#221: Ghostly
With Halloween fast approaching, I find myself thinking about the different kinds of spooky stories we like to tell each other. Year after year, there’s one particular topic I gravitate towards when in search of a thrill: ghosts. Whether they’re friendly or vengeful, these haunting spectors represent more than just our fears and anxieties around our own mortality. They’re also symbols of the collision between the past and present, and the ways what has been can tangibly affect what will be. It’s no wonder, with the universality of these themes, that ghosts feature in folklore from all around the world.
This week, as the veil between worlds continues to thin, let’s dive into that liminal space between life and death, and see what it has to offer us.
This week's prompts
Write a story from a ghost’s point of view.
Halloween
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133 stories
Write a story about someone who is haunted. Whether by a ghost or something else is up to you.
Halloween
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137 stories
Write a story about someone trying to raise the dead.
Halloween
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49 stories
Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.
Halloween
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69 stories
Set your story in a world where contacting the dead is as easy as making a phone call.
Halloween
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35 stories
Stories
“Fearful Symmetry” by Cher Zimmerer
Submitted to Contest #221
“The Remains of a Story ” by Elise Keelyn
Submitted to Contest #221
“Mr. Charles” by Corinne Headman
Submitted to Contest #221
“A Haunting We Will Go” by Chris Jones
Submitted to Contest #221
“I'm Red and I'm Dead” by Zakiya Lockett
Submitted to Contest #221
“Jasmin's House” by Betty Jean Ward
Submitted to Contest #221
“The Mind Remembers So Little” by Adam Pavlik
Submitted to Contest #221
“Desert Ghost” by M.R. Simon
Submitted to Contest #221
“Victoria” by Allen Wilkinson
Submitted to Contest #221
“"Spectral Reconciliation"” by Anna Alcott
Submitted to Contest #221
“Just another one Halloween” by Tetiana Baida
Submitted to Contest #221
“Couldn't Be a Stalker If I Tried” by Lucia Thompson
Submitted to Contest #221
“A Final, Desperate Entreaty” by Piper Jenne
Submitted to Contest #221
“October Surprise” by Paul Brassard
Submitted to Contest #221
“A Ghost?” by Morgan Cochran
Submitted to Contest #221
$250
Prize money
423
Contest entries
148
Stories
Ended on 23:59 - Oct 27, 2023 EST
Won by Bay Colt 🏆
Title: Clearance Aisle Libations
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!