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!

#126: The Night Before

Happy Christmas Eve! As this year draws to a close, many people will be reflecting on the past 365 days, as well as looking ahead and planning for the future. 


This week’s contest ends, serendipitously, on the last day of the year. New Year’s Eve sees a whole host of celebrations around the world, but some of us are skipping the usual parties and staying home. For this week’s contest, I’ve put together some prompts centering on this exciting night, so you can get in the festive spirit no matter how you’re celebrating. Let the countdown begin!

This week's prompts

Start or end your story with one or more characters shouting “Happy new year!”

Holiday – 46 stories

Write about a character reflecting on the previous year.

Christmas – 19 stories

Write a story about two people who don’t know each other but bump into one other on New Year’s Eve (either once or every year).

Holiday – 39 stories

Write a story about someone seeking a fresh start after a difficult year.

Christmas – 32 stories

Write about a character setting an unusual New Year’s resolution.

Holiday – 26 stories

Stories

“Ordinary World” by John Merino

Submitted to Contest #126

Ordinary WorldBy John Merino           I haven’t tasted whisky in ten years. Warmth is reaching up from my insides, a pleasant burn that pushes against the late December air sliding across my bare arms. The flavor isn’t pleasant, but it’s a discomfort that’s all my own, a bitterness I’ve chosen to taste. This bar patio is my home for the next few hours. I don’t know where I’ll go or where I’ll sleep when they close, but right now this seat is mine, this drink is mine, the table and the a...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Item #1” by Maureen MacLennan

Submitted to Contest #126

Item #1 He’s been thinking about it for months now, just quitting. It shouldn’t be hard and truth told it would be harder on everyone if he kept going. Sitting back in his recliner with a pad of paper and pen he decided to write down his resolutions for the next year. His mother had trained him in this habit decades ago. It didn’t always work, planning and promising activities, or in this case the cessation of activities. He could quite literally dig out resolution lists from years gone by. He kept them to remind himself of how far he’d f...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Daddy's Disease” by Melony Beard

Submitted to Contest #126

Cara twirled the silver spoon through the dark red juices and watched beans swirling around in the bowl. It was tradition, Momma made chili the last night of every year, but Cara wasn't the slightest bit hungry. She glanced at the clock above the oven, it was eight in the evening and the chair at the head of the table was still empty since Daddy wasn’t home. Cara nibbled at a cracker and wondered if Daddy was sick again.It was New Year’s Eve and Daddy said he’d be home with fireworks. He promised they wouldn’t be those sticks that sparkled, ...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Ramen Noodle Ban” by Carlie Shaw

Submitted to Contest #126

"Happy New Year!" Everyone around me screams. I am surrounded by my classmates. All seventh graders in the same public school. A girl named Hailey threw a New Years Party. I look over and out of the corner of my eye I see a 12 year old "couple" sharing a forbidden kiss. They think they're grown. I begin walking around trying to find my friends that I somehow wondered away from earlier. I see my friend Lilly. I can tell it is her even though I'm behind her. Her big, curly hair gives it away."I know you saw Max and Ayla kissing!" She shrieks a...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Asher's Agony” by Minerva Noiropp

Submitted to Contest #126

"Happy New Year," gritted Asher from between clenched teeth. Turning over in bed, she kicked the thin, mildew lad sheet from her thighs. A frustrated tear escaped from between closed lids. The fireworks had been exploding all around the house where she was staying in Mombasa, Kenya. Noisy children, loud adults, babies crying, teenagers screaming, thudding music, and tooting tuk-tuks had kept her evening disturbed. The sleeping tablets she was on were stubborn. Rest kept a distance from her shattered consciousness. In a desperate attempt t...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Snowflakes” by Hannah Barrett

Submitted to Contest #126

The night is quiet and their breath circles over them in halos as Jennifer and Phil walk arm in arm down the dimly lit street. With Phil's move behind him and the rush of Christmastime in the rearview, they decide, just once, to forget that they are running late. They walk slowly, savoring the sharp smells of winter and wood fires. A light snow falls - enough to cover the ugly brown plow tailings but not enough to deter evening drivers, who wend their way through the greeting card scene. “I never understood what Lucy meant about December s...

