Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

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

“The Necklace That Wouldn't Leave Me Alone” by Ariel Kalati

Submitted to Contest #29

I wasn’t born with the necklace. I woke up with it one morning when I was ten years old. I didn’t remember putting it on, but then again, I’d had a pretty eventful night. I’d stayed over at Nina’s house until 8 pm, unprecedentedly late for me. It was for Nina’s eleventh birthday, but you wouldn’t have known that Nina was the star of the night, because Amber was the one everyone focused on. Because Amber had gotten that most precious of honors: the first one in the grade to get a boy...

Read story

“Girl Friend” by Nicola Campbell

Submitted to Contest #29

I’m not allowed to have a boyfriend. I know that for a fact. Dad has said it so many times his exact words are etched into my memory like my brain is the slate and my dad’s words are the chisel and hammer. “You know what I always say, Zoe. There will be no boys under my roof until you are eighteen.” Which I think is a load of crap. And highly homophobic, but I’m not gay, so I guess it doesn’t matter. If I were gay, or anything other than straight, then it would totally be a loophole, but that loophole is blocked by none other than me. There...

Read story

“One more story about a spare” by Deboleena Kundu

Submitted to Contest #29

While seated in the back seat of the hired cab, Mrs. Deb started reminiscing. How she missed the good old days, so she leaned back at the seat and went into a trance for some time as apparently, she needed to recall the memories of her past 70 years. Being born in the ‘40s and being a girl and an elder one too was an experience of sacrifice, patience, dutifully, guardian like for her. She had always been the compliant one, always eager to sacrifice for the younger ones. Though quite young of an age, she still remembers the whirling of helico...

Read story

“Fortune, Flower & Falcon” by Rochelle Bourns

Submitted to Contest #29

A flower is burning within my mind. It is – was – a rose, soft and white as a dove on its stem. Now it runs coal-black all the way to the base, its edges alive with angry gold embers. The phantom scents of floral and ash fill my breath, spinning my vision off into a stomach-churning dance. This has happened before, and I cannot even state a preference on whether it means something as an omen or merely that I am going mad. Yet the rose is still there, and it is dying, and I can do nothing to save it. Instead I must watch it slowly burn away, ...

Read story

“The one that got away” by Sam Kirk

Submitted to Contest #29

As I sign the final decree of divorce, I cannot help but think back to the time when I fell in love with Penelope. We were 13 or 14, attending the same junior high, but never had any classes together.There was this walking club that met every Saturday and Sunday morning for a few months every year. Its goal was to educate the youth about the city’s architecture and history. My friend and I signed up because we were genuinely interested in learning more about the city we lived in, but I imagine that the promise of a better grade in some of th...

Read story

“Options” by Sam Kirk

Submitted to Contest #29

Sitting in my 4 P.M. French class, the professor’s voice seemed miles away, but that was alright. Right now, I was just glad that we were tackling new material, so all I had to do was to look as if I was paying attention. Focusing my eyes on the coursebook in front of me and doodling in it seemed to do the job. No one was paying any attention to me, and the professor kept talking without interruptions.Aside from some random geometric shapes, I found myself sketching a girl on her knees and with tears streaming down her cheek. Phrases express...

Read story

“Different but the Same” by Taria Karillion

Submitted to Contest #29

Different but the Same(~ 1200 w)They weren’t like me – the people who came out of the lake. I’ve never seen anyone like them, not even in pictures or holo-tales. I should have run home straight away, but I was curious – I wanted to see. My parents always say that curiosity killed the cat, and that’s why they’re extinct, but everything’s a-a-a-always so samey in the Dome, so anything new or just different is cool, so I hid by a boulder and watched. After the crash, when they waded ashore, they looked small and bedraggled and weak, like the ne...

Read story

“Our table ” by Artemis H

Submitted to Contest #29

I sat alone as I watched the rain come down outside. An older couple and I were the only ones in the shop. I sipped my coffee as a tear rolled down my cheek... I was alone. The chair next to me sat empty as though it was mocking and taunting me. I was starting to overthink everything. My chest started to swell with the feeling of hopelessness... I wanted to scream at the world and run away from everything. But no one would hear me or care to come looking. I looked at the chair again that he should’ve been sitting in. I would’ve looked a...

Read story

“A Capable Captive” by Dash GetEm

Submitted to Contest #29

“We understand that you've been through hell and the last thing we want is to have you relive that. So when you can, tell us everything that you can remember. Take your time."I shut my eyes and for a second there was only silence, my mind grew still.I think I remember waking up to a bright white light shining in my face.My ears were ringing, kind of like a car alarm but not quite as shrill, sort of like the sound you hear in a hospital when shit really hits the fan.I was hazy, like I had been drugged, but it was the good stuff, you know. The...

Read story

“Like Candy Wrapper Airplanes” by Kendra Dantes

Submitted to Contest #29

I think that falling in love is like flying straight for the ground before miraculously being picked back up again. And then you’re floating up. Rising up to the sky, through the clouds, reaching to the sun before you realize it’s too hot to touch. But maybe love is like that, too. So hot it lights your heart on fire, so cold it freezes your fingertips and turns them blue. So ecstatic and so poetic that you can’t focus on anything beside it. All this, of course, coming from...

Read story

“How I Fell In Love With A Serial Killer” by Amanda Newson

Submitted to Contest #29

Myles and I had been getting on well those last couple of months, no new girls had been brought into the corridor, and I could tell our relationship was blooming into something more than what it had been. This was probably due to my soft flirting. Warmer smiles when he came to talk, louder laughs when he tried to joke, and trailing touches when he gave me gifts. My cell had looked quite different from its original bare stone prison, blankets covered the small bed, a chair sat in the corner, and an old bookcase was slowly filling with second ...

Read story

“Tainted Chocolate” by Matt Strempel

Submitted to Contest #29

“I’m calling the police,” Harry’s mum said on the afternoon he’d accepted chocolate from Homeless Jeff. Even for Harry’s mother, it seemed overzealous. Harry had never even heard of mums calling the police on their kids. What was the big deal about a couple of pieces of chocolate? It’s not like he’d stolen them. “Let’s not overreact,” said Harry’s dad, assuming his role of crisis de-escalator, mediator, fence-sitter. “Overreact?” Harry’s mum replied, incensed. “He’s a f–,” she hushed her voice to a volume, Harry supposed, he wasn’t intended ...

Read story

“Welcome to the Top” by Eric Maier

Submitted to Contest #29

Welcome to the Top© Eric Maier 2020Twenty-Four Minus One Tomorrow was Aaron’s twenty-fourth birthday. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. Everything would be different tomorrow. He stood at the window. Three floors down, he could see his car in the parking lot. A few kids were playing on the tiny, token playground provided by the apartment complex. His apartment was small, but one bedroom was plenty for him. The walls were bare, save for a slightly crooked picture of a sunlit, flowered, forest glade, and a calendar. His faded three...

Read story

“LOVE IN THE TIME OF CRISIS” by Peace Nakiyemba

Submitted to Contest #29

They said he would be back in hours.It’s been days.I should have put up a better fight when they came. I should have known not to trust the Resistance even though we are its spies. I should never have agreed to be the one to stay behind. But all the ‘should haves’ in this world will not prompt the Resistance to keep its word and yet, I should have known better.I keep my face down as I make my way through Market Street. It is a long stretch of land, about 10km. At the end of the stretch, a few meters from the towering black gate, sits the ‘Su...

Read story

“My love story” by Vrunda Sagathia

Submitted to Contest #29

Experiencing love for the first timeWhat is Love-‘ a good feeling ‘for some people; ‘an emotion’ for some people; ‘a timepass’ for some people; or ‘a dream’ for someone like me. It was a dream for me to be in love, experiencing the pure feeling and having that true emotions for someone (ahighly introvert like me) which would turn myboring life to some excitement .In my school days I was a shy, under confident girl having oily hair every day and doing homework every day, (it mig...

Read story

Load more stories

$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!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