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!

#47: Second Person

Writers are often cautioned away from using second person point of view. And that's because it can be tricky to get right. But as writers like Junot Diaz, Lorrie Moore, and our contest's very own Hayley Igarashis proves, second person POV can also provide for an incredibly immersive reading experience.

This week, our prompts challenge you to write a story using second person POV. In other words, the story should address readers as "you," pulling them right into the narrative. You don't need to use the prompts verbatim in your stories — as always, they are meant to get your wheels of creative interpretation turning! (And for additional tips on this unique point of view, you can check out our guide to second person POV!)

🥇 Winner

“My Mother's Sky” by Miranda Carter

🏆 Winner of Contest #47

You sip on hot lemon and honey. The steam rolls out of the cup like a vertical carpet. It covers your nose and fogs your view of the peeling rosebud wallpaper over the sink. There are grocery store flowers on the scrubbed, scratched table, and a curling piece of paper with your mother's words scrawled across it in black pen, all caps. Her instructions, which include drinking this mugful, feeding the dog, and bringing in the mail are written in English. Anything that has to do with loving you is in Spanish. Mi cielo, she calls you. My sky. ...

245 comments 245

Read story

⭐️ Shortlisted

“A Breakup in Five Acts” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

Act I is the easiest part to write as you don’t even like him at first, unusual considering how hard and how fast you fall. On your first date, he asks what type of restaurant you prefer. Idiot, you think. We aren’t going to get into any place decent this late on a Saturday night without reservations. He asks you again, enumerating your options: Thai, French, Greek, Italian. You throw him a curve ball: Mediterranean. He smiles his salesman’s grin at you and drives directly to the Iron Gate Inn in Adams Morgan. You are shocked when, indeed, h...

Read story

“Splinters of Shame” by Elle Clark

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

Your sodden clothing offers you no protection from the razor edge of the wind as you watch your home splinter and shatter. It floats in pieces for a minute before being swallowed by the uncaring mouth of the ocean. Parts of your ship, now relegated to driftwood, spread like litter. Some innocuously bump your little lifeboat but others are larger and pose more of a threat. You see a remnant of the main mast, tangled with rigging, fast approaching and there is movement around you to avoid the snagging tendrils. There is shouting - sensele...

Read story

“One hundred years” by Audrey Winter

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

You are one hundred years old. Your hands are old and frail and difficult to keep still. Forty years ago, on your sixtieth birthday, you saw the old person looking back at you in the mirror and you did not recognise yourself. You saw someone people had stopped paying attention to years ago. What you did, simply did not matter to anyone else. Everyone was too busy focusing on their own self and insecurities. You spent sixty years worrying about being judged for what you had accomplished. About your acquaintances seeing your title and feel...

Read story

“Granola Guidelines for the Sensible Refugee” by B.T Beauregard

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

Don’t think about before. Never think about before, it will break you. Avoid the memories and resist the impulse to indulge in them. Forget the kind faces and small shops where everyone knows you. Forget the strange foods and smells beside the road, whether good or bad. Remembering these things will leave you empty. Empty is bad. Empty will leave you broken. Fact: Crying on a plane by anyone besides small children and babies, terrifies people. Always turn away or you risk having a good natured passenger asking if you are alright,...

Read story

“A Change of Heart” by Serine Achache

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

You know her.Carnations are her favorite flowers. Her favorite color is green. She hates coffee, and always sleeps on the left side of the bed.She reads Me Before You after every exam, eats Pasta every Thursday and hates cooking.You know this.There's a scar just above her left eyebrow, an accident from when she was ten, and a tattoo in her right wrist that reads Smeraldo.You know this as well.For someone who always claims to be so bad with details, you know hers by heart.You know because you were the one who cooked her every meal, whose hand...

Read story

“Repercussions” by Jen Gobes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

(TW: abuse) You have to say it. You have to. Because if you don’t, it could literally kill you and you’re not ready for that, not yet. You aren’t that broken yet, but you could be. Soon. You take a deep, shaky breath – inhale, exhale. Do it. Say it. Do it. Open your mouth and just fucking say it. You step back. You keep your mouth shut. You hate yourself. There’s not a lot you regret in life, but this is up there, top of the list, the never-ending, forever-spiralling shame of never being able to do this. The eternal self-loathing that this h...

Read story

This week's prompts

As you check your mail, you notice a letter that makes you stop in your tracks.

Thriller and Suspense – 213 stories

"Just say it," you silently reminded yourself. You knew you'd regret it if you didn't.

Nonfiction – 218 stories

You looked out the window and, not for the first time, thought about how wrong the weather forecast had been.

Nonfiction – 146 stories

Suitcase in hand, you head to the station.

Adventure – 188 stories

You check the time. Perfect. As intended, you've arrived fashionably late.

Funny – 116 stories

Stories

“My Mother's Sky” by Miranda Carter

🏆 Winner of Contest #47

You sip on hot lemon and honey. The steam rolls out of the cup like a vertical carpet. It covers your nose and fogs your view of the peeling rosebud wallpaper over the sink. There are grocery store flowers on the scrubbed, scratched table, and a curling piece of paper with your mother's words scrawled across it in black pen, all caps. Her instructions, which include drinking this mugful, feeding the dog, and bringing in the mail are written in English. Anything that has to do with loving you is in Spanish. Mi cielo, she calls you. My sky. ...

245 comments 245

Read story

“𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻” by Batool Hussain

Submitted to Contest #47

Suitcase in hand, you head to the station. At the station, there is a great hustle and bustle; everyone is fighting to reach the booking window. New day, new people. An old man's pocket is picked. He starts to shout. You cast a look at his direction, but instantly regret it; he isn't just an ordinary old man. His colorless eyes don't even reflect light and make him look blind. In addition to this, he has a hunchback. You start to look away but your eyes fall on his hands, they are bloodied and wrinkled, scattered with lines. He starts runnin...

204 comments 204

Read story

“The Cliché Of A Game Ending With A Kiss” by Sophia Wayne

Submitted to Contest #47

The first time you met Jesse Hargrave, you had a distinct feeling you would dislike this overconfident sixth grader. It was at a birthday party that your mother had wrestled you into going to. Because of your elder sister, Lexie got invited, and your mother assumed they had forgotten to invite you. Which even as an eleven-year-old you already knew was a bald-faced lie, but your mother being who she was wouldn’t hear any more of it. She had said you were going, so you knew you were going. The first thing that got to your mind when you g...

Read story

“The raffle ticket ” by Yoomi Ari

Submitted to Contest #47

People have achieved so much, haven’t they? Muhammad-Ali: a famous boxer who won the world heavyweight championship. Barack Obama: the first African American to hold the office. And lastly George Floyd: an angel who gave us wings to stop us from suffocating from this racist world. The list is endless but we would be here for a long time, wouldn’t we? And here you are. You dumb sack of shit. Everyone was told to wear blindfolds when you were sent down: things were going to get ugly. You pay close attention to the fridge d...

Read story

“Avani” by Laiba M

Submitted to Contest #47

You weren't expecting that to occur. It was a horrible reality check, brief and unexpected, like the immediate emptiness you felt an hour ago. But why did you even expect everything to stay the same, you uncomfortably questioned yourself? Did you expect nothing would happen to her? If so, which you-deep down-knew you did, you were wrong. Suitcase in hand, your journey to the train station was the very proof of that. To add to that, the increasing darkness and the accumulating clouds indicate that you'll be soaked if you don't get into the ...

348 comments 348

Read story

“Going Home Without Zach” by Sophia Wayne

Submitted to Contest #47

When you woke up from sleep the first thing you noticed was that you couldn’t possibly be in your bed. The sheets were wrong and the smell that reached your nose was too clean, too clean that it almost seemed foul. You frowned at this and closed your eyes. When your eyes opened again, the room came into clearer focus and you knew for sure you weren’t home and in your bed underneath peach coloured bed-sheets. Your mind was fuzzy, and you did not understand how you got to be in this room. The sun peeked slowly through th...

Read story

“A Million Years” by Angelina Valencia

Submitted to Contest #47

You stood in the middle of the living room while he waited there patiently. He looked into your eyes as if he was reading your mind, you knew he wasn't because then he'd know the answer.It felt as if millions of years had passed by, you kept replaying in your head the first day you met him. You were just little kids back then, so childish and immature. You just promoted from elementary, and learned that you no longer have sand boxes or basketball courts to do granny shots with friends. Even your moms won’t be packing your lunches anymore. Yo...

Read story

“The Hitchhikers” by BeInspiredAbstracts/Etsy SarahGreenwood

Submitted to Contest #47

You know better than to pick up a hitchhiker. How many stories had you read where the innocent girl picks up a stranger on the side of the road and they turn out to be a murderer, kidnapper, escaped psychiatric patient etc., You get the picture. But this time was different. You worked late tonight, your shift should have ended two hours ago but you stayed late for a co-worker so she could leave early to tend to her sick child. You work every Monday, Wednesday and Friday as a wa...

Read story

“War” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted to Contest #47

On your right is a boy you haven’t seen in fifteen years. War is an incredible thing.You try to turn your head and look at him, but a nurse rushes forward and tells you No. That word again. She adjusts the brace on your head and smiles a moist pink smile and says, “Not yet, ma’am, not yet. Keep it still, coupla more days. Then reevaluate.”You sigh. Out of the corner of your eye you see that he is asleep anyway.The nurse smiles again.“What happened?” you croak. All you can see is white, white, white, and her wide pink smile, and dark in the r...

Read story

“The Killer from my Dream ” by Nancy Drayce

Submitted to Contest #47

As you check your email, you notice a letter that makes you stop in your tracks. In the subject line, you read “I killed you. You are dead”. You stop and start thinking what the hell? You get away from the computer and go to the mirror near you. Everything is fine, you see your reflection. Who is that, and what does he want? You go back to your computer to see who send you the message and when. Unknown I Killed you. You are Dead. #### &...

Read story

“Just Like Before” by Mira Caplan

Submitted to Contest #47

I would regret not saying it otherwise. Everyone who knew the basics of my life would. My eleven- year- old sister knew it, my aunt knew it, my best friend knew it, and I knew it. If I didn't tell him, I might not get the chance ever again. It wasn't just a chance- it had to be the right one. It couldn't just be anywhere, at any time. Seeing that it was the last day of ninth grade, the last day of our first year in high school, it seemed like a pretty good time.These past few years had been rough. Sure, good things had happened along th...

Read story

“A Breakup in Five Acts” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #47

Act I is the easiest part to write as you don’t even like him at first, unusual considering how hard and how fast you fall. On your first date, he asks what type of restaurant you prefer. Idiot, you think. We aren’t going to get into any place decent this late on a Saturday night without reservations. He asks you again, enumerating your options: Thai, French, Greek, Italian. You throw him a curve ball: Mediterranean. He smiles his salesman’s grin at you and drives directly to the Iron Gate Inn in Adams Morgan. You are shocked when, indeed, h...

Read story

“Forever Yours” by Harshini Jivaratnam

Submitted to Contest #47

The evening sun cast long shadows on the ground. The slanting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the sky. What a beautiful scenery! Today is your big day. You looked yourself in the mirror and smiled. You were preparing for your date that evening and was truly excited to see Isabella. Had it already been two years since Isabella and you being together? You started remembering the first time you saw her and you’d knew that she is your girl. You just knew it. And, today, being it is your anniversary, you were planning on telli...

151 comments 151

Read story

“Business” by Nandan Prasad

Submitted to Contest #47

You check the time. Perfect. As intended, you’ve arrived fashionably late. The shouts and roars get louder as you open the door.You’re in a large, single-story building. It was once a storage warehouse, but has since then been converted to an illegitimate wrestling/MMA arena.With your navy blue suit, dark tie and neatly combed graying hair, you look like you’re going to an interview at a multi-national corporation. You look like a misfit among all these half-clothed, mindless bunch of people.You see the large white spotlight shining over the...

Read story

“Just Say it Already” by Robert Grandstaff

Submitted to Contest #47

Just Say it Already As we walked along the street for the dozenth time, holding tight to each other’s hand, dogging on comers, and avoiding the broken sidewalk, I gazed at her when she wasn’t looking. The sky was cobalt blue with a trace of white cloud too thin to interfere with its grandeur. I’d only looked at it twice since we’d started walking because she was the most beautiful of God’s creations I could see. She knew she could talk to me all day, and I’d listen without interruption. She also knew we’d been walking for well over an hour,...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

881

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 26, 2020 EST

Won by Miranda Carter 🏆

Title: My Mother's Sky

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 ⭢