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
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

← All contests

#337 Beyond Reach with Kobo

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with our friends over at Kobo! In addition to receiving the usual Prompts top prize of $250, the winner of this takeover will also be given two special bonus prizes: a Kobo Clara Colour eReader and a Kobo Remote Control! Find out more below...

Hello from Kobo Writing Life! We’re Rakuten Kobo’s self-publishing platform, favoured by independent authors all over the world. KWL is a small, author-friendly team with a big vision — we want to help authors reach more digital readers no matter where in the world they are, or how they want to read.

Recently at Kobo, we launched our Kobo Remote Control, which allows readers to turn pages from afar and stay in their story, uninterrupted! Using that as our inspiration, our theme for this contest is “Beyond Reach.”

Let your creativity soar with the five prompts below and explore themes of distance, time, and yearning for something just out of reach. In addition to the usual $250 prize, the winner of our special takeover will receive their very own Kobo Clara Colour and Kobo Remote Control!

Special Update: The Results 🏆

Kobo Writing Life's top pick for their takeover was "The Bends" by Nina Chyll. Here's what they had to say about it:

The story's world building is excellent, and we were completely hooked by the premise. The twists kept us fully engaged — the author created a perfect blend of suspense and longing, and the messaging format added perfectly to the way the story unfolded.

Congratulations to contest winner Nina Chyll and the runners-up, Tori Jackson and Madi M!

This week's prompts

Write about a character who can rewind, pause, or fast-forward time.

Short Story – 59 stories

Center your story around a long-distance relationship (familial, romantic, platonic, etc.).

Character – 41 stories

Write about a character in search of — or yearning for — something or someone.

Dramatic – 109 stories

Set your story on a remote island, a distant planet, or somewhere faraway and forgotten.

Short Story – 88 stories

Write a story that includes (or is inspired by) the phrase “Almost is never enough” or “So close, yet so far.”

Short Story – 50 stories

Stories

Expected Variance

Submitted to Contest #337

[Trigger Warning: Profanity] A film of fine, gunmetal-hued dust coated everything. It burrowed into his pores, broke apart along the chasm of wrinkles framing his mouth, and clung to his throat.It tasted, strangely, of bubblegum.The room was dim when his eyelids peeled apart, scattering sift from his eyelashes in an ashen cloud. It was always dim.The thin light of the far-away star spilled through his shade-less windows like weeping watercolor—desaturated and lifeless.“Morning,” he said aloud to the empty room; coughed. His voice was loud in...

15 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Probabilities of Meaning

Submitted to Contest #337

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of my imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Simone Ridgeway’s No Ordinary Future wins the 2026 University of South London (USL) Prize Born in Hampshire and now living in Glasgow, this is her debut work. As the first winner of its kind, No Ordinary Future builds upon the world established by children’s author David Wainwright in The Ordinal (1994). It was published sequenti...

15 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Sade’s Orange Coat

Submitted to Contest #337

The orange fur coat radiated vitality and energy in contrast to the drab and colourless charity shop window display. It demanded the attention of every browsing passerby, even the blind would feel its radiating magnetic presence. Out of place in its surroundings, nonetheless a majestic, and magnificent display of bright inspiring colour, the orange fur coat shone and brightened not only the shop window display, but it also shone for longer in the memory of all the passing pedestrian traffic. When Sade passed the shop window on the way to wor...

14 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

THE CHRONO-NEURAL PROJECT

Submitted to Contest #337

PART ONE: THE RESEARCH LABThe research laboratory on Proxima B hummed with the sound of industrial machinery—welding torches, drills cutting through the newest metal alloys, and the constant whir of cooling systems struggling to manage the heat output from the massive temporal capsule under construction. Trams Eno stood before the observation window, his sixteen-year-old face reflected in the reinforced glass, watching the interns and engineers crawl over their metal monstrosity."It's never going to work," he muttered.Behind him came the hea...

14 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

The Silent Knowledge

Submitted to Contest #337

Marc Whitmore had spent three years, two months, and some days in Riverside Psychiatric Hospital, though he'd stopped counting somewhere around the middle of the third year. The white walls that had once seemed blindingly sterile now felt oddly comforting in their predictability, like old friends who never changed their minds about you. The medication schedules had become as natural as breathing—8 AM, 2 PM, 8 PM—little paper cups filled with pills in varying shades of blue and white, swallowed down with lukewarm water from a plastic cup that...

14 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Forty Minutes between Us

Submitted to Contest #337

For nine years the road was the shape of us. Forty minutes of two‑lane highway through deep East Texas—pines and radio static, no curb, no city lights—no wifi, became the familiar. Loving him was never the hard part. Keeping us - required ritual, repetition, and a refusal to let absence become silence.We treated time like currency and learned to budget it. Friday arrival was a single line—Poppy I'm so glad you're here—that ended the scramble and started the weekend. Saturday had a sacred hour—no phones, no nothing—where we talked about every...

14 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Archivist of Regrets

Submitted to Contest #337

Content Warning: This story contains themes of death, grief, emotional loss, and existential identity dissolution. Everyone has something to regret, at least once in their life. Someone has said words that must have been left unsaid. Another has remained silent when they should have spoken. Another has taken a wrong step that they have pursued their whole life, convinced that there is no turning back.Regret does not just appear like that; it accumulates and settles until it becomes a burden that, over time, you begin to feel like a part of ...

14 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Keeper of the Light

Submitted to Contest #337

A lonely lighthouse stood on a jagged cliff. A solitary point in a vast sea, weathered by time. The structure, tall and grey, seemed abandoned during the day, a mute witness to the water’s treachery. But every night, as the sun disappeared on the horizon, the light inside the tower came to life. Within its crumbling walls lived a girl.For as long as she could remember, the girl had lit the beacon each night, though no ship had passed in years.She spent her nights watching the Fresnel lens capture the light and turn, casting it through the fo...

14 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Mother of Dreams

Submitted to Contest #337

He was already at the coffee shop when I entered. In spite of never having met him before, I knew it was he instantly. There was an uncanny sense of looking in a mirror, of seeing myself but with a different hairstyle. He must have had the same sense, because he stood as soon as I walked in and reached out his hand. “Michael Winston,” he said, a small shake in his voice. “Elizabeth Alston,” I replied, feeling the sweaty grip of his hand. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” he asked. I nodded, and he went to the counter. I don’t even know why I...

14 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Orbit

Submitted to Contest #337

James Miller settled into the cockpit, restraints secured and final checks complete. He drew a ragged breath as his radio crackled.“Odyssey, this is Mission Control. We are go for launch. Do you copy?”James tightened his grip on the handles, his heart racing with anticipation. “Copy that. Systems green. Ready for launch.”“Odyssey, launch sequence initiated. Godspeed, James.” The launch controller took over and began the countdown.“Ten…” A soft hum vibrated through the capsule. James felt the engines begin to stir, rumbling quietly beneath hi...

14 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

We Are Programmed to Receive

Submitted to Contest #337

The captain waved, rusted joints screeching like a seagull struggling to do push-ups.Vergil Warren nodded. These bots were as good as people, no matter what human rights activists might proclaim. He ought to pay them a little respect. Especially considering he didn’t pay them at all. That was one aspect where the robot worker had an advantage over the flesh-and-blood kind. He waved back.The captain beckoned him to the boat.The captain didn’t need to tell Vergil twice. Hell, he didn’t need to tell him at all. He owned the damn thing – and the...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Fiber, Fountains, and Fortysomethings

Submitted to Contest #337

I’m not quite sure when it happened, but at some point along the way, I became the kind of person who carries Tums in her purse, keeps nourishing moisture hand cream on her work desk, and Metamucil Fiber On The Go packets scattered everywhere in between. I became (cue suspenseful music)…old. Old age has crept in quietly, yet all the signs are there. In abundance. Have I just not noticed until now? It just can’t be ignored anymore. I mean, I just broke a molar while eating a soft peppermint. Soft! At this point, my dentist has added a n...

13 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Long Distance Call

Submitted to Contest #337

The clarity of the call amazed me. I hadn’t been sure the connection would work, but there she was, positively beaming from the screen.“I’m so proud of you, Ronnie,” she said. “But I miss you.”“I miss you, too, honey. And the kids. How are they doing?”“Well, Molly’s front tooth came out all by itself. She was so afraid I was going to take her to the dentist.”“Is the Tooth Fairy going to be generous?”“You better believe it. And Kyle got the lead in the play. He’s so proud. Offered to give me his autograph yesterday.”“Hey, now.” I laughed. “Ta...

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Under the Cherry Blossom

Submitted to Contest #337

She stood beneath the cherry blossom, wearing her wings.Just like the tree, she stood alone among a meadow of sprawling white flowers.Her wings faded as I approached her from behind. She turned her head, silver hair undulating in the wind.‘GoblinSlayer686’ floated above her head. “What’s wrong? Too scared to fly today, Dee?” I teased. “Why do I need to fly when I’ve got you to carry me, Reid.”She stuck her tongue out, then started laughing. Then she transformed her face into a troll. “Hey Dee, don’t forget our avatars are replicas of our tru...

13 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

No moonlight on the moon

Submitted to Contest #337

Content Advisory: brief, non-graphic mention of off-page suicide Mama moved us to the moon when I was ten. I don't know if she was trying to follow Daddy to heaven’s doorstep or if she was desperate to escape the soil that fed on his flesh. I do know she spent every dollar in our pocket to buy our way here. Colony 343, a lunar purgatory carved into a labyrinth of caves near the edge of Cressida Canyon. “Willa?” I'm pulling on my moonsuit when Mama comes around the corner from her studio, clad in coveralls splattered with grey and black....

13 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

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
RBE | Dreamer Illustration | 2025-09

Try the ultimate app for dreamers

Plan. Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. All for free.