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!

#234: Time Out

Often, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day. We juggle dozens of warring obligations — work, home, friends, family — alongside our own wants and needs. At one time, you might back out of a friend’s birthday to visit an ailing family member. But at another, you’ll go to an important work conference rather than visiting your mother across the country. You never know how much time you have — to make your career, to follow your dreams, to spend with your family. It’s an uncertainty we all learn how to live with, one way or another.

In the spirit of this uncertainty, this week’s prompts focus on time. Who has it and who doesn’t, and who is trying to carve it out, minute by minute.

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Angst – 112 stories

Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Character – 70 stories

Write about someone taking advantage of some unexpected free time.

Fluff – 31 stories

Start or end your story with someone saying, “We have all the time in the world.”

Dialogue – 71 stories

Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Narrative – 56 stories

Stories

“I Don't Have Time For This” by Nicole Ortiz

Submitted to Contest #234

I have five minutes. Just five minutes. Two to find what I need, two to ring up at self checkout. And one as a buffer. That’s enough time, right? I turn a corner. Blood. It was actively dripping as she held her hand tightly to her stomach. Active shooter? And were they still active or had they already left? The other question was would she live without some hospitable interference from every member of the audience. I’m sorry, but I just don’t have the time for it right now. And besides, I’m not medically certified in anything at ...

Read story

“ODD Place For Water” by Diane Sew

Submitted to Contest #234

Disclaimer: This story has topics of euthanization. PLease be advised. It looks like water, but it is not coming from what I usually drink out of, and I have drunk out of some real doozies let me tell you. Have you ever been so thirsty for water that you will drink it out of anything, well, almost anything. I am not sure I should drink it from where its coming from now. I am not sure it is really safe. Although, it is the third time I have seen water flow like this. Let me tell you about the first time it happened. I was in the b...

Read story

“If I Could Only Turn Back Time” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #234

If I Could Turn Back Time Like in that Cher song from the late 1980s, I find myself thinking and even saying out loud, almost singing “If I could turn back time.” That would seem to be the only way I can change the sad situation I am in now. But, of course, it is impossible. I have lost my well-paying job, and all for what I said that the boss took seriously, but also mistakenly. Some of the people that I work with –actually now I have to think and say ‘that I used to work with’- went to high school with me. During br...

Read story

“If I could Only Turn Back Time” by Conrad M

Submitted to Contest #234

I sit he by my lap top wondering about my life. I am sixty-four years old and wondering where my life went. I look back at it and wonder maybe I should have done this differently. Or I should have done that differently. Could have should have but didn't. I grew up in a small town in the sixties and seventies. And I couldn't wait to get out of there. I hated every minute of it. I didn't have a lot of friends because my family was one of the poorest in our Neiber hood. Our house was so old we had a hand pump in the yard for water and still had...

Read story

“What if - because I didn't.” by Brittany Duncan

Submitted to Contest #234

This story contains commentary on physical and psychological abuse within marriage. I wish that I could turn back time and go back to before. Before I was getting divorced, before being married and all the abuse within my marriage, before I even met my ex husband. I wish that I could go back to being 20 and I wish that I could do things differently; I think about that every day. The man that I am in love with now; I met before, I met him when I was 20 and I was too immature to know that he was the person that I was supposed to be with. I ...

Read story

““If I Could Turn Back TIme”” by Liz Pierre

Submitted to Contest #234

A wise woman once said, “If I could turn back time if I could find a way, I’d take back all the words that have hurt you, and you’d stay.” I wondered what she meant until the day I told you that I wasn’t sure if you were the love of my life. I don’t remember what brought this on. Memory is hazy and then it has an aching clarity. It is blurred, then it is searingly sharp. I wonder if you remember this, too. I wonder if you remember that one day we were fine, then we weren’t. In a moment love went from being exciting and new to a source of per...

Read story

“Fractured” by Vivacity Rex

Submitted to Contest #234

You're angry. I embarrass you, and not in the cute way always portrayed on TV. The tension hangs in the air between us, a tangible awkwardness that lingers after each of these episodes. It didn't always feel this way. Maybe it was cute when I was young, but now that I have grown in years and inches, all that innocence has disintegrated from these situations. I haven't changed. I have always acted this way. I carry with me an acute awareness of the awkwardness and embarrassment I project when out in public. There is a reason I have spen...

Read story

“Darkness Before the Sunrise” by Jodi M

Submitted to Contest #234

I’ve been best friends with three girls for five years. Up until September eighth of 2023, it was senior sunrise and I went with, my current friends, Noemi, Angela, Gabby, and Anabeth. At senior sunrise there was a reason why I went with my current friends. I went with them because my "best friends" Aliyah and Madylin told me the day before they weren’t going when I asked them through text message. My other best friend Melanie, told me she asked Aliyah if she was going to senior sunrise and she wasn’t. So I showed up to senior sunrise with m...

Read story

“What Could Be” by Alexander Bernard

Submitted to Contest #234

As I lay facing the setting sun, watching the golden rays drain from the sky, I think about all the actions that led me to this moment. Many decisions were regrettable - an equal number were moments to be proud of. Even more than those combined, however, were moments of neutrality. But we don’t remember the moments we’re impartial to particularly well. We remember moments of embarrassment or excitement significantly easier. Sometimes I wonder what this life might look like if that balance shifted somehow. Had I made some worse decisions, wha...

Read story

“Regretful Texts” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #234

Trigger Warning: Gruesome untimely death of a child “If I could turn back time I would. You don’t think there is not a single day that goes by that I don’t think about what I did? I know what I did and I have to live every day with it.” “You may have to live with it but you don’t need to beat yourself up over it. It was an honest mistake.” “It was an honest mistake that caused someone to lose their life.” “Kathrine, you didn’t put a cold hard gun to her head and pull the trigger. It was a gen...

Read story

“An Angel's Ring” by Emily Melcher

Submitted to Contest #234

{This story contains depictions of a motor vehicle accident.} At seventeen, I'm just a few months away from becoming society's problem, according to Mr. Higgs. While Mr. Higgs is the guardian of the Home, he's far from a parental figure of any kind. Mr. Higgs hardly speaks to us and doesn't try to hide that he avoids us. I still can't figure out why he opened a home for kids. It was already 7:48 p.m., and I couldn't be late for curfew again. My late-night reading was my sole source of joy in that place, and I wasn't willing to risk losin...

Read story

“One Day ” by Luna Sterling

Submitted to Contest #234

I was tired, and cold despite the four layers of blankets that weighed on me. The T.V. hanging high on the wall was turned off and the three chairs crowded tight around facing me were empty. The curtains to the right of my bed past the chairs were drawn open revealing bright spring leaves brushing back and forth behind the window. It made a constant crunching sound that wasn’t unpleasant, but I couldn’t hear it. I stared out to the leaves not seeing or hearing anything other than my thoughts. Whispers of regret swirled in my head of t...

Read story

“Nap Time” by Sarah Brush

Submitted to Contest #234

I gently place my oldest son in his crib, which now seems comically small compared to how tall he is now. His feet stretch all the way down the crib. He still has several inches to go before he outgrows it. Still. The sight of him stretched out makes him look like a fourth grader, not an 18 month old. He opens his eyes and looks up at me. Crap. “Bye baby. It’s nap time. I’ll see you in a couple hours. Hug your bunny and go night night,” I say as I slowly back out of the room. He mumbles “bye bye” before hugging his small stuf...

Read story

“Stolen Moments” by Chelsea Brown

Submitted to Contest #234

We almost never have a moment to ourselves. If I’m not cleaning, I’m folding, if not that, I’m cooking, if not that I’m helping one of the older women with their cooking, cleaning, and folding. Free time around here isn’t something you advertise you have. When I realized I had finished all my chores a bit earlier than expected, I trekked down to the river and waded in, ankle deep, to look for tadpoles. The water is cold- almost icy. It’s only April so it hasn’t had the chance to warm in the late Spring and Summer sun. It’s refreshing to me s...

Read story

“Clonazepam and the amateur incident” by Momo San

Submitted to Contest #234

Clonazepam and The amateur incident. “You know what? Fuck off, all of you!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. As soon as those words left her mouth, a stunned silence enveloped the dressing room with its heavy presence. Nobody made a sound, nobody moved an inch. The boiling anger that had once filled every nerve of her being, retreated out of her body; leaving her with nothing but cold regret, as she finally registered the hatred in every set of eyes that surrounded her, pinning her to the ground. In that breathless instant, it da...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

340

Contest entries

132

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 26, 2024 EST

Won by David Pampu 🏆

Title: 6:47 PST

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 ⭢