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A weekly short story contest
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2020
Start your story with someone being presented with a dilemma. This story is based on true events. What a dilemma, I thought to myself, as I stared eye to eye at the snake. My limbs had frozen up, that way they do when terror seizes your heart and leaves no wiggle room. The snake began to move. In one fluid motion, I was standing up, mid-stride backward, and away fr...
Start your story with someone sitting on a crowded train and end it with them looking out over beautiful natural scenery. Buzz click hum. The wirr of engines. Buzz click hum. Mobil devises. Buzz click hum. Doors sliding open. Buzz click- Alana was quiet, head slumped on a window sill, eyes cast down, right toes tapping impatiently. Heavy coat. Hat pulled over forehead. It was dark. It was ...
The apple is crisp and sweet. The seller all worn and warts. The snap of each bite a promise and a wish. But my lids stay light, and the sun sinks slow, and my story is still unstarted. Awake, awake, awake. Every day, awake. The days in Story all run the same. Never met the wolf. Never met the witch. Never danced at the prince’s ball. The dreaded invitation comes crisp quarterly. I am always cor...
Write about a character coming out of a long hibernation (either literal or metaphorical). Dull monotone voices bouncing over my head. A bright white screen projecting flat images of cartoon characters explaining how to solve systems of equations. The teachers had really given up this year. Falling back on old videos they had dug up from the depths of the internet. My mask itched. My breath was hot.<...
Start your story with the line, “That’s the thing about this city…” “That’s the thing about this city,” She said through mouthfuls of her Double-Decker Breezy-Bite sandwich. “You never know what’s coming next. It’s all a mystery!” She briefly put down her sandwich to gesture with her hands above her head. “Oh, come on Cindy. Don’t go on about this again.” I scoffed. “It’s true!” She wiped the sau...
Write about someone who grew up in a bunker, and lockdown life is all they’ve ever known. Sometimes I wonder. Wonder what it’s like outside. What it’s like in the real world. With real people. In a place where my actions matter, and I could feel useful. In a place where every day was different from the last. But the room around me was small. Light grey walls with white furniture and back accents. The cur...
Write about someone who gets stuck in their workplace during a blizzard and decides to explore rooms they aren’t normally allowed in. There is something magical in stepping on pure, white, untouched snow. It’s the triumphant feeling of knowing you’re the first one to step on it. And you know it’s stupid, but when you’re looking at the blank white covering of snow, and you’re planting your foot deep into the blank...
Write a story told exclusively through dialogue. It’s late. Where were you? Just out… with the guys Mhmm. And by “Guys”, do you mean that woman I’ve been seeing you with? Maybe. Listen, Steven, we need to talk. It’s about your job. The Fire Company? Yes, the Fire Company! I think it’s had a bad influence on the children. What could be bad about burn...
Start your story with one character making a vow they never would have made the year before.Never in my life did I expect to be behind the wheel of a spaceship, 70 lightyears from Earth, vowing to never again step foot into a barbershop closet. And it all began with a bad hair day.Picture a warm summer’s day, ice cream dripping off the freckled chins of girls, boys screams chasing one another through grass, a feeling of joy in the air. That afternoon, I decided my hair was too long.It stuck out in jagged pe...
Someone who is given a bird for the holidays but doesn’t know how to take care of it. The glow of the fireplace warmed my face. Swaddled in blankets, the glistening lights of the tree behind me, I closed my eyes and let the moment sink into my mind. Every little problem melted away like the chocolate chips in my cocoa. A dusty photograph with an old wooden frame stared down at me ...
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