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!

#236: Retro

Whether you’re generation Tetris, Tamagotchi, or Tomb Raider, I bet there’s some kind of video game or console that reminds you of your childhood. I hope, too, that we all still know of vinyls, cassette and VHS tapes, and floppy disks, even if they’re past their prime.

I’m not usually very sentimental about technology, but there’s something fascinating about obsolete tech. Something nostalgic and sad and full of mystery and untold narrative. In that spirit, let’s pay a visit to our inner attic, dust off some forgotten hardware, and see where it takes us.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character finding a retro piece of tech they don’t recognize.

Mystery – 33 stories

Write a story about someone finally gaining access into their family’s very old computer.

Mystery – 36 stories

Write a time-travel story where a character from the present finds themselves in the 80s or 90s.

Historical Fiction – 37 stories

Write a story about a grown-up sharing their favorite childhood video game with their child.

Funny – 20 stories

Write about a character who isn’t nostalgic about their past at all, and show readers why.

Angst – 54 stories

Stories

“Vinegar Syndrome” by Leah Vargas

Submitted to Contest #236

I didn’t expect it to work. When I placed the worn photo of my mother and her long-gone sister under my pillow – a photo that had captured them at their most rebellious, most vivacious – some summer night in 1982 – I didn’t expect to be brought back to that very parking lot where the photo had been taken. And yet, that is where my story begins. She was 19 then, and my aunt 23. It would be the last time my mother saw her sister alive: a night that would haunt her for the rest of her life, and in turn, would haunt me throughout mine. My mot...

Read story

“The Project Called Pangea” by Farai Gotora

Submitted to Contest #236

Isaac Wells was the CEO of Infinity Partners, a Venture Capital firm that distributed funds to inventors of extraordinary skill and sight. CEO was his proudest title as it was one that he took pains to achieve. Prior to this venture, Isaac's greatest criticism was his lack of achievement given from whom he was descended and the size of the golden spoon he had been born with in his mouth. He was only Isaac Wells, son of Robert Hudson Wells, founder and owner of Glob-Oil Inc, an oil company with successful operations on every continent. And wh...

Read story

“8 Millimeter” by Katherine Macy

Submitted to Contest #236

Basement rock stars. We were on our way. Most seniors spent their free time playing football or rugby, cheerleading, going to a coding club, or playing video games. But us? We made films. Destiny would be the most popular among us if that was an option for anyone near our group. A natural beauty without trying, she was the only one of us who people outside our group gravitated towards. She could have been a model or an actress, but she was much too ambitious for that. She was a camera girl through and through. She had an eye for detail and...

Read story

“Traveller” by David Cantwell

Submitted to Contest #236

Like Victor Frankenstein I am, or was, a scientist. Maybe I was more like Ahab, in constant pursuit of my White Whale. I spent years focused on the singular task of making what everyone thought to be impossible. Now, instead of continuing my work I’m a slave to my creation. Trying to get control of it before it destroys me, or worse before it changes the world into the dark place I’ve seen. The place only I know about. I first read about machines like mine in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. He referred to his main character as Traveller, I...

Read story

“Typewriter” by Jacob Cazier

Submitted to Contest #236

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, my mind raced as I tried to grasp on to the last straw of my sanity. Hesitantly I flipped the newspaper over, baffled that it was on actual paper. My heart stopped as I read the date Sept 14 1994. Wary glances were cast my way as I tried using my finger and thumb to zoom in on the newspaper to look for any sign this was a practical joke. I found nothing, except a blackened thumb and index finger. Cold sweat began to pour down my back as the store's patrons stopped to look at me. “You alright kid?”...

Read story

“A Moment in Time ” by Camryn Whelan

Submitted to Contest #236

“We’re here, just be here” he said to the woman sitting next to him to who had spent the last five hours of their bus ride together squawking on about how much she missed high school and college and the best years of her life were behind her . If she went on for one more minute he might actually implode. “We have a 20 hour bus ride sitting next to eachother we need to talk about something.” she responded sounding a little defensive. “I get that but you haven’t even told me about yourself you just talked about all the lives ...

Read story

“Good Old Days ” by Grace Book

Submitted to Contest #236

I grab a carton of milk out of the fridge and slam the door shut with my hip, pouring the milk into the bowl of cereal I’m trying to balance. Only a dribble of milk spills on the stained checkered floor. I commend myself on my skills, beaming with pride at what a professional multi-tasker I’ve become. I put the carton back into the fridge and gaze for a moment at the photos stuck to it with smudged tape. Images of little girls with tiaras in her curly brown hair and smiling parents hugging her or each other. A reality that I wouldn’t know. T...

Read story

“Riley's Recollection.” by J.E. Brumley

Submitted to Contest #236

Riley caught herself staring at the rain pelting itself against the window of her office. It was soothing watching the little, tiny rivers trickle down the glass. Five more minutes and she would be free to sit, relax and laugh with her friends. The office floor on Friday's always transformed into a silent empty space as people began their weekends as soon as possible. The din of the elevator chimed less and less now. Riley shut down her computer and began to collect her belongings. She was pleased with herself for acknowledging the m...

Read story

“Time Will Tell” by Erin Krueger

Submitted to Contest #236

In a stale and ostentatious lecture hall in Prague, Susan shifted on her seat, the dark floorboards beneath her creaking with the sudden imbalance of weight. For a rich velvet cushion, it was decidedly uncomfortable and hard. Dr. Dannington, attired in an innocuous faded tweed coat with brown leather elbow patches, his round golden glasses perched at the end of his nose, droned on and on and on about the treasures of the past. Treasures. What a joke. The man seemed to find joy in making her suffer. Who cared about the rocking horse Teddy Roo...

Read story

“Equal Nothings” by Christine Johnson

Submitted to Contest #236

I find great therapy tugging the thin film out of its plastic path. I don’t destroy the cassette tape like you might have seen in commercials or music videos where it looks like streamers being launched. I pull it out inch by inch, staring at its brown luster against the kitchen’s fluorescent lighting. It would be easier to fling the electromagnetic flux especially with three shoe boxes full piled next to me. But to destroy them with vigor would mean that they actually mean something to me and they don’t. I found them i...

Read story

“It's Not Nostalgia ” by K.R. Danielsson

Submitted to Contest #236

"You ever stop and think back to our childhood, Rob?" asks Colton Richards, sitting shotgun in the 2012 Toyota Tacoma cruising down the highway from Ohio to Indiana. His white hair blows thickly back to the seat headrest like a cirrus cloud beating through the sky. A beard is beginning to grow on his cheeks, and his eyes are experiencing wrinkles in the corners. With his strong right hand clutching the stabilizer bar above the door, he turns his head to look at Robbie Hillis. "You hear me?" Colton's voice is turning frail now in his ear...

Read story

“Memories” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #236

“Remember that summer at Hayling Island?” the man says.“Yeah,” the red-headed woman replies. “In the caravan. All five of us. You couldn’t swing a cat!”I wonder why anyone would want to swing a cat. They’re nice creatures and don’t deserve that kind of treatment.Despite my distaste, I smile, because smiling seems to go down well with these people. The woman with blonde hair lays a hand on my shoulder and gives it a little squeeze.“But it was the most we could afford, wasn’t it? And we did have a lovely time.”I like this last person. Her face...

Read story

“Closing Time” by Mira Sharma

Submitted to Contest #236

The fact that the espresso machine was not meant to make that sound–that hiccupping pop–was something that Sade did, in fact, remember. But she couldn’t figure out what the hell was causing the noisy spasm: it wasn’t any of the steam nozzles, the foam doohickeys, or the bottom tray, or–what was it again? Oh yes, the portafilter. It wasn’t that. She’d checked, she was certain. It was fine, probably. The damn machine hissed, gurgled, and frothed even when it was working correctly. What was a little pop every now and then? The machine...

Read story

“Survivorship Bias” by Emmy Gregory

Submitted to Contest #236

CW: Car accident / Fire / Infant death We were just outside Birmingham when I decided to get more comfortable. We had a Peugeot 505, a big boxy beast of a thing, with eight seats and a heavy-eyebrowed glare on the front. More than enough room for five people – well, six, if you count Alice, who wasn’t really much of a person. I sprawled myself across the back row of seats. I’d managed to nab a couple of beach towels for a blanket. I could just about lie flat if I tucked my knees up a bit. But it wasn’t going to be easy to relax. I was no g...

Read story

“To Lost in Life to Live” by Tara Deck

Submitted to Contest #236

I've lived a hundred lives in one life, no telling how many before. Time has always been an illusion, and one I am not too fond of. My first life was as an awful child, perhaps my second, considering I was once a babe; even a third, as the womb was my first home, though I remember it not. You know how the progression goes. Why should I miss any of it? Why does anyone tarry in nostalgia? Perhaps to hold onto a past they carry in their hearts anyway? Trinkets and trivial weight they unnecessarily burden themselves with, making each ste...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

180

Contest entries

80

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 09, 2024 EST

Won by Jennifer Fremon 🏆

Title: Frozen Lemonade

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 ⭢