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!

#127: Gut Feelings

Most people know December 31st as New Year’s Eve, but did you know it’s also Make Up Your Mind Day? Unfortunately for many of us, making your mind up is more easily said than done. I always want to make a considered decision, but oftentimes wind up relying on gut instinct alone.

This week's prompts are all about intuition, and the strange way we sometimes know what to do without understanding how we know it. Whether you believe intuition is a sign sent from the universe, or the workings of your own subconscious, it’s time to trust your creative instincts and get writing for the very first contest of 2022. Happy New Year!

This week's prompts

Begin your story with a character having a gut feeling they cannot explain.

Thriller and Suspense – 75 stories

Write about a character whose intuition is always right — until one day it isn’t.

Horror – 22 stories

Write a story about a problem with no good solutions.

Angst – 32 stories

Write about a character learning to trust their intuition.

Character – 27 stories

Your character makes a living faking psychic powers. One morning, they wake up with real ones.

Fantasy – 64 stories

Stories

“When faked psychic powers make room for real ones” by Sakaram Puddoo

Submitted to Contest #127

When faked psychic powers make room for real ones Mr. Rasool, a fifty-year-old father of a daughter, earned his living as a healer and a fortune teller. He convinced his clients that he owned true psychic powers that could bring them a lot of positive results. He realized them by his prayers and by the participation of his clients to whom he always asked to follow his advice. If his clients didn’t obtain the desired results, he laid the blame on the latter saying that his advice wasn’t well executed. With his fake powers, many of his...

Read story

“Start with a cup of coffee” by Adelina Stoyanova

Submitted to Contest #127

''I came...'' '' Louder, please, I can not hear you. Don't worry, you have nothing to fear. " "I...I came for ...I have a..." " You have an appointment with me, as I understand it. You are Melissa, are you not? " " Yes, " the woman said, visibly relieved " yes, that is my name. " Amanda just had to sigh. She didn't call herself Amanda in here, of course, but lady Gwendolyn, although most of her customers called her just "Lady" as they were not sure how to pronounce Gwendolyn. The woman sitting in front of her was trembling, her wrinkled ha...

Read story

“Maybe I Was Punished” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #127

Maybe I Was Punished I’m sitting in the high-backed seat – the cover a shiny material laced with some kind of sheer fabric. Gold brocade cushions are under my backside – but they are certainly only for the look, (Middle Eastern and mysterious) as it’s like sitting on a square brick, and the seat of the chair is so high I have a small box underneath my feet so they don’t ‘dangle’ in the air! My brother said it is like walking into the reception of a ‘high class brothel’ (I wonder how he knows that?) The tent is quite warm but I can feel...

Read story

“The Unexpected Truth” by Sophie Smith

Submitted to Contest #127

I lie for a living. It has become second nature to lie to people to earn money. After all, it is a family business. I've been helping lie to people to earn money for the family since I was 5. I am a psychic medium. Have you ever heard such BS? Someone who sees and talks to ghosts to pass on a message to a loved one. When all they want to hear is the same thing? That their dead loved one has passed on peacefully and is at rest in the spiritual world. That their dead loved one loves them and is proud of them. Or that their dead love on...

Read story

“Twin Magic” by Zoe Tribley

Submitted to Contest #127

The smell of copper invaded my nostrils before Erin could finish the answers of a segment on “what your higher self is telling you.” She held a lit candle in one hand and a faded, leather-bound notebook in the other. She read from her notes. “If you chose the curvy road, that means you want the scenic routes in life, but if you chose the straight, well-traveled road you probably like things direct and straightforward. The number of white roses you chose is how much you give in relationships. If you said ten white, ten red, you want th...

Read story

“Home” by Tiffany Stewart

Submitted to Contest #127

Allie woke up in a panic. She had a driving urge to pack supplies, but she didn't know why, or how much to pack, or what to pack for. She couldn't remember what she had dreamed, but she had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. The feeling had an almost physical presence to it, like a weight; it was unlike anything she had ever felt before. So, at 2 o'clock in the morning, Allie found herself in the kitchen packing reusable grocery bags as efficiently as possible with bottles of water and shelf-stable milk. A day or so earlier, s...

Read story

“How It All Winds Up” by Nix ♞

Submitted to Contest #127

I adjust my hair in the mirror. Well, it's essentially my hair. No, yes, it's my hair. It appears just like it, even if I haven't grown a strand in ten years. I just came to have this piece today, actually. But it looks so honest sitting there! They'll think it must really be mine, the audience, or else be too amused in my speech to pay such close attention.I'll practice once more. If only this mirror didn't have so many streaks, and I could see myself properly. Never mind that, though. Nothing upsets me tonight!I look around the bathroom—my...

