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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

“Am I Invisible? ” by Monica D

Submitted to Contest #59

“Carlos, what are you doing? Come here,” Our mom beckons to him. Carlos is my older brother... let’s just say we are very different people. “Your teacher called and said you broke the rules and when you were told to come back to school you refused.” Mom looks like she would explode Carlos never listens to her and does it anyway, but I don’t get how he always gets away with it. “Mom, Dan dared me to do it and said he would never be my friend if I didn’t. I couldn’t do anything about it,” Carlos wines. He always gets away by saying his best fr...

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“Death Wears a Smile and Promises Light” by B Easton

Submitted to Contest #59

The town slept as the sun dipped into mountains, but as the night air flooded coolly into town, they were awakened at the sound of footsteps. Strange, they thought as not many rolled into town at this time of day, and even less carried a man-sized coffin behind them.His hair was a thick black, the color of night, and his face sat behind a soft, red scarf. He walked with no hesitation as the eyes lining the two-story houses and small-time shops observed his every move. His blue eyes returned their gazes one at a time, and slowly, the townsfol...

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“Marooned ” by Chandrika R Krishnan

Submitted to Contest #59

Nalini was horrified to see the water level rise and touch the borders of the brand new *Kanchipuram* silk Sari. She had worn it for just an hour on the occasion of * Diwali, the festival of lights,* a couple of days back. She had aired it out and meant to put it back inside her *Godrej* steel *almirah* but now was upset with herself and blamed her lethargy in postponing the task. With her back to the bedroom, she wasn’t to know that the damage has already been done to the saris and other valuable items stored in the lower shel...

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“The New Girl!” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #59

(Write a story that feels lonely, despite being set in a packed city.) The morning sounds that wake me are never the birds I read about in wonderful stories about nature but rather the traffic on the boulevard in front of the house. Those unlucky people who have earlier jobs or school than I and are already on the job or on their way there, they create the humming sounds of tires on pavement and an occasional horn sounding some alert or annoyance. It is not an unpleasant sound really, but just a noise that becomes...

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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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“Love Is Sacrifice” by Trinity Womack

Submitted to Contest #59

They had been house hunting for a few months. Though they both agreed that they needed to move out of their apartment into a real house, they could not agree on what they wanted their house to be like. Joline wanted an old-fashion house with wooden furniture and lacy dollies on the tables. Handmade curtains and grand staircases. When their realtor asked what she wanted for their house, she had replied by saying she wanted a ‘house with history.’ Daniel was quite the opposite. He did not w...

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“Suspect!” by Chimamaka Adeniyi🙅

Submitted to Contest #59

"Why. Are. We. Staring?" Jọ́jọ́ pinched her mother again. Her eyes were already watering."This child, I've told you countless times; there is someone moving into that house across the road and it is custom and only sensible to bore into them with our eyes until they feel uncomfortable and therefore respect us, "She almost fell over the edge. Must she? It's not like they were going to respect her. She was only eight years old!Then she looked around and met all the other residents doing the same; killing the poor newcomers with their ghastly s...

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“Town Without Pity” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #59

[Author’s Note: If you do not know the film and the song Town Without Pity, at least look them up on Wikipedia. At least listen to the song. It was one of Gene Pitney’s best. That town without pity might help us put Bristol, Maine in a better light.]Bristol, located on the Penobscot River near where it enters the Atlantic, had always been distrustful of newcomers. The Bristolians weren’t bad people; they just didn’t know what to do with new things. People who were from away always brought new things. That made most of the Bristolians u...

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“A Day Like No Other” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #59

(Set your story in a place with extreme weather, but don’t use any weather-related words to describe it.)Did you ever feel like you were sweating hot lava? It was running down your back between your shoulder blades and then down between your hairy butt cheeks! Damn, this is torture.Big Blue lay tangled up in a soggy set of sheets. He kept trying to find a dry spot to sop up the salty river running off his face. Yep! It is damn uncomfortable.Finally he passes out from the struggle or just in desperation and he dreams ...

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“The Bloats ” by Molly Leasure

Submitted to Contest #59

(Set your story in a place with extreme weather, but don't use any weather-related words to describe it.)“A swashing bassinet ye're” the booming voice welcomes me. He’s cackling behind the bar. “Join them then. Yous’ll wither up nice.” With a wild gesture, he nods me towards a radiator in the corner. I’d already halfway sputtered a ‘what?’ before I could reel in my tongue. But if he heard me, he ignored it. Good.I peel my sopping jacket from my shoulders, slapping it once.“Oy, this ain’t no fish barrel,” he snaps at me, towel in hand. “You'd...

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“Reconsidering The Merits Of Incontinence From The Front Row Of The Shit Show” by Joshua Scott Hotchkin Wordpress.dungherder.com

Submitted to Contest #59

I can hear Valentina in the other room, laughing hysterically. I shudder to think what sort of depravity might be exciting her humors. Since the first day that we arrived in this shady, meth-infested trailer park, she has found constant amusement in the misbehavior of the community's most excessive characters.Yesterday I found her doubled over in hysterics, and when I looked out the window, the couple from across the street were engaged in physical battle on the hood of our car. I ran out screaming at the emaciated warriors, who only had a f...

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“Up on the Roof” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #59

[Note to readers: This story has the title Up on the Roof, but there is no roof in the story itself. However, there is an old song by the same title. It was put out by The Drifters around 1962, and you really ought to go listen to it. Just a suggestion. It kind of sets the mood here, or something. Better than that, it tells you who ‘she’ is.] There she was. Packed city, lonely as blue blazes, blasting orange heat from all of its pores into every last one of her pores. It was kind of cruel, that heat was. Swarmed all over a person, form...

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“The Three Horses” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #59

(Write about a character arriving in a place unlike anywhere they’ve ever been.)Marcie truly loves her home area for reasons too numerous to mention, She was so very surprised, no, actually amazed, to discover a place that also reached her heart.Marcie had been born and raised in the Midwest. Her whole adult life was lived in a state bordered by two of the Great Lakes so the memories were plentiful and the best times involved days in the sun and on the water. Here where we enjoy changing seasons, lush green farm fiel...

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“watch” by Ari Berri

Submitted to Contest #59

Here, tall gray and black buildings line the streets. Here, hundreds of people walk on the sidewalks, rushing from place to place, looking at some type of screen. They are probaly going to work. Or maybe they are off to school. The road is filled with cars. Some yellow or black. Maybe white or silver. Maybe red. Sometimes they will be zooming past, too fast to cross, but still not exactly speeding. And sometimes they might be moving slowly creeping along the streets, slower than all the people walk. The sky is filled with thick dark rain clo...

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“Happily Ever After” by Daphne Pope

Submitted to Contest #59

When I was a little girl, my favorite story was Cinderella. My daddy used to tell it to me when I went to bed, always doing the voices of the wicked stepmother and ugly stepsisters. But my mother used to come in and turn out the light, yelling, “There is no such thing as ‘happily ever after’! And, certainly no Prince Charming!” Then would begin one of their many fights. And I would hide under my blanket, burying my face in my pillow, and promising myself that I would find Prince Charming. For me, there would be “happily ever after.” *** &nbs...

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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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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