Write about a character who isn’t nostalgic about their past at all, and show readers why.

Posted in Angst on Feb 2, 2024

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✍️ 54 stories

“Powerful Men with Powerful Guns” by Steve Rogers

Submitted to Contest #236

Note: Contains religious and political satire.The Angel sat looking dispassionately out from the top of Papoose Mountain across the sandy desert and mountain ranges. He could just make out the lights of Las Vegas in the pre-dawn gloom where, without doubt, the revellers were having the time of their lives. It was bitterly cold, but the Angel did not shiver. The light breeze carried the faint aroma of juniper and, the even fainter, sweet scent of cactus flowers making, ironically, one last effort at reproduction.Without his wings he had been ...

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“DOWN MEMORY LANE” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #236

THE PAST IS THE PAST ( a.k.a.) DOWN MEMORY LANE We sat around the fireplace, our marshmallows dangling precariously over the flames, suspended on small crooked branches gleaned from the nearby woods. What had started as an epic marshmallow roast over a huge bonfire had ended abruptly when the heavens opened up and a torrential rainfall wiped the fire out in mere minutes. Gail had grabbed the marshmallows, Melody the wine and I grabbed the tray with the rest of the fixings for the s’mores. We had already eaten the more than slightly ...

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“It Watches” by Abby Williams

Submitted to Contest #236

Content warning: allusion to childhood abuse and SA. “That’s what’s wrong with her–you and your mother!” My father shouted angrily, his fat pointer finger inches from my mother’s face. The sentence came frothing out of his mouth, hot spit landing like acid on her cheeks. His words were daggers–said to her but embedding themselves into my back, as I cowered in the corner, head between my knees, crying and waiting for the threat to pass. He’d inevitably leave again. Storming out to God knows where, slamming the d...

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“Combative” by Kay Mastro

Submitted to Contest #236

When I was 16 years old, my dad killed himself, not in the way you’re thinking though. It wasn’t with a gun, or a rope, or drugs. It was slow, and it was painful. And it took him years, and it wasn’t always intentional, but he did it. Every day I think to myself, how could he treat his body like this? He has two kids, a wife, a normal yet exciting job in a career he is passionate about. Had. He had all that. He was fifty-two when he died. The day is seared into my brain like a brand on an animal. The hot iron of June twentieth torches...

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“Yours Truly, Twenty-Nine” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #236

My dearest Nineteen, There’s a boardgame on my shelf gathering dust. Last year, I lugged it up and down the French Riviera in my suitcase—squeezed between summer dresses, Daisy Dukes and dreams—and finally, here, to Alicante. I’ve opened it once to read the instructions; you need at least three players, and that’s two too many. And yet it strikes even me as peculiar. Why did I buy it? knowing that I have nobody with whom to play. I must have dreamt something up that day, for it’s never the coat on display that we buy, but the self we imagi...

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“When Then Was Now” by Denise A Nisbet (Wallis)

Submitted to Contest #236

When Then Was Now Denise A Nisbet Our family’s baby looks at the world with big blue eyes. Fingers in mouth, she focuses on something we can’t see. Then she looks into my eyes and laughs uproariously. I laugh back at her and wonder what her world will become? Because no-one, fifty-odd years ago, could have dreamed of the world we live in now. When I was a bit older than our baby, my family moved to Toongabbie. The name comes from the Toogalal band of the Dharug peoples who lived there. It had good water and food for them, so of c...

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“Riley's Recollection.” by J.E. Brumley

Submitted to Contest #236

Riley caught herself staring at the rain pelting itself against the window of her office. It was soothing watching the little, tiny rivers trickle down the glass. Five more minutes and she would be free to sit, relax and laugh with her friends. The office floor on Friday's always transformed into a silent empty space as people began their weekends as soon as possible. The din of the elevator chimed less and less now. Riley shut down her computer and began to collect her belongings. She was pleased with herself for acknowledging the m...

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“Time Will Tell” by Erin Krueger

Submitted to Contest #236

In a stale and ostentatious lecture hall in Prague, Susan shifted on her seat, the dark floorboards beneath her creaking with the sudden imbalance of weight. For a rich velvet cushion, it was decidedly uncomfortable and hard. Dr. Dannington, attired in an innocuous faded tweed coat with brown leather elbow patches, his round golden glasses perched at the end of his nose, droned on and on and on about the treasures of the past. Treasures. What a joke. The man seemed to find joy in making her suffer. Who cared about the rocking horse Teddy Roo...

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“Equal Nothings” by Christine Johnson

Submitted to Contest #236

I find great therapy tugging the thin film out of its plastic path. I don’t destroy the cassette tape like you might have seen in commercials or music videos where it looks like streamers being launched. I pull it out inch by inch, staring at its brown luster against the kitchen’s fluorescent lighting. It would be easier to fling the electromagnetic flux especially with three shoe boxes full piled next to me. But to destroy them with vigor would mean that they actually mean something to me and they don’t. I found them i...

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“It's Not Nostalgia ” by K.R. Danielsson

Submitted to Contest #236

"You ever stop and think back to our childhood, Rob?" asks Colton Richards, sitting shotgun in the 2012 Toyota Tacoma cruising down the highway from Ohio to Indiana. His white hair blows thickly back to the seat headrest like a cirrus cloud beating through the sky. A beard is beginning to grow on his cheeks, and his eyes are experiencing wrinkles in the corners. With his strong right hand clutching the stabilizer bar above the door, he turns his head to look at Robbie Hillis. "You hear me?" Colton's voice is turning frail now in his ear...

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“A Moment in Time ” by Camryn Whelan

Submitted to Contest #236

“We’re here, just be here” he said to the woman sitting next to him to who had spent the last five hours of their bus ride together squawking on about how much she missed high school and college and the best years of her life were behind her . If she went on for one more minute he might actually implode. “We have a 20 hour bus ride sitting next to eachother we need to talk about something.” she responded sounding a little defensive. “I get that but you haven’t even told me about yourself you just talked about all the lives ...

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“Memories” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #236

“Remember that summer at Hayling Island?” the man says.“Yeah,” the red-headed woman replies. “In the caravan. All five of us. You couldn’t swing a cat!”I wonder why anyone would want to swing a cat. They’re nice creatures and don’t deserve that kind of treatment.Despite my distaste, I smile, because smiling seems to go down well with these people. The woman with blonde hair lays a hand on my shoulder and gives it a little squeeze.“But it was the most we could afford, wasn’t it? And we did have a lovely time.”I like this last person. Her face...

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“Closing Time” by Mira Sharma

Submitted to Contest #236

The fact that the espresso machine was not meant to make that sound–that hiccupping pop–was something that Sade did, in fact, remember. But she couldn’t figure out what the hell was causing the noisy spasm: it wasn’t any of the steam nozzles, the foam doohickeys, or the bottom tray, or–what was it again? Oh yes, the portafilter. It wasn’t that. She’d checked, she was certain. It was fine, probably. The damn machine hissed, gurgled, and frothed even when it was working correctly. What was a little pop every now and then? The machine...

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“Survivorship Bias” by Emmy Gregory

Submitted to Contest #236

CW: Car accident / Fire / Infant death We were just outside Birmingham when I decided to get more comfortable. We had a Peugeot 505, a big boxy beast of a thing, with eight seats and a heavy-eyebrowed glare on the front. More than enough room for five people – well, six, if you count Alice, who wasn’t really much of a person. I sprawled myself across the back row of seats. I’d managed to nab a couple of beach towels for a blanket. I could just about lie flat if I tucked my knees up a bit. But it wasn’t going to be easy to relax. I was no g...

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“To Lost in Life to Live” by Tara Deck

Submitted to Contest #236

I've lived a hundred lives in one life, no telling how many before. Time has always been an illusion, and one I am not too fond of. My first life was as an awful child, perhaps my second, considering I was once a babe; even a third, as the womb was my first home, though I remember it not. You know how the progression goes. Why should I miss any of it? Why does anyone tarry in nostalgia? Perhaps to hold onto a past they carry in their hearts anyway? Trinkets and trivial weight they unnecessarily burden themselves with, making each ste...

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Write about a character who isn’t nostalgic about their past at all, and show readers why.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 54 stories

“Powerful Men with Powerful Guns” by Steve Rogers

“DOWN MEMORY LANE” by Glenna Agnew

“It Watches” by Abby Williams

“Combative” by Kay Mastro

“Yours Truly, Twenty-Nine” by Carina Caccia

“When Then Was Now” by Denise A Nisbet (Wallis)

“Riley's Recollection.” by J.E. Brumley

“Time Will Tell” by Erin Krueger

“Equal Nothings” by Christine Johnson

“It's Not Nostalgia ” by K.R. Danielsson

“A Moment in Time ” by Camryn Whelan

“Memories” by PJ Town

“Closing Time” by Mira Sharma

“Survivorship Bias” by Emmy Gregory

“To Lost in Life to Live” by Tara Deck

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a character finding a retro piece of tech they don’t recognize.

Write a story about someone finally gaining access into their family’s very old computer.

Write a time-travel story where a character from the present finds themselves in the 80s or 90s.

Write a story about a grown-up sharing their favorite childhood video game with their child.

Contest #236

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

181

Contest entries

81

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: