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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#207: Behind the Scenes

People usually bring their A-game when they know they’re being observed — but they’re often at their most interesting when they think no one’s watching. There’s a reason we’re all so intrigued by “behind the scenes” content, whether it’s about a celebrity we love, or an industry we find fascinating; getting to see all the work that goes into making something happen, especially when it looks effortless to the untrained eye.


With this week’s prompts, we’re lifting the curtain and going backstage. Whether we’re following a character who’s getting a break from the effort of performance, or exploring an industry where most of the action happens behind the scenes, let’s see what happens when we finally call “cut”.


PS — If you’re curious about the “behind the scenes” of Prompts, we’d love to have you! Get your own backstage pass by applying to be one of our volunteer judges.

This week's prompts

Set your story on a film or TV set, starting with someone calling “Cut!”

Dialogue – 46 stories

Write about a person who constantly has to put on a persona (e.g. at work, in their relationships, etc.) who can finally drop the facade.

Character – 80 stories

A journalist has been granted permission to visit the premises of a lab carrying out top-secret work. They could never have anticipated what they’d find…

Science Fiction – 38 stories

Write a story about a magician who never reveals their secrets — until now.

Character – 31 stories

Set your story in the kitchen of a bustling restaurant.

Fiction – 39 stories

Stories

“Honey Trap” by Amanda Atkinson

Submitted to Contest #207

Eira purrs on my lap, soft and light, and I lift her to my face. Her body is loose and trusting as I bury my face into her mottled fur and breathe in the warm scent of home she carries with her.My heart swells as she nuzzles my cheek, her rasping tongue drying the sweat from my morning run.— I think I’m starting to like Ellis, — I tell her as I lean back into the chair and lower her back into my lap. She pads at my thighs in approval.Ellis. My boyfriend of three years. The man I smile at every morning I stay over at his house, the man I lear...

2 comments 2
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“The Director ” by Ben LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #207

“Cut!”I stared down at the script in front of me. Another episode finished. The actor and actress, each dressed in flesh colored bodysuits, got out of the bed where they were pretending to have sex. stagehands with towels rushed forward to relieve them. Another episode done in the style of the HBO prestige drama. The likable antihero who is too virile for his own good. Big-budget spectacle, with violence turned up to the max. And, of course, the multilayered plot which served to justify the vice. “Hey, Don, you wanna take anot...

10 comments 10
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“ALL AMERICAN” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #207

ALL AMERICANChase Malone was the quintessential American hero: tall, strong, blonde and handsome. He was fun around the guys and chivalrous around women. He drove an enviable Porsche Boxster to work and a Jeep Wrangler to the beach in summer. He rose at 5am each morning to go work out at the Y and had the kind of buff body that would not be out of place in a pro-sport locker room. Additionally, he played racquet ball competitively, swam lengths twice per week and, on weekends, was the best player in his team’s softball le...

4 comments 4
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“They Always Find Us” by Theo Benson

Submitted to Contest #207

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Dr. Morrison held a small vial up to the light, amber liquid swirling inside. “After all our efforts, all of our sacrifices, we’re so close to a cure.” Isabelle held her datapad closer to the Doctor, determined to get as clear of an audio recording as possible. They had spent hours in Silver Grandeur’s lab. Her legs ached. With painstaking precision, Dr. Morrison walked Isabelle through all of the functions of Lab Section 1, explaining each device that helped to refine and prepare the contents of the...

14 comments 14
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“Fob Story.” by Ken Cartisano

Submitted to Contest #207

I’m just a run-of-the-mill journalist, okay? Except in certain sports related circles, you probably never heard of me. Neil A. Gleary? See? Almost exclusively sports write-ups with the occasional science article here and there. Not very well known.So I’m surprised when I come home late one night and there’s a message on my answering machine informing me that my request for an interview with the Director of AARI has been approved. Arrangements had been made, please confirm by calling this number, bla, bla, bla…I picked up the phone and called...

11 comments 11
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“Lucrezia and Lazarus.” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #207

Yes, it was a good scene and time for nostalgia. Nouvelle Lucrezia sat and scribbled, reminiscing about another time, when the past was a different era. "Once upon a time," she wrote, " I got married in a cloud of white optimism. Looking back, I can say there was a magician at work. I shall let you now all reflect on that little mage, Cupid. He is a blind drunk." She paused, then kept writing. "Never mind, little women. You too can survive survivor baggage, and raise your expectations in life. This beautiful world of ours can really be des...

0 comments 0
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“The Soviet Bull” by Zack Herman

Submitted to Contest #207

 Igor Zarkov, the Soviet Bull, glared into camera 2 and began growling what people in his profession call a promo.“You Americans make me sick! You think you are the good guys and everybody else are the villains! Land of the free? Home of the brave? Your President is such a coward that he will not send your puny athletes to the Olympics! Just look at this!”The large man with the shaved head and goatee held up a newspaper. The headline read “CONGRESS APPROVES ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR DISABLED VETS”.“What a fraud! In my homeland, the Soviet ...

6 comments 6
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“Last Ride” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #207

Welcome aboard… Guess you are my last fare for the night. We have about thirty to forty-five minutes before we get to the terminus and usually no one ever takes this last ride. Take a seat. There are about thirty for you.Right at the front… Yeah, I’m a little bored, too. Working nights has made me think that I must have something wrong with me. Better to be up and doing this type of work when the sun is coming around and you can feel the rest of you waking up. Only doing this…for my own reasons.Night shift for you, too? Great, then you under...

12 comments 12
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“STAR” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #207

STAR “Okay, you guys, listen up. This is it-the real thing. The first night for our new restaurant: STAR. No more rehearsals, no more fuck ups that we can get away with. Tonight, everybody needs to be on their A-game, okay? If you have a problem, let me know immediately. Do you all understand?” In unison, the kitchen crew acquiesced. “Yes, Chef!” “I can’t fucking hear you. Do you all understand?” “YES, CHEF!” “Okay, fifty minutes to service. Let’s do this!” Aldo turned away from his BOH staff ...

4 comments 4
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“slice of pie” by Colleen Ireland

Submitted to Contest #207

From a short distance, with cylinder ringlets, round saucer eyes, and peachy complexion, she appeared as a historical fairytale dream, a Miss Colonial pageant queen. Her rosebud lips formed rhotic consonant-r’s, all her words moving to the sounds of a Tidewater settler. An accent I was familiar with but couldn’t name until now. In her hand, a scarlet red crayon; the letters, CRO, were written onto a Muslim white wall in the Noix House main room. Turning to look over her shoulder, she caught me watching; wispy curls framed her apple-cheek fac...

4 comments 4
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“What We Lost At Sea” by Caroline Smith

Submitted to Contest #207

There had been a rumor, living in perpetuity on the tongues of generations of fishermen and charter captains, that something strange lived on the ocean floor. The brash and flushed old-timers sweating over their pub pints would exchange stories of a salacious mermaid tempting them beneath the surface with the promise of a saltwater kiss, as viscous and everlasting as taffy. The younger guys smoking joints behind the boathouse liked to joke about increasingly ridiculous combinations of creatures, a shark and an electric eel or a giant frog cr...

2 comments 2
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“brightstar” by Victoria Shellady

Submitted to Contest #207

At first glance, it appears Lilith has just stepped out of a romantic comedy. Her white and gray hair is tied in a fluffy bun, sticking straight out from the top of her head. She's curled up in a tight ball on a green velvet couch, sporting a flowy white gauze top and distressed jeans. She's balancing a book on one knee and a cup of mysterious green juice in one hand. A beam of light hits her from behind, making her silhouette glow. This is a startling departure from the woman I grew up listening to and watching on the biggest stages in the ...

0 comments 0
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“Exclusive” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #207

“Rufus! Come in. We loved your latest piece on the migrant situation in the Mediterranean. You’re really broadening the horizons of the readers of the Post.”                “Our readers already have pretty broad horizons.”              “Of course they do. They read the Post!”              Rufus sat in a windowless room, empty apart fr...

8 comments 8
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“Plaga Iuventae: A Debt to Pay, Part 2” by Steffen Lettau

Submitted to Contest #207

Another day of cameras, lightings, and sounds. Another crowd gathered, watching and waiting to see what happens next. No, this is not a major news development. This was just a filming for some new live-action series that would garner attention for a short time; and now, any minute, the director would yell... "Cut!" I had to wait a few more minutes, as the personnel started migrating from this set to the outside world, going for refreshments or a good cigarette. My person of interest, however, was with the director. He was to relay a mess...

3 comments 3
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“The Caregiver” by N.M. Stech

Submitted to Contest #207

           Jeremy woke on a bright Saturday morning during the summer between their first and second evictions. By more conventional accounting, it was the summer between his junior and senior years of high school. For his classmates, this was that illusive, magical summer between adolescence and adulthood, that rare patch of temporal ground in which the freedoms of childhood overlap with the privileges of maturity. It was a summer of exploration and discovery. Jeremy, however,...

0 comments 0
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$250

Prize money

234

Contest entries

96

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 21, 2023 EST

Won by Derrick M Domican 🏆

Title: Speed Fate

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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