Sci-Fi writing prompt ideas for student writers. Science fiction — which may be more commonly referred to by your students as Sci-Fi — is one of the most beloved genres among middle school and high school students.
Kids in these age groups are beginning to discover that reading can be truly enjoyable and they often gravitate to these fantastical works that inspire them and spark their imaginations. Adolescents, young adults, and teenagers often find it fun to escape to a world that is vastly different from their reality.
As a result, you may find that sci-fi writing prompts are the perfect option for your middle school or high school classroom. Whether you are teaching literature, science, art, or math, you can incorporate sci-fi writing into your curriculum. It’s important to remind students that science fiction writing can incorporate a lot of what they have learned within the classroom — new technology, scientific principles, biology, social studies, and more. Not to mention, it’s a writing style that offers them a lot of creative freedom!
Sci-fi writing prompts can be used as individual assignments, or you can incorporate them into your mix of writing prompts that you use for daily journaling with your students. These prompts are often specific enough that they give students a clear idea of what to write about, while still giving them the freedom and flexibility to take the story in any direction that they prefer.
By helping your students connect their school work and lessons with a subject that they genuinely enjoy, you will be allowing them to have fun while learning. Sometimes it can be difficult for middle school and high school students to relish their class work, so these prompts are sure to be an assignment that will be a nice break from their normal routine.
Use these sci-fi writing prompts in your classroom and give your students a chance to flex their creative muscles and create their very own futuristic story.
Sci-Fi Writing Prompts for Teens
- Write a detailed description about a planet that exists in another solar system.
- Craft a short story that features two best friends who are about to start middle school together. The only difference is that these friends are a witch and a vampire.
- You and your friends at school have accidentally stumbled on a secret laboratory. The invention inside is going to change the world forever…
- Write a poem about a mutant plant that is growing in your garden.
- The main character in your story has traveled through time and is now living in their grandparents’ time period. Write a story about what happens when your character meets the younger version of their grandparents.
- You have stepped into a room and you look at the time. The clock hands are pointing to the number “13”. What does this mean?
- You and your friends begin to play a virtual reality game. Suddenly, you realize that you are not playing the game anymore — you are living it.
- You are riding your bike and you fall off. You hit your head and think you have only suffered from a minor bump but you quickly realize that you can now read everyone’s mind. Do you love or hate your new superpower? What benefits does it have? What problems does it cause?
- Write about the supplies you would pack in order to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.
- Imagine that you have been invited to take a vacation into space. You can only bring one friend or family member with you and you can choose one galactic destination. Who do you bring and where do you go?
- You and your friends are playing with your walkie-talkies through the neighborhood on a late summer night. Suddenly, you realize that you have intercepted communication between aliens. What do they say? Where are they? What are they planning to do?
- Write a story about some kids at school who are playing hide-and-seek when they suddenly discover a portal that leads to a different dimension.
- Write a journal entry about how you would feel if you received a letter that simply said, “You are not one of them”.
- When you arrive to school on the first day, you realize that your teachers are now all robots. Describe what your first day of school would be like.
- Write a haiku about an imaginary planet.
- While off on a nature hike with your family, you stumble upon a nest with a strange, colorful egg. As you are checking out the egg, it begins to hatch and a small alien emerges from the shell.
- Write a story about a character who is working on a science experiment that goes catastrophically wrong. Describe the experiment and don’t forget the details about the unexpected results.
- You wake up one day and realize that time is moving backwards and not forwards. What starts to change about your home, your family, and your school?
- They say that we will know when time travel is possible when we are visited by someone from the future. How would you feel if someone visited you from the future? What would you want to know?
- Would you want to have a robot living in your house? Why or why not?
- We have apps for nearly everything now. Do you feel that these apps have helped or hindered us as a society?
- Write a story about what life will be like inside your school in 150 years.
- Imagine that you have been tasked with the job of finding a new planet for humans to live on. What type of planet would you be looking for?
- Your mother always told you to stay away from the attic, but she never explained why. You are very surprised when you discover that she has been hiding a secret invention up there.
- What would you do if you found out your parents were aliens who disguised themselves as human?
- What is one invention that you feel changed the world? What would the world be like if it had never been invented?
- The main character in your story overhears a conversation about a leak at a laboratory. What does your character do?
- Imagine that all the adults in your town are sleep walking and will not wake up. The kids are now in charge and must solve the crisis. What happens next?
- Write a short story from the perspective of an alien who has just landed unexpectedly in your hometown.
- You pick up a package from the porch, thinking it’s the new video game you ordered a couple of days ago. When you open the package, you realize that it has unexpected contents from the future inside it. Describe what you find and what you do with your discovery.
Before you go…
We hope that your budding sci-fi writers found inspiration in these creative writing prompts. For an extra challenge, ask them to write a story incorporating as many of the following list of words:
- Astronaut
- Mars
- Mission
- Scientists
- Spaceship or Space Station
- Alien planet
- Crew
- Survivors
- Moon
- Galaxy
- Space Travel
- Secret Society
146 More FREE Creative Writing Prompts
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- 65 Great STEM Writing Prompts for Students
- 23 Electrifying Star Wars Writing Prompts
- 27 Spectacular Writing Prompts About Space
As your students begin to delve into the sci-fi genre, remind them that there is no right or wrong way to work with these science fiction writing prompts. With so many topics at hand, all they need to do is keep on writing!
Until next time, write on…
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Jill
journalbuddies.com
creator and curator
Sci-fi isn’t a winner for some of your writers? No worry! We have more writing ideas to appeal to any writer! From fantasy to horror, your students will be on their way to sketching out the perfect plot and maybe even writing a best selling novel! Keep on writing, no matter what genre appeals to you!
PS – check out this out of this world resource —> Random Story Idea Generator – Sci-Fi Story Ideas
