Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story within a story within a story within a ...

Posted in Fiction on Feb 17, 2023

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?

✍️ 55 stories

The Longest Story Ever Told

Submitted to Contest #186

Nothing put a bigger smile on Mr. Hubbard's face than when he drove up to his son's house and honked the horn. His five grandchildren knew the sound and would run out the door yelling “storytime.”Mr. Hubbard loved telling stories to his grandchildren. He stopped over at least once a week. It's what he lived for until he suffered a stroke. Since then, all his time and energy went into rehabbing. Over the following year, he worked hard and regained his ability to walk. He started off with little hikes around the house and then all the way to t...

11 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Story of a Lifetime

Submitted to Contest #186

The whole town waited just beyond the dark line of half-dead trees that marked the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They had all heard the stories, some of them even daring to read for themselves. A series of novels written hundreds of years ago told the story of witches and wizards attending school at a magical castle full of mystery, adventure, and death, all to have supposedly taken place right where our small town currently stood. The castle was long gone but the eerie and expansive forest remained, the only clue that perhaps the stories we...

10 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Lest It Come True

Submitted to Contest #186

“Sorry I’ve been blowing you off for so long, this place is great.” Megan said. “No worries,” replied Steph, “we’re finally here.” “I love antiques, but I have no room left at home.” They both chuckled in agreement. “Oh wow,” said Megan, “check this out.” Steph’s eyes followed Megan’s pointed finger. “What, another painting of that blue boy?” Steph asked.  “No. But why is that everywhere? No, below it, look.”  “Oh, a pretty lamp,” said Steph. “Do you think there’s a genie in there?” “Of course.” Megan said sarcastically. “Oh wow. I...

10 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

The M7 to Saransk

Submitted to Contest #186

Konstantin downshifted the bus, the engine loudly protesting and shuddering along a snow-plastered roadway in Moscow. Stopping at a curb just outside the ceremony for conscripted Russian soldiers, he let the engine idle. Gripping plastic shopping bags that held their possessions, young Russians in tattered camouflage jackets looked lost, some vomiting into the hedge out of fear. A year after the Big Man declared war, most could see through the propaganda: the Ukrainians weren't Nazis and, perhaps worst, Mother Russia was losing. But there we...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Story – a timeless messenger

Submitted to Contest #186

The old prophet sat just inside the village gate. Shrieks of lasciviousness and absurdity could be heard behind him. They must be starting early tonight, the old man thought to himself. How often he had regretted coming to live in this godforsaken town. He yearned to return to his uncle in the rolling pasture lands – but he had made his choice. As he pondered his fate and murmured an unintelligible prayer heavenward, two men entered the village through the main town gate. They were only a few feet from where the old prophet sat. Imme...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Midnight Ramble

Submitted to Contest #186

I am dying. A phornix has invaded my gut and is eating me from the inside.  I heard they go away on their own after a week, but two weeks have passed, and I can still feel sharp teeth munching on my intestines. I open my internet browser and look up how to kill a phornix that’s still inside you. The first result to pop up is an article from TheMidnightRambler.com titled “One Mother’s Surprising Phornix Remedy,” written by Jeremy Jenkins. I start to read: Maggie Thatcher, a single mom from Massachusetts, feared the worst when she ...

9 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

A Dream Inside A Dream

Submitted to Contest #186

What happened? Why does it look like downtown Indianapolis has been abandoned for decades? There isn’t a life form to be found, no birds, no sound of a coming train. Nothing but dead silence. All the buildings and skyscrapers are in some level of decay. Spoilage and deterioration have found their home in places I once ventured through. Here I stand looking out over the horizon. If depression had a color, that is what the color of the sky is, a very bleak gray. There it hangs above the decaying landscape. In disbelief, I look around my im...

8 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Candied Seaweed

Submitted to Contest #186

As the children sat in a circle around the giant conch, their eyes, shining from the hearth fire, were glued to the speaker as they munched on candied seaweed. The recipe for candied seaweed came from the narrator and storyteller extraordinaire, Briny Breeze. As she watched the children's little mouths chew the sticky delight she thought of the story her Grandmother, Seaworthy Breeze, had told her eons ago about how the recipe was a gift of remembrance from the sea nymphs. Many years ago the sea nymphs had found a human child and brought h...

8 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Please enter this in this weeks contest. I missed the timing. it's called Horgare and the Witches. Please. It's still Friday here.

Submitted to Contest #186

Horgare rose up slowly. It had been a long successful night of burning villages, eating women, and taking more treasure. “In fact” thought Horgare, “it was a record night. “Three of those women were really tasty. Yum.” And. “Look at all this loot. I could barely carry it all home and it’s almost completely filled the room.” The cavern was huge, with lots and lots of smaller caves and nasty crevices that only his body could breach. His treasure room was large and protected by four crevices. Even if some of those nasty men got in, they woul...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Blue Phoenix Inheritance

Submitted to Contest #186

  “Hello, I’m Wayne Moto. My father was Manny. He said when the time came, I should pay my respects when your husband passed. I’m sorry for your loss.”    “I’m Amelia. My husband didn’t like your father.”    “They were friends once.”    “I don’t know about that. My husband said he lost half his business when your dad opened his shop. My husband was here first. He said because you dad was Japanese people wouldn’t buy anything oriental from us after that. We couldn’t sell Occupied Japan Ch...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in which each paragraph begins or ends (or both!) with the same sentence.

Fiction – 77 stories

Write a story of fragments. Many options here: no verbs, sentence fragments, short sections, nothing but objects, etc. The fragments should relate to one another obliquely, hesitantly, subtly, ambiguously, preposterously, marvelously.

Fiction – 54 stories

Write a story that formally utilizes a mathematical sequence; e.g., the Fibonacci sequence could determine the number of words in each paragraph, or start with a number and work backwards. Make sure the formula is made clear, either within the story, or before or after it.

Fiction – 18 stories

Write a story entirely of dialogue. Nothing but dialogue. No attributives (he said, she said, etc.). No descriptions of scenes or gestures or movements (unless these things are presented in the dialogue). Just words between quotation marks. Pure, beautiful, untainted dialogue.

Dialogue – 275 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