Chapter one, page one
Choose a genre, a tone and a length, then deal yourself a story. Keep the pieces you love and reroll the rest.
Write a whimsical mystery short story of 1,000 to 7,500 words. A quick-tempered tearoom owner who sleeps with the lights on must return something they stole before anyone notices it is gone. Set it in a country house cut off by floods, during the busiest week of the year. Somewhere in the story, include a child’s drawing of a house that doesn’t exist. The twist: their mentor planned every obstacle.
Tone note Keep the sentences light and quick, and save one quiet moment for the ending so it lands.
Every prompt is built from word banks written for Fresh Fable: a character (a describing word, a role and a telling detail), the trouble they must face, a place and a time, an object that has to appear and a twist. Pick a genre and a tone, or leave both on Surprise me, and the generator draws pieces that suit them, so a cosy prompt steers clear of the grimmest ideas and a mystery gets suspects rather than starships.
Length decides how much you get. A micro story has a character, a problem and an object; flash fiction adds a setting, a short story adds a twist, and novellas and novels add a second character to carry a subplot. Lock a part with its padlock and press New prompt to redraw everything else, or roll one part with its dice. Previous brings back a prompt you rolled past.
The word counts follow the Nebula Award rules of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association: short stories under 7,500 words, novellas from 17,500 to 40,000, novels above that. Micro and flash fiction have no official limits; 100 and 1,000 words are the usual ones.
Characters to fill it, twists to turn it, a plan to hold it together and a world to set it in.
A name, age and job, plus a want, a need, a flaw, a secret and a quirk. Edit any field and save the sheet.
Original twists for eight genres, each with advice on planting clues so the reveal feels fair.
Three acts, a 15-beat sheet or the hero’s journey, with word targets and chapters for your length.
A place that fits its era, the time and weather, and something for each of the five senses.
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Try WebTraceCheckNo. Every line in the word banks was written for Fresh Fable. The generator only picks lines at random and joins them in your browser, so the same prompt could come up for someone else, but the combinations run into the billions.
Yes: for practice, classes, writing groups or work you publish. A prompt is only a starting point, and the story you write from it is yours.
Each new prompt draws its own genre or tone, shown in the line above the prompt. Pick one from the list to keep it fixed.
It is locked. Locked parts have a closed padlock and a gold underline in the prompt. Press the padlock again to set the part free.