The Teen and the Rogue Robot
Describe a world where every teen is assigned a robot companion on their 16th birthday. The protagonist eagerly awaits their own robot but is shocked when the robot they receive appears to have its own agenda. Delve into how this unconventional pairing navigates life while uncovering the darker side of their utopian society.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Make the adults well-meaning but wrong.
- Use the way your hero texts to show who they are.
- Write in close first person, as if it's happening right now.
Writing young adult books
Ages 12 to 18: firsts, identity and everything at stake.
Young adult fiction is written for teens, with protagonists usually 14 to 18. Every genre lives here, from fantasy to thrillers to romance. What makes it YA is the voice: immediate, intense and inside a teenager's head.
What readers expect
- A teen protagonist
- An immediate, close voice
- Identity and independence
- Big feelings, taken seriously
A tip before you start
Write from inside a teen's head, not from an adult looking back. That immediacy is what separates YA from an adult book with a young hero.
More Teen and YA prompts
- The Power to MendImagine a world where every teen gets a magical power on their sixteenth birthday. However, the main character gets a power they initially see as…
- The Book That Makes ThingsWrite about a group of friends who find a mysterious, old book in their school library that allows them to write things into existence. They start…
- Messages in the School LockerWrite a story about a teen who starts receiving anonymous, cryptic messages in their locker. As they try to figure out who is sending them and why…
- The Talent Show TransformationCreate a tale set in a high school where the students are descendants of mythical creatures, hiding in plain sight. The main character, unaware of…
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