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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

“In the Mind of a Child” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #167

Dr. William Devonshire, Child Psychologist, along with colleagues, Dr. Hanna Porter, who earned a degree in Cognitive Psychology, and Dr. Lillian Gray, with degrees in Behavioral Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience, combined their efforts to work on a theory they shared regarding the minds of children. In their study, this group of brilliant minds had determined the mystery of pure, unaltered thought laid wi...

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“100 Seconds to Midnight” by Delaney Howard

Submitted to Contest #167

The time was 2 minutes to Midnight when I was born in October of 1953. When I turned ten, they reset it to 12 minutes to Midnight. When I was 21, it was reset to 9 minutes to Midnight. Since I was about nine, I've kept my eye on it with a vigilant, tormenting worry. The Doomsday Clock has been my obsession, my reality, and my measure of life's possible end date for the last fifty-eight years. Just as my 67th birthday passed, the Clock was reset once more. It was 100 seconds to Midnight. One minute and forty seconds, the smallest measure...

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“How Little the Painter Cares for the Girl” by Jim Firth

Submitted to Contest #167

‘It's on the house,’ I said, as I flashed The Painter my prettiest smile and handed him his espresso. He always gets free coffee when I’m on shift. I hope he appreciates that. Has he noticed the effort I’ve been putting into my appearance? I’ve been eating, sleeping, and exercising right. Today, I wore a pair of leggings that made my butt look great. I didn’t see him checking my shapely frame out, but it’s exactly that kind of artistic aloofness in him that I find irresistible. The fact that I can’t seem to build a rapport with him just...

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“A Yearning For Bananas” by Taria Karillion

Submitted to Contest #167

A Yearning for Bananas "Michael! … MICHAEL! …STOP! " I jerked back the blowlamp with a curse that my Ma, God rest her, would've clipped my ear for. My workmate pushed up his welding mask. “Jesus, Mary and all the Saints, you nearly torched your own leg, y' eejit!” he shouted through the biting, salty gusts. He shook his head and ran his big hand over his salt and pepper chin. "What the divvel were you playing at, lad? A welder can’t get distracted - especially strung from a shi...

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“Locked Away” by Vanessa Perry

Submitted to Contest #167

Trigger Warning: Contains hints at thoughts of suicide. Story is about the grief following loss of a child (though the child’s death itself is not detailed). Shadows danced along the corridor as Lucia clasped the lantern. Her gut tightened and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. A fine layer of frost covered the first door. Slowly, she opened it and stepped over the threshold. A vice made its way around Lucia’s heart as she took in the room. It was a replica of the ...

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“Run Loser Run” by P. T. Golden

Submitted to Contest #167

Triggers: severe mental health, suicide, implied not explicit abuse, trauma, grappling with reality.The sidewalk I slept on screams at me, mocking me. The trashcan I search for scraps in to satiate my grumbling belly threatens to expose my secrets. I repeatedly slam my palms into my forehead, trying to stop the echoes.The lamppost won't stop laughing. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you," I repeat uncontrollably, twitching, recoiling from unseen attackers surrounding me. I feel their tiny hands digging around beneath my skin. They are trying to fi...

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“Saving Austin” by Jahwon Corbett

Submitted to Contest #167

Austin has been asleep for 3 days. One morning our mother went to get him from his room for school, and he didn’t wake up. Our dad rushed him to the hospital, but he was not dead, sleeping. The doctors said that the hospital had overcrowding. Too many people due to some other disease going around; so they sent Austin back home to us. He’s been in his room since. My mother is becoming more upset each day and my dad hasn’t been doing too great either. I researched on the internet and found an ad on craigslist: "Local Wizard will help with ...

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“The Chicken, the Egg, and the Two-Dollar Haircut” by Delbert Griffith

Submitted to Contest #167

Ky crouched down behind a rocky outcrop while a hail of bullets peppered the nearby vicinity. The three men above him were intent on doing him in by overdosing him on some hot lead, but Ky was a rare breed. He was strong, courageous, and a dead-eye shot. With amazing swiftness, Ky let loose a barrage of shots that immediately felled two of the bad men. The other one took off, jumping on his horse and riding away. He was never seen in these parts again. “Oh, Ky! You saved me. And the ranch! How can I ever thank you?” Dorothy hugged him and k...

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“Head Games” by Michlle Wieck

Submitted to Contest #167

“Everyone, take your places! She’s going in,” Max shouts from his post at the front of the line. “I need every one of you ready to move on my order. Is everyone on their mark?” Max is always in charge. No one ever put him in charge, not officially anyway, but sometimes it’s easier to simply follow him than it is to argue with him. As annoying as he is, he is unquestionably the right person to lead this team. He is intelligent and organized, and he rarely sleeps or takes a brea...

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“Drunk Santa” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #167

“Did you see their faces?” the man in the Santa suit says, suppressing a hiccup. The bar is dim, cheap fixtures casting a blanket of anonymity into the farthest corners. Shelves of liqueur bottles—red, yellow, blue, green, amber—gleam like a jeweled high altar. A tinsel garland is looped on the corners of a framed picture of Jerry Springer, and mini lights are strung around the entrance to the bathrooms. A few sad sacks are nursing their beers at separate small tables. Merle Haggard’s wailing, “Some day when things are good.” And then there’...

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“Just 18 years old” by MIMI 007

Submitted to Contest #167

All I wanted was a move-out. I recently graduated from high school and applied to a university far from my family, and here I'm packing my bags with a big heart, the heaviest thing I'm carrying. For a change, love, and new starts' sake, wait for me. I'm going to chill. I want to change my ways and get away from nostalgia and my lovely hometown. I want to change my perfume, smell differently, create new playlists and make some friends. I want to forget my first love, leaving it behind, and the fact that I went to prom...

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“Covered in Glitter” by Mia Klare

Submitted to Contest #167

Barbie gets up on time each morning without the need for an alarm. She opens the curtains and welcomes the sunshine, and then she heads to her 50s decorated kitchen to have a glass of sparkling water and fresh fruit. Her morning routine is so precise that it takes her exactly an hour to get ready for her day, never a minute more or less. Not bad for a young woman whose mother named her after her favorite doll. She drives her economy car to work with her favorite pop tunes playing on the radio and a smile on her pretty face. Her highlighted b...

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“Rom Com Gone Wrong” by Haley Roeder

Submitted to Contest #167

The Man I’m never early to work. I hate every moment between the second I enter the grey building on the corner of 4th and – I wish I was joking – Pleasant Street, and the moment I leave. My cube, my boss, and my coworkers can all go to hell. I’m early today because I’m going to get paid to write my resignation letter on the company’s dime without any of the usual lot of rubberneckers looking over my shoulder. Just because I have a cube and not an office doesn’t mean its okay to have a look-see whenever you please, Kevin, you prying prick. A...

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“Thursday, November 23, 2006” by Danika J

Submitted to Contest #167

Thursday, November 23, 2006. I woke up to SOS by Rihanna playing on my purple digital alarm clock. I got out of bed, grabbed my new toothbrush with too many bristles, and brushed my crooked teeth. I pulled my fried blonde hair back into a ponytail to wash my face. Wait – that doesn’t make sense. I got my hair cut on Monday, and it was too short to pull back into a ponytail. So that can’t have been Thursday. Why can’t I remember Thursday? Thursday was the most important day of my life! So far. Did I do so bad that I forgo...

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“The Family Bible. ” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #167

"Laughter is good for the immune system!" Flossie Boomer told herself. This was it, the day she planned to start her new online career. www. clairvoyant-at-home.com Flossie was descended from an impressive and scary array of the society of dead Grandmas. Their team leader had been Great-Grandma. Flossie, a style icon of fat fleecies, was the holder of the definitive family Bible. "And you're fat!" the shade of Great-Grandma spoke. Yes, Flossie and her boomer sisters had inherited the cuddlesome gene. Phwoar! Flossie was not a hottie. She s...

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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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