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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

“Falling in Love After Falling Apart” by Samantha Curry

Submitted to Contest #29

How could things be so out of my control? My entire life is turning upside down. Things aren't ever going to be the same. I sat in my eighth grade math class glaring at the test facing me from my desk. I was rereading question number one so much that I began seeing double and triple letters all morphing together and then spreading out onto the page. A tear welled up in my eye and I almost let it fall until I heard a deep voice behind me say, "Do you have an extra pencil?" My thoughts were so deep that I didn't know how to answer his qu...

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“Mon Chéri” by Amber Eccles

Submitted to Contest #29

Sonny's POVIt was a cold Monday morning, and I was on my way to work. Part way there, I realised how stupid it was not to wear a coat in the middle of winter. I was freezing cold, and I had wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to keep warm.Just as I was contemplating going back home and grabbing a coat, the overwhelming smell of coffee and hot chocolate from a nearby cafe drew me in. I stopped in my tracks, smelling the beautiful aromas of caffeine before I finally went inside.The warmth hit me as soon as I stepped inside and I let ou...

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“FALLING IN LOVE” by RADIUS HAVWAALA

Submitted to Contest #29

THELMA’S LOVE SPELL Contest #29 in falling in love for the first time Met you in the elegant eaves of ShopriteAs you undulated Naomi Campbell curvesDressed in the beauty of a peacock butDriven by the tender heart of dovesThe sight jerked my heart like a disturbed rabbitSparking a roaring blue fire in my veinsMy mind could not rein in my heartNeither could it ignore lovely shocked eyesDrilling mine as I proposed in raw fleshPopping a “May I talk to you madam?”In a tearing hurry like an alarmed fishYou shot back an educated look of ...

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“Butterflies and Cutting Knives” by Jake Woodard

Submitted to Contest #29

This doesn’t feel right. It feels kind of like I expected, but that doesn’t make it any easier to manage. Are those wings or razor blades in my stomach? Do I look like I’m conscious in the moment, or do I look like the emotions I’m holding? I don’t know, all I can tell is that Jessica Fleetwood is sitting slightly hunched over in front of me, on my parents’ living room couch, eyes and nose slightly scrunched in a gut-wrenchingly cute way as she puts the finishing touches on our chemistry project.”Which is more important to the brain, dopamin...

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“You and me: Us” by Nwabisa Jita

Submitted to Contest #29

I met her only yesterday. Wait, that’s not true. I’ve known her my whole life, but yesterday. Yesterday was different. You see she’s been a common denominator in my life. Through the tears, hissy fits and honestly nobody knows my greatest hits like her. She doesn’t just know those parts of me, she is those parts of me, because in those memories and moments you see, she was there. Always carrying a smile to match my frown, a laugh to match my scowl even tears when I am overjoyed. To call her a rock is just wrong because she’s done more, been ...

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“Hey babe, I love you.” by Claudia Gollini

Submitted to Contest #29

When I try to describe your beauty, your smile, your kind heart, I find that my words only begin to scratch the surface of my love for you. You are too amazing, too much of a wonder for language to describe. When we are together, and with each gesture you make, and each word that you utter, I realize, more and more, how special and caring you are, and how lucky I am to be with you. When we are not together, the very thought of you brings me more fully to life.Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for loving me and letting me love you. ...

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“One Good Monday” by Aulora Moore

Submitted to Contest #29

Gloomy is the only word I can use to describe the beginning of this story. Dim lit, early morning sky filled with clouds and tears propelling down, making their way into every crevice the city holds. Deep inside the gutters below was only darkness. The cobble stones once filled with happy people, now empty, as the bricks destroy the movement of the rain, ceasing the life within the little suicidal lifeforms. As if a skirt riding up at a burlesque show the clouds separate, teasing the sun only to get even darker than they once were. Not a sor...

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“Fate Only Knows” by Jennifer Jorgenson

Submitted to Contest #29

Every time 16 year old Alex Ventras burst onto the scene all the girls swooned at his skater boy good looks. Yet the one girl Alex wants never sees him as anything more than just a best friend. Marishka, Alex’s best friend of 10 years and also his long time dream girl. Alex had always been hypnotized by her looks but then again what guy wouldn’t be considering she stands 6’0” with long black hair that stops at her waist, crimson colored eyes, a beautiful well endowed body of perfection, and a voice like an angel. Suddenly Alex snapped out of...

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“Sandcastle Fantasies” by Emily Utley

Submitted to Contest #29

Sandcastles meticulously constructed, smoothened by cautious palms and silent fingers. Moats of liquidly filthy perfection, tainted ocean water dispersing to the surrounding landscape. Drawbridge of drowned driftwood, nestled to levelled perfection. Limp kelp crawls as ivy does, sprawled along the walls patched together with individually miniscule fragments. Jagged, smooth, pocketed pebbles stand in for windows lining halls. One of the tiered towers, with absent-minded dips littering its walls, slouches in the orange-gold light. Shells mark ...

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“Siren Song” by Daryn Schvimmer

Submitted to Contest #29

I knew that following the siren’s song would lead me to certain death. I had heard stories about brave men being lured to a watery grave by the melodic songs of the sirens. I had never heard those stories told about women, though. The village elders had made it clear to us throughout our lives that only men were supposed to be lured by the song. Men who couldn’t be swayed or women who could were portrayed as defective, inferior. I had been desperate to believe that I wasn’t one of these people. I had tried to ignore the call of the sirens wh...

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“Am I into girls?” by Kenzie Linn

Submitted to Contest #29

There was a warm breeze in the air that pulled my hair from my shoulders gently. It was finally summer and I had just graduated high school. Finally ready to be on my own at college, no parents, and nothing tying me down. I was going to be attending college at UHV and living on campus. I was nervous to be without my parents for the first time. I’d actually be alone. I walked down the beach and let the warm, salty water brush against my feet, and the sand squish between my toes. There were several families set up for camping, but one family s...

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“Dancing by witchlight” by Lauren Smith

Submitted to Contest #29

Celestine rubbed mindlessly at her unfocused, exhausted eyes; the honey scented candles propped around her burnt down almost to their wicks. She had to get this done; she had to finish the poem, otherwise she would miss her chance to say what she so needed for her heart to let up its oppressive aching. Love. That was what she was in, and out, and throughout. Love was all consuming, all being and omniscient in its pursuit of her. She was a plaything in its game, a pawn to move to it’s liking. Love had plucked her up in its flexing ever change...

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“The Black Haired New Kid” by Adrianna Brikston

Submitted to Contest #29

Walking over to his locker, Jisung dragged his feet wearily. He just had Algebra and he couldn’t stay awake through the lesson. He opened his locker and shove his books in, taking the books for his next lesson. ‘Ugh great, History.’ He thought. Jisung let out a sigh and closed his locker as he went on his way to History.“Kang Jisung,” The teacher called out. He was in History class and they were taking attendance. “Here,” He mumbled sounding uninterested. Suddenly, the loud pitter latter of feet was heard and the door burst open. Jisung turn...

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“The Forbidden Love Between Heaven & Hell ” by Mollie Zeller

Submitted to Contest #29

THE FORBIDDEN LOVERS OF HEAVEN & HELL In a small mid-west town in America, it has become the God forsaken town. Due to the dope world of demons taking over, and has lost all hope in faith, hope, love, and God. Here is the story of how love saved one girl, from the demons flying around a girl, who prayed, and had kept enough glow before the demons got a hold of her. For the broken girl was lost unable to find her way home, but she was smart enough to know to keep praying and never lose faith because God was always walking beside her.&nbsp...

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“Ken” by Falodun Omolola

Submitted to Contest #29

At what age, do you think it's appropriate for a girl or a boy to know and feel the word ,``love". At what age did you realize what love is? I am a girl and I am sixteen years old ,although I don't really look like I am sixteen years old ,to be frank although I hate to admit it, I look like a twelve year old girl or at least thirteen? I look just the way my sister looked in that picture she took at her thirteenth birthday party. Except I am not wearing a plastic pink crown or pink sparkly dress or a sash saying,now a teenager, or a little me...

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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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