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!

#79: The Family You Choose

They say blood is thicker than water — but is it always?

The truth is that not all families offer healthy relationships to each other, and sometimes the harsh act of cutting them out of your life may be the best course of action. Fortunately, we can still meet people who love us no matter what and become our new families. Not to mention adoptions, blended families, and all the wonderful ways people connect with and support each other, regardless of whether they share any DNA. It's fair to say that family is a lot more than blood!

This week, we’re going to turn family life upside down and examine all the ways that family succeeds — and fails — for our characters.

This week's prompts

Write about someone who decides it’s time to cut ties with a family member.

Sad – 260 stories

Your main character is approached by their long-estranged parent who wants to reconnect. How do they react?

Dramatic – 193 stories

Write about someone who discovers the only family member they have left has just betrayed them.

Sad – 160 stories

Write about two characters who’ve gone through something so intense they now feel like family.

Adults – 190 stories

Write about a “found family” who are finally able to get together again after a long time apart.

Fluff – 100 stories

Stories

“On the turning away” by Robert Gersohn

Submitted to Contest #79

In this sleepy old university town, there was not much by way of gainful employment outside of academia. Somehow, Steven James had always made a living, as a mechanic by day and a barman by night. Sleeping was for the dead. Twenty-four, with a lean boy-band look, Steven found his smile was a lucky charm. Girls were drawn to him, guys were dazzled by his gung-ho outlook on life, little old ladies thought he was a sweet young man. He took care of his younger brother, Davey, like a father, despite the mere five years difference in age. ...

Read story

“Little girls ” by Kayla Olson

Submitted to Contest #79

Trigger warning for depression: When I was a little girl I used to think that my dad was the greatest man alive, I mean when I got to see him he would just smile the whole time we were together. I lived with my grandparents because my mother and father thought that would be the best option for me.They were right of course and I grew up great, but I still had to live through a pill popping grandmother who spent money like it was the air she breathed. I grew up with a grandfather who was stern and sometimes couldn't control his anger. And coun...

Read story

“SURVIVING THE GOODBYE” by Adele Maree

Submitted to Contest #79

It was our weekend visit with Mom. Usually we would pack as soon as we got home from school, but this time was different. We started packing the previous night, everything that we wanted to take with, not just clothes for a visit. We were going about it very silently so that we wouldn’t disturb my dad or his fiancée. They weren’t supposed to know that this was the last time we would be packing our stuff in their house. The following morning, very early, my little brother, Joe, would sneak our bags out into the garden, hiding it from sight, w...

Read story

“Daddy Issues” by HB Wilding

Submitted to Contest #79

"Well I'm drunk. The multiples of you and the shovel confirm it." I staggered a few steps and then asked in a bemused tone, "and why the hell is this very flat lawn so extremely uneven?""It's the booze you need to stop.""Don't you knock booze, Mother at least it brings relief." That was obnoxious—and rather ironic considering the resulting hangover—but I was mourning and therefore allowed."It can also makes people violent. That you know full well. You think you're the only one hurting?""He tried to kill me, Mother!""He's still your father.""...

Read story

“Burning loose ends” by Andrea Itt

Submitted to Contest #79

Zillah sat at the table holding an old pack of letters in her hands. She continued to trace every indention on the now yellowing papers listening to a crackling fire that was lit in the room till she heard two people pull out chairs. "You said you considered our proposition?" She heard her mother say. Zillah nodded looking directly in both of their eyes. "I have." Never tearing her eyes away she opened her mouth again. “You can keep your f---ing offer and both of you can go straight to h-ll.” Her mother sucked in a breath and her fathe...

Read story

“The Time I ran Away” by Eva Nielsen

Submitted to Contest #79

I ran away from home. You may be wondering why and that is what I am going to tell you. My father was an impatient man or a mean man of sorts because he always got mad over the tiniest little things. Even if it had nothing to do with us he took it out on us. I couldn’t stand the fighting and the yelling anymore so I left. I snuck out so no one would see me, oh don’t think that Im stupid. OF course I brought food! Jeez! I brought some bread, carrots, and a slice of mother's cake( which she told me not to touch ever). Oh and I also brought wat...

Read story

“Cutting the Ties ” by Brenda Liddy

Submitted to Contest #79

Write about someone who decides it’s time to cut ties with a family member. Cutting the Ties Jim and Brian were brought up on a farm in County Antrim in the 1950s. The ‘Troubles’ had not started officially but beneath the calm exterior, there was trouble brewing. Their parents, Angela and James Quinn were a hardworking couple who owned a small farm. They had ten cows, a few sheep and some chickens. The brothers enjoyed helping out on the farm after school and they soon learned how to rig up the milking machines in the ...

