Write a story about a character who tries to control their life down to the most minute detail — but has to learn to let go.

Posted in Character on Nov 8, 2022

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✍️ 25 stories

“At the Mercy of Your Choices” by Aeris Walker

Submitted to Contest #170

For the longest time, when I thought about who I was, I could only see you. When asked what I wanted, I would turn to ask you. Sometimes, I still do. I wouldn’t be where I am without you, and for that I am grateful, but those ties that once bound us have frayed and snapped and will never be what they were. I was your obsession, even before I had a heartbeat. My existence was pre-plotted by you—you who consulted the calendar and mapped your cycles like stars in the sky, then aligned those nights for bodies to collide, and the seed of me took ...

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“The Okayish Kids” by Liv Chocolate

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #170

I make a list for everything. Groceries.To-dos.Every life-defining experience I want to have before I die—although, fact is, I never die. At approximately 1,751 years, 10 months, 29 days, 23 hours and 25 minutes old, I’m surprised that my nutrionally void diet of fruit cake and cookies hasn’t killed me just yet. These lists consume most of my day. They give me a sense of control over my life, from the precise order of my daily activities to errands I need to check off. My relentless nag of a wife, who unfortunately never dies...

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“The Color of the Sky” by Tamarin Butcher

Submitted to Contest #170

Prairie slid her closet open fifteen-and-a-half inches exactly, ensuring that the runner lined up perfectly with the neat pencil mark she'd made on the doorframe. She counted to five, then reached in and grabbed her Monday outfit. Prairie had one outfit for each day of the week, and an eighth, Emergency Outfit in case Something Went Wrong. It had been five months, two weeks, and three days since the last time her Emergency Outfit had been needed. She dressed, carefully watching the clock. Seven minutes and forty seconds - that was the ti...

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“The Best Unlaid Plans” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #170

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s only a well-made plan that can change your future for the better. But in this story, I’m about to tell you, it couldn’t be further from the truth. It all began in January 1974, just after my eighteenth birthday. I was six feet one inch tall, one-hundred-sixty-five pounds, and had the body of an athlete. Externally, I was physically fit, but internally, I bore an invisible flaw, which eventually changed my future. To put it simply, I was half- blind. An ophthalmologist determined it wasn’t from...

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“In the Garden Where Nothing Grows” by Carolina Mintz

Submitted to Contest #170

*Contains sensitive content of abuse and mental health* Standing in the dead garden, the mother pulled her thin sweater tighter against her frail body. She shivered in the chill, the seasons for growing and harvesting long past. Only the husks of pole beans with their brown tendrils still clinging to the wire trellis remained there. She often came out to her garden to clear the cobwebs in her mind, but it was of little comfort today. Overhead, slate clouds hovered low, misty. Winter was here now. Her eldest daughter, Kathleen...

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“Accident” by Keri Dyck

Submitted to Contest #170

Rated M/A for pregnancy references.“You’re kidding.” Dr. Bruce Scofield looked up at his wife, his shoelace half untied. He stood up and loosened his tie. “Come on, Gina. This is a prank, right? You’re fooling with me?”Dr. Regina Scofield pursed her lips. She held the little white stick out to him. He took the tester and stared at the two blue lines, then slowly sat back down onto the bench. He set it down and methodically finished unlacing his shoes. The oven beeped, and she walked back into the kitchen. A frozen casserole sat on ...

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“Loving Who I Can't Have” by Ruby Fink

Submitted to Contest #170

Dear K_____, You’ll never read this, which is why I suppose I can finally be honest. Finally be honest and talk about the feelings I have kept inside me all these years. The first time I saw you was a week after my fourteenth birthday. In those days I was gangly, with a forehead of pimples hidden under dull brown bangs, wearing loose shirts and shorts to hide the budding breasts and wider hips that were taking shape underneath. Over the last year, I’d started wearing clothes from my brother’s closet, eschewing the cute blouses and sh...

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“You're a Freak” by April Mattson

Submitted to Contest #170

When Anne walks into the lecture hall, at first she doesn’t see him, so intent is she trying to navigate her way up the stadium seating. There's a deluge of backpacks and denim-clad legs, the room buzzing with first day jitters. In her experience, the class will remain bloated until the hopefuls- the ones with the add-on cards- will be sent away by the professor. He's the popular one (hence the overfilled hall), and she's relieved she has him and not the other one- the curmudgeonly type, set in his ways.And then she sees him. Will Durham. On...

