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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#141: Everyone's a Critic

Like it or not, everyone gets criticism sometimes. And while a dose of reality can be healthy once in a while, it’s important to not get stuck in a rut of viewing the world, or yourself, too critically.

This week’s prompts examine criticism from a range of angles, from professional hole-pickers, to well-intentioned advisors, to the ones on the receiving end.

This week's prompts

Write about someone who critiques things for a living, or acts like they do.

Character – 35 stories

Start your story with someone receiving a one-star review.

Dark – 52 stories

Write a story about someone struggling to swallow some harsh (but fair) constructive criticism.

Middle School – 26 stories

Set your story in the lowest rated restaurant in town.

Fluff – 52 stories

Write about a character named after one of our contest’s judges.

Fiction – 12 stories

Stories

“Dusty Springfield at The Pie and Pancake” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #141

Two stars was a cause for celebration. We had only ever gotten one star up to that point. Just about everybody in Scoville had taken the time to stretch out their keyboard fingers and let us have it at one point or another. The pie usually took the worst of it. Casey Ann said she wouldn’t serve that pie to a dying dog, but I didn’t mind the key lime. The custard? No, thank you, but the key lime you could eat if you were starving enough for it. Casey Ann just has refined taste, because before she was a waitress, she used to be married to a ...

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“The Life Of Kyle Johnson” by Ismail El Ouazzani

Submitted to Contest #141

The remembrance of the days when I still was using, still passes upon me with a flame of excruciating regret. Yesterday I saw a boy, in his eyes I found the resemblance to my young self he bears upon his features, and for a second I was lost in the stream of memories his face had blown in me. It's been weeks since I had someone home. I lived alone for the better part of twenty years. Sometimes when I sit in front of the TV, it would to me the memories of my childhood home, and the sounds of that time would fill up my consciousness, and ...

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“HOOK!” by Cindy Strube

Submitted to Contest #141

HOOK!Gotcha, didn’t I?They say you should always start with a good hook, so that’s what I did. And it worked. You’re still reading.(Who are “they”, those incognito authorities on every topic from aa to Zyzyxia lundelii?Or, in this case, from fishing to literature?Because both of those involve hooks.)Since we’re already using the fishing metaphor, let’s determine an appropriate setting. Setting is important. It helps the reader become immersed in the story.Fishing — literal fishing, not literary fishing — requires water. Ocean? Lake...

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“We Were Kids” by Tanja Riley

Submitted to Contest #141

CW: Mention of: physical violence against minors, statutory rape, substance abuse, murder, suicide. None of it described graphically. Also contains coarse language.Only with the utmost generosity could it even be called a restaurant. We at least never ate there. No matter how much our stomachs growled and begged for something to alleviate the nausea induced by cheap vodka. The tables were scratched and the floors always sticky. The bathrooms, indescribably dirty. To be used only for extreme emergencies, like retching until there was nothing ...

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“The 3 Ways to Eat at the Memorial Restaurant” by Daniel M

Submitted to Contest #141

One star. I recently went to the memorial restaurant down by Madison & 24th. As I walked in, I was handed a menu. It read the following: ____ The Memorial Restaurant: Pick your serving of memories for the day! Some of your memories are like stars, some are like meteorites, others are like planes. Which one would you like to visit today? Planes Inflated, artificial. A light inhalation of smoke wisping off a joint - a fishing pole casting a line of smoke. Bait, hook, and sinker. A big gulp of something bitter. Pretending it ...

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“Black and White” by Mister X

Submitted to Contest #141

“Jamaal? Jamaal Black?” the Hispanic receptionist called out, looking over her glasses at a clipboard at the sea of people waiting for court-ordered therapy sessions. A tall white man in his 40’s stood up, dressed in a white polo shirt and light brown khaki pants. His canvas deck shoes squeaked as he cautiously approached her, so as not to alarm her. “Yo miss,” he said. “I’m Jamaal.” “You making fun of me?” The receptionist looked at the white middle-aged man, straight out of central casting. He couldn’t have been any whiter. ...

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“Samurai Karen” by Sharon Hancock

Submitted to Contest #141

Go Time. Adrenaline slammed through my veins when I saw the text. I stuffed rope into a military-grade rucksack, grabbed the cooler and loaded everything into the back of my minivan. My nerves jumped higher than a Mississippi cricket on the sizzling summer asphalt; but only because it was my first time purposely kidnapping someone. I did not have second thoughts—this had to be done. We had to stop, The Critical Karen, from ruining more lives with her ugly, hurtful, lies. &nbsp...

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“The Final Assessment” by Glen Gabel

Submitted to Contest #141

"One star? Are you serious? We're assessing by stars now?" In my ten years of teaching, I had been given feedback in person, peer review, and quantitative test scores of my students but stars were new to me. "Ginny prefers stars. We accept all forms of feedback here." Tricia Patterson, the head of the parental board, said matter-of-factly. I shouldn't have been surprised. I knew my last day as lead instructor at Sunnyvale Friends School would have its hiccups. I didn't realize the hiccups would lead to a total career seizure.And it star...

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“Fool” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #141

Sir Danielle Longbow looked Minister Qian Jo in the eyes as her blade cut the life from him. The old man whispered something as her blade sank into his carotid artery. Gulping with guilt she pulled the blade away. He clung to the wound. Red poured over his fingers as he tried to hold the cut closed. “What did he say?” Danielle asked, looking at Barra Mohani, the only one among them that knew Quingo and...

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“Condemned at the 'Cano” by Christopher Kelley

Submitted to Contest #141

The night before the massacre, Devon gathered his crew of ne’er-do-wells to sharpen their claws for a caper. A smooth syndicate of old-fashioned marauders, they lived for spoils and carnage. Taking all credit, leaving no evidence. They were criminal poltergeists with an arsenal. Devon “the Scalpel” stood and filled his lungs, which cued the crew to simmer down. Devon was in charge of planning (and everything else) — his silk-stocking plots always knifelike. World markets soared and plummeted at the sound of his voice. And tonight w...

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“One Man’s Opinion” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #141

Gerald went into his favorite coffee shop to write his theater reviews. Some cafés are about the food. Gerald went for the coffee. Coffee was his thing. He really liked coffee. Black. No. You don’t understand. He lived for coffee. Let me put it this way. Gerald was a caffeine addict. Gerald was how caffeine got around each day. He wrote poems about coffee. No one read his poems. They were a labor of love. He knew he would, one day, be hailed as the ‘Coffee Bard.’ Anyone knowing his poems could not doubt his love of coffee. He took satisfact...

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“RITA'S STEAKHOUSE” by Jaiden Frost

Submitted to Contest #141

[RITA'S STEAKHOUSE: DINING ROOM - NIGHT]The stale air of the dining room is filled with the aroma of charred meat and fry oil. The sounds of nearby traffic bleed through the poorly insulated walls, pushing past the sun-faded décor, and adding a consistent static to the otherwise silent room. Behind the trebly country-western music playing from the vintage speakers in the ceiling is the cadence of the kitchen pouring out from the small space.A vote would have to be taken on which of these soundscapes was the most annoying.Sitting alone at a t...

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“Humanity On Trial” by R. Sadeh

Submitted to Contest #141

We were asked to give our disquisition on humanity. So here it is. This shall be brief. It’s not the first time we’ve been asked about our position on the creation of man. Our stance was unanimous. We still think they’re hostile. Belligerent. They were a primitive race light years ago. Racing against the sands of time to evolve. To prosper. To adapt in a world that’s truly fitter without them. And now, they have perished. They are forgotten. Their memory has long been woven into the fabrics of space and time. This is an assessment of their r...

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“Rest for the Wicked” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #141

Rest for the Wicked was the oldest restaurant in the city, if not the country. It was also one of the most unpopular because the bigoted landlord didn’t serve anyone who couldn’t demonstrate their magic. The owner, Alan, was all skin and bone. Everything else had shrivelled away during his mumification eight hundred years before. If he loved one thing in this world, and it was possible that he loved ...

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“Soup Du Jour” by Abbie Pedrotte

Submitted to Contest #141

Dori woke up when she was good and ready. She’d stopped bothering with an alarm clock years ago, and elected to start her mornings slowly. The sun streamed in through the smeared, nicotine-stained window at the opposite end of her pathetic bedroom. She could still hear her father snoring across the flat, and finally dragged herself out of bed and into the kitchen in search of coffee. Her bones seemed to get stiffer every day, and each morning she awoke with a new ache, a new soreness in her feet or shoulders. Some days, usually days w...

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$250

Prize money

177

Contest entries

111

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 15, 2022 EST

Won by Hannah P. Simmons 🏆

Title: The Lonely Color

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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