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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

“Anger Spill” by Crystabel Lynx

Submitted to Contest #29

I met Ginny the summer before boys became more interesting to me than girls. I must have been ten, and she about nine and three inches shorter. She spoke and smiled like soft sunshine, amber eyes aglow. How I envied her honey-blonde hair braided in long, thick pigtails on either side of her pretty, tanned face.Without realizing it, I'd been lonely most of my life. My only sister, ten years older, married and left home long before. I seldom had cousins or friends to play with as I grew up on our isolated farm. Chubby and uncoordinated with st...

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“Always and Forever” by BERLIN DEVAULT

Submitted to Contest #29

Mac tugged on the frayed hole in his white-washed jeans, a nervous habit of his. We were sitting on his comfy black couch waiting for his parents to get home. He shifted his vintage glasses farther up his nose and shook his hair out of his face. I scooted closer to him and gently intertwined my fingers in his. Mac’s hand was warm and soft. He was looking down at their hands, woven together. Her bright purple nails, standing out among his somber bedroom “What do you think they are gonna do? You know, when I tell them,” Mac whispered, hi...

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“Learning from a Kid” by Cory Pines

Submitted to Contest #29

I lived in a small town filled to the brim with Christians over 65. There was a church on every street corner and no one argued when it came to the word of god. Everyone knew everyone, though we didn’t talk much outside of church.I grew up here, and after I went to college, I came back here to live out my life as a simple cashier at the local food market. Like most people in the town, I went to church every Sunday and prayed before every meal. Life was plain, but I didn’t mind it that way. I enjoyed living in my small town with a small ...

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“The Birdhouse” by Jessie Renee

Submitted to Contest #29

Always the birdhouse. Any place we went, any new town, any new house, whether it had a garden or not, the only thing he would bring without fail was the birdhouse.I started new every time. With everything. Even memories. When she came home with that look, that wandering look, her mind already in some other place, I just sat by the front door and waited until she started the car.But Andy, he couldn’t let go of that birdhouse.One time he also brought Jack, a stuffed bear with one eye that he rescued from the gutter, while mum flirted with the ...

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“Dead or Not” by Geoffrey Archer

Submitted to Contest #29

Dripping and about to turn the corner, his ears perked up as his heels slowed. He stood their hovering in the shadow of the wall listening. “I can’t believe anyone would actually come to visit her.” Woman in scrubs sat around, gossiping away. “She’s lost everything. Can you blame...

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“Meg” by Jemima Forrester

Submitted to Contest #29

I leant backwards in my chair, the wooden frame knocking against the white wall behind me. Outside the rain fell, a steady stream sliding against the glass of the window. On her bedside table sat a small succulent, beside a vase of flowers: nothing bright, but all of them beautiful, coloured in hazy purples and linen whites. I stared at them idly, allowing my eyes to un-focus, remembering the feel of tall meadow grasses brushing against my bare legs as we’d walked through fields to reach the stretching trees and open hillsides. Meg’s hands h...

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“And Then There Were Nun” by Victor Lana

Submitted to Contest #29

My sister the nun came home on the Friday before Thanksgiving carrying a pizza box and shoebox balanced on top of it. Upon seeing Roselyn walk into the house in regular clothing, my mother dropped her cane and fainted in the hallway. My brother Jack and I carried Mama into the living room, putting her on the sofa and propping up her head with a pillow. “Giuseppe,” my mother whispered to me as she woke, “I think I saw your sister’s ghost, and she’s bringing me pizza and shoes.”“Mama, you aren’t seeing any ghosts,” I said. “Rosie came home for...

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“The Pains of Abnormal.” by Peace Nakiyemba

Submitted to Contest #29

‘Oh good, you are awake. It’s about time too or the boss was going to employ unkind means,’ he heard a squeaky voice say and thought he hadn’t been able to shake the bad dream he was having. He closed his eyes and thought, one more minute and I’ll wake up in my bed at home to mum’s shouting and Ella’s whining.He opened his eyes and an old face was just above him. Startled him a little but it’s had to run anywhere when you are lying down.‘Up, up, up!! We have no time to waste,’ the old man said as he walked to the wall and pushed it revealing...

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“Pain Free” by Jason Burchfield

Submitted to Contest #29

I kept a firm grip on the box cutter as I ran it down the top of my thigh. The razor blade walked through my skin with ease causing goose bumps to roll across the top of my head. I leaned back against the wall enjoying the euphoric release as blood started to work its way from the incision. It’s a short lived high but the resulting pain helps block out others.I’ve been to every kind of doctor, every kind of medication they could think to prescribe, but nothing seems to help. The pain in my head seems to be growing. I...

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“Drive In” by Christa Lee

Submitted to Contest #29

Drive In The rules were straightforward and the same every time: Cooper pays for the movie, then the next time Joe, and after that Isaac, then it rotated back around to Cooper. The person paying lets in the other guys through the back door, the one near the east parking lot. Wait until the previews start just to be safe, otherwise the assistant manager with a stick up his ass might find out and they would be banned from the theater. And most important of all, the payer picks the movie. That was incentive enough to want to pay, especial...

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“Mirror of Truth ” by Maddie Glenn

Submitted to Contest #29

The pounding knocks on the door grew vigorously louder as she sat in the dimly lit closet where her uncle had previously placed her in great haste as he staggered into the connected back room of the house. The meager, small statured girl at just six years old watched her uncle as he thrashed around the bedroom, violently tossing around items, searching for something the girl was not able to comprehend at the moment. “Uncle Jeremy?” the girl quietly questioned the frantic man. “Do you need help finding whatever you’re looking for? Is it...

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“ CONFLICT RESOLUTION ” by Vickie Culbertson

Submitted to Contest #29

My childhood was blessed to have grandparents and cousins as I grew up being an only child. Weeks ago before graduation preparations were underway for the high school graduation. Formal photographs in cap and gown were taken for the seniors, as well as casual photographs from Allendale estates once owned by millionaire Harvey Brooks. With some assistance from my mom invitations were sent out to friends and family. Unknown to me my dad and Uncle Thomas after a day of drinking, made a decision to attend the ceremony. My cousin Lynn left his ho...

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“THE OUTCAST” by Oliadia Honey F

Submitted to Contest #29

The word out cast is a scary word,that I couldn't understand the meaning and feelings around it fully until the second year at high School.My name is Nana,the story today is all about my life.it all started during second year in high school.life is nothing but ups and down,the world do not have all it's side glittering ,I never understand that saying until now.Nana is a care free girl born into the family of General Kim, Yes that my father the pride of Kim's family the pride of Korea that the little me boasting , and here comes mother the pr...

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“Ordinarily Extraordinary” by Shiloh Kiefer

Submitted to Contest #29

Benedict Meyer was an ordinary little girl. Well, mostly ordinary. She was ordinary height, ordinary weight, ordinary brown hair, ordinary hazel eyes, just ordinary Benedict. The one thing about Benedict that was unusual was the fact that she was five, but still couldn’t speak, or some would say, wouldn’t. Benedict understood everything going on around her, she knew perfectly well how to speak, she just never had the desire to do so. Benedict had never had a father, he had left when he found out her mother was pregnant. Benedict’s mot...

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“The Little Things” by Sahar Khanpour

Submitted to Contest #29

I really don’t like it, if I’m being completely honest. The way I can only sit smiling, waiting for you to explain your funny story with big gestures as the words that hurriedly escape from your mouth are muffled by your habit of biting your nails.I’m not a fan of how I look at you for a little too long sometimes, to which you exclaim ~What?As you cover your face with your hands, laughing, and I can only say ~I just want to get a good look at you. Maybe it’s how sometimes I’ll find an excuse to stop by when you’re stressed an...

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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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