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!

#63: Autumnal

It’s finally fall in the Northern Hemisphere. While the leaves are being slow to change out my window this year, the air is crisp and the pumpkin spice products are out in full force. Time to break out the sweaters!

Beyond all the colorful trappings, though, fall is by definition a season of change. So as you craft your stories this week, try to think about how the events you’re writing will change your characters' lives, whether fundamentally or just a little. After all, even a seemingly mundane afternoon can be the turning point of your entire life…

And if you want to drink some apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte while you write, more power to you!

This week's prompts

Set your story in a coffee shop that’s just introduced a new line of autumnal drinks.

Fall – 161 stories

Start your story with the line, “By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” (Whether this is a literal fire is up to you.)

Teens – 324 stories

Write about a character making fall decorations out of construction paper.

Kids – 45 stories

Write a story from the perspective of a bird migrating for the winter.

Winter – 128 stories

Write about two characters going apple picking.

Fall – 249 stories

Stories

“Autumn Treasures” by Barbara Eustace

Submitted to Contest #63

Everyone agreed that Rowan’s arrival had been a great addition to the coffee shop. Not that Bryony wasn’t nice, it’s just that she wasn’t – well – Rowan. “If only I was twenty years younger,” Margaret Deakins was heard to say to anyone who’d listen. And the rest, thought her friend Elaine Bishop, who at 73, was a couple of years younger than Margaret. But she too appreciated the vision that was Rowan, with his tanned good looks, his ready smile and a bottom that made any woman’s heart race as he moved back to the counter with an order. ...

Read story

“Autumn Fire” by Evander Lovell

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Reds, oranges, browns, and yellows ate up the streets, completely devouring the concrete sidewalks. The seasons had flown by so quickly I nearly forgot it was already autumn. Everywhere you looked, leaves once a vibrant green were now afire. It was a wonder how leaves changed their colors during each season. Everywhere. Even as I walked to my job at a nearby cafe, the colors of fire were never far. Left, right, up, and down, the streets look like they were burning. Some workers were ...

Read story

“Chant” by Dakota Red

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I step outside, the leaves are on fire. Autumn has arrived, and it’s going to rain. I hate autumn, and I hate the rain. It was raining when she left. It was october. I hurry to the bus stop. Kill me. As far as I know, I’m the only one that can hear them. Though “hear” doesn’t seem like the right word for it. It’s more of a feeling. A feeling with words. You’ve probably got one, too, whether you realize it or not. A chant. A phrase or word that you subconsciously repeat like a mantra. Or maybe a song lyric you can’t get ...

Read story

“Warrior. The tale of man defeating a god” by A BK

Submitted to Contest #63

“This is the end, puny human!” A heavy voice echoed with determination. The sky was dark, the land was filled with blazing fire that was turning everything into ashes. Passing by them, a bulky figure comes forth, who covered in blazing red flames. The figure walks little further, then stood still and tilted his face down to look a man in front. The man, who was covered in bl...

Read story

“Moonlit Passage” by Journey Beyond

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Bright yellows and oranges, as crisp as the late October air. Yet the conditions were not cool enough to prevent the mental combustion that was looming inside my head. The sun had just set, so the sky was a light gray transitioning to a smoky color. It was a few minutes past seven and suddenly I remembered the shop closed at eight. We’d have to be quick. Having been trapped at home the last seven months, it’s hard to believe how much had changed in my life and the lives around me. Most ...

Read story

“A sweet misery” by Harsh Balodi

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. A perfect orange sheet lay in the garden surrounding my apartment complex. I walk down what once used to be a well-polished stone staircase but was now chipped and weathered with the daily commute of the hundreds of residents like me. Overgrowth was visible on multitudes of cracks on the similar stoned pathway leading to the main road. Living in a neglected part of the town, I couldn’t expect much better maintenance of the surrounding property. The garbage van sometimes didn’t come for ...

Read story

“Awaken” by Sandra Brooks

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Everything was on fire. I don’t know why and how this was happening to me but I had never felt so alive and filled with so much purpose. My years of suffering were over. I became a new me. As for those of you who do not know me, my name is Katherine Dare , 17 year old teenager who battled cancer alongside my mother, who unfortunately did not emerge out victorious as I did. I have spend most of my childhood in despair, grieving over my mother and my lost sense of purpose in this worl...

Read story

“Leaves on Fire” by Scott Snyder

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. In a warm, fresh breeze, the leaves waved at us in a fashion making the Queen proud, each with its unique color, from the brightest of yellows to the deepest of maroons, they tantalized our eyes. It was fall. This tree had been here since I was a child. I remember it when my parents brought me here for the rare Friday evening hamburger, when my grandfather brought me here for my first pizza, and when I brought a pretty girl here on my first date. “The Ozarks are p...

Read story

“Season's End” by Geoffrey Widdison

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It didn't really strike me, until that moment, that I hadn't left the house in six months. I'd gone inside in spring, I was coming out in autumn. It was as gorgeous a fall season as I'd seen. A perfect explosion of yellow, orange and red, highlighted by the sinking sun. The crisp breeze riffled my hair and spun fallen leaves around my feet. In the park across the street, kids were running and playing, enjoying the cool weather before winter fell. It made me almost physically ill. Sh...

Read story

“Fall in love, Love in fall.” by Uddipona Baruah

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The beautiful orange had turned into a fiery red. Each memory hurt. The pain ran hauntingly from my skin to my veins to my every reason for living, tearing me apart from inside out. We had met during fall. My favourite season of all times. A season of change, a season that makes you happy even when you are bound to have all kinds of allergies. For me, fall had always been a poignant, self-loving season. It made me humble, more accepting. Just to experience the fall of all beautiful thin...

Read story

“The Fire” by Reagan Weckerly

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. The forest fire had taken off and there was only one way out. It was up. I ran as fast as I could to the fire department's helicopter, which was sitting nearby picking up people who were trapped in the fire. I was the last person on and just as we were taking off I saw a child in the distance running towards the helicopter. "Stop!" I yelled, "There's a kid in there, we have to get him out." "Sorry, there's no room and we have to leave now," said the pilot. I jumped from the helicopter. I...

Read story

“The Flames Inside Of Her” by Seren Wyatt

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I did this. This is why I’m supposed to control myself, but he makes me so uncomfortable. “ How do I fix this? “ I whisper to myself. I hear his footsteps through the house and before I know it, Theo’s slamming the door open. I turned around to look at him and his breath hitched. “ You see this? You did this to me! You fucking ruined my life! “ I screamed, all Theo did was laugh. He smirked at me, taking a few steps closer. He bent down and whispered into my ear. “ I don’t know what y...

Read story

“The Inquisition” by Bronze Nova

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. However, the antithesis of the dark, stone church behind me protected me from the flames. I never thought that Our Lord, Eveynthy, was never in such cold buildings, but it felt as if even He was hiding from this inferno. “This is the might of the Lord of Creation, the molder of the six elements!” As the Head Magus exclaimed these words, I felt the pride in my chest rise with the screams in the forest. ‘But is this right?’ A small breeze kept whispering that one phrase into my mind. As t...

Read story

“[Un]Knowing Autumn” by Sabrina Pfeiffer

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Standing on the rickety front porch of Reiner Hall, I could already see the top of the blaze from across the road, and down the open field in the center of campus. The annual Fall Fire Fest at Linfeld School was a tradition no one knew the true origin of. I like to imagine it was a wholesome gathering of students who enjoyed kicking off the season by coming together to enjoy a big bonfire together and catch up on each other’s summer happenings. If I close my eyes I can almost see the yo...

Read story

“Growth” by Aujureé Forbes

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Albeit I should be wearing shoes and I probably should've raked them last night when the moon was up instead of the sun. Oh well, now here I was under the Georgia morning sun raking up leaves that were left on the ground from our Autumn in the Summer party last night. The party was a last minute attempt to become more popular than my ex-bestfriend, Ashley. Ashley had tweeted 5 days ago that she'd be throwing a Winter in the Summer party and that she'd have real snow. Snow? In th...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

907

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 16, 2020 EST

Won by Masha Kurbatova 🏆

Title: come to atlanta!

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 ⭢