Write a story about discovering a lost manuscript. It can be from a famous (or infamous) author, or an unknown one.

Posted in Mystery on May 17, 2024

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.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 68 stories

“Secret in the Sand” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #251

With a gleam of excitement in his eye, archaeologist Humphrey Abbot strokes his pride and joy, a massive black mustache. He has gathered a group of financiers in his mahogany paneled library to persuade them to invest in an expedition to Eygpt. After the brandy’s been poured and the cigars lit, Abbot clears his throat. “Gentlemen, I have invited you here this evening to tell you of a remarkable discovery I have made while researching the Great Pyramid of Giza. I found the following notation in an 1838 book, “Giza...

2 comments 2

Read story

“The Unfathomable Arc” by John Werner

Submitted to Contest #251

The book found its way into the hands of Jacob Crane quite by accident. Pulling into the sparsely graveled parking lot of the roadside antiques shop had been more of a survival maneuver than anything else. He had been left exhausted from little rest the night before and the grit in his eyes threatened to shut them permanently. He had made several attempts to encourage some moisture back into them with the palm of his hand but the maneuver had failed entirely. He had opened the windows and blasted the music but those elements conspired to for...

4 comments 4

Read story

“The Salem Witches were Innocent or Guilty? ” by Kritika -

Submitted to Contest #251

( Journal described is meant to be incomplete and not perfect. It was written by a teenager in the 1600’s). Cruising abandoned bookstores is a passion I didn’t know I needed. It has been five years since I picked up this hobby. Finding abandoned stores and being able to access them has been a lot of work. Every new city that I visit, I make sure that bookstore diving is first on my list. Today, I am in Salem, Massachusetts, the home of alleged witchcraft done in the 1690s. Salem has always been on my list of potential pla...

11 comments 11

Read story

“Lost Language” by James Crofts

Submitted to Contest #251

It had been a terrible mistake to come here.Todd sat on a log next to the trail and surveyed the forest. It had taken hours to reach the northern Allegheny Forest of Pennsylvania from Washington D.C. He should have used this time to work on diplomatic relations, with the whole world on the brink of war.“Regrets?” Samantha said next to him.“Not yet,” he replied. “But the day is young.”The leafy canopy created a blanket of mottled shadows on the dense green floor of the forest. The air was fresh and fragrant—a far cry from the stuffy offices o...

2 comments 2

Read story

“The Proof” by Betty M Reeves

Submitted to Contest #251

Ten years ago, my husband and I took the vacation of a lifetime in Ireland. We had chosen a self-driving, on the left side of the narrow roads, castle-hotels trip. We quickly decided this was the cleanest, greenest landscape with the friendliest people of any place we had ever been. Before leaving Dublin, we went to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, where we heard a children’s choir sing in glorious, perfectly-pitched acoustical harmony. We drove to Trim Castle of County Meath, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland and the locale used for...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Value of Paper” by Amber Sayer

Submitted to Contest #251

Ella was always searching—searching for the tangible to find the intangible.She was an unmoored ship, hoping that her love for history and antiquing would somehow be the North Star she needed to find a solid dock in the world.Every Saturday morning, Ella went to an antique shop, a yard sale, or the take-it-or-leave-it area at the dump, looking for treasures that would provide avenues to escape into different worlds, different times, and different lives.The abandoned relics she shopped for held mysteries of lives she stitched together, buildi...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Escapades of the Wild Hunt” by Joshua Urrasio

Submitted to Contest #251

Cohnal walked through the aisles of bookshelves in the Sylvan Archives, searching for some new reading material. Just to be in the building, Cohnal knew, was an immense privilege. Most Sylvan were lucky if they could stand on the front steps of the Archives and not be killed instantly by its wards. Cohnal had been granted special permission to access the centuries-old building as he was an official scholar of Gwyn ap Nudd. Cohnal often marvelled at the fact that he’d managed to achieve such an honourable position under the King of the Tylwyt...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Lost Manuscript” by Kami Drake

Submitted to Contest #251

In the heart of a dense forest, beneath the shadow of towering ancient trees, two figures stood at the entrance to the abandoned ruins. Anna, with her muscular build and heterochromatic eyes—one a warm red-brown and the other a cool blue-brown—stood resolute. Her long black braid hung down her back, and her leather bodice with sword scabbards gave her a formidable appearance. Beside her was Gigi, tall and voluptuous, her chin-length brown hair framing eyes the color of the ocean. Her flowy, bohemian dress fluttered gently in the breeze, ador...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Silent Sonata” by Steven Nimocks

Submitted to Contest #251

Chapter 1In the Harvard University Archives, Daniel Merritt, a renowned Deaf music historian, hunched over an ancient manuscript. The sudden loss of his daughter Emma left him grappling with a world without her laughter.A glimmer of hope emerged as he examined the faded leather journal titled “Klangstille Sonate” - The Silent Sonata. The manuscript, attributed to Beethoven, was a revolutionary composition.Whispers of the sonata’s power to mend broken hearts had drawn Daniel to this moment. He had to unravel its secrets for Emma. However, an ...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Is It True? ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #251

Sky Ranch Retirement Community Santa Rosa, NM June 2002 Grady was the only one who was awake in the recreation room at Sky Ranch Retirement Community. He was watching reruns of M.A.S.H. on Channel 12. No one, not even God Himself, dared disturb this sacred nightly viewing ritual of the antics of the 4077 MASH Unit. It was a known rule within the community, written in stone, that no one should venture into the recreation room and disturb him. No one, no matter how many dozens of times he had seen the episode. &nb...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Pumpernickel Mouse” by Emily Smith

Submitted to Contest #251

Pumpernickel Mouse had eleven brothers and sisters, who worked day and night to fill the bellies of Mouse Town with sweet, juicy fruit pies. Each morning they filled the shelves and display cases of their little pie shop. Each evening the mice floured and rolled and basted and baked until the shop was filled with the smells of caramelized peaches and buttery crusts. Pumpernickel Mouse wasn’t allowed to flour, or roll, or baste, or bake. He wasn’t allowed to measure. He wasn’t allowed to stir. In fact, it was preferred that he didn’t go...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Long Lost” by Sam Newsome

Submitted to Contest #251

Long Lost Who can say what documents have been lost to the passage of time? Such is the case of a parchment that was found in a cardboard box at an Egyptian garage about 1970. The box had largely deteriorated as had its contents. The artifact came into the possession of antique dealer, Dimaratos Tchacos. Finally, he became concerned with the advanced state of deterioration of the manuscript and donated it to Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Basal, Switzerland in th...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Hook, line, and Author.” by Peyton Denisar

Submitted to Contest #251

“Dispatch, show us on scene. 10-97.” Officer Greg Coole said into his dashboard radio, the red and blue lights atop his cruiser illuminating the mist around him; In the passenger seat next to him was a fidgety stick of a man by the name Jordan Westmore.“Sir?”“What is it, Westy?” “I was just curious…” A line that was spoken often according to the sigh that slipped through Officer Coole’s lips. “I was just curious why we pulled up with only the lights, shouldn’t we have ran the siren?”“When we got the call for a wellness check what did Di...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Experience” by A Osman

Submitted to Contest #251

Sensitive Content: Loss of a loved one.‘Welcome to Experience. How may I assist you?’Claire examined the boy behind the information desk. He was dressed in his usual dark-green cloak and was wearing a star patterned pointy hat. The thick square concave eye-lenses on his face, made his green eyes appear minuscule. The other kids liked to call him pea-eyes, which Claire thought was rather cruel. So she insisted on calling him by his actual name…, which unfortunately was far from an improvement.‘Vision…, I’m literally in here every day. There’s...

5 comments 5

Read story

“Questions from Answers” by A. Henry

Submitted to Contest #251

A full year after my father died, I finally came to terms with his death and decided to start cleaning out the house where he lived for nearly every day of his life. It was a small cabin that sat on a lake overlooking the sunrise each morning, often when he did his best work as a novelist, writing questions to other people’s lives and unraveling the answers at inopportune times. He became a minimalist after my mother died when I was young, but one item he’d kept was our lush, olive green couch. He’d sit most nights and read stories aloud to ...

4 comments 4

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Your protagonist is a writer who discovers a new favorite author. How does their writing, or even their own personality, change as the protagonist falls under the writer’s influence?

Narrative – 28 stories

Write a story about a future academic (or another influential person) “rediscovering” a book that, in its time, was dismissed. The book can be fictitious or real.

Short Story – 10 stories

Dream up a secret library. Write a story about an adventurer who discovers it. What’s in the library? Why was it kept secret?

Adventure – 97 stories

Your protagonist is a voracious reader. Lately, they’ve been noticing odd synchronicities in the books he or she is reading. What does the protagonist discover is happening?

Fantasy – 31 stories

Contest #251

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Lost and Found Books with BookTrib

$250

Prize money

234

Contest entries

76

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 24, 2024 EST

A winner will be announced soon.

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!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Write a story about discovering a lost manuscript. It can be from a famous (or infamous) author, or an unknown one.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 68 stories

“Secret in the Sand” by Ralph Aldrich

“The Unfathomable Arc” by John Werner

“The Salem Witches were Innocent or Guilty? ” by Kritika -

“Lost Language” by James Crofts

“The Proof” by Betty M Reeves

“The Value of Paper” by Amber Sayer

“The Escapades of the Wild Hunt” by Joshua Urrasio

“The Lost Manuscript” by Kami Drake

“The Silent Sonata” by Steven Nimocks

“Is It True? ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

“Pumpernickel Mouse” by Emily Smith

“Long Lost” by Sam Newsome

“Hook, line, and Author.” by Peyton Denisar

“Experience” by A Osman

“Questions from Answers” by A. Henry

🌟 Similar prompts

Your protagonist is a writer who discovers a new favorite author. How does their writing, or even their own personality, change as the protagonist falls under the writer’s influence?

Write a story about a future academic (or another influential person) “rediscovering” a book that, in its time, was dismissed. The book can be fictitious or real.

Dream up a secret library. Write a story about an adventurer who discovers it. What’s in the library? Why was it kept secret?

Your protagonist is a voracious reader. Lately, they’ve been noticing odd synchronicities in the books he or she is reading. What does the protagonist discover is happening?

Contest #251

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

234

Contest entries

76

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: