Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story in the form of a list.

Posted in Narrative on Dec 22, 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?

✍️ 60 stories

Sunny Daze

Submitted to Contest #230

Such excitement, such a treat, dreaming of sand under my feet. I’ve been looking ahead to my cruise so long, the time is near and nothing can go wrong. I will finish my day at the shop, maybe leave early. I can, I’m on top. Drive home soon, then pack my case, off to sleep, my bed to embrace. Lazy morning tomorrow to finish the essentials and off to the airport from my residential. Before too long my pre-plans began to disappear, I heard was a loud scream and I cautiously peered. Followed by crying sounds of a child, ‘Oh’, I prayed it has to ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

On Special

Submitted to Contest #230

Horace. Horace! I’m talking to you. Turn that television down and pay attention. Here’s the list. Yes, you’re going to have to go grocery shopping on your own. I have reservations about entrusting you with this, but I’ve called everyone I can think of, and no one is available. Really, after all the little favors I have done for people over the years, it is very disappointing. A few people will not be on the Christmas card list next year, I can tell you. But we are almost out of certain staples and so I will have to send you.Yes, I know there...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Five Stages of Grief: How Life Fell Apart Before Coming Back Together

Submitted to Contest #230

TW: Self-harm, Mental Health, and Death May 1st, 2022: the day the world stopped and a year since you’ve died. Even now, home doesn’t feel like home and your glaring absence haunts the rooms of this house. Your voice echoes in the living room, like a ghostly call, while your shadows lurk in every corner; your smell, too, somehow still permeates the air of this place. To feel closer to you I sit in the place you used to, cycling through memories of the aftermath of your death. This is my retelling of how the world began to spin slowly, day by...

5 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

I Want to Forgive

Submitted to Contest #230

Sensitive Content: Language, sexual violence“I want to forgive my mother for making me get my own switch for spanking me. I thought a thin willow branch would be easier on my backside, but it hurt worse than a big one as it sped through the air at flogging speed.”“I want to forgive my parents for spanking me after church every Sunday. I always talked and laughed during the sermon. It was so predictable that the three of us kids would be lined up for our punishment, I wore extra underwear under my Sunday best.”“I want to forgive my siste...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Things I Hate About Aeneas

Submitted to Contest #230

By Dido TW: Mentions of Suicide, Physical Violence He’s not Sychaeus. He left me. He decided he would leave me, then pretended like he didn’t marry me in the woods with all of nature as our witness. The leaf-wreathed dryads and stream-clothed naiads sang out our wedding hymns. For heaven’s sake, the very lightning bolts were our wedding torches! Once, he had set my heart on fire with love, but after he left, I burned like I myself was that torch, dipped in pitch. He decided he would leave me, and then claimed, “Oh, the gods are forcing ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Don't Give Up

Submitted to Contest #230

Lily looked up at the grocery list dangling from a thin magnet on the fridge. Milk Bread Granola bars Coffee Creamer Ray would have to take care of those things. He almost never did the shopping, but she had other plans this week. She couldn't be distracted with trivial things. She could hear her daughters playing in the next room. She closed her eyes. Were they actually playing nice? Talking Giggling Stomping Running Screaming Shrieking Fighting Crying No. Of course they weren't. “Please stop. Mommy has a headache.” She called...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

THE LIST

Submitted to Contest #230

THE LIST Pick up Instant coffee, bologne, bread Go to Temp Office Pay Cell Phone Bill Drug Store Kill Kenny I checked my list for the umpteenth time this morning. I probably memorized it by about the fifth time I read it, but yet I found myself rechecking it. It hadn’t changed, the same six items still were on the list that I had written down as I finished off my morning coffee, sitting in my dilapidated old van. I had hesitated over # 6. Not hesitation about completing the task, but I hesitated about actually writing it down...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Open Heart Surgery

Submitted to Contest #230

PROLOGUEIt wasLove    you fell in-different    I saw you sleeping Next to meThough you were not there             awake eyes open I saw you next to me One day we’ll talk about your tattoos I’ll listen with my head resting in my hands one day I swearI saw you next to me I'll be here, If you’re here nextTo me I’ll be here, I always was You Know that dream I had you Naked ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

