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!

#105: Gaining Perspective

Selecting which point of view to tell their story from is one of the most crucial choices an author can make. Whether you opt for the intimacy of first person (“I”), the directness of second person (“you”), or the versatility of third person (“they”), this decision is critically important in creating a story that resonates with readers. Identifying your POV characters is also of the utmost importance: a story might actually be more interesting when told not from the perspective of the action hero, but through the eyes of their overshadowed, long-suffering sidekick.

With this week’s prompts, I’d like you to consider your choice of perspective, and maybe try something new! Put yourself into the shoes of an unexpected character — or ask your character to consider another’s point of view. How meta!

Like I mentioned, we’re currently working on some big changes to Prompts. With that in mind, we’re asking again for you to submit your stories 24 hours earlier than usual, to make those changes possible. The deadline for submitting a story to this week’s contest is 11:59PM EST on Thursday, August 5th. Stay tuned!

This week's prompts

Write a story from the point of view of three different characters.

Character – 191 stories

Write about a person trying to see something from another’s point of view.

Nonfiction – 92 stories

Write your story from the perspective of a side character.

Character – 143 stories

Write a story that switches between first person and third person point of view.

Kids – 100 stories

Write about a character who can suddenly see through another person's eyes — literally.

Adventure – 131 stories

Stories

“The Love We Share” by Jennifer Ngo

Submitted to Contest #105

The Love We Share There is a tale told of a promise made between mother and daughter. A contract of soul, where one can not move onto the next realm unless the service owed has been paid twice. No matter how virtuous the mother has been, or obedient the daughter. The cost for sin was and will always be paid twice. Each needing the other for repentance, and the promise made bond in the womb. As times changed, so did the hearts of daughters. Mother: But I gave you everything, Ingrata My heart was bleeding. I have done my part. I Show...

Read story

“Dominique” by T.Q. Charter

Submitted to Contest #105

*This story may contain sensitive topics that's not appropriate for all audiences. Reader discretion is advised.* Dominic "Hey Dominique, where'd you get those shoes from?" The tall boys bumped me slamming me into the locker, "Your Grandma's closet?" They all laughed and pushed me, throwing me around like one of their little playthings.I let them have their way because soon I'll have my way."Freak." One of the boys scoffed as they walked away, the bell sounding in the halls. I massaged the side of my stomach knowing the bruises that had alre...

Read story

“Confrontation with doubt - looking for God” by AW Schade

Submitted to Contest #105

Time’s a wasting, Jacob said to himself as he took the compass from his backpack to confirm his direction. He was pleased that he would eventually travel on the Road of Islam. The Road of Islam presented a significant challenge to Jacob. It was as large as Christianity’s, but he was not as familiar with the Islamic faith. What little he knew concerned him. As experienced by millions of others, Islamic Fundamentalism had been thrust upon him on September 11, 2001, when three thousand people were killed in New York City by a group of Islam...

Read story

“An Old Friend Calls” by Zachary Barraiult

Submitted to Contest #105

What am I doing here? I’ve been free of him for months. I should leave. Quickly before he shows up I’ll sneak out the back. Fuck! Too late. Here comes Curtis, the Waiter, Jerry in tow. Curtis pulls out the chair across from me for Jerry. I can still taste him on my lips, still, feel the warmth as he slid down my throat. I shouldn’t have come here. What the fuck was I thinking? Goddam his smell is intoxicating. “Can I get you anything else?” Curtis asks. “Maybe… Maybe a coke…” I stammer. My eyes have not left Jerry’s unnaturally a...

Read story

“A terrible betrayal ” by Asia Perrine

Submitted to Contest #105

The cage was cold. Cement cool under my feet. Reese had curled in on herself, her long strawberry blonde hair veiled over her shoulders and face as he curled around her knees, sitting on the floor. She had been placed inside an animal cage, like those old ones circus's use to use way back when they mistreated animals way more regularly. Only, She was the spectacle this time around. Men with large guns and foul odor walked around and talked in a foreign tongue she didnt understand. She watched her friend as he talked to the ...

Read story

“Progress ” by Solveig Bjermeland

Submitted to Contest #105

ProgressIt is Sunday afternoon. Lin is sitting in her garden relaxing. She is alone. There is a slight breeze which cools down the otherwise hot summer day. She sits in a rocking chair which she has dragged into the grass. She has a great view of her town. Her house sits on top of a rather large hill. There are quite a few houses in this town but none near Lin’s. She likes to keep her space from people. She doesn’t have much of a choice. She hasn’t left her property in almost two years now. Since the pandemic began she has kept inside. At fi...

Read story

“The World as a Stage” by Tinamarie Cox

Submitted to Contest #105

"Teo! Teo! Answer a few questions before you go on stage tonight?" a young vlogger shoved her phone in Teodoro’s face. A swarm of paparazzi and fans attacked as we walked from the car to the backstage entrance of the night’s venue. Some were snapping photos in a frenzy of flashes, others were fussing with voice recorders, and the rest steadied the aim of their phones. The group herded around Teo, eliminating his personal space. Teo didn’t seem to care how intruding or obnoxious our enthusiasts had become; he looked intoxica...

Read story

“The Luxury of Ignorance!” by Nabiha C

Submitted to Contest #105

Sometimes, it's difficult to communicate with your child. First of all, there's the issue with puberty and suddenly they believe that it isn't deemed 'useful' to confide to you about their problems anymore or perhaps it's stubbornness as if venting to your parents is when you've truly sunk to the bottom. But, there's also the sense of awkwardness and embarrassment. Growing up in a household where mental health and disabilities were not acknowledged. anyone who had fitted one of them was either ostracised and ridiculed by society. My brothe...

Read story

“The Way Her Yellow Runs” by Z.H Floren

Submitted to Contest #105

Ms Florence won’t stop talking. She speaks and speaks and speaks but the words just pass right through me as if I was never there, I’d say something like a ghost but Papa says ghosts are long and dangle-y and I’m pretty sure I’m nothing of the sort. Looking down at my clothes, which I picked out on my own this morning, surprising Papa since by the time i rub the kinks and stones from my bones and rub my eyes awake, he too rises and there are clothes ready for me by the door. I run my fingers down the length of the pleated skirt, weaving it ...

Read story

“Stronger Ties” by Mathic M

Submitted to Contest #105

I was a bad person, not bad in the sense that I was a criminal. I was bad in the sense that I treated people like shit. I loved it. I had a friend whose name was frank, but on the street they called him cockeye. He hated that name, because his eyes were cockeyed. I guess I would hate a name like that also if I was him. He and I went back a long time. I've known him since elementary school. Even though his eyes almost popped out of his head no one messed with him. He was a tough kid. I was not like him, maybe I resented him for having everyth...

Read story

“Untamed in nature ” by Holly Sinclair

Submitted to Contest #105

1. Succumb to the hot air that felt as thick and sticky as syrup. Suffocating in its humidity and breathlessness. Gasping for air, panting like an animal. What differentiates me from those that live in the wild. My ability to integrate into society. My social skills and mannerisms? I prey on others for my own self-indulgence and approval just like a wild animal hunts its prey and is ranked in the food chain. Scoping out the area I feel inclined to pounce just as a lion does. On all fours I do just that, into the forest, into the trees and un...

Read story

“Canary In A Coal Mine” by Shoba Sadler

Submitted to Contest #105

Frantically pushing the keys on my laptop I attempted to locate the file for my business proposal which had disappeared. I had been entrusted to put it together after only a year and a half with this company. I stood up at my desk and casually looked about the office. Cubicles on either side of me were empty and no one within earshot. I reached for my mobile phone. "Michael," I hissed into the phone. "They've sabotaged me - again. Just twenty minutes in the restroom and someone has tampered with my laptop. My meeting starts in two hours....

Read story

“MIDNIGHT SHOWERS” by Thomas Hall

Submitted to Contest #105

Another rainy, bleak afternoon in the city. Gray sky, gray clouds, and the constant rain give the air an almost gray-blue hue, like that of a faded memory or passing dream. Gregory had just left the cafe where he spent the last 30 minutes watching water droplets inch down the big, glass window in front of the coffee shop. Simultaneously tracking individual drops, seeing them race one another to the bottom of the glass while watching their trails of water for pictures, often faces: Gregory was the imaginative type, an idealistic child meeting...

Read story

“In your eyes” by Suraya Ngobeni

Submitted to Contest #105

In your eyes Yadidya was up for the fourth night in a row, tormented by a reacquiring dream... In the midst of a dark room crowded by soon to be young men, their eyes wide open, resembling open windows of a house on a hot summer's day eagerly allowing satisfaction, embracing the cool breezy in the air feeling, the warm sensation from the sun gently massaging the skin, absorbing the warm illuminating comfort, as though nested in the presence of unconditional love from the universe. Those peeled eyes resembled nothing of comfort, but a shr...

Read story

“The eighth body” by Tonatiuh Duran Meza

Submitted to Contest #105

Copper saw the eighth victim of a murder spree he had began taking great interest in. While the media covered each death as just another in a long list of gang related casualties, part of him doubted that was really the case. The reporter was quite familiarized with the violent history of the city and, by extension, the very distinctive signatures and modus operandi of said gangs, long before covering them in the next day tabloids. It was a sad truth about the state of things, but it was because of that familiarity with violence and crime th...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

662

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 05, 2021 EST

Won by Vi Bisky 🏆

Title: The Next Good Day

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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 ⭢