Read story

“Explorers of Known Spaces” by Kyle Barr

Submitted to Contest #127

Explorers of Known Spaces By Kyle Barr There was her child, running to the edge of known spaces then back across the room, back and forth like the intellectual who paces to keep their mind sharp. But you don’t have to think like they do, you have something better to offer, the child’s mother thought, watching her son. You have a knowing without knowing, a sensory kind of intelligence. “You’re an explorer,” she called to him across the room. Her child beamed back at her. Looking at that face, with all those qualities she did not ha...

Read story

“The Unpaved Road ” by FabWritesStuff -

Submitted to Contest #127

All her life Sylvia had lived for others, and not for herself. Since the moment she could walk her life had been neatly laid out for her, like a checklist that only served to taunt and restrain her. She had to work hard so she could get good grades and go to a good college and then go to an even better one for grad school. All the while she would save up money from little part-time jobs here and there while balancing other volunteer activities so that she could grow into a well rounded person. All this so she could make her family p...

Read story

“Things Aren't Always As They Seem” by Nadine Paul

Submitted to Contest #127

The techs tell him the man behind the glass has not said anything for hours. It doesn't surprise him. Why would one want to admit pretending to know what would happen on a particular day and be discovered as a fraud? But watching him through the one-way mirror, he starts to question that assessment. There was a feeling about the man behind the glass that he may know something. Sipping his hot coffee, FBI agent Moore Gallagher studies the man while waiting for part of his team to arrive. But not all of them would be coming. Some ...

Read story

“From Fraud to Friend ” by Kita Munesane

Submitted to Contest #127

As the gullible crowd screamed as Paul showed them another one of his many telekinesis tricks, "little do they know, it's just a wire.." Paul thought. The crowd was stunned and the internet was blown up over this newcomer who claims to be able to connect with dead souls, use the power of telekinesis and fly. Paul was making a living out of the show tickets he sold, but suddenly while practicing "flying" the wire snapped. He panicked and his team screamed for if he fell he would be seriously injured. He was over 20 metres in the air, but mi...

Read story

“Tara Tarot” by Allison Hannah

Submitted to Contest #127

Tara Tarot On a dismal day such as one might expect on a day that one loses their job, Tara walks with her sister, Scarlett, and Scarlett’s scruffy little mutt, Bozo. “What I need is a need a new job altogether,” Tara says. “Like what?” Scarlett moves behind Tara as a teenaged boy with a tall barking dog passes. He’s got a loose hold on the leash. Bozo growls. “Like something where my talents are appreciated.” “How about this? Scarlett pulls a poster from a lamp post. Tara grabs it a...

Read story

“So it Begins” by Erin Olig

Submitted to Contest #127

Margo Lane knew she was destined for great things. She attributed her current situation to a series of unfortunate choices which had begun with the dating of two consecutive Ricks; both of whom had intrigued her with eclectic hobbies, such as the collection of vintage toys or beetle fighting. Both Ricks, subsequently turning out to just be weird and without redeeming qualities, started a domino effect of poor decisions which seemed to occur as a matter of course and outside her control. And while the new year found her...

Read story

“Cards with Cassandra” by Alanah Andrews

Submitted to Contest #127

The ornate grandfather clock chimed loudly as the hour hand struck nine. Cassie’s client jumped, glancing around the small, incense-filled room as though she had forgotten where she was. “Oh,” she stammered, “but Cassandra, I have more questions.” “It’s okay,” said Cassie, gathering up her cards and giving the woman’s hand a gentle squeeze. “I can book you in for another appointment in three weeks. Now will that be cash or card?” Shooing her final client out the door, Cassie collapsed on the velveteen couch, releasing her hair from the itch...

Read story

“Missing Maynard” by Stacy Lynn

Submitted to Contest #127

“He’s alive and well. I can feel it.” Honoria was an icicle when she said it, cool and still and utterly self-composed, perched like a Sphinx on the cat-worn, claw-tattered blue sofa in the living room. Not the slightest hint of histrionics, not the merest pinch of petulance. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Maynard would return, although she couldn’t have explained how she came to possess this knowledge. Something deep inside her belly sensed it. As she was one week from eighteen and eager to prove herself grown up and exorcise...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

220

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 07, 2022 EST

Won by Dena Linn 🏆

Title: The Problem Is

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 ⭢