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!

#60: Face Your Fears

This week is a special edition of the Reedsy Prompts contest because our friends at IndieReader are taking it over with their own theme, prompts, and bonus prize! We'll let them take it from here...

Hi! Amy from IndieReader here. If you’re not familiar with IR, we’re one of the original (paid) review services for self, hybrid and independently published authors, providing professional book reviews since 2009, in addition to unique marketing and distribution solutions.

We know that 2020 has been a memorable (aka stressful) year for many. According to experts, one of the recommended ways to manage stress and anxiety is by thinking about what scares you most and then writing about it. So fittingly, this week’s theme is post-apocalyptic stories.

Don’t worry if that doesn’t sound like your genre, as we’ve written 5 prompts below that work whether you’re into that kind of thing or not. So pour a glass of wine, take a few deep breaths, and start typing. And we wouldn’t be surprised if, after you’re done, the world around you doesn’t look so bleak. At least there aren’t any zombies!

(As a bonus prize, the winner of this week's contest will receive a discount code for 20% off an IR Pro Review.)

This week's prompts

Write a funny post-apocalyptic story.

Funny – 110 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story that features zombies.

Science Fiction – 178 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic story triggered by climate change.

Adults – 134 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic thriller.

Thriller and Suspense – 144 stories

Write a post-apocalyptic romance.

Dystopian – 196 stories

Stories

“Where do we go from here?” by Gabby Carrizales

Submitted to Contest #60

Alex woke from her bed to close the window, the air from the window was cold and Alex could see the sky was grey. She emerged from her room to find that everyone besides herself and her snoring father, everyone else had left for the day. Alex started her day with a shower. In her room, Alex dressed in her usual jeans and a graphic tee; today was a Selena tee. She proceeded to brush her medium- length brown colored hair. She had never worn makeup ever but had a beautiful vanity in her room where she put on a subtle shade of lip gloss a...

Read story

“Dead-End.” by CM Lucas

Submitted to Contest #60

Regrets? Fuck no. I don't regret anything I do. I do what I do to survive. Survival. That's what it's all about, and no one does it better than me. Either that or I'm a lucky fuck. ”Hey, Convict! Snap out of it! You know the drill! Thumb on the scanner! Pass it through the glass!” says the officer. ”What’s the matter, Convict!? Afraid of heights!?” asks the officer. ”Just hopin’ we’ll crash before we get there!” says the shackled man as the officer smirks. His name is Dallas Bellamy and he's a survivor. As he places his thumb on t...

Read story

“Berry picking” by Floris L

Submitted to Contest #60

My name is Berry. I’m a twenty-four year old woman doing her very best to become a veterinarian. I’m in my fourth year now, it’s going so well! At least, it was… Until they came. Yeah, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories and I know I’m not alone. Everyone had to minorly adjust their lives, of course, when the zombies arrived. It wasn’t even a surprise, really. We were all having dinner when the newscaster announced a man had ‘risen from the dead’ and that it was infectious. So, naturally everyone started making their preparations. I mean,...

Read story

“Too Fast” by Magarette Daya

Submitted to Contest #60

We had just moved and it was a rather eerie night. It was around five o'clock in the evening and I was watching the news when the reported froze, terrified I turned up the television. the reporter said three sentences that I thought would never be said in the history of the world, "There is a zombie outbreak. It all started with the dead and the severely injured. The outbreak happened in New Zeland." My boyfriend walked in and I screamed since he frightened me, and I told him the story. I remembered my father had prepared three seventy two h...

Read story

“Rise of the Garnets” by Emily Rose

Submitted to Contest #60

November 13th, 2020 It had only started out as a small sneeze in the eastern countries in late march. What could one expect when it was allergy season? People’s eyes started itching and their sneezes soon turned into coughs, then coughs turned into wheezing. Not only was it a constant lack of airflow to the lungs, there soon was a rise in fevers. What could be worse; feeling like you're burning up in a cold sleep, or not being able to breathe? On April 4th, scientists released information that the name of the virus was MAV-19 as it was disc...

Read story

“A father's plight” by Chris Muller

Submitted to Contest #60

They always thought they were the lucky ones... after the blast nothing normal was left, everything they ever knew was destroyed or mutated to creatures of nightmares. Terry was never really the fittest or strongest father but his parental drive to save his little dark haired girl from abomination turned him superhuman. Sprinting barefoot across the tarmac carrying his scared little girl while being chased but bellowing sirens warning them of the incoming disaster. His pulse quickens, his shirt drenched in sweat, his muscles tightening bef...

Read story

“Running from Fear” by Ella Gladfelter

Submitted to Contest #60

Henry was running, running as fast as he could. He ran past the empty streets of what used to be his home and the alleys where he used to play. He ran past his school and all the places he used to know. He ran faster and thought his heart mise well beat right out of his chest. He could feel the adrenaline in his blood, but he didn’t care; he was just focused on running. Running and running and running. He didn’t need to be the fastest, just faster than those behind him. The zombies were blood-thirsty things and he didn’t want to die to...

Read story

“The Walking Corpse” by Chikezie Onwumere

Submitted to Contest #60

The first victim was the young medical doctor at Saint Stephens Hospital in Onitsha. The killer, out of nowhere, appeared in his office when he was reading a newspaper and stabbed him countless times in the neck with a syringe. No one saw the killer, except the doctor, and when the detectives from the homicide section of the Central Police Station in Onitsha arrived at the scene, all they could make out of incident was a case of conspiracy and murder allegedly masterminded by some malicious staff of the hospital. Autopsy also reveale...

Read story

“Late Dawns and Early Sunsets” by Adriana Ricciardi

Submitted to Contest #60

Anticipation tickled the hairs on the back of my neck as if an imaginary snake were slithering over my skin. I wiped a hand across my forehead, finding it warm and wet with sweat and dirt-caked blood. Beside me, Gia was wheezing."How much longer?" she struggled, trying to keep her breaths from echoing throughout the cave.I leaned my head against the cool, sharp rock and closed my eyes. Despite being refreshingly chilly in here, the sweat falling in icy drops on my neck made it hard to think straight.We had too many close calls tonight. Way t...

Read story

“Brainless” by Marian Reiley

Submitted to Contest #60

Survival against the most insane thing to ever happen isn't easy. Especially when there's a crazy military experiment gone wrong. What experiment; the government would never hurt their citizens, right? Trust me, they would! Thats exactly what triggered the zombie outbreak. The official story is that the Cold War ended in 1989, but that's a lie! Russia and America were at war in cyberspace for decades. Then in 2050, a coronal mass ejection, a gaint sun burp, fried all of Earth's electronics. Well it took another decade, but the p...

Read story

“Bite Back Harder” by Robyn J

Submitted to Contest #60

There is no honorable way to go anymore. Either you become one of them, or you die trying to get away. Say what you want about trying to protect people, but the minute you become one of them, you’ve just made their position that much worse. Those of us who are left have done our best to evade them, but we only have so much time before we’re found. The crumbling, weed-ridden excuse for a shelter looms grey and covered in shadows. How it manages that in a city full of sun and glass, I have no idea. But it is shadowed nonetheless, and wind w...

Read story

“Her Betrayal” by Santana Dobbins

Submitted to Contest #60

If you were to ask people what happened that day, you would get a bunch of different stories. The reason is because it was different for everyone. Some were at work, some were at school. the government tried to blame it on meat that was made wrong. the truth is they decided to release a virus and it was worse than they thought it would be. The dead started to rise with an appetite for human flesh. My name is Scar, short for Scarlet. I go by Scar because it is what my parents called me. I snap out of my thoughts as I hear growling and shuffli...

Read story

“In Memoriam; In Denial” by Ren Tremaine

Submitted to Contest #60

Help, the voice whispered. Mitchell ignored it. Its voice cracked on a scream that pierced Mitchell's ears. Please, God, help us, MITCHELL—! "Shut up!" he shouted into thin air. His eyes shot open wide. No. No, no, no, no, he shouldn't have done that, of course he shouldn't have, he knows better by now. Elliot turned to look at him, hands slowly dropping from where they had been covering his mouth. He didn't dare to breathe, but Mitchell knew what he was thinking. He agreed. How could he be so stupid? Tears brimmed in his eyes. I'm sorry, he...

Read story

“Terror of Rasterflu” by Sachin Janwadkar

Submitted to Contest #60

One- Chaos in DowntownMichael pushed aside one of the curtains and looked out into thestreet. From here, on the second story of the late George Williamson's house, you could see all of downtown by looking left, and by looking right youcould see Route 66 going out of town. Main Street was utterly deserted. Theshades of the business establishments were drawn. A sick-looking dog satin the middle of the road, head down, sides bellowsing, white foam drippingfrom its muzzle to the heat-shimmering pavement. In the gutter half a block down, ano...

Read story

“Zombie Virus” by Virginia Wanner

Submitted to Contest #60

"Brian don't make me do this." I sobbed as I aimed my gun at him. "Brian!" There had to be some part of him that was still the Brian I knew and loved. He couldn't be completely gone. It had happened so fast. From the first symptoms to this, the end result. But Brian kept coming, uttering gutteral growls. Even his speech capabilities had fled. This putrid, stinking, rotting, walking corpse was no longer Brian, I reminded myself. When he was almost within arms reach, I closed my eyes, and squeezed the trigger. Two, three, four, five, six times...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

762

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 25, 2020 EST

Won by Ruth Midgley 🏆

Title: Unpaving Paradise

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 ⭢