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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

“Mind Over Marriage” by Sadie Gormanous

Submitted to Contest #167

Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of lost loved ones and other dark themes that may not be suitable for all readers. Please read at your own discretion. “Careful, Brie. You’ll cut your hand like that.” Brianna Millington looked up, knife poised precariously above the carrot, and grinned. “You’re one to talk, Robby. Remind me who in this room we had to take to the ER last summer? Because I’m fairly sure it wasn’t me, and there’s only one other person in this room, so. . .” His lips twitched. Robert Millington turned his ba...

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“Sleep Walker ” by Shannon Mabrey

Submitted to Contest #167

May contain graphic material. Includes death, violence, gore and mental illness.My name is Hank Hudson and in 1993, I maliciously murdered my seventeen-year-old neighbor, Marcy Ford. I currently reside at the Gilridge Penitentiary for Men. I was twelve when Marcy and her brother, Robert moved in. It was summer. Sweltering. Grape popsicle weather. I could see the U-Haul pulling up next door. I was in a kitty pool in my garage.There, hopping out of the passenger side of the U-Haul, was Marcy Ford. She was tall, thin, her sun kissed legs, long ...

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“Daydream Believer” by Kimberly McFetridge

Submitted to Contest #167

My name is Amanda Jennings. I’m 32 years old and have lived my life as a maladaptive daydreamer, meaning that I spend more than half of my waking life daydreaming. My parents died in a car crash when I was 16 months old, so my grandmother raised me. When Nana took over parenting me, she was a diminished grief-stricken woman who never recovered from the loss of her husband, my grandfather, in the Viet Nam war. When her only child, my mom, passed away 15 years later, she probably wouldn’t have been able to function if it hadn’t been for her re...

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“Control” by Madison Taylor

Submitted to Contest #167

*Trigger warning: mental health, suicide attempt There are secrets we never plan to reveal to the world because we are ashamed or scared. There are also secrets so big that we can’t hold them in forever. Some fall into both categories, and each day is a battle between telling a friend and saving our pride. I have been fighting this battle for three years. My secret has never surfaced, despite examinations by doctors and an overwhelming urge to scream that I hear voices. Yes, I hear voices. Yes, I am crazy. No, I’ve never told a soul.&nbs...

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“A BLACK HORSE WAS CROSSING THE STREET, BUT PERHAPS IT WAS A RED BICYCLE, INSTEAD” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #167

A BLACK HORSE WAS CROSSING THE STREET…BUT PERHAPS IT WAS A RED BICYCLE, INSTEAD “ Julian, you said you met Paula Z. some days ago(yesterday). Where did you meet her? Maybe at the Seven Stars Bar, which she frequented, when she lived here?” “ No, No…I met her that she was flying here in the city…ah, now I don’t remember exactly where …ah, here, she was flying over the White square” “ You mean she was walking across the square, don’t you?” Martha glanced at her son Julian with a look b...

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“Another Time, Another Place” by Austin Baker

Submitted to Contest #167

The seas heaved below my feet, threatening to knock me off the ship and into their grasping depths. Instead, I slammed painfully into the taffrail at the stern, earning myself a few bruises ribs and nearly losing my cutlass, as the unlucky fellow I was fighting fared worse. He did go over, vanishing under the roiling black waves before I had time to say farewell.Our captain was a right fool to engage the enemy vessel in combat during a storm but I suppose he didn’t have much choice in the matter. Nor I.There were two more of the same ilk as ...

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“Too Deep Down ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #167

Too Deep Down In my head, there is no lead up, or warning signs, maybe being center of this whirlpool; I am daydreaming; dealing with social distance, no job, not being able to see my family, meant I couldn’t see eddies nor feel how my world went further eschew. Looking back, I wonder if I was a different person, who fell into a hole, thought myself unable to cope. Or perhaps I simply couldn’t keep up with how life was changing. Did I fear abandonment? Aloneness? A microbe severing links with my fellow man? Who can analyze human behavio...

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“Time to Impress” by Falynn Almeda

Submitted to Contest #167

“Does anyone know the totals?” my team manager, Geoff, asked in a gravelly tone as he looked around the room. He was a not-quite middle-aged-man with a beyond middle-aged mindset. He had salt and pepper short hair and kempt beard and he also either had his mid-life crisis at 15 or never at all. The average sized gray and brown conference room was quiet except for the hum of the projector. That’s how old-school this place was; we had a freakin’ projector. And getting Geoff to upgrade anything beyond the early 2000’s to...

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“Issues in Fate” by Brooke Stonesifer

Submitted to Contest #167

Entering the grand, arching throne room, I immediately stiffen at the tense air. Not even the dustlight shifts as my companions and I stop in front of King Arwen. We know why we were summoned, we stand, backs straight and shoulders tense, waiting for the inevitable. I try not to fidget under his scrutinizing gaze. “You come into my kingdom-” he starts “-where I graciously host you on your quest…” he pauses, carefully looking at each of us, “and then you act without my accord.” His voice is like the calm before a storm, I focus on the ...

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“Midnight Kiss” by Nikolai Fox

Submitted to Contest #167

Paris, 1927 La Perle Rouge, a place for important leaders. Nothing crosses her red walls, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and lively music playing every night. It had been a long night. Working as a pianist at La Perle let me see things that didn't cross these walls. Those important leaders would come here to handle their shady businesses. It was a discreet place, with secret rooms and passages for meetings each with their own accommodations. Of course, those were all well hidden, and only certain people could enter o...

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“Rhea's” by Yael Pinto

Submitted to Contest #167

“You guys can come at seven,” said Rhea.Those six words throbbed in her head as she hung up the phone. “SEVEN?!” she shrieked to herself.As the stench of the day clung to her clothes, she slowly inhaled, peeled herself off the couch, grabbed her keys from the countertop, and headed toward the door. As the door slammed behind her...exhale.“Cara, Sam, Matt, Leroy, and Dean, that’s four, and I make five, so…” Rhea mumbled while tapping on the steering wheel with her fingers, trying to calculate how many beers she’d need to buy.“Dean is a d...

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“Superhero, Dream or Reality?” by Bernadette Beauchamp

Submitted to Contest #167

If only it could have been as easy as exiting the tunnel, but the situation only got worse as we entered a landscape covered in flames and dense, nightmarish smoke. I reached behind me and as I hoped, the precious little hand of Dylan grabbed mine, along with the hands of Rose, Mateo, and Alex. They were still safe with me, for now. "Stay strong Little Ones," I declared, "We can get through this." "Are you about to slay the dragon?" a voice rang out through the tunnel. "Sully? Sully, are you near?" I called out. My heart sang with reli...

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“Take Me Back to Dreamworld” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #167

She couldn’t decide if she should wear the red ones or the pink and silver pair. She lifted them both from her shoe rack and placed them side by side on the floor. Then rushing into the closet or ‘spare room’ as her friends called it, took the dress she was thinking of wearing down off the hanger and laid it on the bed above the shoes. After looking from the dress to the shoes a couple of times she declared aloud “No none of those – and definitely not that dress!”. Her closet was enormous with deep shelves, drawers and hangers full of clothe...

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“Home is a State of Mind ” by Em Dawn

Submitted to Contest #167

I’m 7 years old, rolling down the truck window with the crank. It takes every bit of strength in my small arms, but finally, I accomplish the task. The sky is clear and blue. A hawk soars across it. The engine revs and my father and I travel down a series of long and winding country roads. I cross my arms and lean my head out the window. Black-eyed Susans bloom in a ditch overrun by tall, tangled weeds. Dust circles through the air. I listen to the gravel spin beneath the wheels, feel the jar of an unavoida...

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“An Outlander of Dreams” by Emma Gonzalez

Submitted to Contest #167

My mind is blurred provokingly by an arcane mist that plays out my resonating thoughts. Within the haze, I spot a prince. Who is he? I find myself within my mind as I reach out to him. He takes my hand and drags me out. Outside of the mist lies a kingdom. I see people I don’t recognize. However, they feel like my close friends. I don’t know where I am, but this place feels like home. My memories begin flooding back into my mind. I have been here for months, and the prince is my friend. All of them are my friends. Behind us is a castl...

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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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