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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

“Joshua” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #141

Friday night: 6 PM. The Reedsy prompt drops in my inbox: - Write about a character named after one of our contest judges… Okay: let´s go have a look at those judges, and see if one can inspire the muses to pay me a visit. Now, here´s one: a magic bean gatherer. I like that! He´s the winner. I´ll name my character after him: Joshua. I´m sure my character would have loved to be named after a magic bean gatherer. Especially since he was made of magic himself… Joshua was a person, not an idea. He was an allegory, w...

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“Participation prize” by Stina Henrietta

Submitted to Contest #141

They are smiling, all of them. Why do people do that? Why do people smile even though it's obvious they're nervous? Why are they pretending to feel joy before the verdict has been made? Isn't that what smiling is supposed to be about? Joy. As if he won't be able to see through the facade if they just smile big and kind enough. Honestly it's rather annoying, maybe even a bit pathetic. John thinks this every time of course, but he doesn't say anything out loud. When he told his wife about his contemplations, she had spun around from the kitche...

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“A Death Of A Critic” by Andrej Sirin

Submitted to Contest #141

I know how. The sheets stinks. Its me. Its my life. My urine, and the damned sweat. The bed's drenched with it. My feet reek of dead corpses, they're... not mine! My toes are cold. On the left, on the right, at the rear of this goddamned bed they're gathered. Sad, distant people. Some relatives with blank faces I don't care a bit about. Another three or four disappointed persons I used to call friends. We've got a company! And who the hell asked the priest to come over? All right, Boss. It is time for da confession. You've busted...

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“SONATINA” by Jim Johnston

Submitted to Contest #141

‘SONATINA’ by Jim Johnston “Dominick Rosetti presented his composition, Sonatina no. 6 for two accordions, bassoon, and untuned banjo at P.S.122 last weekend as part of the ‘Young Composers Series’ before a small audience of new music cognoscenti. Less likely to be recognized as ‘music’ by the average listener, his piece is an awkwardly arranged collage of disagreeable sounds that lurch and meander along until, gratefully, they come to an abrupt stop. You enter Mr. Rosetti’s sound world with trepidation, since, from the opening bars ...

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“Suicide Critic” by Fred Aiken

Submitted to Contest #141

I don’t know how I got into what I do. Don’t ask that question. But, I mean, who really does, you know, know what they wanted to be when they grew up? I certainly had ideas and aspirations when I was a kid. I still do. It would be nice to be the first abstract expressionist to go to space and get to paint Saturn a different shade or two. I also wanted to punch a koala in the face. Not for no reason. I guess I just never liked anything too cute. I’m a pragmatist, you see, and a realist. A real realist. That’s not actually a thing, but...

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“Little Miss Grudges” by Jerome Grafil-Carlos

Submitted to Contest #141

Arthur pouncing on the halls irritated Miss Guthrie even further, the pen snapping at her hands, the legal files in front of her held only in its perfect, flat form by the hands of Miss Dinsly who, after ninety-eight years of working under the hotel matriarch, knew by instinct how papers with one-star reviews could not withstand the forces of mental exertions her boss could produce once engulfed in rage.“Read me that review,” Miss Guthrie said as she stood up, marching towards the double oak doors of her office.“Well, Ma’am, I—”“Arthur!” Mis...

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“Dive Diner” by T.M. Kehoe

Submitted to Contest #141

He just had to pick this dump, to rub it in her face. Tina pulled up in front of the Dive Diner, parked where she could monitor her car while inside. By arriving early, she could choose the seating, and she would not let him leave her with her back exposed. Not this time. The chimes over the door jangled wearily as she entered. No one looked up, which was normal for the Dive. She knew her entrance had not gone unnoticed, however. Everyone in this place had an angle. Most of them had people trying to find them, and not for a happy reunion. ...

