The Summer Pact
Write about a summer that changes everything for a group of friends. After establishing a pact to try new things, they each discover new passions and hidden talents. However, their individual transformations begin to test their friendship, forcing them to confront what it truly means to grow up and apart.
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 Friendship and Relationship prompts
- The Lighthouse DiaryIn a small coastal town, a group of teens discovers an abandoned lighthouse and decides to turn it into their secret hangout. Little do they know, the…
- The Viral Secret BlogCreate a tale about a teen who starts a blog under a pseudonym to vent about life's frustrations and dreams. The blog goes viral, leading to…
- The Ancestral Scavenger HuntEvery year, your school hosts a legendary scavenger hunt with clues leading all over town. This year, you and your team discover that each clue not…
- The Letter in the Old BookWrite a story where the main character discovers an old, handwritten letter in a secondhand book. The letter reveals a secret that connects the…
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