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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#59: Location, Location, Location

One of my favorite parts of writing is picking interesting settings. When used effectively, setting can establish the tone of the story (a murder mystery in a manor house vs. a big city) or even determine the stakes (a sinking ship, a house on fire, a person lost in the woods). Certain settings are perfect for their genres, but it can also be fun to use setting to establish incongruity and a sense of unease.

Additionally, your character’s reaction to the setting reveals a lot about their personality. Are they comfortable because they’re in a place they know well? Or does the familiarity make them claustrophobic?

This week, really dig into where your story takes place. What do these settings look, smell, and sound like? What does the setting offer to the plot? How do your characters feel about being there? When it comes to setting, not even the sky is the limit!

(Struggling to know how to best make use of your setting? We’ve got a video right here that will help!)

This week's prompts

Write about a couple who have just moved to a place that one person loves, and the other hates.

Romance – 135 stories

Write about a character arriving in a place unlike anywhere they’ve ever been.

Novel – 198 stories

Set your story in a place with extreme weather, but don’t use any weather-related words to describe it.

High School – 69 stories

Write a story that feels lonely, despite being set in a packed city.

Sad – 230 stories

Set your story in a small town where everyone is suspicious of newcomers.

Teens – 135 stories

Stories

“Please Don't Feed the Strays” by Jonathan Blaauw

Submitted to Contest #59

Warning: The following story contains scenes of violence that may be upsetting to a younger audience. Reader discretion is advised.“Dad, are we lost?”“No, sweetie. Of course not.”“Where are we then?”“In the car.” Tom chuckled as Abby rolled her eyes at him from the backseat in a perfect imitation of her mother. Alongside him, Susan was staring straight ahead, a tiny muscle working in her jaw – a clear sign she was annoyed. “Don’t worry, this road has to come out somewhere.”Except Tom was worried. The trip had started well enough. They’d left...

118 comments 118

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“Flushed Away: Rhyming Review of The Film ” by Jubilee Forbess

Submitted to Contest #59

Hugh Jackman plays as lots of things A sad singing Frenchman A master of circus rings A steadfast cowboy A Wolverine But the thing most do not know Is that he was carried away with the flow The flush of a toilet took him away As a rat, he learned To see a new way. His name was Roddy And he was well off To the slobby intruder Sid He said, “Goodbye! Mazel tov!” But Sid would not leave He liked the rich house He was a stubborn guy An unwanted louse. Roddy had an idea To get that dude away But it came back to bite h...

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“My Mind Told Me To” by 𝙰𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚢𝚜𝚝 ~

Submitted to Contest #59

I kept my head down as I slowly walked through the cramped city of New York. I was walking back to my back alley behind the huge makeup sign, complete with a small cardboard box, which I used as a table for whatever food I could snag on from the streets. (I found the box in the giant dump) When I turned to go into my alley, no one looked at me. No one even took a small, quick glance at where this girl with a dirty brown coat was doing by strolling into a dark, frightening alley. No one takes interest in me. Maybe it’s because I’m homeless, m...

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“The Villager” by Melissa Hassan

Submitted to Contest #59

The paddy leaves were blowing in the soft, cool morning breeze, slightly bent from the weight of the now yellow grains which looked almost golden as Arun ran, with his sister trailing behind him giggling and pleading him to slow down. His sister's giggles and childish voice sounded almost angelic as it echoed through the field. He stopped abruptly and turned around to see she had stopped running as she stood there in the middle of the paddy field, bent, with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Her long loose hair blowing...

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“The Leaving” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #59

The old man moaned. So low, so feeble came the cry that the others never heard it over the whistling and howling outside the cave.But the boy squatting near the old man had tuned his senses for the slightest breath. He glanced at the mound, unmoving beneath the bear pelts, and drove the stick between his palms into the plank at his feet, spinning it with a speed that made his palms burn. The wolf fur slipped from his shoulders, but he poured all focus into the wisp of smoke curling from the dry grasses tucked into the notch. Within...

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“Alaska” by Maggie Deese

Submitted to Contest #59

When Doctor Mitchell swung open the door to Alaska’s hospital room, her stomach plummeted. The doctor was surrounded by nurses, all of which Alaska had come to know quite well over the past six years. It wasn’t the grim expressions or tight-lipped smiles that gave her a pause; it was the lack thereof. Pitiful glances and shadowed faces were what she had become accustomed to at Walkine Hospital. Now, her doctor and nurses all wore the same countenance—bright sparkling eyes, crinkling at the corners from their outstretched smiles, arms pinned ...

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“Cyrus's Trip to a Strange London” by Dalyane Deblois

Submitted to Contest #59

Cyrus Darkmore came to London to find her and this small man keeps telling him something about a stupid number.“Sir, if you want to contact her, I need a number" he explains, holding a newspaper dated from yesterday, May 1st, 2000.“How dare you speak of her like she’s just a number? She has a name, Sierra.” Anger shows in his tone, but he pronounces “Sierra” as if the name reminds him of both sorrow and love. The man behind the counter looks startled.“I’m sorry sir, but I need more than a name. And I meant her telephone number.”“I don’t have...

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“Lemons on Ice” by Scout Tahoe

Submitted to Contest #59

It was the end of the Brown Package season when the women with the wind on their tongues arrived at the house in the mountains. They grasped hands in an eternity sort of way, like past disagreements dissolving into lemons on ice. Their songs were of fairies with broken wings and white lace. The mailman, being jealous and lonely, lingered every afternoon by their peachy mailbox. His scent wafted through the house, overpowering even the burning sage. The woman with eyes that are the moon’s craters, Elinor, peeked through the curt...

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“Red dust and sunlight” by Vanessa Marczan

Submitted to Contest #59

My pop, my grandfather, lives on the edge of a small town near Broken Hill in Australia. The name of the town doesn't matter. It's unpronounceable, a higgletypigglety mess of syllables, like most Australian town names. It's barely a town at all. More a collection of weatherboard houses held together by rough people who are set in their ways and live out there for a reason. It's country where Mad Max was filmed. It's all red sand and rocks and bush dust, huge clear blue skies as far as you can see, dirt tracks leading to the featureless&...

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“Jacob and Samantha (Part 1 Jacob)” by Lauren :)

Submitted to Contest #59

Part 1: JacobDay 1Hello my name is Jacob. Me and my girlfriend just moved to Colorado. I love it so much here! The only reason we moved here for Samantha’s work. I can’t tell but I think she loves it here. Tomorrow we’re going to meet her new boss. She’s so excited! Our house is so big! The back deck looks off a cliff at Castle Peak. It’s so beautiful! I hope this is the place where we start our life with our kids if Sam is willing to have a child. She’s always so busy though.&nbsp...

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“Jacob and Samantha (Part 2 Samantha)” by Lauren :)

Submitted to Contest #59

Part 2: Samantha Day 1… Hi! My name is Samantha and I am 25 years old. Me and my boyfriend, Jacob, just moved to Colorado. The house is beautiful and everything but it’s just too hot here. I love my boyfriend so much. I hope that someday he’ll just ask me to marry him. Can’t race love though. He loves it so much here. I miss my old house in Oregon. It was much calmer and weird. In a good way. Keep Oregon Weird! Tomorrow I am going to meet my boss. I only kn...

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“Leaf Them Alone” by Rayhan Hidayat

Submitted to Contest #59

“You can’t go back.”“I must.”“It’s sheer madness, Your Excellency. At least allow a retinue of your finest soldiers to join you.”“No, my soldiers have seen enough. This is my burden, anyway. I will bear witness in their stead. And I will suffer in their stead.”“But, Your Excellency—”“Not another word. I leave at dawn.”🌱The man who once ruled the world hauls a solemn canoe across liquid sadness. There is an ache in his arms, but it is the sweet ache of action, of blood coursing through once-slumbering musculature. The salt on the breeze swarm...

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“Atlanzia” by Lexi Robinson

Submitted to Contest #59

"Hold on... You're telling me that all this time you haven't been sneaking about with some hot dude but you've been sneaking around to be in the water", I shook my head trying to make sense of the far - fetched story my roommate/best friend said. "I'm sorry I haven't told you about who I am. But you gotta give some credit", Brin/Aerwyna said. "And who is Aerwyna?", I asked confused after hearing an extremely long explanation of her entire life story. "That's me. I changed my name to Brin so I could blend in the crowd", she remarked. ...

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“Among the Mango Trees” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #59

When Enrique Otero was five years old, a shriveled old mango seller in Caracas told him about the heat of the Venezuelan savanna."First, the rocks begin to smoke," he said to the little boy, knife flashing through the fruit. "Then your nose begins to burn and you know you've breathed in the hottest part of the sun. It moves through your throat and lungs like a thousand burning needles."Enrique swallowed, not bothering to wipe the mango juice dribbling down his chin."It cooks you from the inside, melting the beards off the men.""Wha...

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“Sea of Roses” by 𝕊𝕦𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕚 🤍

Submitted to Contest #59

“Do you understand your task?” the king asked. I bottled up my fear and bowed my head solemnly. The king nodded, his features relaxing. Even though I had worked closely with him for almost two years, he was still intimidating. Perhaps it had something to do with his cold, blue-gray eyes or his demeaning gaze. Maybe it was how he spoke slowly and softly, making one feel like a child who had broken his mother’s favorite vase. I’m told he wasn’t always like this. He once had a queen and a young son who would have been about my age had he survi...

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$50

Prize money

767

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 18, 2020 EST

Won by Louise Coley 🏆

Title: The Witch’s Daughter

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.

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