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!

#6: On The Road

On September 5th, 1957, Jack Kerouac published On the Road — a novel based on his travels around the United States. It's viewed today as a defining work of the Beat generation. And fun fact: Kerouac wrote the book on one long reel of paper over just three weeks.

There's something about literature and road trips that work inherently well together. Just like road trips, stories must start in one place, and end in another.

This week, our prompts are all road trip inspired! And remember, it's about the journey, not the destination.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a family road trip.

Short Story – 22 stories

Write a story about a road trip taking place 300 years from now.

Science Fiction – 18 stories

Write a story about two people in a long-distance relationship, driving to a location mid-way between both their cities.

Romance – 23 stories

Write a story about someone who started a road trip ten years ago and hasn't stopped since.

Adventure – 22 stories

Write a story about friends taking a road trip they've been planning for years.

Adventure – 22 stories

Stories

“A Trip Cut Short” by Lee Brown

Submitted to Contest #6

Most road trips are meant to be enjoyed — let me tell you, after 10 years, considering everything that has happened, that isn’t always the case. What began as a simple trek across the rural Midwest of the United States to visit family, resulted in narrowly avoiding the devastation that ravaged nearly all populated cities and towns. It was sudden and unexpected, and no one — myself included — was truly prepared for it.I remember that afternoon vividly, it was the middle of August and I had pulled off to a gas station to refill my car and grab...

Read story

“A Man and His Van” by Nick Homberg

Submitted to Contest #6

Blinded by an unprecedented light that tore through my eyes. The weak, dry desert ground crunched beneath me. I turned away from the sun and raised my hand up to defend against the hanging inferno that looked like a weird mustard stain on a cyan blanket. I coughed and dry heaved. It felt like a monster was trying to rip its way out of my skull. “Oh boy,” I whispered; the sarcasm dripped from my words, “Gotta love hangovers.” I slowly sat up and peered around. Something was different, something was... off. What was it? For the life of me I co...

Read story

“The 'Road Trip' that Changed Her Life” by Shelli Salinas

Submitted to Contest #6

The day was a warm fall day in the month of October just ten years ago. She had reached her lowest low. Her life wasn’t going the way she had envisioned it to go. But, she knew that her choices had landed her there. She had been traveling in the wrong direction for way too long. She made stops where she knew she shouldn’t have stopped. She paid for services that were not in her best interest. She befriended people who were not good for her. She made choices that put her life in danger. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but i...

Read story

“Memories of the Past ” by Liz Young

Submitted to Contest #6

Glancing back into her rear-view mirror, she saw Arizona slipping away after only three days. She had anticipated that her time in Arizona would have been longer - the long deserted stretches of highway, the fast sprints in and out of the car during rest stop breaks because of the sweltering heat, the roach infested roadside motels she had pinched her pennies and begged her way into. But maybe it was because of these things that she had powered through the unsettling desert. Unlike the other cities she had slipped through during her 10 ...

Read story

“Betsy” by A.P. Rule

Submitted to Contest #6

We’ve got about 350 miles to Buffalo when Syd finally wakes up. Even though she’s been with me close to a year and a half, it still gives me a start sometimes when I feel her moving in the RV. It’s comforting most of the time, though. ********** I was 21 when I bought my first RV. Her name was Betsy and she was my ticket out of Waterford. After Ma died, there just wasn’t anything left in Detroit for me. Good ol’ dad blew most of the insurance money...

Read story

“The Perpetuity of Red Lights” by Nicolas Waddell

Submitted to Contest #6

and so instead of hanging around in one piece of shit town that came right after and right before an even bigger piece of shit town, I just carried on driving because what else was there for me to do? It was never the plan, but how many times can anyone say they’ve followed their plan? Especially when everything gets fucked up. FUBAR, that’s what we used to say at university. We were being melodramatic, of course. It was often quite easy to recognise what had happened, but it at least turned a shitty situation into something we could l...

Read story

“Write a story about someone who started a road trip ten years ago and haven’t stopped since” by Alexis King

Submitted to Contest #6

“Girl if you don’t get up and get ready for school you know the drill we go to school around here” that was my mother’s voice a day before I decided to leave, I didn’t know where I was going but I knew I was leaving from here. I was in my last days of my senior year and was not happy with my outcome. I didn’t have good grades so I wasn’t getting accepted into one of them fancy college’s, I didn’t have a support system like most people and my boyfriend … yeah well, I’m done with him and after tomorrow NOBODY is holding me back. Even thou...

Read story

“The Haunted Road” by Michelle Wyche

Submitted to Contest #6

Beth and her friends had always wanted to do a haunted road trip. The first time the idea came to them, was when they were in high school.They had seen online forums about it as well as seen information about them on various social media sites. Beth and her friends saved up enough money and were able to finally plan the trip. The first step was to figure out a date. The second part was to figure out what route they would follow. After a long debate, the girls decided to make their trip on the week of Halloween. In Abigail's words "What bette...

Read story

“Dark Mountain” by Robert Cartier

Submitted to Contest #6

Sometimes in life… you wonder if you should have just home. It was 5:30 PM and the road leading to Camp Fortune was long, cold and getting progressively darker. I had reached the start of the dense forest just as the sun began to set, the rich aroma of Evergreens and Pines pouring through the vents was almost overpowering. I was a couple of hours from my destination, where I was meeting up with my homies, who I haven’t seen all together in about two years. My rental was doing great on gas, so much so that in my five-hour drive getting ...

Read story

“All She Had to Do Was Ask” by Ashley Freeman

Submitted to Contest #6

The sun beamed down on me as I stood beside Jessica's car. A thin cloud of white smoke comes up from under the hood. She told us that it was a new car and that we needed to take it on this road trip to "break it in." We all agreed at the time, but none of us predicted this. Maybe we should've just taken my car; it may be a bit older, but at least it's reliable. "Give it a rest, Jess," I say, walking to the front of the car where Jessica and Beth are. "None of us know anything about cars, we should just go wait in that diner for the tow truck...

Read story

“The heart's voice ” by Leyna Larcinese

Submitted to Contest #6

1305 miles. That’s the distance between Streatham Hill, London, UK and Fàtima, Santarem, Portugal. A 20h 53 min drive, according to Matt’s new Opel Karl GPS. ‘Road works ahead’ the suave female voice announces. Sure enough, yellow dots punctuate the blue line we have to cruise on from start to finish. ‘We’ll never get there’ says Ricky flatly. After 15 years, his optimism is part of the fun. And so it begins, me and Matt on the front, Rick and Elly in the back. This is the bast arrangement. For Elly, because she’ll be asleep in about 30...

Read story

“Southern California here we come” by Katherine M. Kean

Submitted to Contest #6

Our short road-trip down Highway 1 (H1) direction South, final destination Santa Barbara, was an integral part of my visit to San Francisco. This visit had taken many years to progress from a dream to reality, and all through this period the road-trip evolved continually. It changed length, direction, and style, depending on our moods, the planned time and length of my visit, and restrictions such as work commitments. At one point, the trip had even fallen off the radar of things to happen, when Sophie gave up her car. Fortunately, that obst...

Read story

“A Day To Remember” by Olivia Murray

Submitted to Contest #6

It was a warm summer morning when me and my family were on our way to California my father had been planning this trip for several weeks now, but we never got around to it. My dad, my mom, me, and my older sister all went inside the gas station to get some snacks while my brother, Lucas, stayed in the car to rest, I immediately hurried over to the candy isle to get some skittles, my favorite, but when I walked outside to where my car was parked it was gone. I ran back in the store but it was empty, and when I looked in my pockets I realized ...

Read story

“A Forbidden Trip to Cascadia ” by Lucas Fryman

Submitted to Contest #6

For a while, me and my friend Derek had been planning a trip up to the mountains in the Pacific Northwest. I think we’ve thought about it since we were freshmen in college, but never had the time or money to do it. God, even now I’m struggling to pay that debt off, even more so since after what happened, but I’ll get back to that later.So, we began the trip after I met up with Derek at his place in Colorado. Me, being the homeboy I am, stayed in Oklahoma after graduation. The plan was to drive through Utah and Nevada and stop at the Sierra N...

Read story

“We will always have Atlanta” by Danae Bernal

Submitted to Contest #6

I rested my head against the window, quietly staring at the moving landscape and hearing the soft roar of the engine, the classical music coming from the radio and his loud angry stare at the road, only audible to me as I appeared to be the cause of his irritation. He kept his chin up, fearing to give off the illusion of weakness if only he tilted down the tiniest bit. I mocked him on the outside, deeply saddened on the inside.It took me 50 miles of driving in silence to finally speak up. Last time I did worked so well, except it didn't; tha...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

107

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 13, 2019 EST

Won by Annabel Hynes 🏆

Title: Gone West

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 ⭢