Set your story during — or just before — a storm.

Posted in Dramatic on Jan 31, 2025

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 144 stories

“Storm of Memories” by Cynethea Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #288

The wind picked up, rustling the leaves.Sarah looked at the sky. Dark clouds blanketed the sun, turning the late afternoon into an eerie twilight. She stood on the porch of the old farmhouse, gripping the weathered railing tightly. She and her twin brother, Sam, had returned to the farmhouse to clean out their late parents’ belongings. The place was filled with memories, every corner whispering tales of their childhood.They faced an overwhelming task. Sarah and Sam cherished this house and had desperately sought ways to keep it, but it prove...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Child of the Storm” by Jes Oakheart

Submitted to Contest #288

Nettle darted around the mountainside, desperately trying to stuff as many mushrooms as she could find into her basket as the first snow of winter rolled in from the west. She expertly sliced the fungi at their stems with her curved knife as snowflakes swirled around in the howling wind and landed on the carpets of moss blanketing the forest floor. Just a few more she kept telling herself, knowing that once nightfall came and the storm swept over the land, whatever remained would perish in the ice. Winter always came early at this elevation,...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Consumption” by Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #288

January 3, 1866It was fortunate Cora and I went to the market today—the snow was up to our ankles on the walk back. And as far as I can tell by moonlight, the great white gusts have only gotten greater. It could be a week before the lane is passable. I only wish we’d thought to pick up butter, but there are worse fates than eating dry bread for a week. I would have liked to bake something sweet for Cora, too, but we’re also out of sugar. Perhaps there was a reason our mother kept a list.Still, I don’t mind a storm like others do. I would be ...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Too Late” by Sarah Johnson

Submitted to Contest #288

The rain beat down on the car’s windshield, further hindering my vision, along with my forgotten prescription glasses laying neatly on my bedside table. I was still in my driveway when I realized I had left them behind. I knew the drive would be a lot easier if I had gone back inside for them, but I couldn’t afford to risk anymore lost time, or even worse, waking Ethan. As I turned onto the highway, the car slid across the wet, slick pavement. Barely avoiding the guard rail, I managed to correct the wheel.Any damage at all to Ethan’s br...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Lil' Bit” by Zacharias Boer

Submitted to Contest #288

“I told him, I says, ain’t no horse gonna get you far out here, boy, when you’re sloggin’ through three feet of powder. An’ he drags himself over to the rancher and gets himself a horse anyhow. If I thought he was gon’ bite it out there then, I’m certain he’s dead now.” The old man drones, tongue loosened by the barley-water slop they serve out here. I think about the drunks often, how they managed to get here and survive all this time given their tendencies. Maybe they built forts like me, strained their backs like me, lugged whiskey for tr...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Cobb's Landing” by Ross Williams

Submitted to Contest #288

The hair on the back of Gareth’s neck stood up moments before a crackling arc of green light struck the nearby streetlight. He swerved the car to the right, his instinct for preservation taking control. Jerking the steering wheel back to the left, he heard the groan of the wheels as they spun clods of dirt over the nearby fence bordering a field of corn days away from harvest. Teresa screamed from the back of the car, flinging herself over Matthew, secure in his car seat. The car bumped awkwardly back onto the tarmac before finally stea...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Through the Storm” by Karen Croft

Submitted to Contest #288

Kali was terrified. For all the same reasons as usual, but also for some additional ones that she wasn't sure how to express or reveal. She paced the living room she shared with Ryan anxiously. Just like she did every time they were not out on a mission together. She tried not to, but couldn't help thinking the worst. Would this be the time he didn't come back? Would something happen and she'd never even know? They were fighters. Unable to sit back and do nothing when they could possibly make a difference in the war. Though it didn't much fe...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Beyond the Rising Waters” by Carryn W. Kerr

Submitted to Contest #288

The farmhouse creaked and groaned, battered by the torrential rain. My heart pounded certain the kitchen walls were about to come down—the only room with four walls—not that the homes in the tropical town of Pemba needed many walls. Drool dripped from the mouths of five gargantuan dogs, while I waited for their chicken to cook. The night steadily closed in around us and, along with the plummeting rain, it swallowed the land. Time was ticking, and only one road exited this out-of-the-way farm—one road that skirted the lake. With the...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Sister Breda of the Carmelites” by Ian Craine

Submitted to Contest #288

SISTER BREDA OF THE CARMELITES That afternoon I drove south. At lunchtime I had touched base with that windy desolate coast, and I saw the great white ball that is Sizewell B. It was a dismal day. The air was full of threat and portent. By three the sky was a bruise of blue and green and purple, and the darkness was closing in on it. Leaving the shore I saw a last church white against the sky and there was a corposant adhering to its steeple. This alone may I save, said some Lord. The wind got up. A strand of po...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Myrsky” by Elizabeth Whitehead

Submitted to Contest #288

MyrskyI stood atop the giant slab of ancient rock that bordered the raging ocean. Today it was blue-grey, rough and choppy, and even though the weatherman had predicted no storm, the locals knew better. It was windy atop the cliff, my clothes were buffeted by a gale that wasn’t out of the ordinary for Myrsky, the town I had lived and breathed for the last… well, for my entire life. No one truly knew where the name Myrsky had come from, but many historians speculated that the village was the place where our ancestors had landed, over te...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Beneath the Storm” by Sara Venn

Submitted to Contest #288

How the hell did I end up here? How did this even happen?This kind of thing happens to other people—the poor bastards in horror movies, the names you read in true crime stories, the faceless figures in campfire tales. But not to me. Not to anyone I've ever known.Thunder cracked outside, sharp as a gunshot, rattling the walls. A heartbeat later, lightning slashed across the dimly lit room. For a brief, terrible second, I saw them: the handcuffs, the chain, the bruises already blooming on my wrists.This can't be happening, I whispered, tasting...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Diwali, 2022” by Akhilesh Mehra

Submitted to Contest #288

When you’re young and world is still full of wonder and things to explore and places to be, and the prospect of a job has no relation to the drudgery of a nine to five…you expect your life will turn out remarkably well. Life, untouched by life. Preserved in resin. A marvel. One day, you’re playing with a teddy bear and having a tea party with all your dolls, and the next thing you know, you’re thirty-two. Divorced. Cities away from your parents’ home, looking at a skyline with no hope on the horizon, thirty thousand feet in the air. Wonderi...

2 comments 2

Read story

“They Came with the Storm” by JLynn Rose

Submitted to Contest #288

The wind had been whispering warnings all day. At first, it was just a restless breeze, rustling the brittle leaves that clung stubbornly to their branches. By afternoon, the sky had darkened into a moody shade of gray, and the air smelled thick—like damp earth and something electric, something waiting.Inside the small house on the edge of the marsh, Eliza moved through the rooms, securing windows and lighting candles. The power always flickered during storms out here, and she wasn’t about to be caught unprepared. The old place groaned again...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Great Space Coffee Caper” by Daniel P. Douglas

Submitted to Contest #288

The Federation designed the FDV Perfect Blend Mediator-class diplomatic vessel for complex negotiations and first contact scenarios. This ship, commanded by Captain Penumbra Luna, and others like it, had a reputation throughout the galaxy for their extensive conference facilities, cultural exchange centers, and ability to host and serve multiple diplomatic delegations with only the best roasted coffees. Their motto: “Where Differences Dissolve Like Sugar in a Well-Stirred Cup.” An annoying klaxon on the Perfect Blend’s bridge announced a thr...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Stormy Thoughts” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #288

Stormy Thoughts Mother sat watching the rain on the window pane, has it come down in torrents. The sky cast a grey shadow. The British weather could be so unpredictable? All the finery of the May Day parade had been ruined, all those eager young faces in dressed in bright costumes al...

1 comment 1

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Start or end your story with a breeze brushing against someone’s skin.

Short Story – 70 stories

Write a story where the weather mirrors a character’s emotions.

Dramatic – 61 stories

Start or end your story with someone standing in the rain.

Dramatic – 93 stories

Set your story in a place where the weather never changes.

Short Story – 48 stories

Contest #288

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: A Perfect Storm

$250

Prize money

416

Contest entries

164

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 07, 2025 EST

Won by Christina Marie 🏆

Title: Motherhood

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Set your story during — or just before — a storm.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 144 stories

“Storm of Memories” by Cynethea Cunningham

“Child of the Storm” by Jes Oakheart

“Consumption” by Eliza Levin

“Too Late” by Sarah Johnson

“Lil' Bit” by Zacharias Boer

“Cobb's Landing” by Ross Williams

“Through the Storm” by Karen Croft

“Beyond the Rising Waters” by Carryn W. Kerr

“Sister Breda of the Carmelites” by Ian Craine

“Myrsky” by Elizabeth Whitehead

“Beneath the Storm” by Sara Venn

“Diwali, 2022” by Akhilesh Mehra

“They Came with the Storm” by JLynn Rose

“The Great Space Coffee Caper” by Daniel P. Douglas

“Stormy Thoughts” by Christine LW

🌟 Similar prompts

Start or end your story with a breeze brushing against someone’s skin.

Write a story where the weather mirrors a character’s emotions.

Start or end your story with someone standing in the rain.

Set your story in a place where the weather never changes.

Contest #288

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

416

Contest entries

164

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: