The Teen Who Held the Planets
Every 300 years, the celestial dance of the planets grants extraordinary powers to a single, unsuspecting teenager on Earth. This time, it’s a seventeen-year-old girl who’s more concerned about her band’s next gig than the fate of the cosmos. But when creatures from another dimension start popping up in her town, she needs to master her new abilities quickly or see her world turned into chaos.
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 YA Fantasy and Adventure prompts
- The Path Through the FogIn a kingdom cursed to be forever obscure beneath fog, a young adventurer stumbles upon a forgotten path that promises to lead them to the Sun…
- The Outsider's Royal TrialEvery generation, a competition is held in a fantastical realm where the youth compete to become the next ruler. This time, a young outsider with no…
- The Forest's Chosen GuardianEvery century, the enchanted forest chooses one human to serve as its protector. This time, a reluctant teenager from a small farming village is…
- The Windbound AcademyImagine a hidden academy located on a floating island, accessible only by those who can control the wind. A young apprentice struggles to master this…
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