Read story

“A Surgical Cut” by Don Duncan

Submitted to Contest #79

I exhaled twice the amount of air I had in my lungs. A sigh for the ages, it made me remember I was alive, but was done as a reaction to something that made me feel dead inside. My mother’s calls generally had that effect on me. The last time we had spoken was a few weeks earlier when I performed my monthly pilgrimage two hours north mow her lawn due to a blood clot and she could die at any moment. She lived in a gray trailer with a black, screened-in porch in a restricted senior community on the west coast of Florida. The trailers in her ...

Read story

“The Pale Blue Eyed Man” by Tania Jgdd

Submitted to Contest #79

There was a man at this party. Tall, charismatic, not good-looking per se but with a “je ne sais quoi”. He was entertaining, that is for sure. Everyone was looking at him and they seemed to be having a good time. His jokes were not really rude, nor were they really offensive to anyone. The information he was sharing seemed interesting enough even though, it was hard to know to what extent it was true. As to the smile he was sharing with the crowd, how genuine was it? Nobody could have said, but they were enjoying the easy laughter. Not once ...

Read story

“Lost and found” by Luana Carpinteiro

Submitted to Contest #79

Dear mother, I have decided it is time to leave you, for good this time. It was not an easy choice, but a necessary one. Since I can remember my dearest friends warned me about this toxic relationship we’ve been maintaining. Charlie’s father used to tell me all the time when he was alive, my closest friends and even Charlie himself. I love you so much and you will always be my mother, but I can’t live like this anymore, I am tired and old, and I deserve to be treated well and to be respected. I am finally letting you choose what you want...

Read story

“The Letter” by Veronica Vera

Submitted to Contest #79

She sat her pen down and plopped her head into one hand, pulling her hair out of its tight bun with the other. Her long dark hair fell down her back. Exhaustion rolled over her like rocks down a hill, her body aching all over. Natalie had just received a phone call from her brother. He was in jail, again, and asking for bail, again. Persistently telling her he wasn’t sure they would release him if she didn’t bail him out. Choking and coughing through his own tears, knowing if she didn’t come through he would be detoxing soon. She couldn’t do...

Read story

“A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE- MOTHER!” by Priscilla Mepi

Submitted to Contest #79

Sandy was seated on the rocky chair swinging back and forth, and with each V shaped move, tear drops emerged from the corner of her eyes and hang there dangerously on her lower eye lashes. Each tear anticipating to drop and flood the tiny 21 feet by 14 feet cubicle I was renting.I was as helpless as she was, not that I was going through her rough patch but I wasn’t able to give her the comfort she deserved. I imagined telling her how sorry I was but the conversation in my head kept stagnating at a rather unsympathetic phrase. There, there it...

Read story

“Don’t Tell” by Carla Hargrove

Submitted to Contest #79

”Shhh”, she said.Cousin’s hands went where they weren’t supposed to. I know it’s wrong but I can’t seem to open my mouth. I can not move. Suddenly, I am imagining myself elsewhere. Anywhere else.It‘s nap time and we all are supposed to be asleep. The favorite Auntie watching us closed the door and turned out the lights.Shhhh.All the kids shared the same bed for nap time. I tried to position myself away from her hands, away from her breath. The five of us laid out like sardines and she always, always seemed to wind up near me, grasping at my ...

Read story

“A Walk in The Park” by Bob Fogle

Submitted to Contest #79

Robert W. Fogle approx. words: 1,566 115 Hemlock Hill Road Boone, North Carolina (828) 264-5714 (H-first call) (828) 268-2389 (cell) b.fogle@yahoo.com A WALK IN THE PARK *Based on the prompt: Your main character is approached by ...

Read story

“Unbinding the Ties” by William Visher

Submitted to Contest #79

Unbinding the Ties So, apparently all emotions that we experience don’t have names that can be immediately identified. At least not at first. Emotions become tricky things at the least expected moment. They are especially tricky when dealing with family members. The word “family” conjures up a wide range of emotions as an idea and a concept. People talk about coming from a good family or bad family. We often define ourselves based on the family we come from or individua...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

905

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 05, 2021 EST

Won by Reha A 🏆

Title: Puzzle Pieces

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 ⭢