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!

#26: Musical Genius

January 27th marks 264 years since the birth of one of western music’s greatest composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

To celebrate Mozart’s birthday, this week we’re inviting you to explore different facets of both his life and his legacy. From little-known biographical details to the things he’s most remembered for, let the tune of his life inspire you to create your own entirely unique masterpiece.

P.S — Want to learn more about the lives and legacies of other greats? Check out this list of our 30 favorite biographies.

This week's prompts

Write about a character who was considered a prodigy when they were young.

Fiction – 61 stories

Write about a character who goes by many different names throughout their life.

Character – 50 stories

Write about a character who was raised in a musical family.

High School – 49 stories

Write a story about a musician struggling to find work during wartime.

Historical Fiction – 42 stories

Write a story about a character obsessed with one of the long-dead “greats” in their profession.

Adults – 24 stories

Stories

“Until my fingers burned and bled ” by Aleksandr Lehr

Submitted to Contest #26

As a child my mother urged me to play an instrument, wether it be piano, guitar, even the triangle. She didn’t care. She said it was because she saw something great in me, but I think it was because as a child she had always wanted to be a musician...but her parents refused to support her dreams, and by the time she was old enough to support them herself; she was too swept up in the current of life to spend hours a day learning and perfecting a tune. I was used to her living through me at this point. At times I wondered if that’s a...

Read story

“The Shadows” by Sage Henry

Submitted to Contest #26

The hardest thing about living in someone’s shadow is when you’re the one who cast it in the first place. Lonely children who raced their shadows in the sunlight always lost when the sun was on their backs. No matter how fast the child would run, the silhouette would always be faster. It wasn’t until they turned back to face the sun that the shadow would be forgotten, the loser in the sad one person race. Life often felt like a sad one person race, especially to those left out, cast aside from the others. Only children had no one else to ent...

Read story

“A pair of misfits” by Lilly Isabelle

Submitted to Contest #26

This is a story about Adam Robins. An ordinary name for such an unusual boy. As a kid Adam rarely talked. Instead, he drew. When he had access to pens, paint, markers or anything that could leave a mark on paper, he created art. At first his parents Tom and Melissa saw his passion for creating as a good thing. They often bragged about their son’s artistic abilities and encouraged Adam to continue. He became quieter and quieter as time rolled by and more obsessed with his art for every day that passed. Tom and Melissa were of course gravely c...

Read story

“An Obituary for Henry Kalmar” by Cara H

Submitted to Contest #26

IntroFrench Quarter Scene Magazine, February 2014Welcome, dear readers, to our special Ghoul Patrol issue, featuring an exclusive article by series creator and longtime FQS contributor Placid Calms, plus a reprint of his obituary for the one and only Henry Kalmar VI, our beloved Rainbow Brother forever. We hope you will enjoy this inside look into what we believe is going to be an exciting and deeply meaningful new television program with the potential to change lives. Ghoul Patrol will be filmed right here in New Orleans and will feature mu...

Read story

“By Any Other Name” by Megan DeRouin

Submitted to Contest #26

By Any Other Name I sat at the bar nonchalantly stirring my fruity drink as I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the man at the other end of the bar. He was average looking, his watch said he had a good job. The stains on his shirt collar and his nervous habit of rubbing his left ring finger said his wife had just kicked him out. There was something so…sad about him.He would make an easy mark tonight.I stood up suddenly and his head jerked up, I mean he really couldn’t help...

Read story

“One Life, Many Names” by Sophie-Dominique Waddie

Submitted to Contest #26

The coffin took pride of place at the front of the church nave. Beside it, reflecting an American practice was a large picture of a woman in her sixties, with black ribbons elegantly hanging from the frame. The order of service had the same image smiling out from the front cover and below was a name. Most of the congregation did not think of the name as linked with the woman in the picture. Margaret Elizabeth Frost (nee Quaker)When she died, most of her contemporary friends knew Margaret as Meg. She has been unwell f...

Read story

“Absalom ” by Issy T

Submitted to Contest #26

At approximately ten minutes to eleven every evening, Mr Backshaw stumbles out of the dimly lit pub and heads towards his car. It fits nicely into his journey home from the concert hall. The Turk’s Head, known for its rather dubious clientele, has only ever cut one person off in its sixty-five years of the Boyles’ ownership. An unlucky lad who was aiming a bottle of beer at the dart board, and whose coordination was severely impaired by this point, let loose a little too early flinging it backwards knocking out the barmaid. More importantly,...

Read story

“Erica, by Robert Humbug” by Terri Ash

Submitted to Contest #26

Disclaimer: the names towards the end are made up by combining two names. Please do NOT consider any of these for a child or character. Calling a child one of these will ruin their life, and using one of them for a character is plain stealing unless you ask permission.'Erica was terribly bored of her name. Erica Mary Smith. Could it get any worse? '"Mom," she declared one day, marching out of her room. "I don't like my name...

Read story

“Prelude to the Prequel” by Obsidian Eagle

Submitted to Contest #26

Baal Abraxah was an Arkhonh; an Ethereal Being born into the glorious zone of Typhareth. He wasn’t always the supreme monarch on Karataz (his home planet) but he did distinguish himself as a sagacious sorcerer from an early age. The nickname Brax followed him well into adulthood, although it originated during those early days.In any event, Brax rapidly ascended the ranks of the Arkhonz without missing a step. For instance, there was once a competition across the Megalocosmos to determine if the innumerable planets inhabited by the Arkhonh Al...

Read story

“Nameless” by Anastasia Mechling

Submitted to Contest #26

They called him Nameless, and that was the only title anyone could ever agree on. Was his true name one that they had all heard before, or was it some collage of syllables more esoteric in nature? Was it even a language at all, or was it just a cluster of sounds from his own private collection? There was nobody that knew for certain, and there was nobody that knew the list of names that he had held at one point or another. Elijah was the name given to him when he took his first breath, saw his first star, felt his first life. It was the name...

Read story

“The Concert” by Marian Penman

Submitted to Contest #26

The Concert Music, sadly, was never my thing. Strange really, when you consider the talents of my parents. My mother was an opera singer, in great demand on the stages of Europe. My father played bass guitar in a rock band still stuck in the summer of ’69. It was assumed that I would sing, but by the age of five, they realized from the wildly inaccurate droning coming from my lips, I was tone deaf. So they sent me off for music lessons. I started...

Read story

“Allegra Finds Her Song” by Lenore Butcher

Submitted to Contest #26

Growing up in a musical family was very difficult, but if you yourself weren’t musical at all, it was sheer torture. In Allegra’s family it was particularly hard, because it wasn’t that her family could play music. Not at all. Her family members were music. It lived in their voices. From the meekest whisper to the boldest shout and the most raucous shriek – every vocal tone had melody and rhythm as intricate as any concerto every played. &n...

Read story

“An Obituary for Henry Kalmar VI” by Cara H

Submitted to Contest #26

IntroFrench Quarter Scene Magazine, February 2014Welcome, dear readers, to our special Ghoul Patrol issue, featuring an exclusive article by series creator and longtime FQS contributor Placid Calms, plus a reprint of his obituary for the one and only Henry Kalmar VI, our beloved Rainbow Brother forever. We hope you will enjoy this inside look into what we believe is going to be an exciting and deeply meaningful new television program with the potential to change lives. Ghoul Patrol will be filmed right here in New Orleans and will feature mu...

Read story

“One Evening” by Fiona Yeung

Submitted to Contest #26

My teacher used to tell me that music was found everywhere; you can hear it in the trees when the wind blows, in the waves of the ocean or the buzz of a bee. On his dying breath, he told me to find music in every part of the world around me and bring it with me for the listener who needs it. Even now years later, I find myself wondering what he meant. What music could I possibly find in the world around me, now filled with the shriek of air raid sirens and the terrified cries of innocent civilians? And who would need music in times like thes...

Read story

“MUSIC STRIKES BACK” by Goelnarendra Goel

Submitted to Contest #26

Wars can never bring any good for any country, it's people and their art among them. In August 1971, Narayanganj, Situated on the outskirts of Dhaka, a place small enough to be missed easily on the map but still managed to engrave itself in the history of Bangladesh, erstwhile Pakistan. It got its present name after the battle of Plassey when a religious leader leased this town from East India Company and endowed it in turn for the service of God ( Narayan). It was the first half of 71’, the place was rife with atrocities of the Pa...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

226

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 31, 2020 EST

Won by Hannah Carter 🏆

Title: Lara

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 ⭢