Set your story in a major city that your character has a love-hate relationship with.

Posted in Middle School on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 153 stories

“Two Worlds” by Nolan Pieper

Submitted to Contest #85

The Golden City; on the final frontier of the west; where the land kisses the great expanse of the Pacific. Blanketed in shrouds of fog that creep up on this city’s skyline from the depths of the bay. With a totem of an almost luminescent, red, suspension bridge the city erupts from the fog, awakening its bustling inhabitants; this is San Francisco. San Francisco, this urban kingdom, is fortified behind walls of skyscrapers and surrounded by its aptly named body of water. Cities are symbolic of fresh starts, careers, innovation, and jubila...

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“Even the Trolleys are Transplants” by Ash McD

Submitted to Contest #85

Everyone had told her that San Francisco was one of the greatest cities in the world: The temperature was always perfect—not too hot, not too cold; it was a haven for the LGBTQ+ community; it was full of big tech and big dreams. So she moved across the country, sight unseen, to this land of moderate weather and equality and prosperity, because her boyfriend had gotten a job at Google with a six-figure salary, and you couldn’t refuse a job at Google when you were from nowhere. She should have Googled more about how everyone hated the Google...

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“All For It” by Christine Hungerford

Submitted to Contest #85

You are going to think I’m crazy, but I’m thinking to myself. In other words, if you were to read my mind, it’d go like this: My name is Knick-Knack. I live for Japan’s fresh, new scent of cherry blossoms and walks around Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden—ever since my missionary parents announced we were moving to Tokyo. But I can’t stand its lights, people, traffic and honking cars. It’s just so much. So much like my parents. Who pressure me to succeed. That’s why I glare at others when I walk down the crazy-busy...

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“flowers in the city” by Busi Nkosi

Submitted to Contest #85

When the sun hit the right side of the headboard, Stephanie woke up feeling different, it would be normal if she woke up in her own bed as this is how she woke up every day, optimistic, in her apartment, with flowers on her window seal and the sun that shines bright right to her rose gold bedroom décor. But today is another type of optimistic, the cautious kind; hoping for the best, expecting the worst in the not-so-new environment she once called home. Dark walls and a heater just above the window that covered the first glimpse of ...

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“The Observer” by Claire Lazarus

Submitted to Contest #85

TW: Harassment I sit back against the cold seat on the Subway, The seat is always freezing but I never remember to bring an extra jacket to drape over it. It’s a Saturday and luckily I don’t have work so I have the whole day to myself. My music is loud in my ears but not loud enough because I can hear two guys across me snickering as they look me up and down. My stomach churns all of the sudden and I bring my legs to my chest. I pull my phone out of my pocket and scroll aimlessly through Instagram, trying to pass the time. The guys laugh eve...

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“The City is Home, but Escape is the Dream” by Kristian DeJesus

Submitted to Contest #85

The townhomes and ground of her big little world rumbled as she turned the corner towards the subway station. For a moment her heart sank in both the immensity of the artificial earthquake, as well as the anxious terror of possibly missing the train. She attempted to peer around the corner of the overhead railway, but could not tell from which direction the transport was coming or going. In her scrubs with a grandchild by each side, they ensued a charge like soldiers entering battle, hopping over small, ancient sidewalk craters which ...

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“Relationship with The Queen City: Complicated” by Zuri Davenport

Submitted to Contest #85

Clouds lift me higher into the sky. Wisps of soft fluff wrap my body in cool comfort. The slow ascent into the ethers above proves a slight wind that is like a balm alongside the unimaginable warmth of my personal cloud transport. Just as I break above the top of the clouds and begin to see the stratosphere, a bird, stark dark against the white bulbous landscape stretching beyond me. The bird lands sharp at the top of my cloud pillow. And begins to squawk. Incessantly. And before I blink, I am tumbling out of my very real heaven hurtling qui...

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“The city by the ocean” by Lunny Muffin

Submitted to Contest #85

The cramped airport buzzed with tourists from all over the world. A wave of chit chat and voices mixed with laughter echoed around me. The airport police smiling awkwardly as they faced incoming flows of passengers from the terminal gates. “Terminal One”, the letters a vivid bold with black paint hanged from the wall above. And behind the glass doors millions of big stickers populated the aluminum windows with a caption “Wings of Kilimanjaro”. The confusion seems orderly with families and isolated passengers rushing to the luggage cl...

