Write a story about an object that changed everything for a character.

Posted in Dramatic on Sep 23, 2024

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✍️ 84 stories

“Moments of Light, Moments of Tears” by Richard Calver

Submitted to Contest #269

We met at university. My lover’s eyes were grey/green, and she had a wild streak that attracted and frightened me in equal measure; her fine, long red hair was her pride and an emblem of her personality. After six months of dating, we moved in together. On the anniversary of our meeting, I gave her a pounamu that had belonged to my late mother. Nephrite jade, it had been formed by the artist into a single pikorua twist so that it resembled the intertwining fronds of a pikopiko, a New Zealand native fern symbolic of my mother’s birt...

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“Summoning Darkness” by Holly Mills

Submitted to Contest #269

It’s December. The first English winter Emily has had for three years. She missed Ireland, but there was always something sweet about coming home. And as she looked up at the Christmas lights twinkling across Baths city centre, she couldn’t help but smile. She loved this time of year, even if the cold had seeped into her bones making her hands and feet burn.Arms wrapped around herself, huddled under her threadbare coat, not caring that the ink on her hands might get onto it, Emily rushed across the city. Her thin ballet flats did little to h...

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“Just Crocheted or Knitted Yarn.......Right?” by Jane Anne Ireland

Submitted to Contest #269

Just Crocheted or Knitted Yarn…….Right? ~ September 20, 2024#268 ~ Reedsy Prompts ~ Entered into both…….“A story about an object that changed everything for a character.”“A story about an ordinary object that becomes magical (either literally or figuratively).”Inspired by a true story! One early but cold morning in March of 2010 while living in southern Saskatchewan, I received a call from Susie, a long-time family friend. It only took a few words from her to know that something was drastically wrong, some kind of emergency. She was ver...

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“A Deal With the Devil” by Lara Ziegler

Submitted to Contest #269

I felt it the moment I stepped into the gallery, a tingle sliding like an ice cube down my spine. Nothing seemed amiss as I scanned the room, a large, high-ceilinged space with the sort of aloof industrial design that likes to pretend it isn't luxury. The sky was already dark outside of the high windows. I had hurried inside with raindrops on my heels and the windows were already streaked with light rain. Pendant lights hanging from the shadowy ceiling cast warm circles on the concrete floor and the gathered attendees. One large group was cl...

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“Power of Hope” by Barbora Koubková

Submitted to Contest #269

The Sun reflected from the waterlogged sandy coast of a deserted island embedded in a faraway broad ocean and shined the edges of burbling waves splashing against the flat ground and driving off sea creatures back underneath the subterranean where they hide from the sharp light of the Star’s glare.Surrounding the mysterious space of the island called by navy and fishermen – The Death’s Spirit – for its deadly shores inset with enormous cliffs that smashed every ship’s or boat’s fore when purposeful sailors sailing to its nearness and trying ...

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“Object Lesson” by Rob Ryter

Submitted to Contest #269

Sensitive content: suicide and assisted dying.A tear pricking the corner of her left eye, Fiona pressed the cool, disproportionately heavy metal-and-glass object into Rosemary’s palm. “Thank you, Rosemary,” she said, quietly, as both watched the mechanical, numerical display on the beautifully crafted, nineteenth-century timepiece click rapidly down from seven to zero, just as they had both known it would.Reclining into the capsule’s super-comfortable, ergonomically sculpted, reclined seat, Rosemary smiled up at Fiona. “I should be the ...

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“Birth” by Mark Snoad

Submitted to Contest #269

Unlike most, I distinctly remember my birth. That precise moment when I went from being nothing to being something. Or just being really. Being alive I guess. Being alert and awake and conscious. Being scared. Oh yes, I definitely recall that feeling. Fear. The dark swirling smoke accompanying my birth, punctuated as it was with dying bursts of light, may have had some effect on my emotions. Likewise, the smell of sulphur, although admittedly mixed with a strong scent of garlic. A somewhat odd combination, wouldn’t you say? But there I was, ...

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“Out of the Picture” by Aurélien Hannoyer

Submitted to Contest #269

Out of the Picture Olga had just bought the painting on the downtown’s flea market, on this gray clouds day, but already she could feel that something was not right. The salesman had been very eager to sell the item. It had felt like he wanted to get rid of the picture. The situation had been a little awkward because the painting was very beautiful. The artist had a certain talent and the lady on the picture herself had an eternal elegance. As she really wanted the picture and the price was very low, she did not ask for more and took her lea...

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“Noose” by Barbara Magic

Submitted to Contest #269

I found the rope in the attic last July when the heat was peaking and I needed to grab an extra fan for my room. Sweating in the dark up there, I tripped on the heavy tail even as I fumbled for the light-bulb cord. My parents didn’t know about it when I asked over dinner, and they still didn’t know when we all three stood under the thing watching it sway under its own weight or maybe a draft. The only thing they could figure, and what they decided to believe, was that I’d done it back in high school when Aubrey dumped me after junior prom. ...

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Write a story about an object that changed everything for a character.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 84 stories

“Moments of Light, Moments of Tears” by Richard Calver

“Summoning Darkness” by Holly Mills

“Just Crocheted or Knitted Yarn.......Right?” by Jane Anne Ireland

“A Deal With the Devil” by Lara Ziegler

“Power of Hope” by Barbora Koubková

“Object Lesson” by Rob Ryter

“Birth” by Mark Snoad

“Out of the Picture” by Aurélien Hannoyer

“Noose” by Barbara Magic

🌟 Similar prompts

Send your characters on an unforgettable quest to find an essential object.

Center your story around a character who is obsessed with an object.

Write a story about an ordinary object that becomes magical (either literally or figuratively).

Show how an object’s meaning can change as a character changes.

Contest #269

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

312

Contest entries

122

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: