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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#29: Bildungsroman

Often, the stories we read in our youth end up sticking with us well beyond adolescence. We vividly remember our first encounter with imaginative Anne Shirley, the nail-biting rumble between the greasers and Socs in The Outsiders, the fierce camaraderie shared by the Harry, Ron, and Hermione trio, among many other memorable moments from the young adult books we read in our formative years.

This week, all five prompts feature popular elements that are frequently at play in coming-of-age novels. While you are certainly free to write a short young adult story, you can also choose to incorporate these prompts into any other type of fiction.

If you want to revisit some classic YA fiction to get your creative wheels spinning, check out our freshly published list of some of our favorite young adult books!

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone dealing with family conflict.

Nonfiction – 82 stories

Write a story about someone discovering something new about themselves.

Nonfiction – 52 stories

Write a story about two best friends.

Teens – 73 stories

Write a story about someone falling in love for the first time.

Romance – 80 stories

Write a story about a character struggling to decide how to handle a problem that is morally gray.

Short Story – 41 stories

Stories

“Radio Active” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #29

“I don’t know what to do. Tess won’t respond to my calls or letters.”“What do you say?”“That we need to talk.”“So, you are demanding a response and she won’t submit to your demands?”“I wasn’t demanding. I want to keep lines of communication open. I’m hurt.”“So, you choose to be offended because she has nothing to communicate? What if you wait for her to want something?”“I could wait forever.”“And…?”The session ended soon after that. Avery wondered, “Am I beating my head against the wall? Isn’t a therapist supposed to at least pretend to be o...

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“Vicious Love” by G LaSpina

Submitted to Contest #29

I hate Valentine's Day, usually. There's no one who wants to give me anything, so I sit back and sadly watch my friends get gifts, year after year. Well, not this year. I finally think I may get a Valentine just yet, and I may get to give one as well. There's a boy. He's not new or anything, I've known him since middle school. Let's call him Leo. Only recently have I realized that Leo is looking pretty good these days. And I think Leo may be thinking the same thing about me. &nb...

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“Potato syndrome” by Ola Hotchpotch

Submitted to Contest #29

It was not easy for my elder brother to provide for all of us. We were seven sisters and two brothers. Having lost our father in India and Pakistan partition riots we shifted to west bengal. My mother, aunt, grandmother all were dependant on our elder brother's megre income. He was just high school pass and had got an ordinary government job . All our relatives and neighbours said we sisters were exceptionally beautiful with slender figure, sharp features and fair skin. In our Indian culture most people desire a fair skined, slim and a beaut...

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“Panic Attack” by Libby Carter

Submitted to Contest #29

“Thanks for everything, Callie.” Joanie smiled as she slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. The sun was sinking slowly over the horizon. “Anytime, hun.” Callie McLain waved from the front seat of the van as Joanie unlocked the door to her family’s apartment. Joanie’s friends, Ben and Cody McLain, who happened to be identical twins, had let Joanie go with their family to the beach for a month. Some of her other friends-Olivia Duncan, Lucas Jones, and Kasey Pearson-had also gone. Joanie braced her...

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“Lying and Sunshine” by Leya Newi

Submitted to Contest #29

With the dawn came light. Not the kind of light that made you want to soak it up, or the kind that woke you up softly, but the kind that blinded you with its radiance. Fortunately, Halley was already up and frying fish for breakfast. Next to him, Cashmere covered her eyes, not ready to start the day."Cashmere. You need to get up.""Do I have to? The sun is such a bright light, and surely we only have a little further to go.""Yes, but then we have to get through paperwork and find a place to stay before curfew."Cashmere sat up, pouting. "I hat...

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“The Unveiling of Miss Vickers” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #29

There’s something about your second year at high school that’s neither one thing nor the other. As a first year, you seem to be wrapped in some kind of a protective cocoon, as you’ve suddenly become no longer the oldest, but the youngest in the school. That can be a bit of a shock to the ego and the system, but it has its compensations. And once you go into the third year, well, that’s as good as half way through the passage into adulthood. But the second year? A trivial point, but at my school (which was over-subscr...

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“Invisible” by Lilly Blossom

Submitted to Contest #29

“Train kids come here to die,” she told me. I sat down on the sidewalk next to the girl with the monkey tattoo and tongue piercing. She couldn’t be much younger than me. “Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “New Orleans is a hell of a place. Always something going on. You can lose your mind and set free your soul.” She laughed, somewhat wickedly/somewhat naively, “Drugs are plentiful, people messed up as the rest of us...it’s easy to get what you need...feel me?” She looked right in my eyes, her own eyes slightly glazed over and her dirty fa...

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“Two of us, under the bed” by Marte Van Der Linden

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #29

There was something under my bed.It scuttled and pattered and thumped, and it was definitely not the pipes or the wind or any of the other things dad told me made noises in the night. Thump! Bigger than a mouse, I thought, but smaller than a dog. I rolled closer to the edge of the mattress. If I was very careful, I could lean down for a look while being safely cocooned in my blankets. Another thump. A couple of dust bunnies came drifting out from under the bed. My nightlight was nowhere near bright enough to see anything else and I didn’t wa...

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“Please Turn Around” by Ryan Lieb

Submitted to Contest #29

This is crazy Ethan thought as he checked the time on his phone: 12:04 AM. Ben was running late. He slid the device back into his left jeans pocket and glanced up the dark street, first looking left, then right, while exhaling erratic puffs of nervous, steamy breath. No sign of him yet. With his right hand, he fidgeted with the folding knife that was uncomfortably jammed into his other pocket. He turned around and glanced at his quaint single story house. All dark. Part of him wished the light would come on, that his mother would step outsid...

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“Valentine Candy-Grams” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #29

Harbor Creek High School’s first block began with the morning announcement program. Students in the A.V. Club praddled off school-related news bulletins to a camera broadcasting to a closed-circuit television system that the whole school watched every morning. They led the pledge of allegiance before launching into what needed to be known for the day. Meatloaf was today’s lunch entree. Our basketball team won the game over the weekend. They and the track team had practice this evening. A few clubs were meeting at lunch and some birthdays wer...

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“A Stranger in the Woods” by Tori Routsong

Submitted to Contest #29

Adelphie played with her food, pushing bits of potato around her plate with her fork. “I know his mother is the best Healer in the palace. That doesn’t mean I should marry him.” A particularly fat pigeon alighted on her wrist and rubbed his head on her thumb in support. Her mother sighed. “Del, I told you to keep that thing off the table.” &nb...

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“The Silence Between Words” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #29

“I have something to tell you,” I murmured, hoping that my words would be lost in the darkness between us. We were sitting crossed legged, knees touching. We were holding hands in the space between our ankles. I was shaking slightly, a tremble that could only be felt and not seen. I couldn’t help it; a tornado of emotions was ravaging my head, making it hard to think clearly. Normally, Riley would have contested the darkness, but through my trembling and the fear in my voice, she kept the walk-in closet’s light off. &n...

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“Development of a Healing Heart ” by Yemima Kebede

Submitted to Contest #29

I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t want to feel this way.I don’t want to feel this way, but I can’t help it. I love him.I love everything about him. I love his smile, his eyes, his personality, his devotion to God, the way he treats me, the way he always looks at me, the way he makes me smile.His name is Isaiah, and I love his soul.I’m in love with him, but I’m scared. I’m not used to this feeling.I’ve never felt like this before. For most of my life, I’ve been broken so many times by pain that I never deserved t...

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“sandsandsandsandsand God, I hate this sand.” by Lily Kingston

Submitted to Contest #29

I have never hated sand more in my life than I do now. It’s squashing in between my toes like a rotten tamale. The tiny individual pieces burn tiny individual holes into my skin. I can feel them embedding themselves underneath my toenails, where they’ll travel with me for the next ten miles. Sand follows us as does the threat of death does. I would pull off my shoes and throw them across the desert for being so pinche useless if I didn’t need them to spare what’s left of my feet as I continue to tread along El Camino de Diablo--the most dang...

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“The Price of a Hero” by Megan DeRouin

Submitted to Contest #29

I had been hunting him for years. Always the same, I get within a hair’s breadth and he would slip through my fingers. I didn’t even know what he looked like really, only that cheeky grin as he disappeared. All my friends had said that I was taking this too far. Now they were gone.I knew it was an obsession. Hell I knew it probably wasn’t healthy or whatever else my mother had said, but I needed him, his mystery, like I needed air. I had even gone so far as to have a pin-board with blurry pictures and red strings connecting seemingly unrelat...

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$50

Prize money

328

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 21, 2020 EST

Won by Megan Dang 🏆

Title: Time Bomb

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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