Microcosm Challenge: Empty World
Share a world for us to fill with people and stories
This is one of Microcosm's Greater ChallengesWhat is it?
A challenge not to write another story but to write another world. A world waiting for a heroine, waiting for a journey to take place within it.
Why should you do it?
Because it’s easy to fall into the familiar trap, to write stories always set in the same world or the same setting, this challenge forces you to write something interesting for others.
Writing worlds for others help you think about it as a more complete and standalone product. Writing enough into it that they can write without you.
This is almost guaranteed to make you a better world-builder, especially with the data from comments, claps and response stories.
And that can only help your own stories.
How do you do it?
- Write a 300, 200 or 100-word non-story that describes a world or society with enough detail to inspire other writers to fill it with their own stories.
- It’s almost the opposite of a story, containing no protagonists, no active story arcs—just exposition, backstory, or inviting world description.
- Use the sorting tag: Empty Worlds.
How do I reply to an Empty World prompt?
- Write your story and submit it, as usual, using a standard size (300, 200,100, 50 or 25).
- Add a Kicker to link your story to that world in this format clearly: “A Story of [World Name]”
- Kickers are a Small T heading above your Title.¹
- Link to the original Empty World post in your story footer, where you put your bio, as with any other prompt.
- Use the sorting tag: Empty Worlds
Examples, in order of publication:
Smillew Rahcuef’s Pianoland, true to his off-the-wall style, is an intriguingly odd world filled with emotion made tangible. I’ve got a song in mind for mine.
Paul Mansfield’s beautiful island of Monaxia hides a dark secret behind its thick green curtain. Do you dare explore what’s there?
- Please use this as your Kicker: A Story of Monaxiá
This world has already triggered a few replies, and you can read them all below: Well done, Paul Mansfield.
As part of our Stolen Worlds prompt:
All these worlds were stolen from famous works, so if you do base your story on one of these remember to credit the original just to be safe.
We’ll keep adding the most popular Empty Worlds here, but in the meantime, you can view all of the Empty Worlds we’ve published so far.
Who knows, it might be the beginning of a new adventure.
This is another of Micrcosm’s Greater Challenges, for when the weekly prompt becomes humdrum and your writerly talents need a good stretch:
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