Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a character obsessed with one of the long-dead “greats” in their profession.

Posted in Adults on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 24 stories

“Cimmaron Creek” by Samuel Blue

Submitted to Contest #26

“Cut, cut Goddamn it cut!” yelled the director. “Come on, Ben, this is the eighth time we’ve tried to get this scene right and you still haven’t got your lines correct. Enough for today. Let’s shut it down and regroup in the morning. Ben, for God’s sake, know your lines tomorrow.” Ben Fielding has heard the word “cut” too many times this week. Even though he had appeared in over 35 western films in the last 25 years, he was feeling that his age and his drinking was finally taking its toll. Cimmaron Creek was probably going to be his last fil...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Codebreak-her by Linda Herskovic” by Linda Herskovic

Submitted to Contest #26

Rachel was standing at Doug’s computer showing him their version of a coding system. Doug was new to the company.“Sorry. I’m not used to all these characters being used,” Doug said. “At Richter, we only used only about five at a time.”“Well, forget everything you know. Well, not everything obviously,” she said with a little giggle.Doug looked up at Rachel. She had an awesome smile when she wasn’t serious, when her face relaxed. And her hair was so thick and shiny. The ends were touching his arm ever so slightly as she leaned into the screen....

9 comments 9
Read story

“The Mind of a Master” by Chris Sharrock

Submitted to Contest #26

Could you imagine living in a world without colors? It would be like eating food without any flavor: sure, you can get by on it, but why would you want to? It’s a bland, boring, purposeless existence, suitable for animals but not for humans. Humans need something more. Humans need spice in their lives.That, my friend, is why we turn to art!Before I found art, my life was utterly unbearable. I was an animal in human form, seeing in monochrome and eating grass; no point to any of it except prolonging my meaningless existenc...

13 comments 13
Read story

“Listening to Ghosts” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #26

1Jed Blancher, now there was a good paranormal investigator. Rumour had it, he could talk with the deceased without need for a planchette or Ouija or anything. Now, of course, there are those that would poo-poo Jed’s abilities and skills, and say that he was naught but a conman, swindling heartbroken souls of their hard-earned cash.But I know better.Jed was a true medium, able to reach the other side. Few people are gifted with such an ability, and even fewer learn to hone their natural skills. I myself also belong to this prestigious group,...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The New Revolution” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #26

50,000 voices rising every time he’d sing,And every word he ever wrote reflecting back to him,Still believing that old lie, the one that your own face betraysRockstars don’t ever die; they only fade away -Sting, “50,000” from 57th and 9th.  Those were the scenes Dara imagined every time he practiced on his great-grandfather’s Les Paul Epiphone Special. The chorus of thousands that sang along to the greatest songs ever. The arenas that waved, jumped, and danced to solos. The cheering and applauding noises that rang at the conclusion of a...

1 comment 1
Read story

“The Successor” by Arthur Tiberio

Submitted to Contest #26

In the stark, forgotten reaches of the heavens, shrouded in wisps of clouds and errant dreams, the arrow of Fate draws slyly along a string of captured stars. Below him is a sea of blooming consequence, the colors both blinding and serene as a billion futures cry out to be born, and his breath stains the wind with a fragment of his purpose.His mark is set. The string is released. The bow, creaking, sings out to the sleeping air . . .And the shot goes wide. Fate pauses, and frowns. Below, the woman who history has chosen to lead the new Kingd...

1 comment 1
Read story

“He wasn't just an Elvis Impersonator.” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #26

He Wasn’t Just an Elvis Impersonator . He wasn’t just an Elvis impersonator. In Edward’s mind, he was THE Elvis impersonator, or at least was going to be. It has all started when he was 13 years old. He was extremely bored one Sunday afternoon, so he decided to watch a movie on the old movie channel. He wasn’t a fan of new movies. In part this was because he didn’t like video games. This isolated him socially from most of the other boys in his class. Generally he was socially isolated, from boys and girls his ag...

0 comments 0
Read story

“One Night Only” by Gina Burke

Submitted to Contest #26

“Are you ready, boss? Fifteen minutes until we open.” The anxious voice in the doorway of my office did nothing to calm my nerves. I’ve got to learn to close my door. “I’m ready, Zeke. Are you?” “Oh yeah, boss, am I ever. The guys are more than eager to perform, and the crowd has been getting bigger since before 5:00. They’re starting to curve around the block. I hope we have enough food. I hope we don’t run out of ice!” “Zeke, take a deep breath. It’s going to be fine. Make yourself useful and go check on the club one more time.” “Alright, ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Piano Man” by Lauren Ford

Submitted to Contest #26

“Piano means quiet in musical terms, did you know that?” Maggie tells me. Her usual sparkling emerald eyes have dulled to a murky myrtle tone in the dimmer lighting of the bar we sit in. Good. Less temptation that way.“I didn’t know that,” I admit. How did I not know that?I made a mental note to fact check this before the story went to print.“So Maggie, uh, I guess we should start at the beginning. What’s your relationship to Ernest?”Her eyes dipped towards the voice recorder, sitting obtrusively in the middle of the heavily lacquered m...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Fine Beyond Fine” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #26

Christa Kingdom was the younger child and only daughter of a family doctor, who was generally known as Dr Frank, to distinguish him from his father, Dr Kingdom, who was now semi-retired, and a computer programmer called Emma. She and her brother Darren had a happy childhood, with holidays by the sea, shelves overflowing with books, their grandmother’s exquisite chocolate cake, and often the sound of lovely music . Frank and Emma had good, and varied taste in music, and had every intention that Christa and Darren should grow up that...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Almost Hitchcock” by Mike Garrigan

Submitted to Contest #26

A few decades ago, I did something that I’ve never told anyone. I broke into a Blockbuster Video store. In the small hours of that mid-January morning, the unseasonable Carolina warmth painted a shimmer on the roads, like it had just rained. North Carolina is like that. I stepped from my Honda CRX, which I had parked in plain view in the strip mall parking lot, grabbed my backpack of VHS tapes, and walked around to the back of the store, past the Kroger and the Little Caesar’s pizza. The cartoon “Pizza, Pizza” guy gave me a thumbs up fr...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Greatest Since Orpheus” by Ian Wilson

Submitted to Contest #26

I strummed a single chord. “No,” I said to myself. I strummed another chord. “That’s more like it.” I began to play around that chord, strumming and picking various notes until a song started to evolve. But it was garbage. I put the lyre down with a thud. “Don’t you have better things to do with your time?” said Paris. My brother had apparently just come back from hunting. He smelled like dirt.  “You’re a prince of Troy,” he continued, “there’s no reason for you to be a musician, like some common vagabond.” “But I’m not going to inherit...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Billy's lemonade stand” by Layla Wright

Submitted to Contest #26

I’ve always wanted to open a lemonade stand. My Ma’ says I’d get sick of it after sitting outside for two minutes but I don’t think she’s giving me enough credit. Finally in the middle of my summer break she helps me decorate a cardboard box and make a pitcher of lemonade.  “Why do you want to open a lemonade stand so bad?” She asks me, as if the reason isn’t obvious. “Because Billy is dead and can’t have his lemonade stand,” Ma’ sighs, “Your brother isn’t dead, he just went to college,” I imitate her sigh and place my hands on my hips,...

2 comments 2
Read story

“We Only Met Twice” by Perry Terrell

Submitted to Contest #26

We Only Met TwiceBy Perry Terrell           The blues was in Jeffrey’s mind, body and soul. The blues consumed his parents as well.           Day in and day out, while he was growing up, the blues was playing constantly in their home.           They listened and danced to the music and sounds of Muddy Waters, B. B. King, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf, just to n...

2 comments 2
Read story

“To Bea or Not to Bea” by Kate E

Submitted to Contest #26

At the turn of the 20th century, when political movements were springing up left and right and the world as a whole was far too absorbed in its own self-importance, Sheila Bea was less interested in the photographs that were formed using new-fangled flash lamps, and far more intrigued by the way common everyday words could be strung together to create fantastical alien worlds and rebellion-inciting ideas inside the minds of those around her. For what joy would anything in the world hold, even such exciting things as photographs, if we had no...

1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who was considered a prodigy when they were young.

Fiction – 61 stories

Write about a character who goes by many different names throughout their life.

Character – 50 stories

Write about a character who was raised in a musical family.

High School – 49 stories

Write a story about a musician struggling to find work during wartime.

Historical Fiction – 42 stories

Contest #26

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Musical Genius

$50

Prize money

226

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 31, 2020 EST

Won by Hannah Carter 🏆

Title: Lara

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