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
Make It Rain
By Leah Criss (Team 1)
Liyu soared through the sky. Each fluffy cloud he passed made him rumble with delight. Especially the one shaped like a jade plant, better known as a money tree. The deep blue rain dragon didn’t have a lot of money like the elder dragons, but he still loved the tree’s symbolism. Money sometimes does grow on trees.
Everything looked perfect for the gathering storm.
Until a little bird flew into view.
Well, little to a twenty-foot dragon. To mortals, he supposed the three-foot phoenix appeared quite large. He decided there was no point in waiting for Mizha to speak first. “If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here.”
The dragon snorted at Mizha’s indignation. Little birds tell secrets, or so the saying goes. Unfortunately for him, this particular bird only told him ominous secrets. Ones he felt expected to do something about whether he liked it or not.
“Fine. If you must know, the winds whisper of a massive storm rolling in from the east.”
“Of course there’s a storm. Look at the clouds!” Liyu growled. Surrounded by the white clouds that would soon turn grey and bring rain to the eager earth below.
“Not these clouds.” Mizha sang. “A different storm the likes of which none have ever seen.”
“What? Why?”
“Tianyou says they deserve it for their actions.”
“Tianyou? Actions?”
“I thought you hated parrots.” Mizha’s song turned smug.
“Parrots, pigeons, any bird that starts with the letter /p/. Including phoenixes.” Liyu shot back. Truly he found them all to be irritating pests.
Mizha trilled, “Fine. If you must know, Tianyou said the people have forgotten the might of dragons, and she intends to remind them.”
“Where is she right now?”
“West of the moon, east of the sun, north of the sea, and south of the ocean.”
The dragon looped himself around until he floated midair. Looking the phoenix dead in the eye, he lowered his voice and grumbled, “Try that again.”
“By Yushan City,” the phoenix said as he burst into flame and vanished.
Phoenixes. The other reason he didn’t like them much was their dramatic penchant for disappearing in balls of fire.
Liyu considered the bird’s warning. Every scale on his serpentine body tingled, warning him not to get involved. But, like every other warning Mizha gave, Liyu couldn’t shake the guilt at knowing what would happen and doing nothing to stop it.
The mortals wouldn’t be able to survive a storm like what Tianyou was capable of creating. She was the greatest of rain dragons and capable of more than just rain. Hail, lightning, cats, dogs, and even chocolate milk. She could make literally anything fall from the sky.
Most dragons wouldn’t bother getting involved. The last dragon who tangled with Tianyou flew away with a rain cloud hovering over him for the next decade, constantly raining a variety of precipitation. Even rain dragons don’t like being wet all the time, especially not liquids other than rainwater.
However, Liyu’s conscience would not let him forget the mortals. With a sigh, he streaked through the sky to Tianyou’s palace in the clouds above Yushan City. It changed locations constantly, which is why he asked the phoenix earlier. Even for a dragon, the sky was vast.
“Hello? Is anyone here?”
“Liyu? Is that you?” Tianyou crept closer and curled around him in greeting. “Welcome, my grandson.”
“Thank you, Grandmother.”
“What brings you to my place today?”
“I heard you’re about to bring a storm upon the mortals.”
“Ah, word does travel quickly in the skies.”
“So it’s true?”
“Of course. The people of Qianshu really have forgotten about us. I want to remind them so that they’ll never forget.”
“Is a deluge the best way to remind them?”
“What makes you think the storm is mere water?” Tianyou said with a twinkle in her golden eyes.
That wasn’t what Liyu wanted to hear.
“It’s about time for the storm,” she continued. “Join me and see what you will be capable of one day with practice.”
“I don’t know that this is the best plan. Couldn’t we just land in their city or do a fly-over?”
“I suppose we could, but this is much more memorable and fun. I’m leaving now. You can stay or go, your choice.”
Liyu reluctantly followed her. He couldn’t stop it, but maybe he could temper the storm. The flight only took another twenty minutes.
“Be a dear and prepare these clouds for me.” Tianyou sped off to herd more clouds over the Qianshu Principality.
Fluffing each cloud to ensure it was ready for whatever Tianyou filled it with, Liyu made his way through the cloud cover. Liyu carefully positioned the clouds to reduce how much precipitation the clouds could hold. If he couldn’t stop the storm, he could at least limit it.
Finally, the clouds were prepared, and Tianyou had returned. “It’s ready.”
“Then let’s make it rain.” Tianyou danced through the skies weaving a pattern in the clouds Liyu had never witnessed.
The clouds turned green, grew heavy, and began to spin as the wind swirled.
A tornado?
Fat gold coins began dropping from the sky. Glinting against the few rays of light that sliced their way through the clouds, they tumbled to the ground. The mortals on the ground ran for cover. Screams of panic turned to shouts of joy as they realized what was falling was not hail. A few took shelter, but many more raced for buckets, baskets, or anything they could catch the falling money. Money coated the trees reminding him of jade plants. He laughed.
Liyu spotted his grandmother swooping down to weave through the streets. Mortals cheered as she passed. She had indeed successfully reminded them of the might of dragons. Before long, she returned to where Liyu hovered and flashed a grin.
“I told you I’d make it rain.”
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.