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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#266: The Write Stuff

Hello, fellow writers! Before diving into this week’s contest, I have an exciting announcement to make: the Reedsy Book Editor, our beloved (and free) writing app, is now Reedsy Studio! This cozy space is designed to be your creative haven, where you can make boards to sketch out your wildest character ideas, set goals to help you reach the finish line, export your stories with beautiful, customized typesetting, and so much more.

Studio is a gorgeous, functional book editor where your creativity can truly flourish… which brings me to the focus of this week’s contest. If you’re an aspiring author like me, you’ve probably experienced writer’s block at least once in your life — not to mention all the distractions life seems to perpetually throw at you. So, this week, let’s write stories inspired by artists and the creative process. Whether you’re the world’s biggest procrastinator or have been waiting for inspiration to strike, there’s bound to be a prompt below that speaks to you!

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone who wants to give up on their career right before their big break.

Short Story – 39 stories

Your protagonist discovers that everything they type comes true. What happens next?

Short Story – 54 stories

Write from the POV of a character in a story who keeps getting re-written by their second-guessing author.

Short Story – 92 stories

Your protagonist has the perfect day scheduled — but things don’t go according to plan.

Short Story – 40 stories

Write about someone who summons the creative muse through a convoluted ritual or method.

Short Story – 56 stories

Stories

“A Day To Remember” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #266

Saturday 12:00pm – Nathan was out late with some friends the night before so he slept in that day and awoke to the sound of birdsong outside his bedroom window and soon he was smiling up at his ceiling. He got out of bed, did a few stretching exercises, and then went out for a run. Upon his return he grabbed a towel, hit the button on his coffee maker and then headed into the bathroom for a nice hot shower. Today was going to be a big day and he was eager to get going.Afterwards, he toweled off and got dressed in a nice white polo shirt, a n...

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“Building A Dream Upon Words” by James Scott

Submitted to Contest #266

I was exhausted that first night. You know, the kind of tired that’s almost painful? Your body screaming for you to close your eyes and your mind begging you for silence, yet still you fight to your last breath for that extra minute of consciousness. I was hanging on by a desperate thread because I needed to erupt my thoughts onto the page, terrified they would all be lost by morning. I had finally broken it you see, my streak of melancholy that put a wall up between me and the craft. For so long the act of putting words to paper had seemed ...

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“The First Death” by Justin J. Harris

Submitted to Contest #266

I won. Blood drips thick into the drain. They sound like the haunting ticks of a clicking clock. I grip the basin. “I’m… I’m fucking done,” I say, peering into the mirror to look behind me at the hotel bed. At the bloodied, torn shirt with grimed palm trees printed on it.Somewhere, a phone rings. ****“Wow, Vieja! This is the last comp before … you know who,” said Javi, his thumbs locked and his fingers wiggling above his head.“He’s Dracula, not Voldermort. You can say his name.”Javi chuckled. “Sorry, but the thought of meeting...

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“Finis historia” by Laura Ethington

Submitted to Contest #266

Evelyn stared at the blank page on her laptop, her head in her hands, staring at the keyboard, praying for some divine spark to ignite her creativity—or at least the first sentence. The blank page mocked her as she watched the cursor blink. The words wouldn't come, and they hadn't for days. She's done everything she normally would to inspire her next psychological thriller. Baking, drinking, numbing with casual dates on dating apps, even visiting her mind-numbingly boring sister and her 3 kids in Omaha. But nothing. She'd been suitable for t...

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“Harmony in Darkness” by Joseph Ellis

Submitted to Contest #266

In a basement, in the dim light, in a home for hungry artists. Lies a painter, with a passion, and the will to spill her thoughts out.See the easel in the dim light. See the palette by her right side. A lack of blue upon the palette, a hue the artist chose to banish. No morning skies or crystal lakes for this aesthetic’s special tastes. No gray as well. No pale or silver in her sights. No shades between the starkest black and white. Instead, red. Red for blood, for vile streaks. Every hue of scarlett: ...

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“The RIght Stuff 2069” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #266

Danya groaned under the weight of the heavy equipment that she lugged across the tarmac. It felt like a metaphor for her life. One spent under the burden of following other people’s suggestions, which led to this dead end, working at a military air airfield in North Dakota. As she lamented her eight years in the Air Force, she gazed up at the stars flickering in the pitch black sky, and let her mind wander.She turned to her crewmate, Greg. “What sound do eagles make? Do they caw, or chirp, or…?”Greg's gaze remained focused on his e...

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“Oops” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #266

Oops“Timing is everything.”-Shakespeare (Or was it Bob Hope?)(Language) It’s the business world’s version of a frontal lobotomy. Sitting in a cramped cubicle for years crunching numbers until they all look the same. Accounting- one of the more meaningless activities contrived by man that provide a nice distraction from doing something that matters.Bob had been chained to this mind-numbing task for seventeen years. He hated everything about it.- The 35-minute drive in congested traffic into the city… especially in the winter… even more s...

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“"THE DIVINE DRAFT: A PERFECTLY IMPERFECT CREATION"” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #266

In the beginning, there was nothing. Not a peep, not a flicker. It was the kind of nothing that would make even a void feel crowded.Then, with a snap of divine fingers, there was… an office. Not just any office, but the office: a sprawling, celestial workspace where the carpets were fluffy clouds that squished underfoot as marshmallows on a summer day, and the walls shimmered with an otherworldly iridescence as if someone had gone a little too heavy with the cosmic glitter. The desk at the center of it all was made of pure, radiant light — s...

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“An ending for both of us” by Penelope Stansfield

Submitted to Contest #266

I hang up the phone and sigh. Calls with Lionel, my agent, always have that effect. Lionel, the man who got me my first break - I owe him for that, and now I owe him my third novel, the third instalment of the lives and loves of Lottie Summers and her trivial adventures in the land of passion and romance. But it sells, and the first two books were a hit in the airports, with thousands of copies making their way to sun-soaked beaches and swimming pools. Whether they’ll ever get nominated for a Booker prize is debatable...

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“A Flicker in the Dark” by Vee Ay

Submitted to Contest #266

I don’t remember when the flicker started.Maybe it was when I first felt the ground shift beneath my feet, the familiar cobblestones of the alley dissolving into dirt, then into grass, then back again. It was like a blink, a momentary lapse in my vision—but more profound, more jarring. It was as if the world itself couldn’t make up its mind.Or maybe it was when my hands—my own hands, I was sure of it—touched the weathered wood of my father’s old door, only for the door to change, the wood turning smooth and polished, younger somehow. And sud...

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“The right stuff” by Juliette Ikss

Submitted to Contest #266

She had everything else ready. A playlist of ambient music long enough 7 or 8 epiphanies, a bottle of tropical juice, the mirror on the table, fresh and clean from any dust and residue, a metallic tube, the luminosity from the screen computer has been set to turn itself down after 60 seconds and socks had been rolled up in front of the control lights of the speakers. The curtains are drawn shut.Everything is there apart from the key element. And key it was indeed. It opened the door to another world inside the mind, where the muse liked to d...

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“Creamy-Sweet Dream” by Suzanne Jennifer

Submitted to Contest #266

The sweet creamy scent of vanilla buttercream that dances in the air of a culinary school’s bakery department comforts me. Raised within a family that owns and runs a flourishing full-service bakery, I simply have to shut my eyes and memories of my grandpa, father, and any assortment of uncles, aunts, and cousins flood my mind. The Constantine family live and breathe for bread, cookies, rolls, cakes, danish and pastries. Working side by side with my elders, I dreamed of the day I would lead our bakery into the next generation. I didn’t just ...

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“The Retiree” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #266

The RetireeShe had thoroughly enjoyed herself as an English teacher. Not only did she find the job satisfying, but she also seemed to have a host of acquaintances. She felt she had all she could want. A decent job, a good salary, many social opportunities, and an all-round appreciation of life. Just as she felt that life couldn’t improve, she was called into the Head’s Office and told she must retire. She knew she was of retirement age, but she thought she was indispensable, and they surely would never ask her to go....

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“Tales We Never Told” by Nita A Mozzi

Submitted to Contest #266

In the middle of the room, my suitcase stays open, half-packed. I sit cross-legged on my bed, looking down at my phone, writing down the last personal details before I can receive an electronic boarding pass. Once I’m done I reach out towards my bedside table, and my fingers brush the hard surface of the paperback copy of Tales We Never Told. I lift it up from its sacred place, drawing circles on the hard paper with my finger tips. I let it go, and stare as it falls down with an abrupt thud. I won’t need it where I am going. A cryptic sile...

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“The Unrequired Summoning” by N A

Submitted to Contest #266

Life is short - you know how I know?Been twice on the cold metal table of surgeries. Been open up straight like a body for autopsy, not in Y but in a straight line, by a cold scalpel pressed down the skin, so sharp that it can cut your muscles just like a sharp knife would cut down easily a cheese. Lesson learned, you might die on table today, so please sign your Informed Consent Form before we head in to the controlled slaughterhouse.The anxiety that kicks in it's so bad that you almost faint, but not really, you're barely breathi...

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$250

Prize money

281

Contest entries

108

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 06, 2024 EST

Won by Derrick M Domican 🏆

Title: inspirAItion

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!

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