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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#217: Tropes

Last week, we revisited the old “show, don’t tell” rule. This week, let’s throw out the rulebook and have some fun.

In your reading, you’ve probably come across some recurring tropes. In romance, we’ve got star-crossed lovers, fake relationships, enemies-to-lovers, and happily-ever-afters. In fantasy, we’ve got Chosen One protagonists, reluctant heroes, and wise mentors. In mystery, we have unreliable narrators, jaded investigators, locked rooms, and remote settings. It goes on.

Subverting these tropes can be fun, but the tricky thing is that you need to do it for a reason, and in a way that enriches your story. Can you do it?

This week's prompts

Write a story about two characters who like each other but don’t get a happily-ever-after.

Romance – 91 stories

Set your story in a creepy mansion — except nothing horrifying takes place in it.

Horror – 64 stories

Write about a person who's been called to mentor someone in a special skill, but doesn't really want to.

Adventure – 27 stories

Write about a sleuth who’s a little too keen, but not because they have a traumatic past they won’t talk about.

Mystery – 10 stories

Write a story about a warrior who doesn’t want to kill the dragon.

Fantasy – 91 stories

Stories

“The Breaking of The World” by Jacob Chagoya

Submitted to Contest #217

“She didn’t deserve this. She didn’t…fuck, she didn’t deserve any of this.” Zuri mutters to herself a distance away while the setting sun dips below the mountain overlook she paces on. I don’t know if she knows we can hear her, but knowing her, she probably doesn’t care. Wiping her spotless blade mindlessly, she curses this journey, and us, for taking from her. James sits behind me in front of the circular golden gate that we’ve spent the last month looking for. His sword lays beside him as he runs his red hands through his sun-kissed...

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“This Mountain Follows Its Own Rules” by Bernadette Beauchamp

Submitted to Contest #217

The intel for this assignment was a mess and the only reason why Marksman James Pearson bothered to volunteer was the possibility that he could help recover seven missing girls. Kidnapped by sex traffickers made his blood boil. That's all he needed to know. The other intel, the witnesses' reports had to be a mistake or the people in these mountains were doing a lot of drugs. Their statements…they couldn't be possible. "You're here," rang out from a man in uniform approaching Pearson's truck, "I'm Police Chief Hawkeye. Glad you found us easil...

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“In The Name Of The Prince” by Joanico Casseus

Submitted to Contest #217

William reached the edge of the forest as the sun had almost finished its slow and gracious downhill slope behind the mountains. An eerie spectacle unfolded before the young man’s eyes. From his point of view, he could see nothing ahead but a vast, dried, dusty and dark land, filled with steep stones of all dimensions and- he hardly held his gasp- skeletons. Skeletons of many young men whose pride, courage, or perhaps despair and resignation have brought there, to their end. Most of them were facing the forest. They probably saw in it a refu...

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“Parker's Revenge” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #217

The entire town was cheering in the square. Banners of every color waved. Horns, lutes, and flutes sang out. The celebratory cacophony was was punctuated by screams of terror as an enormous black warhorse with shaggy booties trampled one too slow to get out of the way. More screams as blood geysered up and splashed the laggers. “HO HO HAAAA! Get out the way ya idjots!” the lead knight bellowed. The next cried out, “Make way for Prince Maddox! DRAGONSLAYER!” A hundred of the prince’s stiff-backed men marched through the crowd on horseba...

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“The Culling” by Fotini Vlahos

Submitted to Contest #217

“Ayame, please!” Hana whispers harshly into her daughter’s ear. “You don’t have to do this. There’s still time. I can get you out.” Hand in hand, fist clenched tightly around her daughter’s slighter frame, Hana scans the other Ryushi Clan tributes and their warrior parents for listening ears as they traverse the dark tunnel towards the arena floor. “Mom, no.” Ayame shakes her head, squeezing her mother’s hand once as she whispers back. “I have to do this. You know that. It’s the only way.” “You’re wrong.” Hana stops, pulling her daughte...

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“War of Dragons” by Sydney Luan

Submitted to Contest #217

I was tired of being controlled by her. The queen was like a parasite in my mind. She was slowly gnawing down at the whole of my being until I was only a husk of what I used to be. I used to live in the forest, hunting and exploring with my dragon clan. I was the only human, but I had the spirit of the Great Phoenix. In a desperate attempt to save the phoenix kind from the shadows, he gathered all his magic in attempts to repair the rift in our world and therefore banish the shadows. He died alongside the last of the phoenixes. In th...

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“Demon of The Chasm” by Anthony Beska

Submitted to Contest #217

Demon of The Chasm Spirit drained from the journey, the weary villager barged into the tremendous estate. He can’t even bring himself to be lost in the grandeur the noble warrior indulges in. The common area was aglow with life; a troupe of bards played and sang such sweet music of the warrior’s stories of conquest from the great war. The noble warrior, mighty and cunning Apevti himself had glistening goblets studded with jewels overflowing with the finest wines he’d been gifted and acquired in war tours all across the continent in eve...

