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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#167: Mind Yourself

Do you sometimes feel like you spend a lot of your time in a fictional reality that has little to do with the real world? From cooking up imaginary scenarios about what we could, should, or would have said,’ to overthinking the smallest of incidents that happened years ago, our minds can make us feel incredibly powerful one minute, and equally helpless the next. These tricks our minds play can change our perceptions of both ourselves and the people around us.

This week’s prompts are inspired by the creativity of the mind — and the worlds we construct in our own heads (with both positive and negative consequences).

This week's prompts

Start your story with a daydream sequence, before snapping back to reality.

High School – 63 stories

Write a story about someone who overthinks every single thing, blowing the tiniest incidents out of proportion.

High School – 16 stories

Set your story inside a character’s mind, literally.

Fantasy – 58 stories

Write a story about someone who thinks their life is a romcom and they’re the protagonist.

High School – 15 stories

Write a story about a character who can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.

Horror – 80 stories

Stories

“Like the Movies” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #167

Potentially sensitive content: brief allusions to drinking, intoxication, language, and sexual activity Jenna woke up at 6am like it was the perfect day. She cleaned herself in a dingy dorm shower, listening to bubbly pop music. Her adult braces showed as she smiled in the mirror, donning a pair of straight-cut blue jeans and a colorful t-shirt, both generic brands. She brushed out her long, straight hair and added a thin layer of makeup to her face. Looking at herself, she saw Andie Anderson, Carrie Bradshaw, or Holly Golightly. She ev...

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“Never Mind” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #167

He writes. That is all there is to it. There is nothing else. There has been nothing since the entire planet closed their doors on the world and hid from the angel of death. No one told him that he had to sacrifice a lamb and mark his door so that the angel would pass them by. He did not know, so he did not act. His ignorance was the angel of death. Life is a big, dark joke and he is living in the punchline. The angel of death played a prank on him. It wasn’t the pandemic that took Leo, his little lion. Not directly...

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“The picture” by Ramona Scarborough

Submitted to Contest #167

The Picture Every morning, Anna walked into the painting on her bedroom wall. The warm breeze ruffled the scarf wound around her head. Feathered strokes of Autumn leaves fluttered down around her like a blessing. Slowly, she moved toward the doe standing among the trees. Her sympathetic friend’s large eyes shone, calling Anna like a beacon. Anna’s hand caressed the rough hair on the doe’s back. She leaned her cheek into the animal’s rounded side and felt the gentle undulation of its inhaling and exhaling. Anna sighed in contentment. &n...

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“Storm” by Fire And Ice Videos

Submitted to Contest #167

“You shouldn’t have done that.” He comes towards her and then her ribs are on fire. She’s on the floor and in pain. He’s causing it and not letting her get up. Another branch was blown against the building, making Tempest flinch. It was him, Jason; she could hear his voice in her head. The crashes outside, the dark and the shadows, it was bringing it back. She knew where she was and that she was out and that he had been killed, but the part of her that knew that wasn’t being allowed to reason right now. “Bold move, princess, you’ll re...

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“Dungeons and Kitchens.” by James Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #167

*Substances and mild violence/language.It was Halloween in the village and everyone was in high festivities. All but Jordan the head chef at the Ox Tale. Jordan turned on the equipment and tried not think too much about how he would miss the warmth that day.He had just changed a supplier, booked the electrician to fix the dishwasher, had two people quit and hired two people replace them and had put off the paper work for it all.The other chef’s arrived: First Ollie and Lewis, followed by Josh the new sue chef and Aaron the new kitchen porter...

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“The Thing About Lloyd Stanford” by Dani Potter

Submitted to Contest #167

Lloyd Stanford was your average, overweight, middle-age working stiff with none of those go-getter, climb-the-corporate-ladder “ambitions,” thank you very much. He was quite content with his nine to five desk job where nothing unusual ever happened, and every day bled together with the one before it and the one after it until Lloyd’s weekdays became indeterminate blurs differentiated only by the color of shirt he chose to wear. It was Tuesday, and Lloyd’s shirt was a dingy taupe color, the shade of an old coffee stain. “And how are we...

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“A good man is hard to find” by Baxter Renfroe

Submitted to Contest #167

There were streaks of rain along Madge’s kitchen window that she did not notice; it had been cloudy all afternoon but the rain was only now beginning, although she was unaware of it as she bustled about her kitchen ramming and slamming cupboards, boiling water on the stove, a cigarette smoldering in a green glass ashtray. Her pace was frantic as if she were expecting forgotten dinner guests at any moment, her forehead glistening with sweat she constantly rubbed away with her wrist – cursing and rereading lines of the cookbook, reaching for t...

