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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#38: Close to Home

A few weeks ago, our 'Staying Inside'-themed contest received quite a big response from the Reedsy Prompts community. Because this is clearly a relatable theme for so many these days, we've decided to run a second edition of prompts that all revolve around being at home.

But that's not the only popular writing activity we're bringing back: today, we're hosting another LIVE Write-In on YouTube at 3pm Eastern Time! Once again, our guides Shaelin and Jenn will guide you through a series of 20-minute writing sprints. During the breaks, you can share your progress and ask our hosts any questions you may have.

To join, tune in to our YouTube channel at 3pm EST. We hope to see you there!

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone who finds a magical portal in their home.

Fantasy – 240 stories

Write a story about someone who is working from home and constantly getting distracted by their pet.

Nonfiction – 98 stories

Write a story about two neighbors talking from their yards, windows, balconies, etc.

Dialogue – 196 stories

Write a story about someone learning how to play an instrument.

Nonfiction – 75 stories

Write a story about someone posting a video on social media that goes viral.

Teens – 54 stories

Stories

“Octave” by Joy Saker

Submitted to Contest #38

The classroom door opens and Jane pokes her head in. “It’s Joy’s turn for piano lessons.”I grab my dog-eared, second-hand music book from the depths of the ancient desk and hurry across the flagstoned quadrangle to Sister Macrena’s music room. Running is forbidden at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, but a cross between a scuttle and an Olympic power walk can get you there just as fast, just not very elegantly. The peeling green paint on the warped panels of the door sheds another flake as I fling it open and gasp my apologie...

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“Zeya” by Andrew Eller

Submitted to Contest #38

Zeya was a red panda at the zoo just a handful of blocks away and I knew I had to rescue her. It was my first year teaching and things were not going well. I had left college, bright and full of optimism, accepting a teaching job in a new city far away. So often we don’t realize the expectation we have until that expectation is not met. My struggles in the classroom were showing me that I expected to saunter into the underserved school and create amazing, transformational change among my students. This image of mysel...

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“JIMMY DEAN” by Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #38

JIMMY DEANBy Andrew Paul GrellIt is not, in fact, always darkest before the dawn. There’s a whole bunch of diffracting, reflecting, and refracting going on below that eastern horizon. Dogs can pick that up even behind shades, blinds, and curtains. Goldfish, too. The Rastusons’, Liza and Josiah, started out with goldfish. Two of them, in a little bowl on the night table farther away from the window. Yet every morning, twelve minutes before nautical dawn, Mime and Fafner would slap their tails on the surface of the water until one of the ...

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“The Candy Cotastrophe” by Svea Wagner

Submitted to Contest #38

The Candy Catastrophe By: Svea Wagner A 14-year-old girl named Keira is going on a summer vacation to New Jersey with her family. When they had arrived at their cabin in New Jersey, they unpacked their suitcases and put on their swimming suits. After the beach, they went to a very fancy restaurant to celebrate their first night in New Jersey. The next day was Keira's parents’ date day, so they had expected Keira to babysit her little brother Ajay. Ajay hated being babysat because he thought he was too old. Ajay was only 7 y...

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“a weird and wonderful world” by Maddie Schultz

Submitted to Contest #38

today was another boring day.only my head and chest could be seen as I was scrolling through my phone in the darkness of my room. I had gotten a notification from my friend, Dylan.I clicked on said notification, opening the photo he had sent me. it was a picture of him holding his cat, buddy, with a sad face. there was also a caption at the bottom of the picture that said 'i miss u.'I snorted at this.I texted him back, 'i miss you too. man, quarantine is the worst.' the second I had sent the text, I heard a shout from my mother."Tess! I told...

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“Distractions in Isolation” by Matthew Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #38

"The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business.' Albert Camus, The Plague. If it is to be believed that the priesthood is a calling, then the same could be said about novel writing. To Jean Grenier it must have been as though writing a novel was his calling. While he was an excellent high school teacher and a great father and husband, he was bu...

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“Cali’s Letter To Her Pen PAL” by T L

Submitted to Contest #38

Hello to my Pen Pal in Maples,Hey! My named is Cali and I love to play the violin. My mom just had a baby and he likes to hear me play my violin as well. My violin has a strings and a stick that you used to play across the strings. I am in grade four and take violin lessons from my teacher; he is a very good teacher and is very patient with me. Here is an recent story about playing music:“Ok Cali, it is your turn to play in front of the class. What do you want to play first?” said her teacher. “I would like to play Happy Birthday for my cous...

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“Once Upon a Time...” by Infinity Star

Submitted to Contest #38

Taking a smoke, I came out on the black metal balcony that most apartment buildings had in New York City. Leaning on the cold, thin, and somewhat rusted metal, I stare out at the weird and uncomfortable silence that never occurs during any point in this city. Wearing a white tank top and an unbuttoned black short sleeve shirt to cool myself from the sticky warmth in my apartment. I breathed in the drug, holding for five seconds before puffing out the white wisp of smoke. Looking around as I dragged the old white cigarette from my mouth,...

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“Pillow Talk” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #38

My colleague Camilla is one of those people who tends to be referred to as a good sport/good egg/brick/decent sort or whatever folk’s accolade of choice is, followed by a but which is not always vocalised, but always hangs in the air. One of Camilla’s little ways is that though, generally, she isn’t remotely materialistic and looks genuinely mystified at the obsession with stuff, every so often she’ll get a gadget that she doesn’t know how she managed without, and Lord, do the rest of us know abou...

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“Cupboard Critters” by Lauren Ford

Submitted to Contest #38

“Uh,Earth to James, did you hear what I said?”I struggled to keep my face from showing what my body was desperate to reveal.It’s okay. Calm down. What are you so afraid of?I leant back from the coffee table and placed my hands firmly on my legs to keep both appendages from trembling.“James, you dork. I said did you want to see the video?”Max shifted his chair closer towards me.I hadn’t seen the guy in over two years but somehow it was as if we were both 12 years old again.“It’s the one with the montage of all the TV shows we used to watch as...

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“From Crawling to Striding Pianos” by Stephanie Jeannot

Submitted to Contest #38

Learning to play the piano is like learning how to walk from crawling. It is not an easy thing. I watch the falls of a little child in her attempt to just start running. But plop she goes and ends up in tears because it hurt her to fail. She is tired of only being able to sit on her pretty little tail.She decides one day to try standing on her own like a piano player putting her hands on the keys. She moves her hands across the expanse of the piano but not with ease. She tries to build her muscle memory of every song that grabs her attention...

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“Not Now, Please” by Sprite Akuma

Submitted to Contest #38

Day 17 of quarantine: I’m sitting around at my house, piles of work to do yet still bored out of my mind. Trying to do schoolwork from home makes it so easy to get distracted. I seem to have fallen into the mindset that, oh, I have all the time in the world. I don’t have to go anywhere, and it’s not going to matter whether I finish this in the morning, in the afternoon, or at night about 23 minutes before it’s due. From what I’ve been seeing on social media, I’m not the only one with this mindset. Clearly, since people have the time to post ...

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“Past or present” by Teema J

Submitted to Contest #38

I rolled my eyes as my brother and I trudged down the stairs to the living room. Mom announced that it was time for a "family meeting". I sighed to myself. Our family has never been the same ever since dad died, Colin doesn't really remember him, but I do, and so does mom. She always tells us to look on the bright side but the day we got the phone call that his plane crashed she could barely function. It was up to me to take care of her and Colin. I had to cook, clean, make sure Colin was doing his homework while keeping my grades up. Mom ba...

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“The Trunk” by Gina Burke

Submitted to Contest #38

“Wow, this yard sale has a lot of cool stuff, doesn’t it, Ethan?” “Oh yeah. It’s great. There are some tools I want to check out on that table over there. I’ll meet up with you.” Carly enjoyed watching her husband get excited at yard sales like a child on Christmas morning. Not only did Ethan love a good yard sale, he loved to collect, well, just about anything. As Carly watched her husband inspect all the things that would undoubtedly end up in one of his collections, she had to chuckle to herself. “True, I’d eventually need a second home t...

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“The Peskiest Pet in the West” by Joshua Hopper

Submitted to Contest #38

“Come on, Pat!” “Leave me alone, Jerry!” I lifted the lid on my Apple laptop and painstakingly made my way to the most daunting sight I could ever lay my eyes on: a blank page. As far as I knew, no elixir existed that could magically make a full-fledged novel appear out of nowhere. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t searched for it. Yes, there was a story lurking behind that page. As Michelangelo said about his famous David sculpture, “It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.” For me, I had to find the wo...

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$50

Prize money

663

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 24, 2020 EST

Won by Clyde Roan 🏆

Title: The Paper Airplane

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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