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“The Fight” by Melody Watson

Submitted to Contest #217

Jane gazed into the bright orange setting sun, dreaming. It was evenings like these that get one’s dreams flowing. The warm breeze tousling her sagging curls, and caressing her cooling skin. The caress much like his. The memories flooding her with warmth, the warmth caused by his sweet gentle touch upon her cheek, as he knelt on one knee. “Will you marry me, my sweet Jane? I promise to love always. Please Jane, make me a happy man.” “I am already married to you in my heart,” Jane whispered into the breeze, like she had done so long a...

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“Good” by Bhavishya Kala Chilukuri

Submitted to Contest #217

I feel sick. I used to tell everyone I love how smarter she is than me but how can she be so intellectually deprived as to think she disgusts me? I could see her with a bloody knife in her hand, with her eyes as red as the devil, and I would still wonder when fate irrevocably twisted so much, and let me have the ever-lovely pleasure of waking up every morning and seeing the face of an angel, in the place of some painfully irrelevant paper that would tell the stories of the day. I feel like I could throw up anytime I think of crawli...

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“Flat Soda” by Chalice Davis

Submitted to Contest #217

Soda pop, pop, pop. Nose hairs dance. It's hot! Sweat falls down the sides of her curly auburn hair, kissed by the summer sun. Wide, white grin–blue tongues from melted popsicles. She sparkled in the sun like refracted glass. Rainbows dance on the ground. She had that look about her, a fascinating spectacle of chance. The spokes, the wheels, grey–they had lost their luster from heavy use, she spun the pedal slowly on her sky-blue bicycle. "I'm glad we did this!" Sasha said, cooly. "Me too." “How long has it been since you've ri...

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“Sparkles and Twirls” by Anastasia E French

Submitted to Contest #217

Dear Diary,Well..I am now 16 years old! I have a learner’s permit and am practicing driving. Dad allows me to drive on the way to/from school to band practice. He says I have a lead foot.He strokes his upper lip, where his red mustache used to be, and says, “I need you to practice driving slower so you can drive yourself to school after you get your license.” Does this mean I will get my own car, Diary??!!I met A SPECIAL guy. He is six feet tall, with strawberry blonde hair, and the most beautiful brown eyes. He plays trombone...

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“Pesto” by Levi Michael

Submitted to Contest #217

I remember the first day I saw him. It wasn’t his good looks. Sure, he was ruggedly handsome, messy hair and perfect stubble, but that wasn’t it. It was his smile. When he smiled his eyes disappeared and he was all teeth and chin and cheekbones. Then he’d laugh and blink bashfully, and grin like he was just so happy to be in your presence, grateful that you were giving him the time, even though, really, you were the lucky one. He was sitting on the edge of one of the eastside planters, him and a group of co-workers. They were having ...

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“Wish you back” by Ella Copeland

Submitted to Contest #217

I sit on the bus heading home after a long day. The rain beating down hard as I sit and listen. I pull out my phone and the screen lights up. I stare at the picture of you, your pretty face smiling back at me. It's been almost a year now. I get off at my stop and stand in the rain, letting it run down my face. Wanting to remember you the way you were before. back.. I remember picking you up at your house for the first time. I was so nervous, but when I saw your smile all of that went away. We walked through the park holding hands. Your face ...

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“Any Day Now” by Maya Rose

Submitted to Contest #217

Ellie, Age 13 Ellie Harper. Ellie Noah Harper. Mrs Noah Harper. Just scribbled words on a page, but the shape of them in my eyes, the sound they make in my head, is enough to make my heart pound louder than if a bomb were to go off right in my room. The mental images they invoke make my cheeks heat up. Noah kissing me with those full, pouty lips whenever he wants. His big, strong arms around me whenever I want. That dimpled smile on his handsome face, just for me. Him saying his wedding vows. To me. We’ll have the pre...

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“If you think about it, you will see it” by Shridhar Shivam

Submitted to Contest #217

“We are finally here” Mom was so excited, I guess she was the only person thrilled about us moving into a new house. Although it was temporary, I still didn’t like the idea. My elder brother had not given any special reaction about shifting, I guess he just didn’t care. The new house is bigger than our previous house, a two-floor standalone building made mostly of wood. The first floor has the master bedroom on the left, after entering the house, and a kitchen on the right with a dining table in front of it. The staircase went to t...

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$250

Prize money

283

Contest entries

130

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 29, 2023 EST

Won by Paul Crehan 🏆

Title: Who Are We to Judge the Music of an Octopus?

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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