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!

#157: The Green-Eyed Monster

Reality TV is a big guilty pleasure of mine, and the guiltiest of all those pleasures is probably Love Island. I've spent the last few weeks glued to my screen each night, chatting about it to anybody who's willing to listen — and a good few people who aren't.

One recurring theme of the show is jealousy; contestants break up and make up endlessly, and jealousy often has a hand in the drama that plays out between them. Of course, jealousy isn't always of the romantic variety, and envy over what we don't have can infiltrate our lives in strange and unexpected ways.

This week's prompts tackle the green-eyed monster, and how it can lead us astray — plus a tiny nod to Love Island. I couldn't resist.

This week's prompts

Write about a relationship, either romantic or platonic, that is being affected by jealousy.

Romance – 71 stories

Write about someone deliberately trying to make somebody else envious.

Dark – 25 stories

Write about a character who discovers the grass isn't actually greener on the other side.

Middle School – 44 stories

Write about two characters who both want what the other has, without knowing the feeling is mutual.

Adults – 27 stories

Write about somebody looking for love on a reality TV show.

Romance – 18 stories

Stories

“Beware the Envy of Gods” by Jessica Buford

Submitted to Contest #157

He set Fragile Things down on his stomach. The beach umbrella which had provided ample shade when they arrived at the beach at 10 o’clock that morning, was now only shielding his face from the sun’s intense summer rays. He worried for a minute that the book would leave a pale rectangular shape on his stomach, but the heat had soaked up any extra energy that would have gone toward relocating the beach blanket into the hexagon shadow. Staring up at the sky, eyelids growing heavier he felt heavy and the salt and sweat on his skin left a sticky ...

Read story

“Tea Parties and Cockroach Cults” by Cajek Veilwinter

Submitted to Contest #157

Marcel crawled on his little elbows deeper into the crawlspace of the mayor’s house. “Do you see anything yet?” The mayor called down. Marcel grumbled. “Just a moment, please,” Marcel called back. There were very few jobs for possums and even fewer for possums who happened to be mages. He closed his eyes and sniffed. Ah, there you are. He turned down an alternate tunnel - one dug by the cockroaches themselves. Got you now you little... The little vermin had dug under the mayor’s house - starting in the basement, they had du...

Read story

“At War” by Lonnie D.

Submitted to Contest #157

The Villagers I was a replica of my father and his father and his father’s father. And from me came a village. Close-knit and formidable. I only have memories of my younger days. I remember racing through the grooves and valleys of the land. I would look up and for miles and miles the walls of the valleys would stretch with no end. My grandfather told me countless stories of what lies beyond the valley and what was waiting for us at the top. My grandfather was larger than life. His charisma and personality were magnetic, drawing those aro...

Read story

“A Bitterness Like Honey” by SJ Latrice

Submitted to Contest #157

Sloane-Amalia is not afraid of the highborns in Lord Solomon's ballroom because she is better than a great many of them.Their poorly hidden disgust had been evident the moment of her arrival at Hallow Hall. They knew not to approach her. It wasn’t just bladed words that kept them away. No, it was the complete and utter loyalty the common people of the Paele Isles showed her. They loved her because they knew that Sloane-Amalia did what they wanted first, and what the nobles wanted last. Now they gather in their groups and dare not c...

Read story

“Aisle of Denial” by Gregg Voss

Submitted to Contest #157

Oh Lordy, I thought. She’s looking at me. At me. Finally. It was midway through the shift, but maybe I still had a chance. Her cheeks rose into an easy smile, and it took all I could to avoid waving to her, which would have looked silly behind the camera. She was wildly attractive, which is probably why she was th...

Read story

“All Hearts are Green” by L.A. Bloom

Submitted to Contest #157

“No don’t worry, we’ve got this, just get home; Missy is worried, she's called twice. I can’t cover for you anymore, Bruh. Anyway, she’s a good girl. I feel bad. She deserves better.” He didn’t mean to sound self righteous, but being sanctimonious had been assigned to him in eight grade when he lost his sight in one eye and his baseball prospects, breaking-up a bullying session after the school’s Sadie Hawkins dance, but righteous sanctimony and pity only got him to bar manager in the towniest bar in town. No one outside cared, but the insid...

Read story

“Bitterness and Bathroom Sinks” by Chandler Avery

Submitted to Contest #157

Sitting across from my mother, I silently watched as she ate. Her nose in her phone, the fork in her hand picking up the food in front of her repetitively. Scroll, eat, scroll, eat, scroll, eat. I had asked her a question moments ago, repeated it even with exasperation in my voice. Yet still, no response. It was like she was deaf. I contemplated throwing a fork at her to get her attention.“Mom.” “Hm. What?” Her response came, her eyes still unable to leave her screen. The reflection of whatever shitty Facebook post that had captured her...

Read story

“Luna and Stella” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #157

How can one try to understand a criminal act? Perhaps by accentuating the inscrutability in a human being, a fellow human being? Revenge was on her mind… It wasn't like in the movies. There was no compelling soundtrack, she didn´t have to dig tunnels with a spoon smuggled in the most intimate corners of her body from the refectory, and she didn´t have to bribe anyone to get a disguise. No, none of that. She just called a friend, on a five-hour leave, and he drove her to a ravaged slum, where two kind-hearted women cared about misfits and...

Read story

“It comes back to haunt me” by Girasiya Nathan Babvu

Submitted to Contest #157

He sank in his chair rocking softly to the gentle dusk breeze outside a clammy narrow verandah. His eyes stare into the distance while his long bony fingers tap the armrests in anticipation. The night creeps in and the twilight starts flitting all over. Crickets and cicadas crack the early evening silence with a gut wrenching stridulation. He remains a planted statue in an infinite loop of back and forth movements, as his mind shuffles through thoughts.Looking back love betrayed him. It was torture. Before encountering what seemed like love ...

Read story

“Aphrodite's Curse” by Nat Mirotta

Submitted to Contest #157

Contains sexual content and some physical violence.----------------------------------------------------It’s our first excursion away from the safety and sanity of home. Macey splashes in the ocean like a fetus swinging from an umbilical cord; Splash too much, and you might rupture the binding to be born too prematurely and escape mommy's closeness and be swept away in the vast undertow. The to and fro and gurgling of water through fluttering nostrils makes me uneasy. Why couldn’t she be holding my hand with me on the sand? Why abandon m...

Read story

“Top Ten Ways to Make Your Ex Jealous” by Zoë Page

Submitted to Contest #157

Whether your ex is a psychopathic lunatic who can’t treat you right to save their life, a player who lives off people’s heartbreak like some sort of beast, or just the average lover who ended it with a friendzone (so also someone quite insane), nobody wants to be seen as worse off after a break up. It’s embarrassing, frankly, and if you don’t want to resort to moping around watching soppy romance movies and sobbing over a tub of stiff ice-cream – “That could’ve been us!” – then read on! (If not, then you should probably think about your self...

Read story

“The Winner” by Timothy Cooper

Submitted to Contest #157

"I won!" Ava DiMateo squealed to the heavens, clutching her check between her hands. Glenn Doyle's eyes involuntarily bulged out of his face at the high-pitched tone of Ava's gloat. And then they half-masted as Ava lowered her voice into a throaty purr. "Again." She thrust the check against her chest as if she were trying to wrap it around her whole body, wiggling like a warm lover. Glenn glared at Ava with sizzling jealousy. He was a hairy yet balding 38-year-old with glasses, short and stout. His...

Read story

“Why Doesn't She Care? ” by Travis Hitchcock

Submitted to Contest #157

CW: This story is about a jealous, petty man with themes of stalking I’m on Instagram. She is too. I can see she’s online. I check her status probably ten times a day. When she’s online, I’m upset that she’s not there to look at me, pay attention to me. When she’s not online, I wonder what she’s doing. The mind can be quite creative when thinking of what a loved one is doing without them. She left me about six weeks ago. Apparently it’s because I’m too needy, too demanding of her and her time. It seems that “It’s because I lo...

Read story

“Victory” by James Masters

Submitted to Contest #157

John Michael Samuels the third woke, and the day was glorious indeed. Golden sunshine cascaded through crisp, white, Venetian blinds, and onto his catalog-perfect Ikea bedroom. Malm high bed frame, Eket wall cabinets set in as bedside tables, tasteful Stoense low-profile rug on the wooden floors beneath. He couldn’t pronounce a word of it. Not one. But John Michael Samuels the third was wholly unconcerned with that. It was perfect, and this perfection was the sole concern of John Michael Samuels the third. A perfect recreation of the Instagr...

Read story

“Take Another Selfie” by T.S.A. Maiven

Submitted to Contest #157

I’m Nikki King, 23 and everybody wants to be me. I posed and smiled for another selfie. Taken at just the perfect angle with just the perfect filter. I posted it to every social media platform I had. I knew this one would get so many comments from my adoring fans. I can’t help that I ended up being gorgeous and I was blessed with a stunning smile and a body to match. It wasn’t always that way. Growing up I was so awkward. Lonely and friendless. But on social media I’m a star! I already have ten likes on Instagram and two comments, and it’s o...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

185

Contest entries

88

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 05, 2022 EST

Won by Zack Powell 🏆

Title: Wish You Were Here

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 ⭢