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
Team 1#
The Echo of Her Smile by Ada Flannery
The man stood, staring out the small distorted window, watching the snow, gently falling, slowly blanketing the world in white. A woman sat in the opposite corner of the room with her head down. He stared at her and time seemed to be disjointed.
“If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try to stop it?”
“I just got here.”
He had no idea why those were the first words that came out of his mouth. Shouldn’t he have said no, it depends, or what do you mean? But instead it was those words, those haunting words that had escaped. He looked at her, not knowing why she had asked and wishing that he could read her mind.
He tried to catch her gaze, but her head stayed down, contemplating the wood floor as if it were the only thing in the room. She ignored him and it was as if he had never spoken. He walked over to the fire, burning low in the enormous stone hearth. He looked at the wood pile and there was a single piece left.
“Astin mín?” My love. She didn’t answer, he noticed that her hair was un-braided. He needed to make her happy because he knew, without knowing how, that something laid heavy on her chest. He walked over to a little desk against the far wall and picked up his lyre, sitting on the old stool that his father had made for them. He knew how much she loved the music.
He played, and after every song he looked at her but she didn’t move. He kept playing hoping that she would finally look at him, smile and start dancing like she usually did. He loved watching her dance. The life that it brought to their home, brightening it with her smile and laughter as she spun.
It was one of the reasons he had married her. She seemed to have an immortal smile. It never died even in the worst of times.
“I should have told you.” Her voice was soft and it broke over the last word.
“Told me what?”
She didn’t answer. He picked up the stool and moved it so he could sit by her side. She moved then, burying her face in her hands. He wanted to comfort her, to pull her close and tell her that whatever was going on that they would get through it together. But something held him back, and he just sat watching the light from the embers dance across the dark strands of her hair, which seemed to be shorter than he remembered.
He loved this woman and it pained him to see her this way. He reached out wanting to push the hair out of her face so that he could see her beautiful eyes.
He abruptly stopped, quickly standing and walking to the table in the corner of the room close to where they sat. It was a large thing, taking up much of the space in the little room. He stared at it. There was a small hole that he had never noticed before, marring the dark wood that had been worn smooth from years of gatherings.
He ran his finger along the edge of the hole, picking up the small bowl that had been discarded but still held a few pieces of salted fish. He brought it to her, placing it next to her, hoping that this time it would get her attention.
It seemed to work but not in the way he expected. She started to tremble and as it got worse, the sounds of sobbing permeated the room. He finally touched her trying to pull her into his chest. But his hands couldn’t hold her. He stared at them as if they had committed an unforgivable crime.
He tried again and again, each time something about their surroundings changed. House was burnt nearly to the ground, the table was on its side and the bowl that he had brought over was in pieces. The stool, the desk, and the lyre were all broken. He was broken, gone, dead. But she, she wasn’t broken, she still had that spark.
He looked at her, and he knew that he would never see her dance again. But he also knew that someday, those weary legs would hold her up and she would dance in remembrance of him and so he stood, dusting himself off.
He looked at her one last time. He wasn’t real. Not anymore. Just memory, or dream, or the echo of a question he would never stop asking, where is your immortal smile?
Heartbreaking but hopeful. Good job with this story, in such a short amount of words you captured so much
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.