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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

“The Mind Inside Her” by Jeffery Young

Submitted to Contest #130

The word tome always fills me with a sense of unease. It’s one of those words that provokes profound thought from its listeners, or users, and weaves imagery of ancient libraries piled high with mysterious, ancient, dusty old tomes. Tome! Tome! Tome! I thought as I stood before the old store. It was one of those side street buildings without a sign, just a worn white-washed plank of wood hanging from rusted chains. The entrance was packed behind heaps of potted plants and gardenware, making it a small adventure just to get to th...

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“The Locked Door” by S. R. Griffet

Submitted to Contest #130

What happens behind the locked door? There’s an easy answer: no one knows. For decades, my school has had this one specific door locked. No one knows why. The story goes like this: the original principal of the school was killing his students and locking them behind the closed door. When he died, he threw the key into the lake for no one to discover. Another story was the principal lost the key. What do I think? I think it might be a bit dangerous to go looking into it. I mean, what if it’s true? What if the man murdered his students and sho...

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“The Locked Door ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #130

My name is Zigfried Zanmori. Besides the cumbersome name I have lived with all my life, I was now standing in front of a locked door. I have no idea of where the key is or what secrets lie inside of the vault behind the large iron door. I’ve been warned that there are certain doors and portals that are better left locked. Pandora’s Box flashes through my mind, but my curiosity is a much stronger impulse at this moment in my life. This house belonged to my grandfather Zarkoff Zanmori who was as eccentric as ecc...

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“The Locked Door” by Mandy Sayers

Submitted to Contest #130

The kids are small enough to fit together in the bathtub. They splash each other and try to stand up. I tell them over and over they need comfy butts in the tub. I have a recurring fear of them falling, swallowing water, and dry drowning hours later while asleep. I read about it in a mommy blog once. To keep them occupied, I wave a bubble wand over their heads. The opaque bubbles float down to pop in their outstretched hands. The glee something so simple can bring lifts my mouth into a smile. I bundle them in towels, swipe q-tips in t...

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“The Locked Door” by Sheryl Thomasson

Submitted to Contest #130

The house. The house that has haunted my dreams since I was a child. That’s where it all began. It was a old, three story, stucco house with dark beams throughout and an old, dank basement. I hesitate to even mention the attic, lest it creep into my dreams once again.My father moved into this house with my stepmother and her 4 children after divorcing my mother.I remember thinking there was something really wrong with my stepmother. She was always talking about all of the ghosts there were in the house. I often wondered if she were a witch. ...

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“The Locked Door” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #130

Not very surprising for a man who is living his lifelong dream of being a detective, Allen Johnson is a frequent reader of detective novels, particularly the older ones. He especially likes the ‘locked room’ stories that include Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Problem of Cell 13, and the several stories of that genre that C. K. Chesterton wrote for the intrepid Father Brown to solve. What does surprise him on this day, is that he has a locked room case now that he...

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“The Locked Door” by Gianluca Angelucci

Submitted to Contest #130

There is a locked door, at my place. Probably I had better not call it “my place”, it’s just the place where I am. Maybe it would be more correct to say that I am it’s dweller rather than it being my place… Doesn’t make much of a difference, does it? Whatever the case, there is that one door that doesn’t want me to go through. I roam, one room to the other, yet my path leads me back to that merciless obstacle, just one single locked door. Where are my manners, I should at least say my name, shouldn’t I? I am… actually… does that even mat...

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“The Locked Door” by Anna Coon

Submitted to Contest #130

I’ve been stuck behind this locked door for 5 years. Moryen the elf captured me when I was just a dumb teenager going on a walk. I was clearing my head after a fight with my mother… I’m sorry, a disagreement. Royals aren’t allowed to have fights or even talk about our feelings. But what I wouldn’t give to have a fight with my mother now- a real fight. I miss my family; I miss my friends. Heck, I miss PEOPLE. I only see the elf when she visits once a week to drop off food. Behind her back I call her a goblin, ogre, witch- all the...

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“The Locked Door” by Sara Casnellie

Submitted to Contest #130

The Locked Door My house is a regular house. Yep. Just a regular house with a family living in it. Nothing more to it really. Well, there is one more thing. This is the fact that ever since we moved in, a door of steel has been locked ever since we moved in. Me and my family have never found the key for it so we make up stories about it. My mom says that maybe this house is haunted. My dad says that behind the door is a magical land. But me? Well, I think that the person who owned this house before us, was a murd...

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“The Locked Door” by P.J. Byrd

Submitted to Contest #130

I know we often built it up in our heads, her and I, Audrey and Me. We built it up so many stories high, too many stories. We were magnificent architects of horror. The obstructions got so tall, we would say, “Stop.” And we would stop. “There are too many stories in our heads, “we would say. “Stop.” I also knew this. I knew this was the hardest life we or anybody else ever had to live. And I should be quiet. I could be loquacious though and she often knew better than to continue like that, stirring alphabet soup like a mad man. But...

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“The Locked Door” by Matt Cox

Submitted to Contest #130

Whatever you do, do not open the Locked Door. That was the last thing Mother had said to him. That and he was a Good Boy. Good boys don’t break the rules, do they? And he was a Good Boy. He would be a Good Boy. He made breakfast and cleaned up yesterday’s dishes. Upstairs, he did his homework. He hadn’t gone to school and no one told him to since Mother had left, so it must be Saturday. He wondered if he had missed the bus. But he had been awake when it was supposed to come, and it never did. So maybe Saturday was really long. Sil...

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“Ecstasy of the Heart” by J.R. Hughes

Submitted to Contest #130

“I’m at the hotel. Room 124.” I fired off with a pin of my location. “Bring a pizza if you want to be let in,” I added. I sighed loudly and threw my phone onto the bed comforter that was the same color as the floor. I ran my fingers through my hair and clasped my hands behind my head as I tried to think. I had finally, for the third and final time, left Ryder. I left him, the last four years, our apartment, and most of my things. I only had what I could throw quickly into my duffel bag. My phone vibrated and moved across the stiff bla...

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“Heaven Above” by Rebecca Pebble

Submitted to Contest #130

“The clouds are fluffier than anyone on Earth could imagine, I would imagine…” I mused to Frederick who was eating a robust handful of dark red grapes beside me. “I like that word: Imagine. It contains such hope.” He was munching away as I continued my monologue. “You look like a supermodel!” I grinned as his pot belly hung over his silken pants. That stirred him to reaction. He smiled a toothy smile complete with grape skins in his two front teeth. He was a flamboyant foodie, but at times also a messy one. “I don’t know about you, but H...

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“The Girl in the Glass” by Anna Coon

Submitted to Contest #130

The Girl in the Glass Katie As dusk falls on the street, I take my evening walk. I walk after work each day, weather permitting. I’m a scientist, so I know the data behind exercise. I’m also stuck at my desk all day, and I need a release. As I walk, I work through my anxieties of the day. Some people talk on the phone while they walk, some listen to podcasts… I think. I think about why I’m still single at 40. I think about all the embarrassing things I said that day. I think about why my favorite protein bars must be refrigerated but oth...

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“Marked for Death” by James Grasham

Submitted to Contest #130

* = Frost Thaw is capitalised as it is the name of the third month in the calendar of The Three Kingdoms, equivalent to March in the Gregorian calendar. *** Luthar followed Lady Akindra, Ezekiel, Chadwick and Flint into the great entrance hall of the guild. Garrett brought up the rear, as was the order of seniority. The most experienced members should receive bread and ale first, squires second. Only now did Luthar outrank Garrett from Chadwick’s promise of promotion upon their return. The entrance hall was a vast open space, broken on...

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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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