WRITING PROMPTS #498: From the Ashes with Michael McConnell 🔥

[Isabella Peralta]

Write a short story and WIN $250!

From the Ashes with Michael McConnell 🔥 This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Reedsy freelancer Michael McConnell. The winner of this contest will not only be awarded $250 — they’ll also receive ten hours of copyediting services from Michael! For your chance to get insight from a Reedsy professional, read on! Hello, writers! I'm Michael McConnell, a published author and a freelance copy editor for three of the Big Five publishing houses. And of course, I’ve been a Reedsy professional since 2017. I've dedicated my career to helping other writers strengthen their craft and produce highly polished manuscripts. When I’m not editing, I’m reading for pleasure — and one of my favorite genres is post-apocalyptic fiction. This popular genre lets us explore human resilience and ethics: tales that test characters' limits, highlighting the strength of the human spirit and the moral choices made under high-stakes conditions. These stories often examine societal rebuilding: they allow writers to imagine how new societies are built from the ashes, and what values or technologies from the old world are worth saving. Through post-apocalyptic fiction, we can explore different kinds of fears — such as pandemics, environmental collapse, or nuclear war — in an imaginary space out of harm’s way, while also offering readers escapism and the chance to experience extreme scenarios from a safe distance. This week’s prompts are inspired by post-apocalyptic fiction. You can write in any genre for this contest, but try to keep some post-apocalyptic themes in mind as you craft your stories, whether they be survival, preservation, resilience, the loss of technology, or rebirth. Good luck! Write a story from the POV of a monster, infected creature, or lone traveler. Start your story with the line: “Today is April 31.” Write a post-apocalyptic love story. Your protagonist makes a difficult choice made for the sake of survival. What happens next? Write a story about someone who gets lost or left behind. 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 Saifullah Usmani! Their short story, "Blindsight," is based on the prompt: "Center your story around someone who finally achieves their biggest goal — only to realize it cost them everything." You can read all 462 entries to the "The Lie They Believe with Abbie Emmons" 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 April 10. 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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