WRITING PROMPTS #489: Flip the Script with Kate McKean ✏️

[Isabella Peralta]

Write a short story and WIN $250!

Flip the Script with Kate McKean ✏️ This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Kate McKean! This contest’s winner will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive personal feedback from Kate herself! Here's what she has to say about her takeover: Hi writers! I’m Kate McKean, and for around the past 20 years, I’ve been a literary agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. I’m also the author of Write Through It: An Insider’s Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life and the forthcoming picture book Pay Attention to Me, about a cat who wants to be famous. Having been on both sides of the table when it comes to writing and publishing books, I know just how hard it can be. I wrote five books before landing my first book deal, and what I’ve really benefited from is the perspective my experience has granted me.   This week’s theme is all about perspective. How does it look like from your eyes? And how does it look from another character’s? When I was writing my picture book, my editor suggested that I write it from the cat’s POV instead of his owner’s, and that changed everything. Sometimes, the best way to liven up a story or shake off writer’s block is to turn your story on its head and do the exact opposite of what your characters or readers expect. And you know what? It’s super fun, too.   Writers always ask what literary agents want to see in the slush pile, and us literary agents always say, “Something we’ve never seen before.” So, show me something I’ve never seen before. Zig when I think you’re going to zag. What if the hero doesn’t save the day? What if the underdog doesn’t want to win? What if the villain just needs a hug? These swerves and jukes won’t always work for your story (a romance still needs a HEA!), but the practice of writing them will open up new paths for you. And you never know — that might be the big surprise that agents, and your readers, are waiting for. Write from the POV of a pet or inanimate object. What do they observe that other characters don’t? Include a huge twist, swerve, or reversal in your story. Write from the POV of a character in a story who argues with their author, or keeps getting rewritten by their author. Leave your story’s ending unresolved or open to interpretation. Write a story with the aim of making your reader gasp. Compete for $250 and a spot in Prompted 💰 Reedsy challenges you to create a short story based on one of these prompts. The winner will be featured on Reedsy Prompts and receive $250 via PayPal! We’ll also consider your submission for a future issue of our lit mag, Prompted. (Grab a free digital copy of our past issues here!) The latest winner 🏆 Congrats to Michael Gattis! Their short story, "The Super Pals," is based on the prompt: "Include a secret group or society, or an unexpected meeting or invitation, in your story." You can read all 300 entries to the "Between the Stacks with The London Library" edition of our contest here. The details 🔎 Here’s the fine print for Prompts: choose one of our prompts from this week's contest. Write a short story between 1,000 and 3,000 words, submit it from your Reedsy Prompts profile, and pay the $5 entry fee before 11:59 p.m. EST on the 6th of February. See our Terms of Use and FAQ for other details. Pro tip: If you don’t want to submit to the contest, you can still post your story on your Prompts profile for free or join our Discord community to share your work with fellow writers! Looking forward to reading your stories, Isabella, Prompts Lead @ Reedsy P.S. Are you interested in going behind the scenes of the Reedsy Prompts contest as a judge? Head here for more information.

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