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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

“Montis Absentia Pt. IV” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #59

1A wind blew through the trees behind them and pine needles skittered across the asphalt. The sound was familiar. It was the noise of the year’s demise, of autumn, of Halloween. It was the sound of orange and brown, the warmth of a thick jumper, hands wrapped around a mug. It was teeth as they fell from gums. It was the shatter of glass. It was a million spiders as they scuttled on the ground. It was death.“Do you think there’s anyone down there?” Steve asked the thought that had crept up into her mind.Mary swallowed, throat dry. She shook h...

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“The Dark Lady” by Lina Oz

Submitted to Contest #59

“The Dark Lady is coming,” Mother Agnes whispers hoarsely, her large glass eye swiveling in its socket. “The Dark Lady is coming.”I inhale sharply.The Dark Lady is coming.“I must warn the others,” I say. “Rest well, Mother Agnes.” I gather my skirt from the dusty wooden floorboards, kicking up dirt and cobwebs as I hurry to leave the elder woman. Mother Agnes remains still in her cot, her wildly long hair splayed around her like the rays of a sun. But her eye––the one that is real––carries the dim burden of truth.I swing the door of the smal...

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“Matters of the Heart” by Iris Silverman

Submitted to Contest #59

The subway station is no more crowded than usual this Friday. The smell of diesel mixed with dough from bagels wafts through the air. The grime on the floor is a mix of donut crumbs, dirt, urine, pizza grease, and soda. Saxophone notes penetrate conversations and demand space. A string breaks loudly on an electric guitar. A man with a long red beard talks to himself. Children scream at their parents. Karim Saleh isn’t hearing, smelling, or really seeing any of this today. He feels a tightness in his chest. He’s 25 years old and has just...

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“No Escape” by Julie Bissell

Submitted to Contest #59

As soon as they turned into the cul-de-sac, Leone felt cold. ‘Pull over, please,’ she said, more sharply than she intended. ‘Sorry?’ Tom turned the radio down. ‘Please!’ she said. ‘Pull over, just for a moment. I want to… can we…’ She couldn’t finish her sentences. Air wheezed in through a tight throat. ‘Hold on, we’re nearly there,’ Tom reassured her, parking outside Number 8. Leone could see her mother peering between the slats of the blinds in the living room, and it was already too late. ‘Okay - what’s the problem?’ Tom asked. Leone's mo...

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“The Wrong Place at the Right Time” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #59

People jump to conclusions. I don’t blame them. I probably would myself. “Oh, Jean, it must be awful living in one of those tower blocks!” “I don’t know how you stand it! Time they were pulled down, in my opinion.” Well, I won’t pretend I wholly like living on the tenth floor of Branscombe Tower. I live in a constant state of low-level fretfulness about the lift. I worry about it breaking. I’m quite fit for my age, thank Goodness, but I doubt I could manage ten flights of stairs! And though I’m not exactly ...

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“Never Ending Story” by Bareera Samra

Submitted to Contest #59

It was very noisy in the room. Alex sat on the desk, not sure it was finally the time. He could hear the scraping of chairs and desks. The buzz of people all around him was bugging him. After a while, a loud but distant voice called putting everyone to silence but Alex couldn’t quite hear it. His ears were ringing and he was terrified of what was to come. Sure enough, when a hand came down to his desk and slammed down sheets of paper in front of him, he knew he was done for good. He remembered his father scolding then asking politely then te...

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“This Isn't the City” by Molly Leasure

Submitted to Contest #59

(Write about a couple who have just moved to a place that one person loves, and the other hates.)I demanded change. Monthly, weekly, daily. Every time I walked through our front door I was convinced our house would fall apart. If I so much as pressed the door closed too tightly, the entire complex rattled. So I told him we had to find a new home. It didn’t matter to me where we were in the city, it just needed to be new. Now, I’m finally receiving that change. And to say I'm nervous is an understatement. He hadn’t even shown me th...

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“Evening Sun” by Stephanie Kaye

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #59

The roofers arrived at seven a.m., their guttural voices slicing the thick air into thirds. I wrapped my bed sheet around me like a cocoon and peered out the open window, still woozy from sleep. There must have been seven or eight men in the crew, from what I could tell, though the opacity of recent days distorted reality just enough so that my eyes gasped only for more light, in lieu of a sharpened view, one that lent a more angular look on things. The men were of varying ages, and from what I could tell, they must be related: they all shar...

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“Discoveries” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #59

“I mean, I’m the one who’s supposed to be a feminist Linda,” my friend Jayne said, when she’d had enough of my moaning. Mind you I had moaned rather a lot, and she’s one of those people who has enough somewhat rapidly. “And I’d be the last person to advocate loyal little wifey obediently trailing in her husband’s footsteps but ….” The trouble is, I could, and can, see exactly what she means. It’s not as if we’re selling or giving up our house in town. We’re just going to liv...

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“ And on that day, he saw her.” by Emma Rose

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #59

It came without warning, fierce and unforgiving. Unpredictable. The village was eerily quiet in the days, weeks, months, leading up to it; shadows and smoke filling the air but never quite reaching the village. The tiny town carried on, the best that they could, living in constant fear. Waiting, waiting, waiting….. - Not that he was counting or anything, but William knew it had been exactly 47 days, 2 hours, and 51 minutes since the last disaster. Each second that passed felt like a rock in his stomach, and instead of drawing c...

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“Broken Angel ” by ✧ﾟ･:h̶o̶p̶e̶ ❦

Submitted to Contest #59

Aiden stormed out the door and reached for his car, just a minute away from strangling someone. Irritated, he grabbed his irresistible messy hair with both hands and scream his lungs out in the car. Fool of him for thinking this day would be normal. He was tricked again. He’d chose to wear a black t-shirt with a loose denim jacket on top of it and a pair of black skinny jeans and also a pair of black checkered Vans when his parents informed him of the family dinner. He’s been thinking of wearing smart casual kind clothes to the dinner. ...

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“Kin” by Cal Carson

Submitted to Contest #59

Out of all the planets Aitne had seen, Sol was different... Aitne had led a tormented life. Two things were her constant companions- an unbearable, lonely ache, and a curious, tickling pull. A pull to somewhere in this universe. Somewhere in this endless mass of bright pricks in the cosmos. Pull and Ache had accompanied her for many, many years...-Three centuries ago-Aitne woke. She was lying on a flat white stone, in a world filled with a cold sort of beauty. Warm gas clouds swirled in delicate patterns ar...

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“Wishful Thinking” by Regina Perry

Submitted to Contest #59

At first, there is nothing. Just nothing, stretching on and on and on. Nothing but nothing.Then, all at once, there is pain. A sharp pain that starts as a single pinprick of existence but quickly spreads outwards, exploding into a cascade of colours, each sharply brighter than the last, resolving at last into a smooth, curved surface in a bright copper colour. All at once, she is aware of herself, though she knows not who she is. She blinks, trying to clear the copper colour from her sight. It refuses to leave, insistently surrounding h...

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“Table for One” by Wake Lloire

Submitted to Contest #59

Kari looked around the restaurant. It was a busy Friday night and the serving staff looked exhausted. Kari took out her notebook, something she brought to restaurants because she would rather people thought she was a restaurant reviewer than what she was in actuality. Kari had started seeing ghosts in the sandbox of her first house when she was three years old; a little boy who couldn’t explain to her why he couldn’t leave the sandbox. Kari visited him every day, and her father had been grateful for her “imaginary friend” because it had allo...

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“Trees in the Night” by Lani Lane

Submitted to Contest #59

Sam felt like she had been hit by a truck. She groaned. Her head ached and every bone in her body screamed. Her memory was fuzzy; what had she been doing?The bakery. She had stopped at the bakery for a banana nut muffin. Then… a car hit her? That couldn’t be right, but it sure felt like that’s what happened.Sam lay on something hard and cold. She squirmed, wincing at the ridges digging into her back and legs. She felt odd, like her body was tilted. It certainly didn’t feel like the street outside the bakery.She slowly opened her eyes, squint...

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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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