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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#130: What's in a Name?

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about names: our names, and the names we give to stories, and the way they shape people’s expectations. So I’ve decided to try something new: as you’ll see, two of this week’s prompts let you play around with our Title Generator and Character Name Generator to spark ideas — and the rest explore what the implications of titles and names can be. Have fun!

This week's prompts

Create a title with our Title Generator, then write a story inspired by it.

Teens – 97 stories

Write about a character whose name you got from our Character Name Generator.

Character – 46 stories

Start your story with someone finding an object labeled with their name.

Horror – 37 stories

Set your story in a nameless world.

Kids – 27 stories

Write a story titled ‘The Locked Door.’

Dark – 77 stories

Stories

“A Message for Una” by Vera Brook

Submitted to Contest #130

It’s a lovely afternoon in July, midway through your secret road trip with Jarred, and the two of you are on the beach, lulled by the hot sun, the shimmering waves, the whispering dunes—you on your stomach, and him propped on one elbow next to you, on a thin white towel you lifted from the last motel—when the message arrives.You can’t miss it.It fills your vision, a priority signal to your retinal implant. It repeats on your wrist display, even though you put it in sleep mode. A sting of electricity to your arm, to make sure you’re awake and...

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“Anduaste, I'm Sorry” by Farron Burnes

Submitted to Contest #130

The meadow was all but empty. Two things still remained, Nuada and the shine of the Moon. She gazed upon it in desperation. For weeks she had searched for the words, any way to truly describe the presence the Moon held in the sky. But nothing would come. She wasn’t even sure the words she was looking for were real. How could they be? How could anything describe what she saw? Andrew found his mistress asleep outside for the fourth time this week. He’d hoped it not be a regular occurrence since fall seemed to have been coming a lot faster t...

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“My Little Butterfly ” by Camille M

Submitted to Contest #130

Sitting on a blue plush chair, I looked at Dr. Jones who was patiently waiting for me to talk. She was always like this: calm, collected, trustworthy.“It happened around noon”, I finally said with a sigh. “I remember it clearly because the sun was absolutely unbearable. I was desperately trying to find some shade to regain my composure when I saw it. At first, I thought the heat made me hallucinate-I was so hot that I couldn’t think properly-, but I soon came to the brutal conclusion that it was real when I picked it up. In my hands laid a t...

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“Pymatuning” by Douglas J. Veverka

Submitted to Contest #130

The shoreline of Pymatuning Lake is my place of peace, an escape from the overwhelming, the chaotic, and the messy. It is the constant in an unforgiving world. A place that held my hand through my parent’s divorce. My favorite spot was a narrow strip of land that jutted out into the water with just enough space for a worn picnic table. I’d sit there on its tabletop, feet planted firmly on the bench, elbows on my knees, hands folded, and eyes mesmerized on nature’s glory. The placid water’s invitation to stare at its glistening reflection of ...

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“"Mo Ming", Nameless in Chinese” by Eric Trules

Submitted to Contest #130

What the hell, you ask, is "Mo Ming"?Is it just a strange, two-syllable word? A name? An idea? A building? A state of mind? An inspiration? Exactly what?Well… as a wise old Chinese tai chi teacher, Mr. Lui, once told a hungry, entangled, but confused young group of seven, back in the day: “There was once a lake so lovely in Guangzhou Province in south central China that it refused to be named. It was so beautiful that no one could agree on a name for it. And so… it remained eternally “nameless”, a word that translates into Chinese...

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“The Locked door” by Rebecca Hackney

Submitted to Contest #130

The door inside the house was a mystery. No one knew what was behind it. Some believed it was full of riches others thought it was a serial killer lair. There didn’t seem to be a key to fit it and locksmiths couldn’t make one for it. It couldn’t be knocked down or cut down. People in the town would try to open it but none could. It was said only the owner of the house could open it however the owner vanished years before. So the door inside the house remained locked and mysterious. Jack arrived an hour before schedule which was good he tho...

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“Bottoms Up” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #130

Nine times out of ten, I would have hopped on A64 to make the trek from Leeds to York. Car trouble led me to the train station this morning, with sales still needed to be made. I managed to find a seat that wasn’t facing backwards and sat with my arm resting on my suitcase. On a typical day, I would be traveling a little heavier in the merchandise department. I was doing some unannounced visits to pubs in York today. My boss has been climbing up my ass in small increments as he notices the glaring blank space on his map of the York area. I a...

