Write a story about someone breaking a long family tradition.

Posted in Angst on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 170 stories

“Breaking free” by Jane Gachambi

Submitted to Contest #57

“Why are you here? Couldn’t you send her with your mother instead? This is a women affair. How are you going to handle screams and that labor ward with nude women?” asked one hefty nurse. I had gone to the nurse station looking for someone who could assist my wife of ten months deeply trapped in labor, screaming, and scaring me stiff. “No. I can handle it. Not everybody has a mother. Don’t you have male nurses here?” I asked with a voice that was tucked between sadness and rage. All of them turned to look at me including those who wer...

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“Canvas” by Ricky Mae Sutphen

Submitted to Contest #57

When it comes to career, each and everyone in this family has theirs planned out before they were even born. Everybody is required to become a soldier to protect and live for the country. I mean, that’s not bad, but what about me? My dreams of being an artist. Here I am seated in front of a blank canvas. A paintbrush at hand. Cans full of various colors and my wild imagination. These are everything that I need to create for my masterpiece. A masterpiece that would tell my life story to every person who looks at it. I want them to k...

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“Ascensión” by Noel Thomas

Submitted to Contest #57

It is a strange feeling seeing your own grave. I came back to see my family, but they won’t know me. They’ll simply see an old man with a slight Spanish accent. It is only a slight accent because although I am fluent in English, I still held onto my beautiful Spanish language. Language is a key in preserving our culture, but we were told that we must assimilate to be successful.I continue wandering around the memorial park and suddenly I see my family. My heart is overwhelmed with grief and awe. They are having a service remembering my wife ...

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“Tradition ” by Lee Doe

Submitted to Contest #57

I do not want to get married today. Was it a little late to be deciding that? No, it was never too late. I must believe that. The music gained in volume, almost tauntingly, ‘The wedding march’. I have been to enough weddings to know that this song had such a deep meaning. A new beginning, the start of a new life with the person you love, the person you want to spend the rest of your time with, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. To me, it seemed the complete opposite, a chain, a noose tied around my neck, closi...

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“Meeting Son-in-law” by Benny Njuguna

Submitted to Contest #57

He reads the text for the third time. Finally, my daughter will get married, he says to himself, almost in a whisper. She'll have a family of her own. A smile spreads on his face at that thought only to be fade quickly in a few seconds. In its stead, a sad expression engulfs the once radiant face. "I'll miss you, my dear daughter," he says in a low voice. His thoughts are interrupted by a tap on the door. "Come in," he says. A middle-aged woman enters, holding several files on one hand. "Here are the files you requested, Sir." "Thank yo...

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“The Reading” by Moji Sola

Submitted to Contest #57

The fire crackled, releasing embers into the air. The breeze was biting, but mother and daughter didn’t notice as they huddled close together. The daughter, a seven-year-old, dark-haired with black eyes, like that of an eagle, huddled even closer to her mother. Her mother wrapped her even tighter. A fly could not survive, had it gotten in their middle. “The mosquitos are biting, mom”, the child complained, looking up to her mother. “I’m sorry, sweetie. It will soon be over, don’t worry”, the mother crooned, stroking her daughter’s back. “I d...

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“Para Bellum” by Hanya T

Submitted to Contest #57

She thought about the waves, the way they caressed her skin and willed them to push her, higher and higher. Soon, she was eye level with the human, and she was a vision to behold. The scales on her face rippled with excitement, their golden and emerald hues glittering under the moonlight. Adria took in a deep breath and closed her eyes allowing the scent of the man to wash over her; she could feel his aura pulsating in the air around her, as if his very essence were calling to her. The loud hissing behind her stopped, and the air became s...

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“Resignation” by Chris Slade

Submitted to Contest #57

I can’t do this anymore. Have you ever thought you were born to the wrong family? That you didn’t belong? I meet a lot of people through the family business. Some of the people I’ve met believed they were born into the wrong body. A woman in a man’s body, a boy in a girl’s. I even met a unicorn in a woman’s body. Even stranger? He was a male unicorn. Don’t ask me how that’s possible, I’m no expert. I don’t even believe in unicorns, after all, I would’ve seen one by now. But I take people for their word. Who am I to call them a liar? I’ve m...

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“Legacy” by Sara Blanch

Submitted to Contest #57

“ You are going to be attending the audition and that’s the end of it. I don’t want to hear another word about it...you are a Leole. A Leole!” Her grandmother’s voice reached that high, shrieky tone that always made her erupt in goosebumps, something only her grandmother and her mother could do to her. Even the high pitched nasal voices of her stereotypical engineer classmates couldn’t irritate her the way her family members could.That’s all her life was lately...either avoiding arrogant young male engineers with the personalities of wet pap...

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“The Bloodline: Witches, Vamps and Other Ghastly Girls ” by Julie Good

Submitted to Contest #57

The Kolgrim bloodline flows from generation to generation, bestowing on the new both the achievements and transgressions of the old. With each new generation of Kolgrim witches that chooses to accept the destiny of their coven, the family’s lineage expands beyond the restraints of the boundaries set throughout the course of history. Each Kolgrim woman, herein this bloodline, must consciously and willingly choose to take up the powers and responsibilities that come with being a Kolgrim witch. Should she choose to confirm her place within the ...

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“My families holiday traditions has been broken since I grew up” by Lavonda Bishop

Submitted to Contest #57

When I was younger I noticed our family traditions during the holiday's meant more to my mother than my father, though my father worked very hard to make our holiday special. There had been some holidays that my father got laid off from his job and as I remember back when the holidays were getting closer and it started with Thanksgiving day. I felt the stress all through the house as well in the face of my mother and father. A couple days before Thanksgiving day I heard my father say to my mother how are we going to provide a Thanksgiving da...

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“On Both Sides” by Tammy Pieterson

Submitted to Contest #57

They spat fire. Beautiful, luminous fire in every colour imaginable. Fire, so beautiful, you wouldn't mind if it killed you, in fact, you would prefer it that way, to be graced by it's foreign beauty and give it the honour of taking your life. It was early in the afternoon and training had begun. The Ra-ens were a very proud and undefeated tribe, descendents of Ra himself, shot down from the heavens as seeds, many, many years ago. They grew from the soil like trees, fed by their father, glowing in their silky ochre skin and piercing ...

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“Not This One” by Matthew Turner

Submitted to Contest #57

The day had come and Jenna could tell. Mark was a mess. He wasn’t actively acting like it but she knew it was bugging him, sitting on his shoulders and no matter what she told him to dissuade him or convince him otherwise the idea was planted firmly in his head and he walked through the day like he was crossing a minefield. It was their tenth anniversary but Mark had been dreading it since they got married. Mark’s parents had split on the night of their tenth anniversary. Both sets of his grandparents had split up on the night of their ten...

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“This Story Starts With A Death” by Jada Leung

Submitted to Contest #57

There are no tears for the man in the casket. He lies in the dirt, swathed in velvet drapes. Lies with his eyes closed and his arms crossed, with his lips barely parted in what could be the brink of a laugh or a cry. Around him, twelve people stand in rows. Their heads are tilted to the soil, bowed to the earth. Everything returns to earth, one way or another. And no one knows this better than these twelve, standing around their fallen soldier. There they linger, looking on at the dirt as if maybe there was a solution to… to... Because none ...

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“Song of the Nightingale ” by Cynthia Grove

Submitted to Contest #57

Tonight would change Emily’s life forever. It was the annual Harvest Ball and tonight was to be the announcement of the engagement of Emily Edwin and Charles Dawson. This engagement had been arranged practically and harmoniously between both families since Emily and Charles had been children. It was the epitome of compliance, societal demands and regeneration of the family hierarchy for both of Chesire's most respected and admired families. The prestige of belonging to this nobility was envied and desired.The sky blue silk and lace gown was ...

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Write a story about someone breaking a long family tradition.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 170 stories

“Breaking free” by Jane Gachambi

“Canvas” by Ricky Mae Sutphen

“Ascensión” by Noel Thomas

“Tradition ” by Lee Doe

“Meeting Son-in-law” by Benny Njuguna

“The Reading” by Moji Sola

“Para Bellum” by Hanya T

“Resignation” by Chris Slade

“Legacy” by Sara Blanch

“The Bloodline: Witches, Vamps and Other Ghastly Girls ” by Julie Good

“My families holiday traditions has been broken since I grew up” by Lavonda Bishop

“On Both Sides” by Tammy Pieterson

“Not This One” by Matthew Turner

“This Story Starts With A Death” by Jada Leung

“Song of the Nightingale ” by Cynthia Grove

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a humorous story about the descendant of someone remembered for an insignificant act.

Write a story about someone who’s famous for something they never actually did.

Write a story about someone who travels to the future, and isn’t happy about how they’ve been remembered.

Write a story that starts with someone writing their will — one they know people won’t like.

Contest #57

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

676

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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