Here is a list of 100 creative command prompts for designing and describing literary settings.
1. The Five Senses
Describe a location using only its smells.Write a setting where the dominant sensation is sound (or the lack of it).Craft a setting defined by its "feel" (e.g., humidity, biting cold, oppressive dryness).Illustrate a setting through its dominant colors and quality of light.Convey a setting's culture or wealth through the taste of its food and drink.Describe a marketplace by focusing on all five senses at once.Write a setting where one sense is distorted or unreliable.Describe the specific "sound" of the city's silence at 3 AM.Detail the smell of the antagonist's headquarters.Illustrate a room's history through its textures (e.g., worn wood, frayed silk, cold steel).
2. Atmosphere & Mood
Design a setting that feels "oppressive" and "claustrophobic" (e.g., a submarine, a dense jungle).Craft a setting that feels "whimsical" and "dreamlike" (e.g., a city in the clouds, a forest of glass trees).Build a setting that creates immediate "tension" and "foreboding."Write a "haven" or "sanctuary" setting that provides the character with perfect safety.Describe a location that is "uncanny" (e.g., a perfect replica of a town, but empty).Convey a "melancholy" atmosphere through a decaying or abandoned place.Create a "chaotic" and "overwhelming" setting (e.g., a crowded bazaar, a riot).Design a setting of "perfect, sterile order" that feels unsettling.Write a "sacred" or "holy" place and describe why it feels that way.Illustrate a setting that is "Gothic" or "macabre" (e.g., a fog-shrouded swamp, a decaying manor).
3. Time & Chronology
Establish a setting in a specific, vivid historical era (e.g., the height of the Jazz Age, the day *after* a revolution).Describe the same location at three different times of day (dawn, noon, midnight).Set a scene during a specific "season" and make the weather a major factor.Write about a place "frozen in time" (e.g., a room untouched for 50 years).Describe a futuristic city in the "distant future."Show a familiar setting as it would appear 1,000 years in the past.Craft a setting that exists "outside" of normal time (e.g., a magical library, a pocket dimension).Describe a setting during a major "time-based event" (e.g., a festival, a public execution, a New Year's countdown).Illustrate the "pacing" of a setting (e.g., a "fast-paced" city vs. a "slow" rural town).Write a setting based on a historical "anachronism" (e.g., a Roman legion with a working steam engine).
4. Place & Geography
Design a setting in an "extreme environment" (e.g., a volcanic forge, an arctic ice shelf).Build an "impossible" or "unnatural" geography (e.g., floating islands, a reverse waterfall).Describe a city from a "bird's-eye view," focusing on its layout and shape.Detail the architecture of a single, significant building.Craft a setting that is entirely "underground" (e.g., a cavern city, a network of tunnels).Design a setting that is entirely "underwater."Describe a "border" or "liminal space" between two different worlds (e.g., a magical portal, a military checkpoint).Write a setting that is a "wasteland" (e.g., post-apocalyptic, magical, or industrial).Focus on the "flora and fauna" of a fantasy or sci-fi setting.Create a map for a fictional world, including key political boundaries and natural wonders.
5. Social & Cultural World-building
Define the "form of government" for your setting (e.g., theocracy, oligarchy, anarchy).Illustrate the setting's "class structure" (e.g., a stark divide between rich and poor).Detail the dominant "religion" or "belief system" and how it shapes the architecture.Describe the setting's "relationship with technology" (e.g., advanced, forbidden, regressed).Convey the setting's "unwritten rules" and social etiquette.Describe a local "custom" or "ritual" in detail.Illustrate the setting through its "art, music, or entertainment."Define the "taboos" of the society (what is absolutely forbidden?).Describe the "economy" (e.g., currency, trade goods, black market).Show the setting's "legal system" in action (e.g., a courtroom, a street-side judgment).
6. Setting & Character Interaction
Show the setting through a character's "first impression."Describe the same setting from the "biased perspectives" of two very different characters.Write a "fish out of water" scene where a character is completely alien to their surroundings.Show a character who is a "perfect product" of their oppressive or idyllic setting.Have a character "change" or "deface" a setting to show their power or rebellion.Show how a "harsh setting" (e.g., a desert) has physically and mentally changed a character.Describe a character's "private, personal space" (e.g., their bedroom, their workshop).Show a character feeling "alienated" by a setting that everyone else finds normal.Write a setting from the "point of view" of a non-human (e.g., an animal, an AI, a ghost).Show a character "reading" a setting for clues (e.g., a detective in a crime scene).
7. Setting & Plot Interaction
Design a setting that is a "prison" the character must escape.Craft a setting as a "goal" or "destination" (e.g., a "promised land," a "lost city").Use the setting as the "antagonist" (e.g., a "man vs. nature" story on a mountain or in a blizzard).Create a "pressure cooker" setting that forces characters into conflict (e.g., a snowed-in cabin, a locked vault).6cS.Use the setting to "hide a clue" (e.g., a secret passage, a message hidden in a carving).Write a scene where the setting provides an "unexpected weapon" or "tool."Have the setting "betray" the character (e.g., a branch breaks, a floorboard gives way).Design a setting that *is* the "central mystery" (e.g., a "haunted house," a "ghost ship").Use a "change in setting" to signal a major plot twist or character change.Create a setting that must be "defended" (e.g., a "fortress under siege" scenario).
8. Symbolic & Thematic Settings
Design a setting that "symbolizes" the protagonist's inner emotional state.Craft a setting that represents "the past" (e.g., a museum, a childhood home, a ruin).Create a setting that symbolizes "decay" or "moral corruption."Write a setting that represents "innocence" or "paradise" (e.g., a "secret garden," a "childhood haunt").Use two settings to create a "dichotomy" (e.g., a glittering city vs. its toxic slums; the world above vs. below).Describe a "crossroads" as a literal and metaphorical symbol for a character's choice.Use a "labyrinth" or "maze" as a metaphor for the character's confusion.Craft a "mirror" setting that reflects a distorted or terrifying version of reality.Employ "pathetic fallacy" (where the weather mirrors the characters' emotions).Describe a "wasteland" as a symbol for a character's grief or loss.
9. Genre-Specific Settings
(Sci-Fi) Design a "generation ship" and the unique society that has formed on board.(Sci-Fi) Describe a "cyberpunk" city, focusing on neon, rain, and high-tech/low-life contrasts.(Sci-Fi) Craft the rules and environment of a "terraformed" planet.(Fantasy) Build a "magic system" and show how it has physically shaped the environment.(Fantasy) Describe the "ancient ruins" of a long-dead, powerful civilization.(Fantasy) Design a "thieves' guild" that is hidden in plain sight within a city.(Horror) Create a setting that is "alive" and "malevolent."(Horror) Describe a place that seems "perfectly normal" but is deeply and fundamentally "wrong."(Dystopia) Define the "architecture of oppression" in a totalitarian city.(Utopia) Design a "perfect" society and write the one detail that hints at its hidden flaw.
10. Advanced Techniques & Micro-Settings
Describe a setting "using only dialogue" (what characters say about it).Describe a setting "using only action" (how characters physically interact with it).Introduce a "macro-setting" (like a kingdom) by focusing on one "micro-object" (like a coin).Build a setting based on a "famous painting" or "photograph."Craft a "surreal" setting that is a character's dream or hallucination.Describe the "contents of a character's pocket" or "bag" to establish their world.Write a "transition" setting (e.g., a train, an airport, a carriage) with a sense of purpose.Describe a "public" setting (e.g., a market, a park) bustling with life and mini-stories.Describe a "private" setting (e.g., a locked room, a vault) full of secrets.Personify the setting: "The city itself was..." and give it human-like qualities.
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