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

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone who is tired of their day-to-day routines.

Posted in Sad on Oct 26, 2022

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?

✍️ 36 stories

“The Collector” by Kristina Deyo

Submitted to Contest #5

Some people collect CDs or crowd their living rooms with antique furniture. Some have coins from all 50 states or a stamp from every country. Others have stacks of classical books, a rock from every beach they’ve ever visited perched on a windowsill. My collection is a little more unorthodox. I collect souls.I make my way through the airport terminal, debris crunching under my heels as the vague humanoid forms shimmer, like wisps of smoke, beyond the fog that separates this world from the living one. The other side seems frozen in time, but ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“I Got a Hug From a Stranger Today” by Ruben Stemple

Submitted to Contest #5

My life is suddenly boring. I once held a job that brought daily challenges, each one bigger and more exciting than the last. I was the grab the bull by the horns, whatever it takes guy. I would charge in anywhere with a calculated combination of knowledge, corporate funding and bullshit to get the job done. I have done proverbial battle with entrepreneurs, corporate executives, fashion models, and even once with honest-to-God royalty. I cared about my job, knew everything about my clients, and had the answers before the questions were asked...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Norman's Day” by Lucy Finn

Submitted to Contest #5

The alarm rang, 7:32am, bleating in a new day. Norman reached over to slap out the noise, knocking the clock and the stale glass of water over at the same time. He sighed, “Again.”Struggling to lift the sleep from his eyelids, he pulled off the covers, sat up and placed both feet on the floor. Realising he had only one sock on, having lost the other in the sheets at some point the night before, and said socked foot was now in the water puddle, Norman sighed again. The clock, not in the puddle or sensing Normans frustration, mocked him by gla...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Extreme measures to counteract boredom. by Katherine M. Kean” by Katherine M. Kean

Submitted to Contest #5

Everybody has one birthday, usually when they reach a decade, where they suddenly feel tired, old, and used up. The intensity of this feeling varies depending on the person, and on the age in question. When Patricia hit fifty, the shock sent her reeling, and she felt as though she had bitten the dust, hard. It happened at a very precise moment, when she was making her New Year’s Resolutions. This had always been problematic for her, her difficulties linked to the fact that her birthday fell on December the 30th. She usually spent most of the...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Vampire Fun” by Win Stark

Submitted to Contest #5

36 hours ago, Lilah was not expecting to be in this predicament. She sat, soaked from head to toe, though slowly drying. Next to her sat her friend Violet, also soaked. The two didn’t talk, but whenever their gazes met while they waited on the bench, they had to work really hard to stifle their giggles.**flashbackLilah walked through the hallway briskly, occasionally pausing to readjust a frame on the wall. Her black boots clicked on the floor tiles as she walked, and her long dress, also black with long bell sleeves, fluttering behind her s...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Dreaming From 9-5” by Jaylia Smith

Submitted to Contest #5

Penetratingly emotionless, aggravatingly mind-numbing bings and beeps ring in his ears and sink into his brain, rattling around his skull as a pulsing migraine. His head thrums with every keyboard tap, every fake, enthusiastic, “Hello! This is...” as some poor sap answers the phone, only to be met with anonymous, unsolvable frustrations yelled at them by some faceless stranger, as the air conditioning blasts lukewarm air from too small of a slotted opening in the back of the crowded, lifeless office.  His work continues to pile up in fr...

0 comments 0
Read story

“What Advantage” by Hunter Dansin

Submitted to Contest #5

Come into my mind and stay awhile. Please stay and don't leave and let me indulge because it is all I have. In the world, you see, I am a man who talks and fixes problems over the phone and goes home and eats and sleeps and answers the phone with a cheery voice so you will leave me a good score so I can keep my job and punches out and makes dinner and sleeps and passes on the hard problems to a supervisor and complies with your demands and listens to you vent and asks you personal questions to try and be relatable and works overtime when the...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Another Wednesday” by Ann Markow

Submitted to Contest #5

Marg Powers gently seated herself on the corner of the bed, careful not to disturb her sleeping husband. As she stared at his sheet-wrapped form, she contemplated how she'd do it. Earlier that Wednesday morning, around six, she'd eased out of bed. She dragged herself into the bathroom and stared in the mirror at the woman she'd become. The former elegant beauty who had the brains and the talent to take her anywhere she wanted to go in life, now more closely resembled a bag lady. Her once glorious hair stuck out in short, bedraggled clumps. T...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Passing Times” by Sally Desouza

