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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#28: Narratively Takeover

This week is a special edition of the Reedsy Prompts contest because our friends at Narratively are taking it over with their own theme and prompts! We'll let them take it from here...

Narratively is a media platform that celebrates the diversity of humanity through authentic storytelling. At Narratively, we know that truth is sometimes stranger (and more interesting!) than fiction, so we’re switching things up this week and asking for your TRUE stories. For this week’s prompts, we’re looking for your very best creative nonfiction — the fascinating true story that only you can tell, the one incredible tale you just have to share with the world.

We like stories that surprise and delight us, and that are full of dramatic, active scenes with lots of colorful moments.

To that end, each of our prompts for this week takes on an issue that never goes out of style… love.

The winning story will be considered for publication on Narratively.

This week's prompts

Write about someone (or something) you loved that you shouldn’t have.

Nonfiction – 90 stories

Write about a date that was so terrible you’ll never forget it.

Nonfiction – 46 stories

Write about your most unique experience at, or in, a wedding.

Nonfiction – 34 stories

Write about a time when a broken heart led to something you’d never have expected.

Nonfiction – 58 stories

Write about a secret that you’ve never told to the person you love.

Nonfiction – 41 stories

Stories

“Worst Decision ” by Fretwell Leah

Submitted to Contest #28

After my partner of 3 years passed away, I fell into a deep depression. He died in my arms after the nurse pulled him off life support. I never had someone so close pass away, so it was very traumatic. I was a single mom, age 35 with two awesome kids. My kids were close to my partner, he spoiled them. My whole life changed after he was gone. I went from on top of the world happy to a very dark place quite quickly. He wasn’t the wrong guy I fell in love with. The guy that slithered into my life afterwards, was definitely the wrong guy.&n...

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“Forbidden Love for My "Straight" Best Friend” by Alan Turner

Submitted to Contest #28

Dear Journal. 06.05.16Today was awful and painful again, not physically but one hundred percent emotionally. I hate this feeling; wish it would just go away. Why cant I be like the other guys why cant I like girls in the way they do. I hate myself I hate that I like him, as more than a friend as more than my best friend. I love him and i don't understand why? Im so confused have i always been like this? Have i just ignored it until now? Oh god he can never know how I really feel he'd hate me he would never speak to me again. I couldn't handl...

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“The Perfect Boy” by Anie Homan

Submitted to Contest #28

He was perfect. I knew it when I met him; those smart eyes and gentle hands, the way he was so self-assured, so confident. It was everything I ever wanted to be - but, allow me to start at the beginning. I have always been in love with the idea of being in love. I’ve dreamt of meeting the one for as long as I can remember. I’m a rom-com and chick-flick kind of girl. A roses and chocolate kind of girl. A kiss me on the sidewalk kind of girl. I always have been. I’ve listened to all of Taylor Swift’s heartwrenchin...

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“Never Meant For Me” by Mahnoor Fatima

Submitted to Contest #28

The only thought keeping me grounded during the difficult stages of my life was the thought of Logan and his smile. The one that made it seem as if the whole sun had toppled down to earth and taken the form of his lips. His smooth dark locks that were eager to defy all rules and gravity. You could be in a room full of color, and light and his presence would still be the brightest.Too bad he wasn't mine.He hadn't proclaimed his undying love for me yet so either he was absurdly exceptional in concealing his emotions or unfortunately, not inter...

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“Ben.” by Claudia Jerome

Submitted to Contest #28

It's ironic how the mind works. In no time someone will have you thinking you're in love. Or was it me who made myself believe that? Regardless, I was there.I was heartbroken from the start. One week in, he cheated. It may not have actually been cheating though. He was still living with her and carrying on a relationship with her. She was confused about my role and needed me to back off. Pfft. A couple of months in this same "ex" tells me he is still legally married to a different woman; this turned out to be true too. He swore it was way to...

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“Lee” by Johnnie(miss) Osborne

Submitted to Contest #28

He had me from hello. That hello should not have been. His voice was so sexy,and I just had to meet him. And meet him I did. We moved in together in October after my family kicked me out because I got him out of jail. But I had to he called me at work and asked me "if I would promise to get him out and I did. Well needless to say I ended up in the hospital for two months. When I got discharged from the hospital I never went back to him. I shouldn't have been in a relationship with Lee, he used me and he abused me. May God bless and keep him ...

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“Happiness is a Warm Drug ” by Nick Egan

Submitted to Contest #28

She doesn't love you.So do a line. She does love you.So do a line. Because you can never be together.The eightball of cocaine I have in my pocket makes my head a little clearer as I walk home and prepare myself for the inevitable. When I walk through my front door- our front door- she's going to be in bed with someone else.I shouldn't be this calm.That's the weird thing about love. Your brain rationalizes the craziest things, even if it shouldn't.Even if you shouldn't love at all.That's how I felt about the drugs.And that's how I felt about ...

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“Dairy Queen” by Michelle Hromin

Submitted to Contest #28

It always starts the same way, whether I’m with friends, family or alone. I’ll be at a coffee shop and I’ll say, “Hi - can I get a large latte?” The barista’s response 80% of the time is, “Sure! Is whole milk fine?” and the answer is always yes. The other 20% is someone I know going, “Why not have oat, hemp, almond, or soy milk in your coffee? Why take a pill?” I’ve posed my argument over and over, but here we go again.I’m lactose intolerant. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I’ve never been confirmed as lactose intolerant by a medical p...

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“I shouldn't have loved him- By Joan David” by Joan David

Submitted to Contest #28

Dear Journal,He was harmless. Everyone knew him and he was the life of the party. Jack Hudson had my heart from the very start. His green eyes, that bright smile, his quiet laugh. I fell for more than just his looks, I even fell for his mysterious personality. There was just something I could never place. He had this "slow morning with coffee" feel. It made me anxious and self conscious. I used to ask dumb questions.What if he doesn't think I'm pretty? What if I'm not his type? Why is my hair like this?My obsession for Jack consumed my time ...

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“The Summer of Sara” by Augustus Gigous

Submitted to Contest #28

Meet Sara. She's a bright, young woman with short blond hair. She loves to read Shakespeare, drink coffee, and living the Up North life. She works at the local souvenir shirt shop in town in the summer and attends college in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She's studying to be a psychologist. So, she's smart. I never met someone as smart as her.There is one problem. She's dating someone else.When I moved to Frankfort, Michigan, in 2018, I began working at that same shop. My family loved coming to the area, and that summer we decided to move, me ...

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“Across The River” by Sharon Felicia Acheampong

Submitted to Contest #28

I sighed, for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour. It was that time of year again. The time my mother referred to as “crazy papa days.” I smiled. I missed my mother; she always could calm my father. She however had travelled to go check on and possibly buy some new foals for the ranch and I was stuck with the “crazy papa” for the next couple of days. Talking about the crazy papa, I could see him literally marching towards the house from the kitchen window. It would take him exactly fifteen seconds to walk through the door. “Co...

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“A Seasonal Rhyme” by Satyam Badkul

Submitted to Contest #28

Maybe that is the thing about being too common, you don't really feel disconnected until you both get involved on an higher level.Anyways, just like every other story mine has no specific start, maybe few milestones still complicated enough to call it off as a start or the end.But for the old times sake, it was the summer of 2015, i enrolled for my graduation, it was our induction when i saw her for the first time and right away i got into denial. It feels kinda cool to not crush over someone who is the hot pick of your college, not to menti...

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“Purple Hearts” by Emily Wilson

Submitted to Contest #28

Amanda had seen the same episode of Three’s Company a million times already that summer. It was the one where Jack writes a mean note to someone and then wishes he didn’t and tries to get it back without getting caught. She unstuck her sweaty thighs from the sofa, turned off the TV, and listened to the buzzy quiet that always comes after. She hated that sound. She wandered to the kitchen and stared at the magnet on the fridge door. It was a round pig pointing at her o...

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“"Die Hard, Live Well”” by David Caissie

Submitted to Contest #28

When Keith Foulke lobbed the ball to first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz to cinch the 2004 World Series, most “die-hard” Red Sox fans couldn’t believe their eyes. The curse that had plagued their team for 86 years was over. The Red Sox had won the World Series!This die-hard believed everything, but celebrated nothing, because the die-hard in me had already died. But I was okay with that...We always had a love/hate relationship, the Red Sox and me. Well, I loved and hated them, depending on the outcome of the most recent game, series, or season....

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“Off Into the Sunset: My Doomed Love for a Cowboy” by Amy Arden

Submitted to Contest #28

When I was five years old, I decided that I wanted to be a cowboy when I grew up. A cowboy, not a cowgirl. I wanted to wear chaps and a 10-gallon hat, not a skirt and ruffles. I wanted to live out on the prairies, eat meals cooked on a campfire, and learn songs that could be played on a guitar as I sang to the cows. I wanted to sleep outside beneath the stars. I wanted to see antelope and buffalo wandering the open plains at will. And most of all, I wanted to have my own horse. She would be strong and beautiful and steadfast, and we w...

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$50

Prize money

269

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 14, 2020 EST

A winner will be announced soon.

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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