Will Willoughby

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2022

Stories (4)

4 Stories

148 karma pts

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“Visions and Revisions” by Will Willoughby

[Contains profanity and brief descriptions of violence.] Yes, there was a great evil pushing at the world, he thought, and it only needed a little slipway, a little opening. —Raymond Carver He says he’ll ruin me. That’s his word: ruin. This customer, whose plump face consists mainly of beard matter and ruddy cheek flesh, stands by the door on his way out, angling a large piz...

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“Remote Meeting Re: Presentation” by Will Willoughby

“Don’t get me wrong, Davey. It’s a nice slide deck. Ginormous graphs. Crushing overall length. It’s the verbiage itself. It’s too—what’s the word?—too comprehensible.” “It’s Dave, actually.” “It’s a good first stab, David. But to be candid? The language itself is a tad limp, sort of undynamic, like it’s obsessed with being plain. Borderline scrutable. What you want, though, is to build a p...

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“A Perfectly Reasonable Response” by Will Willoughby

[Warning: Contains profanity, themes of death, and vivid but cartoonish gore.] The café itself wasn’t disgusting. It had what cafés should have—charming brick walls, a heady dark-roast smell, soulful people slouched over laptops. And it was in Fallow, where I grew up, so it was a good place to clear my head on my way to my uncle’s funeral. But when I sat down with my coffee, I saw something I hadn’t counted on. A man who looked to be in his sixties was sitting flat-kneed against the wall in the corner with his chin dropp...

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“Winning at Chicken” by Will Willoughby

Warning: Contains profanity, mildly grotesque imagery, and an infant in peril. Backyard barbeque, Fourth of July. My family and I are deep into a game of asshole chicken. The only rule of asshole chicken: First one to talk loses. At the professional level, asshole chicken is an art form. Awkward silence doesn’t matter. Heat pressing on all parts of your body doesn’t matter. Questionable potato salad bubbling in your belly doesn’t matter. All that matters is that sustained, combativ...

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Author bio

Will Willoughby lives in Maine, where he talks about himself in the third person. His work is slated to appear in Epiphany magazine in June 2023. www.willwilloughby.com

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #186
Remote Meeting Re: Presentation – read story