Welcome to the final week of the Spring Writing Challenge!
It’s the final week! This has been such a fun challenge. You’ve all done so well with your stories. There are so many interesting and unique ways you have taken the prompt. It’s now time for the final week, so let’s do this one last time! We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
So, without further ado, here’s your final prompt!
Week Six Prompt – The Character Prompt
Write a story about a character that experiences a rebirth
Wait…what’s a character prompt?
A character prompt is a prompt that’s about a specific character. It doesn’t matter where your story takes place or what’s said. What matters is that your story must be about a character who experiences a rebirth.
Before you start writing, we have some important rules for you 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.
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.
Remember to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and post your story as an “answer” to this question, not a “comment”. 🙂 You’re all doing such a great job! I’m so proud of all the stories you’ve posted.
Happy Writing!
We’re so glad that you participated Juli! 🙂
Team A
Perchance to Dream
And the princess pricked her finger on the spindle and slept for a hundred years.
The princess dreamed, and dreamed, and dreamed. As she slumbered, she forgot many things, including which memories were real. Sometimes she was Snow White in her glass coffin, sometimes Rapunzel in her tower. Often she was just a child, running in the rose gardens- searching endlessly for a white rabbit.
In the real world, she lay on the velvet bed, and her hair continued to grow so that her golden locks spilled over the coverlet and down onto the floor where dust, which does not sleep, collected.
She had nightmares sometimes. Dragons chased her, princes searched for her, witches cursed her. There were grasping trees, honking geese, endless tunnels, bottomless wells. And always, always, she was lost. Always, always, she was searching.
Sometimes He spoke to her in her restless dreams. Vague wordless impressions from Him reminded her that she was safe, that she was cared for, that she could just rest, rest, rest there on her velvet bed. He would never leave her nor forsake her.
In the fiftieth year, a tear slid down her cheek when she forgot her mother. In the fifty-first year, the permanent smile on her full lips relaxed when she forgot her father. The pink of her cheeks faded as she forgot each of her childhood friends. And for the final twenty-five years, her face was blank, ageless, expressionless.
At least the nightmares stopped around that time. Most of her dreams now consisted of vague shades of emotion. Happiness was blue. Sweetness was pink. Green was jealousy. Red was anger. Beige was boredom. Gold was hope. Comfort was purple.
She no longer remembered who He was exactly, but she still felt His comforting presence, still turned to Him in vague and formless purple-golden dreams.
Her arms lay at her sides, and by the ninetieth year, her fingernails grew nearly past her knees. Dust settled on her eyelids and mouth. She dreamed in beige now most of the time, which would have annoyed her had she been conscious, but was now a blessed relief.
She did not hear the young prince hacking away at the brambles, nor the clip-clop of his horse’s hooves on the cobblestones. She did not hear his footsteps on the spiral staircase nor his intake of breath when he entered her chamber.
But she did feel the pressure of his lips on hers, felt her lips, then her cheeks, then her hands slowly warm out of their cold stupor. She was half-awake, and part of her was startled at this intrusion of her beige dreams. In her distress, she turned to He who had never forsaken her.
A formless question rose from Him to her and she sensed she was being given a choice. She could go home with Him now- to the eternal warmth, life, and hope He offered, or she could wake up to the prince’s kiss, to a new life in an old world. It would be easy, so easy just to go with Him now. She sensed He would not be angry if that was her choice, and yet she wanted to see the handsome face of the prince and to look into his eyes. She could not choose.
Whatever you think is best, she whispered in her heart.
A moment later, her eyes opened in her tower and she gazed into the prince’s rich brown eyes.
“Good morning,” she said.
She did not remember her life before the enchantment, but that did not matter. The prince took her by the hand and led her toward the staircase. The princess looked back at her velvet bed, wondering what she was leaving behind. But then she remembered- He was still with her. He would always be with her.
And the prince led her into the sunshine of a bright new day.
This is a beautiful and haunting story! It makes me think about people in a coma and what they might be thinking. The steadfast voice of caring and being given a choice is well done! Thank you for sharing!
When the new prompt arrive, my first thought is, Oh no! What am I going to write to make that work? But the Holy Spirit ALWAYS shows up and I get an idea every time. It amazes me. Thanks for a thought provoking six weeks.