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
The Weight of What You Know by Kathy Saunders
“If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here.”
Sam was leaning against the rusted guardrail, his eyes fixed on the crooked silhouette of the town below; street lights blinked on one at a time while the town slowly remembered it was alive.“What do you mean, you just got here?”
“I mean exactly that.” Sam’s voice whispered. “I got off the bus twenty minutes ago while I’m trying to figure out what I’ve walked into, and you’re asking me questions like I’m under a moral interrogation.”
“You don’t have to be a compass to know right from wrong.”
He turned to face her fully now. “And you don’t have to be a stranger to sense when something’s wrong. So again—what the hell is going on?”
Kira looked away, down toward the church with the boarded windows, the shuttered shops, the diner with its flickering neon sign.
“Do you remember Eli Harper?”
Sam frowned. “Vaguely. Tall, quiet kid. Used to draw all over his sneakers. Why?”
“He’s going to die tonight.”
There was no tremble in her voice. No dramatics. Just the facts, like reading off a grocery list. Sam’s stomach flipped.
“You’re sure?”
She nodded.
“How?”
“I had a dream.”
Sam blinked. “A dream.”
Kira met his gaze without flinching. “It wasn’t just a dream. It was… like a message. A warning. I’ve had them before. They’re never wrong.”
He opened his mouth, closed it, and sighed. “So you came back?”
“Yeah.”
“To stop it?”
“Just you knowing something bad’s going to happen makes it your responsibility.”
“I’m not the guy to answer that.”
“No one else will.”
He let that settle.
“So what happens to him?” he asked finally.
Kira hesitated. “Fire. It starts at the gas station, spreads quickly. He’s trapped inside. They never figure out how it started.”
“And we can’t just tell him?”
“You think he’d believe us?”
“Would you, if someone told you that?”
Sam laughed quietly. “Good point.”
Kira sat on the guardrail now, boot heels tapping against the metal. “I’ve tried warning people before. It usually backfires. Fear doesn’t save people—it just makes them run in the wrong direction.”
“So what, then? We sit and watch?”
“That’s the part I can’t figure out.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Three hours. Maybe less.”
“Then let’s go talk to him.”
Kira looked at him sharply. “You just said he wouldn’t believe us.”
“I didn’t say we’d tell him everything. We don’t need to scare him. Just… give him a reason not to be there.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Flat tire. Power outage. Tell him someone’s looking for him and he has to hide.”
“You’re okay with lying?”
“If it keeps someone alive? Absolutely.”
“You’ve changed.”
“So have you.”
They found Eli behind the gas station, where he worked the late shift. He was taller than Sam remembered, hair longer, face thinner—but those marker-covered sneakers were still there, half-hidden under grease-stained jeans.
Kira hung back while Sam approached. They talked. Sam smiled a lot, nodded a lot. Kira couldn’t hear what was said, only watched the moments Eli laughed, the moment he frowned, the moment he pulled out his phone to check something.
After a while, Sam gestured toward her. Eli gave a little wave. Kira waved back.
Then Eli walked off toward the road.
Sam joined her, exhaling hard. “He’s going home.”
“You convinced him?”
“Told him I had a weird feeling. That the station gives off bad vibes tonight. I might’ve said a raccoon broke in earlier.”
She stared. “You lied badly.”
“Yeah, but he bought it.”
Kira gave a half-smile. “Guess you still have that face people trust.”
They started walking again, this time with no rush.
“You think that was enough?” she asked.
“I don’t know. But it’s something. Maybe it changes everything. Maybe it doesn’t.”
“Would you have done it if I hadn’t asked you?”
“I might’ve just watched from the hill.”
Kira was quiet, then: “I hate this part.”
“What part?”
“Not knowing if it mattered.”
“You’re right, I guess. Trying is all we can do.”
“And sometimes, that’s enough. We can’t control everything, but we can choose to act.”
“Do you ever wonder if the universe nudges us in certain directions for a reason?”
“All the time. And maybe tonight was one of those nudges.”
“Thanks for being here, Sam. I couldn’t have done this alone.”
“Anytime. And hey, maybe we’ll never know the impact of what we did, but at least we tried to make a difference. That counts for something.”
“Maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is we tried.”
They stood together as the sky darkened. Somewhere far off, thunder rolled, but no flames ever touched the horizon.
Fascinating story. The dialogue flowed well, and the resolution was nice and ambiguous. Did telling him and keeping him away mean the fire never started in the first place? Or was she wrong?
I don’t know. And I like that.
Nice job building the story out from the dialogue prompt, and nice just starting the story WITH the prompt. Just jumped right in, no muss, no fuss.
I liked 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.