Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with someone saying “Thanks a lot” (sarcastically or sincerely).

Posted in Fiction on Oct 25, 2022

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?

✍️ 36 stories

No Thank Hugh

Shortlisted for Contest #121 ⭐️

“Thanks a lot for coming in tonight—you are a wonderful crowd. Now get out of here!” Hugh’s trademark comedic snark teeters between sincerity and sarcasm. The audience does not know how to take his tone, so they laugh even harder, cheering and whistling at the close of his set. But Hugh is already off stage, walking through the venue's hectic kitchen and out into the dark alley before the waitresses drop checks on the comedy club’s sticky tables. The alley is empty and cold. Hugh puts his head against the rough brick of the bu...

66 likes 49 comments 49
Read story

The Right Gift

Submitted to Contest #121

Author's note: hatred and violence due to racial differences.“Thanks a lot”, John White said sarcastically. He closed the front door, went to his cold bedroom, opened the drawer of his wooden nightstand, took his old revolver, sat down on his comfortable bed, breathed in deeply, looked at his upset face in the mirror, and killed himself without thinking much about it… or after a fast-convincing thought. John White was raised in a rural southern county where lifestyle and social etiquette have remained the same for ages.* *  *J...

29 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Guitar Player

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot,” I say. I sigh and bend down to pick the crumpled one-dollar bill that landed in front of my feet on the sidewalk. I’m not homeless by the way, I just like to sit on the street corner to play my guitar. The streets are littered with leaves that scrape along the asphalt in the crisp autumn breeze. Sometimes when I play, I watch them float and dance as though they’re moved by the music. On nights like tonight, my breath gets caught in the streetlights when I sing, and people pass by bundled up in their coats walking back fr...

21 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Tainted Water

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot! You’re the best, big brother!” hollered Jackson, waving wildly as his older brother drove away.  At twenty-four, he was finally moved into his first apartment. Well, calling himself moved in was an exaggeration. His stuff was piled in haphazardly-labeled boxes scattered throughout his small little two-bedroom space.  When Jason’s taillights disappeared into the darkness, Jackson headed upstairs to decide what he wanted to do. The eternal question of any independent young man: start unpac...

18 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The woman in the red hat

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot,” I heard the woman say as she piled napkins into her free hand. She sounded like she meant it.Curious to investigate such a blatant display of sincere gratitude, I peered at the woman over the top of my glasses like she was a specimen on display, and I was tasked with dissecting her very being. She wore a red hat and stood so straight that I could see it almost teetering off the top of her head. She was very quick to laugh, countering whatever the man behind the cart said with ease. His eyes twinkled in response. They looked l...

14 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Seriously?

Submitted to Contest #121

Thanks a lot, America. Every single day I wake up and ask myself will this be the day. Will this be the day something goes wrong on my day to day walk of life being a black man. Will this be the day that I’m at the grocery store, while I’m in the produce section trying to determine which avocado is worthy of my toast in the morning and someone says something to me that will set off a chain of events that may end my life? Will this be the day I go to grab a shopping cart and unknowingly reach for a cart that someone else was reaching for and ...

12 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Kitchen Heat

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot mom.”  Christina can already feel the rush of blood to her head that signals a migraine.  Coming to her mother’s place had been a last resort.  She feels like a teenager again.  “I don’t need the everyday condescension and I need it even less while I’m in the middle of a divorce.” Her mother, Lisa, shrugs bony shoulders and continues cutting the carrot resting on her cutting board.  A pot of soup sits waiting on the stove.  Leave it to her mother to make soup from scratch when a can of Campbell’s w...

10 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Owning His Portion

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot,” Nadia said in her squeaky cartoon character voice. “This lovely spread wouldn’t be so grand without all your contributions.” Or my dad’s mansion surrounding it all, you shrew. Nadia’s silicone smile froze halfway across her cheeks as she gestured toward our brimming table. My dad nodded and kissed her cheek, forcing me to suppress my gag reflex. All twelve of us—several of whom should not be present—sat down to Thanksgiving dinner. Plates and silverware clinked as dishes of sweet and savory offerings paraded around the tab...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Harangue, meringue and pass the marmalade...

Submitted to Contest #121

Start your story with someone saying “Thanks a lot” (sarcastically or sincerely). “Thanks a lot but no thanks to harangue, meringue and pass the marmalade” I said to myself as a child whilst my mom was stressing out cooking Thanksgiving dinner...although I would coin the latter part of that phrase years later. What I meant was the family headache that is Thanksgiving...I hated it! I didn’t care for the food, or at least the bland way my mother prepared it, nor the relatives, or the shear stress you could cut with an electric carving knif...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Wow! Thanks for the Epiphany

Submitted to Contest #121

GRATITUDE ILLUMINATED Thanks, A Lot...Ugh...and Wow...my thankfulness for this life lesson is deep and everlasting. This Thanksgiving time of year is dedicated to reminding us to be grateful. Grateful for family, friends, and even life lessons. Each of us as humans are complex creatures. Some of us are just passing through life without any thoughts outside of existing or surviving the daily grind. Many of us are cruising through life believing we already know the all 'stuff' that gets us to the end result. Then there are those that s...

10 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

A Letter to my Past Lover

Submitted to Contest #121

Thanks a lot, Theo, Sorry for writing so late; I know it has been three years since we last talked. I still remember you and have flashbacks of our little memories. You’ve probably have sent me so many letters, and I might not have received them, or it is just so hard for me to open them. I haven’t forgotten you, Theo, so don’t worry. I will be honest, I do miss you a lot, sometimes I wish you got to stay with me until the holidays, so I had more memories of us.  Remember the promise I made you? I know I promised you to go to London...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Destination: Woodstock

Submitted to Contest #121

“Thanks a lot for answering the door for me, Mrs. Drew.” When it came to Tom’s mother, I was always polite. “How are you this morning?”She smiled at him. “Goodness, Alex. How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Paige, not Mrs. Drew. You make me feel like an old woman.”Alex smiled back at her. She was a very warm person and easy to talk to. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Drew, I mean Paige. Please forgive me. Is Tom up yet?”“Hush, now Alex. There’s nothing to forgive. Anyways, why would you think Tom is up? It is seven in the morning, you know.”Alex ...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Faith's Law

Submitted to Contest #121

"Thanks a lot," Lisa said when I gently mentioned that she looked like death warmed over this morning. I was half-joking, but she did look a little green around the edges. A wild weekend maybe? Then I spotted her pale neck brandished with purplish-black bruises and knew what was up. She'd come in other days with odd marks on her arms, and one time she had a black eye that she claimed was a result of tripping over a laundry basket. That's an old story. My mother had mishaps in the laundry room more often than I could count. When I was you...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Teddy Bear

Submitted to Contest #121

Trigger Warning: Death "Thanks a lot." Snow whispered sarcastically to the brown teddy bear with a red bow and huge eyes, her eyes filled with hatred and tears because of what she did. ************************************************************ Finn handed her a teddy bear with a smile, looking like a lovesick teenager, even though he was twenty four. Snow was twenty three. He brushed his dark and wavy brown hair out of his eyes. Finn was one of the most compassionate people on Earth, but sometimes he couldn't take a hint. Snow forc...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Horizon

Submitted to Contest #121

"Thanks a lot," he said, all squinting eyes and balled up knuckles as he settled down in the foldable plastic chair. It sunk precariously close to the sand under his weight, and for a second Melanie thought it might break. She sunk into her own chair without a word, closing her eyes. She kicked off those old sandals and dug her feet into the sand, feeling soft grain and broken shells between her toes. The mild breeze and overcast sky had already shifted to a cloudless, lurid blue by the time the two arrived at Salta Bay, despite it being...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone giving or receiving a gift.

Christmas – 50 stories

Write a story in which someone gets credit for something they didn’t do.

Thriller and Suspense – 13 stories

Write about a character who struggles to express their thanks.

Angst – 14 stories

Write about someone in a thankless job.

Teens – 33 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