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

“A Day in Chicago” by Chelsie Hermsen

Submitted to Contest #85

It's four AM. Most people are sleeping, but I'm not. I'm just hitting my stride. Some people call me a vampire because I like to stay up at night. I like the solitude the night brings me. I feed off it. I like looking out my window and seeing the pretty lights of downtown. I love the city because it has pretty lights at night that my small little town of 1,200 that I grew up in did not have. At 4:30, ...

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“I wish.. (A Memoir)” by Alina Powers

Submitted to Contest #85

As the double doors of the train stretched open, I stepped down the passenger car with purple bag dangling heavy over my shoulders. The bag that he gave me as a parting gift and assumed it would easily replace his presence! Funny, it in-turn acts as a constant reminder of what I had, once up on a time, when I was with him. I was finally back in my city, the beautiful San Diego, mecca of my heart, home to a zillion beautiful memories. I love and hate this city for the same reasons now ! I stepped out of the station waiting for my Uber to pick...

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“Inverted Relationship” by Shail Kumari

Submitted to Contest #85

Steven Watson was a boy in his early childhood and lived with his grandmother Amma Watson in Los Angeles . Steven was a happy natured boy and had a very beautiful life. Steven and Amma Loved each other so much and were more like best friendsrather than being a grandma & grandson . They played together, ate together , slept together and were enjoying their life . Amma was a librarian in the same school where steven used to study . Steven was a fun loving boy and had many friends in his primary school . Amma used to get up early in the mor...

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“Spring of Deception” by Jessica Freeman

Submitted to Contest #85

The sun was pouring through the cracks in my blinds as the view of my entire room came into focus. I could hear the birds for the first time in a long time singing their morning songs back and forth to one another. It was the start of my most relaxing weekend yet as the weather forecast showed sunny and 45. I had made so many plans to get outside and enjoy the sunshine that had been hiding for the past five months. I could almost feel my skin crawling towards the warmth of the morning sun as I revealed my face to the bright blue sky. There w...

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“Ruby Slippers” by Ali Anthony Bell

Submitted to Contest #85

It was St. Patrick’s Day, so Alexander Blackwell headed out to Shannon Pub, just a 10-minute walk from his studio at 84 Boulvard Raspail in the 6th District. Of course, there was green beer, but Alex didn’t go for it, he took a stool and ordered a Bushmills Irish whiskey instead. He was already dressed for the occasion, with the black suit, white shirt, emerald green silk tie and matching pocket square he had worn to work. Even if it was a Monday, St. Patrick’s wasn’t to be missed.Sitting nearby, Yacout Benazziza, a 24-year-old law student w...

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“Anonymous” by Anne McSommers

Submitted to Contest #85

I hate the city. I am alone here, and nobody knows who I am, no one cares. I could disappear and no one would notice. It’s the first place I have ever lived that I am afraid to walk around at night. In winter, when the days run short, I am forced to run straight home to avoid being caught out after dark. When I do finally get home, I always lock the door immediately. Even then check it about 15 times before I go to bed. I even check the balcony door a few times, because even though I live on the 4th floor, you hea...

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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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“Scavengers” by Erin Edwards

Submitted to Contest #85

It was almost laughable how quickly I had gotten used to waking up in a five star bed, with five star duvet and five star pillows and Hattie curled up at my feet like a cat. I stretched out, revelling in the high thread count for all of ten seconds before I realised something was wrong. There was no child-sized lump where my feet wanted to be, forcing me to bend my legs at angles they weren’t intended to form. I sat bolt upright, shoving off the duvet and looking around the bedroom. Hattie wasn’t anywhere ...

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“Learning to love the city” by Rain Fall

Submitted to Contest #85

I was gritting my teeth in silent fury when my mom announced that it’s already final to move to another city that’s unfamiliar to me. My mom and my dad failed their business so they relocated to another city that’s not really a busy city to have a new start for their business and they also wanted me to study there. We’ll I hate it cause I would definitely miss my homeland, my friends and also the happiness this city makes me feel. My family is rushing to fold the clothes and put it in the baggage. “Thyla...

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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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“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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“I got lost in a daydream of silence and peace.” by Leen Qasim

Submitted to Contest #85

Paris. who does not love Paris? right? well, I'm not saying that I hate it, but I'm saying that living in Paris is not the same as just admiring it from afar. I remember when the teacher asked the class once what their dream house would be like, and the majority said they want a grand mansion with a big backyard full of flowers and strawberry plants and live the best life they can get while cooking in their fancy white kitchen inside and their kids would be playing outside waiting for their father to come home. I mean...it is cute. really. B...

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

Submissions are closed

✍️ 153 stories

“A Day in Chicago” by Chelsie Hermsen

“I wish.. (A Memoir)” by Alina Powers

“Inverted Relationship” by Shail Kumari

“Spring of Deception” by Jessica Freeman

“Ruby Slippers” by Ali Anthony Bell

“Anonymous” by Anne McSommers

“flowers in the city” by Busi Nkosi

“Scavengers” by Erin Edwards

“Learning to love the city” by Rain Fall

“The Observer” by Claire Lazarus

“All For It” by Christine Hungerford

“I got lost in a daydream of silence and peace.” by Leen Qasim

“The city by the ocean” by Lunny Muffin

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

“Even the Trolleys are Transplants” by Ash McD

🌟 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: