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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#179: Levelling Up

New Year's Eve is a time for celebration, but it also marks a watershed. If there's something you've been wanting to achieve, but haven't quite found the time (or willpower) to make happen, the start of a new year can be the perfect moment to turn over a new leaf.

This week's prompts are all in the spirit of progress. Whether your characters are starting an entirely new life, or are making a tiny shift in the pursuit of happiness, it's time for change. And if your New Year's resolution involves getting back into your writing routine after the holiday haze, we hope they'll provide ample inspiration to jumpstart your creativity. We'll see you in 2023!

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone making a vision board.

Adults – 17 stories

Write a story in the form of a list of New Year's resolutions.

Holiday – 38 stories

Your character always makes the same promise; to change. Will they finally make it happen this time?

Angst – 44 stories

Write a story about someone scrambling on New Year's Eve to fulfil their resolutions for the entire year before the clock strikes twelve.

Funny – 28 stories

End your story with a kiss at midnight.

Romance – 73 stories

Stories

“The Least Unremarkable Visitor” by Emma Pike

Submitted to Contest #179

Grant is a middle child. That is to say, he was born after his brother and before his sister. Now at the age of 43 Grant supposed he wasn’t a child of any kind really. Except, he still felt like a child. Not in the ‘seeing the wonder in the snowy hills outside the dirty window’ kind of way, but in the out of his depth, barely understanding what the adults in his life were talking about, being utterly clueless about fashion and always looking forward to 3:15pm so he could go home from school kind of way. Grant had liked being the mi...

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“The $500 Kiss” by Brian Speer

Submitted to Contest #179

It was late at night on my twentieth New Year’s Eve. I was wearing the gorgeous rainbow sequin dress that had all my friends in a hoot at my birthday party back in July, as well as my largest hoop earrings. Predictably, the reactions from the same people at this party were a wee bit less enthusiastic, but no one had looked at me like I was ugly. Especially the one friend whom I had invited first and foremost. As he stood in the corner by himself playing on his phone, I kept looking down at the three bracelets on my wrist so he wouldn’t see ...

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“New Year, New Us” by Dahlia Bardot

Submitted to Contest #179

Another year around the sun, and still single. I stare out at an amalgamation of my friends, their friends, and some of their friends’ friends sullenly sipping my whiskey sour. I realize that it’s not that I don’t socialize or put myself out there that renders me still single. I’ve made my way around this party to hug my friends I saw last week at our ritual weekly dinner, introducing myself to the friends they brought and those that those friends brought. Maybe they can smell the desperation of the introvert really putting themselves, or th...

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“Grace Woke Him. ” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #179

Josh stared at his vision board, as he lay on his bed. "I am a good man." So how was he going to get there? This was today, he woke up in a drug rehab. It had all been too easy to get there, now it was up to him to change. Becoming a party animal was the easiest thing Josh Sampson had ever had to do. One day, he was the hometown hero, the local suburban boy who had made it big in league football. Josh was a media sensation, a pin-up boy. He was champion goal kicker, always relied on to swing a game off his own boot. By now, he was nearly t...

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“Vision Board Adventures” by Kathryn Adler

Submitted to Contest #179

2023 Vision Board Adventures Piles of magazines filled the family room coffee table, the dining room table, and a plastic bin overfilled laying on the floor. As I prepared for the first and only ever vision board party with my sisters and my mom, I was filled with excitement and anticipation of creating a vision of my future. I was captivated by the idea of vision boards – I had done the research and was enamored by the idea that just visualizing your dreams and goals will be achieved. As my family entered the house, I had ...

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“Crisis and Opportunity” by Andre LeFosse

Submitted to Contest #179

Jess looked at her completed vision board and was excited for the year to come. She looked at her three main parts, the largest parts by far. A large four bedroom house complete with a quarter acre lawn and a white picket fence. It was a perfect house to house a perfect family. Speaking of family, to the bottom right of the house was a picture of a tall, dark handsome man with a dress shirt slightly open to reveal a chest that would put most marines to shame and the faint outline of rock hard abs underneath. She had taken the picture from a ...

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“Tis a Gift to Live Simply” by Deni Bee

Submitted to Contest #179

Stepping back from the colorful display, Caroline Winters surveyed her work. Pictures, quotes, inspirational messages, a poem clipped out of a magazine; it reminded her vaguely of a collage she had made in the fifth grade for career day. Eyes drawn toward the center of the arrangement, she whispered the words, &...

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“YOU COULD BET YOUR LIFE ON IT” by BRUCE MARTIN

Submitted to Contest #179

Bucky McKeever was sick and tired of not having it all. Everywhere he looked, he saw men living large; high on the hog, if you will. As a low-level manager at a large investment firm, he was surrounded by the high-voltage energy of day-trading and financial wheelings and dealings. His boss, Mr. Jonathan Stevens, a man of only 35, was already a multi-millionaire; a graduate of Wharton Business School and a mergers and acquisitions expert, he could earn more in one deal than Bucky made in a lifetime. As the New Year approached, Bu...

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“January 1st” by Helen Boland

Submitted to Contest #179

It was January 1st. Samantha sat at her kitchen table in her old pajamas and ragged bedroom shoes. A blanket still covered her shoulders like a warm fuzzy cape. Her hair was thrown up in a messy bun that she had slept in. Frizz shot out in every direction from her head. Her coffee was warm in the cold kitchen. She cupped her mug with both hands looking down at her new dotted bullet journal, opened to the first page where she had decided to list her goals for the upcoming year. She had listed her few resolutions already the previous nig...

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“New Year Tango Daylight” by John Jenkins

Submitted to Contest #179

(Note: Contains references to surgery.) Herr Arthur Shaupenfrauf, I have compiled a list of your New Years resolutions for the year 2024. Listen very carefully. It might not matter too much, as so much as happened. But I want you to be cognizant of the fact that not everything that we have been through these past few years has been that bad. Ultimately, we have survived. Though we may not have the ability to achieve all ten of the things on this list within a sufficient period, I want you to know that life is still good. I have been watchi...

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“New Year--Same Me” by Brenda Wilson

Submitted to Contest #179

New Year Resolutions: I will no longer allow others to steal my happiness. It is my responsibility. No one else’s. When Jimmy calls, I will not answer. I don’t care how cute he looked in that bow tie at the New Year’s Eve party last night. I don’t care that my knees still buckled when he touched my lower back to walk around me. I don’t care that his aftershave is still embedded into my pillow and the smell of it makes me shiver. He broke my heart. He doesn’t deserve me. Besides, if he wanted me back he wouldn’t have been sucking face with...

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“2152 Resolutions” by Joelle Godfrey

Submitted to Contest #179

Meyer. Just Meyer is what I go by. I’ve spent the entire year trying to live up to the promise I made at the shrine in 2152. Like everyone in Shokertown, I headed over to the shrine at the New Year to pray and give thanks for the year before and hope for good things to come. The line last year wrapped around the corner from the temple entrance. The weather at the New Year was always sweltering. People were fanning themselves, but no one left the line. When I finally reached the shrine, I clapped my hands and prayed...

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“Meredith's New Year's Resolutions” by Katherine Gibson

Submitted to Contest #179

Swear off dating losers (i.e. stand-up comedians) and instead find a nice guy with a stable job and a decent credit score. Do not respond to James’s texts, calls, or emails. Even if he’s charming. Even if he’s desperate. Ignore James when you run into him in public. Especially if it happens to be the same bar where you’re waiting to meet your Tinder date. If you can’t ignore him, be as cold as possible and let him know that your life is so much better now that he’s out of the picture. Don’t believe him when he says his comedy career is...

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“Time to Change” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #179

Change is easy when you think about it. Change is easy to talk about. Change is always easier said than done. Tim sat at the edge of his lonely bed and resolved to change yet again. This was not the first time and he had this sinking feeling even as he grit his teeth and promised himself and the world that this time would be different, this time he would change. That sinking feeling was all too familiar. That sinking feeling was now a part of him, and yet it wasn’t, because he was sinking into the world around him. No one is ...

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“At the Bottom of a Wishing Well ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #179

"Hi, my name is Dustin and I'm an alcoholic." He said as he sighed and closed his eyes. He had no desire to look at any members of the group. One of the old timers had decorated the room with Christmas cheer, a mocking reminder of his New Year's resolution to quit drinking. That had not happened and with a week left of the crumbs old year passing, Dustin Wenton was still drinking despite two tours of rehab. All he could smell was his failing liver trying to metabolize the quart of vodka he had for lunch, just before t...

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$250

Prize money

200

Contest entries

103

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 06, 2023 EST

Won by Saeda Rose 🏆

Title: Resolute

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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