Writing Prompt: When I opened the door...

When I opened the door, I could hardly believe what I saw.

That's your writing prompt for this round. Same ol' drill - Think of this as the opening line of a novel. Your job is to write the next 100 words as if they're the opening paragraph. It's not a short story, it's the next 100 words. And the prompt sentence never counts toward your word count.

After you've written your 100 words, please e-mail them to me either by clicking here or e-mailing me directly at: Stephanie(at)GoTeenWriters.com. (No attachments, please!) Make sure to include your full name and e-mail address. Send me your prompt by Monday, April 18th at 11:59 pm Kansas City time.

I always send confirmations when I receive your entry. If you don't receive one within 24 hours or so, please check back with me.

This contest is for those ages 25 and under. One entry per person, please. For a longer explanation, prize information, and a list of answered questions, click here.

AN UPDATE TO HOW PROMPT CONTESTS ARE JUDGED. All the judges on here are published writers who are taking time out of their hectic schedules to read your entries. They do it because they want to encourage the next generation of writers. I recruited all of them before the first contest ever took place, so I really wasn't sure how many submissions to expect. Because we're receiving way more entries that I predicted, the process is evolving. There will now be two stages in the judging process. One judge will pick what they feel are the top 20 entries. The other judges will pick their first, second, and third choices from those. By making this change, we'll be able to keep the high caliber of judges here on Go Teen Writers, and it makes it easier for me to keep recruiting quality judges. If you have questions about the change, please shoot me an email.

This round's judges are:

Jenny B. Jones

Jenny writes Christian Fiction with equal parts wit, sass, and untamed hilarity. When she's not writing, she's living it up as a high school teacher in Arkansas. Since she has very little free time, she believes in spending her spare hours in meaningful, intellectual pursuits such as watching E!, going to the movies and inhaling large buckets of popcorn, and writing her name in the dust on her furniture. She is the author of Just Between You and Me, and the Charmed Life and Katie Parker series for young adults.

Melanie Dickerson

Melanie Dickerson is an award-winning author who earned her bachelor’s degree in special education from The University of Alabama. She has taught in Georgia, Tennessee, Germany and the Eastern European country of Ukraine. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Romance Writers of America (RWA), she now spends her time writing and taking care of her husband and two daughters near Huntsville, Alabama.

Rosemarie DiCristo

Rosemarie DiCristo writes fiction for children and teens and is currently working on a girls' mystery novel. She's had short stories and recipes published in magazines like Pockets, Encounter, Shine Brightly, and Brio.