Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write about a person experiencing the 'overview effect' (a feeling astronauts report having when they first view Earth from outer space).

Posted in Science Fiction on Nov 29, 2020

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?

✍️ 48 stories

Dissociate *Trigger Warning*

Submitted to Contest #39

That's not me. The person with contorted legs barely visible by the now deflated air bags. That's not me. The person whose head hit against the passenger window leaving a circular crack in the glass of the passenger door like a red spider web. That's not me. The limp frame that can not move. That's not me!The person slumped over the steering wheel, blood coated on olive skin like a new crimson overcoat. That' s not you. Moments ago when you were driving and we were singing. Before, when we had the radio blasting, vogueing to Top 40. Moments ...

51 likes 32 comments 32
Read story

Putting Earth on the Map

Submitted to Contest #39

"Why does the moon keep following me?" I began to ask with great curiosity"Ah, that's just an illusion you see!” my father began to explain, “the moon is so big and so far away, compared to you, it doesn't ever seem to move, which only makes it look like it's following you". Of course, for a child my age the concept of far-away was an hour’s walk to grandmother’s, who lived outside the city. I turned my back and began to power walk, looking briefly behind, hoping to stealthily escape its sinister omnipresence. It was still there.  ...

43 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

The best seat

Submitted to Contest #39

That view, I tell you I’m the lucky one. I’m the first to experience actually living on the terraformed planet Mars. It was my Great Grandfather who was one of the first to start transforming the red dustbowl into something that could sustain life. He and his buddies made several trips back to Mother Earth for supplies, they even mined asteroids for gold and silver, but more importantly copper and aqua too. Great Grandfather was in charge of gathering water from specially created Earth reserves and then extracting the same precious commodity...

19 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The man who wanted to go to space

Submitted to Contest #39

Alexander closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his stomach doing somersaults, nervous and excited at the same time. He heard the loudspeaker across the courtyard switch on.  A booming voice came from it. “Launch in thirty seconds.”  Alexander checked if his seat belt was securely fastened for the third time since he got in the spaceship. He gripped the armrests at his sides, trying to calm himself down. The astronaut took deep breaths, he had been waiting for so long to go to space. Ever since he was a kid, his dream was to be a...

17 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Somewhere Out There

Submitted to Contest #39

The windows rattled. A too familiar sway of fixtures lifted the Grand Counselor’s eyes upward as the Historian Laureate’s walking-on-marbles stride stopped by at last reaching and grabbing the podium. ‘Please begin,” commanded Director Zo “Over time, the top scientist on Venus noted that decreased volcanic eruption patterns corresponded with a declined rotation speed of the planet. While we were busy exploring space, our molten core depleted. In response, the planet slowed, wobbled, then came to a standstill. Eighty percent of our populati...

17 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Blue Marble

Submitted to Contest #39

The cold metal interior caresses my skin. I stiffly wriggle my bony hips, shifting them by an inch to the right. Drawing my lanky arms closer to my body, I organise my hands into an upside down ‘V’ under my pelvis in an effort to cushion by tailbone. All in small, mechanical motions. There is limited scope for movement. No matter how minimal, everything seems to translate into awkwardness. It does not take long for pearls of sweat to condense on the back of my thighs which are pushed tightly against the stainless steel-lined pod.Austin sense...

16 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The view from up here

Submitted to Contest #39

The view from up here. They are solemn. Peaceful. Obtrusively gentle. They are a finger tracing the runes of her spine. They are the hills climbing upon her back. A heart swelling over the edges like dough in the oven. A pair of light blue eyes. The narrow slits forming. The wide moon uncovered amongst grey skies. A girl with a red scarf boarding the ...

15 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Solo Flight

Submitted to Contest #39

So far as Jenna could remember, nobody had said, “You must be mad,” or “You’re joking!” – or at least, not to her face, when she had announced that she was going to take flying lessons and hoped to gain her private pilot’s license. But nor had anyone told her she was a natural and they weren’t remotely surprised and it was a wonder she hadn’t done it before. Her older sister Kaye had pointed out, in the way older sisters do, even when both sisters are in their fifties, that Jenna had needed three attempts to pass her driving test (...

14 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Prophecy of Old

Submitted to Contest #39

The rope chafed against Ezette’s hands as she slid down, leaving poppy-red and bone-white marks across her palms. She wasn’t holding the rough rope correctly, immersed in a particularly wonderful daydream involving lemoncream pastries and blackberry cider. The ground rushed up to meet her feet. She landed a bit sloppily, her knees buckling under her. Dark obsidian spires towered over them, holding the cavern aloft. A dim sconce sputtered to life. Ruelle’s face was surrounded by an orange glow. At the end of the cavern lay a dark mantle ...

14 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

A Heart of Stardust

Submitted to Contest #39

The young mother hummed as she rocked her child to sleep. From the window of her small hospital room, she could see the mass of star in the black expanse. She watched as one whizzed and danced across the sky, life so bright and fickle. “Nova Aurora,” She sounded softly, gazing at the heavens, “Bright and beautiful, just like my baby, my bright star light. Hush my darling, momma will always love you.” Tears began to slip down her cheeks, the thought of losing her beloved baby heart-wrenching, the thought of keeping her just as much so. A hars...

13 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Spilt Milk

Submitted to Contest #39

History speaks of the overview effect, which astronauts feel when seeing earth from space. Carl Sagan, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, they all understood. The earth is a fragile blue dot in the midst of an inexplicable universe. In 2160, this fragile blue dot was coming to an end, and the overview effect Mathew Gozen experienced was layered with dread. He sat, with a glum expression, sighing. Looking out of the window. All the tired, wrinkled old man could see, was a once great blue planet starting to burn up in flames, as dark clouds exploded...

12 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

For Sale

Submitted to Contest #39

I’m not certain why I responded to the ad. After all, I definitely, absolutely, did not have the space. My wife, children, dogs, and the cat would agree—and they’d do it all pressed up together in our very modest condo. I’d gotten the condo at a bargain deal. My wife did not appreciate that.Still, there I was, waiting at a local coffee shop for the man to arrive. I was excited. The way I used to get on Christmas Eve because my mother always told me what she’d gotten for me—which she’d done because she was excited as well.I ordered a coffee w...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Eagles Eye

Submitted to Contest #39

The magnificence of this mountaintop high in the clouds distracted my mind, gave me moments to think.  I sat now on the top most branches of a wind blown and  twisted Bristlecone Pine.  My mind reeling, I felt so out of control, it was as if every one  of my previous adventures had led me to this moment, this place, but I tremble violently realizing I am no longer in control!I look out from such a height that what I see is a world in miniature,  more correctly it is almost as if everything is microscopic.  But t...

11 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

Overview

Submitted to Contest #39

The fear electrified her fingers. She felt the prickle of urgency throughout her arms and legs. In training, she'd been taught to modulate herself, to notice when her heart began to race. "Our emotions interfere with our ability to think and problem solve," the trainer had said. "You must use techniques to calm yourself." For her, the most effective had been box breaths. She inhaled to a count of eight, held it to a count of eight, breathed out to a count of eight, and paused for eight before inhaling again. Then repeat. Then repeat ag...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Philosopher and Her Stones

Submitted to Contest #39

So… apparently there’s this situation, or feeling, called the overview effect. The first thing it made me think of when somebody (I don’t recall who it was but it’s not important anyway) described it to me was something horrific, on-the-edge-of-the-world=like, nauseating. Yes, I felt immediately sick to my stomach, dizzy, like I was about to fall off the edge of the earth. Major vertigo issues. All right, so I admit I’m afraid of heights, really afraid of them, and can end up with major panic attacks in airplanes if the going gets even the l...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

One day, the sun rose in the west and set in the east.

Fantasy – 72 stories

Write a story about a Google Street View driver.

Adventure – 39 stories

Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up at the stars.

Teens – 387 stories

Two people who thought they were the last people left on Earth end up meeting by chance.

Science Fiction – 147 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