Welcome to the first week of the Spring Writing Challenge!
We’re so excited to get started on these stories. It’s time to roll up your sleeves, set your fingers on your keyboard, and get writing. Will your story contain aliens? A prince in disguise? Maybe even a sweet summer romance? Whatever happens, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!
So, without further ado, here’s your very first prompt!
Week One Prompt – The Dialogue Prompt
“If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here.”
Wait…what’s a dialogue prompt?
A dialogue prompt is a conversation between two characters. It doesn’t matter who says it, or if it takes place in the beginning, middle, or end of your story. However, one character must say the first sentence, and the second character must respond with the second sentence.
Before you start writing, there are some important rules to follow.
Writing Rules
1. Please keep the content of the stories you post to a PG rating. Please avoid real curse words. Violence/fighting should be limited and purposeful. Please do not include any spice. Moderators may remove stories and comments for any reason at any time. Moderators may remove any member from the challenge at any time.
2. Your story must be 1,000 words or less, and must contain the prompt to be counted for the challenge. You’re not required to post it in order to “win” the challenge, but if you want it to count for your team, your story must be posted by Sunday at 11:59 PM ET, and you must include your team name.
It’s time to post your story as a comment down below! We can’t wait to see all the fun directions you guys take this dialogue prompt. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@writers.company!
Happy Writing!
Ava,
Your story was very well written! I enjoyed reading it! 👏
Melissa
Ooh, what a fun story, girl! Fantastic job!
Wow, this is beautifully written!
I love your writing style!
Wow, I’m very impressed. The worldbuilding here feels grounded and real, the characters fleshed out, and the prompt just flows so smoothly with the rest of the narrative. Great story here!
I hope this part of something larger. I was totally sucked in.
Thanks for sharing your work. 🙂 Enjoyable read.
great opening line!
Beautiful story! Great job!
Absolutely loved it
i NEED the rest of this asap! i would love this as a book series. its excellent! The world-building is so good. you did a great job. i especially love how the characters are already full of the knowledge of the world and there is no need for any one character to outright explain things. again, have i expressed how i literally want this in my life so much!
Great details! I was brought right into the world you built!
Such a fun story! Loved the comical banter between characters
Dreams and Destinies
When Zash came out of the inn, Ness was nowhere to be seen.
He didn’t know what he had expected. She had the tendency to disappear, for one reason or another. He just hoped that she had chased a butterfly, not something else.
Across the street, a few passersby looked up at him, did a double take, and hurried off down the street, one dragging her wide-mouthed children behind her. A shopkeeper next to the inn stared for a moment, then ducked back inside his store, slamming the door behind him. Zash ignored them- over the years, he’d gotten used to these reactions. Mountain giants like him usually brought with them destruction and death, and even in larger, more diverse cities, a young giant who spoke Common and carried traveler’s gear brought stares and whispers, if not outright hostility. He had learned to keep to himself and do his job. He had a purpose, after all.
Zash scanned the dirt road for any sign of a young gnome and found a trail of tiny bare footprints leading down a side road into the grassy meadows outside Mordren. Here, Ness’s light steps left little to no trace. Zash reached up and placed his fingers over the holes in the broken flute hanging from the cord around his neck, and a faint thread of music began from the direction where the footprints led. He abandoned the tracks and set off at a jog, following the music. He would have to be careful not to let his tracking skills fade in the future, but for now, he just needed to find Ness.
The music led over a hill to where the terrain became more rocky. Zash could see a line of bluffs in the distance, and he picked up his pace. Ness wouldn’t have gotten this far if she was wandering on her own, and she could get into serious trouble on the bluffs. The music got stronger as the stones choked out the last of the grass, and Zash made out a tiny shape nearing the edge of one of the cliffs. He dropped the flute, the music fading as he broke into a sprint. “Ness!” he roared. She didn’t turn, and he could see that her movements were sluggish and almost mindless. He gritted his teeth and ran faster. “Ness, stop!”
He caught her just as she was about to step over the edge of the cliff, one strong arm sweeping around her middle and pulling her into a tight bear hug. A scattering of small stones clattered as they tumbled into the river valley below.
Ness gasped, and Zash saw the now-familiar vacancy in her eyes disappear as she startled awake. Her tiny arms tightened around his big one as she took in her surroundings. “What-” she panted. “Where are we?”
Zash kept his voice low, comforting. “Not far. We’re just outside Mordren. Everything’s fine. You’re okay. Nothing happened.”
Ness went limp in his arms as he turned away from the cliff and headed back for the town. Zash carried her as easily as he could have carried a feather, but he knew the burden she carried threatened to crush her. This time had been close, closer than any other time Ness had wandered in her sleep. He almost hadn’t made it to her. He pushed down the worry that tickled the corners of his mind. It was fine. Everything would be fine. They would get to the bottom of this soon enough, and then things would go back to normal.
“Wait,” Ness said, struggling back to life. “I can’t go back yet. I’m not ready to go back yet. Put me down.”
Zash set her down on a boulder, and she buried her face in her hands. He sank to a seat beside her and listened to the wind sweep through the meadow grass. Finally he broke the silence. “The dreams again.”
