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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#14: The Plot Thickens

This week, we launched a very fun* tool at Reedsy: our brand-new Plot Generator!

Turning to writing prompts is a great idea when you need that extra bit of help coming up with ideas to write about. This plot generator is here to do the same, offering more than 1 million** story combinations to inspire you.

You can choose to generate a fantasy, drama, mystery, romance, or sci-fi plot — or, just hit "random" and you'll get a little bit of everything! Plot ideas include characters, a theme, a setting, and even a plot twist... with just one click of the finger!

Each of this week's prompts is a plot element pulled right from our generator. You can feel free to incorporate as many of the elements in your story as you want — whether it's one or all five!

*Almost too much fun, if that's possible.
**Actually, trillions!

This week's prompts

It's about a photographer, who is a rookie.

Character – 34 stories

It's a literary fiction story about growing up.

Novel – 39 stories

It kicks off on a yacht with the delivery of an important letter.

Short Story – 35 stories

Someone in the story has a lot of hard lessons to learn.

Sad – 35 stories

And there's a twist! It actually all took place in the past.

High School – 32 stories

Stories

“Ready, Aim, Fire” by Ellie Jones

Submitted to Contest #14

Nobody ever meant for it to end up this way. People always talk about the dark and stormy night, but ours was actually calm and clear. Not a cloud in sight. No storms to be seen, not a raindrop on the horizon. One dark, swirling sky, waiting and watching, for all that would happen underneath it. It was you and me. I was falling, hard. I don’t think you knew. I still don’t think you know. We were here, and we were there. We were everywhere. A few simple mistakes led us together, and we collided, head on. You were you, and I was me. It was col...

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“Behind the Red dress” by Ghida Al Boussi

Submitted to Contest #14

There she was, standing in her red dress on a lonely rainy Saturday night. I saw her from my store window, she looked all confused and lost. Usually, I close the store at like 9 pm but I got so caught up with what I was doing that I lost track of time. She looked so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her hair was wet and sleeked back , her mascara was drooling all over her rosy cheeks and her red lips were smiling in my direction as if they were calling me over. I closed the store before midnight and I stood behind a pole wat...

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“Blue days” by Ufot Goodness Goodness

Submitted to Contest #14

After two years of being a photography apprentice, Oma finally got his own camera. After months of hustling and begging for applied jobs from relatives and friends, he got one from his cousin's friend whose uncle's friend had a few things to do in the world of art and news. He applied and filled forms and in a few weeks he reached out to art magazine companies and the city's press but he wasn't as good as he thought. He sat in the Lagos yellow tricycle going through his Nikon camera checking to see wh...

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“It's about a photographer, who is a rookie” by Debbie Stelzle

Submitted to Contest #14

Having the unofficial title of rookie or greenhorn photographer at home, work and other occasions I attend, the person who has the camera hanging by the strap, around my neck. As with all rookies, I continue to have to learn all the functions of my camera has even after owning about five years. I always enjoyed taking pictures from the first camera which was a square brownie. The camera didn’t even use flash bulb could only use the camera during the day or inside with lots of light. The photos were black and white ...

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“Racing Line” by Nigel Holmes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #14

Fawn pushed the foot of the monopod into the soft turf and, gripping the slender pole tightly, bent to squint through the viewfinder. Standing on the outside of the bend, just back from the protective straw bales, she had the crest of the hill about a third down from the top of the frame. It wasn't the safest place to stand: if something went wrong the car would be coming straight at her, but she'd been doing this a while. She figured she could tell if a car was too fast or the driver struggling for grip, and she trusted her ability to leap ...

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“The Red Blanket” by Poppy Dodson

Submitted to Contest #14

While growing up as a child we lived on 10 acres with a farmhouse that was painted barn red. My fondest memories are of the huge weeping willow tree near the water tank. Every year, just like clockwork, we would see many black hairy caterpillars cocoon and become butterflies. It was a special time of year. After taking our evening bath, me and my sisters would run over to the window and look outside to see how many cocoons were hanging from the willow tree.In the morning, we would check on the cocoons before we headed of...

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“Willows Cottage” by Vince Calma

Submitted to Contest #14

When she was twenty-eight, my mom nearly died of drowning. She broke from the surface of the water seconds away from death. A year and a half later, she went back to the same lake to kill herself.When her corpse was found, she was almost unrecognizable. Her whole body was swollen and bleached, her skin a greenish-black color. She was breaking down, slowly, underwater, and I imagined bits of her scattered unevenly on the bed of the lake.Were her memories stored there, too? The sound of my voice when I rattle off mathematical equations? The fe...

