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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 – 92 stories

Stories

“The Other Side of Ever After” by Karen Corr

Submitted to Contest #217

Day 643Some say we're not human anymore and that we've become something else, but the sun still warms our faces, and the ocean wind still lifts our hair as the waves ebb and flow over our bare feet.Love is still love. I kiss Jess. He smiles.We hold hands while walking along Ocean Beach in San Diego. Other couples walk nearby, and some families too. No one walks with dogs. The seagulls ignore us to fly further out over the water on their endless quest for food—survivors like us. By now, they know we won't feed them. Food is too dear.SeaWorld ...

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“GiGi Doesn't Live Here Anymore” by Myranda Marie

Submitted to Contest #217

“Let’s go! I want to be there before your aunt and cousin arrive. You know how she is, and frankly I have enough to contend with right now. I do not need her baseless judgements.” Thirteen-year-old Philip Martin continued to pack his overnight bag without acknowledging his mother’s vociferous command. He shook his head and thought to himself, “yelling like that isn’t going to motivate me to fold any faster; these things take time.” Philip wasn’t intentionally being difficult, and despite her best efforts to hurry his progress, his...

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“Advice- 5 cents/$5.00” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #217

Advice- 5₵ $5.00If you’ve ever wondered what happened to Lucy Van Pelt of “Peanuts” fame, you’ve come to the right place. If the topic never concerned you, well, maybe you’ll stumble across the subject in a late-night, free-wheeling Trivia game, and you can impress your friends.Young Lucy’s business model mirrored Lincoln’s reflection on the legal profession- her time and advice were her stock in trade. Children from all over the neighborhood sought her counsel on a wide variety of topics, from matters of the heart to fashion, and from...

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“A Fixer Upper” by Lisa Lange

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #217

Am I a Jonah or a James Bartley, I wonder? It’s my own fault. Too much wine, some pot, an allergy tablet. I fell my way into this old Victorian–my friend Emily’s house–during our lady’s book club sleepover. I thought I was headed for the bathroom at 3 a.m., but I stepped off the widow’s walk. Emily and her family moved out. I don’t belong to anyone in this house. I shouldn’t belong to this house. But when you die in a house, it has a way of holding onto you, or rather, you let it hold onto you. You get complacent, you find your niche, you s...

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“Asphyxiation” by Hosea Guy

Submitted to Contest #217

I would love to be skinnier, I really would, but the ponds here are so shallow and the creeks are so narrow; the sidewalks are clogged and the shoes on my feet feel heavy because of the care I see in everyone’s eyes. Currently, I am behind a boy in a letterman jacket and faded blue jeans. We are shambling along in the midst of thousands, inching our way past the plazas of coffee shops and convenience stores and soaring apartment buildings, and I think we’re going to be late for our eight o’clock lecture. I also think this boy’s...

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“Bad Data” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #217

“I’m so glad you’re here to help me,” he said, like he was the most grateful person in the world. “Where shall we start?” “Talk me through it from the beginning and tell me what you know,” I unenthusiastically replied. I didn’t want to be here. I knew what they were doing – those management nabobs on the top floor, sitting around talking about their golf handicaps and weekend getaways to Monaco. They were replacing me. After twenty loyal years of database management, they’re trading me in for a newer model with more memory retention. Heck, I...

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“Inheritance” by Marisa Billions

Submitted to Contest #217

“...And to my favorite person in the world, my granddaughter, Aster Lynne Browning, I bequeath my home and all of its contents…” The elderly lawyer in a brown suit with a blue bow tie reads. I’m staring at his white stubble in contrast to his leathery wrinkled skin letting the words sink in. The other family members in the room, donned in black, assembled here as vultures often do to pick over what is left, motivated by greed and gluttony, to see what more it is that they can get from our now dead matriarch, slowly either turn to loo...

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“Maximillian Braveheart the Brave” by D. Grimes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #217

Agnes sits in her stone hut, entirely unaware that she is about to receive a visitor. One side of her hair is knotted into a cloud, and a raggedy dress drips ripped hemming around her bony knees. However, this is how she always looks. If she had known someone is coming, she may have teased a second knot into the opposite side of her head, and donned her classic cloak and pointy hat. A black cat, Mr. Nightmare Sr., purrs and rubs against Agnes’s ankles. A cauldron boils in thick bubbles over a fireplace that warms the room. . Ducking under th...

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“Shooting Star” by Amanda Lieser

Submitted to Contest #217

CW-drug useFor Antoine de Saint-Éxupery who taught me about shooting stars “Thank you! Enjoy your birthday party,” I smile at the blonde little boy with a red dinosaur shirt and blue tennis shoes as I hand his birthday cake over to his mother. I pause at the counter, my finger tips softly drumming as they make their exit past the small wooden tables and through the bakery door; the bell dings. I make my way swiftly to the door, flipping the sign to indicate closed.Bella walks from the back of the kitchen, her pink apron covered in a flurry o...

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“Natural Painter” by Tom Skye

Submitted to Contest #217

Craig closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and took a deep breath. Opening his eyes, he looked down at the paintbrush in his hand and then over to his younger brother, sitting across the room on the floor. "OK, Jonny. Do you see this big white square sheet with the tree stump on? This is your canvas."Jonny looked up momentarily, then down again. He was facing away from Craig and the canvas, building with his Lego. On a white plastic base in front of him was a Lego wall patterned with repeated red, blue, and yellow rows. Craig walked across th...

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“A Petition. ” by Lara Deppe

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #217

In the District Court for Splitsville County, State of Denial Civil Division I. This suit is brought by Absolutely (Abby) Dunn, Petitioner who is Forty Six (46) years of age and who resides at 1111 Loved Him Once Street, City of Newfound Freedom, State of Annoyance. Respondent, Dr. E. B. Dunn, is a permanent resident at the Nobu Hotel with his 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO in a gated parking location. II. ...

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“Aggregation” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #217

CAUTION: Language and grisly images and reality TVNothing had happened at the mansion seemingly in forever. Which kinda, sorta was the whole point.“I don’t give a fuck about manatees,” Mason growled. He then glanced anxiously down at the headset hanging about his neck with his $350 readers and the wood-gripped director’s lens finder that supposedly had belonged to John Ford. He’d hoped for a gig on Yellowstone or at least Yellowstone 1972, and after some flunkie for Taylor Sheridan told him who John Ford was, figured it might help give him s...

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“Philemon and Baucis” by Alexandra Noir

Submitted to Contest #217

*** The syringes made their way to your veins caressed by time, and she stood on the edge of the abyss, watching you step towards eternal silence. *** When your kiss intertwined with mine, I felt it was our fate to be together! Nothing else mattered, and no matter how old we might have been, in the image of our last dance, youth shone with purity! I was your pillar, the axis of your world, the brute force, and you were my purity and immortality, delicateness and happiness. I asked you for one last dance, and you gave it to me. A face marke...

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“These Old Bones” by Francois Kosie

Submitted to Contest #217

Flowery carvings adorned the strangely shaped old furniture and caught Jacob’s eye. Happy cherubs were encrusted with dust, and on the walls, the springtime imagery of oil paintings was draped in cobwebs hanging like veils. The floorboards creaked, and the weight of dust and neglect hung everywhere, but still, Jacob couldn't help but explore and get lost in the place, looking for creepy old things and ghosts.At last, he made his way up to the attic, which was pierced here and there by shafts of dust-specked morning light shining through...

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“Bjorn and Echo” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #217

Bjorn has to watch his footing closely while keeping his head on a swivel. Deadman’s Forest is not where he wanted to be, but that is where the beast landed. He struck its wing with an arrow from his bow as it was heading back to its cave in Mount Stonebeard. Bjorn was hoping to bring the dragon down before he reached the forest beneath the mountains, but the creature flapped on, however awkward, until it tired out halfway over the forest. In the forest no light shines through the densely intertwined branches of the canopy above. ...

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$250

Prize money

284

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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