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 about a character who has reinvented themselves, but realizes it's not always easy to outrun your past.

Posted in Character on Dec 29, 2023

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?

✍️ 62 stories

“Sinking” by Keely Boyle

Submitted to Contest #231

Note: sexism and emetophobia warning. Sinking  The Swimming Pool  12:33 a.m. There’s always that one fucking asshole at the party who jumps in the pool fully dressed. At this party, that asshole was Annie. She’d regretted it instantly. What was really particularly stupid about it was the fact that it was the middle of winter, and the pool was so cold that fog had been springing off of it all night. Fucking idiot. Stupid, stupid idiot. She hadn’t even curled her feet to her chest or done a cool flip. No, she’d just stepped right ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Chrysalis” by Stephan Kyriacou

Submitted to Contest #231

“Ellis! Hurry up! We’re going to be late.”“Okay, okay,” Ellis called. He pulled on a hoodie and crossed over to his bedroom door. Hand on the doorknob, he paused, turning back to face the mirror. His eyes followed a now-familiar route. Mapping out the stubble that spanned his cheeks and jaw, the narrow set of his eyes, the harsh slope of his shoulders. He turned slightly, head tilted to admire the way his clothes clung to his flat chest.“Are you checking yourself out in the mirror again?” came the impatient voice from the hallway.“Wh–no! I d...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Maintaining a Mind Apart” by Morgan Aloia

Submitted to Contest #231

Mepka reentered the cabin side-by-side with the first rays of gray light off of the horizon.  Estrid woke with a vigor, demanding to know where her daughter had been. Mepka took the tiff as it came, letting barbs glance off of her with little need to respond in kind. Estrid seemed not to know what to do with this newfound lack of spar in her daughter, and so by the end of that first day returned she fell into a fuming silence. This suited Mepka fine, for whom a period of time was necessary to reacclimate to the world. The swamp arou...

2 comments 2
Read story

“1898 - Sea Lions, Whales and Lanterns at the Lighthouse ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #231

Samuel and his father fed the horses on their way up the hill to the lighthouse, with Elsie's young, dark-haired dog, Teddybear, trailing behind them. Teddybear could wait in the downstairs lighthouse entry room while they serviced the beacon."Good boy, Teddybear." Samuel reached down to rub the dog's neck and Teddybear looked at him with a big smile.Soon night would fall and they would need to light the wicks for the lighthouse beacon.While Samuel walked up to the highest part of the bluff, he saw the darkening ocean fading into the twiligh...

2 comments 2
Read story

“A Heep of Trouble” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #231

Catfish Paradise, Arizona 1886 Lindy Drinkwater watches Jackie Diamond continue to fleece the Heep brothers. “What a bunko artist. Jackie should at least lose a few hands.” “When it comes to cards, tin horns always think they’re the top dogs,” Tuck Barnett replies. “Diamond’s makin’ me jittery,” Lindy replies, rubbing his bald head to ease the stress. “Better fetch Hack.” Lexington “Lotta” Heep leaps from his chair, his hulking figure hanging over card-sharp Jackie Diamond. Forty-six-year-old Lotta Heep is 320 pounds of brutality, ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Man with Long Arms” by Cade Holter

Submitted to Contest #231

“I’m telling you man, there’s something wrong with that guy.” Maurice did not want to hear this again today. He came over to Cameron’s apartment to do exactly one thing: nothing. Now he was being made to listen to this shit again. “Cam, I don’t know what this guy did to you, but you should just drop it. He hasn’t even done anything to you.” “Not yet.” “Not yet he says. What do you think he’s even going to do?” Cameron, of course, has no reply to that. It’s the same routine every damn time, Maurice notes bitterly. Maurice comes over. Cam ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“A New Start” by William Braden

Submitted to Contest #231

Jason Masters, five years in the Army and three years in prison, for bashing his wife’s lover, putting him in hospital for six months. At twenty-six years old, I need to start life with no violence and a calmer more relaxed outlook. He left the prison in a taxi and went to a transition unit owned by the prison. He ignored the people standing around, waiting for husbands and sons. There were six units in a block with a garden. Sally Goodman introduced herself, I’m your guidance officer. She took him to a local supermarket to buy food, cooking...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Broken Mirror” by JOHN GORDON

Submitted to Contest #231

The reflection that looked her square in the face wasn’t what she’d expected to see. The blood was splattered across her like a Pollock explosion. On the floor, the writhing body wriggled and pulsated. There was so much blood. So much blood. She felt her stomach churn. It had all started so innocently. She was trying to think about how in the name of God she’d got here.  *** Millie and Jeff Edwards were newlyweds. They’d been lovers from teenagers and had spent many an hour in each other’s company. When they were in their late teens, ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Silent Revenge” by Gail Lemin

Submitted to Contest #231

SILENT REVENGE# ‘Thou shalt not kill’ How do I not kill?  I only know how to kill.  How can I stop what I was born to do? All my life I had wanted to be a nurse, caring and nurturing those in need of care or help.  My parents told me it would never happen, that I needed to study and that I had neither the inclination or aptitude to put in the long hours required.  In reality they thought I was dull and stupid!  but I was determined to prove them wrong.  I enrolled on a nursing course and sailed through al...

1 comment 1
Read story

“New Year's, Las Vegas” by Honey Homecroft

Submitted to Contest #231

No surprise that table 10 left the worst tip of the night. Alice grimaced as she opened their check.  Should’ve put a buck or two on it. Would’ve been more than they tipped. Not that she really blamed the girl — barely 19, with upper thighs about as thick as her stilettos, glossy mouth turning down as they walked in. She'd probably hoped for a nicer joint than Walkman’s, given the glitzy parties taking place at the casinos just a few blocks away.  Walkman’s was certainly open on New Year’s Eve, but that was its only winning f...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Just a Job” by Heather Zoppetti

Submitted to Contest #231

CW: Language, blood, suggested violence Jason closed his laptop and sipped his coffee. He enjoyed coding; it was much cleaner than his previous profession while providing the same level of planning and strategy. Every job was a puzzle to solve—without the blood. Functions, loops, recursion—a beautiful symphony of parts coming together in an elegant orchestra. Transforming the esoteric symbols in his editor into delightful images and functionality on a screen made him feel clever, magical. He also enjoyed the social aspect. Today he was...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Trapped” by Mabel Gray

Submitted to Contest #231

My life hasn’t always been this bleak. I used to feel the grass on my toes and the sun on my face. I used to feel the leather of a steering wheel under palms and the feeling of control. I used to go to bed every night thinking about my friends and what I would do with them on the weekend. I used to be alive. Now I am just living. He took me when my life was about to begin. When I could remember the feeling of a warm embrace from my mom, and the sound of my dad’s laugh. It was the summer before my freshman year of college. I had just graduat...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Woes of Sin and Strife” by Molly K

Submitted to Contest #231

The heavy door swung open, ushering in a vacuum of cold air that settled in the bones like a bird landing on a perch. Radio chatter sifted through cinnamon-laced warmth and a freshly purchased fir tree stood proudly in the center of the festively-adorned living room. The hollow patter of little stockinged feet on the dark wood floor coincided with a muffled cry from several rooms away. Suddenly, the home became alive with fumbling footsteps and hurried words exchanged behind a closed door. The stockinged feet propelled themselves into the ar...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Quiet Spaces, Loud Noise. ” by Cherise Walters

Submitted to Contest #231

I used to search for quite spaces. Small nooks where I could hide and close my eyes. Relinquish myself to a trance, a deep meditation. In that subspace I felt calm, nothing could harm me. No emotion was too grand to take over. In the small quite spaces lived a world all to my-self. I faced all my fears there, had therapy there, found forgiveness for my-self and for others. There too is where I started to change. I was 13 when I started to re-invent myself. Some of my deepest fantasies in the quite space, were about me dominating people with...

2 comments 2
Read story

“From Riches to Rags” by Richard Zahra

Submitted to Contest #231

Greg Balfour sat back on the ancient couch that had been thrown out by the neighbours years ago, and which he had dragged the length of the alley to replace its woodworm-riddled predecessor. He had been watching “Lawrence of Arabia” from a secondhand DVD he had bought at the street market. After three long hours, the motion picture was nearing its conclusion, and though he had watched this movie at least three times before, it still enthused him. The box-sized living room of his partly renovated old house was dim and stuffy. He took one la...

3 comments 3
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in the form of a list of New Year's resolutions.

Adults – 54 stories

Write a story about hope.

Short Story – 78 stories

Write about someone trying something completely new.

Character – 34 stories

Set your story on New Year's Day.

Holiday – 50 stories

Contest #231

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: A New Leaf

$250

Prize money

278

Contest entries

110

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 05, 2024 EST

Won by Mary Lynne Schuster 🏆

Title: No Junior League

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 ⭢