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“No Matter What” by Gabriela Tajzler

Submitted to Contest #14

The first day I met you, it was already a bad morning. My Dad forced me to wear this chess set excuse of a dress passed on from my big sister when I so wanted to wear my favorite dinosaur shirt and cap; but I had to be a lady for my first day of third grade. When I walked in, I was instantly nervous. I was the new kid. I didn't know anyone there. I had moved from a small town and now I was in the capital city surrounded by kids used to jaywalking and taking the public bus routes. But then I saw you. You were sitting by yourself. I didn't kno...

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“Becoming a Man in the Eyes of my Family” by Heather Adamsky

Submitted to Contest #14

My name is Ali and I think I’m going to murder my family. That might be an ambitious thing for a fourteen-year-old boy to do but, I have no other options. All my life its as if I’ve been held back by some unseen force, only recently have I opened my eyes. The problem has been standing in front of me since the day I was born, my two parents, my own flesh and blood. Only I was no son to them, just a waste of life that they were forced to take care of. My parents, the source of my suffering, the pinpoint to all of my anxieties. Once I murder th...

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“This all started courtesy Kuritsky car ruckus in Venezuela...” by Matthew Harris

Submitted to Contest #14

Brought about my premature birth, or so the story goes. Youngest of four involved in crash test dummy with hit or miss, and run. Vehicle subsequently deemed most fit for scrap metal. What a bang up job the wrecked automobile, which importantly gave life to the following anecdote. Hence, I pieced, stitched, and wove together tidbit of information, and resorted to fabrication only when necessary lack of information available to recount my purported debut into the world of mortals. Though deep into January (thirteenth tubby exact – thirteenth m...

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“Maturity” by Shannen Quiros

Submitted to Contest #14

Melody had underwent a series of hardships as a young girl. Third grade was a tough time for her and kids were especially cruel. They would alienate her and call her names such as “alien”. Other times they just pick on her for no reason. She had to learn how to stand up for herself pretty quick. “Telling on them to the teacher is the best option...but I’d be seen as a tattletale...” She decided that it was well worth the risk and went up to the teacher. “Ah hello Melody, what’s wrong?“ The young girl shuffled her feet back and forth before l...

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“We Were Fish People” by Scott Clarke

Submitted to Contest #14

Once upon a time, you and all our kind lived underwater: Fish People of the Under Reef. We lived deep deep down, far away from the harsh light of the sun and the grittiness of sand under our toenails. We made houses from coral and wrapped seaweed around our scaly skin for clothing. Hidden away from fisherfolk and boaters we kept safe and warm. Surrounded by those we loved, we held hands around the hot bubbles that rose up from the very Earth -- heat made especially for us. Without any light we had no need to keep track of time. Minutes? Hour...

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“The Vintage Curator” by Caitlin McGinley

Submitted to Contest #14

My memories of the day after my 16th birthday present as slides on a vintage stylish slide projector. Each moment reduced to isolated fragments of a story represented on individual 35 mml picture slides. I see them every year, on the anniversary of this event when I must exhume the slides from their prism-shaped storage box. Mechanically, I flip the projector’s toggle switches, watching and waiting for the telltale thrum of the fan. Watching and waiting for illumination. Each year, it is the same. The incandescent bulb broadcasts each...

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“Rhiannon” by Heather Forensky

Submitted to Contest #14

Nights in the city of Flagstaff are always coated in a purple hue with little white lights. Rhiannon walks out of her boyfriend's RV with a cigarette in hand. She scuffs out her cigarette and walks to her father's old mustang.The faded, red mustang sat parked by the faded white RV. The trunk made a soft whining sound as Rhiannon opened the back to grab a siphon and an empty canister for gasoline. She opened up the gas tank on the RV. The single pair of curtains flutter in the wind in the bedroom window where her boyfriend slept. Rhiannon put...

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“Alone With My Brother” by Aimee Estes

Submitted to Contest #14

He ran down the hall and cried on the day I was born. My brother. I obviously don't remember this event, but I have been told about it. Many, many times. It's sort of a running joke in our family, brought up every time we reminisce about our childhoods. I was an accident to begin with. My parents already had three daughters and a son, all three years apart. The perfect family. An even number. Then, five years later, I came along. My brother was no longer the baby of the family, but he was still the only boy-child, and this apparently cr...

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$50

Prize money

175

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 08, 2019 EST

Won by Raven T 🏆

Title: On Becoming Marcus

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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