Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#42: End of Story

Reaching the end of a story is a bittersweet thing. Upon reading the final word of a particularly good piece, you’re often hit with a sort of story-hangover: the ache of wanting to stay in the world of the tale, yet knowing there’s no more story to be read.

A truly excellent ending can mitigate that pain — which is why, as a writer, it’s crucial to nail the end of your own stories! Of course, this can mean different things for different pieces. A great ending might underscore a story's theme, or it might pose more questions than it answers; it all depends on context and execution. For more info, check out our tips for crafting a memorable ending here, and then dive into our ending-themed prompts below!

p.s. — We're hosting a Live Copyediting Workshop! On May 20th, Editors Tracy Gold and Julie Artz will take to YouTube to copyedit passages submitted by writers like you! For a chance to have your writing featured, click this link to register for the event and you'll receive submission instructions by email.

This week's prompts

Write a story that ends with the narrator revealing a secret.

Mystery – 162 stories

Write a story that ends in the past.

Teens – 68 stories

Write a story that ends with a character asking a question.

Narrative – 260 stories

Write a story that ends by circling back to the beginning.

Short Story – 214 stories

Write a story that ends with one character waiting for the arrival of another.

Kids – 199 stories

Stories

“The Odds of Logical Failure” by Gwen Anderson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #42

I never knew there were this many shades of green. From the light shade of grass that’s pressed against my feet to the dark emerald of the trees towering over my head, colors dance through every moment, every movement, every breath of life. A quiet creek bubbles at my toes, spitting at me as it jumps over the tiny mountains of pebbles. Great branches sweep down to caress the vines crawling up their trunks. Blue sky pierces through the cracks in the canopy of leaves, sending soft light down to illuminate the grou...

Read story

“Snow Falls When We Meet” by Elizabeth Urquieta

Submitted to Contest #42

The snow's soft powder covered the ground in piles. It covered the roads, the grass, the flowers, and the trees. Snowflakes fell from the sky like little white balls of light. The air was cold enough to freeze you to death if you came out of your home with nothing but your trousers. Needless to say, it was a beautiful first day of winter.His body laid on the ground in the middle of an open field. The coldness of the snow below him seeped through his shirt and into his bare skin. His eyes slowly opened, looking up to the gray-colored sky. He ...

Read story

“Maze point.” by Emily Li

Submitted to Contest #42

"Henry waits up you're going too fast!" Said, Crook."I'm not! It's just that both of you are too slow! Aren't you excited to see the king of dragons?" Said, Henry."Not only that Henry we are also seeing the prince." Mastermind said, in a deep growl."Sure all Dark dragons like you are all handsome for nothing." Said, Crook."I'm sure ocean dragons only swim and have control over water." Said, Mastermind in a serious growl."Stop it guys!" The King of the dragons wouldn't want us like this! Said, Henry in a hushed voice."I know the King won't li...

Read story

“The Job” by David Dicaire

Submitted to Contest #42

The Job Edna Williams stood just a little bit over five feet tall and weighed about a hundred and ten pounds. She was fifty-three years old and looked her age. The petite lady walked with determination into The Black Orchid, a biker bar, and wrinkled her nose at the smell of stale beer, cigarettes and sweat. She walked up to the bar and all conversation stopped. Edna barely managed to climb up the impossible tall stool; it was like scaling Mt. Everest to her. She look...

Read story

“Can You See Me?” by Courtney Stringer

Submitted to Contest #42

My name is Apple Winters, and I have a problem, but first let me tell you a little about myself. I have dark brown eyes and thick, tightly curled, black hair. I am 11 years old. I have a sister named Chloe, who is also 11. Now, before you assume that we are twins, we aren’t. See I am adopted, I don’t remember my old family, but that isn’t i...

Read story

“Isn't a surprise? ” by Emma Lin

Submitted to Contest #42

May I trade my parents for yours? No, it is not a joke; I am more than happy to trade mine for yours anytime of the day. Asian parents are a pain in the ass. Every day the lecture is about studying til midnight, earning honors, being top of the class, becoming a doctor, lawyer (in their dictionary the only two jobs that exist), having a six-digit salary. Love them to death but it irritates the Buddha out of me!Excuse me Buddha. “Lila, we want the best for you,” my mother and father said one night on the couch. “We want you to be su...

Read story

“Just Perfect” by Estelle Westley

Submitted to Contest #42

As far back as I can remember, Grandma Bailie never wasted anything.I loved her with all my heart and spent every moment I possible could with her because she had so many beautiful stories to tell.She lived with everything in abundance as a young girl but her parents made her account for every penny spent and every moment lived. Their thinking was that just because you were privileged did not mean you were allowed to be wasteful."Time and money should not be wasted Emma!' was a phrased used often in their household.Then just before the...

Read story

“Blue” by ℤ ℍ☮️

Submitted to Contest #42

The mother was a slender freckled lady, with arms like swaying branches, but something about her shined through her dotted face, her pale lips and big purplish-gray eyes. It made her pretty, in a way.The father had deep-set eyes and a face showing creases of experience. His sad eyes looked tragic under the glow of an inscrutable sailor's moon, but sincere in front of a glimmering April sun. His hair was neat and fuzzy, dark as a starless night.Blue. Sometimes it'll be a jolly periwinkle but most of the time it'll be a worn navy. It's a colou...

Read story

“Yellow Flickering Light” by Ilana W

Submitted to Contest #42

I’m Trey, there isn’t much to say about me though. I am writing this to you because there isn’t anything else I could do here. I really just kind of sit in the same place and hope for something good to happen. I sit in the room with the windows down, wearing a ripped up gray college sweater. I’m not in college nor have I ever been in one because I’m not, “trusted”. I don’t know what trusted means but that’s what I’ve been told. I get told a lot of things and have been told so many things throughout my life but yet, nothing changes. I always ...

Read story

“In Among the Shambles” by S Zak

Submitted to Contest #42

There was never a time that I could ever remember that Officer Michael Jaworski wasn’t in my life. When I was nine years old, he taught me to shoot a pellet gun, and gave me my first BB gun. With the patience of a saint, he showed me how to nuzzle the butt of the gun into my shoulder, and he was the one to take the gun away from me when I accidentally pointed the barrel at the neighbours cat. It was him who took the training wheels off my bike and ran alongside me on the roads of the suburb where I lived, yelling after me to keep steady and ...

Read story

“The Aberforce Murder” by Margaret Gaffney

Submitted to Contest #42

Most kids in high school spent their summers at the pool or on vacation, but I preferred to spend mine in a library. Mind you, this wasn’t just any library. This was a good old-fashion card catalogue extravaganza of county birth recordings, cemetery records, drawers of family archives, and an unholy number of biographies on Abe Lincoln. It smelled of must and brewing coffee, and the ceiling creaked like a ghost was moving in the attic. I loved it. It was there that I first encountered Cyril Aberforce. Yea...

Read story

“Kathy's Gift” by Julia Hopkins

Submitted to Contest #42

Kathy was a joy to be around. Her smile was large and contagious. Even though she wasn’t the beauty queen type, she had that charming, girl next door look that drew teen boys from all over town to our house. A father’s nightmare. I’ve known for years this time was coming but I’m still not keen on sharing my little girl’s affection with boys. I know what those boys are thinking. Afterall, I was a boy once too. But I digress. There is not a rebellious bone in Kathy’s body. That’s why I didn’t understand why my wife was making such a federal ca...

Read story

“One Broken Guitar” by Michael Morales

Submitted to Contest #42

The sun rays were beaming down from the sky creating a glowing effect on the border of each person’s body, on this hot summer day the popsicles and kiddie pool seemed to make everything much cooler. In the middle of the backyard there was a brown hair child rolling around in the fluorescent green blades of grass with the energy of a newborn puppy. A couple of feet away stood a tall woman who was repeatedly shouting the name of the child, not in a commanding way but in a playful way. Everything seemed so perfect, it was almost as if the two w...

Read story

“A Small Prayer Spoken By A Sinner ” by April Summers

Submitted to Contest #42

To get what you want, you have to know exactly how much you are willing to give up. I have heard many times of the self sacrificing speeches of those around me. Lines saying how they would give their all, their everything up, for the one they love...however, I never understood why one would say such things for when the time comes, they hesitate and refuse to give up what they swore they would have before. Now they let go of it at a moment's notice. I have learned from all of this that huma...

Read story

“The Letter” by Adam Wright

Submitted to Contest #42

Jim Targus held the envelope pinched between his thumb and forefingers. He held it as far away from his face as his arms would reach. Even at that distance it was still easy to read the bold block letter typescript on the front. THE BUREAU OF EXISTENTIAL AFFAIRS. He had waited most of his twenty one years of life to receive this letter. Days spent dreaming and imagining what the future would be. The paper felt rough on his fingers. He took a deep breath, folded it up into neat fourths and stuck it into the back ...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

903

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 22, 2020 EST

Won by Phoebe Barr 🏆

Title: The Firebird's Answer

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!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