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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

“San Diego Bound” by Mustang Patty

Submitted to Contest #59

Our wedding was lovely. More than two-hundred guests were there to wish us well and a lot of them came to say good-bye. Everyone knew that we would leave Bremerton for our honeymoon and not return. All of our household goods had been sent ahead to San Diego. Our new home was waiting for us, and I was sure we were going to start our happily ever after. Thank goodness for the honeymoon. Who could complain about seven days and six nights in Antigua? The water was warm, the drinks were cold, and the music in all of the clubs was excell...

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“The Haunted House” by Utkarsh Sharma

Submitted to Contest #59

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Tony, he was 29 years old. He was very brave and strong. He stays in a big house which has two floors and the name of the village was Kenta Nagar and some people from that village said that the house he was staying was haunted but he didn’t care about that. He thinks that the people are saying lies. He was preparing his home because his cousin’s brother was coming to his home for enjoying it. His name was Annie he was only 8 years old but he was a very intelligent boy. Tony gives Annie a remote-control...

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“The Red House” by Stephanie Albright

Submitted to Contest #59

The Red House The red house had been there for a very long time. No one had lived there in at least fifty years, and no one could even remember who owned the place. It was a three-story Victorian made of brick, blood-red bricks. The yard was overgrown and surrounded by a six-foot iron fence. The shutters were all closed tightly, except for the window on the widow’s walk, some claimed that they had seen weird lights in that window. The townsfolk stayed away from the house except for the man that the city sent over to cut the grass three or...

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“Not Just A Maiden” by Jorja Orne

Submitted to Contest #59

DISCLAIMER: Semi-triggering subjects. If you're upset by anything in this story tell me in the comments. I personally don’t think I would upset anyone by what I write but you can never be too sure. So if you're upset, tell me in the comments and I will quickly edit the story. ALSO, nothing in this story is true! It’s all fiction and just my imagination going to weird places. Thank you. Also, even with my edits some of my punctuation and grammar is probably still wrong, it always seems to be (lol). Just tell me in the comments if you catch an...

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“Before The Fall” by Kylie Wallis

Submitted to Contest #59

Eighteen year old Tamara Grey watched from her window as the neighbors moved in. A family. Their surname was Madden. Old man Raison's house had sold at last. Most of the people currently living in Lakeshore were born there. Tamara's parents grew up across the road from each other. New residents were bound to cause a commotion. The locals would welcome them warmly, so long as they minded their own business.This town, like many others, had a history. The kind of history that had its own share of lies and secrets. But far as anyone knew, there ...

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“Yes, Really Great Fishing, Just Down The Road!” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #59

(Set your story in a small town where everyone is suspicious of newcomers.)(This story is edited and additional content has been added)Ah yes, Monday! Monday’s are universally thought of with negative feelings as the weekend is over and a workweek begins. But here in Syndrig, everyday is a workday, if in fact you would define what we do as work.Here in my village I’m known as Pipsey, that is short for Pip Squeek which is what me old father, rest his soul, used to call me. I am short in stature, but many of my countrymen are, s...

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“Whims of Nature” by Catherine Stevens

Submitted to Contest #59

The air is oppressive this morning, every thing seems to still. Calmness invades the surroundings to the point of apathy. Lethargy takes over my being. I can’t muster the energy to do my chores. I listlessly wander out into the newly sprouted fields and stroll to the meadow by my home. Silence greets me; the animals passively stand in the pasture with their heads bowed. Even the insects are quietly subdued this morning. This stillness is unnatural and unpleasant. I haven’t lived in the country long, bu...

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“No Place Like Home” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #59

The ward was quiet except for the agitated drone of a distant floor-polisher and the peal of a telephone bell. Charlie raises himself up on his elbow and unravels the bandage from around his head. The car accident is a vague memory but one thing is for certain, he won’t entertain another bowl of lukewarm oatmeal this morning. He needs to leave, and he’s spent his waking hours plotting an escape. The best time to depart is at the shift change in ten minutes. There is always a period of confusion and adjustment as the n...

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“One in a Million” by Taryn Holmes

Submitted to Contest #59

“Mommy, can we go in there?” “So the meeting’s on for Thursday then?” “So I said, ‘Sure, the day you grow up!’ Great, right?” “Okay, okay, will you hold off for just one moment?” I stood beneath the crossing of conversations, squished between a thin girl with the darting eyes of a squirrel and a plump man with the mustache of a walrus, waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green. Screeching taxi cabs shot by and a cacophony of honking horns was the constant background. Avoiding eye contact with the people around me, I craned my neck upward...

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“Titular Redundancy” by Joshua Scott Hotchkin Wordpress.dungherder.com

Submitted to Contest #59

There is a knock on the door. It is the eighth time somebody has knocked on his door today, which is more activity than the door had seen in the entire previous year. Jimbo does not consider answering it, not even a little bit. It would be the same intrusion as all the others, a dire warning to evacuate his home before things outside get seriously high strung. Not only does he have nowhere else he can possibly go, he doesn't want to leave. He plans to sit right here in front of his laptop, writing. If the ship goes down, he will happily go d...

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“Takers Always Win!” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #59

(Write about a couple who have just moved to a place that one person loves, and the other hates.)How is it that one gets to choose when they are two... who must act as one? Why must the equation become so unequal? It could be either direction, the demanding shrew or the overbearing bully but it happens far too often. My case in point involves Henry, a strong independent Germanic temperament male, a bit of a bully and a curmudgeon, for sure, and Joy, a strong figure in child rearing and employment but a doorma...

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“Psychology 254: Landscape of the Soul” by A.Dot Ram

Submitted to Contest #59

“Follow me on a thought experiment. The setting: someone else’s mouth. No, you are not a dentist. This is not a thought experiment about the morality of certain extractions or the way dentistry has become an aesthetic practice and what inequalities may result from that. This is simply a kiss. Well, maybe not so simply.”Doctor Caldwell was the professor whose class you were lucky to get a spot in, the one with the reputation for being quirky and innovative (some might say funny), a peer who would insist, call me Alex. That day, in her electiv...

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“Speak, Stones” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #59

This place is like no other place I have known or visited. Please note that I am just as mystified as you are by this. Perhaps it’ll help if I retrace my steps. I arrived in this city, which was once one of three major pilgrimage sites back in the Middle Ages, wishing I knew how long I would be staying. I hoped for a time estimate that would be a little more precise than between a week and the rest of my life. I wanted to work, so found employment, and then realized my work was boring. I was sure I would be leaving sooner rather than later...

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“Newcomers” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #59

It’s not that we have any kind of prejudice here. That was a phrase that Sandra had heard so often since she arrived in Bolingbrooke that she supposed it must be true or at least that most people believed it was. Well, fair enough, she thought, making her way to the branch of the East Counties Bank she’d been transferred to a couple of months back. In a way you couldn’t argue with it. The bank’s own customers included at least two Asian families, and Madison, who was a he who had become a she and really preferred to be kn...

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“The Cottonwood Tree” by Lani Lane

Submitted to Contest #59

He towered over the sidewalk. He had more branches than he could count and a canopy of thick, green leaves. It took six people to wrap their arms around him; at least, that’s what it said on the plaque they'd planted right next to his trunk. He couldn’t remember the last time any humans had hugged him.His friends—Douglas and Pine and Juniper—used to call him Cottonwood. The men had cut down Cottonwood’s friends long ago, when the cars started to grow and the planes started to fly. Cottonwood could barely remember his friends and that thought...

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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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