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!

#97: Window of Opportunity

Windows let us see and be seen. These openings to the outside world (or the indoors world, depending on where you’re standing) have been so important in connecting our individual isolations during the pandemic. And beyond their presence in our daily lives, windows frequently feature in art and cinema: from Edward Hopper’s famous paintings of nightly urban scenes to films like The Woman in the Window or The Neighbors’ Window, glimpses into the lives of others have always been a source of wonder and curiosity.

Speaking of which, wonder and curiosity are promising feelings to tap into when you're responding to this week’s prompts. Apart from the literal gazing in and out of windows, you can also pass through magic ones, or develop a story around a window-related event. And if you happen to passionately loathe windows, I’ve got a metaphorical one for you to get creative with. Have fun!

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character looking out of a window in the middle of the night.

Horror – 340 stories

Write a story in which a window is broken or found broken.

Dark – 142 stories

Write a story that involves a magic window — or a window like no other.

Fantasy – 154 stories

Start your story with an unexpected knock on a window.

Dark – 138 stories

Set your story within a window of opportunity, when a character finally has the chance to do something.

Middle School – 144 stories

Stories

“The Window Watcher” by Sara M

Submitted to Contest #97

It's not a veil, really. Not the way people think it is. It's a pane of glass, about the size of one of the portraits hanging in the throne room upstairs. It's perfectly smooth and freezing to the touch, nestled in a tiny room just below the dungeons, a chip of ice in the belly of the sprawling castle. There's no fingerprints, no smudges. No way to leave a mark. If there was, it would’ve been coated in them. I press my hand to it now, the palm, then the back, the cold refreshing in the stale air. &nbsp...

Read story

“The Anomoly” by Typewriter Clicks

Submitted to Contest #97

“My people are dying. We need your help.” The traveler always looks weary, Amina notices. Every time the traveler visits, there is exhaustion at the forefront of her eyes. The traveler doesn’t always say the same thing. Sometimes it is, “Please, help.” Other times she begins casually, “Hello, my name is Nisha.” Once, she even tried to kidnap Amina. “Didn’t you hear me? My people are dying. We need your help.”&nbsp...

Read story

“Empathically Yours” by Ruth Smith

Submitted to Contest #97

They say your eyes are the windows to your soul. To some extent, I think they are right, whoever “they” are. Allow me to explain.My name is Gadura, and I am what some people call an empath. But I'm not the kind who can feel your feelings when you feel them. I am the kind who can look into your eyes and see everything you have ever done in your life and know how you felt at the time. Believe me, this is a much scarier gift. My job, here in Worthwillow, is to solve mysteries for the local law enforcement. And, as expected, that leaves me with ...

Read story

“Corey's Pieces ” by Marianna Mills

Submitted to Contest #97

"Ouch, darn, I'd better clean this mess up. Someone must havetried to break in here." Grundging out the words to himself, as he entered the old abandoned house on THAT day.....it was his divorce date. Two years passed now. She wanted him to sell the place, so she could pay for her lifestyle, which was modest but comfortable. Corey managed to work as a mechanic, long arduous hours, but it paid well enough. Myrna worked at the department store, managing the kids clothing section, a job she loathed but....whatever, she was good enough, she lo...

Read story

“The Shieldbearer” by Zion Hintay

Submitted to Contest #97

"Corvin!" Yelled out his quartermaster. A old man with a busted arm held in a sling. He was oft time called the Hermit for carrying a wooden stave in his good hand that he wasn't afraid to use on fresh recruits like himself."Yes, Master Welks. I'm here." The young shield bearer lifted a silver shield onto his back as he waved to the old man from within the mass of squires awaiting their names to be called."Seems like it's your time, sonny. Tell your Lady that she is up for battle. To prepare and be ready be...

Read story

“There Are Two Windows in Our Bedroom” by Shalom Aranas

Submitted to Contest #97

There are two windows in our bedroom. I could throw out my husband or an old lover. Hence, the dilemma. I was potting my market-bought roses onto the rich, loamy soil of our garden on Tagaytay Mountain. They were bright red and small roses which bristled in the wind. I was leery of the fact they may not survive the coming rains. But I was optimistic. He came from nowhere. Dis. He is an old lover from a turbulent past I had torn myself from, fled from and married another to settle down to have children and be stable. I admit, I used my famil...

Read story

“Knew Her” by Adam Wan

Submitted to Contest #97

I’ve known Haruka for a long time. Well, if six years counted as a ‘long time,’ that is. We first met each other in senior high, where we were in the same class for all three years. Back then, we didn’t really know each other that well so the first three of those six years might as well be zero. A week, at most. We were nothing more than classmates, then. Familiar faces, acquaintances of the lowest order; we might as well have not known each other. And if her name had been Yui instead of Haruka, and her face sharper, and she wore glasses—it...

Read story

“The Mansion” by Marie McLaughlin

Submitted to Contest #97

It was a beautiful summer day in upstate new york, 1949. A group of kids from the neighborhood walked to the end of a Cul-De-Sac. "Hey, Timmy, wanna play Stickball?" "Sure! Let's go to the vacant lot!" Timmy replied. So the children went to the empty patch of land in a field by the Cul-De-Sac where a Barn used to stand before the Barn and the Farm had burned down in a fire. The neighborhood kids called this empty patch of land the "Vacant Lot" and had used it as their personal play area ever since. Danny the Pitcher got into po...

Read story

“She's Out!!” by Jools .

Submitted to Contest #97

As far as the neighbours knew she could be dead. Ten years she had been in that room and no one had ever questioned it. Why had no one ever wondered was she under the shed dead. Was she really that unmissed by society that no one cared at all?I know she thought I will creep out at night when everyone is asleep and go wild in the street, rob the bakery, swing my knickers in the air and leave my mark on the landscape.Tonight was the night, it was a school night so the kids were in bed and her husband who now slept downstairs (so she wouldn’t b...

Read story

“Dear Sam” by Gerald Daniels

Submitted to Contest #97

Dear Sam. I know you've got a lot on your plate at the moment, especially given everything that's been going on in the world. I don't expect you to give a response to my message, it's good enough to know that you're listening and you'll take my thoughts as seriously as ever. I would really appreciate it if you might be able to find the time to get back to me though, given everything that's happened. I have to say it feels quite liberating to know that y...

Read story

“The experience” by Beth Murray

Submitted to Contest #97

"Okay the window is off the track Antonia, do you know how to fix that?" asked his mother; Hattie. "Yes mam, I thought you had grocery shopping to do?" said Antonia. "Oh yes, but I have to mop this floor, dust the living room, and mend your Father's church suit first." That seemed like a wonderful opportunity for Antonia to pitch in and help his mother. "That's ok Mom, you take the kids with you to the grocery store, and I got all this." Hattie accepted, she knew her son very well. Responsibility, sufficiency, and accomplishments were his ni...

Read story

“Mr. Mundy's Electric Toasters” by Ashley Cramer

Submitted to Contest #97

BRRRRRRRRRING! TW: suicide I jolt upright from my slumped position at my desk. I must have slept through the rest of chemistry class again. A shame, really. I’m sure Ms. Kaminsky’s lecture on the nomenclature of organic compounds was riveting as per usual. Honestly, I’m having a hard time staying awake for any of my classes lately. I can tell you now that I will never be a scientist, a lawyer, an engineer, and DEFINITELY not someone who sits behind a desk 9-5. All I can really see myself being is an artist, my photography is the only thing I...

Read story

“The Enigmatic Disappearance of Mr and Mrs Gombwe” by Simon Tayengwa

Submitted to Contest #97

An unexpected knock on a window mesmerised Mr Gombwe as it is unusual in any African rural setting, in two shakes of a lambs tail, a parliament of owls alighted on roof tops and trees with a variety of muffled sounds and then there was a successive intermittent dying down of flapping wings, instilling a macabre aura in Mr Gombwe’s homestead because superstition had labelled owls to be associated with witchcraft in his society. Then in an instant, as if some director of music had signaled an eerie beat for a horror movie, the wide-eyed noc...

Read story

“One Step” by Kat Sencen

Submitted to Contest #97

Trigger warning: Suicide I get out of bed and peek outside the attic window, gazing out at the forest around me. The mossy trees rise high in the sky. The ferns spring up out of the dirt. The road weaves its way through it all. If I look hard, I can see the lake, though it’s not much in the darkness. Just a big empty clearing. I open the window, so I can hear the sounds. An owl hooting, a cricket chirping. Something growling, far away. Tonight is my last night to ever look out at this forest, hear it’s whispers. I tiptoe across my room, av...

Read story

“The Day Had Finally Arrived” by Ray Delgado

Submitted to Contest #97

The day had finally arrived. Tom quietly shuffled around his room, careful not to wake his wife, gathering his socks from the dresser, tie and suit from the closet and shoes from next to the door as he quietly closed it behind him. Dumping everything on the couch, Tom headed to the bathroom with a pronounced bounce in his step to wash up for the day ahead. Staring in the mirror as he brushed his teeth, he stared into his own eyes and was nearly brought to tears as he thought about the relief that would come today. The weight that would be li...

Read story

Load more stories

$50

Prize money

921

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 11, 2021 EST

Won by Claire Lindsey 🏆

Title: In situ

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 ⭢