Set your story inside a character’s mind, literally.

Posted in Fantasy on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 58 stories

“What to wear” by Jonathan Mccarthy

Submitted to Contest #167

Ooo Text Message! Dan: What are you doing tonight? Me: I don’t know. Why? Dan: Costume party at Dreamers Me: Oh fun! But I don’t have a costume. Dan: Well, make one. I’ll pick you up in an hour. Me: Okay, I’m game! Oh, how exciting Dreamers is my favorite club. But what should I be? I could go as a vampire, that’s always a safe bet. But that’s so Twilight, gross. Plus, there will probably be at least ten vampires there then we’ll all suck. Also, what will I use for teeth. I don’t have any pokey teeth so I would be a hickey vampire I guess an...

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“JACOB'S BATTLE” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #167

Five years I spent in the Army. Five years of war has screwed with my mind. Five years of missing my family. Five years of constant never-ending danger. Five years of watching my brothers getting killed. Finally, all the pain of war is finally over. I'm finally home. I finally came home to my beautiful town of Lake Haven. This town is what the name means, a Haven for me, a place to wind down, go fishing, and hiking. There is no place like home. My home is right next to the lake and boy is it beautiful and on top of that I have the most b...

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“The Alter” by Marie White

Submitted to Contest #167

She awoke in a dungeon of her own creation. The physical manifestation of her mind: a semi-circular room offering dust-gray walls, ebony doors, black marble floors, and an ebony table and chairs. This was her first time seeing it—but not her first time trapped here. She had expected no better. Her surroundings represented a life fragmented by memory lapses, blank spots that she struggled to explain to puzzled coworker...

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“Together” by Willow Patte

Submitted to Contest #167

Content warning: this piece discusses themes of PTSD, medical trauma and anxiety.Hey, you, It’s been a while, hasn’t it? It feels like just yesterday we met. You were in pain as the demons from your past just kept refusing to be pushed down. I’m here to help, you see. I’m here to protect you. I’m truly sorry, but to protect you, I need to remind you what I am protecting you from. Those feelings when you smell something familiar, something that I was with you when you met me for the first time. I had to remind you that with a scent ...

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“Dragonscape” by Anna Frayer

Submitted to Contest #167

Dren was blind, his nostrils filled with the acrid smell of burning wood. He tried to breath and fell to his knees coughing. When he caught his breath, he rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Slowly his eyesight cleared, but all he saw was a gray haze. Standing, he shuffled forward, boots scuffing across the hard ground. The smoke gradually began to clear, until he could make out shapes in the distance. He moved on, stumbling now and then over the uneven ground. The smoke continued to thin, and the sky took on a reddish cast. The sha...

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“Brilliant Corners” by Chipo Asante

Submitted to Contest #167

I almost don't recognise him, lying out on the scanner bed with his legs straight as a palm tree.The colour from his face has emptied out, leaving gaunt and ashen skin, like dust you would find building up on a windowsill. Before they shaved off his hair, it was a head of tangled weeds that, when its vines were stretched, reached his collarbone tattoo. It is now a blank canvas on which we place electrodes.I spent hours trying to put a name to the face before they handed me his chart. I scribbled out his name and promised that I would ask the...

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“The Lucid Bond” by Ryan Roarke

Submitted to Contest #167

Release the Bond, Student.I returned, snapping my eyes open as I gasped for breath. Wiping away a bead of sweat as it trailed down my forehead, I looked across the small room to Var-Lu. Sitting cross-legged atop a sheepskin rug, Var-Lu’s eyes remained closed, his face unreadable beneath the traditional white tattoos etched into his bronze skin.He opened his eyes and spoke softly. “Slow today. Again dream?” He had a basic grasp of Imperial Common, but the translation from Sul-Nari seemed to confine him, limiting his words to short sentences a...

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“Keep Time” by Laurie Rice

Submitted to Contest #167

Keep Time "Dlaczego wciąż robi to samo?" he said, lapsing into his native Polish in frustration. Anna Magdalena answered him in her most calm tone, "Frederic, you know she is practicing for the event with her co-workers. We have been through this before. You ...

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“Windsor's Operation” by Jonathan Passmore

Submitted to Contest #167

Disclaimer: this story includes topics of sexual violence and harm to self and others. Reader's discretion is advised. I’m often intrigued by the enigma of the infinitely connected series of two-dimensional polygons or three-dimensional polyhedrons known as fractals. More specifically, I find their regressive and progressive potential schema, which extends indefinitely towards both voids of human cognitive understanding in regard to the limits of absolute minimums and maximums, interesting in their limitations when representing a produc...

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“Dream Worlds” by Dawn Kaltenbaugh

Submitted to Contest #167

Neurons fire, messages zooming from one synapse to another. Then the hour gets late, and the person whose skull I inhabit goes to sleep. This is my favorite part of the day, by far. Her life is boring from a brain’s point of view. She reads a book occasionally, but she’s no rocket scientist. Sometimes I wish we brains could have a convention and discuss our time off together. I bet some of the most banal citizens you meet have a fantastic dream life. They’d have to, or we brains would get bored, and no one ...

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“In My Mind” by L.L. Williams

Submitted to Contest #167

Logic looked around Lynn’s Brain and took a sharp intake of air. She put her hand to her chest, feeling her racing heart. Now was not a good time to lose her shit. But if she did, nobody could blame her. As far as her eye could see, it was carnage. Negative thoughts that her team had defeated lay lifeless on the ground. Mounds of them. But still, even more, floated overhead, taunting her and her army. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Her team of five had been fighting valiantly for days, and Logic saw no end in sight. Logic’s armor ha...

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“Four Brained” by Susan Gladin

Submitted to Contest #167

Pay attention! Can’t you see the danger here? All the perils are right before your eyes! I am the only one who keeps us safe. No one else is on the lookout for Our Body. Where are the three of you when I need you to pay attention? Solita, you try to organize and manage your way out of any situation, but sometimes you’ve just gotta run! Now! Especially since Andy and Nameless live in LaLa Land, blissed out and googley-eyed all the time. All of you need to turn around! Look left! You expect me to have your back, and I try. I ramp up...

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“Just One Step” by Kate Kilbee

Submitted to Contest #167

There was my bridge, my darling bridge, and all was right with the world. Just one step and my feet were on the wooden planks, my hands holding on to the iron railing on each side. Bliss. I turned upstream and lifted my chin. The summer breeze blew gently onto my face. It was also caressing my bare arms. Closing my eyes with a smile I breathed in. My nostrils were cooled by the air rising up from the water below me. I reached up, unclasped my long, curly hair from its clip and shook it free. I knew it was going to be a nice day. I was twenty...

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Set your story inside a character’s mind, literally.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 58 stories

“What to wear” by Jonathan Mccarthy

“JACOB'S BATTLE” by Melinda Madrigal

“The Alter” by Marie White

“Together” by Willow Patte

“Dragonscape” by Anna Frayer

“Brilliant Corners” by Chipo Asante

“The Lucid Bond” by Ryan Roarke

“Keep Time” by Laurie Rice

“Windsor's Operation” by Jonathan Passmore

“Dream Worlds” by Dawn Kaltenbaugh

“In My Mind” by L.L. Williams

“Four Brained” by Susan Gladin

“Just One Step” by Kate Kilbee

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a daydream sequence, before snapping back to reality.

Write a story about someone who overthinks every single thing, blowing the tiniest incidents out of proportion.

Write a story about someone who thinks their life is a romcom and they’re the protagonist.

Write a story about a character who can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.

Contest #167

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

232

Contest entries

97

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: