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
“It is going to be so fire.”
“How are you going to get there?” Pete asked.
“We are taking his dad’s car,” Xaria giggled. I told my mom I am staying with Stasia.
Sammy just gave a timid smile. She scanned her busy English classroom to gather the reactions of her classmates. Most of the class was immersed in their own conversations or ignoring Xaria. After all, she just returned to school from a week in the truancy center for skipping classes and vaping. They were used to her delinquent behavior.
This time, she and her boyfriend, Miguel, were going to steal his dad’s car and go to a concert in Salesia, two hours away. No, neither one of them had a license.
As the class packed up to go to sixth period, she wondered, “If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
She muddled through the busy hallway to her next class and sat down.
“Hey, Sammy, are you ready for practice?” June asked. “It’s supposed to be brutal.”
She just nodded, giving a weak smile. She didn’t feel like her usual chatty self. She just stared in silence waiting for science to start.
As she sat at her desk, trying to pay attention to the lecture on igneous rocks, the debate in her head raged on. On one hand, no one would be surprised. I mean, Xaria was already kicked off the soccer team for poor grades and skipping class. And everyone knows she smokes pot. Her mom had tried to keep her in check, at least for the first semester. I mean, she was always grounded, but it didn’t make a difference. Even the risk of losing her spot on the soccer team wasn’t enough to deter her. Sure, she would talk a good talk for a while, break up with her current bad boyfriend and talk about “making good decisions”, but a few days later, there she was again, barreling down the same destructive path. So, why did she care so much? She couldn’t make Xaria care.
But no matter how much she tried to talk herself out of it, Sammy did care. She and Xaria had been friends since kindergarten. It didn’t matter if it was science class or a soccer game, Xaria could make anything fun. Her contagious laugh had brightened many a boring day at school or grueling soccer practice. Unfortunately, she was far from reliable. Whenever she saw the opportunity to do something “fun” in her eyes, she never thought twice about the consequences or how it affected those who cared about her, whether it be her own mother or Sammy. Sammy was tired. Tired of putting in so much effort for someone who didn’t care about herself or anyone else. She tried to brush it off and focus on the lesson.
“Just focus on yourself,” she told herself.
She put her all into practice that night, playing harder and more aggressively than usual. She tried not to think about it, but she knew she was over-compensating for the guilt she felt over not trying to stop her friend from making a life-threatening decision.
“Whoa there, Ace,” her coach cautioned her when she tripped her teammate trying to steal the ball. She put her hand out to help Laura up.
“Sorry, coach. I’ll be more careful.”
When she got home, she was exhausted. She knew she should do her homework, but she didn’t have it in her, not tonight. She was happy she was so worn out. Maybe now she could sleep and forget she ever heard about Xaria’s plans. And she did, but not peacefully. Every hour, she woke up, hoping for morning, just to find out it was only one a.m., two a.m., etc. . . . Finally, at five, she just got up.
“I can’t sleep anymore,” she said.
“Hey Sammy, did you know anything about this?” her mom’s voice came out of the dark kitchen. She was so startled, she almost ran back to her room.
“Sorry, mom. I didn’t know you were up.”
“Sorry, honey. This post from KNLV says that two teens from our town were in a bad car accident on the road to Silesia last night. Do you know anything about it?”
“No. I . . .” Sammy lied, and immediately broke into tears.
“What’s wrong, honey?”
“Mom, Xaria told me she and her boyfriend were going to Silesia for a concert last night. Neither one of them has a license. I know I should have told someone, but I didn’t want to be that person. It’s all my fault,” she sobbed.
“Oh honey, it’s not your fault. Yes, you should have told Xaria’s mom, or me, but you are not responsible.”
“Can we go see how she is?” Sammy asked.
“Okay, honey. I’ll get my keys.”
They would have gone to the hospital, but there wasn’t any information yet as the patients were minors, and she didn’t have it in her to call Xaria’s mom yet. So, they went to find the crash. She had to do something.
They rode in silence for 45 minutes until they came upon the crash site. Even without any people present, the scene was gruesome. The twisted guardrail and crushed Chevy Traverse were too much. She closed her eyes in disbelief. She had recognized the car Miguel’s dad drove, at least what was left of it. It had rolled at least twice, and the ambulance had already left.
“It was them,” she told her mom.
“I should have stopped them.”
“Hi Sammy,” a gravelly voice said from behind her.
She pivoted in disbelief.
“Xaria! I thought you were in that car!”
“I just got here,” she said, shaking her head.
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.