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

“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...

Read story

“Reunion” by Marta Miralles

Submitted to Contest #29

We were twelve when we first met, when her widow mother sought help in our small village. Thirteen when I gave her my first gift. Fourteen when we sneaked away from our respective houses so that we could watch the men and the boys while they enjoyed a night out. We were fifteen when the witch arrived, told us that we were destined to kill each other. Destined, such a dramatic word, one that forced us to be apart. I was sixteen the last time I saw her, being carried away by a horse, her belongings in a donkey, needing no help. She lifted her ...

Read story

“Hold My Hand” by Jennifer Riley

Submitted to Contest #29

Josie was the peacemaker in her family when she was a kid. It always seemed to her that every other person in the house was dead-set on bickering at any given opportunity – her mom, her stepdad, her sisters, her half-brother and half-sister. Like it was a sport and they all wanted to get picked for the Olympic team. Josie liked quiet. She liked calm. She liked having a job in a different state, which gave her a g...

Read story

“The boy and the tiger” by Vaibhav Sharma

Submitted to Contest #29

Sunday mornings are usually quite a dull affair, especially if you are on the wrong side of 70. Now seventy-eight years old, Sunday mornings for him meant just sitting on the little balcony adjacent to his room. Since the balcony opened up only to his room, it was, for all intents and purposes, an exclusive extension of his room. That was where he spent most of his waking life these days, scrutinizing the world through his own looking glass, partially smeared by over seven decades of judgement and prejudice. But as he would’ve told you with ...

Read story

“Keys of Change” by Rachel Schott

Submitted to Contest #29

“I knew this day would come eventually. It doesn’t feel real yet,” Vivi said, gripping the small key in her hand tightly. The silver ring that held the formed copper metal felt bare without the colorful lanyard that it was usually held on. It was cold to the touch, like the wind that was chilling them on this winter evening. Vivi wasn’t one to enjoy spending time outside in this weather, but today she couldn’t bring herself to leave this spot even though her car was waiting a few feet away from...

Read story

“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...

Read story

“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...

Read story

“Forever And Always” by Sharon Felicia Acheampong

Submitted to Contest #29

OCTOBERThis was wrong. This was wrong on so many levels. This was a crime against, well nature, life, freedom, whatever. She had to stop this. Maybe it was kind of late but better late than never. Ok, she was going to do it now. Ready, set, go and she couldn't find her voice. He was smiling, he actually looked happy. Maybe, just maybe this was some sort of twisted fate. Besides, if she was really honest, it was kind of late to change anything now. The wheels had been set in motion and this train was on a roll, where it was headed only heaven...

Read story

“This could be true” by Keith Manos

Submitted to Contest #29

Keith Manos 38705 North Bay DriveWilloughby, OH 44094440-223-5394 (C) coachkm@sbcglobal.netwebsite: www.keithmanos.com This could be trueD...

Read story

“Unexpected” by Uta L.

Submitted to Contest #29

There had been many unexpected incidents happening in Sister Amara's life. For example when she, in the middle of a dark, cold winter night, stood in front of the creepy cloister everyone told her to stay away from and, with all the determination she could muster, knocked on that wooden door. It had been a terrifying night, all thunder and lightning and pouring rain. Epic enough for such a lifechangiandng decision.She had never wanted to join the convent. All her life she had been striving to discover the world. Dreaming of travelling to far...

Read story

“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...

Read story

“Anaesthesia for the Soul” by J. C. Smith

Submitted to Contest #29

It all started with boredom. This is what led him to delve into the paralysing highs that he spent the rest of his waking hours relentlessly chasing. He always caught them, consumed them, of course in reality they actually consumed him. It didn’t change anything. He was still sentenced to serve life in this prison of tedium. A side-effect of his existence and a vicious cycle that only has one inevitable and equally vicious end. It was his first true love and sometimes he thought it might be the only real one. It started how any love usu...

Read story

“Sketchy” by Meg Ro

Submitted to Contest #29

This was the kind of thing someone did in middle school. Not during her eighteen hundred dollar college literature course that resembled something closer to a stereotypical high school freshman English class. “I’m pathetic,” Ella mumbled voicelessly, shaking her head as she looked up toward the front of the lecture hall. Her professor moved through the rows of desks, a ragged worn copy of Romeo and Juliet clutched tightly between her fingers as she recited the section they were supposed to be analyzing. Ella wasn’t sure how ma...

Read story

“Stronger By The Day” by Amelia F

Submitted to Contest #29

Day 1: I have never believed in love. The concept is just hard to grasp. Having someone be “yours” and in the end, you will always get hurt. Even in all the so-called good romance movies someone always gets hurt even if they end up together. It will never work out. It’s simply just a word.Day 2: I walk around the halls and see all the couples of which are so-called in love but I don’t believe that. Where in high school. The brain isn’t even done developing so how do we even know our preferences. I walked into class to see a new boy. He is ha...

Read story

“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...

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 ⭢