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!

#78: Keeping Busy

I’ve noticed that hobbies often get overlooked in fiction. Unless it plays a major role in the plot, many main characters don’t even get a hobby — supporting characters, even less often. Yet hobbies are an important part of many people’s lives, especially in lockdown. They’re the things we bond with our friends over, the pastimes that refresh our spirits over the weekend, and the activities that give us some of our greatest joy.

So this week, hobbies are going to take center stage. From mainstream to obscure, let’s analyze our character’s most interesting quirks and explore the many things they can obsess over!

This week's prompts

Start your story with one character trying to convince another to take up their favorite hobby.

Fluff – 177 stories

Write about someone who keeps an unusual animal as a pet.

Teens – 178 stories

Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.

Fiction – 133 stories

Set your story at a convention for a hobby most people have never heard of.

Fluff – 70 stories

Write about someone who keeps picking up different hobbies but never manages to stick with them.

Character – 176 stories

Stories

“Ride the Waves” by Julia C

Submitted to Contest #78

I hear the lights flicker off and the door shut. I count to one hundred and then slowly sit up. My bed creaks, and I freeze for a second. Then I continue to get up and tip-toe over to my window. I slowly open it while attempting to be as quiet as possible. I push the screen out and take a deep breath. I step out the window onto the roof. I get out and climb up to the top of my house, and lay down. For a moment, I close my eyes. I feel the breeze and take a deep breath to smell the salty air. I hear the waves crashing against the shore...

Read story

“Hard Bed” by Cheryl Fulks

Submitted to Contest #78

Johnny is the best running back the high school has ever had, Catherine told her father. Bill Monroe agreed but told her there was something he didn't like about the boy. Catherine hugged her father and told him he would learn to love him as she did. One year later, Bill was walking his daughter down the aisle and still hadn't found that love for him that Catherine had assured him of. She was happy was all that mattered. Catherine's mother told her, before she passed, if she made a hard bed, she would have to...

Read story

“Navigator” by Tim Benson

Submitted to Contest #78

“Navigator” “Geez, Charlie, when I told you to find us a car I meant something that would get us there and back not a piece of crap like this. Where’d you find it?” “I got it at the Circle K. The guy left it running when he went into the store and I was standing right there and I figured it was easier than trying to hot-wire another car. I’m not so good with wires. I was scared shitless but I just jumped in and beat it out of there fast.” “This job needs to go like clockwork or Manny will never give me more work. Without the money I make o...

Read story

“Quaint Correspondence” by Devin Carrier

Submitted to Contest #78

Walking home, the boy pulled up his mask as a gust of cold air smacked him in the face. His backpack felt a lot heavier than when he left, but nothing had been added to his collection of papers and doodles. He discovered that it was rather difficult to keep pursuing his art degree in all this chaos. Jeremy, for a long time now, had pondered his artistic path. “Artists don’t study!”, he exclaimed to his favorite teacher in high school one time. She forgave him, but ...

Read story

“The Dressmaker’s Curse” by Nicole Prowd

Submitted to Contest #78

“You know they have machines for that, Irene,” she mimicked in a high pitch voice after checking Laura was out of ear shot. “Oh help me Irene! Help me!” “You know complaining behind her back won’t change anything.” her daughter sighed, sipping at her tea, eyes never straying from the papers she was marking. “Yes but it makes me feel better. Katherine, honey you have to stop putting sugar in your tea, it’s making your face break out again.” Katherine nodded like she agreed but Irene knew she had stopped listening, giving her permission ...

Read story

“Obsolete” by E. B.

Submitted to Contest #78

“Thanks Marcie.” Tom said as he stood and pulled on his jacket. She picked up his empty coffee cup and smiled weakly. She’d never been much of a conversationalist but now with the truck stop in jeopardy of closing she was even quieter than usual. Tom emptied his pockets and handed her what he had left. “Is there anything I can do?” She just shook her head and muttered something about it being too late. Tom frowned, his face settled into the familiar wrinkles and he wrung his hands together, twisting his wrists until they clicked. He had know...

Read story

“Inefficient” by Jungle Clover

Submitted to Contest #78

"Where are you going?" Martha questioned. The advanced home automation system's voice made Layala freeze. Despite the fact that Martha had been programmed with the typical neutral voice that all systems within her specific model possessed, there was clearly a skeptical inflection to her question. "I was just..." Layala looked down at the translucent floor of the pod, in an attempt to focus. The pod's mechanical hum filled her ears as she struggled to find an excuse, a welcome respite from the eeriness of complete silence. "...leaving the p...

Read story

“The Champion ” by North Davidson

Submitted to Contest #78

The snow started to swirl around in flurries, as Jaxon walked down the abandoned street. His breath clouded into puffs of white smoke. Adventure hung in the air, and Jaxon was out to embrace it. His violin case tapped his leg with each step he took, creating a rhythm that soothed the nerves that were bubbling up in his stomach. He shouldn’t be nervous. And he knows that. He’s done it many times before. But never against a champion. The champion. Besides, like his mother always said, some nerves are good. Jaxon definitely hoped so. A few mome...

Read story

“So We Are Old Fashioned - Who Cares” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #78

Dear Susan. Sorry for the late reply. I’ve been in hospital for the last two weeks with a stupid chest infection. Honestly I can’t believe how many I have had in the last year. Remember how I told you the specialist wanted to do ‘invasive’ tests on me, well he still does, but I’m not having any of it! At my age! Anyway forget about that…how are you doing now? Did you get my card? The mail is so unpredictable these days. I know you will be very lonely without your beautiful dog but at least he wasn’t in pain when he died. Remember that corgi ...

Read story

“The First Try” by Jonathan Shephard

Submitted to Contest #78

“I don’t get it,” Said Aaron, “This is stupid!” Jason, the black-haired apron-wearing teenager, glared at his friend, rolling his shoulders back to ease the tension. Jason took his gloves off outside the hot baking tin-roofed shack while hot coals slowly heated his project. “I mean,” Aaron continued, “You can get that stuff at the dollar store, you know.” “But I made this one,” Jason replied with a small prideful flame in his scrawny chest while he ran his smudged hands through his black hair. “I don’t know, it’s just nice....

Read story

“The Target” by Stacey Woodward

Submitted to Contest #78

The energy was released. Transferred. Until it stopped and left as sound and heat. The arrow left the bow and hit the target in the middle. Bullseye. Three years ago, she’d have people behind her and next to her, cheering her on so she would get another good shot. But not anymore. No one was there. No one was her cheerleader. Unless it was on a FaceTime call, a Skype, a WhatsApp or Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat or whatever else was around, no one would applaud her. With everyone superglued to their screens, their iPads, Samsung Galaxy’s, l...

Read story

“Old school.” by Michael Young

Submitted to Contest #78

“You should go and see Mrs Preost, her who lives in the woods at the edge of the village”, said George. “Hang on.”, said Sam. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but she ain’t no doctor as I recall.” “Well, no, but she has remedies what are more old school, if you know what I mean.” Sam crinkles his brow, the furrows and lines on his face making him look more walnut than human. “Well, I can’t say as I do know what you mean by old school.” George sighs and shifts his feet a little. “You know, old school.” the...

Read story

“French Toast” by Gouda Cheese

Submitted to Contest #78

“Why do you cook?”That question. Those four simple words, echoed so many times. By friends, by family, by strangers, and by myself. Although there’s no one else left to ask it now.The answer is complicated, and yet simple in its complexity.Why do I cook?Because I want to. Because it brings me joy. Because it brings warmth to the artificial world that surrounds us. Because of the sights, the smells, the tastes, the feeling of creating something worthwhile.Every day I wake up and look out at the barren landscape outside, devastated by the nucl...

Read story

“WATCHMAN” by SHYAMALA BHUVANACHANDRAN

Submitted to Contest #78

Giriraj was insisting on his grandson Motilal to learn about his ancestral and traditional art of pottery. But Motilal was least interested in it. “Who would meddle with mud and clay? What a nasty and ugly activity!” He disliked it. He preferred painting to pottery. Giriraj tried to convince him that the potters’ wheel was the oldest and still the best of all inventions made so far known to mankind. “You should feel proud to be belonging to a potters’ family. Learn this activity as your hobby. It need not be your source of livelihood.” “No,...

Read story

“Embers” by Andrew Liss-Noda

Submitted to Contest #78

Deep in the dark, beyond fathomless fractal immensities, I seek the coldlight, the depthlight, the light of the fallen. The unreality, the paradoxicality, of the empty spaces far outside of the bounds of this galaxy, fold into my chest; my lungs wheeze and ache inside of my ears. The dark distance flows out across my ribs, out through my breastbone, and, as I open my eyes, like a mote of brightest darkness, hovers between my palms just outside of my body. I breathe a sigh of relief as the spectral hands of winter fle...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

735

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 29, 2021 EST

Won by Christina Marie 🏆

Title: Life's Leftovers

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 ⭢