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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#75: New Year, New You

For many of us, the last year was like living through a low-budget disaster movie — but the good thing about the new year is that it gives us an excuse to start fresh. And even though flipping a calendar doesn’t necessarily fix all our problems, it’s still good to take a moment and think about everything you do have the power to change.

In that spirit, this week’s prompts are all about fresh starts. From small, personal achievements to huge goals that will change the world, everything starts with the decision to try. What sort of things will your characters achieve this year? What sort of things will you?

This week's prompts

Write about someone who has finally managed to succeed at a long-standing New Year’s resolution.

Winter – 98 stories

Write about someone whose job is to help people leave their old lives behind.

Adults – 246 stories

Start your story with one character making a vow that they never would have made the year before.

Holiday – 102 stories

Write about someone who doesn’t remember their past — and doesn’t want to.

Thriller and Suspense – 205 stories

Write about two characters who each want to change the same thing, but resolve to go about it in very different ways.

Teens – 84 stories

Stories

“The Pinnacle of Tomorrow ” by C.C. Roth

Submitted to Contest #75

She scanned her blue screen once more as the elevator continued its descent to the lowest level of Tower II. Her recruit for the day should be easy. He had no family left, no prospects, and a recent accident at work had claimed most of his left hand. Something to do with an automated lift droid malfunction. His profile read as a perfect candidate for relocation. But Mazie knew not everyone made it easy. Sometimes they needed convincing to help them let go of their former lives. While she was prepared for such a candidate, she could never und...

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“Hydrophobic Fishermen” by Sarah Wilson

Submitted to Contest #75

It was a funny thing, being a saltwater fisherman who’s afraid of the sea. On Landlock Island, somewhere in the Pacific, a population of pleasant people woke up every morning to the crashing of waves and the sound of crying babies. From the moment they were born, the inhabitants of this island had a hatred of water as deep as the ocean itself. Their fear rose with the tides; their hearts pruned just like their fingers and toes whenever they had to spend any amount of time in the water. Landlock Island was their own personal hell, but how co...

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“Bringing Home an Epiphany” by Lisa Wentworth

Submitted to Contest #75

Week 9 Start your story with one character making a vow that they never would have made the year before. “....As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again.” Scarlet O’Hara, Gone With The Wind” Now, Elizabeth was hardly a Scarlet; more like a Melody...sweet and a people pleaser. Even her preferred name, Beth, was taken from the most docile character in Little Women, not a strong-minded Jo. Yet fortune has made her life full of drama, which was an unexpected turn from the stable childhood she had...So why was she so disposable no...

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“A veiled epoch ” by Aparna Nair

Submitted to Contest #75

Clinging vessels were as usual the wake up call for Chinna. He lay on a dried palm leaf mat covered in a faded thin .He could see the clear white sky through the cracked terra-cotta roof. Last night he slept holding his kaleidoscope .. the one he had made from scratch,now lying safely next to him. The other boys laughed when he told them his plan to make one and today he would prove them wrong. Drops of excitement slowly formed on his otherwise painfully deserted heart. He sat up.. the kaleidoscope safe and secure on his lap as he folded his...

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“No Regrets, The List” by Chris Harris

Submitted to Contest #75

Oscar woke up in bed. He yawned, tussled his messy brown hair and tried to roll over, but as he did something stopped him half way – there was something tugging on his arm. It was something painful! His tired eyes started fluttering open to find out what was poking in his arm. As he moved, his head set on fire in a splitting headache. It was probably a hangover he reasoned, another big night out celebrating the end of high school and going on to university. If that was the case (which it likely was) then he really didn’t want to know wh...

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“No More Room For Hate.” by Kasia Harman

Submitted to Contest #75

The strange thing about hate is that it has within it something that sets it apart from other emotions. Choosing to hate others based on traits like race, religion, or sexual orientation creates a particular look in the eyes. A chilling look that both repels and disgusts those that are sensitive to it, or have suffered because of it. When looking into such eyes, one gets the sense that hate has taken up so much space within the person that their soul was simply…pushed out. Those that hate wholeheartedly leave little room for anything else wi...

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“A new path ” by Vanessa Amber

Submitted to Contest #75

On the night of New Year’s Eve Simone sat alone at the London city airport. The next flight was scheduled for the next morning, but everything was better than being in the house she grew up in. It felt like a new beginning, and she vowed to herself that she would never come back to England.The airport was empty, and no shops were opened. She had never seen an airport like that and found it calming. After all she went through it felt good to have a bit of time to reflect on what happened during the last year. She was sitting right next to a b...

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“Fortress of Solitude” by Brya Wallace

Submitted to Contest #75

“I’m ready,” I declared, “I’m ready to get out of this house and explore the world,” I grinned at my parents. They smiled back at me, a sense of relief painted across their face as they gave each other a sideways glance, “We’ll help you,” Dad said quietly back “we’ll do this together.” --- It was a school like any other, so I’m not sure why it had to change my life; ruin my life before it had even had a chance to begin, in essence. I was an average teenager, as in to say there was nothing extraordinary about me and I was just like every ot...

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“To Succeed, We Must First Love” by Molly James

Submitted to Contest #75

The mind, such a beautiful fragile thing. The key to slipping away from our painful, stressful realities. But also the secret weapon we harbor that can lead to our ultimate downfall. I always look at the world in a half-full glass, I whispered in a daydream once. Oh, how daydreaming was my eudaimonic pleasure, how it dulcified my anxiety like the lull of the luscious melodies of Jazz. My mind glowed with the glimmer of a million fireflies leaping across the luminescent sky. But that was before the storm clouds came rumbling in camouflaging m...

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“Danny” by Bree Davis

Submitted to Contest #75

My eyelids fluttered open to a dim, sickly sort of lighting. My body ached terribly, and my head swam. Where am I? I thought to myself. I winced from the stinging pain in my back as I lifted myself off the canvas cot. The room was small and dirty. I could see the light streaming in from a crack between the floor and wall. It was cold which only made me feel all the more uncomfortable. As I took a step forward, my body trembled and my head reeled. I stepped in front of the half-shattered mirror hanging on the door. The person I saw was not on...

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“The Scars and the Letter R” by IR Belletti

Submitted to Contest #75

CW: killing, (hinted) emotional and physical abuse, Vanya licked his lips and emitted a little laugh as he took the knife back from the man’s chest.From behind his back, Sasha emitted a heavy sigh. “Why must you always make a mess?”The cold, wet air of the night made his baby pink hair softly move, but part of it was stuck to his white skin because of the blood. A window was open on the city like a wound, and the moon behind it showed nothing but square yellow holes where people like the man under him lived. The city was a waste of space, bu...

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“A Letter From Me” by John Carpenter

Submitted to Contest #75

Your Excellency, I have been living in this monastery for 18 years. The brothers have been good to me. I think that I must be around 50 years old. I wandered onto the lands of the monastery, and was allowed to stay. I find that I like a life of contemplation and work making the beer for which the monastery is renowned and which allows us to be left alone in the main. I don’t want to think much, and it is not required of me. I get up for the canonical hours and recite prayers and chant songs in Latin. I learned these by repetition, by heari...

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“Dog-Water Dreams” by Kiera DeWalt

Submitted to Contest #75

All of the dogs at the Shelter are healthy, except my sister and I. Whenever clients come to the Shelter, they coo over my sister’s fluffy tail and blue eyes, and then wonder why I’m here, with a smushed muzzle and patchy coloring. My fur sticks up in the wrong places, and from what I’ve heard, my eyes are a sickly yellow. “What’s that dog doing there?” I heard a toddler ask as he’s dragged through the Shelter. “It doesn’t look like the other dogs. It looks wrong.” The family laughed, and chatted, and dragged their boy to the back section (t...

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“Mama” by Fatimah Z

Submitted to Contest #75

We sat across from each other at a table. She was eating sushi, her usual favorite, while I ate orange chicken. I poked around at the food on my plate. My appetite was scarce and I felt that there were important things to be discussed. My attention shifted From my plate to the face infront of me--Beautiful and Round. Black eyes that looked just like mine with hair flowing to the start of her shoulders. I inched my chair forward. "So" I said as I cleared my throat of orange chicken "Mom, hows your food". She didn't respond, she just remained ...

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“Hologram ” by Emma Hartman

Submitted to Contest #75

I am just a hologram of myself. Just someone waiting to be noticed. These memories are not mine. They can’t be. I constantly wake up from nightmares. I see the faces of parents, Begging me not to do it. Then the kids, The kids are the worst. They do anything to break from my hold, Punch, kick, and struggle to get out of the entanglement of their destiny. As I drag their bodies across the stone cold floor, Guilt runs through my veins, Burning my arms, Wanting to break through the bar...

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$50

Prize money

735

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 08, 2021 EST

Won by R. A. 🏆

Title: The Violinist

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!

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