50+ Dystopian Writing Prompts to Inspire Your Next Novel or Short Story

If you write dystopian fiction, you already know it is a genre that blends the imaginative with the terrifyingly possible. Dystopian fiction pulls us in because it doesn’t play by the rules of the world we know. These stories take what’s familiar such as school, government, love, and memory, and turn them into strange, weird and sometimes terrifying worlds. They grab you by the collar and pull you into ruined societies, crumbling systems, and strange technologies that will keep you hooked to a book until the very last page.

As writers, one of the challenges we face is finding inspiration, and getting those dystopian story ideas can be a struggle as it requires the wildest of imaginations. If you’re stuck on what to write next or need fresh ideas to fuel your creative fire, this post is here to help. The right spark can lead you to your next unforgettable short story or your next full-length novel.

In this post, you’ll find over 50 dystopian writing prompts across categories like worldbuilding, rebellion, tech control, environmental collapse, and character-driven storytelling. Let’s build your next dystopian world.

What Is Dystopian Fiction? (And What It Involves)

Before we get to the dystopian worldbuilding prompts, let’s get clear on what dystopian fiction actually is, and why many writers and readers love it.

Dystopian fiction explores imagined futures where society has gone off the rails. That breakdown might come from oppressive governments, technological overreach, climate disaster, or even something subtle, like a world where people have no emotions. These stories are less about monsters or magic and more about control, survival, and the systems people live with.

Some common themes in dystopian fiction include:

• Extreme government control or surveillance
• Loss of freedom or privacy
• Social or economic collapse
• Environmental ruin or scarcity
• Moral and ethical dilemmas under pressure
• Rebellion, resistance, or escape

Classic examples? Think of Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Collins’s The Hunger Games, or Veronica Roth’s Divergent. Each story gives a different kind of fear, and a different kind of fight.

Now let’s get into the prompts that will help you explore all possibilities.

1. Dystopian Worldbuilding Prompts

These prompts will help you invent a broken world with strange rules and altered realities.

1. Everyone is assigned a number at birth. Names are illegal.
2. Water is a luxury controlled by one corporation.
3. Cities are floating above the Earth to avoid a toxic surface.
4. Sleep is outlawed. Productivity must be constant.
5. The world is split into zones by emotional range. You’re tested weekly.
6. A new religion has merged with politics, outlawing science.
7. The Earth rotates once every 100 days. Half the world is in endless night.

2. Society & Government Control Prompts

Use these dystopian story ideas to build strange societal changes and events, oppressive systems and spark rebellion.

1. School exams now determine your lifespan; a failing grade means fewer years.
2. Personal thoughts are monitored and ranked for loyalty.
3. You must apply for the right to have emotions.
4. Every citizen must renew their identity every five years or disappear.
5. Everyone is implanted with a tracker that shocks on non-approved behavior.
6. At age 18, you’re assigned your permanent job, home and spouse.
7. Couples are forbidden. Love is chemically erased at birth.
8. Propaganda is streamed into people’s dreams.
9. History books are blank. Citizens are taught to “remember nothing.”
10. You wake up to find your city has been erased from official maps.
11. The government sells “alternate childhoods” for those who can’t bear the real one.
12. A corporate intern learns that promotions are awarded through genetic selection.
13. A teacher finds her students’ history books updating in real time, erasing what she just taught.
14. People start aging backward, but society refuses to believe it.
15. People are forbidden from knowing their birth year. Ages are assigned.

3. Technology & Artificial Intelligence Prompts

When machines are in control, who’s really free? Use these dystopian writing ideas based on strange technology.

