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 Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a family with a long-standing tradition, whose members all have conflicting origin stories for it.

Posted in General on Jul 5, 2021

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?

✍️ 66 stories

“Kat the Monster Slayer: The Veil” by Daniel Hayes

My name is Katrina Wilcox, but my friends call me Kat for short. I live in New Hope, North Carolina, a hot spot for supernatural activity. Listen up people because I’m only going to say this once. Monsters, demons, and ghosts are real, and I hunt them down like the cowards they are and bring them to my swift justice! I know what you're thinking. Why is a thirteen-year-old girl waging war on things that go bump i...

50 comments 50
Read story

“The Firefly Fairy” by A.G. Scott

To the untrained eye, the Cartwright farm seemed a nice enough place. Peaceful, if a bit isolated. But looking closer, over Ma Cartwright’s neatly cultivated garden, past old Nana Cartwright in her rocking chair on the porch, one would notice something… unnerving. Not only did the sidings peel, lending the house a general air of long-going decay; not only were the windows covered in rows of thick oak planks; but the Cartwrights themselves carried a mangy, wild countenance, untrained by polite society.Little Grayson Cartw...

34 comments 34 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Once Upon A Lie” by Shreshta Writer

Once upon a lie, yes, once upon a lie. This is how my life is now. Every one of the lies and phony reasons I said is happening really at this now. But first, how about we backtrack a bit. My name is Sophia and I am a princess. I normally get all that I need, but this one day when I was 5 years of age, I wanted to lie. The day after today was my birthday. What's more, birthday events should be huge celebra...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Pancakes” by Melissa Condon

“Boys!” Matt called up the stairs. “Pancakes are ready!” Five young men came down the stairs in a cacophony of clattering feet and raucous voices. Talking, pushing, shoving, and jesting, they all managed to find their seats at the well-worn farmhouse table without incident. When they were settled,  Matt, clad in an apron that had been his mother’s, carried over a platter piled high with steaming, golden-b...

3 comments 3
Read story

“The Wooden Horse” by A. H. Joy

Margreta wrapped the fragile wooden figurine in crepe paper the color of the eggshells she used to collect for market back home in Nuremberg. The crinkled paper was even speckled—the spots dark as coffee grounds against their nutmeg background—and she grazed the tissue-thin paper at the memory, a smile pulling at her lips. The smile faded, however, as memories flooded back to her from that time—not al...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Deck” by J. Storbakken

for Uncle SlugmoI guess we are both blessed by God. In different ways. We both are going somewhere (or, I'm about to, and he left years ago already). We're both not coming back to the United States of America, due to these blessings.Blessed by the Angels, I found a home. I've travelled all over, stressed about more things than I care to list here, and finally, I found a home. Blessed by the Angels Italiano.I found a home across the Pacific. By the Alps. I am not coming back....

1 comment 1
Read story

“Dysfunctional Tales from Beyond the Grave” by Tommie Michele

Before I tell this story, I should probably make one thing clear. I’m a ghost.  Not one of those translucent, floaty ones in Ghostbusters, or the cute little kid variation of Casper, but somewhere in between.  A completely invisible 20-something-year-old man. Well, I was twenty when I died. I’ve lost track of how many years it’s been. But that’s not relevant.  Now that we’ve got that impo...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Curdled: The Fracturing of an American Family” by Jayke Luland

Next to the eggnog, the egg-rolls, the eggs benedicts and the eggs Au fromage, was exactly 140 millilitres of pure cream, purebred, all-American milk. It was a glorious sight for all with penchants for contracting Salmonella. It was greyish in colour and smelt like the bottom of a rotting table with poop slathered over it. For the Mennie family, it was a holy milk, and one they idolised with a radical ideological commitm...

0 comments 0
Read story

“How Did St. Gamer's Day Start?” by Saad Aman Sayyed

Nana Ashley, as Peter called him, tucked Peter into bed and kissed him goodnight on the forehead as the sleep app started tracking neural activity. She remembered the good old days - when sleep apps could only track how many hours you slept. Those were the 2010s, a wonderful decade indeed. Melinda had already slept, but Nana Ashley's earbuds (which - as Peter would like to point out, were...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Winter.” by Irene Rebello

Harrison's heart was a magnet. It was always looking for somewhere to stick.As a boy, he used to cry. He'd sob at everything, every sad movie he watched, every shove he'd get at school. He'd come home with eyes red and puffy, his lips swollen from biting, and just drop to the ground. Alice was always there to catch him, scooping her son into her arms like ice cream onto a spoon, stroking his hair as Harrison's chest caved into his body, the weight of his loneliness an anchor sinking him into the ground. He was always just so sa...

3 comments 3
Read story

“The Withering Profession of Edgar Allan Oaks” by Chris Tyroak

   Much has been written of legacy and inherited heirlooms that thread together, the generations of an honourable line. For Edgar Allan Oaks, this prevailed in the old custodian helmet of his late father, Leopold Oaks, who still held the distinguished record for the most civil arrests in a calendar year. This antique trophy stood as a reminder for each generation of Oaks that 'policing was a...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Family Partition.” by Ritwik Saha

Gilbert was an industrialist, who owned numerous industries across the country. He worked hard in his youth, as he never wanted to die in destitution. However he was affluent in his youth, as was a descendant of a rich father. But, he toiled relentlessly to maintain the name and fame and was able to hold up to his father's name and fame.   He was a family of six, including his wife- Emily, his sons Ivan, Riley and...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Thursday Evening Strawberries” by Kayley Dickins

It was a nicer Thursday this week than it had been the last. It wasn’t bright sunshine and perfect candyfloss clouds, but there were at least gaps in the slabs of grey in the sky that enabled tiny slices of deep blue to show through. It was the best they were going to get at the tail end of February, so they would appreciate it. It was at least not raining, which they also appreciated, and which enabled them to sit by the open doors and admire the view of the grey industrial buildings surrounding them. Again, not great, but they would app...

1 comment 1
Read story

“(Nine)Nau Neils of the British Raj ” by Chinmoy Nath

Nuclear family! Nice to hear but it lacks the social attachments, emotional awareness and sense of humanity. A big family, a very big family can never be imagined these days. Even if there exists a big family, but the members prefers to be independent rather than following somebody’s order. In times of British India, there exists a highly cultured joined family in the eastern part of the Indus. Mac N...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Vase” by Anna Carter

The old porcelain vase that stood on the worn mahogany table in the DeSaint household was not anything special to an outsider. Some visitors assumed that it was an expensive piece of art imported from China, some thought nothing of it and some were kind enough – or nosy enough - to ask Mrs Olivia DeSaint of its origins. The answers she gave were never satisfactory, she simply said it was an old ...

0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a character having a premonition, but no one believes them.

General – 155 stories

Write about someone who’s desperately trying to change their luck.

General – 109 stories

Set your story on (or in) a winding river.

General – 132 stories

Write a story involving a character who cannot return home.

General – 345 stories

Contest #98

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Origin Stories

$50

Prize money

810

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 18, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Blessed Home

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!

Tired of MS Word?

Join the revolution and write your book in a tool designed for authors. 🙌

Includes FREE typesetting to print-ready PDF & EPUB files, track changes and collaborative editing.

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Comedy Writing Prompts ⭢

Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

For Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

General Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