Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#154: The Right Timing

It has come to our attention that Backstreet Boys (you know, the famous boy band from the 90s) recently announced that they'll be releasing a Christmas album. Naturally, this week's prompts are all about timing.

In a rapidly changing world, it can be hard to keep up sometimes. The newest TikTok is old almost as soon as it has gone viral, and trends come and go quicker than the seasons. And yet, some things are timeless classics. Taking inspiration from the ebb and flow of time, here are this week’s prompts:

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone saying, “We’re running out of time.”

Middle School – 77 stories

Write a story about someone who feels increasingly irrelevant.

Sad – 57 stories

Write a story — romantic or not — about two characters who can’t find the right timing.

Romance – 32 stories

Write a story about an object that has been around for centuries or passed down generations.

Kids – 46 stories

Write a story featuring an element of time-travel or anachronism.

Science Fiction – 68 stories

Stories

“Newton's Cradle and a Rat” by Jimmy Burke

Submitted to Contest #154

“We’re running out of time!” Ding* Ding* “we’re running out of time!” Ding* Ding*. Yasha looked up at the other side of the door’s threshold as he climbed up the short stairs into the passenger car. There was a small cat standing on its hind legs, similar to the way a person would. It was dressed in a blue train conductor's uniform and it was covered in white fur with a few black spots, including one on its eye. “We’re running out of time!” It squeaked again. “The doors are closing! We need to stay on schedule! We...

Read story

“Time matters.” by K.J. Dyer

Submitted to Contest #154

Time truly only matters twice in one’s life. When you are born and when you die. For me, the former matters the most. I’m 1 minute and 39 seconds younger than my sister Mary and those two minutes condemned me to always being her younger sister.However, I’m not the baby of the family. That honor was bestowed on our brother Luke, by exactly 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Yes, my family boasts not one, but two sets of identical twins. The pecking goes; Mary then me, my brother Landon and then our baby brother Luke. Because of the time difference bet...

Read story

“Potential ” by Stevie Hugo

Submitted to Contest #154

Mandy told herself twenty seven was still young, as much as she told herself she should just forget about the application. The application that hadn’t moved from her computer screen in five days. The application that waited for her when she woke up, got home, and ate dinner. When she had first begun to fill it out, it all looked so wrong. Her name. Her age. A year older than last year when she had opened the college website. “Like literally there’s five people who are Dad’s age in my class.” Devin had told her, “It’s not like the 80s ...

Read story

“Garden of Agony” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #154

Soon after the ritual dinner had finished, Yeshua retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and wait for the inevitable. As the apostles waited by the gate to the garden, Yeshua went deeper inside. Enveloped in silence, and overwhelmed in despair, Yeshua wept. “Why me, Father, and why now? Since the day I was baptized by John and walked in the desert, I knew this day would come. Not for one moment has this thought ever been in my mind. But did I ever hesitate, knowing my final destiny? No! Since I became aware of who I was, have I ever ...

Read story

“Evergreen” by Josie Lafontant

Submitted to Contest #154

I’ve always liked funerals. There is something strikingly beautiful about gathering to celebrate someone after they’re gone. Bonding with friends and strangers over shared absence. Reminiscing through tears, realizing the happiness that once was. It sounds morbid, but I don’t mean it to be. Grief is a powerful unifier, and I’ve seen the resilience it gives communities, pulling families closer with its worn hands and warm heart. Today is Chelsea’s funeral. It is also my birthday. I am curving through Pine Street for th...

Read story

“See you soon” by T M

Submitted to Contest #154

"That was great, let's meet again soon." "Sure, I'll be happy to!" They both pushed the strollers, each going her own way. They both knew it won't be soon but felt the dire need to keep the illusion about it alive. Two young mothers, each with her baby, hurrying to get home, to the endless piles of clothes to wash, meals to prepare and rooms to clean. Alone at home all day, with the fears of raising their newborn. The fear which was there despite reading all those modern books with all answers, despite the advice in the social networ...

Read story

“Penny for a Tear” by Havana Summer

Submitted to Contest #154

PhoebeIf I had a penny for every time I cried, I would have $5.06. That is, one crumpled up 5 dollar bill that I had saved when I was 8 years old by putting it in the hollowed out head of my ugliest barbie doll, a nickel that I found under the kitchen counter, and the hypothetical penny that my brain came up with.I don’t cry often. I didn’t cry when Pepsi, our adorable black Labrador, got hit by a car and died. I didn’t cry when my older brother, Asher, went into a coma from a skateboard accident and woke up a month later. I didn’t...

