Menu

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

← All contests

#315 Make a Wish

The Reedsy Prompts newsletter has come a long way since it first landed in inboxes back in 2016. (Yup, that started way before our weekly writing contest was properly set up here!) What began as a simple idea — five weekly prompts to spark creativity — has grown into a global community of writers who have shared over 100,000 stories over the years.

This week, we’re proud to celebrate the 464th edition of our newsletter. That’s 464 weeks of worlds built and characters brought to life… all thanks to the creativity of writers like you!

Let’s mark this special occasion with a theme that couldn’t be more fitting: birthdays. But not just the cake-and-candle kind — we’re talking about personal milestones, fresh starts, and the quiet (or bold!) moments that mark a turning point.

This week's prompts

Write a story that includes the word “birthday,” “birth,” or “party.”

Short Story – 70 stories

Your character meets someone who changes their life forever.

Short Story – 55 stories

Write a story with an age or date in the title.

Short Story – 41 stories

Set your story before dawn or after midnight. Your character is awake for a specific reason.

Short Story – 76 stories

Write about a second chance or a fresh start.

Short Story – 66 stories

Stories

Forty-Three Minutes

Submitted to Contest #315

***This story is inspired by true events.*** Author’s Note: I live every day with a traumatic brain injury. My hands don’t work very well, in fact I’m much more left hand dominant after doing most of everything for the first 40-ish years of my life with my right hand. My speech is slow and quiet, so I choose not to speak unless I absolutely have to. If we go out, I’m in a wheelchair because I don’t walk very well. However, my brain works just fine, which makes the other issues all the more frustrating. So, without further ado, here’s my seco...

18 likes

Beneath the Cypress Shadows

Anna Soldenhoff

Submitted to Contest #315

I arrived in Dubrovnik at the end of September, when the air had that peculiar mix of summer's fading warmth and autumn's crisp promise. The tourists had thinned; the Stradun was quieter. The locals, freed from the constant rush of summer, moved more slowly, chatting in doorways, their voices mingling with the scent of coffee drifting from the cafés. I had come here not as a tourist but as a translator on a short freelance contract. A week of work, maybe two, helping a small museum near Cavtat prepare an exhibition for English...

18 likes

Forgetting September 11th

Submitted to Contest #315

CW: Deals with themes of terrorism, war and PTSD “Oil and blood money fills the banksAnd puts working class kids in tanksAll of the profits from all of the war crimesLine all the pockets of all the fat swineWar machines breed chaos and painBlood falls from the sky like rainSo stand by the victims of freedomAnd light a candle for the dead and the beaten…" Never forget. That’s what they told me. That’s what they told all of us. It was spelled out on signs posted in the streets downtown and in the subway stations and in the terminals at JFK In...

17 likes

Matthew (1)

Submitted to Contest #315

Matthew (1) 5:1 - 2 He found his way over the sharp rocks. His sandals might as well have been his bare feet, they were so shabby and thin. It was a pain that might discourage other men, but He was driven by the words in His heart. The words burned His lips. The pain of His body would not challenge His faith until much later when His arms are hanging from the nails piercing His wrists. The word "forsaken" had no meaning to Him now. It hid in the shadows of His mind and on the other side of this mountain. Today He climbed the bright side, wit...

17 likes

… Cannot Be Undone

Submitted to Contest #315

Content: Severe alcohol abuse, including DUI. Some language. Remember, kids, never ever ever drink and drive. Bad things will happen. Author's Note: #5 of my Joan Dark stand-alone stories, and the last until next week. (I'm having trouble doing anything but writing up her back story, right now.) Please comment and critique, your views and opinions are greatly appreciated. * * * * *Joan Dark turns 25 at the midnight beginning October 30th, 2008, while watching a sparse number of vehicles pass through the intersection of Bessemer and Lindsay...

17 likes

Just Another Day

Stephen Mccluer

Submitted to Contest #315

Just Another DayIn many ways, the day was a day much like any other that summer. It was August, and days were growing noticeably shorter, a sure sign that school would be starting again soon. But for the moment, I relished the freedom.It had been a good summer: swimming in the lake almost every day, hiking and exploring in the woods with friends, and generally leading a life free of many cares. I had earned some money by digging up worms and selling them to the bait shop. Even after paying for all the candy I had bought, I still had some coi...

17 likes

September 7th

Joaquin Pires Diz

Submitted to Contest #315

The first time I noticed the date was on a bus ad that should’ve been selling teeth whitening or mattresses. White font on black, nothing else: SEPTEMBER 7. No URL, no logo. Just a date, like a deadline that belonged to the entire world. I assumed viral marketing. That night on Reddit, I saw a thread on r/AskReddit: What’s your plan for September 7? The comments were nonsense—jokes about stocking beans, moving money, confessing love. A few swore it was the day, which was either the day nothing happened or the day everything did. The thread b...

16 likes

… So Grows the Tree

Submitted to Contest #315

Content Warning: Contains domestic violence, as well as implied alcohol abuse and indirect references to anti-homosexual behavior. Author's Note: This is a first for me, not only a second submission in the same contest, but the first time I've written multiple stories about the same character. I don't have room with "… Not as I Do" to make this comment, but both stories stand on their own in my opinion. I wrote this one as a prequel to the other, but I believe that the order doesn't matter. I hope that both are good. Please let me know what ...

16 likes

The Day I Met the Wrong Person at Exactly the Right Time

Jelena Jelly

Submitted to Contest #315

He didn’t rescue me. He didn’t stay. But he left me with no way back to who I was. I was sitting on the cold metal bench outside the train station—the one with the gum stuck underneath that’s been there since the ’90s—waiting for a train I had no intention of boarding. I wasn’t going anywhere. That was the whole point. I’d been there for over an hour, watching people with places to be and lives to live, while my coffee went from hot to lukewarm to that perfect bacterial petri-dish temperature. I’d been invisible all day. Which was exactly wh...

16 likes

Facing Fate

S.M. Knight

Submitted to Contest #315

Manuel watched the rain work in the dark. Another year older and nothing to show for it. The Uber sign burned in the corner of the windshield, and a Dominican flag hung from the mirror. A fan of losing scratchers lay on the passenger seat like dead leaves next to a birthday card. The book on the radio told him to rise at five, make his bed, and that you were only a victim if you chose to do nothing. He nodded along in agreement as he worked on his scratchers. Half past midnight. The plane should be down. He wrote the name on a whiteboard in ...

15 likes

Flood Party

Aiden Mars

Submitted to Contest #315

By the time the magician’s dove landed in the queso, I’d already decided that birthdays were a genre of performance art I was ill-equipped to perform. It was my fourth party of the day. The birthday boy, Wyatt, had two front teeth on perpetual sabbatical and a battle cry that could curdle hope. The magician was an Uber driver in a cape, whose finale, apparently, was a dove-shaped stain under a puddle of nacho cheese. The dove, a co-conspirator, looked deeply offended. A jury of mothers clustered, while the fathers hid in the kitchen, texting...

14 likes

The Birthday Dinner

Submitted to Contest #315

“Calling Mom about her birthday dinner,” I yell from the kitchen to my husband, Luke, who's in his office. Her birthday is December 26th, just after the holiday rush. Despite the exhaustion, we always get together with my family to celebrate, though Luke often wishes for “a day to just relax after the madness.”“I can’t help when her birthday is, Luke. Are you in or out?”“In of course.” He retorts, but is less than pleased.“What’s up, toots?” Mom says in a chipper tone on the other line.“Hi Mom, Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you,” ...

13 likes

Ares Goes to Woodstock

Leo Evans

Submitted to Contest #315

The air crackled with an energy Ares hadn't felt since the Trojan War. Of course, that energy had been fueled by the delicious scent of fear and the satisfying clang of bronze on bronze. This energy… smelled faintly of incense and something vaguely floral, underscored by a pervasive aroma of grilled onions. Ares, magnificent in his battle-worn armor (slightly dusty from the chariot ride—parking near Bethel, New York in 1969 was a nightmare, even for a god), surveyed the undulating sea of humanity spread across Max Yasgur’s farm. He’d been dr...

13 likes

The Hinge That Remembers

Melissa Williams

Submitted to Contest #315

When Mara pushed open her grandmother’s front door, it didn’t swing—it sighed. The wood was swollen from years of salt air, stubborn as memory. She leaned her shoulder against it until it gave, then stepped inside, leaving her suitcase by the stairs like an afterthought.The air was the same as she remembered: tide, lemon oil, and the faint whisper of rosemary. Summer afternoons and childhood laughter clung to it, even though the house had been empty for over a year. Or not empty—just without a person.The bay window framed the gray horizon. I...

13 likes

The Birthday Room

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #315

Nora almost didn’t open the envelope.It had been wedged under her apartment door, delivered between yesterday’s mail and this morning’s first cup of coffee. The envelope was thick, cream-colored, sturdy enough for origami, and smooth. No return address or stamp, just her name in dark ink, precise and deliberate.Inside: one sentence.You are cordially invited to your birthday.She frowned. Her birthday wasn’t until November, and even then, she rarely celebrated. Since her mother died five years ago, the day had been just another square on the c...

13 likes

Load more stories

Contest #315

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

308

Entries

125

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 15, 2025 EST

Won by A'maurie Duckwitz 🏆

Title: Birthday Bones

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!

reedsylearning

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel