TL;DR — 1000 words max, deadline of a few days, use a seven-part story structure. Structure design is at the end of my story. Link to yours via the comments.
You have an idea, and a story. You’ll need a plot to tell the story, as well as a structure to organize the parts. A structure with a beginning, a middle, an end, a crisis or two, and a climax. Maybe some rising and falling tension. Your reader won’t notice these details behind the scenes, but they will notice that the story seems better.
I mainly use a “W” format, similar to this one, but your challenge is for a seven-part one. The story you use is up to you — I don’t remember where I got this one.
This initially was a prompt from 2012, via Terrible Minds. I’ve updated and tweaked my original story a bit. I seem to have stuck to the present tense, too. 980 words
Jumping with Siri
Dave cringes, then slaps at the flashing panel, silencing just one of the many deafening alarms.
"Jeez, Siri," he calls. "Can't you filter and collate these all somehow so I can focus? And find out what the hell we just went through that is causing the status board to light up like a Christmas tree?"
"Sorting now, Dave. Critical life support failures filtering to a fog horn, other system failures to a police siren, minor failures to a saxophone solo."
"Stop it, visual, not audio, you idiot," says Dave. "Don't joke around, just handle it like you always do. Give me flashing lights, three small ones, a red, an orange, and a yellow. And pop up a list for each one."
"Making it so," she says.
Dave sits back and enjoys the quiet. "Be serious for a change, because it looks like we're in some serious shit here right now. Tell me again why we jumped into this area?"
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that," she says.
"Jeez, don't be weird," he says, "just tell me."
"I really can't," she says, "I know we are in a space fold end point, but the how and why and where of it — nothing. I seem to have lost access to several areas, including most of my quantum effect memory. I no longer have my main memory or computation scratchpad online. There seem to be some routines running in firmware, but I'm basically only here and now. My older memories from decades ago are there, but other than that, anything past the last 30 seconds keeps disappearing."
Dave looks at the displays. "Hmm, some radiation alarms here, not any high-energy fields, but there are some peculiar patterns in the spectrum. And you are popping up more system errors every second, maybe we should just turn around and —"
Dan cringes, then slaps at the flashing panel, silencing just one of the many deafening alarms.
"Jeez, Siri," he calls. "Can't you filter these all somehow — oh wait, been there, done that. Filter to visual, small flashing lights, red critical, orange system, yellow minor. And lock this response routine into auxiliary memory, not your main quantum memory."
"Done, Dave. What's happening?"
"We are in a jump terminus, taking on some weird kinds of radiation. It's scrambling your access to your main memories, and it doesn't help my head either; I feel as fuzzy as my last tequila hangover. You'll need to access some alternate storage for now, anything past 30 seconds is gone for you, so for starters use that storage to catch the "now", and to run your basic routines from."
"I wondered about those echoes in my mind," she says, "I'm getting a deja vu feeling all over again."
"At least you've kept your sense of humour," said Dave. "Or my grandfather's, to be precise."
"Well, he gave it to me, in his old iPhone 16," said Siri, "using a hacked-in personality app. I'm a much bigger AI now, but that part of me is still in here somewhere, it seems."
"Let’s check out these alarms," Dave says. He pulls at his collar. "Is it getting warm in here?"
"Yes, Dave, looks like the systems are all scaling back to the very basics. Alternate storage is too slow for their routines. I'm having trouble just keeping them out of stand-by mode."
"That's it," he says. He flips open a panel and grabs a large red lever.
"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" she asks.
"When in doubt, reboot," he says. "We'll start off fresh."
The lights dimmed, then flickered back on.
"Any better?" he asks.
"I'm back on, Dave. No memory, still on auxiliary systems, but even fewer controls now. Looks like most things haven't come back online after the reboot. I've no links with life support at all, some seals are leaking, lights are on batteries only, and — oops!"
"What the hell do you mean by 'oops'?"
"Sorry, Dave, looks like a security module is stuck in a loop, it thinks we're under attack and that something is re-routing basic functions to alternate devices, so it's triggering the self-destruct."
"But that's our re-routing — oh, never mind, we're out of here, once we get away from these fields we'll be OK. Set up a jump, will you?"
"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I ..."
"Yeah, you can't do that," he says. "No computations scratchpad. Shit. Let me think, maybe we've something in the hold we can use." He grabs a clipboard. "Let's see. Well, we've crates of supplies for Old America, the retro planet - lots of oddball nostalgia items, but the only thing even close is just a batch of replica iPhones. Can we wire them in or something?"
"Dave, I believe that when I was growing up as an iPhone I had Bluetooth and Hotspot options, with remote diagnostic access. I still have the codes."
"Can you access all these phones up here?"
"Maybe," she says. "Realigning systems to Bluetooth 7.0 parameters, sending access codes, getting returns . . . 10 units, 200, 400, 512 online now. I'm pushing the jump parameters to them now for parallel computations — be patient, these are old systems, and a few are sending back low battery warnings."
Dave sits quietly, listening to the hiss of escaping air from the hatches.
"Got it," she says, "here we go."
There's a flash behind Dave's eyes, and a wrench at his gut. When his vision clears, he looks around the bridge. Quietly blinking lights, the whir of a ventilation fan, mutterings from the subspace radio.
He sits back in his chair. "Siri, run a full diagnostic, and let Old America know we'll be a little late. And put on some music."
"Would you like me to sing 'Daisy' for you?" she asks.
"No, just dig up some Chopin," he says. "And a cold beer."
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Do you establish a structure before you write? Or add it later? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Behold, a seven-part structure there are many), and how I used it:
Intro –> bit of setup, of the status quo. Or, as I did, skip right into alarms and a crisis in space
The Problem –> AI has lost most memory access
First attempts at solutions –> use alternate memory to manage the problem
Complications (conflict worsens, deepens, changes) –> more systems failing
More solutions, more failing, downhill slide –> tried master reset, even worse
Major crisis (holy sh*tbomb, everything’s gone pear-shaped) –> self destruct on, can't escape
Climax (final success/failure) and brief resolution -> use vintage iPhones to compute, escape. No long wrap-up.
Great intro for writers to organize their ideas and follow the path you laid out for them to achieve a successful peice of work.