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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#66: Ready, Set, Go!

It’s almost November, and for many writers around the world that means the start of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. This wild challenge dares you to commit to writing a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days!

It’s an impressive feat, but it’s hardly the only way to exercise your writing muscles. If you like your writing in smaller doses but still want to build up the habit, today I’m going to challenge you to commit to writing a story from one prompt every week in November! (If you already do that, try for two, three, or even all five.)

To get you started, this week we’ll be focusing on stories all about challenging yourself. Whether it’s running a marathon, finally writing that novel, or just making it through a tough personal situation, challenge is what consistently pushes us to grow into our best selves.

And if you are giving novel writing a try, here are a few resources to help you along:

What Is NaNoWriMo? And How to Win in 2020
Join Reedsy’s NaNo Squad (with weekly live write-ins!)
Crafting a Novel Opening (workshop replay)
How to Write a Novel

This week's prompts

Start your story with one character telling another, “It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.”

Novel – 132 stories

Halfway through a fierce competition, your character is given the opportunity to cheat their way to victory: do they take it?

Short Story – 52 stories

Write about a character who makes a dramatic life change to pursue a goal they’ve secretly always wanted.

Novel – 120 stories

Write about a contest with life or death stakes.

Adventure – 145 stories

Write about a character who’s finally on the verge of achieving their lifelong dream.

Dramatic – 135 stories

Stories

“Ups and downs” by Tariq Saeed

Submitted to Contest #66

Hi,uncle,What’s up"Nomi greeted me .He was looking very happy and jolly.Nomi,what about your ,didn’t you rent it “.I asked.Uncle luck favored me, a business man hired my house for one lacs rupees. He had given me twelve lac of rupees as advance for one year, tonight I would take you for the dinner”Nomi invited me. In the evening I went to the restaurant in Which I was invited.A man near fifty years of age was sitting with Nomi. He introduced me to that person as he was new lessee Mr Victor.Sir,I know you “you were in Karachi”.Mr Victor ...

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“Your Princess Is in Another Castle” by Tyler Runde

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.”Marcus took his eyes away from the castle and looked to Lumbert, and asked, “Doesn’t it?”“No!” Lumbert proclaimed, stepping back from the hillock’s edge to busy himself with tending to the horses, who hadn’t had a thing to eat the entire journey from Toderskül this far out into the Wastes and so had been huffing away irritably at the two men for the last five minutes.Marcus smiled sheepishly at his traveling companion and friend. He’d spent the previous night spit-shining the breastpl...

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“Good luck and bad luck” by You'd Think A Writer Would Have A More Creative Name .

Submitted to Contest #66

1924 wordsRated 12+; torture, death, violence"The tv isn't working!" shouts Kat.I roll my eyes. Getting up from my spot on the couch, I kneel down in front of the television. Apparently no one in my family can get it to work. A remote is thrust into my hands. "Is this sticky? Kat, have you been eating and touching the remote?"Kat shrugs. She shoves her hands in the pockets of her green sweater. She has no respect for the remote. She wolfs down a chocolate bar while watching a movie, and none of us can change it because we don't want to get o...

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“The gods Chosen” by Carole Cobos

Submitted to Contest #66

How...how..how selfish!A bitter laugh escaped her, his rival "It doesn't count if you're already planning your defeat."He lifts his dead eyes to meet hers and she forces back a shiver- what a horror. The beautiful boy who stood before her; tragedy written in his blood, was now planning to prove his point to the world in the crudest sense.The way he moved, everything he did- was like yelling at the world 'You don't have to destroy me with your circumstances! I can do it myself!'It was amusing at first, to see the usually carefully blond becom...

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“Aldorriha's Prodigies ” by Lilly Alves

Submitted to Contest #66

The whole forest seemed to be shedding tears. Snow melted like a weeping child, unable to elude the powerful warmth of the sun, running down the rough faces of nearby oaks and birch. The forest mourns as well, I think. The songs of birds fill my ears. Their melodies celebrate winter's end, but even their notes leave some sadness. Spring is not a happy time where I come from. This season was meant for rejoicing. Where new life should be born and fresh beginnings made. For me, this is a time to grieve. Not for the past, but for the future. Whe...

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“An Evening With The Woodchucks” by Michael J. Conroy

Submitted to Contest #66

Shawn wasn’t sure why his stepdad put the duct tape there before they left home early yesterday morning, but it was now flapping in the wind.“You okay back there? You haven’t said much since the turn–”Mia stopped talking when she felt something butt against her ribs, and she looked down to see a bottle of water.“That is... if – you don’t mind?”“What’s that supposed to mean, Deacon?” Mia asked.“Look, will you just empty the bottle so I can clean the windshield.”When Mia told Deacon what she thought of him with her eyes, Deacon ...

