Historical fiction Writing Prompts & Story Ideas

16 historical fiction writing prompts to start with

Every one can go straight into the AI story generator: tap "Write it" to see one way the story could go, then write your own version.

1. Write about a typesetter in 1850s London who intercepts a message that could change the course of a battle.Write it
2. Write about a codebreaker at Bletchley Park who must save the library's rarest scroll before the fire spreads.Write it
3. Write about a Viking trader's daughter who carries a secret letter across a border at war.Write it
4. Write about a scribe in ancient Alexandria who discovers their employer is a famous figure in disguise.Write it
5. Write about a nurse in the Crimean War who is accused of witchcraft for keeping a calendar.Write it
6. Write about a jazz pianist in 1920s Chicago who disguises themselves to enter a profession closed to them.Write it
7. Write about a lighthouse keeper's wife in 1890s Maine who has to choose between family and a revolution.Write it
8. Write about a silk merchant on the Silk Road who hides a fugitive in plain sight.Write it
9. Write about a Roman bath attendant who witnesses a famous event history recorded wrongly.Write it
10. Write about a telephone switchboard operator in 1915 who is the only person who knows the shipwreck was deliberate.Write it

What-if ideas

• What if a minor figure from a history book told their side?Write it
• What if a letter arrived a day too late to stop a famous event?Write it
• What if a servant secretly wrote a famous author's best work?Write it
• What if an ordinary family lived through one historic day?Write it
• What if a lost invention had been kept hidden?Write it
• What if two people on opposite sides of a war wrote to each other?Write it

Tips for historical fiction writers

Research, then hide it

Know far more than you show. A few precise details (the price of bread, the smell of the street) beat a lecture.

Avoid modern minds in old bodies

Characters should think within their time, even when they push against it.

Check sources

Use primary sources such as letters, newspapers and diaries for voice and detail.