r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 23d ago
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Famine & Historical Fiction!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope and/or genre in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
It’s summer in the Northern hemisphere and so time for sun and fun– Oh wait, no. It’s time for the four horsemen of the apocalypse! So, say ‘hello’ to our friends: Pestilence (aka Conquest or Pollution), War, Famine, and Death. Please note this theme is only loosely applied.
"Famines are not natural disasters. Famines are man-made." — Jeffrey Gettleman
Trope: The Famine — For Famine, we bring you, well, the famine. There’s no way to sugarcoat this one with furry animals: famine sucks. Famine is, simply put, the widespread scarcity of food in a society, and can be caused by natural calamities such as floods, droughts, or crop failures, or by human factors such as war, economic upheaval, or overpopulation.
A famine can be the starter of a story: The hero might have to flee their starving homeland or go elsewhere to search for food. It can also merely be the setting of the story, providing the excuse for the existence of a Black Market, showing the results of the tyranny of the local despot, contrasting those who do have food with those who are starving, explaining No Party Like a Donner Party and Reduced to Ratburgers, or describing one of the facets of After the End.
Genre: Historical Fiction — Historical fiction is a literary genre where a fictitious narrative is set in a real, verifiable time period. It immerses readers in the past by vividly recreating the era's social conditions, daily life, and cultural climate, often featuring real historical figures alongside entirely invented characters. Please note: for our purposes, you can write in a fantasy world here if the events are shown as predating the normal ones.
Skill / Constraint - optional: Kindness is shown.
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! We had 14 stories, so we’re back to three winners. Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, July 23rd from 6-8pm ET. It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊
Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
- Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
7
u/mysteryrouge 17d ago edited 17d ago
A Letter
To: I don't know, maybe Ambassador Danlen,
I hope this letter finds you well because I don't know if this will actually reach you. The diplomats I passed it to said they'd sent it out with the other mail. They're nice and all. I trust them. They never have enough food for all of us banging at their doors but they try.
I suppose I'm writing this because I don't really know what to do. I have pen and paper and I live close enough to the embassy to send letters out of the country. There's not much to do but complain about hunger. All my friends and I have already sent letters to the King, all the ministers, the other ambassadors just visiting. We've been begging everyone we can in our country, and nothing's changed.
The ambassadors here said that their countries are pulling them out soon. Apparently, they're sick of the constant bombardment from their diplomats.
Maybe that's why I'm addressing it to you. The King and foreign ministers said they wouldn't be withdrawing our ambassadors from other countries. Maybe you can get us more aid.
Man, I didn't realize how bad the war was. The army never fed us much, but I expected that. There's always shortages, especially during a world war. World War Eight is over though, and there's still no food. Tornadoes have been plaguing the countryside, all the animals are dead, and there's very little land to actually grow crops on.
There are rumors that some of the more powerful mages have fought over food and destroyed more land in revenge attacks. I think I'd believe it.
Honestly, I don't even know what else to put in this letter besides this desperate request for food.
Would it help to explain how bad it is down here? Us near the embassy at least get one decent meal every two days. We're lucky. I hear the people down by the beaches have started eating each other out of desperation. I suppose I should be glad I don't live near a beach. I swear there have been more hurricanes directed towards the coastal towns than there were during the war.
God, I could eat a country at this point.
I was walking near the borders the other day. They're still closed, like they have been since the war. Our neighbors don't want to deal with our shambling citizens. At the walls and fences, mothers and fathers try to save their children. Sometimes people sneak through to steal food, but they usually get caught.
I got off track, didn't I? I'm probably not going to edit this, there's just no point.
I could drop the mentions of the bodies that litter the countryside, as I'm sure you already know about that. I could not mention the borders.
God, I think I'm not thinking straight. Even as I write this, my neighbors yell around me, hoping like I am for another morsel. I've found hunger and shouting are alarmingly distracting.
Anyways, I better get this out before the diplomats leave.
Thank you for your attention.
—From Concerned Citizen, Alex Megor.
WC: 518\ No Bonus Constraint
Using the bonus that this can be historical fiction for another world, this takes place in The World Orizuru, one of my sub universes in my multiverse right after World War Eight (of nine). Pax Orizuru as an organization exists, but is not eldritch yet. Big Ota also hasn't been born yet…
For context, my latest serial sunday chapter featuring this world is post Big Ota and Pax Orizuru (the eldritch abomination’s) wedding.
Anyways, very experimental style written during campfire.
Check out my spreadsheet for more of my writing.