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“The City Beautiful” by Alexander Erwin

Submitted to Contest #85

Having lived in Orlando since it was built, I figured it was finally time to check it out. I came out after work which meant that I made it just as the sun was starting to set. While I was hoping for a quick in-and-out operation to check it out, my regrets have grown as I have dealt with a two-hour-long line for a twenty-minute experience. Regardless, it is finally my turn and I plan to enjoy a bird’s eye of view of the city known as “The City Beautiful”. As I sit, I slide my small bookbag off my shoulders and place it on the bench seat ne...

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“Facade” by Odile Alexis Pal

Submitted to Contest #85

I onced live in a countryside two years ago.I remembered how excited I was to live in a big city where you can meet new people like it is a natural occurrence.I was happily greeting everyone around me while they just pass by without care...What?Maybe they didn't notice me?Thats what I thought.Manila ah~this is heaven!Big Malls,luxurious hotels,expensive restaurants.The first thing I did was indulge myself of the things a countryside girl like me has never never once experienced before.I bought many new clothes and ate many wonderful desser...

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“Face-Off in the Big City” by Saipriya Viswanathan

Submitted to Contest #85

It was an icy cold January morn in New York. Janet Mullaway felt chilled to the bone as she walked down from her hostel room to the main gate of the New York University campus. A brilliant mind, she was presently working on her research thesis on environmental sciences at the University. The cold winds seemed to cut through her. Shivering, she pulled her windcheater closer and covered her ears more snugly with her hoodie. Morosely, she thought that the weather today was much like her own mood – dreary, dull and grey, with no hint of sunsh...

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“When it Turns to Dust” by Angel Mae Saballa

Submitted to Contest #85

I'm Nol born in the Province of Cebu. At the age of fourteen I started to make my own living. Life in the mountain area is very difficult and there's no day or night that I strive hard for me to survive. At the age of twenty, I decided to take a risk and went to Manila City in Luzon, Philippines. I started from scratch again, finding job wasn't that easy at all especially I didn't even finish my highschool. Renting a small room is difficult, I only have small amount of money that is good for only less than two weeks. I hated myself for being...

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“Crying on a stoop in stuyvesant.” by Chelsea Hood

Submitted to Contest #85

Sometimes, the only vindication for this train is that it rides through the sunset so damn well. Hi, my name is Clarita. I grew up in New York City. I found my way into the world via my mother, in a Brooklyn basement. She was a postal worker for 30 years. She's seen the most of the least, and the least of the most. Me? I've been crying on a stoop in Stuyvesant for every night of sacrifice, for those lives who aren't even mine. that's the thing about New York. our tears are never our own. They roll out of us, often in silence, into the ...

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“Children of the White Flyers” by Trophy Wife

Submitted to Contest #85

We were the children of the white flyers. There is no doubt in my mind about it now. I’ve seen the maps, and I know the people, and I remember the conversations. In our weird little corner of suburban Philadelphia, the neighbors were mostly mixed Irish and Italian, then mostly Greek, and then everything else from Egyptian to Czech to Japanese. But the one thing they were not, was Black. I got asked all the time ‘what are you?’ and felt obligated to ask the question back, but never understood the meaning behind the question, or cared what the...

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“Love in a City” by Janet Joos

Submitted to Contest #85

What is there about a city you cannot wait until you’re there and only after a few days you cannot wait to leave? Tell me you’ve never felt this way. Sorry, but I just do not believe you. A love-hate relationship tends to be a one-one common denominator. You just have to ask yourself why this is so? Like many others in this global world, I grew up in a grand city; my city is famed for its automobile industry, commonly known as Motor City: Ford and General Motors with Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac; and it’s also the home start of ...

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Set your story in a major city that your character has a love-hate relationship with.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 153 stories

“Two Worlds” by Nolan Pieper

“Even the Trolleys are Transplants” by Ash McD

“All For It” by Christine Hungerford

“flowers in the city” by Busi Nkosi

“The Observer” by Claire Lazarus

“The City is Home, but Escape is the Dream” by Kristian DeJesus

“Relationship with The Queen City: Complicated” by Zuri Davenport

“The city by the ocean” by Lunny Muffin

“The City Beautiful” by Alexander Erwin

“Facade” by Odile Alexis Pal

“Face-Off in the Big City” by Saipriya Viswanathan

“When it Turns to Dust” by Angel Mae Saballa

“Crying on a stoop in stuyvesant.” by Chelsea Hood

“Children of the White Flyers” by Trophy Wife

“Love in a City” by Janet Joos

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that takes place in the same building but in two very different time periods.

Start your story with the line, “That’s the thing about this city…”

Write about someone fighting to change their city neighborhood for the better.

Write about someone fighting to keep their city neighborhood the same.

Contest #85

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

671

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: