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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#222: Show Me The Way

When navigating life’s challenges, we could all use a little guidance — someone who can show us the way, or give us the wisdom we need to follow the right path. In literature, much like in reality, coaches and mentors are often central to a protagonist’s development, offering training, advice, or tools to succeed in their Hero’s Journey.

What's fascinating about mentors is that they come in different shapes and forms. They might be a nurturing figure, who offers wisdom and support; a harsh and unyielding professor, who demands the impossible; an unconventional thinker who brings a unique perspective. Sometimes the guidance doesn’t even come in human form: perhaps it’s a dream, a spirit, a faith, or an item, like a totem, a book, or a map.

This week’s prompts are all about people (or things) that, in one way or another, have a pivotal role in someone’s journey.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a student on their first day of apprenticeship.

Teens – 18 stories

Write about a character who has a love/hate relationship with their mentor.

Character – 36 stories

Write about a mentor whose methods are controversial.

Character – 22 stories

Write a story about a character who finds guidance in an unlikely place.

Dramatic – 81 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “You’ve got this.”

Dialogue – 53 stories

Stories

“a student on their first day of apprenticeship” by Nita Manna

Submitted to Contest #222

I am early, not just early, one hour early! No one wants to be late on their first day of job, but now I am standing in front of the gate and I have to kill at least forty five minutes before entering inside the office. Killing forty five minutes in a normal day is not a big deal, I could have take a walk and check the surroundings but today is not a normal day, since yesterday night it is continuously snowing and sometimes raining and that’s another reason I head for office early. It’s freezing cold outside and if someone sees me standing o...

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“Farm of love” by Parsley Ascione

Submitted to Contest #222

The sun was shining outside my bedroom window, the bright rays were warming up the fields of apple trees I would be tending to that day. I grew up in the city, but my family was in and out of my life from a young age. Today was the first day I was staying in a large farm in the countryside on an apprenticeship. It wasn’t my idea but I was excited to start working. My mom had even packed me a lunch before she went on her business trip across the country with her new fiancé, Carlos. I didn’t like the idea of her getting married again, especial...

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“One Day at a Time” by Tom Cantillon

Submitted to Contest #222

Mike looked up from his glass of and remarked, "remember that game we played against the chapter in South Jersey, where Hank pitched a hissy fit over that strike three call"? His words came out slurred, which is fair since it was his seventh or eighth beer. "Sure", I responded, only slightly less tipsy. "Hank was such as asshole, he looked for reasons to fight every game we played". By the way, I asked, "Where is Hank? I haven't seen him in what, two, three years?" Mike's brother Paul chimed in, "that crusty fucker walked out of here thre...

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“How To Untie Her Shoes” by Essie Trent

Submitted to Contest #222

Celine does not know what to call herself. She is somewhere between an au pair and a tutor with limited hours. She hates the title nanny and even au pair because she thinks it unbecoming for a thirteen-year-old to have either one. Admittedly, thirteen is a difficult age that defies categorization, caught somewhere between adult and child. Celine’s job description was straightforward enough: a writing tutor who also was to pick up Eva from school and make sure homework assignments plus some extra writing got done three afternoons/evenings a w...

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“Jacques ” by Chelsea Caffey

Submitted to Contest #222

Sensitive Content Warning: Foul language due to quotes from true characters. “In this dance company, I need motherfuckers.” Jacques Heim deadpanned at the cattle call of auditionees surrounding his feet. I gulped and sat up straighter. Seven words in, and I wondered if I had made the wrong decision in coming here. “I need creators, and collaborators. I need athletes and acrobats,” he went on cutting every syllable with a knife in his thick French accent. Fear and intrigue flickered inside me. He looked mad dressed in all black and combat boo...

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“Until You Make Your Next Sale” by Avery Crescent

Submitted to Contest #222

Jamie handed the file to Michelle with the reverence of a soldier presenting a folded flag to the widow of a deceased veteran. She lowered herself into the leather-back chair facing Michelle’s desk, sitting on the front edge of the seat with her legs crossed and hands clasped over one knee. When Michelle looked up from her computer screen, her ginger-blonde hair framed the tight contours of her face and cascaded down over her shoulders. “How’d it go?” “Good, I think.” As Michelle scanned through the file, Jamie studied the row of professi...

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“Cronus” by Edd Baker

Submitted to Contest #222

CW: Sparse, brief language.The building itself was old, owing its origin to the mid eighteenth century. Though it had been bought, owned and sold for well over a century by various buyers, its Victorian architecture was present, always hidden underneath. A constant presence. As one stood on the main floor, gazing up at the mural covered celling of bygone religious convictions, and was in particularly low spirits, or themselves lonesome, you could almost imagine yourself as some archaic lord or vampire. Which is how Leonard felt at the moment...

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“Hatred Lights the Way” by Nikita Kovalov

Submitted to Contest #222

“Oh heavens, please! Don’t cha have no heart? My little ones would starve! Have mercy on us!” The woman had wailed desperately for the last half-hour, feebly struggling in the dirt against a cordon of bored dragoons. Gods, what a foolish waste of time.“As per the Chancellery of the Great Empire of Kharz, sanctioned by the Revered Emperor himself, this year’s food tax on the rural populace has been increased by 20%. It is to be collected by any means necessary and with no exemption”, Kozminsky proclaimed in a loud and confident voice to an au...

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“Upon the Meeting of Silence” by Zoe Chadwick

Submitted to Contest #222

I sat alone in the hollow one evening to lose myself in the sound of a trickling brook. I forgot about the troubles of life for a moment, watching the water spiders dance upon fluid crystalline, the sun’s rays weaving about glassy stones smoothed over time by the water’s eternal flowing. There was a profound sense of autumn in the crispness of the air. Though I detested the thought of returning to the less appealing confines of my home, I eventually found it four o’ clock...

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“Lean On Me” by Debra Demars

Submitted to Contest #222

My husband and I had just moved in. Actually, we were still in the process of moving in. We were down to the smaller boxes. Lamps, knick-knacks, stuff you put on your nightstands, end tables, and a few boxes of kitchen utensils. We'd been living on take out for the past few days. Moving is such a hassle, and by the end of each day Bob and I had been just too tired to cook or even think about preparing anything. We had made some poor financial decisions in our lives, and as a result we lost our lit...

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“Time Machine” by Caitlin Beitel

Submitted to Contest #222

She opens the door to her building and starts quickly up the steep, narrow stairs of her fourth floor walk-up. The first floor wreaks of garbage as always. The second smells of heavenly spices and garlic and home. She whips around the third bannister and the familiar smell of weed wafts over her, instinctively easing the tension in her shoulders before the last flight and then she arrives. 4B. The apartment she’s lived in for the past four years. She frantically turns her key, leaving it dangling from the lock, door open. She throws her...

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“The Magic Bus” by S DeAngelis

Submitted to Contest #222

The Magic Bus Sally DeAngelis The old man could whistle. Real whistling, real songs. Old timey tunes. Ah, her Dad would like that. She couldn’t whistle until she was nearly 15. Before that, only on the inhale, which didn’t count. Now, her whistling was the breezy, tuneless type. She liked it just fine and whistled around the house until she heard her brother-in-law say to her sister, “Oh no, not that again.” She and the old man were way out on Route 7, waiting for the bus to take them back into town. It was an in-between weather day, t...

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“You Ain't Never Lied” by David McCahan

Submitted to Contest #222

Hayward Stockton was born in 1947 on a bus ride south of San Francisco when he was 23 years old. Prior to that moment, Lingyun Zhou had occupied his place in time. Zhou had just returned from another fruitless trip along the California coast searching for any employment in his chosen field of agricultural management, an area of study that had landed him a full scholarship at Stanford University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Even with such outstanding credentials, and service in the 3rd Armored Division during World War 2, he ...

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“Song for Joshua” by Susie Reid

Submitted to Contest #222

“You’ve got this!” Kira heard the words reverberating through her mind. That’s what Joshua had said to her at the beginning of this wondrous journey. The thought of what lay ahead of her thrilled and scared her at the same time. She looked out at the audience through the side curtain of the stage and sighed. This had been Joshua’s dream for her. Her brother, her mentor, the one who believed in her above all others had always been there for her. They had shared a close bond. The fact that they were twins had made that bond even more close. ...

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“You've Got This” by McKenzie Ryann

Submitted to Contest #222

“You’ve got this.” My mother whispered it into my hair, her arms wrapped tight around me while I lay there, tears streaking down my cheeks. My chest felt like it had been blown apart, leaving small pieces of my heart scattered around me, too damaged to fit back together. I knew that I needed to leave. I suppose I’d known that for a long time, the truth had sat like a stone in my stomach longer than I wanted to admit. I’d never been able to bring myself to do it before. I had no other options now though, I needed to walk away. “How co...

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$250

Prize money

210

Contest entries

101

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 03, 2023 EST

Won by Audrey McKenna 🏆

Title: Just Like Him

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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