Menu

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Write about an elderly character who was part of a historic movement years ago.

Posted in Historical Fiction on May 19, 2021

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?

✍️ 134 stories

An Emulative and Aplomb Corruption-Annihilator Revolutionary

Santosh Kumar Singh

Submitted to Contest #80

Kisan Baburao Hazare known as Anna Hazare (born 15 June 1937) is an Indian social activist. He is known for developing a village called Ralegaon Siddhi in India. He played a large part in the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement. He has served in the Indian Army. He won the third highest award in India, the Padma Bhushan.In April 2011, he started an indefinite hunger strike to pressurize the Indian Government to accept his demands on corruption. The Government ac...

27 likes

War. What is it Good For?

Submitted to Contest #80

War I despise It means destruction to innocent lives War means tears To thousands of mothers' eyes When their sons go out to fight And lose their lives War, huh, yeah What is it good for? Nothing ~ Temptations, Edwin Starr The old woman was sitting beside the door of her residence, which could best be termed a hut. She was hunched over a basket where she was shelling the kernels off of several corn cobs. In back of her, behind her other bent shoulder, was an unkempt, rather large, or orchard of apple and walnut trees. Unkempt didn...

25 likes

Miserable Joy

Ember Schreiner

Submitted to Contest #80

The old rickety bus was only about twenty or so years younger than myself. It creaked and groaned almost as much as I did. People only rode the bus if they couldn't afford the train and didn't mind the dismal view. But there were a few of us, Franz, Oskar, and myself, who rode the bus to remember. Like a silent language, we spoke without speaking of those hard days. We understood as few could, that some pain needed to be remembered.Franz only rode the bus on Tuesdays and Oskar was currently down in Amsterdam visiting family, so I found mysel...

21 likes

A Memory of Stamford Bridge

Submitted to Contest #80

I feel the cold now in so many more ways. The chill winter air torments my joints with spikes of pain, damp air from the endless rains attacks my back and shoulders, the ancient scar tissues pulling tight and bleeding intermittently. Who would be old? I sit now hunched by my daughter’s hearth fire, sipping warmed ale that no longer brings me joy, supping on past defeats with their bitter after-taste. Curmudgeonly, her husband called me this morning, a moaning old man, long out of his time. Hah! He is not wrong. Once I could have wrestled h...

21 likes

Diana's Life Tips #68: Don't Go On Pointless Sidequests About Demonic History Lessons

Submitted to Contest #80

Author’s note: This is part of the “Diana’s Life Tips” story series where the stories are all stand-alone with relevant info I will provide. Relevant info: Daemon is a demon Diana accidentally summoned. They think Satan’s ex-wife is planning an invasion so they went to ask an ancient demon what happened during the last demonic invasion (AKA the Great Demon War). Dry heaving, Diana collapsing outside the passenger’s side door of the latest Jeep Daemon stole. She’s never been more happy from skipping lunch or else she’d be actually heaving. ...

20 likes

A Veteran in the Battlefield

Submitted to Contest #80

When I was still a child, hearing stories about different stuff had always been my favorite thing to do. I mean... who wouldn't? Listening to different stories, especially those stories that came from someone's experience, had always been fun and aside from that, we can also learn things that we need to know and apply to ourselves. People all have their own stories, just like you and me, just like our grandparents. Speaking about my grandparents, my parents would usually bring me over to my grandparents' house every weekend to spend some t...

20 likes

The Stories our Streets tell

Submitted to Contest #80

Yesterday I sat at my window watching my grandchildren illustrate the pavements with coloured chalk. I was caught off guard as I sat and watched them splash colours carefree on the grey gravel canvas. I almost didn't recognise the same pavements I grew up on. It was like I blinked and one world vanished into another and for the first time in a while yesterday; I remembered. I remembered a time when I sat watching out the same window and witnessed my city in flames. I remembered a time, colours meant territories. I remembered a time, those ve...

20 likes

Longjohn Whitaker, Local Legend

George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #80

“Who is that guy?” I pointed to an old man sitting at the counter of Gooseberry Café sipping black coffee. His skin was the color of rich mocha, his voice was full of resonance, deep and rich with the essence of a life well-lived. There was an aura that told me that he was a man I needed to get to know. I had been on a quest to find human stories that were worth telling. “Longjohn Whitaker.” The man next to me answered as he put some grits on his spook. “Seems like someone carved his face out of stone.” I chuckled, ...

19 likes

NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISH

Hope Full

Submitted to Contest #80

JULY 6, 1967 (NIGERIA)BANG !Emeka sprung to his feet at the loud sound. Confused, he stared blankly into the air. The village is in chaos, not only could he feel it but also see it. Wails from adults and children filled the air and questions occupied his mind as he couldn't even recall the cause of his unconsciousness. He took few steps out of the bush where he had been lying, into the street and what he hit him was eyesore. Bodies lay, scattered all over the street with blood running down like streams. There were people, out of fear running...

19 likes

Seated at the Right Hand of the King

Kara Hunsdon

Submitted to Contest #80

My Grandfather had always called himself an unfortunate spectator to the spirit of History. Whenever it seemed like some big commotion was going on, he was there. Poorly dressed for the occasions he stumbled upon, but nevertheless enthusiastic for people to change the world, he was there.The elderly man I remembered was spry and rather gaunt most of the time, despite his love for sweet desserts and hamburgers. At the drop of a hat he would be sprinting down the street or up a flight of stairs, suspenders and all, looking to the world like a ...

19 likes

BATTLE OF MEROPIS

Leena Deshpande

Submitted to Contest #80

THE BATTLE OF MEROPISNicholas Danksworth looked out of the window. The sky was a clear, bright azure. Sighing, he turned around and switched off his alarm. Getting up, he went into the bathroom and stared into his reflection in the mirror. A hollow face with greying hair stared back. He had bright green eyes, which held the wisdom of eighty years.He got dressed and sat in verandah of his house, reading the Aramoor Herald and drinking his coffee. A knock on his door startled him out of his reverie. Wondering who it could be this early, h...

18 likes

Mama Tsia

Roth Sassin (inactive)

Submitted to Contest #80

We gather around Jeng Ma Tsia in the tent. We know it is hers for the many Ourings traced on the old cloth that makes up the tent. There are more Ourings than anyone. My tent has only ten Ourings, for I am ten rituals old. No one knows how old Jeng Ma Tsia is, and no one really visits her. Except us. Me and Pili Do Eurig, my brother. No one questions why we prefer to go to Jeng Ma Tsia's tent instead of Dzia Mi Alabesh, the Storyteller of our tribe. But our reason is simple. Jeng Ma Tsia is older and has more tales -and those tales are more ...

18 likes

A Peacock Pie to Remember

Emily Rose

Submitted to Contest #80

Arnell, 2003: Arnell Donnelly was a writer. He firmly believed in the candor books had been able to express, with stories and truths unshakable to the core, ringing with an anthem so soft and pure only the most attentive could hear. He considered himself a learner, a reflector; a scholar so to speak. His life had been built around books, he had been reading by the age of 3. Books were friends you could count on, who told adventures, truths, ideas, perspectives you could never experience. Arnell was fascinated by stories and legends, the o...

18 likes

We Matter

Amelia John

Submitted to Contest #80

Aaliyah was ready to take on the longest awaited journey of her life. Death. She lay on her daughter, Ebony’s, living room couch, cushioned underneath a mountain of heated blankets. She had always complained about Ebony’s house being too cold. Even under the heap of blankets, she still felt a slight chill. There was something different in the atmosphere this morning when she woke up. It was almost as if her almond colored skin could feel the difference as goosebumps rose on her arms, causing the small hairs to stand up agai...

18 likes

To Be Beloved

David Brown

Submitted to Contest #80

Several Cyprian boys hooted and howled while playing a game of knucklebones at the threshold of the city-kingdom of Kition’s necropolis. They didn’t notice an elderly man approach and take his usual seat by the cemetery’s gates. The observer’s lengthy white hair blew chaotically in the Mediterranean island’s warm breezes, and his visage was as stern and emotionless as the statues of Thanatos and Hypnos, the Greek gods of death and sleep, which flanked the graveyard’s gates. In fact, when the old man’s frail fingers scratched his tousled gray...

17 likes

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone who never planned to make history but is now about to deliver a speech in front of millions.

Teens – 104 stories

Write about a child witnessing a major historical event.

Dramatic – 236 stories

Start your story with someone entering a museum, and end it with them settling down to join a sit-in.

High School – 41 stories

Start your story with a major news event breaking — one that will change the world forever.

Dystopian – 156 stories

reedsylearning

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