I promise

Submitted to Contest #230

I, Veronica, take you, Alejandro, to be my lawfully-wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, I promise to love and cherish you.I promise:I promise to fill your days with sunshine, and do everything in my power to ensure your daily happiness. -- Like when I learned the theme song of your favorite video game on the piano and played it for you on your birthday -- which you said was the best gift you’d ever received.I promise to be by your side, ...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Love in the City: A Romantic Journey

Submitted to Contest #230

The Chance Encounter—Emma and Liam found themselves on a crowded subway platform in the heart of the bustling city on a gloomy afternoon. The station was abuzz with shuffling feet, clanging metal doors, and the rumbling of trains arriving and departing. Raindrops fell rhythmically, creating a soothing symphony on the umbrellas of the hurried commuters. Lost in thought, Emma clutched her red umbrella tightly, trying to shield herself from the downpour. Liam, absorbed in his phone, seemed oblivious to the world around him, his earphones plugge...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Reasons I love you

Submitted to Contest #230

Reasons I love you1. You feel like the wind. I didn’t even notice it at first. The first time I saw you was like an August breeze. It felt nice, but I didn't think about it again. And then I saw you everyday. And the feeling grew the way the breeze grew warmer towards spring. It was the small things that made me fuzzy inside. When you kicked a stone off my trail. When you called me no matter how late it was to make sure I reached home safe. When you let me win that game of cards. When you picked a ruffled bougainvillea off the road instead o...

5 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Fragments of the Journal of Eteri Sibrdzne

Submitted to Contest #230

2027.10.04 Morning Preparation I dreamt last night that I was deep in a birch forest of the sort one finds in the North of Russia --vast, endless even. But there were also trees of other sorts which did not belong there: walnuts and cherry and apricot, like we have in the mountains outside Tblisi, and also data palms. Now this forest, being a dream forest, was also a library, and I was its caretaker. I moved freely through the forest, sometimes along foot paths and sometimes along canals, paddling a small canoe or kayak, but mostly I jus...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

2023 Gots ‘n’ Gaves.

Submitted to Contest #230

Veteran of 17 family Christmas get-togethers since first becoming a burden on the university system, Alan Blaneford, lecturer in IT, hobby designer of crossword-solving software tools and sometime walking magazine contributor, completes the annual accounting of gifts given and gifts received. It’s another ruse to pass the time during the four days together with the extended family – it feels like many more – of what might be the very last Christmas of this sort, given the condition of both parents. It’s both a rolling evaluation, and a start...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

A Sip of Wine

Submitted to Contest #230

Always keep your eye on him. Begin with him in mind. Always keep your focus on him. And should his eye start to wander, do something to spice it up. And for God's sake, don't gain weight. My grandmother’s advice swam around in my head.  The same way the blood-red liquid sloshed as I spun it around and around in my thin-stemmed glass.   It sloshes, but in a circular motion.    The wine looks orderly almost, as it moves in tandem with the circular motion of the glass.  But only I knew the truth– the wine wasn...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Wisdom From Bookclub

Submitted to Contest #230

This is a work of fiction based on real events, and the characters are made up of conglomerations of several people. There are references to some sexual acts which may be offensive to some. Vonnie met new women by joining the book club in her new town. Mary – ah, memorable Mary who turned thirty-eight when Vonnie was twenty-six. The book club was at Mary’s house on that birthday. Mary opened the door, welcoming everyone, with “Come in! Let’s hurry with the discussion because today I am thirty-eight. I’m told this is my sexual peak, and ...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story framed by a single scene: something happens, a flashback or inner monologue intervenes, and then the story ends with the rest of the original scene.

Narrative – 89 stories

Write a story in which a character achieves a new level of clarity about how they’re really feeling.

Character – 56 stories

Start your story with someone uttering a very strange sentence.

Dialogue – 52 stories

Write a story that hides something from its reader until the very end.

Mystery – 100 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