Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Weekly Prompts Contest
Reedsy Literary Prize
Magazine
FAQ

“Write from the POV of a character in a story who argues with their author, or keeps getting rewritten by their author.”

Posted in Angst on Jan 30, 2026

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?

✍️ 79 stories

Another Wednesday Morning

Weekly Contest #340

-Wednesday morning. Another Wednesday morning. Aw hell… I’m afraid to write. I mean, seriously. I’m actually afraid to write. I’m such a fraud. Why am I like this? Why am I at all? Travis said, as if he was speaking to the dog. Olive was his strength, though ironically she too was traumatized, and he loved her so much because she was perhaps the only thing as fragile as him. -Stop that! What are you doing? Travis patted his lap and the shaggy gray dog with the big, sad, soulful eyes walked from the mattress of the bed straight to him, sittin...

5 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Character Who Was Writing Herself

Weekly Contest #340

The character believed the future was something separate from them. Something hidden.Something distant.Something waiting to be discovered. They imagined it like a locked room in a house they hadn’t reached yet — a door they would one day open and suddenly understand everything. Who they were. Why they were here. What their life meant. Where they were going. So they searched for it. Not forward — but backward. They searched through memories, old choices, old dreams, old prayers, old versions of themselves. They treated the past like evidence,...

4 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Unwritten

Weekly Contest #340

In that moment, the space between us became a diving board suspended over the infinite abyss of possibility, and his eyes, god, his eyes, were pools of liquid sapphire, glimmering with starlight and quiet allure. Wait. No. Stop. Really? His eyes are blue. That’s it. Blue. Like 10% of the actual population and 99.6% of the fictional population. You gave me blue eyes, too. I shudder to think how you’d describe them from his POV. And it’s pissing down with rain. Why did we leave the sheltered pub to have this conversation? Especially after you ...

4 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Murder at the Manor?

Weekly Contest #340

The tension rose in the room at the prospect of the imminent reveal, the atmosphere thick with suspicion and fear. Candles flickered, almost mocking the six assembled guests. They knew what was coming; someone’s fate is about to change forever. The rain outside suddenly fell hard, clattering against the windows of the old Manor like machine gun fire, startling some of those seated around the old, wooden dining table. Wind rattled the bushes, and the trees shook violently from one side to the other. Five of the guests were sat in a horseshoe ...

4 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Rose

Weekly Contest #340

The lights were blinding. The noise was deafening. The crowd was all out of their seats, yelling and cheering, their hands in the air. Jett Jones stood before it all, sweat rolling down his forehead, sticking his cut open shirt to his chest. His ring wrapped fingers clutched the microphone in front of him and the whole crowd heard him take a breath, a slow inhale that had all of them tense in anticipation. He waited one beat, two, and then he bent at the waist just as the music crashed over the stadium, a scream tearing from his lips that sc...

4 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Marginalized

Weekly Contest #340

I woke up with a different name this morning. That happens more often than you’d think. Yesterday I was called Martin. The day before that, Elias. For a confusing hour last Thursday I was “Detective Grimsby,” complete with a limp and a tragic backstory involving a dockyard fire. None of it stuck. Today I am Adrian Vale, which I rather like. It sounds solid. Dependable. The sort of man who owns at least one tasteful coat. I know all of this because my author can’t make up her mind. Most characters, I suspect, are born finished. They arrive on...

4 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

How To Murder Morris Jones?

Weekly Contest #340

I stood on the poop deck of The Red Wake with the sun on my face, the wind filling the main sail and the deep blue under the keel. It’s a great day to be alive, and an even better day to be a pirate. On my left, manning the wheel, is the greatest man I’ve ever known. Captain Lucius Rutherfield read the sextant like he was born to it, marking our latitude on a map. He grinned at me, his perfect teeth dazzling, his dimples bringing out a cheeky gleam in his eye. “Morris, matey, this is gonna be the biggest haul yet!” he said, slapping me on th...

4 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Lost In The Edit

Weekly Contest #340

Lost In The Edit By Bonnie Gerstenlauer The rain was a persistent drummer, beating a rhythm on the grimy asphalt of the alley. It was a rhythm Jack Malone knew well. It was the rhythm of secrets, of late-night deals gone wrong, of a city that never washed clean, no matter how hard the heavens wept. The neon sign from "The Blue Dahlia" bar flickered, casting a sickly pink glow on the wet brickwork and the unfortunate stiff lying at his feet. Classic case. A dame, a deal, a .38 caliber goodbye. Jack knelt, the brim of his fedora dripping, an...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Contessa Leans a Lesson

Weekly Contest #340

Hey, good morning, I’m Benedict Rollings, author of over one hundred children’s books. I have delivered more than my share of happily ever after endings than any other author I know. I don’t wish to brag, but I just can’t help it. So, my agent once asked me, “Ben, how have you come up with so many successful publications?” Well, Ken, I told him, I have been blessed with a very active imagination where I feel as if I have a personal relationship with all of my pro and antagonists. Then he raised an eyebrow and asks, “Has any of your character...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

A Harrowing Walk Home

Weekly Contest #340

A Harrowing Walk Home Priscilla stepped outside and breathed in the stifling summer heat. She’d finished her shift in the kitchen at Nick’s Diner and looked forward to a relaxing evening at home. Her favorite show was on the telly tonight, and she'd make it there just in time.Yet something was troubling her as she stood alone in the back alley just behind Nick's.“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” she said to no one in particular. “But my resume’ is a bit sparse on the grittier roles. Can we start this over? With a bit more pizzazz?”-----Thu...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Her Deity

Weekly Contest #340

"For the love of Granithor," Emeline moaned, gazing at her hair in the silver mirror, "it's blue now?""Actually," the author said apologetically, standing at her elbow with her writing tools in her hands, "Granithor isn't the name of your god anymore."Emeline turned on her author, her mouth open. "Pray tell me, Linda, what is his name, then?"Linda shifted, her pencil tapping on her notebook, "Well, now it's a she, and her name is ... Actually, I don't know yet. But Granithor seemed too ... dark. Now that's your archnemesis' name.""My arch—" ...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Listen to Me

Weekly Contest #340

Music blared out the speakers as my friends and I jammed out to some random pop song no one ever heard of. The car pulled to a stop and Julia swung-Wait. ‘Julia?’ Seriously? Could you think of a more boring name, please? Switch it up, dude! I thought we just were getting closer to doing it the correct way, not all of this silly nonsense. It took you five days to just write the ‘buying the dress’ scene. I think it’s time to listen to my ideas. Fix her name!Music blared out the speakers as my friends and I jammed out to some random pop song no...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Begin at the Beguining

Weekly Contest #340

—Don’t do that!—Lisa looked around, confused. She was seated at a small, round table in the window of her favorite coffee shop. Her battered laptop was open in front of her. She had a half-filled diner mug at her side.—Seriously—Again, she glanced to her right and left. There was a violet-haired woman wearing emerald headphones leaning against the wall. An older man with an inordinate amount of packages under his table was shoving a croissant into his mouth as fast as she’d ever seen anyone eat. She realized the words were coming from her co...

4 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Darling, I Am No Spirit

Weekly Contest #340

The ice cracks beneath my bare feet. The cold biting into my skin. But that doesn’t matter. As I would rather fall into the cold watery depths of the lake then - - Don’t be silly, you have much more fire than that I shake my head, I don’t. I wish I did, I wish my story would end in a more graceful happy way. But as the cracks spiderweb underneath me and I look down and see that dark water underneath I just know that I’ll - - You won’t die, I’m not going to let you I run faster, letting my footsteps fall heavier as if daring the ice to fal...

4 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Pantser Pandemonium

Weekly Contest #340

Pantser PandemoniumOnce upon a time…“Oh, my god. So cliché. I’m gonna barf.”Um… freaking out here. Who are you?“Your book, stupid. I’m tired of you always taking shortcuts, writing without any forethought.”Okay. Wow. Ahem… There once was a man named Bob.“Come on! Start with action! Draw me in!”I’m getting a little intimidated here…“Do you want to be a writer, or not?”Yes.“Continue, then. If I had a foot, I’d be tapping it.”Okay. Action. Bob raised his sword and dove headlong into the melee.“Go on…”The evil giant, Jim…“Jim? Fingers scraping o...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write from the POV of a pet or inanimate object. What do they observe that other characters don’t?

– 132 stories

Include a huge twist, swerve, or reversal in your story.

– 72 stories

Leave your story’s ending unresolved or open to interpretation.

– 85 stories

Write a story with the aim of making your reader gasp.

– 38 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