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!

#176: Magic in the Air

Do you feel that? That almost imperceptible shift you can’t quite place?

Maybe it’s magic. Forces at work right under our noses. Powers we just don’t have the senses to detect — outside what scientists call our “umwelt,” or the slice of the world we’re able to see, hear, and feel.

This week, let your stories be guided by this question: what if, alongside things like electrical fields and infrared waves, there are magical forces in the world that we just can’t perceive?

This week's prompts

Write a story involving a magical potion — which may or may not work.

Fantasy – 58 stories

Start your story with someone witnessing magic from a hiding place.

Fantasy – 52 stories

Cast a magician (a real one, or a party entertainer) as your story’s protagonist.

Adventure – 26 stories

Write a story told from the point of view of an animal.

Kids – 49 stories

Set your story in a magical bookshop.

Fluff – 46 stories

Stories

“The Boy and the Apple” by Daniel E Gagné

Submitted to Contest #176

Bobby was fascinated by the cart salespeople who gathered in the town square every day. The men and women would perform demonstrations of their homemade tonics, elixirs and potions and would attract large crowds. School children like Bobby would sometimes skip school and make their way to the square, avoiding the horse-drawn carts of the busy steets just to witness the spectacle and the theater. "Come one, come all" the salespeople would shout. "Come young, come old. Come witness the greatest potions around!" Each salesperson would...

Read story

“Toetally Wicked” by Lillee Winter

Submitted to Contest #176

Yesterday something happened.Don’t panic - it’s not a big deal. You might even laugh about this later. You might have noticed that the water from your tap tasted a little different this morning. Did you notice? Don’t be alarmed. Let me take a guess though; you’ve consumed at least one sip of water from your tap today? More specifically, since 2.17 this morning? It might have been a coffee. It might have been bubbling around a creamy pot of home brand oats. Maybe you suckled it down, latching onto that refreshing glas...

Read story

“Before I Wake” by K.B. Tally

Submitted to Contest #176

In the small town of Belfast, Maine, at a quarter past seven the night of Christmas Eve, an apothecarist was startled awake from her prolonged sleep on the sofa. The hair on the back of her neck stood erect, goosebumps dotted her arms, and a feeling she had long since forgotten returned to her like an old friend – the feeling that an unannounced, important guest was arriving in the coming hours. She urgently wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and went to the elixir cabinet, scanning the glass bottles of various sizes and shapes with her ...

Read story

“Bad Dog” by Martha Sanipe

Submitted to Contest #176

“Hi Jack, I’m Dr. Stanley. Do you know why you’re here?”Do I look like a moron? That’s how I wanted to answer this patronizing shrink. But I’d figured out by now that a bad attitude wouldn’t get me very far. So I said nothing.“I understand you and Stevie were best friends a long time, ever since—” Dr. Stanley raised her eyebrows and nodded, a prompt for me to fill in the blank.I capitulated. “Grade Three,” I mumbled.The doctor smiled. “Tell me about Stevie. What was he like?”Her use of the past tense irked me. The assumption Stevie was dead....

Read story

“Jacoby Levitating ” by S N

Submitted to Contest #176

“What the actual fuck is happening?” I was standing behind a trash can that smelled of cat piss. I reasoned that the sight before me was the byproduct of ammonia intoxication because people can’t just levitate ten feet off the ground, in the middle of the street, with no chords, ropes, or jet packs. “Isn’t that Jacoby, that weirdo from third period?” Clara questioned beside me. Not only was I not aware that she had been next to me, but I was confused as to why she sounded so calm. It was indeed Jacoby, the most random of people to be perf...

Read story

“In A Dark Forest” by Irene Duchess

Submitted to Contest #176

Eleven year-old Emma Rosewood stared out the window, searching the dark forest. Only minutes ago she had seen a bright red flash, and was waiting to see it again. Emma wondered what it had been. She knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn’t stop herself from hoping it was magic. It could be, though, right? She was just starting to turn away from the window when she saw another flash—it was in the same spot, this time blue. Emma stared hard out into the dark night again. Nothing. Should I go or stay? Emma frowned, then made her decision. She w...

Read story

“Forsooth Sayer” by David Ader

Submitted to Contest #176

Harry made suggestive gestures around the voluptuous crystal ball. Eyes rolled back into his head, he chanted words that could have been Arabic, he even invoked Allah, with a smattering of Hebrew he recalled from a Bar Mitzvah, but most were gibberish. The teenage trio at the table tried to hold back, biting their lips, but one couldn’t manage. “Dude, it’s like you’re grabbing a boob!” They fell into hysterics. Harry’s eyes rolled forward to glare. “It’s how I connect with the spirits,” he said, any trace ...

