Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Start your story with someone discovering a photograph that has something written on the back.

Posted in Valentine's Day on Oct 25, 2022

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?

✍️ 196 stories

Please Don’t Judge Me

Submitted to Contest #103

Unlike most children, it took me quite a while to weed through the corrugated cardboard boxes that had been shipped to me after my mother’s death. They contained items that I imagine my other siblings had either not taken or simply not wanted. At its bottom, a pair of eyes were staring up at me. They belonged to Jesus. It did not look like the picture of Jesus had been drawn or painted; it possessed a photographic quality. But how in this world, if I may ask, could this ever be a photograph? On the back and in my mother’s distinctive and flo...

104 likes 31 comments 31
Read story

Lawn Darts

Submitted to Contest #103

Billy Putnam shot my dad in the butt with a BB gun. It was quite a feat, as nailing a middle aged man on a ladder cleaning out his rain gutters couldn’t have been easy all the way from the house next door—a house whose gutters were always full of old leaves and debris. My father’s screams of outrage brought my brother Sam and me tumbling right out of our backyard tent. The tent itself was a heavy canvas monstrosity, one held up with bent aluminum poles, yet perfect for us to play in. We’d been taking Polaroids, scrawling down dates and ...

81 likes 55 comments 55
Read story

Angel, Ava and My soon-to-be husband

Submitted to Contest #103

TW//drugs, murder and forced scene (Only mild)“Hello?” Max said.He didn’t know it was me. I smiled, picturing him frowning his beautifully gifted eyebrow.“Hey, Max,” I said.“Megan?”“Yes, it is me. What are you doing right now?” I said with a little girly voice. Lily who was checking her luggage tilt her head and raised her eyebrows, to which I responded with a wink.“I am at my apartment with my friends. We’re discussing our soon-to-be house,” he said excitedly which made me smile again. “Whose phone is this, by the way?”“It is Lily’s. We’re ...

55 likes 19 comments 19
Read story

Old Houses

Submitted to Contest #103

Old Houses “Guys, check out this weird picture.” “Is it a picture of your mom?” JD snarked, making his way over to his hunched-over friend. “Shut up, man. It’s probably a picture of your mom with how ugly this thing is.” Benson wiped off what dust he could on the old Polaroid picture before handing it over to his friend.   “Hey guys, it’s getting late. We should probably head out here soon. I think we’ve been here long enough.” Max’s voice came out higher and even more nasally than it normally was. Benson and JD rolled their...

48 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Tonight

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

It wasn’t English. Not Spanish either.  сегодня ночью.  Mira traced the faded characters with her little finger, a delicate touch she feared might make the photograph crumble. Yellow stained the edges. Between her fingers it felt like parchment, a scratchy sort of repulsion; she had to fight to keep from tossing the photo. The front was no better. She could barely make out the face in the old black-and-white, which by now was mostly white with age.  Towers stood tall behind the woman in the center of the photo. Even by a...

44 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Old friends

Submitted to Contest #103

I picked up the photo. It had something written on the back of it which read, "whenever you need me, you know where to find me." I turned the photo; it was a photo of me and my best friend, Dandre, playing in a park when we were small. I could feel a broad smile draw across my face. I grew up in London with my father and mother as the only child. Dandre was all I had for a brother and a friend. He always found everything I say funny, even the lamest of jokes. But when I was twelve, we moved to Manchester, and Dandre and I grew apart. It ...

39 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Explosive Scrunchie

Submitted to Contest #103

“Charlotte, Will, dinners ready!” my mom yelled to us upstairs.I closed my computer with a long sigh because I was almost done with my story.“One more minute!” Will yelled back downstairs. My brother was a huge fan of video games and just couldn’t stop playing them.“NO!” mom said.“Ughhhhh!Fine!”He said. I could hear his loud footsteps from all the way downstairs because he literally sounded like a herd of elephants.When he got downstairs he sat down but realized his food wasn’t there for him on the table.“Moooom,give me my food.” he yel...

38 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Affaires de Coeur

Submitted to Contest #103

When Mom died ten years ago, dad practically did too, even though the death certificate would list his official passing with today’s date. There are couples and then there are soulmates; mom and dad were the latter. They didn’t need to finish each other's sentences because they could converse without speaking. Theirs was a love story for the ages, which is why I am completely baffled at the picture I hold in my hands. I found it while cleaning out my dad’s dresser, in the bottom drawer hidden in a cigar box. It has to be at least 6...

38 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Sins and Sinners

A J

Submitted to Contest #103

“Secrets carry weight, like lead.” Iris inhaled the pleasant air which was ripe with the dewy petrichor of the post-rain evening. A cool breeze ruffled the leaves of nearby lofty mango trees, all of which were well endowed with succulent yellow mangoes. The sky was shades of pretty pink and purple pastels. Making her way down the narrow path between the tall trees, she recollected her memories with Dante, Isabelle, Rhett, and Jax; running along the shore, pushing each other in the sea, and dreaming about sailing the world one day. They w...

35 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Memories

Submitted to Contest #103

I gently tug the teak drawer and turn the pages of a hardcover album. Then, my hands slip onto a smooth and glossy photograph of my playful childhood. It took me back eleven years ago. The photograph fell with a sudden knock and as it hit onto the ground, the room completely transformed into the suspenseful environment in the picture with a sudden violent tremor. I felt that I was pulled into the image. I looked around and searched for my photograph. But, it was out of sight. I started to panic with fear. My heart pounded, my face turned pal...

28 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

A Flower From the Dust

Submitted to Contest #103

TW: suicidal ideation, terminal illness The lace on my shoe was untied. I bent down, tied it. I got up, looked around. I was not home. I was in a foreign town, in a foreign state. The air was different, I was different. I stuck my hand into my right back pocket. There I carried a photograph. For good luck, I guess. On the front side was my hometown sunken in glorious colors of sunset. It was a nice photo, but it didn't mean as much to me as the back side of it did. There, in my handwriting, stood:   “You will see great sorrow, and in th...

26 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Cat Got It Easy

Submitted to Contest #103

The box landed with a solid thud. “Careful!” “Bloody hell, April!” Ian kicked the box, and then started hopping when he stubbed his toe. “What have you got in here, gold bars? Please tell me it’s gold bars. Anything to get back some of that stupid Stamp Duty.” April yelled back from the other room. “Uh, will you cool it about the Stamp Duty? Seriously, how have you never heard of it before?” “Maybe because no one in my family ever owned their own house,” Ian muttered under his breath. He knew that tone of voice from April; it was the...

25 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Rays of Hope

Submitted to Contest #103

 The sun fought to enter the room. The windows were shut but the curtains were drawn aside. Sunlight flooded the room, and I stared out of the window, still wrapped in bed. It was early morning after a sleepless night. It had been impossible for me to stop myself from recalling the night exactly ten years ago:I ran and ran, as fast as my little legs could take me. My bag swayed on my back, my ponytail dangled on my head and my eyes were fixed on the road that lay ahead. My heart was thumping in my chest, clearly audible in the silence o...

25 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Traces

Submitted to Contest #103

Faded photographs, covered now with lines and creases… ~ Classics IV, “Traces” (1969) Mara was surprised when the words from that old song popped into her head. She was surprised in part because she was looking, not at a set of photographs, but at just one photograph. She thought momentarily about the difference, and concluded there was one and that it might be a crucial one. The framed image before her didn’t seem to be faded, either. Nevertheless, the photograph looked a bit like it was faded simply because it was old.  "Doe...

24 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Beneath the Canals

Submitted to Contest #103

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, I tied the boat in front of the boarded up door. At one time every canal in the city would be alive with noise, criss-crossed with drying clothes, bedsheets and banners. I needn’t have worried. With so many houses left empty and boarded up the canal was silent save for one lone laundry line flapping in the light breeze. Nonetheless, I wanted to avoid being seen. People would think I was breaking into a historic building and causing yet more damage to the city of Venice. They would never belie...

24 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character looking for a sign.

Fluff – 152 stories

An apparent coincidence occurs. Write a story about a character who suspects paranormal, spiritual, or criminal causes.

Horror – 128 stories

Write a story where a character runs into someone they’ve seen in their dreams, or enters a building they’ve dreamt about before.

High School – 230 stories

Write a story about someone who starts noticing the same object or phrase wherever they go.

Thriller and Suspense – 105 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