Write a story that begins with someone dancing in a bar.

Posted in Character on May 3, 2024

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✍️ 67 stories

“The World’s on Fire ” by Dena Linn

🏆 Winner of Contest #249

Trigger: Cancer My head rocks back, long hair sticks to sweaty shoulders and my tank barely holds my jiggling A-cups as I pound it out, dancing. I’m that “Girl on Fire,” a single mom gyrating to Ms. Keys. Flinging out one arm, hips swing and dip, fingers snap, eyes close, and my rock and roll fantasy, straight from a music video: my apartment’s clutter, with the snap of my fingers, flies to order. I burn, more than a flickering flame, heart thumps, shoulders shimmy, sweat drips into my pierced belly button. The fuchsia, sun-yellow and ...

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“Golden Brown” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #249

Author's Note: This story is heavily-inspired by the 1981 song "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers. I don't own the rights to this song or its lyrics.CW: Allusions to drug use**11 May 2024Dearest Aurelia,Just so you know, I played our song at my bar tonight. Yes, “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers, that familiar refrain that makes you break into that certain smile that makes my heart ebb and flow like a diamantine river, permeated --- what else –-- The Golden Brown Bar. Even after six years, I could still clearly picture it: the almost-medieval h...

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“The Field of Crystal Dreams” by Daniel R. Hayes

Submitted to Contest #249

(CW: Violence) The aroma of cedarwood and cheap beer filled the air like smoke from a forest fire. Tapping cowboy boots and high-heeled stilettoes matched the raunchy country music blasting from the hi-def speakers in Old Charlie’s Bar. It was a Saturday night, and the place was packed with stressed-out patrons who wanted to let loose and have some fun after a long work week. A sea of flannel shirts, blue jeans, and twirling summer dresses filled the dance floor like one would expect, and every seat at the bar was taken. Framed pictures o...

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“What Lies Beneath” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #249

What Lies BeneathSummer 1972.“Road trip!” Pam screamed over the sound of the juke box. She had shoved her chair aside, since there was no dancefloor in this hole-in-wall bar, her arms in the air, hips bumping and grinding to the beat. Feet barely moving. After half a pitcher, she could sway her hips or move her feet. She opted for swaying to Otis Redding.“Wastin’ time!” Barb was still capable of doing a fair lip-sync of Sitting on the dock of the bay. Pam a tad too wasted to remember all the words.Fancying themselves the last hippies, the tw...

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“Priscilla, Come Down” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #249

If Priscilla was dancing on the bar, it was going to be a short summer. That’s why when we saw her do it, we started banging our glasses as hard as we could without breaking them. It was a little like the way they used to run Congress in the colonial days. Order, order! Sit down, John! Not that she listened. She’d been working at the bar since before she was old enough to drink, and by the time she was past fifty, she didn’t want to hear a damn thing about what we wanted or didn’t want. She didn’t even care that it was bad luck for her to be...

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“Her” by Jamilah Christian

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #249

Loud music fills the room, making it hard to hear anything else. It's the type of music that takes over every bodily sense. The type in which even its smallest background beats demand to be heard. I’ve heard colleagues complain about this bar more than once; bothered by the noise, and if not the noise, then the flashing lights, all blues, reds, and greens. But I like it. The music is like an invitation, one wherein its offer to you is to become a part of its entity.I frequent this place often and in doing so, I have become a part o...

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“DANCE OF THE DAMNED” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #249

(The story contains descriptions of torture and violence)The dimly lit bar exuded an aura of faded elegance, the soft glow of neon lights casting a surreal ambiance over the audience, who sat in hushed anticipation. As the spotlight flickered to life, illuminating the makeshift stage at one end of the room, the murmurs of conversation died down, replaced by an air of eager expectation. As the curtains slowly parted, revealing the expanse of the stage, a solitary figure stood poised at its center: the ballerina.With a grace that se...

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“Amelia Unseen” by Myranda Marie

Submitted to Contest #249

“Hey handsome, does the Wurlitzer work?” Buck raised his eyes and continued drying glasses behind the bar. A woman in her early twenties he hadn’t seen before, was standing between the door and the jukebox. He smiled and shook his head. “It works fine.”“How about floating me a few quarters, won’t you? We could use a little pick me up in here, don’t ya think?” She looked around the little bar with a bit of disappointment in her eyes. Buck assumed she randomly stumbled into Kelly’s Pub on her way to a better invitation. She was trying too...

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“Date Night” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #249

“Hey, Wayne,” I say as I take a seat at the bar.“Josh,” Wayne says spreading his hands out on the bar in front of me.“Lucy at it again,” I ask, noticing the local party girl dancing away by the juke box.“Oh yeah. All it takes is two beers and for someone to play Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ and she’s off.”“Well, the girl sure can dance,” I say as I watch the young lady weave her body to the floor and back up again.“She’s a provocative little thing. Guys will be on her like flies in a minute. What can I get you?”“Just a draft. Michel...

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“Game, Set, and Match” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #249

(contains swearing and irreverent references to God)I hurried off the stage and made for the dressing-room, which was more like a cupboard really. When I got there, I extricated the bank notes tucked into my waist band and stockings, stuffing them straight in my purse. Fighting back the nausea I always felt after a number, I stripped, ran a cloth under the tap, and wiped myself down.The whisky bottle called me from the make-up table. I poured myself a good measure, downing it in one. And that’s when it caught my eye: an envelope at the foot ...

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“Curtis and The Cryptic Coyote” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #249

“How long this been going on?” Curtis asked calmly, staring at the young woman going batshit Coyote Ugly on the bar. Billy Preston sparked through his brain: Songs without melodies, dances without steps.Neither reference would help here: Nearly everybody at The Mill tonight was in Pampers or swimming around a scrotal sac when the Tyra Banks movie was burning up the box office, and Drake seemed as soulful as this crew ever got. And The Dancing Queen had no melody or harmony to move her around.“Jesus, maybe a half hour,” Officer Brainard half-...

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“Lost in the Jazz of Midnight Reverie” by E.L. Lallak

Submitted to Contest #249

As the night fell and Alphonse Fontaine's thoughts became entangled, he found himself wandering the darkened streets of New York City. The bustling metropolis was teeming with restless energy, and flashes of lightning illuminated fleeting apparitions on the rain-soaked cobblestones. The bright lights of speeding vehicles reflected like countless tiny, shattered mirrors, adding to the city's energetic atmosphere. The moon’s silvery light guided Alphonse as he turned a corner and heard the soulful notes of a saxophone groove emanating from a n...

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“The Last Dance” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #249

She sees it as much as feels it. She does not question this. Content instead to be afforded a ringside seat to a very special moment in her life. A moment made special by it’s simplicity. A celebration of an end. All of her final exams now over. The elation of having completed this part of her journey. No care as to the results of her efforts. That is for another day. All that matters is now. There is nothing else. She feels alive in a way that she hasn’t in such a long time and she embraces that feeling and pulls it closer. She sees it all ...

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“Marcie-Fleur Rushes In” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

Submitted to Contest #249

Sparkles of light from the overhead disco ball flickered around the dance floor of the Mug and Jug bar, mingling and refracting off Marcie-Fleur’s blue and silver sequined mini dress. She shimmied while a hundred butterflies beat their way out of her tummy and flitted around with the dancing lights. The rock band drummed and strummed their popular rhythms while the gravelly voice of the lead singer screamed out emotion-filled vocals. Marcie loved the music of this band, Xscape. Her arms, hips, legs, and feet clad in totally impractical kille...

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“Let The Good Times Roll” by Laurie Spellman

Submitted to Contest #249

Plumes of cigarette smoke dance in the air, burning my eyes, and spirits flow endlessly as the world's biggest party rolls forth outside. If you are one of the few who can remember it when they wake up the next day, Mardi Gras in New Orleans was the craziest time of the year. The liquor bottles vibrated on the shelves to the bass line of "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Jasmine was gyrating atop the Les Bon Ton Rouler bar as customers ogled her body. Don't get me wrong; she is something to see. She has legs that stretch for miles and a fac...

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Title: The World’s on Fire

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Write a story that begins with someone dancing in a bar.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 67 stories

“The World’s on Fire ” by Dena Linn

“Golden Brown” by Alexis Araneta

“The Field of Crystal Dreams” by Daniel R. Hayes

“What Lies Beneath” by Trudy Jas

“Priscilla, Come Down” by Story Time

“Her” by Jamilah Christian

“DANCE OF THE DAMNED” by Darvico Ulmeli

“Amelia Unseen” by Myranda Marie

“Date Night” by Ty Warmbrodt

“Game, Set, and Match” by PJ Town

“Curtis and The Cryptic Coyote” by Martin Ross

“Lost in the Jazz of Midnight Reverie” by E.L. Lallak

“The Last Dance” by Jed Cope

“Marcie-Fleur Rushes In” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

“Let The Good Times Roll” by Laurie Spellman

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about a character running late for a job interview.

Write a story around someone (literally) bumping into someone else.

Write a story about a tennis match between two rivals.

Write a story about a character driving and getting lost.

Contest #249

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

309

Contest entries

115

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: