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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#25: Resolutions

Did you know that the ancient Babylonians are reported to have been the first people to make New Year's resolutions? In March, when the crops were planted, a 12-day festival known as Akitu took place. During the festival, the Babylonians made promises to their gods, and believed that if they kept to their word, they would be bestowed good favor in the coming year.

This would have been about 4,000 years ago, and while the format may be different, New Year's resolutions are still going strong!

This week's prompts all revolve around resolutions. Oh, and for that last prompt, check out this blog post for some of the most popular self-help books to inspire you.

This week's prompts

Write a short story about someone writing Valentine's Day wishes.

Valentine's Day – 49 stories

Write a short story about someone reflecting on their previous year's resolutions.

Holiday – 33 stories

Write a short story about someone who refuses to write New Year's resolutions.

Winter – 37 stories

Write a short story about someone accomplishing one of their resolutions.

Holiday – 54 stories

Write a short story about someone in the self-help aisle of a bookstore. What book do they pick up?

Short Story – 90 stories

Stories

“Teddy Bear” by J L. Castro

Submitted to Contest #25

The piping hot coffee tastes bitter upon reaching Mason’s taste buds. He instantly regrets forgetting to ask for it iced like usual, but he was too embarrassed to admit his mistake. Luckily, the coffee shop was connected to a bookstore, so cooling his coffee as he browsed around seemed entertaining. Mason would occasionally get coffee from the location but never seemed to be drawn to the book section of it. Many of the novels surrounding him were foreign to him with the exception of a few he remembered from his days in high school. At his ag...

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“Celia Lied” by Perry Terrell

Submitted to Contest #25

Celia LiedBy Perry Terrell The very first day of last year Celia wrote down five resolutions that she was bound and determined to keep. Number one was to lose weight. She has two closets full of clothes and cannot wear over ten pieces. She has to keep washing and wearing those same ten pieces of clothing over and over again. Sometime, when she is in a hurry, they don’t get washed; and she stays self-conscious whil...

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“The Captain” by Ed Willey

Submitted to Contest #25

The terminal screen emitted a gentle hum as he scrolled through page after page of titles in the library of the computer. He knew he could tap in a search term and narrow the selection a little, but he was trying to kill some time. He’d found himself trying to put space between him and the rest of the crew happening more and more often recently.The blue-white screen glare illuminated his face in the murky dimness of his quarters. When you think starship captain you imagine luxury and grandeur — and that may be true of some of the larger crui...

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“Bookshelf solutions ” by Jason Burchfield

Submitted to Contest #25

Maybe it’s not them, maybe it’s me. I kept tapping my foot on the ground. Maybe it was just another bad day at work. I’m sure they were having a bad day too. They didn’t mean to outright put me down like that. But here I am again staring at books that say they can help me through this situation.Self-help books are a joke though. They’re written by so called doctors or experts that think they really understand what you’re going through. If I’m not completely sure what I’m going through how can someone else....

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“Witches Also Need Self-Help” by Elizabeth Bohr

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #25

The book's cover is, to put it simply, annoying. Bright yellow, with what looks like a cartoon version of your least favorite teacher from elementary school. Necromancy For Dummies. Okay, okay. Molly knows that in this day and age, necromancy is a good career choice. It's not like there's any shortage of people who want to see their relatives again (although there's always those who want to bring back some historical figure to "kill him again.") or people who just want a tour of what it is necromancers do.Since she's broke, in college, and h...

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“book store shopping” by Bryanna Wilbur

Submitted to Contest #25

It was an early Tuesday morning when i got something in the mail. it was a letter. The letter stated "Ms Wilbur you are now the proud winner of the for the 12th national poetry contest. your prize is a $200 cash prize in which you'll be able to pick how and where you would like to spend it. Congratulations on your win we will be sending you your author's choice book shortly”I actually won! To be honest I didn't think I would really win the competition at all. there was so many people submitting work to poetry nation.I ran into my bedroo...

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“Shallow Diving” by Christine Johnson

Submitted to Contest #25

My wife, Amy and I sit in the car outside the book store at five minutes to ten holding hands and poised ready for a successful assignment. Capable adults, we both feel confident that today will be a big step in our marriage journey.We started seeing our marriage counselor, Sharon, about ten weeks ago. Amy and I both knew without some intervention the derailment of our eight-year marriage would continue. Both of us too passionate and stubborn to sort out our emotions without a referee. Sharon called our couple’s cocktail ...

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“Achieving the impossible” by Sam Kirk

Submitted to Contest #25

“You did it!” – Mary exclaimed and hugged me tightly as I inserted the last piece into its place.I smiled, slightly uncomfortable with her enthusiasm. After all, Mary would never be able to comprehend what that accomplishment meant to me.“Excuse me for a moment” – I said to her and quickly retreated into my room to process things.As I closed the door behind me, I held my breath and pinched my arm just to make sure I was not dreaming. Since I did not wake up in bed after that, I proceeded to sit down at my desk. Next, I powered on the compute...

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“How to Change Your Life” by Nikkianne Spaans

Submitted to Contest #25

It was Monday, Monday meant non-fiction. Donna had set a genre a day to make sure she saw everything in the expansive book store. Non-fiction wasn't her normal haunt but she'd finished her last book so, coffee in hand, she headed to the first bank of shelves.By the time she reached the dregs of her cup she'd made it to the self-help shelves still empty handed. Wedged awkwardly between a book about success and one about the importance of positive thinking was a small brown book, the prim golden title looking more handwritten than mass pr...

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“ONE MAN'S TREASURE” by Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #25

ONE MAN’S TREASUREBy Andrew Paul Grell“He is some hunk, Arielle. If he went in for an emergency hunkiotomy today, he would come out tomorrow still hunkier than anyone in, say, Mamaroneck. That’s what you like, Ari, isn’t it? The good-looking guys? You’re 31, girlfriend. Your days of being a six or better are dwindling down to a precious few. Go for the guy in the A. Testoni shoes. That man has a job where he gets paid.” The friends were having a reunion lunch at the Temps Perdu, their old hangout, after bot...

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“Rainy Day In Seattle” by Kayli Dunlap

Submitted to Contest #25

It was a rainy day in Seattle, it’s always a rainy day here. But the day just felt like a day to stay in a snuggle with a book. I go over to my bookshelf and look through the many books sitting on several shelves in front of me, so many choices to choose from. But as I continue to look at all the covers of the books, I’ve realized that I’ve already read these books numerous times, nothing seemed to interest me, I am overdue to buy some more books anyway, so might as well make my non busy day an adventure to the bookstore. I grab my rai...

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“Almost A Lost Cause” by Pete Zenz

Submitted to Contest #25

Elliot had a bad habit of forming bad habits. He didn’t let that bother him…most of the time, anyway. It did, however, bother other people. That didn’t bother him so much either…until now. Now it was crushing him. Now is when he wanted to be a “knight in shining armor” instead of an obese, clumsy, booger-picking nerd who could only be comfortable in sweatpants and t-shirts. Priscilla was new in town. Her promotion to Midwest District Sales Director of Faux Fur Sure, Inc. had n...

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“New Year’s Resolution ” by James Offenha

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #25

It’s January 3rd. I sat down, since I was told to, and started rethinking my New Year’s Resolutions. I went through them one by one and considered whether or not I’d really keep them: I need to convince Mommy and Daddy to take me to the doctor, even though I’m afraid. They’re giving me 2 treats in the morning and since they’ve started doing that, the pain in my legs has gotten better, but it still hurts. I think maybe they should give me three treats and it isn’t just because I enjoy the treats, it’s because the second tr...

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“Judging a book by its cover” by Helen Barber

Submitted to Contest #25

‘The Nomad’s Guide to Free Living’Big black letters pasted onto a beige background. Minimalist. It matched the crystal white pages, lined with beautifully written sentences, ultimately made up of words that meant nothing and did nothing, except take up space in your brain that would be much better taken up by useful things like how to change a lightbulb or what are the best times to drive to avoid traffic. The words in that book couldn’t help you with things like that, but Beatrix supposed that wasn’t why she had come into the store in the f...

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“New Year, New Me.” by Sam Kirk

Submitted to Contest #25

I am so sick and tired of hearing “New Year, New Me.”Every.Single.Year.What do these people think is magically going to happen in the New Year that did not happen before?If you are a sloth all of 2019, you will not wake up on January 1st, 2020, with newfound energy to organize every single room in your house. And even if you do, you will probably run out of that energy before noon. If you eat 4,000 calories a day throughout the year of 2019, you will not successfully decrease and maintain your diet by half overnight. If you have not been to ...

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$50

Prize money

263

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 24, 2020 EST

Won by Emily Sperber 🏆

Title: 10 Things To Do Instead of Writing New Year's Resolutions

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.

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