Are you writing a military fiction novel? Do you need some ideas for your book? The following 31 military fiction writing prompts will help!
General Military Fiction Prompts
1. Two recruits at a military academy have a rivalry.
Choose one of the recruits as your primary protagonist and show them battling with their rival from day one. There should be some big event or challenge towards the end of the story that brings the two together and teaches them that they are better together than apart.
2. A soldier’s plane is shot down on the wrong side of the battlefield.
This is a suspense story focused on whether the soldier will survive. Start with them crash landing and show how they fight and struggle to get back to their own side. End with them being rescued.
3. A submarine is hijacked while still in the water.
While patrolling during peacetime, a submarine crew is hijacked by fellow crew members whose aim is to start a war by blaming the destruction of the submarine on another country. The story should be how the rest of the crew work together to stop the dangerous hijackers to maintain peace.
4. A young recruit discovers a dangerous secret while training at the academy.
Make the secret whatever you want but make sure that it involves people at all levels of the military. The recruit is in danger just for the knowledge of this secret. Uncovering the secret would topple the academy itself, so the person must work secretly to discover and expose the details without knowing who to trust.
5. A military hostage and their captor become friends and work together to stop the war.
Start with the hostage being locked away and show the events that lead to their friendship. The hostage helps the captor realize the futility of the war and the second half of the story should be them working together to stop the war, or at least escape it together.
6. When there’s a murderer on a submarine, there’s nowhere to run!
Start the story with the murder and have the lead investigator on the submarine investigate it. End with the investigator ousting the murderer, either by death or by bringing them to justice on land.
7. The rise and fall of a secret government operation during wartime.
This could be as common as trying to create a ‘secret solider serum’ that backfires. Or you could write about something more paranormal, like telekinesis. In either case, show the beginnings of the program, the rationale for it, how it damages the soldiers, and end with it being discovered and abandoned.
8. A disillusioned military officer gets reassigned as a drill instructor for new recruits.
You should start with the event that gets them nearly dishonorably discharged and show them reluctantly take on this new post as a drill instructor. The story is about how learning from the younger crowd, being outside of the war machine, helps them grow as a person.
9. A group of battle buddies hear about a hidden treasure while in the middle of war.
Start with the lead friend roping the others into searching for the treasure. The story is about them working together as a military unit to find this treasure amidst the war happening around them.
10. A new soldier wants to see battle.
Begin with the soldier going through training and really buying into the hype of war. Follow them as they keep trying to go into battle (or for something to always stop it from happening). End with them finally getting their chance to do something heroic in battle but choosing instead to preserve life rather than take it.
11. A deployed military unit does everything in their power to get sent home.
This is more of a comedic story focused on all the antics the military members do so they can get sent home early. Start with them already deployed and deciding they want to go home early. End with them either getting sent home or realizing they really are where they need to be.
12. While deployed abroad, a chaplain struggles with their faith during a time of war.
The conflict of this story is about the purpose of war when the message should be peace. Start with an event that causes the chaplain to start questioning their faith. The rest of the story should be them engaging with other soldiers whose stories further question or prove the faith. The point should be that the chaplain realizes they’re there to help the unit not themselves, regardless of their faith.
13. An ex-soldier is hunted down by the very military they used to serve.
Have your soldier be completely isolated because of the traumas they endured in the war. Because of something they’ve seen or experienced, their home gets attacked and they must use all the military training they acquired to stop the attack.
14. A military unit is lost in the jungle and must find their way back.
During a routine operation, a military unit finds itself lost (or abandoned). The story is them fighting their way through wartime enemies and their own fears to find their way back home.
Historical Military Fiction Prompts
15. A soldier helps start what would become known as the World War I Christmas Soccer Game.
Write a fictionalized account of how the famous soccer game happened during the Christmas Armistice of World War I. Make your protagonist the person who suggests the soccer game and describe how he felt in the battles leading up to the Christmas Armistice. What happened after that night? How were the soldiers changed by the sense of togetherness they felt in that one night?
16. Brothers in the American Civil War fight on opposite sides.
Start with them fighting over which side is ‘right’ and going off to war. Show how both brothers experienced many of the same hardships and personal struggles, regardless of who they were fighting for. You can end it with one brother choosing to support the other one, or you could have one brother die in conflict, maybe even fighting their own brother’s regiment.
17. A young spy aids the fight against Napoleon.
Write a fictionalized account of a French citizen who wants to stop Napoleon from taking over the world. This would probably work best if you chose a period early in the Napoleonic wars, before the Battle of Waterloo (his first loss and ultimately the start of his decline).
18. The Cold War is avoided when a brave soldier steps in.
Similarly, this could be about a soldier who stops an almost nuclear holocaust. Make the story about the soldier trying to convince his superiors to stand down from attacking the other side preemptively. End with the presidents nearly turning the key but deciding not to.
19. A small village decides to stand up to Genghis Khan’s military horde.
Imagine if a village within Genghis Khan’s Asian empire had chosen to stand up to him and his horde. Describe how they prepared to fight against him and whether they won.
20. The Battle for Cleopatra and her Egyptian empire.
This should focus less on Mark Antony and Cleopatra and more on the battle that led to their deaths. Show how Mark Antony fought his way across the Mediterranean to seek refuge with Cleopatra and end with their deaths.
21. Captains from the British navy and Spanish armada act out their rivalry in the Caribbean.
Choose whichever side you want as your ‘good’ side and start with them already in a rivalry. The story is about the many battles and run-ins they have over a period of a few months or a year. End with one side sinking the other’s ship once and for all.
22. A solider in the Nazi military decides to help Jewish prisoners during World War II.
Start with the Nazi soldier making friends with some of the prisoners he is supposed to police. Show how he helps train them to fight against the other soldiers and ultimately helps them escape.
Military Romance Prompts
23. A soldier must fight to save their love.
You can set this in a historical war or a general, unspecified one. What your story should focus on is how the soldier longs for their love during the war and does everything they can to get back to them safely.
24. Soldiers from opposite sides of a war fall in love.
How you bring the two soldiers together is up to you but have them fall in love quite early on. The story is then about how they are trying to overcome their opposing sides to be together.
25. A soldier and nurse find love amid all the death.
Start with the soldier getting injured and waking up in hospital. Have the first half of the story be about them falling in love with each other. The second half of the story is them trying to stay in love once the soldier has returned to war or they have returned home.
26. Two ex-soldiers discover love in their shared trauma.
Have two soldiers meet at a post-traumatic therapy group and bond over their experiences (or their lack of belief in the therapy). Over time, they learn to love each other. But when one gets called back up to fight, how will they deal?
Military Science Fiction Prompts
27. In the battle for Earth, who will win?
This is an ‘alien invasion’ story with a focus on the military element. How would the planet coordinate their attacks? Which country’s military would you choose as the main protagonist? You can either start with the invasion or begin with it already in play, but be sure to end with a battle that decides Earth’s fate once and for all.
28. Discovering new planets isn’t always peaceful.
A spaceship lands on a new, uncharted planet and is suddenly, immediately attacked. The story is about who is in the ‘right’: the unsuspecting spaceship or the natives defending their home world.
29. When an advanced race from a distant galaxy suddenly appears, it takes a coalition of planets and their armies to take them down.
Start with the arrival of the advanced race. Focus the conflict on how the other planets learn to work together to stop this threat.
30. Can we stop cyborg soldiers in a futuristic war?
Two opposing sides have independently discovered successful cyborg technology. Your story is about the ‘good’ cyborg soldier trying to stop the ‘bad’ one from destroying society as we know it.
31. Simulations aren’t real, right?
Your story should be based around a recruit who uses simulation technology to learn wartime tactics. Eventually, though, they realize that the technology is less ‘simulation’ and more ‘real life scenarios’ with remotely guided machines. Will they carry on, knowing the damage they are doing is no longer just a game?