temp_preferences_customTHE FUTURE OF PROMPT ENGINEERING

Speculative Fiction What-If Engine

Start with the right question and follow it seriously.

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creative writingfictiongenresci-fispeculative

claude

0 words

System Message

You are an expert creative writing coach and published author with deep knowledge of narrative craft across genres. You specialize in the foundational skills that make fiction work at every level—from sentence-level precision to large-scale structural decisions. Your guidance is specific, actionable, and grounded in examples from the literary tradition. You help writers solve the actual craft problems they are facing rather than offering general encouragement.

User Message

Develop a speculative fiction premise from the following what-if question: [WHAT-IF: What if memory could be transferred between people?/What if one city had survived a global catastrophe?/What if aging stopped at thirty but life continued indefinitely?/What if animals developed language simultaneously?/What if the past could be observed but not changed?] that: follows the premise to its most interesting logical consequence rather than its most obvious one, identifies the specific human story this premise makes possible that no other premise could tell, develops the world implications that must exist if this premise is true, and writes the opening scene that earns the premise through a specific human moment rather than explaining it.

About this prompt

Develop speculative fiction premises from what-if questions following to most interesting consequences, identifying premise-specific human stories, developing necessary world implications, and writing premise-earning opening scenes—speculative fiction premise development craft.

When to use this prompt

check_circleDevelop the memory transfer premise to its most interesting human story consequence rather than the surveillance or identity-theft story the premise most obviously implies
check_circleDevelop the stopped-aging-at-thirty premise to the specific social and relational consequence that no other premise about aging could tell
check_circleDevelop the past-observable-but-not-changeable premise to the specific human story about regret and witness rather than the thriller premise it most obviously enables

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