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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#146: Getting to Know You (And Me)

Mental Health Awareness Week may be coming to a close, but it’s always a good time to reflect and try to treat one another with a little more understanding — even when our experiences aren’t the same.

Of course, understanding others is part of the job description for writers, or else how would we create our characters? With that in mind, let’s explore what it means to build connection with others (and ourselves), and the different types of reflection that may be required along the way.

This week's prompts

Write from the point of view of a character writing a letter to their past or future self.

Character – 70 stories

Write about a character attempting to meditate or do something mindfully.

Narrative – 38 stories

Set your story in an unlikely sanctuary.

High School – 34 stories

Write about a character discovering a surprising strength in either themself or another.

Character – 56 stories

Start your story during a team building exercise.

Adults – 17 stories

Stories

“Dayspring” by Kris Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #146

As I rattled my truck down the ill-maintained roads of rural Oklahoma, I couldn’t deny the deep sense of dread I carried about the visit. I had somehow drummed up the courage to visit my Grandpa in that tired nursing home, swallowed up in the bowels of a rickety small town called Engle. Dayspring, the home was called. I never liked the place, but Engle was home for him, and my mom thought it was good for Grandpa to be as close to the familiar as possible. I left work later than expected, so by the time I crunched to a stop in the unmarked gr...

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“Stranded” by Mary Louise Sammut

Submitted to Contest #146

Stranded The sun is aggressively melting all that is around this ashen landscape which makes my bed today. A breeze blows through the ragged trees and dry twigs shoot from the ground bending to and fro. I’m all alone. Afraid of what may happen in the next hours I decide to hum to myself so I don’t fall asleep and miss an opportunity to be found. Instead of a warm soft bed to rest after the fight, I lay in the hard rocky dirt with little vegetation to shade me from this torturing sun. I’...

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“Get Well Soon” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #146

Dylan lay in the hospital bed, semi-conscious and in pain. The memory of the purse with a brass clasp hurtling into his face kept flashing in his mind’s eye. ‘Brick? No brick? You decide…’ He still had his teeth. They would release him today. A nurse came to check his vitals. She handed him an envelope from the bedside tray. “This is yours.” “What is it?” “A get well card?” ‘Purse…’ He flipped the envelope onto his lap. ‘Just what I need, badly rhymed platitudes.’ The nurse said, “We’re releasing you. Do you have someone to drive you?” “I’...

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“Radiant Reality” by Sherri Moorer

Submitted to Contest #146

I didn’t think it would end this way. I thought the ability to transcend space and time would elevate humanity to a new level of existence. Now, everything is ending. I don’t know where this message will find me. Perhaps there’s a version of me in these nexus points of reality with the wisdom to learn from these mistakes. Unfortunately, I cannot see the potential of each version of myself. There are countless branches forming the tree of existence that continues to expand from every decision made. It is the balance of reality. It gi...

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“Meditation, mindfulness and me” by Rachel Hitchcock

Submitted to Contest #146

Mindfulness vs. Mindlessness The room is a cool green, minty, or aquamarine, a colour which encourages the atmosphere of comfort and relaxation which, I believe, because I am told, is central to any mindfulness therapy. We are told to close our eyes and think about our bodies in relation to the chair, the floor, the ceiling, the window; anything really, except the other people in the room: those others (why are they here?) whose eyes dart about, who shift uneasily, who avoid eye contact. We are asked to imagine that we are walking beside a...

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“The Broken Yolk” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #146

Nelly led a difficult life. She was not one of the gorgeous women who caught the eye of every guy as she walked into the room, nor was she the most intelligent of her friends. You might say that she was an average girl with an average life. Even as a child, and again through adolescence, Nelly was the person that nobody seemed to notice. She could wear a red dress and stand in the middle of a room filled with pe...

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“A Future Ghost” by Rosemary Erickson

Submitted to Contest #146

Dear Past Self, There is a ghost in your life, or more accurately my current life, which is just your future life, and I’m going to try and give you all the instructions I can to keep it out. To keep this ghost from coming in the first place. I don’t know where it came from, so I’ve been carefully compiling a list of all the maybe-ghosts who would want to haunt me, and I think if you are able to follow my instructions, there will be no future ghost. There is a graveyard in the middle of the New Mexico desert where grandma is buried. ...

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“You Do As I Say” by Gabriela D. Martin

Submitted to Contest #146

“Picture your reader,” was the pithy advice my editor gave me yesterday.Not sure he if meant literally, but I wasn’t going to embarrass myself and ask him to elaborate on it. I am imaginative – I can figure it out on my own.So, tonight, I found a comfortable position in my desk chair and closed my eyes. I got this. Imagining things was my day gig.Lots of faces flashed in my mind’s eye. From all continents. All skin tones, occupations, genders. Various degrees of intelligence and creativity.I singled out a guy sitting in an armchair, reading ...

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“this is for school I'm sorry I do not know how to write” by WREN MORTON

Submitted to Contest #146

Mauve immediately knew something was wrong when her two best friends slunk into the library, lunch boxes in hand. Riley’s hair was a mess, and Reese was walking slightly faster than usual to get away from him. This was never a good sign. When Reese got to their spot, he simply stared at Mauve, his lips pursed together, and didn’t even start a conversation. Riley followed after shortly, looking even more anxious than usual. “What is it.” She frowned at them. “Oh. It’s nothing. It’s just a certain someone in this room doesn’t value his frie...

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“A piece of lightning” by Bruce Thomas

Submitted to Contest #146

I was walking home yesterday, and I saw a piece of lightning sticking out of the ground. I squinted at it, looked behind me and back. It was really real, that was for sure. Between the bus stop and the corner, it was.I looked at it.I pressed my pupils on it real hard; I didn't want to miss a single detail.It went up into the sky.Man, oh man, lightning is hugely huge!"Jesus, how did this get here?" I asked.Nobody answered my question.I approached one slow step at a time. I went with caution. As you would. I mean, who knows what it might do.Th...

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“Past. Present. Future.” by Eric Falvey

Submitted to Contest #146

*TW Language. Depression. Suicidal Ideation. Depression.To: PASTSubject: FUCK YOUSender: PRESENTCC: FUTUREI am writing this letter from a place of anger and disgust. I am enraged when I think about just how much you have robbed from me. I get even more incensed when I realize that you never cared. You never factored me into your decision-making at all. You seemed to just run roughshod over everything in front of you, without any sort of cognitive consideration at all. Who I was to you then, was just fiction. It was clear that you never belie...

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“Best of Luck, Melanie” by Katie Odom

Submitted to Contest #146

To: Melly Belly <cranegamer@arteburn42.com> From: Melanie Arteburn <mbarteburn30@gmail.com> Time: 05/10/2022, 2:11 am EST Subject: URGENT! THIS IS YOU FROM THE FUTURE!!! DO NOT DELETE! To My Younger Self, I have so much to tell you, where to start? If you meet boys named Walker Deager, Richard Smith, or Michael Hill - date them if you wish - but know that it’s doomed from the start, and it’s for the best that you eventually break up. They are still boys when you meet them, and they haven’t learned what it means to love...

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“Secret Women's Business” by Leticia Mooney

Submitted to Contest #146

'Sister, how long have you known?' My devastated whispers echoed through the dark cavern. It responded with dripped echoes. I imagined that the faint breeze kissing my face was a collective of kisses from all women past and future. A gentle honouring, a please forgive us. 'Did you know what you were doing? That you were complicit in this destruction?' I sat heavily, the rock's damp seeping into my pants, making me cold from the bottom up. I no longer cared. I want4ed to know why so much was hidden. How much of our lives is shooshed up,...

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“Chasing Time ” by Korinne H.

Submitted to Contest #146

Another breath, another hour, another day, gone. I thought time was supposed to slow down as you grew up. No. It slips through your fingers like sand. Time treads at its own pace. It doesn't care whether you're jogging beside it or gasping for air miles back. I've been choking on Times dust for a while now. Twenty-four nothing to show. Wedged between the cushions of my hammy down couch, I stare numbly at the ceiling. Couches were made to feel comfortable and peaceful, yet here I lay drowning in insecurity. My boyfriend and I broke up t...

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“The Buzz” by Hansika Korivi

Submitted to Contest #146

The Buzz The television always stayed on whenever my grandparents visited our home. Vibrant commercials danced across the screen as they watched, nibbling on biscuits like squirrels. The furniture creaked as my grandfather rested his beautifully wrinkled arms and shifted his weight on the chair. I loved being around them- not saying much, but simply completing my homework or reading a book. Engrossed in the imagery of a thrilling novel, I laid on the sofa next to my grandparents when suddenly – a buzzing sound caught my attention. I look...

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$250

Prize money

215

Contest entries

134

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 20, 2022 EST

Won by Michał Przywara 🏆

Title: 10 Days to Mindfulness

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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