Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Posted in Fiction on Nov 10, 2023

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.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 35 stories

“Goldfish ” by Mallory Jones

🏆 Winner of Contest #224

4 pm Miss Lucy and Dr. Singh are letting me visit my house tonight! Normally I get to go home for twelve hours on holidays, and an aide comes with me to monitor my equipment, but today is different. It’s not a holiday, it’s not my birthday, it’s not even the weekend— but I’m going home! Mommy says Lily will be home too even though she goes to college in Iowa. She’s coming home just for me for my special visit. And Daddy says we’re getting my favorite food ever which is Chinese takeout from The Golden Dragon. I never get to eat Chinese in th...

146 comments 146
Read story

“Confidence Cab” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #224

The last thing Ren wanted to do was to pull another night shift, but Mr. Driedger politely reminded him about his outstanding debt, and how a payment was due, and “I’m sorry son, but we must all play by the rules,” so Ren parked his cab beside the terminal. He could never say no to Mr. Driedger – his money was the only reason Ren’s sister, Amanda, was still alive. He just prayed they wouldn’t need another surgery. He yawned. When he glanced at himself in the rear-view mirror, all he saw was eye bags and sallow skin. When was the la...

51 comments 51
Read story

“Hang It On The Moon” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #224

Hang It On The Moon There was once a little girl born under a waning crescent moon. Her father, an amateur artist, presented her mother with a custom hand-painted art work of the infant sound asleep cuddled on the arch. The picture hung over her bed all of her childhood years. She carried it to her college dorm room and to her first home when she started adulting on her own with the first job of her career as a space scientist. While others romanticized about the full moon she felt an unwavering attachment to that slender hook of a moon. Per...

34 comments 34
Read story

“Jasmin's Panacea” by Tom Skye

Submitted to Contest #224

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny …” — Isaac Asimov After thirteen hours of work and forty-seven minutes of sleep, Jasmin peeled her forehead off the desk and sat back in her chair. The glare of dawn through the window dazzled her momentarily before she lowered her eyes and began rebuttoning her lab coat. As she rose from her seat, she shrugged away the aches and stiffness from her shoulders and neck and walked across the laboratory, muttering under...

37 comments 37
Read story

“The Most Silent Night” by Nina H

Submitted to Contest #224

Holly wreaths and red bows swam around in a blurry sea in front of me. I sniffled as a stray tear dropped onto the wrapping paper I had just taped down. I put the gift aside and looked around the room for another to wrap. I could hear the faint sound of my mom’s television in the next room. Late night television held limited options, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t paying much attention to it anyway. It was 2:03am. Christmas Eve. About six hours since Dad went into the operating room. We hadn’t yet told my sister, out of town with her in-laws...

18 comments 18
Read story

“George Hides from a Shark” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #224

The shark has promised that when George leaves the church, it will swallow him up. George sits in one of the pews and tries to remember a prayer from childhood. He believes he knows the standard ones, but he’d like something more specific to his current situation. While he knows there is definitely not a prayer about being trapped in a church while a Great White Shark waits outside, he seems to recall a prayer about an enemy at the door. A long night of the soul. Suffering and sleeplessness. It’s three o’clock in the morning, and George ...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Our boy” by Becca Jane

Submitted to Contest #224

“I won’t sleep tonight.” Audrey says, throwing her purse across the room and tossing herself right on top the couch. She goes crashing into the cushions with a smile. Audrey’s husband, Anthony, sighs, finishing up the dishes in the kitchen, “Why not, honey?” ”Because.” Anthony chuckles, sliding a clean plate on the dish rack, “That’s not the answer I was looking for,” He says, “That’s not an answer at all, actually.” Audrey huffs, peeking her head over the the couch, face barely seen, “Because my baby’s gonna be on TV tonight. I ca...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Calling Mom” by Charlotte Webb

Submitted to Contest #224

The craziest thing about having an experimental spiritual scientist as a roommate isn’t the weird theories on ghosts and zombies. It isn’t the constant smell of new concoctions to summon the dead always wafting into the living room when you are trying to study. It’s not even the experiments I’m asked to participate in, like using my own body as a vessel for some spirit she’s found. No- it’s the appalling lateness. I’m sitting in the downstairs café of our block, where I have been for the past one-hundred and twenty-three minutes, tapping m...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Point of no Return” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #224

Allen boarded the plane, stowed his carry-on and found his seat. The interminable layover, now ended, allowed him to relax. Dusk settled over the airport. He hated taking the red-eye, but this was his last chance to go where he’d never wanted to go. The P.A. squawked. “Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a brief delay before take-off. Please exit the plane. You can leave your carry-on luggage but take anything you may need with you.” A loud groan erupted from the passengers. A stewardess murmured something about ‘mechanical trouble’ to a st...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Through the Steel Door” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #224

There it was just as expected, on time as if set with an alarm clock. The 4:00 am door opened after being closed and bolted all day while she sat at her writing desk. She wasn’t surprised in the least. Trying to gain access between chores and appointments had proven to be impossible. Changing gears, new perspectives and fresh starts were all futile efforts. That massive door was held shut with an invisible combination lock; the right sequence of numbers unknown to her. At 4:00 am it slid open, but more than slid open,...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Halley's Comet” by Danielle LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #224

The sunset was particularly pink that winter night in 1986. It was March 13th to be exact. A big snow storm had just passed through the coastal province of Nova Scotia. “A nor’easter’s on its way,” the locals had been saying; their own term for describing the winds from the northeast that create the often turbulent—yet commonplace—weather for that time of year in Atlantic Canada. The power had been out for well over a day but had finally been restored. Marjorie stood by the window above her kitchen sink, steeping her tea. She always had...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Later” by Kat Fawley

Submitted to Contest #224

The landlady says "the old man’s lived here 'for forever,'" and because redundancy irks you, your chin drops floor-ward and a little to the right, affording your creasing left eye its familiar hiding spot in the shadow beside the bridge of your nose - a reflex that’s stuck since your mother first mentioned it. It made sense to move here. The rent is lower than the going rate in the city, and you love hardwood floors, anyway. Irene doesn’t live here. Irene lives in the city.It’s 6:30 PM. You walk down the stairs to your half-filled ...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Baby By My Side” by Carri Mattan

Submitted to Contest #224

                                   BABY BY MY SIDE             For weeks I’ve followed him, always just behind him, always just out of my reach with our baby by my side. It is the baby he does not know we have – born only a few weeks ago while he was gone. I did not understand it when he said...

4 comments 4
Read story

“itch” by Paul Littler

Submitted to Contest #224

            As the helicopter circled the island on its second approach Astrid placed her phone face down on her lap.   Too many uploaded videos of people erupting in a painful spiky death, spines tearing through bruised swollen skin.  She must have watched hundreds as the pandemic raged, death rate soaring.             “If I can’t land this time we’ll have to try tomorrow,” the pilot yelled over th...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Procrastinator's Paradox” by J. I. MumfoRD

Submitted to Contest #224

Jonah stared at the open textbook on his desk, the words blurring together into an incomprehensible jumble. He blinked hard, trying to force his exhausted brain to focus. 2:37 AM. He had been at this for hours, desperately reviewing material for his Practical Interpretation final exam tomorrow morning. With a heavy sigh, Jonah leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He should've started studying days ago, but he had put it off again and again, convinced he could cram it all in at the last minute. Now the moment of truth was fast appro...

3 comments 3
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason.

Fiction – 94 stories

Write a story about two people living together who have opposing sleep cycles, and only cross paths at dawn and dusk.

Character – 49 stories

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

Dramatic – 87 stories

Write about someone who can’t sleep due to jet lag, and decides to set out and explore their new city at night instead.

Adventure – 20 stories

Contest #224

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Night Owls and Early Birds

$250

Prize money

285

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 17, 2023 EST

Won by Mallory Jones 🏆

Title: Goldfish

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!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

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

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