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!

#133: Chocolate Box

Next Monday is Valentine’s Day, which means chocolate boxes are popping up in stores everywhere. The sweet association between cocoa and romance began with the Mayans and Aztecs, but it only became a hallmark of Valentine’s Day when British confectionery giant Cadbury introduced the first ever heart-shaped gift boxes in the 1860s. 


Today, chocolate is inseparable from this occasion in many parts of the world: in Japan, some give homemade chocolate to their loved ones; in Ghana, February 14th is National Chocolate Day. And we’re joining the fun with this week’s set of delicious chocolate-inspired prompts. Take your pick!

This week's prompts

Write about someone going on a search for a specific type (or brand) of chocolate.

Middle School – 24 stories

Start your story with a character finding an old heart-shaped box in their house.

Valentine's Day – 78 stories

Set your story in a confectionery shop.

Middle School – 40 stories

Write a story about someone making a gift (chocolate or otherwise) for a loved one.

Valentine's Day – 36 stories

Write about a character who finds Valentine’s Day sickly sweet.

Valentine's Day – 26 stories

Stories

“Waiting, For You” by Jules Davis

Submitted to Contest #133

Content Warning: Some Language. My mind wonders as I await my turn in line. It was a mistake now, I realize, waiting until the week of Valentine's Day to buy my wife her favorite chocolates. Then again, I’ve never been one for planning. One of my wife's main complaints, among a long list of others. I shake my head to change the direction of my thoughts. Because if I’m being honest with myself, my last-minute trip to the chocolate shop was not a lack of planning, but more a lack of motivation. What is this holiday, but a time to celebrat...

12 comments 12
Read story

“My Heart in Your Hands” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #133

Misty Hargraves stared up at the house’s dim windows and fiddled with the keys.The Sun twinkled above and left half the building in shadow. The blue door sat beneath an eave, its letterbox mouth a straight line, its glass eyes black. The front windows showed the same, in that they showed nothing but darkness. Misty squinted, but the upstairs rooms offered no further insight. Finally, her gaze rose to the attic window in the middle of the pointed roof. Her eyes played a trick on her, and something shifted behind the glass. But that would be r...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Froggie and Toad ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #133

Who can truly know their parents, beyond the superficial aspects they share? ‘She was a good cook.’ ‘…Tidy.’ ‘Faithful.’ Can we know more than stock phrases? Do we want to? What key events ruled their lives? How did they see themselves? What wounds did they nurse? How did they connect with others? Parents are like mountains. You might scale their heights. But who can penetrate their depths? What lies veiled behind those mists? Or in those distant forests seen from the paths leading to the summit? By the time we become aware enough to ask, t...

10 comments 10
Read story

“Forgotten Memories” by Haley Kanewske

Submitted to Contest #133

There it was, I pulled up to the driveway and a rush of dread came over me. I haven’t been back home in almost five years. It looked exactly as I left it. The peeling paint and shingles that needed replacing. A place that use to feel so full of love now just looked so empty. I wish I would have come back sooner. I had no idea what I was walking into.As I made my way inside, I was hit with dust and childhood memories. Mounds of things were piled everywhere. These things that used to be everything to my parents are now just… things. Walking th...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Tall As A Cart'orse And Twice As Long!” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #133

TRIGGER WARNING: themes of grief and loss.Tom found opening his eulogy a lot harder than his pallbearing duties. Carrying the coffin was a bit surreal. It didn’t feel like Grandad Bill in there; it was just a box. A heavy box. But talking to the small crowd of mourners, when he was one himself, brought home the reality of the situation.Tom's mind wandered to his poor Grandma Ursula, as he collected his thoughts in the pulpit. The family had never had much money and he worried that care would be difficult as she grew frail.He’d written down w...

14 comments 14
Read story

“Abomination” by Minerva Noiropp

Submitted to Contest #133

The pastor took a deep breath. Here in the office, waiting to give her sermon, Vida felt confident. She knew that that confidence would fade step by step as she walked towards the podium.  Today was February 14th. It was St Valentine's day. The original St Valentine was a priest and a doctor circa 270 ad. Under Emperor Claudius Gothicas II he became a martyr, suffering persecution along with all the other Christians the Romans could lay their hands on.  There were varying rumors of what he was known for. Some sources claim that S...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Valentines Day, New York City, 1990” by Manuel Igrejas

Submitted to Contest #133

Valentines Day, New York City, 1990 Quentin was desperate to make the rent. The superintendent had rapped on his door that morning with a message from the landlord: pay up or get out. It was a tiny studio in a crumbling 5 story walk-up on East 93rd St. near 1st Avenue. Quentin felt lucky to have it. After an unpromising job interview in the West Village, he saw a Help Wanted sign in the window of the Duane Reade drug store on Sixth Avenue. This Duane Reade grew like a split-level tumor out of the West 4th Street Subway Station. Inside t...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Delicious Temptations” by Hannah P. Simmons

Submitted to Contest #133

Delicious Temptations. That’s the sign that hangs over the door. Our little chocolate shop used to be called Chocolate Chuckles, but the owner finally realized the quickest way to amp up sales was to bring innuendo to the party. Just imagine it for a moment. You’re sitting in the cafe, having lunch, staring down a gorgeous brunette at the next table. She doesn’t break eye contact as she takes a sip from her straw, sliding her fingers along the collar of her rather plunging neckline. The come hither is palpable. You open the box of chocolat...

19 comments 19
Read story

“The Anti-Valentine's Day Conversation Heart” by Kathryn Gabrielle

Submitted to Contest #133

"I want to throw a mud pie at Valentine's Day!""Yes, that's me talking. I won't reveal my name. Just think of me as the "Little Red-Haired Girl" that Charlie Brown stares at from across the school yard. He drives me crazy with his wishy-washy personality. Why doesn't he just come over and say "Hi" to me? He is always looking down at the ground. He is gloomy and I absolutely refuse to send him a Valentine's Day card EVER! I won't give my name because I am adored by the ever dreamy-eyed, sickly-sweet Charlie Brown. I will have none of that bec...

4 comments 4
Read story

“SÉRENDIPITÉ” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #133

        Henry Mead hurriedly strode through the maze of French back alleyways that once bustled with the breathing life of street vendors and shoppers. The February night air was brisk with a fine mist of Northern French rain dampening the uneven terrain of the cobbled street roads he hastily traversed. The old streetlamps that still worked, threw up shining reflections from the wet ground, spreading enough light onto the hazardous obstacles of loose bricks and rubble, still littering the post war stre...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Toilet Paper & Candy Hearts” by Isabela Maher

Submitted to Contest #133

Valentine’s Day. Mabel would have liked to meet the miserable oaf who came up with it. And who was in charge of those candy hearts, huh? Who thought to themselves, “Hey, you know what we should do? We should make candy that tastes like chalk…and sell it to people who are too love-sick to notice!”  The truck behind her honked. How long had the light been green? Mabel accelerated through the rain - the fat droplets pounding on her windshield getting louder by the second. The same truck was still riding her tail at five over the speed lim...

2 comments 2
Read story

“... Makes Me Sick ” by Alize Henry

Submitted to Contest #133

Milton had never been in love. He was honest that he had loved many women but none of them had ever won his heart. He swore that whenever he found that one woman, he would forsake all other women and love her for the rest of his life.Valentine's Day was easy for Milton. He rarely gave gifts to anyone for any holiday. This year was different. He wanted to give this woman something special for odd reasons that he could not discern.He would buy her a box of fine chocolates and a bottle of cheap champagne. The thought of buying her something che...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Annual Valentine” by James Morris

Submitted to Contest #133

Another Valentine’s Day alone. Thank goodness for these Meet ‘n Greet events that the local community center puts together for us single folk. I really look forward to meeting new women that are single and lonely, just like myself. It’s weird—for me, it’s a comforting feeling knowing others are just as lonely as I am. The way this event works is what brings me back every year. We spend the first hour meeting people in a casual atmosphere, buying drinks at the bar and getting relaxed in preparation for the next event. The next hour or so...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Red Envelope” by Sean Sorce

Submitted to Contest #133

"Isn't Tracy just the prettiest you ever seen?" my mother would ask me from time to time as Tracy and I have been friends since elementary school. I always replied to her with a yes just to have her not say anything else. Every morning when my mother took me to school, Tracy was always waiting for me there at the entrance stairs. Tracy didn't leave too far from school and always be there at least a half hour before school start. She was always punctual and never was trady.  Tracy and I have been friends since kindergarten and we had a...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Endy Mendy” by Hamzah Malik

Submitted to Contest #133

What if I told you there was a demon devoted to the broken hearted? What if I told you that this isn't some fairy tale with monsters and villains, but a very real, breathing creation that is as old as time itself? This creature's sole existence revolves around targeting the broken-hearted, and trying in his own twisted way to mend them. He only targets adults and leaves children well alone. He has no business cavorting with the realm of childish creations. This creature visits nearly all adults and leaves his mark on them. This creatur...

3 comments 3
Read story

$250

Prize money

204

Contest entries

121

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 18, 2022 EST

Won by Stephanie Kaye 🏆

Title: Mythes

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.