Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Center your story around an author, editor, ghostwriter, or literary agent.

Posted in Short Story on May 23, 2025

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?

✍️ 62 stories

Fan Letter

Submitted to Contest #304

There was something about the way that she wrote that letter that made me stop in my tracks from the mailbox to my house. I was just about to pack it all in, to stop writing all together. The pain of never quite knowing what I’d have to do to write something to get noticed, to get published again, was eating away at me. Natalie. Her name is Natalie. How beautiful it is, the way it rolls off the tongue just so. She likes my work. Found it somewhere over across the pond, somewhere in America, a somewhere I know the exact address of because she...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Pioneering Words: The Life and Legacy of Irene Silverstein

Submitted to Contest #304

The faint scent of lilies and something vaguely metallic, like old pennies, clung to the air. I was maybe three, four years old, clinging to my great-grandmother's arm. A woman that was tall and elegant, with curly silver hair, and large round glasses. She smiled, a smile that reached her eyes, and offered me a small, sugared almond. I remember the feeling of the smooth shell, the sweet taste, but not her face. She was a fleeting image, a whisper of a memory, quickly swallowed by the bustling, echoing space of family gatherings. I never knew...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Future Unwritten

Submitted to Contest #304

He awoke slowly that day. One of the few times in the last four years. The fog in his brain, parting just enough for consciousness to percolate in like a cup of coffee. As it dripped and dropped him back to the realm of the living, pain was close behind.His head pounded like an artillery piece as he wrestled his eyes open. The ceiling light blinded him, adding to his discomfort. With his senses now being kicked back into working order, now that his eyes were temporarily disabled, he could feel the cold stone beneath him. It was surprisingly ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Ghost Writer

Submitted to Contest #304

I always wanted to be a writer. Words came easily and I enjoyed playing with them. I was blessed with a facility for both clever repartee and for debate. And I was reasonably good looking - definitely a plus for the back cover of a book. Throughout college I envisioned studios contacting me and vying for the rights to produce my latest thriller. Season One – Ten Episodes. It would be a hit, leading to who knows how many seasons after that. I didn’t age in my fantasies. I also didn’t do a lot of creative writing.Turned out I am good at resear...

6 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Immortality

Submitted to Contest #304

September. A dusty classroom. Desks covered with inked labels of rock bands and declarations of love. The teacher slouches in her chair – exhaustion in her eyes. She gazes into the distance, into the world beyond reality. A World Literature textbook – bought used – interprets the thoughts of the greatest minds, leaving no room for debate. Dostoevsky, the giant of darkness, the mighty philosopher, stares at you from the worn page. His lips move as if trying to tell you something.October. The leaves on the trees behind the classroom window die...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Flight 257

Submitted to Contest #304

Flight 257 It wasn’t unusual for a dense fog to linger at this airstrip. The location provided the right seasonal atmosphere for such a haze. What was strange it was positioned above Lindsay’s flight without moving. Lindsay Monarch, an aspiring author, landed a major book deal with Vanning Publishing in New York City, promising a five-figure advance. Her eight years of hard work were a flight away from stardom. The thick fog might cause a delay. As she walked to the plane for boarding, a hoodie covered her sandy-colored hair, hiding her pony...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Ralph Taylor Sucks

Submitted to Contest #304

Ralph Taylor SucksBy Maria Paloma Herrera It’s a somewhat bleak existence, living at home with your parents, whose raisin bran cereal and velcro orthopedic shoes serve as an omen of their imminent descent into elderhood. They’re getting old. So am I. Somehow, I can’t remember what life was like not living here. Although I did move out for a time after college, my Jeux de Vive or whatever concoction of Axe body spray and potential that oozed out of my pores got sucked out and coughed back up by an all-you-can-eat academic mentality and a br...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Space Between Pages

Submitted to Contest #304

Fate, some say, can hold the power to thread through our existence with a ghostly purpose, a delicate thread, secretly moving with quiet hands that stitch along the seams of our lives. Toiling in the shadows as we push forward, silently weaving tapestries of tiny, intricate moments that have the ability to bind all the wandering souls who were always meant to find each other. But does it exist? For Calvin, a thirty-one-year-old senior book editor, fate had always been something he edited out of manuscripts—call him skeptical or immune to the...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

What Occurred At Haukstrǫnd House On An Autumn Afternoon—1865

Submitted to Contest #304

Mister Jonas Harkstreader set the pages of the manuscript down on his desk. He exhaled a deep, exasperated breath. “Mister Groschinger—or Herr Groschinger, if you prefer. This...this cat is going to take the little girl to the Moon, of all places—on a pirate ship, of all things? Are you even aware that the Moon is a quarter of a million miles from the Earth? Moreover, there is no wind to blow the sails, on account of there being no air in those rarefied regions!” He knew that Kyric Groschinger hailed from one of the states of Germany, but wh...

5 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Maiden Voyage

Submitted to Contest #304

Sydney contemplated which task would be a better use of her time: Organizing her all-read inbox, or brewing herself a fourth cup of coffee. Both tasks would kill her, if done long enough.Well, I’m only supposed to drink coffee when I’m writing, Sydney thought. But that hasn’t stopped me so far… It had been a few weeks since she’d received an inquiry from a prospective client, and needless to say, she was running out of ways to procrastinate. Her apartment was spotless, her bills were paid, and her cat had gained a good five pounds of owner’s...

5 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Lyle gets an agent

Submitted to Contest #304

Lyle was Restless he sat at the table with paper and pencils and pins scattered across it. He reached for his phone, once again he came back with a silver plated pocket watch. He liked the watch, but he couldn’t google “how to fill a fountain pen” on it. He wondered if he would ever get used to not having the world at his fingertips. “When will ballpoint pens be invented?” He addressed a stack of wooden pencils and pencil sharpener; picked up a pencil and began to writeOctober 24, 1922I arrived suddenly in 1922 from 2023. I entered the Witne...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Dream Within A Dream

Submitted to Contest #304

Content warning: This story contains themes of violence, historical trauma (slavery), and psychological horrorPenny, in her black frock coat and a copper ponytail dangling under her tricorn hat, sat in the bow of the Raven’s whaleboat as the crew rowed underneath the clipper’s bowsprit and raven figurehead and toward the foul-smelling brig motionless in the water ahead of her. Light from the bright full moon danced amid the rippling tidewater of the Chesapeake Bay.Boarding pike in hand, she ducked as the crew tossed a boarding net over the v...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

In The Wee Hours

Submitted to Contest #304

Sarah pulled up and parked, thoroughly disenchanted. Another shift, another round of idiots and zombies to entertain. She looked up at the neon sign, which read “wik-E-Mart”, as the “K” had given up long ago. Much the same as she had. No fireworks or big saga, just quietly stopped working when no one else was looking. She sighed, thinking to herself this tired internal monologue of hers really needed to get a life.She moved as if she was a zombie herself, scanning items and taking payments, completely lackluster and barely there. Low mumbled...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

I'm Not Afraid of Anyone I Write Into Existence

Submitted to Contest #304

Content Warning: This story contains strong language, graphic imagery related to death and decomposition, psychological tension, and themes of emotional and psychological manipulation. Reader discretion is advised. BAM, BAM, BAM!"Open up! I know you're in there!""What the heck?" I muttered, jerking my neck toward the sound.BANG! BANG! "Writer Girl, I said open the door!"My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I contemplated ignoring the knock and finishing my next book, All About Geoff, or stopping to answer the door.THUD… THUD, THUD! "Dang....

4 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

An Author's Strife

Submitted to Contest #304

Eliza sat in a coffee shop as she waited for her boyfriend, Nigel, to come. She stirred her coffee as she looked around. The noise of the people talking was almost deafening, and she was wondering if she would even be able to hear anything Nigel wanted to say, and vice versa.“Hey.” Nigel finally arrived and put his backpack onto the seat next to him. “How was your day?”She shrugged and brought her cup to her lips. “Nothing happened. I’ve been trying to find anything to inspire me to write. As usual, my mind is completely empty.”He hummed and...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in which the first and last words are the same.

Short Story – 99 stories

Write about someone who can only find inspiration (or be productive) at night.

Short Story – 58 stories

Center your story around a character facing a tight deadline.

Dramatic – 40 stories

Set your story in a writing class, workshop, or retreat.

Short Story – 39 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