Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#224: Night Owls and Early Birds

I’ve never been much of a night owl. I can stay up late, but always live to regret it the next day, and you’re unlikely to ever find me burning the midnight oil. Instead, if there’s something urgent to attend to, I’d rather do it in the quiet calm of a pre-dawn morning.

It’s interesting how, as a species, our preferences vary so wildly in this regard. Some of us are up and moving before the rest of the world has even rubbed the sleep from their eyes, while some of us rarely are awake during daylight hours. Two people’s waking windows may only overlap at dawn and dusk, before going their separate ways. This week’s prompts are a celebration of the night owls, the early birds, and anything in between.

This week's prompts

Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason.

Fiction – 94 stories

Write a story about two people living together who have opposing sleep cycles, and only cross paths at dawn and dusk.

Character – 49 stories

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

Dramatic – 87 stories

Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Fiction – 35 stories

Write about someone who can’t sleep due to jet lag, and decides to set out and explore their new city at night instead.

Adventure – 20 stories

Stories

“The Two Dawns” by Mark Burns

Submitted to Contest #224

The Two Dawns“I can’t sleep, Jimmy.”Jimmy Falco spun on his heel and walked toward me. It was four a.m., and he’d just started his shift. “You thinking about tomorrow morning?”“Yeah. Wouldn’t you be?”Jimmy nodded. Neither of us said anything for a minute. The only sound was the fluorescent light buzzing and blinking overhead, occasionally punctuated by Crazy Larry’s staccato screams echoing in the darkness beyond.“Doesn’t he ever shut up?” Jimmy asked. I smiled. Jimmy had been here three years now. I’d been here three times t...

Read story

“Firefly” by Danielle LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #224

I live in a crowded city on the forty-second floor of a towering building. With each day's end, I stand barefoot on my balcony, admiring the handful of stars that manage to pierce through the light pollution. I sometimes imagine myself jolting back to life, if only I could touch them. My view is a concrete ocean. The headlights from the traffic below flow like lava. The roar from the engines is so loud it cancels everything out; a white noise of sorts. It's a welcome distraction from my constant state of paralysis. I scan the thousands of il...

Read story

“Tibbles: Saviour of the Universe” by Malcolm Twigg

Submitted to Contest #224

No matter what the time, Fred Fothergill, fat, forty and fed up, had always been able to wake up on the dot. It was like pressing a mental alarm button. Early plane to catch? He was there before it was wheeled onto the runway. Ungodly work call? Blear-eyed onscreen before anyone else had zoomed in. So, early rising was not a problem. In fact, it was something of a boon because, even living close by the sea where the gentle susurration of the waves was ever-present, there was a preternatural quiet in the early mornings that was a welcome reli...

Read story

“Tuesday” by Gilbert Castaneda

Submitted to Contest #224

Today is the day I am going to die. I didn’t need to set an alarm to wake up early today - my mind was already prepared to do so for weeks. People live everyday not knowing when they will leave this earth. Most hope for a long life that is filled with joyous occasions, lived experiences, and a legacy to leave behind. Children, notoriety, a career - all are things that leave a legacy. My legacy was that I knew the exact date, time, and manner in which I will meet my end.It was a Tuesday. Another unremarkable Tuesday. This day of the week is a...

Read story

“Teardrops on Roses” by Mary Ann Ford

Submitted to Contest #224

*THIS STORY CONTAINS MENTIONS OF ALCOHOL AND CHILD ABUSE. Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep. Maya rolled over and flipped off the alarm. Then she slid out of bed and into her day clothes, skipping the shoes. Ever since their mother died three years ago, their father didn’t care much where they went or what they did. She wasn’t worried about waking her brother, Gilbert, who shared the room with her, because she knew his bed was empty. The last two Tuesdays Maya had seen Gilbert rise at five in the morning and sneak out of their small t...

Read story

“A Day As Dark As Night” by Robin Honigsberg

Submitted to Contest #224

Meredith opened her eyes and yawned, the room a heavy dark gray. She didn’t need to look at the clock to know it was well-before sunrise, but did anyway. 4:48 am. She laughed bitterly to herself. I still have two hours until the alarm goes off. I should be asleep, getting my rest for the day ahead, but apparently my mind disagrees with my body. Stretching languidly, first twisting her body from right to left, then from left to right, she threw off the thick purple bohemian-style duvet and sat up to pull on her fluffy beige Ugg slippers.&nbsp...

Read story

“The Night Gathering” by Arthur An

Submitted to Contest #224

This story can also be read as a continuation of my last submission The Interrogation.****Kai Matsuda woke up at 2 am and realized that his life will end again. He swept the buzzing red bottom and Jenny Desautel’s voice came through on his cellphone. “You OK Kai? They said you were arrested.”Looking around to confirm he was still in his own bedroom, Matsuda reassured Desautel that he was not in custody. He reached over to the empty bed space and realized that Melissa was gone, and so were her clothes which were hanging on the back of th...

Read story

“for now i'm only, people watching” by Lennon S.

Submitted to Contest #224

NOTE: Please read my other stories, due to the entry fee I don't normally actually submit my stories. Therefore they don't get to many other people, I really enjoy writing and am looking for ways to get better. Most of my stories are just over 1,000 words so they don't take very long to read. :) Happy Reading!There she was, writing in her diary like she always did. I wonder if she’s ever mentioned me in it, not like I’ve ever done anything too memorable. We’d been living together for three years, it was both our senior year of college and we...

Read story

“Caregivers” by Edward Roberts

Submitted to Contest #224

Warning This story contains graphic and disturbing content. Dusk He will be in with my medicine any minute. My body and mind have adapted to this new and peculiar schedule so I almost wake up automatically now. It’s dark in the room. I can’t read the expression on his face because of the mask. I think it’s a he; I feel the roughness of his fingers as he puts the pills in my hand. Yes, it’s a he. Even in my half-dreamy state in the darkened room, I can make out the wide shoulders filling his shirt. They want me to sleep. That’s wh...

Read story

“The Blank Slate of Nothingness” by Samantha Dearn

Submitted to Contest #224

The sun had barely risen when he returned home. He was welcomed by the smell of eggs and toast, signalling that Alex was making breakfast in the kitchen. The long night shift at the museum had taken its toll, and Jonah wanted nothing more than to fall into bed and sleep until dusk, when he would rise once again and head into work. Jonah dropped his bag by the door, kicked his shoes off and hung up his coat before he walked like a zombie to the kitchen, wrapping his arms around Alex and taking in his warmth. Alex melted into him, leaning his...

Read story

“Troy's Dawn, Hello Again” by Andrea Corwin

Submitted to Contest #224

“Hello again, Troy. I trust you rested well. End of the week again – yay, Friday, right?” Amelia was chatty in the morning, being a morning person. Troy grumbled, waved his hand in a Miss America-style wave, and slipped past her on his way in. “Geesh, a bit grumpy, are we?” she called out to him. Amelia strode onto the avenue, wending between commuters and street vendors. Selecting a handful of flowers, she dropped a five-dollar bill into the jar and continued, passing a homeless woman who slept on the bus stop bench, wrapped in ...

Read story

“Horizon Kiss” by Akshaya SR

Submitted to Contest #224

After a long day, going home is something everyone desires for. This heaviness of work life, the gravity of peer pressure and the magnet I am, for the bugs and defects, are way too much to handle at the end of the day. I closed the laptop and wanted to fall down on the bed and get cozy but the sun is almost ready to come up to its work. Ironically the usual day of work is actually alongside the workspace of our mighty golden ball- but the day works differently for me, it starts with the sun going down and I work with t...

Read story

“Sol” by Marten Norr

Submitted to Contest #224

Aro shared his office with someone he’d never met. In the ever-churning, ever-changing labyrinth of the Caretaker Bureau, he walked in a door that led into the office at dawn, and the same door at dusk, but this time it let out into the cloister. Between those times, he sat in the office with its two three plaster walls and one brick wall and saw nobody. His work came to him through pneumatic tubes that extended into the ceiling and disappeared, on their way to some unknown terminus. He removed the scrolls from their little capsules and sen...

Read story

“Thank You For Visiting” by Kaylor Gause

Submitted to Contest #224

“I can’t sleep,” the soft voice of the tiny human standing beside my bed whispered. The sound was extremely creepy but I immediately recognized the voice, and that knowledge willed me to not freak out like my instincts wanted me to. I can’t react, my fear of scaring him overriding my fear of being woken up out of my peaceful sleep that it’s taken 3 months to achieve. I lie still, my back facing him. Maybe if I pretend to be undisturbed, he will go back into his room and self-soothe himself. I cannot deal with this tonight. I do...

Read story

“Dark” by C.E. Simon

Submitted to Contest #224

TRIGGER WARNING: Contains language, abusive parents, brief incestuous thoughts/fantasies, suicidal ideation, violence/death/gore. I can’t fall asleep. If I fall asleep, the light will go out. If the light goes out, the Dark will get in. If the Dark gets in, I will die. I don’t know what time it is. The sun’s down. Eight hours—maybe more until daylight? A candle shines for about eight hours, which means I have to wake up to relight once a night. Waking like that was a skill I had honed since childhood—not knowing then how vital it would b...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

285

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 17, 2023 EST

Won by Mallory Jones 🏆

Title: Goldfish

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!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