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“Turn Thine Eyes Outward” by Hunter Terrell

Submitted to Contest #170

The Library Of Everything Ellie found herself in the Library in a dream. Or maybe it wasn’t a dream. Either way—she knew that the experience was something more than imaginary, but less than real. Ellie was a short, brown-eyed young woman with a blue-green knitted beanie that she wore most every day since childhood. Ellie did what she would normally do in a dream (or in a not dream)—she walked around, looking left and right, with her arms crossed. The Library was a liminal sort of place. It was at onc...

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“Ted” by Corrie McCue

Submitted to Contest #170

Sunday means the day will begin at 10:12 a.m. The shower water needs to run for two minutes before it warms, if the handle is turned to align with the chipped tile to the left. A squirt of shampoo the size of a quarter massaged into my scalp in twenty counterclockwise circular motions cleanses my hair quite well. The bar of Irish Spring needs to be rubbed onto the washcloth six times to produce adequate suds lasting through two up-down motions over every section of my body beginning with my left arm and ending with my left leg. Drying is acc...

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“20 Years ” by Chris McTaggart

Submitted to Contest #170

Clifford’s 20 Years “Good morning everyone!” Said a man in a thick white cotton scarf with a bright smile and crooked teeth. He smiled at a group of people that sat in a circle on the floor on soft pillows. The sun shining down on everyone from the high windows in the gym and reflecting off the shiny wooden floors highlighted everyone making them look heavenly. The man in the scarf glowed the most as the sun highlighted his soft brown skin. “Welcome to grief counseling” said the man as he...

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“Anticipation Is” by MB Campbell

Submitted to Contest #170

Anticipation IsWill is half asleep and doesn’t brace himself against the impact. It is his good fortune. The driver is thrown against the steering wheel and it is now pressing on his chest and restricting his breathing. Ian’s head is whipped sideways and cracks the passenger window, knocking him out. The Range Rover comes to a stop with its front wheels dangling over the edge of a rock wall. A hundred feet below runs the Bartang River, a pearlescent ribbon of water and ice that has traveled from the Alai Range.“Holy shit,” Will cries out.The...

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“The Funeral Director” by Marian Lemont

Submitted to Contest #170

John Fitzgerald, the town funeral director, was a man that was easy to miss. This is not a consequence of a forgettable countenance–in fact, most who knew him agree that upon first meeting, he was rather unusual-looking. He had a broad, fleshy forehead and frame so thin, so skeletal, that it was almost remarkable his threadbare pants remained seated upon his bony hips even with his leather belt fitted to its tightest notch. In that way, he did not look so dissimilar from the corpses he regularly embalmed. Instead, Mr. Fitzgerald was e...

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“The Darius's General” by C P

Submitted to Contest #170

It was one of those mornings when the Sun shone brightly and just when you thought you could go out with your beer can and bask in its warmth, ominous dark clouds hover, laugh at you and turn the rest of the day gloomy. I was in my elements that morning, happy hormones having a field day, birds chirping all around, gentle breeze blowing and what not. It was the beginning of the weekend, after a great party the previous night, and then an exciting night with my girlfriend. I had just settled down after my breakfast to binge watch on Netflix. ...

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“A Relaxing Endeavor” by Brennan Welcher

Submitted to Contest #170

“Where to start,” he pondered aloud. It was a question searching for the precipice of a great wonder to be slew from his mind and onto his screen through the route of his fingertips, ultimately taking its place carefully organized onto a crisp piece of paper to be delicately stared at to return the words to the mind via the fingertips of a different individual. Filled with angst, the writer felt the light tapping of his fingertips hitting the keyboard rhythmically, tauntingly. He stopped. Annoyed, he leapt up and walked with a dutiful step t...

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Write a story about a character who tries to control their life down to the most minute detail — but has to learn to let go.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 25 stories

“At the Mercy of Your Choices” by Aeris Walker

“The Okayish Kids” by Liv Chocolate

“The Color of the Sky” by Tamarin Butcher

“The Best Unlaid Plans” by Howard Seeley

“In the Garden Where Nothing Grows” by Carolina Mintz

“Accident” by Keri Dyck

“Loving Who I Can't Have” by Ruby Fink

“You're a Freak” by April Mattson

“Turn Thine Eyes Outward” by Hunter Terrell

“Ted” by Corrie McCue

“20 Years ” by Chris McTaggart

“Anticipation Is” by MB Campbell

“The Funeral Director” by Marian Lemont

“The Darius's General” by C P

“A Relaxing Endeavor” by Brennan Welcher

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the line “I’ve got a plan”.

Write about a plan that goes wrong, for the better.

Write a story that involves the architectural plans for a building.

Fly by the seat of your pants and write a story without a plan.

Contest #170

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

202

Contest entries

125

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: