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
His worried friend plunked down on the ground next to him leaning back against the newly painted wooden fence. The shorter man looked up to read the look on Michael’s face as he could not fathom why he picked this place to sit and rest.
Michael said, “If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here,” exclaimed Jalmel in his usual high pitched squeal followed by his near permanent smile.
Michael said, “I don’t know, man, can you really sit here and let this happen?”
Jalmel replied, “Do you expect me to have Spiderman senses that tingle at danger?”
The younger man was nearly yelling his frustration, but it was also a completely typical volume so that Michael did not notice or show he cared whether anyone heard them.
“Not danger,” replied Michael staring at him in disbelief, “not dangerous to you. Are you saying that you don’t feel any need to try and stop it?”
With wide eyes Michael finished the phrase looking at Jalmel. His chin hung precariously as if it would drop all the way to his shoes at the wrong reply.
“Look,” said Jalmel more slowly with a lower tone and volume even though his slight grin could not be wiped from his face under any circumstance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it really can’t be that bad. And, I’m here to help.”
The two men hunkered with their sturdy backs leaning hard against the wood panels. Jalmel still could not comprehend what brought his friend to sit here when he knew Michael often could be found sitting on a bench overlooking the pond within the pleasant park behind them. Michael’s voice was the opposite pitch from Jalmel’s as the very tall man had an equally deep voice. Tumbling down to the bottom of his range Micheal’s voice gave James Earl Jones a run for deepest voice of the century.
With emphasis from a couple of head nods and raise eyebrows Michael said, “Trust me, it’s gonna be bad.”
Now panicking Jalmel said, “You not feeling well? Your health is better right?”
“What? Yes.”
“Whew, I was worried about you. Alright,” said Jalmel, “then I admit that bad things happen, but you know what I have been through, and I know what you have been through, especially with your health. There is no way this can be harder to work through than that. You are a strong man with the wonderful support of your wife.”
“What does being here have anything to do with that?”
Placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder and his most sincere tone Jalmel said, “Hey, I am here to help you through anything you need.”
“Anything I need? There is nothing I need except to know if you saying we have to try to stop it when you know that it is going to end how this is going to end?”
Jalmel turned his head and laughed.
“Brother, I wish I knew what you were talking about, but like I said, I just got here.”
When the loud honking noises from several geese burst through the fence, Jalmel bounced several times as in fear they were coming over the fence.
“Whoooaaa,” he cried out covering his ears.
When he looked at Michael the taller man’s shoulders sank when he said, “Too late.”
Jalmel popped his head over the top of the fence to see through a flurry of flapping feathers a large dog playfully dodging back and forth to avoid the pecking geese. Suddenly a goose latched onto the floppy ear allowing the winged creatures to begin a whomping on the cowering canine.
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” squealed Jalmel, “that dog is getting pummeled by those geese.”
“Told you it was going to be bad,” said Michael as he stood up to view the scene. The dog owner was now crying out and frantically waving her arms though she could not approach the two livid geese.
“I didn’t know geese could be that mean,” said Jalml. “They’re brutal!”
Michael said, “You saw that dog getting closer to those geese when you came over here.”
“No I honestly didn’t see them so I had no idea anything bad was about to happen,” said Jalmel. “Oh my gosh that poor dog owner does not know what to do.”
“That dog thought it was sneaking up on those geese while the owner was staring off over the pond.” Michael shot his head around to look at the smaller man. “You didn’t see any of that walking over here cause I was watching you looking right over the fence.”
“I was looking at you, not over the fence. Geez. Lady, don’t get that close. Oh look at those geese! They’re mean.”
“Guess the bad thing happened so instead of stopping it, now we have to help,” said Michael as he turned to stride towards the end of the fence.
“Oh you definitely should have done something before this to stop it,” cried Jalmel as he jogged around past Michael.
“That’s why I asked you.”
“Yes, my answer is yes you have to do something. Geez! Get away from them Lady!”
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.