The great Solarpunk creation matrix

Why write Solarpunk fiction?

Because we need hope. Because we need to face things as they are and to offer solutions, realistic or not, as long as they give us hope.
Also, because it’s fun.

How does it work?

One concept for every prompt

None of these prompts is from me – they are all taken from Pawel and James‘ podcast Solarpunk Prompts. If any of these excite you and you decide to write about them, I’ll be super happy to read them, and also to link to them on this page. But please also (especially!) drop a little thank you to the two people who made it all possible!

You can refer to the episodes themselves or to the transcript of the episodes. Every episode includes research on the current state of each topic and a more detailed description of what the keyword means.

Four possible stages for every concept

Again, this is shamelessly stolen from inspired by Pawel. They made a little poll, which you can find here:

The 4 stages they suggest in the poll are:

1. Resilient communities building alternatives now (by far the most popular option in the poll, by the way);
2. Wrestling power to avert the systemic collapse;
3. Oases of peace rebuilding among the chaos;
4. Far future, fully realized sustainable societies.

I’ve decided to add these as columns in the table below, to multiply the number of possible prompts.

What are the rules?

1. Do what you want. If you want to tackle every single prompt, that’s cool. If you love one of them and only want to work on it, that’s great! If you want to do 3 at random: perfect! Do what you want.
2. Your art can take any form. I say « writing » because it’s the format I know best, but if you’re a musician, a painter, any kind of person who can create anything, we’ll take it! And if you do write, 200 characters on social media are just as good as a tetralogy.
3. Community as Protagonist: there is no « chosen one » in this universe, there is a community that works as a team to find a solution to the problems it faces.
4. Infrastructure is Sexy: there is no magic fix-all. Just like in real life, you often need to build things to solve problems. I promise we want to read your nerdy deep dives into technical solutions!
5. Human/Environmental Context: nature is not humanity’s enemy. In solarpunk art, we build partnerships with nature, we work together. Nature doesn’t try to murder us, and we don’t try to exploit is; we hopefully find some kind of harmony.
6. (Optional) If you’d like, you can send me a link and I’ll add what you created to the existing table 🙂

The giant table for all the prompts

What it looks like

HTML format (copy and paste)

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>The prompt</th>
<th>Communities building alternatives now</th>
<th>Averting systemic collapse</th>
<th>Rebuilding among the chaos</th>
<th>Fully realized sustainable societies</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>The refugee camp</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The community center</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The canteen</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The hackerspace</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The experts</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The great infrastructure project</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The electronics graveyard</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The archivists</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The chefs</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The fire brigade</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The expedition</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The beekeepers</td>
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<tr>
<td>The henchmen</td>
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<tr>
<td>The ship</td>
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<td>The dirigible</td>
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<tr>
<td>The moonshot</td>
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<tr>
<td>The disabled</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The pharmacists</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The miners</td>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>The epidemiologists</td>
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<td>The tower</td>
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<td>The priorities</td>
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<td>The recruits</td>
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<tr>
<td>The non-economists</td>
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<td>The tailors</td>
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</tr>
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<td>The therapists</td>
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</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Markdown format (copy and paste)

| The prompt                       | Communities building alternatives now | Averting systemic collapse | Rebuilding among the chaos | Fully realized sustainable societies |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------ |
| The refugee camp                 |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The community center             |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The canteen                      |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The hackerspace                  |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The experts                      |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The great infrastructure project |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The electronics graveyard        |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The archivists                   |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The chefs                        |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The fire brigade                 |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The expedition                   |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The beekeepers                   |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The henchmen                     |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The ship                         |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The dirigible                    |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The moonshot                     |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The disabled                     |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The pharmacists                  |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The miners                       |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The epidemiologists              |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The tower                        |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The priorities                   |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The recruits                     |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The non-economists               |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The tailors                      |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |
| The therapists                   |                                       |                            |                            |                                      |

EDIT: On January 14, 2023, I was nicely reminded that Solarpunk Prompts is a team of two people, not just one!