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“Void” by Lydia Gibbons

Submitted to Contest #167

What? Where am I? What’s happening? Looking around nothing seemed to take any shape. It was all spinning. Or was I spinning? What’s with this line? Is it a line? Ahead of me was lined of black human-like figures going on for, wait, it seemed to just mesh into the blackness of the obis. “It’s your turn?” a voice said from behind me. I spun around to see a human-shaped figure made out of complete darkness, or was it just so bright the image was seared into my vision. I looked at the others in the line but it seemed like none of them cared, o...

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“Dark ” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #167

It was a year now, since his brother Marcus had passed away, and now John felt abandoned in the world. Since then, he had never heard of his other brother: Dark. That was not his real name, but that's what everyone called him, because of the mournful and haunting sound of his pipes. No one else could play the war pipes like Dark. But more often than not, the comforting and familiar sounds were an omen to tragedy of the darkest kind. John never believed that Marcus had drowned the night he left the village with his s...

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“The Insane” by Moon M.

Submitted to Contest #167

(tw: mental health, substance abuse, violence, death) The woman of fiery red hair was drawn to something that others feared, drawn to something that could disturb one's mind. She was drawn to something that was feted with medication, drawn to something others strived to cure, drawn to something that made people wail and cry out in mental misery and stress. She was drawn to her hallucinations, elicited by continuous drug abuse and the toxic process of hourly alcoholism. What could become one's vastest fear had turned into her very own ...

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“Nearly Transparent” by Scarlet Stroud

Submitted to Contest #167

Reminiscing on the past for some is easy and an enjoyable experience. For others, it can be as difficult to endure as pulling teeth. Others like me, that is. Days like these always tend to tug on those old memories. The ones that lay deep, buried in the back of my mind, waiting and wishing to be forgotten forever. I tentatively shut my eyes as the regressed echoes of my past pushed their way to the front of my thoughts. The rain pattering against the walls of my sanctuary eased my tension and allowed me to sto...

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“A Shady Brady” by Karen Davis-Hudson

Submitted to Contest #167

I couldn’t recall exactly where I’d been, but I definitely heard Mom calling all of us to dinner so I snapped out of my fog. The long table next to the family room was big enough for the entire family and it was nicely set. Even though we were made to drink milk with dinner which I didn’t like. Mom and Dad had grownup drinks it seemed. Maybe it was iced tea but I didn’t think so. I would have preferred it to milk no matter what it was. Cindy, Marsha and I sat on one side of the table and Bobby, Peter and Greg sat on the other...

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“We’ll Meet Again” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #167

“You bushwhackin’ sidewinder!” Tristan Calendar shouts. He quickly surveys the grubby saloon, realizing he’s surrounded by half a dozen of Cody Dillinger’s men. “This is between you and me, not your hired shooters,” Tristan says to his foe. “Let’s settle this like gentlemen.” Dillinger reaches for his pistol. “No one’s ever accused me of bein’ one.” Tristan draws first, pointing his gun at Dillinger’s head. “All right let’s be civilized then,” Dillinger says, holding up his oversized hands. “I’m unstrappin’ my gun. You do the same, and ...

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“Shadow Land” by Molly Layne

Submitted to Contest #167

Greenville, South Carolina “Where’s my kid?” The small man’s dark, handlebar mustache trembled. He leaned forward and placed his hands, palms down, onto the paperwork-littered surface of the police sergeant’s desk. “Where’s my kid?” he repeated. “I know he’s here. I need to take him home. He’s…he’s not stable.” &n...

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“Sunday Service” by Saraphena Wong

Submitted to Contest #167

At seven-thirty this morning, I walk up to the church. I do not walk past it like I do every other day. It’s Sunday. Me and Jesus, we go way back. I wink at him while he dangles from the cross, gaunt chest bleached white by the sun. Thin rays of dawn filter through the clouds and shine directly into his eyes. Poor guy’s all strung up; he’s got no way to shield himself. I always found it a bit tasteless how they nailed him up here on the peeling front cladding of the chapel, day and night, rain or shine. He is the savior, after all. ...

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$250

Prize money

232

Contest entries

96

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 14, 2022 EST

Won by Lucy Joyce 🏆

Title: Adelaide's Cemetery

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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