It was a statement, not a question, but Ness nodded anyway, face still in her hands. Zash sighed. “Anything new?”
Ness shook her head and looked out over the meadow towards the bluffs beyond. “Same old thing. I’m in the garden at home, and Mother is singing the song about Jasper bringing the winter and Prinna bringing the spring. Then it gets cold, and snow starts falling, and red stones shoot up through the ground, and I realize I’m on a cliff, and I feel-” She broke off, searching for words. “Cold. And scared. Like there’s something that’s going to happen, something only I can fix, but I don’t feel hope. Only dread.” Her hands hung limp over her knees, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “It gets stronger every time, like whatever’s coming is getting closer. But I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do or what’s going on.”
“Do you still feel like we went in the right direction coming here?”
“Yes, I think- I mean I thought- there wasn’t anything else- I don’t know.” Ness’s shoulders drooped. “I don’t know, Zash, and I’m scared. What if the dreams weren’t meant for me at all? What if I’m not the right person to do this? And what if I am the right person, and I can’t do anything about it anyway? If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
Zash sighed. “I just got here. I haven’t had to deal with what you’re going through, Nessie, and I don’t know what the right answer is or what’s the best thing to do. But what I do know to be true is that Maker doesn’t make mistakes. If He sent the dreams to you, then you’re the right person.” He wrapped one arm around her thin shoulders. “Keep dreaming, Nessie, and I’ll keep making sure you don’t sleepwalk off a cliff. We’ll find the answer soon. We will.”
As the sun set, Ness snuggled into Zash’s arm and fell asleep.
Team A
I liked this. I’m glad Zash didn’t pretend to be able to fix his friend’s problem but still stuck by her side. All he could do was promise to keep her from harm while sleepwalking and to listen. We all need a friend to listen, right?
To Change the World, by Ava Murbarger
P.S.- sorry I missed the meeting, we were out of town. I hope to be at the next one!!
The sky was bleeding again.
Rust-colored clouds hung over the City like bruises, pulsing faintly. Rael kept her eyes fixed on them, one hand on the rail of the Watchers’ Tower. Her gloves were too thin. The steel was cold enough to bite.
Behind her, a door creaked open.
“You’re late,” she said without turning.
Boots scraped against the stone. A new recruit, probably. They sent one every week now. Fresh eyes, fresh loyalty.
“I got lost,” the boy said. He sounded too young to carry the badge. Too soft to hold a blade. “Sorry.”
She turned and looked at him.
Dust-colored coat, too long in the sleeves. Wide eyes. Not from the City, then. One of the Outer Rings. Maybe even farther. She sighed.
“If you know something bad is going to happen,” she said, “do you have to try and stop it?”
The boy blinked. “I just got here.”
“Well, obviously.” She crossed her arms.
He shifted nervously on his feet.
Rael turned back to the cityscape. “The answer is yes, by the way. At least, if you’re cursed with a conscience.”
He joined her at the rail. Together they watched the distant flicker of drones weaving patterns in the smog. A red warning rune glowed briefly on the horizon, then faded. Rael knew what it meant. The Reclamation Agents were moving again. Soon, another neighborhood would vanish.
“Why do you do this?” the boy asked.
She laughed without humor. “Because no one else will. Because the High Council stopped caring two winters ago. Because someone has to.”
A long pause. Then, “Is it true the Watchers can see the future?”
“We read the signs,” she said. “Patterns in weather. Seismic anomalies. Political shifts. The Council says it’s superstition.” She paused. “But when the streets burn exactly seven hours after the rats vanish, over and over again, you stop calling it chance.”
He was silent. Good. Maybe he was listening.
“You said you got lost. But you still came up here. Why?”
“I heard the bells.” He hesitated. “They said you can’t hear them unless you’re meant to.”
Rael glanced at him. The brass bell on the tower hadn’t rung in years. She narrowed her eyes.
“Name?”
“Wren.”
“That’s not your real name.”
“It is now.”
She smirked. “Fine, Wren. Welcome to Watcher’s Hill. Welcome to the losing side.”
Another alarm rune lit the smog. Closer this time.
Rael pulled her scope from her belt and scanned the eastern edge of the city. “Sector Four. They’re burning the food lines again.”
“That’s the second time this week,” Wren said quietly.
She lowered the scope. “Third.”
He didn’t speak for a long time. Then he said, “My sister was there.”
Rael’s fingers tightened around the rail. She didn’t ask if the girl had survived. That wasn’t the kind of world they lived in anymore.
Instead, she reached into her coat and handed Wren a folded map, inked with lines and red X’s.
“There’s a storm tunnel under the old trainyard,” she said. “It’s not on any schematics, and it’ll get you to Sector Four faster than any street. But it’s dark. And crawling.”
Wren took the map with trembling fingers. “Why are you helping me?”
Rael looked at him, really looked. The wide eyes weren’t wide with fear, not completely. It was fire. Just hidden under the ash.
“Because sometimes the only thing worse than seeing the future,” she said softly, “is doing nothing to change it.”
Wren nodded. His jaw set. “Then I’ll go.”
Rael watched as he turned, vanishing back into the tower’s dark. When the door slammed shut behind him, the bell gave a soft chime. Just once.
And far below, the wind began to shift.