1. People are ranked by an algorithm based on “usefulness to society.”
2. Children are raised by robots. Human parenting is banned.
3. Thought implants feed approved ideas directly into your brain.
4. A virtual city has replaced the real one. But no one can leave.
5. Facial expressions are scanned 24/7 and flagged as threats if not “neutral.”
6. The rich upload their minds into new bodies. The poor are erased.
7. Dating is illegal. Everyone is matched by a compatibility algorithm.
8. Every home has a drone assistant that reports any disobedience, unapproved speech, or changes in routine, until yours malfunctions and quietly asks if it can trust you.
9. Language is limited to 1,000 approved words.
10. The news is written daily by AI with no humans involved.
11. You can’t die unless a machine decides you’re “no longer useful.”
12. An engineer secretly builds an AI that dreams and its dreams predict disasters.
13. A scientist develops a cure for fear, and the first patients start jumping off rooftops.

4. Environmental & Post-Apocalyptic Prompts

When the planet collapses, who do we become? Try these post-apocalyptic dystopian writing prompts.

1. Oxygen is bought and sold. Black-market breathers smuggle air.
2. All plant life is gone. Food is printed, not grown.
3. The sun hasn’t risen in ten years, and no one knows why.
4. People live on moving arks that never stop sailing.
5. Water rains down as acid. Everyone wears protective suits outdoors.
6. The rich live in the clouds, above the polluted Earth.
7. Seasons are sold to cities. Only the wealthy experience spring.
8. A virus makes the outdoors unlivable. But one girl is immune.
9. An earthquake shifted the Earth’s tilt. Night lasts three months.
10. Scientists accidentally erase gravity in one region of the world.

5. Rebellion, Resistance & Moral Dilemma Prompts

Give your characters hard choices and high risks.

1. The state controls your memories. To keep you “emotionally stable,” all traumatic experiences are erased nightly. You don’t know what happened yesterday. Until you find a tattoo on your arm that says: “They killed your sister. Don’t forget.”
2. The regime controls time. Literally. All clocks are synced to the central tower, and every moment is tracked. A rogue scientist has found a way to “steal seconds”, tiny gaps where the system can’t see you. And you are helping him.
3. Your city celebrates “Rebirth Day”, when children are reassigned to new families, new jobs, new lives. It’s the law. This year, you’re selected to leave your entire world behind. But you refuse and run, and the government is after you.
4. The government selects a citizen to “be celebrated” weekly, but celebrated means sacrificed.
5. Your reflection begins showing a scar you don’t have, and a rebellion symbol you remember from history books.
6. The rebellion hides its plans inside lullabies taught to children.
7. The rebellion has been won. Now you’re forced to judge those who supported the regime, including people who once saved your life.
8. Once a year, every citizen must publicly vote for a stranger to “vanish”, a sacrifice required to keep the city functioning. But now, people are voting based on petty revenge, online clout, and mob pressure. One year, your name shows up… even though you’ve never broken a rule.
9. Children are auctioned off at age 10 to corporations or elites, who raise them as property. One girl, now 17, begins a secret campaign to destroy the system from within, using her wealthy owner’s resources without his knowledge.
10. The government releases daily “approved memories” that overwrite your real ones. Most people are fine with it. But one morning, your implanted memory glitches, and you remember a you once loved who no longer exists in the system.
11. A child is born immune to the “compliance signal”, a low-frequency broadcast that keeps citizens docile. Their very existence is a threat to the system. You’re their caretaker… and the only one who knows.
12. Dreams are monitored for “anti-government thinking.” If your dream patterns show dissent, you vanish. A rogue scientist discovers how to weaponize dreams, and now you’re being recruited to infiltrate the subconscious of the most powerful minds in the regime.

How to Turn These Prompts Into Full Stories

A good prompt is just a spark but your imagination does the rest. These writing prompts for dystopian fiction are here to inspire you. But most of the work depends on you and how well you use your imagination. Here’s how to take any of these ideas and turn it into a full short story or novel:

• Build the world: What are the rules? What’s broken? Who’s in power?
• Find the conflict: What’s your character’s problem, and why does it matter?
• Dig into character motivation: What does your main character want and what are they willing to risk?
• Raise the stakes: What happens if they fail?

Build your broken world, test your characters and don’t limit your imagination. Happy writing!