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“How I Met a Karen” by Gary Robinson

Submitted to Contest #141

My cab pulled into what looked like an abandoned estate in Thamesmead. A modestly sized, rusting, mobile office trailer that needed painting was next to a noisy diesel generator leaking gas onto unkempt grass mixed with weeds. The cab driver raised her voice for me to understand her, “You are here!” Gary shouted, “This is it? This is the Reedsy Corporate office?” She nodded, then raised her hands to her shoulders with her palms faced upwards. Gary paused for a moment, glanced out the passenger side window at the rusting mobile office trailer...

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“What's Lizards Got To Do With It?” by Ramel Kersey

Submitted to Contest #141

‘This was by far the most egregious conjunction of sounds and syllables that my eyes have ever observed!’ “Did you hear that Tiff? They even ended it with an exclamation mark. Do you know how upset someone has to be to purposely leave an exclamation mark?” She was fiddling with the free packets of sugar. “I wish you wouldn’t read reviews while we’re out to eat.” “Well the waiter is taking decades to bring our food, I could only sip on this free water for so long.” “Do I not exist? Am I a crocodile that can stick out its tongue?” Paul's ...

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“Gut Shot” by Joseph Registrato

Submitted to Contest #141

Gut Shot You know the thing about praising the writing first, then coming down a bit gently on the trite, redundant, irrelevant parts, or more commonly, the parts that make no sense at all? I thought it was kind of a universal principle among editors, an accepted practice in order to avoid having their would-be writers run off to law school or someplace worse, although it’s hard to imagine a place worse than law school, except maybe hell. It is done this way because it’s a well-known fact that people who think it will be...

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“A Critic Critiqued” by Rebecca Stack

Submitted to Contest #141

`Darling, Darling, what on earth do you think you’re wearing?’ says Greta scowling in sheer disgust at her fully grown niece `Clarissa that’s simply ghastly, it doesn’t go together in the slightest. You have shocking dress sense.’ Clarissa simply shakes her head and walks off, she’s learnt to take no notice `this is classic Aunty Greta’ she thinks disgruntled by the insult. Sure enough Clarissa’s non-reaction makes Greta set her eyes on the next poor target. Sitting down on the outside chairs of the nearby café ` Waiter, wai...

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“The Basement at Percy's” by Karen McDermott

Submitted to Contest #141

Robert Sorola got comfortable in his chair while he read through the agenda one more time. His son, Reggie, he’d sent upstairs to the kitchen with the vaguest of shopping lists. Neither of them had what you could call a refined taste. Both their lives had been peppered with such hardships that whenever food came into sight – whatever food came into sight – it was a case of how much they could claw their way before they found it swept away by someone who figured they were just doing their job. Not these days. Robert Sorola had risen throug...

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“The Sonata” by Andrea Mariana

Submitted to Contest #141

Gisella di Vallepietra sat, as gracefully as she could, on the embroidered padding of the stool before her instrument. She brushed off her silky skirts, and threw (yet another) anxious glance around the two dozen guests now ambling to their seats in her father’s gilded sitting room. Signore di Vallepietra rarely threw such ornate dinner parties – he could barely afford their ornate Venetian villa as it was – but Gisella had spent months begging her father to host a fine affair which might showcase her hard-won musical gifts. He had finally a...

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“Petr and the Monsters” by Andrew Sweet

Submitted to Contest #141

This story is about the war in Ukraine, though sanitized somewhat. Many violent things are implied here because the nature of what is happening right now is violent and graphic and disturbing. To tell the story without this would be to tell a lie. I hope that you can forgive me for any mistakes and understand that this story comes from a place of compassion and an effort not to look away, whatever the cost. “It’s in your head, Petr. You always let your mind run away with you. They’re not monsters, not really. They’re just men.” Maybe Ver...

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“Persnickety Eliot Wagman ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #141

There have been people in my life who have caused me a great deal of grief, but Eliot Wagman would have to rate at the top of the list. Ever since we launched Christoval Enterprises five years ago, Wagman has been a thorn in my side with his persnickety personality and his constant criticism of our general operations. As founder and C.E.O. of Christoval Enterprises which specializes in making technology accessible to companies requiring assistance by bringing their operations into the Twenty-First Century, Eliot Wagman ha...

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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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