70 Dystopian Writing Prompts for Teen Writers
Dystopian fiction is one of the most powerful genres to teach and write. It gives students permission to question power, examine injustice, and imagine what happens when society breaks or bends too far. Whether your students are studying 1984, The Hunger Games, The Giver, or writing their own pieces, dystopia gives them a framework to explore big ideas through a fictional lens.
This post includes 70 dystopian writing prompts designed for teen writers, from eerie opening lines and powerful titles to picture-based ideas and speculative story starters. Use them as daily writing warm-ups, full lesson tasks, homework, or creative revision projects. There's no prep required, just pick a prompt and see where it takes them.
1. Plot Hooks
These story-based prompts give students just enough to run with. Each one imagines a broken or twisted version of the world they know, where power, control, or truth has shifted. Perfect for sparking deeper thinking while still leaving plenty of creative freedom.
Write a story set in a society where everyone must wear a colour-coded badge showing their IQ, but yours is wrong.
Write a story set in a place where books are banned, but you’re part of a secret group trying to recreate one from memory.
Write a story where every teenager must pass a loyalty test, but you failed yours on purpose.
Write a story where children are assigned to parents by the state, and you just found out yours were not chosen for you.
Write a story in which students earn their grades by watching propaganda, but your main character is starting to question the rules.
Write a story about a city controlled by drones.
Write a story about a society in which silence is rewarded, but you have just found your voice.
Write a story about a job interview that turns out to be a government test of loyalty, and failure means exile.
Write a story in which everybody disappears at the age of 30, but nobody knows where they go.
Write a story about a society in which emotions are considered dangerous, and yours have just been exposed on a live broadcast.
2. Title Prompts
Title prompts are perfect for sparking curiosity without giving too much away. They work especially well in dystopian writing because so much is built on suggestion, metaphor, and tone. These titles can be used as standalone tasks, first-line generators, or anchor points for deeper narrative writing:
The Silence Was Compulsory
Exit Code 17
We Were the Last to Remember
The Ministry of Hunger
The Rulebook
The Day the Sky Changed Colour
Her Smile Was State Property
Eyes Forward at All Times
When the Clock Hits Zero
The Children Voted First
3. Opening Lines
A strong opening line drops students straight into the world, no explanations, no build-up, just tension. These lines are designed to be strange, unsettling, or quietly off. Perfect for building atmosphere, starting timed writes, or anchoring longer creative pieces.
The sky looked normal.
We were told not to ask what happened.
It started with a list and a curfew.
They scanned our voices before they let us speak.
You didn’t notice the missing ones at first.
Mum said we were lucky, I remember that much.
I forgot my ID badge just once.
At school, they teach us how to disappear politely.
The alarms didn’t go off this time
Our town got its new name today.
4. Closing Lines
A dystopian ending doesn’t have to be loud, sometimes the quietest endings hit hardest. These closing lines are designed to linger. They leave space for ambiguity, despair, hope, or resistance - perfect for students to write toward or use as reflective inspiration:
And still, nobody spoke.
The broadcast ended, but this time the screen stayed on.
We burned the book and buried the ashes where the cameras couldn’t see.
I used to dream about freedom, but now I just dream about sleep.
They promised the power would come back on, but it never did.
We didn’t win, but we remembered.
My name wasn’t on the list.
I wasn’t afraid anymore.
And for the first time, nobody noticed.
Tomorrow, I’ll make sure I lie better.
5. Character Ideas
In dystopian fiction, characters often live in fear, silence, or resistance, sometimes all three. These character ideas are designed to spark internal conflict, moral dilemmas, and a strong narrative voice. They can help create a full story or be dropped into an existing world to cause disruption:
A teenager who writes secret coded poems in the margins of official documents.
The youngest child in a family of law enforcers, who is starting to question the rules.
A neighbour who reports others to the state, until their own family member breaks the rules.
A student with perfect behaviour, because they’ve never spoken a word.
A nurse tasked with erasing memories, but keeps her own record of them.
A tech support worker who starts getting messages from a banned account.
A young adult who has spent their life inside a bunker and has been told the world outside is gone, until somebody knocks on the door.
An elderly neighbour who remembers how the world used to be, and wants to share their stories.
A factory worker wth fingerprints that don’t seem to match any system.
A new student with no official record, and a scar that no one will explain.
6. Setting Ideas
Dystopian settings twist the familiar into something unsettling. These aren’t meant to be alien planets, instead, they’re schools, streets, or cities just a little too quiet, too controlled, or too broken. These settings help students create atmosphere, tension, and world-building that feels real:
A school where each hallway is monitored by motion sensors and microphones.
A crumbling tower block divided by floors, the higher you live, the more rights you have.
An underground train system that never stops, and each carriage is home to a different underground community.
A town surrounded by electric fences, but nobody remembers why they were put up.
A testing centre where students are assessed weekly on obedience, not knowledge.
A museum filled with things from “before”, but nobody is allowed to ask what they are.
A neighbourhood where loud noises are illegal, and silence is enforced by drones.
A marketplace underground where banned items, like books, mirrors, and musical instruments, are sold in secret.
A walled city where it’s always light, and no one has seen true night in decades.
A classroom with no teacher, just a screen, but today the screen doesn’t turn on.
7. Picture Prompts
A single image can spark an entire dystopian world. These picture prompts are designed to immerse students in the atmosphere, tension, and the unsettling beauty of a broken system. From uniformed crowds to glitching skylines, each one holds a story waiting to be uncovered. Use them for creative writing, descriptive tasks, or world-building warm-ups, and watch students step straight into their own speculative futures.
Final Thoughts
Dystopian writing gives students a way to ask the big questions — about power, freedom, truth, and what it means to survive when the rules no longer make sense. Whether you’re running a full genre unit or just sneaking in some creative writing between texts, these prompts are designed to do the heavy lifting.
If you're looking for more, I’ve created a full Dystopian Writing Bundle on my TpT store, packed with printable classroom activities and student-friendly creative tasks. You’ll also find a Dystopian Writing Book and a set of Famous First Lines: Dystopian Writing Prompts in my store - ideal for warm-ups, writing units, extension tasks, or independent writing.
Whatever version of the future your students imagine, I hope these prompts will help them write it with depth, tension, and purpose.
Want to make creative writing even easier to plan?
Sign up for my Daily Writing Prompts, you’ll get a full month of prompts free when you join the waitlist. Perfect for warm-ups, independent tasks, and no-prep lesson creative writing lessons.