Read story

“Wrong Number” by Jessi Lopez

Submitted to Contest #154

I'm just an ordinary High School kid, I have a group of friends since I've known since I could walk, I'm on the school's basketball team, and I 100% have amazing grades. Except there's one tiny little secret I've kept from everyone since the start, I'm gay. Nobody in my family or school knows, I've just been afraid of coming out since I realized, I was afraid i would be rejected by society. I heard Mr. Hayward, my former neighbor started to be more open about his sexual orientation, right after he posted a rainbow flag in his front yard. It ...

Read story

“The Passenger” by Andrea Doig

Submitted to Contest #154

Death. I can smell when he’s coming. Wherever I go, I’m bound to catch a whiff of the odour most foul. I used to wonder if I was insane. Or if, perhaps, the tentacles of a deadly tumour were crawling through my brain. But it is Death and his sinister stench of decay that roams the pathways of my life.1920s London was not as roaring for the middle-class as it was for the upper crust and gentry. Even though it was a time of increased prosperity, my family still lived a frugal life. We were educated and went to our warm beds with full bell...

Read story

“The Indelible Life” by Andi Hyland

Submitted to Contest #154

Rudyard Kipling once said “the present is big with the future”. I suppose that also means that the past is big with the present. I’ve had a lot of time to think about the past, and I know this to be true. As it turns out. That’s not to say that I can’t imagine our future. I can see us ten years from now, looking back on our incredible life together. Retired not expired. I’ll be pushing sixty, and you’ll be as timeless as always. Knowing you, we’ll be looking forward...

Read story

“THE TIN BOX” by Francesca Zanoni

Submitted to Contest #154

Aaron was in the attic, his granny’s attic. I don’t know what it is with attics and children but they are constantly seduced by its dust, its chaos, its smell of old memories. Because that is what grannies’ attics are: living memories of past lives that still talk to us from beneath layers of dust. Indeed, children are able to infuse dust with new life, through the touch of their hand, driven by their wild imagination. Toys were so different back then, games were different: simple and slow, in the open air regardless of the weather. The roc...

Read story

“Son of A Beach” by Susan Dalziel

Submitted to Contest #154

I am inexplicably powerful. And I am one of so many, there are not stars in the night sky can outnumber us. Sometimes, one of us ends up in your pocket. Other times we get dropped but we move around anyway, cradled by the great forces. And after countless centuries, I have become the most beautiful form of myself I could ever have dreamt of becoming. I'm how I always hoped I would be. I am smooth, polished, sleek, potent. Funny how ageing gives me the properties that the land herd lose with the passage of time. Maybe, if I could condense the...

Read story

“The Things We Do For Love” by SJ Latrice

Submitted to Contest #154

You are a statue of She of the Burning Clouds and you are being blasphemed against. This declaration had come nearly every day since the wedding was announced. You had heard it all before, but today seemed to be one of the worst. Before you stood two women, brides draped in layers of white embroidered blue silks, facing one another with looks of pure, unfiltered love. They were unphased by the raucous chanting outside your gray brick edifice. The protestors had shown up the evening before and stood just outside the small parking lo...

Read story

“Land, Oh!” by Gianluca Angelucci

Submitted to Contest #154

There is nothing interesting to be said about John, but one thing is for sure, he owned a small boat. He was a bland and plain man with a quiet temperament, some gray hair sprinkled on his head, and he dearly loved sailing with his boat. It was an old grungy sail, with a grumpy attitude and more patches than original pieces. It was called L’Groo, a faded legacy of a kids’ game lost in time. Despite her rugged personality and rough aspect, you could see John move about her with sweet understanding, caressing the timber, holding her helm and r...

Read story

“A visit to the future” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #154

-"You may bring the prisoner in, “Monsieur Jean, the king's inquisitor, said, lifting his head from his parchment-strewn desk where he was working. Two soldiers stood at the door, like steel statues. The two disappeared in the long corridor, and before long Monsieur Jean heard the clatter of opening bolts and heavy hinges. A moment later the soldiers returned, with a man in handcuffs between them. He was a dark-haired man, with a dreamy power in his eyes. Monsieur Jean raised his head and lifted one of the parchments: -"Henry, isn't it?" he ...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

112

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 15, 2022 EST

Won by Suma Jayachandar 🏆

Title: Moonlight and Madness

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!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