Submitted to Contest #5

‘Teachers will now be expected to wipe down all desks during each of your students’ passing times, to remove any vandalism and offensive marks,’ Mrs. Jacobson said. To this end, she handed each teacher a 500 count box of lemon-scented multi-purpose wipes. She explained that more boxes would be made available in the front office, should the first be used up (which it most certainly will). Graffiti is becoming commonplace at Brackenridge Middle School. Mr. Elliot raised his hand. He always seems to question Mrs. Jacobson when she tri...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Repeatedly” by Jeanell McFarlane

Submitted to Contest #5

"I've done this several times before", muttered Jeff. He looked up and glanced around to see if anyone had heard him. All clear, he sighed with relief. He looked down again and stared at the endless lines that ran down the page in front of him. “Agh”, he said half aloud and half under his breath. He was staring so hard; the lines were becoming blurred! He gave his head a slight shake, side to side, now up and down, side to side and up and down. He stood up and stretched his hands to the ceiling while trying to balance on his toes. His legs q...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Break Away” by Olga Gridin

Submitted to Contest #5

  People always hurried somewhere, cars rushed by, the red smeared lights of cars driving by to the next preplanned activity… Time didn’t stop for anything. And in the midst of it all, there was the look of a small child at a street musician as if the musician were some kind of wonder in the hubble-bubble of the city jungle. The street musician was clearly enjoying what he was doing. If only the musician turned to look at the entranced child, there would be magic. And if the child’s mother was not pulling the latter away, as she wa...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Maisey ” by Katelyn Riley

Submitted to Contest #5

 A whisper echoed. “Mommy!” Elizabeth’s eyes scan, unbelieving. She hears it again, slightly louder, “Mommy, where are you?” Elizabeth’s hand reaches for the closed door.  “I hear you baby!” She bangs on the door, craving her daughter. As hard as she tries, the door doesn’t budge. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she takes a few steps back and lunges toward the locked door. It falls to the ground and she falls with it. On the other side, there was no child awaiting her with open arms. Instead, a windowless hallway grows in front o...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Bleating Brooklyn Accents” by Elizabeth McNerney

Submitted to Contest #5

       I announce last call early that night.  Everyone is talking about some storm that’s supposed to be coming. Apparently the weatherman called it the Storm of the Century but you’d never know it was a big deal.  All the men are finishing up the evening, ready to wander home and get up early for work tomorrow.  They’re all joking about the clear sky, calling it a harbinger of the hurricane to come. I’m laughing along like always but also thinking that these days, I’ll f...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Hope's Existence” by Adam Ramer

Submitted to Contest #5

The door of her Honda closed with a thud, sealing her inside the lukewarm air laced with the scent of a cheap cinnamon air freshener and hand sanitizer. She closed her eyes and pressed her head against the steering wheel. If she had been new to this, she would have cried. She would have lashed out and beat her fists on the interior of her car until her hands were bruised. Now, there was only a sense of falling through thick, stifling air. It felt as if she couldn’t breathe. She’d just left a patient’s house. It was a routine homecare visi...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Untitled” by Corin Carpenter

Submitted to Contest #5

There was a buzz beneath his skin. Movement abated it, but the tremors of restlessness refused to cease. He’d already worn a ditch in his floor with his tireless pacing. It wasn’t enough. He found himself reaching for his keys, and was already walking out the door before he allowed himself time to consider that he needed to be out of bed by six the next morning.  As he sped down the road, it occurred to him more than once that this was a waste of gas, and that he was far above the speed limit. He hadn’t bothered to put his seat belt on,...

0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone who finds life meaning in an unexpected place.

Fiction – 34 stories

Write a story about two unlikely people falling in love.

Romance – 40 stories

Write a story about someone who decides to confront their fears head-on.

Character – 35 stories

Write a story about someone striving for a "comeback."

Adventure – 11 stories

Contest #5

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Ernest Hemingway

$50

Prize money

156

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 06, 2019 EST

Won by Yves. ♙ 🏆

Title: World Got Smaller

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!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