Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Posted in Character on Jan 19, 2024

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✍️ 70 stories

“If I could Only Turn Back Time” by Conrad M

Submitted to Contest #234

I sit he by my lap top wondering about my life. I am sixty-four years old and wondering where my life went. I look back at it and wonder maybe I should have done this differently. Or I should have done that differently. Could have should have but didn't. I grew up in a small town in the sixties and seventies. And I couldn't wait to get out of there. I hated every minute of it. I didn't have a lot of friends because my family was one of the poorest in our Neiber hood. Our house was so old we had a hand pump in the yard for water and still had...

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“What Could Be” by Alexander Bernard

Submitted to Contest #234

As I lay facing the setting sun, watching the golden rays drain from the sky, I think about all the actions that led me to this moment. Many decisions were regrettable - an equal number were moments to be proud of. Even more than those combined, however, were moments of neutrality. But we don’t remember the moments we’re impartial to particularly well. We remember moments of embarrassment or excitement significantly easier. Sometimes I wonder what this life might look like if that balance shifted somehow. Had I made some worse decisions, wha...

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“Regretful Texts” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #234

Trigger Warning: Gruesome untimely death of a child “If I could turn back time I would. You don’t think there is not a single day that goes by that I don’t think about what I did? I know what I did and I have to live every day with it.” “You may have to live with it but you don’t need to beat yourself up over it. It was an honest mistake.” “It was an honest mistake that caused someone to lose their life.” “Kathrine, you didn’t put a cold hard gun to her head and pull the trigger. It was a gen...

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“An Angel's Ring” by Emily Melcher

Submitted to Contest #234

{This story contains depictions of a motor vehicle accident.} At seventeen, I'm just a few months away from becoming society's problem, according to Mr. Higgs. While Mr. Higgs is the guardian of the Home, he's far from a parental figure of any kind. Mr. Higgs hardly speaks to us and doesn't try to hide that he avoids us. I still can't figure out why he opened a home for kids. It was already 7:48 p.m., and I couldn't be late for curfew again. My late-night reading was my sole source of joy in that place, and I wasn't willing to risk losin...

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“What if - because I didn't.” by Brittany Duncan

Submitted to Contest #234

This story contains commentary on physical and psychological abuse within marriage. I wish that I could turn back time and go back to before. Before I was getting divorced, before being married and all the abuse within my marriage, before I even met my ex husband. I wish that I could go back to being 20 and I wish that I could do things differently; I think about that every day. The man that I am in love with now; I met before, I met him when I was 20 and I was too immature to know that he was the person that I was supposed to be with. I ...

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““If I Could Turn Back TIme”” by Liz Pierre

Submitted to Contest #234

A wise woman once said, “If I could turn back time if I could find a way, I’d take back all the words that have hurt you, and you’d stay.” I wondered what she meant until the day I told you that I wasn’t sure if you were the love of my life. I don’t remember what brought this on. Memory is hazy and then it has an aching clarity. It is blurred, then it is searingly sharp. I wonder if you remember this, too. I wonder if you remember that one day we were fine, then we weren’t. In a moment love went from being exciting and new to a source of per...

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“One Day ” by Luna Sterling

Submitted to Contest #234

I was tired, and cold despite the four layers of blankets that weighed on me. The T.V. hanging high on the wall was turned off and the three chairs crowded tight around facing me were empty. The curtains to the right of my bed past the chairs were drawn open revealing bright spring leaves brushing back and forth behind the window. It made a constant crunching sound that wasn’t unpleasant, but I couldn’t hear it. I stared out to the leaves not seeing or hearing anything other than my thoughts. Whispers of regret swirled in my head of t...

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“Fractured” by Vivacity Rex

Submitted to Contest #234

You're angry. I embarrass you, and not in the cute way always portrayed on TV. The tension hangs in the air between us, a tangible awkwardness that lingers after each of these episodes. It didn't always feel this way. Maybe it was cute when I was young, but now that I have grown in years and inches, all that innocence has disintegrated from these situations. I haven't changed. I have always acted this way. I carry with me an acute awareness of the awkwardness and embarrassment I project when out in public. There is a reason I have spen...

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“Family Torn Apart” by Tom Davis

Submitted to Contest #234

The bright yellow sun smacked Bobby in the face as he took his first steps towards freedom as the heavy concrete prison door swung open. He just completed his 20 year sentence for manslaughter and looked forward to freedom. Bobby would never forget that night the crime happened and wished he could right the wrong. But he knows he can’t. One of Bobby’s brothers was there to drive him back to Mom’s house when he was released from prison. “How does it feel to be free again?” his brother Jim asked. ...

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“Just Another Day” by One - Tooth Shark

Submitted to Contest #234

It didn’t take long before I was back, staring blankly at my computer screen, wondering how to respond to my teacher’s request. A writing prompt with the words : Explain in full detail what you do if you were given the ability to time travel. What time would you go back to? Why? I was only a few weeks into this creative writing class that I had practically forced onto my schedule and I was already writing more than anything else. If it’s not a prompt, it’s an essay. If not that, then I have to write out the date on my paper, rather than simp...

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Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 70 stories

“If I could Only Turn Back Time” by Conrad M

“What Could Be” by Alexander Bernard

“Regretful Texts” by Madeline Honig

“An Angel's Ring” by Emily Melcher

“What if - because I didn't.” by Brittany Duncan

““If I Could Turn Back TIme”” by Liz Pierre

“One Day ” by Luna Sterling

“Fractured” by Vivacity Rex

“Family Torn Apart” by Tom Davis

“Just Another Day” by One - Tooth Shark

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Write about someone taking advantage of some unexpected free time.

Start or end your story with someone saying, “We have all the time in the world.”

Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Contest #234

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

340

Contest entries

132

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: