Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write about a character who sees a photo they shouldn’t have seen.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 29, 2024

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 63 stories

Creatures of Habit

Submitted to Contest #244

For over ten years, we hosted the Sorell, Hogg and Hartley Christmas Eve party at our house in Arkley Village. Tom organised the guest list, and I received and entertained his work colleagues and their spouses. It was a wonderful opportunity to socialise, put faces to names and impress the firm’s influential partners.    “Susan makes it all look so effortless, Tom.”    “She always insists on doing the catering.”   “Really? Then you’re a lucky fellow.”   “There’s nothing le...

49 likes 54 comments 54
Read story

Eagles Flying Above the Storm

Submitted to Contest #244

Eagles ride updrafts,On airy sky trails,Over the clouds,Beyond rain and gales." Elijah saw the storm squall whipping the waves. The wind howled. The ocean darkened. The clouds burst open.A pair of eagles spread their wings and rode updrafts into the sky.Gliding through low clouds, the eagles soared. Elijah knew they were flying to heights beyond his sight, above the rain and wind.A sense of wonder and beauty filled Elijah. He felt as if he soared along with the eagles.Sitting in the ground floor of the lighthouse, Elijah leaned toward the op...

42 likes 43 comments 43
Read story

Alone Time

Submitted to Contest #244

She let him know that he needed to come home right after work. Some nights, he’d stop at the Chili’s on the side of the highway and get himself a margarita. This was something he did alone, and she knew about it. They’d joke about how much time he spends alone. Given the choice, Mark would spend his entire life alone. It seemed like a fluke that he ended up married, but Rene also enjoyed her alone time. Just not as much as her husband did. While she sat on one of the highchairs in their kitchen, she asked herself if she would have preferred ...

34 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

Seeds of Doubt

Submitted to Contest #244

MARK – APRIL 1, 2024 The logo on the envelope caught his eye and put an instant knot in his stomach. Another bill for another visit? He thought they were paid in full. Fed up with the exorbitant fees and procedures, the empty promises, they decided to go back to the natural way. Holding the envelope, it felt heavier than the weight of paperwork should feel, more like the weight of the world. Should he open it? He could toss it out or bury it back under the pile where he found it. Either choice would be bett...

32 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

Chiromancers

Submitted to Contest #244

Harry Fellows was a decent man. Normally, a law-abiding citizen, but when he discovered he could obtain his “chirophoto” (a photo image of his hand) illegally, he didn’t hesitate one second. In Harry’s world a “chirophoto” was the most important piece of identification, taken at birth, and again at twenty years old for every single citizen of earth. It was owned by the state, no citizen could possess this important piece of personal identification, and only highly trained Chiromancers were allowed to review and analyze the “chirophoto”, ther...

27 likes 22 comments 22
Read story

The Medusa Coin

Submitted to Contest #244

"The coin never fails, but I'll give you a fair chance." "Coin? You want money?" "No, I want you to flip it." "What?" "The coin. You can't look at it yet. Not until after you flip it." "Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing. I know you. You're that guy who put the Kalinksi brothers in a coma with some kind of coin trick. They call you Percy, right? What do you want?" "You know better than I do." "Did Falcone send you? Listen, if this is about his wife, nothing happened. She simply came to a show." "Like I said, you know better." "You k...

24 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

The Photograph of Eternity: A Tale of Love and War

Submitted to Contest #244

 "Vinogradar16 Km from OdessaSeptember 3, 1941 My dear Ana,   In the depth of the night, when silence falls heavily over the battlefields, I find my escape in writing to you, as if my words could fly towards you, surpassing the inferno of this war. The sky here is dark, not with night, but with gunpowder and smoke, a veil hiding the stars under which we swore eternal love. At home, I hope the sea is as crystal clear as the color of your eyes...    And yet, in this endless fight, the thought of you is the sp...

20 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Mr. Timerack's Gallery of Lost Souls

Submitted to Contest #244

“These are truly remarkable.” George Dundee commented as he continued down the hall.  “My late grandfather Sidney Timberack believed that every photograph told a story.” Lewis Stanrick led his patron down what his grandfather had called his gallery of lost souls.  “These tintypes are in pristine condition.” Mr. Dundee ran his finger along the base of one of the photographs, not knowing his grandfather would rage at anyone who dared run a finger over one of the portraits hanging in the hallway. Since he inherited the portraits from ...

18 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Bella. From Latin, Meaning 'Beautiful'.

Submitted to Contest #244

Carmela walked into the library to meet her mother’s group, unaffected by the apprehension she was certain all the other women would be feeling.While other mothers got upset at old ladies poking their heads inside their prams, Carmela reveled in it. She would stand back, allowing them to admire her daughter. Waiting for them to tell her what she already knew. That her child was beautiful. Her eyes were wide and alert - two green moons gently marbled with copper and gold - in perfect contrast with her silky shock of dark hair. Her olive ...

18 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Finding Holly

Submitted to Contest #244

It was late evening. We had just finished dinner and as I had cooked, my husband was on clean-up duty. I was in my bedroom, reading. My oldest daughter, Holly, had just vacated the foot of the bed and was en route to grab a shower before bedtime. Though she had her own bathroom inside, she had recently become very adamant regarding privacy. We had a separate room outside off of the carport. I thought it was weird that she wanted to shower out in what was essentially our second laundry room. Granted, it was a private, spacious room complete w...

14 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Shadow Captured In My Lens

Submitted to Contest #244

Amanda had always been drawn to the mysterious and the unexplained. Her tiny apartment, perched on the edge of the city, offered a perfect view of the busy road below. She'd often sit by the window, camera in hand, capturing fleeting moments of life; the cries of children being dragged along by their parents, the hustle of commuters, and the occasional fender-bender. One rainy evening, as thunder rumbled in the distance, Amanda heard the screech of tires. She rushed to the window, camera dangling from her neck. Two cars collided, metal crunc...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Gracious Host

Submitted to Contest #244

   The Party began at ten p.m. sharp. Cormack Desner held a large party for the public every other Friday night. His house was massive. A modern home, built with the look and feel of the Victorian era. Large bay windows painted the front of the gray colored home.   David and Ben, walked through the assembling crowd on the front lawn. Men and women dressed in fine clothing ranging from suits and elaborate gowns, to tuxedos and white gloves. The occasional couple would arrive wearing masks one would find at a masq...

13 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

In Tents

Submitted to Contest #244

Sometime late in the night Mal wakes up. She doesn’t need to pee and she isn’t thirsty. Her pillow is wet with drool; she wipes the cheek that’s been resting on it. It is too dark to see anything, but she can hear John’s steady, sleepful breathing.She checks her phone for the time, blinking sleepily at the bright light that emanates from the screen. Just past three in the morning. Brilliant. She lies down, turns away from John, and unlocks her phone. Just a bit of mindless scrolling before she goes back to sleep. Her phone opens automat...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Executive Man

Submitted to Contest #244

Her whatever it was – her entanglement, if that was the word for it – had started innocently enough. She and Jacob had started chatting one night near the end of her shift. It had been a real crusher, multiple patients had coded, and everyone had been running wild all night. It had been blissfully quiet on the floor then, a hazy pre-dawn light was breaking through to the nurses’ area where she had been sitting when he walked up and started making small talk. He was tall and athletic if not classically handsome. Good looking, but he knew it. ...

12 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Letters to Lainey

Submitted to Contest #244

Warning: this story contains brief mentions of homophobia and homophobic language.The box stashed in the top of the closet was so innocuous, at first Chris almost missed it.It looked like any of the other dozens of boxes his late mother Anne had stashed throughout her house. She’d liked to keep nearly everything she’d received in her life; clothes, letters from friends and family, business cards from every professor she had in college, postcards from everywhere she'd visited, and of course, lots of pictures. Pictures from her childhood, her ...

12 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Center your story around a photo that goes viral.

Funny – 29 stories

Start your story with a character staring at a picture they don’t remember taking.

Mystery – 71 stories

Write a story about a character who risks their life to take a photo.

Adventure – 38 stories

Begin or end your story with a character taking a selfie.

Fluff – 32 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel