Writing Prompt Contest: If I'd learned anything...

We're mixing things up a bit this round. Traditionally with the writing prompt contests on Go Teen Writers, I supply you with the first sentence, and you write the next 100 words. It was suggested to me that one time we try it where the prompt sentence was instead the last sentence in your entry.


One of the reasons I really like this suggestion is it's going to exercise different creative muscles. Previously judges might have said to you something like, "Nice hook!" or "Work on your hook." This time the hook sentence has been written for you, and you'll be working on starting off with a bang, with drawing your reader in from that first sentence.


Here's the sentence your entry must conclude with: The chances of this ending well, I realized, were not good.


The first 100 words are yours to do with as you wish. (As a reminder, it doesn't have to be exactly 100 words, that's just the limit.) But your entry must conclude with the above sentence. (Which was insanely tough to come up with. I wanted to be as genre inclusive as possible, plus I wanted it to suggest that there was a big story left to be told. Hooks are tricky when you have no story!)


All other stuff is the same. You're writing this like it's the opening of a novel, which means your goal is to lure the reader into the storyworld. Successful prompts, I've noticed, give us a taste of who the main character is, where we are, and the immediate problem that needs solving.


You must be 25 or under to enter. One entry per person per round. Send your 100 words - along with your name and email address - to me by clicking here. Or you can email them to me at Stephanie(at)GoTeenWriters(dot)com. I always send confirmation emails, so if I don't verify receiving your entry within 48 hours, please check with me.


A couple of you have requested more time to work on your entries, so we'll give that a try this round too. Have your entries in to me by Wednesday, October 5th at 11:59pm, Kansas City time.


If you want even more details about Go Teen Writer's prompts, you can find them by clicking here.


Here are our wonderful judges this round:

Erica Vetsch


Even though Erica Vetsch has set aside her career teaching history to high school students in order to homeschool her own children, her love of history hasn't faded. Erica's favorite books are historical novels and history books, and one of her greatest thrills is stumbling across some obscure historical factoid that makes her imagination leap. She’s continually amazed at how God has allowed her to use her passion for history, romance, and daydreaming to craft historical romances that entertain readers and glorify Him. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, Erica is the company bookkeeper for her family’s lumber business, a mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and yet her soul mate, and an avid museum patron.






Roseanna White


Roseanna M. White, author of two Biblical love stories and LOVE FINDS YOU IN ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND (December 2011) makes her home in the mountains of Western Maryland with her husband, two small children, and the colony of dust bunnies living under her couch. After graduating from St. John's College in Annapolis, MD, she and her husband founded the Christian Review of Books, where she is the editor. She is a member of ACFW, HisWriters, Biblical Fiction Writers, and HEWN Marketing.

Tiffany Rott


Tiffany Rott is enjoying her first winter “Down Under” in Christchurch, New Zealand.  She first discovered writing in a college scriptwriting class.  Since then she has written, performed and directed over 20 scripts.  From there she moved on to writing book reviews for her church’s newsletter.  Novel writing began during her first National Novel Writing Month.  So now her life if full of various writings and she is enjoying every minute of it.  When not writing, she loves ice skating and is working towards completing her first assessment soon.