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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#140: Down Memory Lane

It’s no secret that many writers draw inspiration for their writing from real life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, when you’re searching for things to write about, taking a memory of your own and altering it is a reliable way to get out of a bout of writer’s block.

Memory is an important concept when writing fiction, as it helps connect the past to the present — so this week, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

This week's prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Angst – 102 stories

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

Character – 46 stories

End your story with total oblivion.

Horror – 24 stories

Write a story that involves a flashback.

Fiction – 71 stories

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Nonfiction – 90 stories

Stories

“His Name Was Bill” by Stefanie Hutcheson

Submitted to Contest #140

His Name Was Bill by Stefanie Hutcheson Mark? Jeff? I'm sure it was a four-letter name. Bill. His name was Bill. Bill! That's right! Good grief, how could I forget that? Honestly, pretty easily. We only had that one night together. One fun-filled, exciting, happy-go-lucky evening of adventure. Perhaps if I had known then the impact it would have on me I might have paid more attention to the details. Hindsight is great that way, huh? Alas! Oh sure. I had seen him around. Mars Hill wasn’t that big of a campus. He was a ...

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“The Worse Day” by Larry McDonald

Submitted to Contest #140

`"It seemed like yesterday," the man told his son. "I had a similar incident when I was in the war in Afghanistan. We didn’t fight the enemy with video games, back in my day. We were boots on the ground. "Dad, we don’t fight them with video games." "We use an Intelligent War-fighting Autonomous Reaction Force, or IWAR, for short," said the son. They might as well be video games; you watch them on your fancy screens and don’t even get your hands dirty. Although it is not a bad thing to keep our boys from ...

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“Pros and Cons” by Molly Norton

Submitted to Contest #140

I did not expect to fall in love with her. I guess nobody really expects that unless they’re like super hopeless romantics. Genuinely, I really did not plan on falling in love with her. I needed a roommate last year and she was looking for a place to live. I liked that she was organized and made random lists of pros and cons. Suddenly she was dragging me to parties or borrowing dresses and introducing me to boys. After the pandemic, I’ve been reluctant to get back out. Although, Veronica has absolutely no problem with it. By the way, her goi...

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“The First Sin.” by Charles Dean

Submitted to Contest #140

"Why do you weep, my child?" Asked a mysterious voice that echoed all around the dark sewer tunnels. Loray stopped crying and opened his eyes, startled by the question. He turned left and right but saw no one, making him wonder if he had lost his sanity. "Why do you weep, my child?" Asked the voice again. Loray looked down and saw a single red eye staring at him from within a puddle of dirty water. The eye seemed to look deep inside his soul and ponder at his depths. Loray jumped away and as he knelt facing away, he placed his hands on his e...

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“On Evil's Side” by Duha Khan

Submitted to Contest #140

“Almost there,” Hades’ slightly-distorted voice whispered over the walkie-talkie. “Take another left at the end of this street. There’ll be a security camera pointed right at you on one of the side shop’s backdoors. Keep outta its way. You don’t wanna mess up this time!” He hissed, the same way he hissed at almost everything he said. I took a careful turn to the left of the street, eyeing the camera he had just mentioned. It was a moving camera, that turned from left to right. “Okay, okay. Stop crawlin’ up my back, Dude. It’s annoying. An...

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“Fence Post” by Catherine Douglas

Submitted to Contest #140

(CW: Descriptions of gory injuries and post-traumatic stress.)Austin Tretheway felt like he had aged several years in the months he had been laid up in Stalag V C’s hospital. For the first time in months, he was able to look into a mirror, and wondered if the man in it was really him. The man’s face was hollow. His bones were more prominent. His eyes were deeper in their sockets, and lined with dark circles.“Corporal,” he said, looking at the German medic, Wenzel, measuring fluid in an IV drip bag, “is it really March already?”“Yes,” Wenzel ...

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“A Bite To eat” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #140

I was so ready for the weekend I could taste it. It was just noon; I still had several difficult calls to make and a meeting to get through. The walls in my office cubicle were closing in, I needed to escape. The stress reaching up from my back and into my neck made my shoulders as tight as a board. I dreaded that project planning meeting; missing the deadlines, I deserve getting dragged through the mud. My phone rings, I recognize the number, and just let it go to voicemail because I do not want to get yelled at. Wh...

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“In the Box” by K. M. F. Strider

Submitted to Contest #140

Content Warning: Physical and Sexual Violence, Language “Fine,” he says at last, circling the lowest number and signing his name. I hold out my hand. “Congratulations. You just bought yourself a car.” His hand is a little clammy, but he shakes on it and leans back in the chair. “You didn’t even buy me dinner first!” he jokes. I hate those jokes. But I am a professional, so I plaster on a smile. “I’m going to step out for a minute and get everything moving for you, and I’ll come back with some paperwork. Sound good?” H...

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“3 Little Birds” by Justin Briggs

Submitted to Contest #140

When I was a boy I shot three birds on a fence. The karma haunts me. It was a cold fall day, no snow on the plains, but the thought of snow in the air. My breath was crisp and chilled. There was no way to know what I was about to do. A good day for birding. I sat shooting my paper target that morning for two hours. I was a dead eye, as they say. Even with corrective lenses, I could hit anything I shot at. The weapon at hand was a Red Ryder BB gun. This device could be loaded with dozens of lead pellets about one-quarter the size of a pea, ...

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“Everyone Just Called Her "Viv"” by Marc Bradley

Submitted to Contest #140

September 1971—The morning started in a rush. I was in kindergarten and my brother in second grade. Mom was in more of a hurry than usual and was not her smiling, upbeat, positive self. It did not take me long to realize that my brother and I had missed the bus. Mom rushed us all into the car, all of us into the back seat, my brother, me, and our good friend Jimmy from across the street, who had missed the bus as well. There were no seatbelts back then, so the back seat was the safest place for kids our age to be. The next thing I remember i...

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“Bridge” by E KL

Submitted to Contest #140

Now my friends, as an Asian-American, you would think that I would have often faced racism and that I would have nursed each of my broken pieces into somewhat of a nice-looking sculpture with cracked lines running all over. But in fact, it was quite the opposite. As I was growing up, I luckily did not face as much racism as I do now. But now, I hurt for the brothers, sisters, and the elderly that could've been my grandparents. Every time I scroll through another article, I know that we have lost so much, yet we continue to climb the hard roc...

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“Blue Monster” by Ellison Edmond Everett

Submitted to Contest #140

I remember that horrible coat from all those years ago. On a blustery, fall day during my 4th-grade year, when I arrived home from school, it was just there, hanging in the utility room closet. It was a warm, light blue color. Ordinarily, I like blue.The colors that I detested at that time were brown and navy blue, but there was something about this coat that overrode the fact that it was a pleasant, calm lake-blue. It had a fur trim on the hood -- also something to be admired, but this trim looked like a gray and black lion’s mane, ...

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“In Remembrance Of All The Things I May Never Be ” by Eric Falvey

Submitted to Contest #140

*TW LanguageI remember the last time I had spoken to her with far more clarity than I do the first. It's a funny trick life plays on you, the way it blends the good memories all together into one indistinguishable blur, and yet, the bad stand out like the blood from a beating heart dripped onto the crisp white snow. This particular bad memory was neither the beginning of my story, nor the end. It instead served as a complexing, unending tide, wearing against my newly built faith. It is those moments I struggle to reconcile with. The anger th...

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“Snow Globes and Other Birthday Surprises” by Catherine Douglas

Submitted to Contest #140

“I remember the first time I was given a birthday present that wasn’t a toy,” Sergeant Plundell said. “I had turned twelve, and my father gave me a watch. I was confused, because I had wanted a new bicycle, and he told me that there was going to come a time where I would appreciate getting things I actually needed as gifts.” The middle of May brought beautiful weather, along with the young soldier’s birthday. A whole twenty-six years old that day, and spending it in a prisoner-of-war camp in southern Germany. He had been showered with gift...

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“Sant Pol de Mar” by Lee Waters

Submitted to Contest #140

Sant Pol de Mar Beach, Spain, August 1979I remember how his eyes held mine and drew me toward the shore, my feet sinking an inch with every step and hot sand squishing like little lava eruptions from between my toes.I’d had a morning’s swim and had just caught him watching me when a wave caught my back and ushered me forward. Then the wave collapsed behind me and fell back into the sea, like it had been called into existence just to present me to him.He stood there on the edge of the water and looked at me. I looked back.He said, “Shouldn’t ...

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$250

Prize money

333

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 08, 2022 EST

Won by Cecilia Maddison 🏆

Title: Old Soul

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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