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 A
Second Chance by AJ Denlinger
Familiar brown carpet with chunks of orange filled Avery’s vision. She lay on the floor before the tv in her childhood home, staring up at the tv emitting a laugh track as it played a re-run of the Dick-Van-Dyke show.
An eerie chill crawled down her spine as pushed herself into a sitting position and looked toward the arm chair. It was empty.
“Dad?” She called scrambling to her feet only noting briefly how skinny and bony her limbs were. “Where are you?”
The screen door screeched and banged shut.
“Dad? Mom?” Ava raced into the kitchen and crashed into him.
“Hold up there, where’s the fire?” He asked.
At the sound of his voice she froze, rooted to the place, the words bouncing meaninglessly around her brain. She stared at his face, his scruffy beard Aunt Violet kept telling him to shave, the smell of cigarette smoke on his jacket filling her lungs till she couldn’t breathe. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes and she blinked hard to force them back.
“Ave? What on earth’s the matter?” He asked, leaning down to examine her face. She turned her head down, trying to pull herself together.
Was this a chance at redemption? An opportunity?
She looked up at his face, trying to withhold the floodworks as she met his eyes, “Dad, if you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“Hold up.” He spread out his hands, “I just got here. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If… I knew something. Could I stop it from happening?”
His brows drew together like he was thinking really hard. This was the sort of things kids asked sometimes and he knew the proper way to react.
But she needed his response.
She needed to know.
“Well, if you heard something you should talk to someone.” His southern accent became more pronounced as he spoke, prompting a rush of nostalgia that had Avery biting her lower lip.
“No, it’s not like that. I know a bad thing is happening today.” She whispered.
“Well sweetheart, that sort of thing’s up to God.”
A bedroom door banged and Lyla burst into the room, swinging a baseball glove and wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
“C’mon Aves we’re gonna be late.” She slapped the glove on the counter and opened the fridge as the screen door opened again and mama stepped inside, her arms full of groceries in the old brown bags.
“Get away from that fridge young lady.” She snapped, “There’s a casserole in the oven.”
“No way I can wait that long.” Lyla whined.
“Girls, you both need to get into the car.” Dad said, tousling Avery’s hair with tender concern, “If you wanna talk more Avery we can do it in the car.”
Adrenaline spiked through her heart and she took a step back, shaking her head.
Mama looked toward her, “What’s the matter with you? Avery Beth you go get in the car this instance. Practice has practically started already.”
Her thoughts raced. Maybe if she delayed. Told someone? Could she change the future? Could she at least say what she wanted to say?
It was her Dad who persuaded her to go. Staying home wouldn’t have helped. Telling them wouldn’t work. Maybe she could force him to take a wrong turn.
“All buckled up?” He asked as she clambered into the backseat of the station wagon and pulled the strap down over her shoulder. She felt so small as the belt pressed her into the leather seat still hot from baking in the sun.
The car lurched forward and her heart started to pound.
“Dad, c-can we go a different way?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Do you want us to be late sweetheart?” He met her eyes in the rearview. She nodded her head. He sighed, “We’ll talk about it when we get there.”
She looked out the window. They passed her elementary school on the right, then up past her friend Joanna’s house. And there it was. The corner of Main Street near the convenience store. Her throat tightened and she gasped for air, “Dad, watch out for-” she started, but like the first time – like every time – it happened too fast.
The boy on his bicycle came out of nowhere. Papa swerved and the brick wall of the store flashed before them before collision.
She jolted out of sleep and blinked in the daylight that washed through the window. The gentle patter of rain against the roof must have lulled her to sleep. Standing she looked out at the brilliant green of spring in her Connecticut home.
“Avery?” A tap at the door, “I brought you a little snack if you need a break.”
She glanced at her laptop where her screen had fallen dark.
“C’mon in.” She responded.
Lyla entered with a plate of cookies.
“You’re a sweetheart.” She told her sister, taking the plater and meeting her sister’s gaze.
“Mama called. She said you’d been talking with her.”
Avery sighed. “I’ve been documenting our childhood and its been… hard.”
“I know.” Lyla reached down and placed a hand over hers. “But thank the Lord, we got through.”
A smile touched Avery’s lips the same moment a tear slipped down her cheek.
“And He knew that I would need you.” She responded and Lyla wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
“What’s it like, to finally have a Father again?” She whispered.
Avery looked to the side where the worn leather Bible lay open, notes scribbled in the margins and verses highlighted in yellow. “It feels good.” She whispered.
Wonderful story. Both the event and the memory were striking. Thanks for sharing it.
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.