Write a story set in a world with a dying sun, or where light is a scarce resource.

Posted in Science Fiction on Jan 5, 2024

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✍️ 65 stories

“8 Minutes” by Melissa Matury

Submitted to Contest #232

8 Minutes You can’t. You promised. You swore never to destroy — That’s not what I promised. You twist my words. He vanished into the vapors. Left us alone. My center became white-hot magma. Feelings inside oozed, burned. Cauterized. My comrades turned to me for answers. Is it true? Do they know? How will they survive? Can we help? What should we do? I held my breath. I let panic run through the woods and stop in the desert. The moment before chaos, I spoke. It’s true and they have no idea. They won’t know for another 8 m...

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“While the Sun is Dying” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #232

Austin Conners 04/18/3002To: Julia ConnersSubject: Recent EventsJulia,I hate to tell you this way, but you’re a hard person to get a hold of. While in the field ...

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“Eyes that Saw Nothing” by Kevin B. Jones

Submitted to Contest #232

Mia always thought that maybe, just maybe, if she held her breath long enough the world would fade away just for a second. She thought that the quiet wouldn’t feel so quiet anymore as if it followed her and the ringing in her ears would subside to the low drum of her pulse and the cold wouldn’t wrap around her bones with its cruel hands … But she realized, as her head rested against the grainy wall, as her nails...

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“Dying Sun ” by Renee Yancey

Submitted to Contest #232

It hasn't always been this way. The old ones talk about a time where the sun shone bright, warning the earth so it was hot a quarter of the year. They speak of a time where the grass was green and the plants grew outside. All this is unimaginable now. As long as anyone except the oldest among us, can remember, the plants have been grown in growing pods, lit by growing lamps. Natural light is rare. All are encouraged to be in it at least a half hour a day. Announcements are broadcast reminders of the importance of Vitamin D. Stepping out ...

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“One Night Stand (script)” by McKenna Johnson

Submitted to Contest #232

LOGLINE: "Ahead of the inescapable heat death of the universe, a quiet observer attempts to accept her fiery end with the accompaniment of a poorly-timed hookup." --- OVER BLACK. SUPERIMPOSE: PROLOGUE. We hear bodies pushed against walls. INDECIPHERABLE BANTER, LAUGHTER. RAGE MUSIC in the distance. Then, the JOSTLING OF KEYS. FADE TO: INT. DORM ROOM - NIGHT MALLORY, a shaggy-haired 20-something, stumbles in. Drunk as ever. Nearly drops her KEYS. AYDEN slides in. Attempts to be cool and catch her keys, but almost trips. Recovers. Make...

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“Things That Lurk” by Austin Baker

Submitted to Contest #232

(Content warning for implications of violence, death, and mental health.) When I was ordained as a priest of the Solar Order, I didn’t take my vows very seriously. But then again, that was back when the sun still exhibited its full strength. It was hard to know the dangers of the night when the members of my brotherhood had done so well to drive them back. I, like any other in the city, thought the Order’s teachings a remnant of the past. The things they feared were consigned to the realm of metaphor and myth, teaching designed to frighten...

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“The Winterlong” by Marianna Hawk

Submitted to Contest #232

Note: this story contains mentioning of firearms, mild descriptions of police violence, public hysteria, and violence towards childrenDad prodded Toby awake to watch the final sunrise. Red light glowed through the slit of the curtain, making the walls bleed, and their shadows stretch across the ceiling. James, Toby’s older brother, shuffled in the room to join them. The sun was so small it struggled under the weight of the dark. Snow blanketed every house the window could see, glimmering gold in the dying light. It seemed their neighbou...

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“Daffodils” by Davie McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #232

The silver glow of the waning moonlight in her eyes steadily faded with the approaching dawn. Untangling her long, dark hair from the snags and limbs, she pushed past the rhododendron thickets as she climbed the muddy river bank. She could see her breath as she tried to blow warmth into her frigid hands. Slowly, she made her way into the clearing, onto flat soil. The bright daffodil blossoms blanketed the gray, misty landscape. She knelt down on the soggy ground and caressed one of the cheerful yellow petals. The frost on the f...