10 comments 10
Read story

“Unhappy New Year” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #126

           “Happy New Year!” Rick heard his neighbors shout out as he sat on his sofa in the darkened room.            In his mind, there was not a lot of reason to celebrate and be happy. This past year had been the most difficult of his life.            It began back in February when his mother was diagnosed with COVID. She and her husband, Rick’s disgruntled stepfather, Jack, ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“New year's resolution” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #126

A new year is just around the corner… time to reflect in silent meditation on the past months and conjure up resolutions for the new year. What is a new year’s resolution? A decision to do or not to do something, to accomplish a personal goal or break a habit? Have you ever had luck with keeping up new year´s resolutions in the past? I haven´t, and I don´t think I know anybody who ever stuck to their resolution past a few weeks. Lose weight, exercise more. No more alcohol. That one tends to stick till Valentine's Day, and then: pop goes the ...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Resilience in 2022” by Miss Maggie Maria

Submitted to Contest #126

Every new years eve- there are conversations on resolutions; how can I change, how can I do better, how can I become the best person I am born to be. The problem with a new year’s resolution; is they are always broken, not followed through on, no strength or power to move forward. The mystery of a resolution and why they have no backbone is because, there is no purpose. It is just a game in society where people are pushed to think that their resolutions will work. It is a fog like a cancer that's spread and blinds people from how to truly fo...

2 comments 2
Read story

“One Hell of a Glass of Wine” by Stephanie Braeuner

Submitted to Contest #126

One Hell of a Glass of Wine by Stephanie Braeuner Salty drops of open wounds stream down pink and peach hills. Gravity merges their existence into a red ocean of 24 proof escapism. “How did I get here?” she thought. “I followed all the rules, made the plans, followed my dreams, and did everything everyone told me to do to be successful, to be happy.“ And yet, she sits alone, jealous of saline drowning in rouge with leftovers getting cold in the microwave. She doesn’t know why. She mimics the same as she submerges her mistakes in tann...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Chew the Nail ” by Jack Coey

Submitted to Contest #126

Jasper felt a yearning. He wasn't exactly sure for what but guessed a woman might be the answer. He went to Wal-Mart to buy a new shirt and pants, and went to the supermarket, and asked Lucille, the cashier, to coffee. It looked to him like she laughed at him, but she said yes. He stuck his first finger in his mouth to chew the nail. He felt buoyant. He hurried back to his tiny basement apartment and checked in the mirror to see if he needed a haircut. He worked as a sanitation engineer in his mind which others saw as the janitor at the midd...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Oakwood” by Michael Maceira

Submitted to Contest #126

Sprawled across the Emerald Fields’ rolling hills, Oakwood had once been a beacon of festivals and parties. It attracted everyone from the lords and ladies of the High Court down to the lowest barflies of the Shade Barrows. Now, its stone roads and curved side streets, hugged on either side by shops shouldered on top of one another, were silent save for the echoes of swinging shop signs. Where wooden street carts once stood with promises of sweets for children, there were now mountains of bodies under greasy brown tarps, waiting to be transp...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Closed to Open” by Dhruv Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #126

Each of the seven years Natasha Wright had lived in the small New England town of Belfry, she had experienced a rare encounter on New Year’s Eve, though she’d never known it. There was only one dual coffee and pastry shop in town: Little Armaño’s, which sold the best danishes and fruit cakes in the country, as far as the residents were concerned. Even those people who came in from the far reaches of the world lauded the small shop and the husband and wife who ran it. Natasha always got the same thing at the same time. She’d come in near clos...

8 comments 8
Read story

“New year, new start” by Trisha Sheshadri

Submitted to Contest #126

Whenever I read books, whenever I watch movies, they always depict love as something wondrous, as something magical, something that leaves both people breathless with happiness.I however, would like to disagree with everything the media shows us. To me, falling in love feels like someone is reaching inside of your chest and squeezing your heart, leaving you breathless with pain every time you look at the one person you had wished to spend the rest of your life with. In my case, it’s because she’s in a relationship with someone else. The wors...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Snow Angel” by Evie Adams

Submitted to Contest #126

I’d like to tell you about someone I met and forgot a few days back. I’m not sure why it feels so important to me. It was as insignificant as tracks I left in the snow last night before the snowstorm. But it does feel important, and so I’ll tell it. According to my shaky recollection, it went something like this. It was just before dusk on New Year’s Eve. I lived alone in a crummy apartment, where I had to bundle up in blankets to stay warm because the heater didn’t work. I was a fresh graduate. I had made several applications to legal fir...

3 comments 3
Read story

$250

Prize money

162

Contest entries

100

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 31, 2021 EST

Won by Jerome Grafil-Carlos 🏆

Title: When The Sea Takes You, I Won't Come With

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

Join our weekly contest

Get 5 new writing prompts every Friday. Write and submit a story for a chance to 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 ⭢

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

Join our weekly contest

Get 5 new writing prompts every Friday. Write and submit a story for a chance to win $250.