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

“Can You See the Magic” by Rhonda Allen

Submitted to Contest #42

What do you do, where do you go, when your entire life becomes disillusioned and all your dreams disappear?They could still hear the audience clapping and cheering loudly, even though they had already exited the stage in their usual fashion of a ballet like dance and synchronized royal wave. Tobias had said from the beginning that making the departure as memorable as the show was very important, it was a way of keeping the audience connected to them. He was so right, thought Olivia, but then again everything he did for the show and for them ...

Read story

“The Watch. ” by Aina Salman

Submitted to Contest #42

Alana was sitting on the bleak seats of the London Underground, with three other grim-looking people in the same compartment. It was 08 17 and Alana had to reach her office at 08 45 to be exact, and she was already yearning to take the train back home. Today the ride to her office was awfully still, though she was not a very loud person, she still liked the chitter-chatter and veiled bickering of random people while travelling to work in the mornings. Observing the tranquil environment around her, she glanced at her plain black strap watch a...

Read story

“Resolutions” by Margo Harris

Submitted to Contest #42

Staring down at the pond, I watched my reflection distort as the creatures living inside moved through the water. I stood there for a long time, enjoying the summer breeze blowing my hair back, carrying scents of flowers with it. I always came there when I needed to think. I hadn’t been feeling much like myself lately. I always got lost when I fell into something too deeply. Usually after some time, I was able to find my way back, but this time seemed different. It’s like whatever I tried, I couldn’t go back to who I was before. This t...

Read story

“'til Death” by LeighAnne Ferreol

Submitted to Contest #42

I smiled and placed a gentle kiss on his temple. I loved him so much. He didn’t stir at all as I did so. Poor thing, I knew how sick he was. I couldn’t remember the last time he got out of bed. His dinner plate from last night was still on the nightstand, untouched. I reached over and grabbed it. I stroked his head gently before getting up and heading downstairs. I needed to take care of him, no matter how long it took. In sickness and in health, that was the vow I made. I started preparing breakfast. I wanted him to feel better so I made hi...

Read story

“Where am I?” by Cecelia Bernard

Submitted to Contest #42

Where am I? Where am I? I know where I am in the most literal sense of course. I am sitting on the leather couch in the small room off the kitchen, hearing the crackle of kale leaves as they sizzle on the surface of our Le Creuset cookware, smelling the starched, green leaves mixed with the chicken dinner that waits for me on a small red plate, humming the songs my mother hums as she prepares her own dinner. It’s warm and quiet. The only other sound is the soft muttering of my brother, sitting on the kitchen floor, maybe translating a line o...

Read story

“Stay Safe, Elora” by Luly Mayfield

Submitted to Contest #42

Stay safe, Elora I looked up from the crinkled paper in my hands, fear coursing through me. The unknown man had dropped another one at my doorstep. The promising words had been delivered in a deceiving envelope with a box of chocolate. I frantically ran towards the trashcan and dumped the goodies in it.When would the notes stop? He expected my acquiescence and I had given it. This was a prodigious mistake, but it was never too late to correct it. This was reason I was making a visit today.Torture clawed through my skin, ripping my heart out...

Read story

“An Endless Mist” by Jasmine Broberg

Submitted to Contest #42

I slammed the door to her room open, adrenaline and fear pumping through me in place of blood. I frantically scanned the room, my ears roaring and my eyes stinging with tears I refused to let fall until I was certain. Then, I saw the thing I had told myself over and over wouldn't be there. A scream welled up inside of me, straining against my skin. So, I let out the most horrible sound to ever escape the lips of mankind.I was sitting alone in my bedroom, scrolling through something on my phone. That's when Angela texted me.Angela: Hey, do yo...

Read story

“Lucky me” by Vaishnavi Venu

Submitted to Contest #42

I sit there on the dusty ground in my torn jeans, trying to ignore the atrocity of the world I was in. “Ira! Ira!” I hear my little sister Mirai calling out my name from the distance. Right in time for lunch, I think. “What’d you manage to get?” I ask her, pulling the torn mat out for both of us to sit. “A whole, hot loaf of bread!!” she says, her eyes lighting up. I almost cried. “Really?! Show!” I say, leaning in and inhaling the rich, delicious aroma from the bread that makes my mouth water.We sit there, chewing the bread in silence.&nbsp...

Read story

“Fly” by Clara McCourt

Submitted to Contest #42

She sits in the unfamiliar pew, shifting on the hard wooden seat, fidgeting with the hem of her new black dress. She has never had to buy a dress like this before. Not for something like this. Her vision becomes hazy, staring blankly at the cold stained-glass windows which seemed to do anything but let sunlight in. But there was no sun in the sky today, just a humid scattering of grey clouds. Tough luck, the nun had said. Her mother grasps her hand, firmly, sharply. But her hand remains limp. She had never been able to match her m...

Read story

“Escape” by Elmar Kert

Submitted to Contest #42

GREEN.His name is CHUUCKKKKKK! He fights his way through anything and everything dodging objects and bullets with lighting speed! He runs towards the first set of crates, leaping over them with ease. He picks up speed and wall-runs along the next set of houses jumping from one to another in an assassins-creed kind of manner.RED.“Why would you not take care of this? Gosh! I didn’t sign up for this. She is everywhere!”GREEN.He leaps inside the building, being chased by people, people who want to do him harm. Powerful people. Chuck runs through...

Read story

“Soulmates..” by Briana Pinion

Submitted to Contest #42

It was my 18th birthday...I live in a world were when you turn 18 you get a soulmate tattoo..it's my birthday, and i'm getting my tattoo! I looked everywhere on my body then I saw a broken heart under my eye..HM..I didn't understand why it was broken..so i grabbed my laptop, and looked it up. "Only 1 person in the world has this marking. It means their soulmate is either dead or just doesn't believe in soulmates." That means..MY SOULMATE COULD BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!? This is bad..dad threatened to kick me out of the house if this happened! I wen...

Read story

“To Forgive Or Not To Forgive” by Ayaan Haque

Submitted to Contest #42

I don’t know how I ended up with him. I mean, there were 1.4 million people in the United States Army, and the squadron I was in just happened to have him in it. And now, I stood waiting for him at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which was literally our home airport, out of all the airports in the United States. The chances were so slim, yet it happened. I looked around the passenger gate and remembered standing right in this very terminal 5 years ago. 5 years ago in 1952. 5 years ago in Korea. 5 years ago when my life changed forev...

Read story

“3:45 am” by Mahathi Sathish

Submitted to Contest #42

“CRASH!”, screamed the night sky, startling Tommy out of a deep slumber. The storm had intensified severely in the past few hours. The sky cried gallons and gallons of tears while Thor ranted and raged with fury. Tommy, still half asleep, checked the bright yellow alarm clock beside him.“3:45am.” he sighed. As he shut his hazel eyes tighter than ever begging his brain to tune off. But no matter how many times he tossed and he turned, no matter how many times he sat up and lay down again, he couldn’t get a wink of sleep. The stormy night seem...

Read story

“Dense” by Colleen Stump

Submitted to Contest #42

Dense Colleen Shea Stump I'm a bad person. In my 30s, I chased everything in pants. My gallivanting gifted me a husband who wore uptight suits with monochromatic ties and only ate macadamia nuts, other nuts too pedestrian for his sensitive palate. Our relationship detonated when cards on the felt-covered tables and Manhattans-on-the rocks took over, leaving me bankrupt on the street with my boy. The ex? Soft landing in a fancy rehab in Mexico, the bill footed by his overindulgent parents. Now in my 40s, I reside in Transitional Housing with ...

Read story

“The Void” by Rhea G

Submitted to Contest #42

I spit my morning prayers after I brush my teeth. Then I eat my breakfast in silence, oatmeal and spoiled milk. I dress up, look in the mirror, and my outfit sucks. I change. I think some more. Chang again. By the time I leave the apartment; I'm wearing my dirty hoodie with disappointment on my sleeve.I don't buy coffee. I make some myself and carry it in my thermal cup as I usually do. It wasn't that I didn't want to buy myself a fancy cup in a fancy cafe and walk to my fancy work, oh so fancily. I was broke, and my brew was out of a cheap ...

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 ⭢