Read story

“The Son of the Cursed” by Flash Gonzalez

Submitted to Contest #176

Norman Stevens opened his eyes, still tired from the day before he didn’t notice the changes right away. Once the tiredness had finally left him and his eyes weren’t so blurry, he found himself somewhere else. He looked around, this place was most definitely not his bedroom. The air inside this building was damp and hard to breathe. Around him lay shattered pieces of stone from the collapsed roof above him. This building looked like some sort of ancient ruin, but that didn’t make any sense. He had been in his house just last night. So, ...

Read story

“The Great Malone!” by Phineas Andrews

Submitted to Contest #176

Sweat rung from The Great Malone’s brow. The children sat wide eyed and mute on the lawn, the birthday boy Charlie was in tears and his cry was ringing loudly, a birthday kazoo in one hand and his other arm outstretched as if expecting to be picked up by his mum at any time. Their eyes were pinned on Malone’s face. It was a train wreck, but the children and the adults standing behind couldn’t avert their eyes. Even the birthday boy’s drunk uncle Herm was shocked and failing to laugh. And drunk uncles always find a reason to l...

Read story

“Party trick” by Benjamin Okojie

Submitted to Contest #176

The man stares at the piece of paper confused and in dismay. His rent’s due, and he can barely pay it off. He’s been getting fewer hours weekly at work, due to the lack of customers at the barn, a local restaurant, where timothy waiters. An alarm snaps him back to reality, as his phone, across his bedroom reminds him of what is keeping him afloat. He sighs and then with the snap of his fingers, the alarm stops. Jumping out of bed the man waves two fingers, the index, and middle fingers, and his closet door swings open. Swiftly he gets change...

Read story

“Frau Bibliothekar's Menagerie of Magical and Mysterious Manuals of Magic and Mystery” by Dylan Mass

Submitted to Contest #176

In the city of Swan Hill, there lies a bookshop that can give you whatever it is that you seek. The proprietor of that shop, Frau Bibliothekar, is a well seasoned witch, having lived since the time of the Great Library of Alexandria. She was also the one who accidentally burned it down, but she does not like to talk about that. " Da, I did knock over ze candle, but it vazn’t all mine fault. Who putz a candle in ze library? Miztakez like zat get you in trouble.” she would tell you if you asked, but since you didn’t, she won’t tell you. Frau B...

Read story

“Seeing is Believing” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #176

My name is Bill Williams. I’m a thirty-two-year-old store manager for a chain of vision stores called See Clear. Henry Aldrich is my boss and best friend. He is an excellent ophthalmologist and part-time inventor. Henry is a tall, slender man with a large nose, thick glasses, and protruding Adam’s apple. We’ve known each other since grade school, and though many of the other kids thought Henry strange, I have always found Henry fascinating. I married my high school sweetheart, Ellen, and ...

Read story

“A Kindness Forgotten” by Russell Mickler

Submitted to Contest #176

Mulzunites. The Temple of Yondalla. A Rash Promise. Mulzun was a Gaelwyn God of Knowledge and Skepticism, and His followers - collectively referred to as Mulzunites - were found in the City State of Enceröss. Bordering the Aevalorn Parishes to the northwest, Enceröss was built on the shore of a winding mountain river and was the nexus of many roads in the region. It benefitted from this confluence of coincidence by aggressively tolling its bridges and thoroughfares. Avoiding Enceröss would potentially add weeks onto a journey, so most begrud...

Read story

“Forget Me Not” by Morgan Madsen

Submitted to Contest #176

The pale flowers sat there on his desk, but he ignored them. He didn’t know why they were there. They had died a long time ago, but there they remained, mummified by time and a dusty old book. Someone had given them to him… he couldn’t remember who. That was ironic, wasn’t it? They are forget-me-nots. Why can’t I remember? He woke up with the bottle in his hand. He had forgotten to label it. “Such bad practice,” he muttered to himself, “not labeling things. Now I’ll never know what was in this bottle.” It wasn’t liquor, nor wine, nor ale of...

Read story

“Aqua Tofana ” by Asif Khan

Submitted to Contest #176

Giulia heard about the witch from a widow, an acquaintance of her mother's. The widow was rich and had three successful sons. Her husband had died of a fever, leaving behind an immense estate. Using the acumen and wealth which God had bestowed upon her, the widow shrewdly recuperated her husband's crumbling holdings, educated her sons, and married them off to rich and powerful families. The youngest of her sons was rumored to be betrothed to the daughter of the house of Valois. There was also a rumor that the widow has had illicit relationsh...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

231

Contest entries

111

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 16, 2022 EST

Won by Kylah Adams 🏆

Title: I Knew Better

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 ⭢