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“Not a Lick of Sense” by Mary Lynne Schuster

Submitted to Contest #232

The radioactive factories put out enough energy to power things. I’ve read about how it was before – the world was too cold at the poles, too hot at the equator. Most people shuffled around in the in-between zones, the temperate zones, managing their clothes and buildings to deal with the hot or cold. Even people changed – I’ve seen pictures of Eskimos and Aborigines, hardly looking like the same species because they changed to meet their environment. It's like that. You live closer to the factories and hulking remains ...

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“The Waning Sun” by Caitlyn Adkison

Submitted to Contest #232

“Oh, how the years go by.” Only the echo of that rough southern voice was caught out in open land like this. Land arid by heat and miles and miles of nothing. “I remember there used to be grass here, more alive than either one of us.” The man speaking kicked a rock across the parking lot of a rusted gas station, a relic of the past, it could do nothing but be useful for scavenging for fuel now. “Will you keep it down? Pull up your scarf.” The man leaned down into the barely kept-together car they had stolen not too many miles down th...

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“The Portrait ” by Nicholas De Waal

Submitted to Contest #232

Eduardo had grown accustomed to the rats that nibbled at his toes and the snakes that slithered over his legs. He had grown almost fond of them, after all this time down here in the dark. They were perhaps the closest thing he had for company now, certainly more so than the people. Each time he woke, he would feel the critters squirm as he moved. Waking to the inescapable darkness, he would grope blindly along the ground next to his reclining body. His fingers would sludge through the muck and grime before finally, he felt the wooden ed...

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“Ember Light ” by Spencer Gordon

Submitted to Contest #232

The world of Aethel was a canvas painted not in vibrant hues, but in varying shades of twilight. Sol, the once-proud sun, had shrunk to a pale ember, its life force ebbing away with each passing cycle. As a result, light was a coveted treasure, hoarded by the wealthy in glimmering crystal orbs and doled out to the less fortunate in rationed spoonfuls. Elara, a young woman with eyes like pools of moonlight, belonged to the latter. Living in the forgotten corners of Lumen City, she knew darkness as intimately as her own breath. Her days were...

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“Saving Daylight” by Tamarin Butcher

Submitted to Contest #232

Lillian dragged her feet as her mother pulled her through the crowded temple, making her unhappiness at being there known in the heaviness of her gait. She had to do what her mother said, certainly, but she didn't have to make it easy for her by trotting happily at her side. She glanced up at her mother's face, wet with tears that Lillian didn't really understand. "I am happy and sad," her mother had explained as they approached the temple. "This is a rare, holy opportunity, and you should be happy and sad too. It's called awe." Lillia...

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“Finale” by Lark Bailey

Submitted to Contest #232

I got a sun and moon tattoo on my 18th birthday, for the sole reason that I could. At the time, I thought it made me look a little bit earthy, a little bit punk. But, over the years, I stopped noticing the simple black design, an orb that is half darkened crescent moon and half luminous sunshine with wavy rays, on the inside of my left wrist, except for the times I decided to wear a watch or bracelet. Or, when someone else would ask me the significance behind it. No significance, really, just something I’ve had forever. Now, it seems like a ...

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“Bringing Back the Glow” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #232

As residents of the Northern Hemisphere, all summer long my friends and I had romped with as little attire as possible in our local lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. This year, though, the sun left us midway through the season. We had the haunting feeling the cyclical change was turning into a permanent situation that would forever change our world, but the opinions of a few high school kids mattered little at this point. With Mother Nature closing the curtain on 2300, news ...

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Write a story set in a world with a dying sun, or where light is a scarce resource.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 65 stories

“8 Minutes” by Melissa Matury

“While the Sun is Dying” by Ty Warmbrodt

“Eyes that Saw Nothing” by Kevin B. Jones

“Dying Sun ” by Renee Yancey

“One Night Stand (script)” by McKenna Johnson

“Things That Lurk” by Austin Baker

“The Winterlong” by Marianna Hawk

“Daffodils” by Davie McGuinn

“Not a Lick of Sense” by Mary Lynne Schuster

“The Waning Sun” by Caitlyn Adkison

“The Portrait ” by Nicholas De Waal

“Ember Light ” by Spencer Gordon

“Saving Daylight” by Tamarin Butcher

“Finale” by Lark Bailey

“Bringing Back the Glow” by Bob Faszczewski

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story during polar night.

Write a story about someone witnessing — or trying to witness — a celestial phenomenon.

Write a story about someone who has been tasked to keep a flame burning, surrounded by total darkness.

Write a story about someone looking for a sign in a dark sky.

Contest #232

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

106

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: