. When she sees them, her eyes fill with light.

She recognizes them…

Element 3: Conflict

Your conflict this week is Starting Over. Should you choose to use this conflict in your story, it must be revealed that your protagonist is in fact the reincarnated soul of Linara’s lover.

She is overjoyed to once more be reunited with her beloved, but there’s just one problem: your protagonist doesn’t remember her. They don’t remember this relationship, this cosmic love story that ended in tragedy.

So, what happens next? Will they start anew? Will those feelings or memories return, or is this perhaps one example where the universe got the pairing wrong?

You must answer these questions in your entry.

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.