An imaginary civilization, from inception to ruin
The 100-Word Challenge: I send you a 100-word prompt, and you write 100 words of fiction.
Welcome to The 100-Word Challenge, in which I send you 100 words of writing inspiration, and you write 100 words of anything you want—a novel, or a story, or just a quick sketch.
And if you find you’re itching to keep going, you can write more than 100 words. If not, you can stop there and feel great about the fact that you’re building a writing habit.
Paid subscribers receive a month’s worth of 100-Word Challenge prompts.
An imaginary civilization, from inception to ruin
Novels like Homegoing and Pachinko cover hundreds of years of history. I love seeing not only how families change over generations, but how civilization itself changes. I wrote my own 100-year-spanning novel, Where Futures End, to explore how life on earth would change after a first encounter with an alternate universe.
Thomas Cole’s five-painting series, The Course of Empire, shows an imaginary civilization from its inception to its ruin. If you look closely, you can trace the fate of individuals, structures, and natural landmarks.
If you wrote a multi-generational story, what would change over time? What would stay the same?
Feel free to share your 100 words in the comments.
Want More 100-Word Challenge Prompts?
Become a paid subscriber to receive a month of writing prompts to help you build a daily writing habit.
[Continued] Not 100% fitting the bill but it's a start :-)
Throughout the night, Vardo was wracked with the nightmares that had plagued him over the last century, since the day he had discovered just what his own mother had done. She would soon pay for taking the life of his twin, his fathers, and his grandparents, just as she thought she had taken his, 900 cycles ago. Yet despite his sweats and restlessness, he had neither fallen nor cried out. Surprise was still his. He would do this. These people knew not what they had just accepted, if they only knew, they would help him. But how to tell them?
[Continuing...not a rising and falling across generations. Only one line that defines the ruination of a friendship, and one pleading to restore it.]
She wondered, while allowing herself to be pulled along, what did Donna know? Did she mean today’s attacks, or Poe, or why she was here? She’d had no time to process anything, as each moment birthed new absurdities.
Donna spoke as they walked. “I hadn’t properly apologized for…you know, the affair…and…I’m so sorry. We had a lifelong friendship, and I’ve destroyed it. Lor’ knows I’ve hurt you before, but…this was the whopper. Unforgiveable.” She paused, as tears welled up, like floodwaters against a dam. “I know I’m not deserving, but please. Forgive me.”
And she added softly. “While there’s time.”