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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

“To Love...” by Lilly Blossom

Submitted to Contest #28

I always liked nerds. You know, the kind of guys that obsess over boring, intellectual stuff, believing their work will actually change the world? Glasses are also a plus. Blue eyes and blondish hair are also a plus. Check, check, check. He had it all going for him. In the looks and personality department, he was my kind of guy. My life story is complicated, too complicated to tell now. To get you up to speed, I’ll start here. I’ve lived a crazy, adventurous life, one that guarantees looks from my listeners. I didn’t grow up wealthy or popul...

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“My Boring Love Story” by Carlie Beth

Submitted to Contest #28

“Will you please read it?” I begged over Mikie’s shoulder, he was watching his favorite Youtube videos. He didn’t say anything so I asked again. “Mikie! Will you please read this?” “Read what?” he finally said. “My short essay! For the writing contest! Come on, please! I could win an IPad!” He signed loudly and spun around in his chair to face me. I handed him my essay and he grudgingly took it out of my hands. I watched his eyes fly back and forth across my paper. After only a few seconds he threw the paper back to me then spun ...

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“The First Wedding” by Jessica C

Submitted to Contest #28

I can’t remember his name. Most of the minor details, yes. Her dress (beautifully cut satin but much too shiny to be elegant), the bouquet (pink and white roses, even though she was slightly allergic), the church (which still smelled tragically like moth balls, despite her mother’s best efforts to air the place out the night before).But I can’t recall the groom’s name. Donnie maybe? Ronnie? I know that in those years there was definitely a Ronnie and a Donnie, but I don’t know which was the groom. I am tempted t...

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“Our Son” by James Offenha

Submitted to Contest #28

We call him our son, but he’s not. Not really. He’s Falfa. Just Falfa and Falfa’s a good dog. We taught him to beg, play dead, roll over, stay, heel. The usual stuff people teach their dogs. But, I don’t tell Susan the truth, even though she knows it. Even though in her heart of hearts she already knows it. She knows it. I know it. It’s one of those things like your wife’s weight, which you know, but you don’t speak about. You know. One of those things. So, we get up, I wa...

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“Best Friends, Broken Heart” by Tanya M

Submitted to Contest #28

He walks up to you, slapping you a high five. His blue eyes glint down at you, sparkling cobalt as always, but missing their usual mischievous spark. You know the spark, you’ve stared at it for years. You’ve been friends since you beat him in the first-grade spelling bee. You’re tied for the top of the class, have air hockey battles, and know things about each other no one else does. His middle name is Bartholomew. You were the one who took your sister’s homework that one time. His parents think he’s going to the library, b...

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“Mom Had One Job!” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #28

My cousin’s wedding was the most family-involved wedding I’ve known so far. The day my sister and I were invited to be part of it, we were all having dinner at our favorite burger place. The occasion was actually a mash-up of a birthday celebration and wedding planning between my cousin, her fiance, and my dad, an ordained minister and the officiant of their wedding. The birthday celebrating was for my cousin’s mother, whose birth date was close to our dinner date, although me and my sister had ours coming up in a few weeks. With that in our...

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“Broken isn't forever” by Cyan Villanueva

Submitted to Contest #28

There are some things which can be hard to live with. Things like loss or, regret. But especially heart break. We often take the best of ourselves, place them in unsteady hands, and just hope they don't drop us...There was a boy once, who I loved very much. We met in high school and it was like seeing color for the first time. Or, more so, it was like being wrapped in warmth after being out in the cold for too long. Really - I know that may be a bit cliche... So I'll let you know early on, it wasn't like the books. There was no shortness of ...

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“First, last, only” by Tim Law

Submitted to Contest #28

She was the one. I did not know it at the time, I cannot tell the future and she was my first so I had zero experience with dating, nothing to compare those funny feelings in my gut, my heart, my mind. I’d had girls talk to me, flirt with me, even kiss me. Socially awkward and extremely inexperienced I did not know what to do. I had no clue how to explore the possibility of a relationship, felt so shy I never plucked up the courage to ask a girl out.But that all changed when she came along. A traveler that had seen the world and yet she cont...

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“Passerby” by Arthur Tiberio

Submitted to Contest #28

It was a lonely sort of town, the sort where old men sit on their porches at night and say they have been forgotten by Time. Down the main street, a single drugstore, large and dilapidated and groaning under the weight of great mounds of dust, stood as sole champion of our livelihood. On its left was a barbershop, closed all the way back in the days of the Depression, with a little spinning cylinder of blues and reds that creaked on windy days. On the right, Smith's Produce and Meats, faded now to read "Mith odu n M t," a slumbering leviatha...

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“My love for You” by Kat Gruszka

Submitted to Contest #28

I’m jealous of pregnant women. I’m envious of their swollen feet and morning sickness. I’m jealous of new dads with infants strapped to their chest, baseball caps over their too-busy-to-shower hair and sunglasses covering their sleepless eyes. I’m angry about new families with their matching outfits in family photos and their disorganized grocery shopping trips which include chases down aisles and tantrums regarding cereal. I never wanted to be a mom. I never actually thought I’d be a wife. I was an untethered soul focused on world dominance...

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“THE VOICE OF JOY AND THE VOICE OF GLADNESS, THE VOICE OF THE BRIDE AND THE VOICE OF THE GROOM” by Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #28

I was the tall kid. Fourteen, just got my working papers stamped. Mom pointed to an ad in the Riverdale Press for openings on a reception movie crew. Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Quinceanerars, confirmations, High School reunions, you name it. I crossed the border into Yonkers and rang the bell at the address I had been given. Jefferson Lincoln, presumably a professional name, opened the door and took a look at me. “You’re my new light man, kid. Sign here.” Jeff explained that my job would be plugging and unplug...

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“Blessed Brokenness” by Hannah Carter

Submitted to Contest #28

I have only ever had one broken heart. I was eighteen. The age where adolescents everywhere are straddling the line between the hormonal teenage years and the equally hormonal young adult years. I had made it through my teen years relatively unscathed. I’d had a handful of crushes—all of which didn’t even know I existed—and gathered a handful of friends around me. I don’t have those crushes anymore. I have very few of those friends. He was one of my best friends. Even now, as I go through old m...

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“Yellow, Blue, and Coco Man, Too” by Dannie Olguin

Submitted to Contest #28

One minute, I’m pushing too-sweet frosting across my plate and feeling awkward around all the new family, the next, I’m huddled under the table with cousins I’ve never met, trying my best to keep my little brother quiet and still until the danger passes. I peek under the long, white tablecloth. Wedding cake and shattered dishes litter the hard floor. Men in shiny black dress shoes run through the cake leaving white and blue footprints behind. Chairs and even some tables are toppled over. Screaming. Crying. Shouting. Everyone is yelling in Sp...

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“Two Wrongs Somehow Made A Right” by Robyn Welborne

Submitted to Contest #28

Broken hearts lead to some of the most impulsive decisions known to mankind. I should know, I experienced several. I wish this had a fairytale ending, but that rarely ever happens in a normal life. I loved, then I lost, then I found a quick fix. Who knew that it would lead to some catastrophic consequences? Everybody wants their cake and eat it, too. I tried. It was sweet at first but had a severely bitter aftertaste. At what point do you come to the decision of sacrificing your best friend for the love of your life? I never chose a side. Th...

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“Not Your Bride” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #28

“Where’s your date?” The older lady next to me bumps her shoulder into mine, whispering the question playfully as she glances around the banquet hall. “I don’t have one-” I start, but she sees right through me. I sigh and point to the tall male making the lengthy speech. She spews out her wine over the tablecloth suddenly, and I jump. The other guests glare at us with ill-concealed disgust. “The groom?!” She hisses, and I want to smack my forehead. I shake my head quickly. “Jonathon, you know…” I trail off as I speak, hoping that the g...

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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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