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“The Impossible Bride” by Wilma Segeren

Submitted to Contest #130

The Impossible Bride – Never too Late She opened her eyes to a sunny warm June day, thinking “My, isn’t life grand!” when it suddenly occurred to her that this was her wedding day. The look of peaceful bliss rather melted down her face, her eyes widened and her eager grin began to droop. Holy Shit! Was this really happening? She became suddenly a little sick to her stomach. She’d known Tim for only six months, but yes, she was in love with him, and he made her happy. Victoria was thirty-eight years old and if she was going to get marri...

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“Milkshakes and Daydreams” by David Lontok

Submitted to Contest #130

Written by Maynard Maxwell—the credits of three record-breaking shows were quite familiar with these words. Millions of people had seen what a British scriptwriter living in California can do. Maynard himself had been doing fine with his wits and talent alone. He had a huge, two-story apartment; a smashing view; and a glossy BMW parked in his own parking spot. He, of course, had friends, but his hours of vacancy belonged to family time. Speaking of family, one of them just walked out of the shower with a towel over her chest. “Good mornin...

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“Just See What's Out There” by Ashley Cullen

Submitted to Contest #130

“I only read books about the Holocaust,” she said. He wondered if he’d heard her right, it was very loud inside the bustling restaurant after all. “You read what, now?” he asked half-heartedly and a little bit confused.“Ok, I wasn’t exactly accurate there, I just realized,” she said, laughing. “I mostly read books about the Holocaust, but I switch it up sometimes with ones about escaping religious cults.” She paused when she saw his face, his eyes blinking slowly. “It’s always some atrocity or another that reels me in,” she said, staring dow...

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“Resolution” by Rob Ryter

Submitted to Contest #130

Saturday, 28 January, 1995 Snow lay deep, high in the Dinaric Alps, under the slanted afternoon sun. Demyan arrived at the den first. He didn’t think Serafim would mind if he lit a fire. He had it all planned. He’d brought a box of matches. He hoped his mother wouldn’t miss them. He was going to put them back, before she would look for them to light the gas for dinner. The den had been a shepherd’s house, they’d decided, the day they found it. Serafim had worked it all out. Serafim was the clever one. He would be, Demyan supposed, because h...

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“The Impossible Bride- The Cavity” by Wilma Segeren

Submitted to Contest #130

Impossible Bride ( Bible Study to the Rescue ) They met at a bible study group. Two single people not even looking for love but for God. Perhaps it was fate that brought them to the meetings at that time. Or perhaps it was the Gods. Jeremy was there because his track record with finding dates was atrocious and if he could find a religious girl perhaps he would be less intimidated. Jeremy did not believe in love at first sight, but he was attracted to Shirley almost immediately and though he wanted to get to know her, he did not want to loo...

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“Samurai” by K W

Submitted to Contest #130

TRIGGER WARNING: Physical Violence/Gore Ige Tsuneo ran his fingers over the dusty old book that traced his family’s heritage. It went back to the early 1600s, though he grew up hearing stories that were much older. He recalled his father putting him to bed at night, recounting the tales of Ige Tsuneo, the samurai his parents named him after. “The shores were teeming with Mongols,” his father would say. “If you could see it from above, it would look like thousands of black ants dancing over a mound of sand. Our people were greatly outnumb...

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“Red Dirt and Trojan Herbs ” by Andrea Mariana

Submitted to Contest #130

Jesse never heard the knock at the door, the gentle clink of the ceramic pot on his doorstep, or the Ford pickup truck rolling off into the distance. For all he knew, the potted plant which he could barely spot through the gauzy window curtain had descended from on high, a little blessing from the Almighty himself. In that case, He could have just sent Jesse some rain instead. But Jesse would never look askance at a gift; after all, he built his whole life on “squeezing a nickel until the buffalo squealed”, as Momma used to say. He had be...

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$250

Prize money

284

Contest entries

179

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 28, 2022 EST

Won by Allie Erickson 🏆

Title: A Man's Man

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!

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