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

“Montreal” by Ann Layne

Submitted to Contest #85

Montreal is a city like no other. I was born and raised there. The winters were long and dreadful. I remember going skating and almost getting frost bite on my toes. I had to warm my feet by the furnace. The snow capped mountains made by the snow plows were great for tobogganing. But the months of January and February are bitter cold. Montreal is in the province of Quebec in Canada. Quebec being the only french speaking province in Canada. But don’t let ...

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“An ode to Dilli” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #85

Aarti decided to take the Rajdhani to Delhi after years instead of flying down. She looked out of the window and recognized stations whizzing past whose names she once knew by heart – Ghaziabad, Shahdara. When the train crossed Minto Bridge, she knew they were going to arrive at New Delhi junction within a few minutes confirmed by the excited cries of “Dilli aa gaya [We have arrived in Delhi]’ from co-passengers. Strains of a familiar language, glimpses of familiar people told her she had come home. But the rates the port...

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“The New Old Fashioned Way” by Philip L.

Submitted to Contest #85

From the manipulative and misleading billboard advertisements, to the loud Italian shopkeepers yelling across the street, to the honking serenade of the taxi cabs echoing down the smoggy street, New York City has remained a unique, yet relatable home base that I have resided in for my short 14 year-old life. Truly one of a kind. I can still foggily recall my first memory of the city. My aunt had her cold fingers grasping the back of my neck, as we strolled out of Monticello's Bakery and Pastries, with bags of highly-caloric and greasy baked ...

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“The Place I Call Home” by Sonja V.

Submitted to Contest #85

The fresh breeze blew through my hair as I strode down Fifth Avenue. The air was stuffy as usual, and the traffic busier than ever. Cars rode too close to the sidewalk while horns blared their upsetting signals. People shoved their way around one another, yelling out and screaming as shoes got stepped on and things got thrown on the ground. Abandoned cats and dogs littered the streets along with the occasional homeless person, always holding up the cardboard sign asking for money. I ran into some a few times who kept follo...

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“Love In The Time Of COVID: A tale of obsession ” by Julia Abelsohn

Submitted to Contest #85

It was during the time of COVID and the world had turned upside down. He used to love this city but now it just seemed like a massive petri dish breeding the virus and spewing it out through the hot air vents and percolating it inside lungs hidden from view. So many offices were dark and abandoned now, their polished lobby floors the delight of the cleaners that could admire their handiwork without the mobs of boots splashing their trails of salty, grimy snow across them The streets were also mostly empty and there was nowhere to hide...

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“Alone in Bencap” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #85

My alien girlfriend and I lay side by side on a giant Victoria Water Lily thing in an indoor lake, staring up at the starry night sky. "What do you think of Bencap?" she asked. I thought about it, but couldn't quite come up with an answer. Bencap was the kind of city I'd always dreamed of visiting ever since I was a kid watching Star Wars, but not everything was that fun. To make a long story short, I'm an engineer who used to live in a little town called Cole Camp. An alien spaceship crash landed in the woods a few mile...

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“The City's Last Chance” by Alice Claude

Submitted to Contest #85

Another Manhattan. Rye poured into the cocktail glass. Somehow, it seemed to be trickling in slow motion, like honey. She couldn’t get herself to focus on anything else, so her eyes followed the crimson stream, catlike, until they reached the barman’s rough hand. They flitted to his face, and the barman surveyed her dubiously. Her deep brown eyes were round and lingered hauntingly at every area they encountered. Heavily applied makeup gathered under her weighed down lashes, wit...

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“Brotherly Love” by Eva Parker

Submitted to Contest #85

I sighed before stepping off the train. It was official. I was all the way back here though it was a good thing this would be my last time. I glanced around at the platform. It was almost empty with the occasional person scattered here and there. I shoved my hands back in my pockets and started on my way. People didn't care enough to notice me, so I didn't care enough to notice them. I kept my head down and moved with pace. It was only slightly different than last time. The air seemed thicker and the buildings sometimes taller. Maybe that's...

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“Seeking Refuge” by Megan Maclaine

Submitted to Contest #85

The city would be her refuge. It was a big one, with plenty of hiding places. North of Buffalo, south of nowhere. Always posing as New York or Boston. Or a small town in Illinois. She flew there with her spark, giving him the window seat, to seek refuge from the same-old, same-old. The constant, burning heat at family picnics. The old trees that always dripped moss onto her grandmother’s rocking chair and her forest-green house that never saw snow. She’d see snow in the city. The plane touched down when fall was tr...

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“Changed” by Ryn Mayhem

Submitted to Contest #85

Content warning: sexual content “For a good time call 898-LUNA.” My phone number. I read this as my flat ass pressed against the icy toilet seat. I felt some wetness under a thigh. Piss? I looked at the tops of my thighs and watched goosebumps and short brown hairs rise from my pale skin. Who would have written my phone number on a bathroom stall wall? I guess it could have been anyone. I reveled in the fact that my phone number ended in the spelling of my first name. 898-Luna. So easy for them to remember. Any of them. Girls, bo...

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“Halfway from Home, Halfway to the Stars” by Jessica Hansen

Submitted to Contest #85

The spire stretched up into the clouds and it was the only place the city did not whisper to her. She never knew whether it spoke to everyone, or if she had somehow been chosen for this, to hear its hissing voice in the breeze and feel its heartbeat through the cobbles, had never thought to ask. It was normal to her, to hear the voice of the city along with everyone else's, and she was only a little scared of what it might have meant if it was only her that did. Most days, she chose not to think about it. When she was six years old and...

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“A Funeral in Paris” by Ruth Smith

Submitted to Contest #85

Charles got off the plane and walked slowly through the Jetway to the terminal. There he was directed to customs. He stood in line patiently as the customs officers questioned, checked, and approved each visitor. When it was Charles's turn, he handed the man behind the counter his passport and waited.“What is the purpose of your trip?” the kind young man asked in English with a slight French accent.Charles sighed deeply. “To bury my wife,” he replied.The customs official looked up from the paperwork. “I am sorry for your loss,” he said respe...

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“Sunday Morning Sydney” by Virginia Smith

Submitted to Contest #85

We moved as far away from the city as you can move without actually leaving. An hour’s drive at 2am on a Sunday, at least two hours of peak hour commute. 75 kilometres of get-me-out-of-here to our little acre of green. Where we feel the sun, we see the stars and the milky way, we hear the rain coming across the valley. If someone drives down the road we think “who’s that?”. Ducklings cross like crazy city pedestrians. Start, hesitate, get distracted, run. We chat to the neighbour’s cows, disinterestedly munching down by the back fence. At ni...

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“Culture Shift” by All The World’s A Stage

Submitted to Contest #85

Harry looked out his bedroom window to watch the sunrise. However, the sunrise was being significantly blocked by the Bangkok skyline. Harry let out an exasperated sigh and turned his gaze down to the street three stories below his apartment. Down below, the streets were busy even though they were tucked away several blocks from any of the main highways. Everyday, Harry could spot numerous motorbikes, street vendors with carts selling various food and coffee, and students walking by with backpacks in tow. The sights seen here tended to be qu...

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“To Believe in Yourself Is to Fly” by Alexandra Stone

Submitted to Contest #85

'Excited' didn't quite describe it. Harlyn was absolutely thrilled to be starting her new life in the new city that had just recently been discovered! She heard from the news that this new city lets you have the ability to switch gravity on and off, but only for you! Of course, new island, countries and cities emerge every day, but none of them sounded quite as intriguing as Antapolis. When the plane began to transcend down to the little blob of land, Harlyn was tempted to try and switch the gravity off, but the pilot had strictly advised t...

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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

“Montreal” by Ann Layne

“An ode to Dilli” by Book Worm

“The New Old Fashioned Way” by Philip L.

“The Place I Call Home” by Sonja V.

“Love In The Time Of COVID: A tale of obsession ” by Julia Abelsohn

“Alone in Bencap” by Chris Wagner

“The City's Last Chance” by Alice Claude

“Brotherly Love” by Eva Parker

“Seeking Refuge” by Megan Maclaine

“Changed” by Ryn Mayhem

“Halfway from Home, Halfway to the Stars” by Jessica Hansen

“A Funeral in Paris” by Ruth Smith

“Sunday Morning Sydney” by Virginia Smith

“Culture Shift” by All The World’s A Stage

“To Believe in Yourself Is to Fly” by Alexandra Stone

🌟 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: