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
Maxom realized he failed his time traveler’s license test.
It had started off well that morning. He’d flown through the written exam, correctly identifying different periods and prominent figures; he was even the first one to turn it in. Next, the leader of the Time Traveler’s Guild, a man over five centuries old and referred to as “the Timekeeper,” took him into a room with a pink carpet. He handed Maxom a dial—a clear hourglass set in the center of multiple circles, each one marked with tiny numbers—and asked him to explain all its parts. Satisfied, the Timekeeper provided the coordinates that would take Maxom thirty years into the future, where he would collect a jewel strategically placed by a previous time traveler.
Maxom had adjusted the dial accordingly, then spun the hourglass. Clouds of pink, blue, and purple sparkled in the top bulb—
—and then he fell through a portal and landed unceremoniously on the slimy, unfamiliar planks of a merchant ship. A seagull screeched in the distance.
Dread sank into his bones. The ship, with its ornate masts and swooping sails, was distinctly Winsorian in style. A castle stood upon rocky cliffs, guarding the bay below. Its spires, also Winsorian, stabbed the sliver of moon in the sky.
To be absolutely certain, he checked the figurehead at the bow of the ship. A skeleton with a knife sticking out of its head confirmed his suspicions.
He’d flung himself into the Era of Plunderers.
Mortified, he buried his head in his hands. Coordinates had to be exactly precise; a single mistake dramatically altered destinations. When he checked, sure enough, he’d gotten one number wrong.
Perhaps he could correct that number and finish the task. Would the Timekeeper know? But the bottom bulb of the hourglass flickered weakly. It would take five minutes for the dial to recharge.
A flash of silver met his throat, cold and unyielding.
Maxom’s breath caught.
The man on the other end of the sword was a short, thin plunderer, his dark beard masking a grizzly face. He gave Maxom a quick but thorough once-over, eyes latching onto the golden dial.
“Time traveler, eh?” The man grinned, showing off a ruby tooth, then wrested the dial from Maxom’s frozen hands. “Tell me, boy. If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try to stop it?”
“I just got here.” Maxom inched backwards until his spine hit the wooden railing. The plunderer’s sword followed.
“I’ve seen your lot,” the plunderer growled, “prancing about in your long, fancy robes, interfering with business not your own. You’re here to thwart my great plot, aren’t you?”
Maxom shook his head. “I have no idea who you are.”
“Take a closer look.” The plunderer flashed another grin, ruby sparkling in the moonlight.
Maxom didn’t find that helpful. “Who are you?”
“I am Gunther the Terrible.” The tip of the sword angrily poked Maxom’s skin. “And today I shall assassinate King Winsor!”
Maxom kept very still lest the blade pierce through. “Never heard of you. Or your plot.”
Gunther glared. “Never?”
“Never.”
Gunther’s grip on the hilt tightened, knuckles turning white. “Liar.”
“There are ramifications, you know,” Maxom said. “For killing any member, prospective or not, of the Time Traveler’s Guild.”
Gunther barked a laugh. “Time travelers don’t scare me, boy.”
Bits of color glimmered in the hourglass’s top bulb, slowly refilling. Maxom inhaled slowly. He had no sword of his own, no superior fighting skill. But he wouldn’t need either if he could secure a few more minutes.
“You would make an excellent time traveler, sir,” Maxom said.
Gunther raised an eyebrow, then smirked. “Would I, now?”
Despite the sarcasm, Maxom caught the interest sparking in that intense gaze. It gave him the confidence to press on. “You need the right kind of fingers to work a dial like that. Steady hands and a quick mind, which I see that you have.”
Gunther narrowed his eyes. “And you, with your slow mind and trembling fingers, would have me believe you know how to work this,” he glanced at the dial, “instrument?”
“I’ll tell you how,” Maxom went on. Two minutes. “Set the coordinates you want. For that castle, for instance. Arrive precisely at the opportune time.”
“You know the coordinates for that castle there,” Gunther stated skeptically.
“I do.”
“And you would willingly give them to me,” Gunther said with the same tone.
“I only want my life in exchange,” Maxom said.
Gunther glared at him for a long moment, thinking it over. Although his distrust didn’t fully evaporate, he lowered the sword. “And what exactly are these coordinates?”
Maxom gave him the numbers that would take him back to the present.
Gunther painstakingly rotated the dial, row by row, until all the numbers lined up exactly.
“Now give the hourglass a spin,” Maxom said.
Gunther, however, examined the hourglass more closely. “What powers it?”
“The gemstone connecting the two bulbs,” Maxom said as nonchalantly as possible. He had only one shot at this. “Emerald, diamond, any precious stone will do. Now give it a spin.”
Gunther seemed to hesitate. Then, almost delicately, he spun the hourglass.
Maxom leaped, tackling Gunther and grabbing the dial right as a portal opened. Gunther shoved him off with a yell, and the next thing Maxom knew, he was flying through time until he landed on a familiar pink carpet.
When he looked up, the Timekeeper was watching him.
“Congratulations,” the Timekeeper said. “You passed.”
Maxom gaped. “I what?”
“Welcome to the Time Traveler’s Guild.”
“But I went backwards instead of forward,” Maxom admitted. “I failed your test.”
“Did you, now?” The Timekeeper raised an eyebrow.
Something about that gesture seemed oddly familiar.
“Don’t you remember?” The Timekeeper grinned, showing off a missing tooth. “Why don’t you look at that dial’s power source? Built it myself—the first of its kind.”
Maxom looked and found a tiny ruby.
Team 1
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.