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“A Fool and his Lord” by Jacques Humanité

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning on defeat.” But Takeshi would not stop crying. His chocked sobs were drowned in the faint stirring of autumn leaves. The wooden katana dangled in his trembling grip, and pain flared across the back of his hand where Nagawa-sama had struck, unrelenting and much unlike the boy he had come to know. Takeshi regarded his young Lord’s katana and found a vein of blood running along the edge, where it dripped onto the leaves below. His eyes trailed upwards, but stopped and would go no further. He could n...

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“Doesn't Count” by Mara C

Submitted to Contest #66

''It doesn't count if you're already planning your defeat. You know that, right?'' his voice breaks the silence of the room suddenly. I lift my gaze and hold his. His gaze is steady, levelled, but serious – meaningful. I wrap my arms around myself, and glance downwards. Everything feels so claustrophobic, so cramped. As if it's all closing in on me. As if this small dim-lit room with brick-faced walls and wooden crates all over is shrinking on me. Slowly losing all fresh oxygen, all possibilities of escaping. Five pairs of feet are pointed...

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“You Think?” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #66

Sometimes I dream about winning. Early in the morning, when my brain is supposed to think of absolutely nothing at all, when my eyes are supposed to be closed and I’m supposed to be lying still on the padded table I rest on, my brain fantasizes. Upon the black canvas of nothingness they prompt our consciousness into, my brain draws shapes while I sleep. It creates colors and sounds and I can feel everything. Every night it’s different; sometimes my mom is there, or Jack, my sister, or my girlfriend Dera. But every night, one thing is t...

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“Ma's Golden boy” by An Echo

Submitted to Contest #66

Ma's Golden boy sat at the quiet dinner table with a full plate. He wasn't Ma's favourite, Ma never did favourites; as always, every one at the table had equal portions. Although, Ma didn't heed to the plea of her Golden boy, the bland porridge wasn't all that bland, that's because they ate in tears. It's only normal they cried, they had watched their brother die few minutes ago. And now they were forced to have dinner. "You'd better eat your food, if you don't want to end up like him," Ma had said. Ma had a few rules. Ma neve...

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“The Final Plan” by Threese Belivett

Submitted to Contest #66

“You’re afraid. You’re afraid because in the end that position is meant for me.” My jaw clench while fiercely staring at the woman across my seat. “I don’t compete with someone much younger than me.” She sip her coffee looking in a different direction. “That’s the point. I am young. And you? You’re old. What ideas do you think you can share.” Smiling as if I can see my victory. She laughed and sighed. “You have lots of confidence. This is all about her, right?” She began to irritate me. I’m about to say a word but she suddenly stand ...

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“When It Counts ” by Jenna Warnock

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat,” Cassidy told her younger sister. She looked down at her sunken sibling who was slumped in a chair to the point she was nearly on the floor. Her laptop was open, shining its light onto both of the girls’ faces with the title “Submission Received” flashing in a deep, bright red which contrasted heavily with the emotions dominating the room. A tear rolled down Tabitha’s cheek before she lifted her head to meet with her sister’s. “What do you mean?” Tabitha had just submitted her...

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“Scintillating Sarah” by Ayushi Sharma

Submitted to Contest #66

“Have you ever travelled a long journey? We all have and are, just not always in a train or a vehicle. If you think not let me tell you it is frustrating as heck and brain draining and boring but If only you change the way you look at things, It’ll change everything and you will realize there is so much beauty around you too and if you don’t enjoy the process of something what’s the guarantee that you will like the ending too. Sitting in that train constantly thinking ‘When are you going to reach your destination?’, ‘When will you be there’,...

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“A Murder of Crows ” by Elizabeth Inkim

Submitted to Contest #66

A savage wind howled through the forest. Rustling the brittle leaves, it snapped the bowing barks and branches of the ancient wood into pieces, leaving a carnage of scattered twigs in its wake. Through the dim moonlight of winter, Declan sat around the campfire, shoulder to shoulder with his brethren, waiting for the Council of Elders to commence the Blood Rite. The Blood Rite was a traditional contest amongst the Mountain Men of the Highlands, that occurred a fortnight after every Chief’s death. Open to all warriors and families of the clan...

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“WTF” by Alexander Katz

Submitted to Contest #66

The WTF—World Twister Finals—is held every ten years, and never in the same place. Now hidden within Omaha, Nebraska's dark dredges, this year’s WTF competition is perhaps the most anticipated since the 1976 Castle Classic. Rodrick “Rocky” Wilson stood in the alley next to an inconspicuous door, a smile plastered across his face. The door looked like any other in the alleyway, except for the four circles of red, green, blue, and yellow freshly painted above it—the WTF crest. Rocky brushed his fingers across the circles, feeling the nerves in...

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$50

Prize money

584

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 22:59 - Nov 06, 2020 EST

Won by David G. 🏆

Title: Mahalo King Cod Filet

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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