Write about a character who’s pathologically camera shy.

Posted in Character on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 21 stories

“Get in the picture” by Jeanne DeFauw

Submitted to Contest #144

Get in the picture, Mom! I will not. I don’t want to, and no one can make me. My dear friend Jules stands with her phone in front of our families, ready to take a photo. The two fathers are in the back, the three girls in front. There’s room for me next to my husband, Tom. His lanky body rises a foot above the others, and I know I’ll fit nicely under his arm. The white sugar-sand beach and clear aqua ocean is behind us, the perfect backdrop for a group photo. A whisp of a cloud lazily drifts across the horizon. A parasailer...

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“Photo Trauma” by Hope Linter

Submitted to Contest #144

I was eating an orange. No, I wasn’t eating it yet, I was peeling the orange, in the kitchen of the rented Air B & B, just before lunch, when someone in the family shouted “Family Photo time”. My hands were sticky with orange juice and I didn’t want to abandon the orange. “Can it wait,” I yelled through the screen door. “No, it can’t. Derek and John are going fishing, and Susan had to drive into town to get more groceries,” my wife Cathy yelled back. “Later, I’m busy,” I said. “Jake, you come out here. ...

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“No Pictures Please” by Cheyenne Schuler

Submitted to Contest #144

Elliott and his friends were at the local park enjoying the summer day. The leaves were a lush green swaying in the light breeze, Ashley and Emma were lounging back to bask in the sunlight. Matt was off taking some nature photos after helping everyone polish off the sandwiches they had brought. The fact that Matt had brought his camera, the one he often used for photography competitions that showed up in newspapers, set Elliott on edge. Matt knew enough about Elliott to know that he was camera shy. Anytime he had to appear for a photo he wo...

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“The Falsity of a Photograph” by Erin Waldram

Submitted to Contest #144

Summary: A young woman, meeting an untimely death, reflects on her life through the eyes of others, and the focus of a lens, finding herself displeased with the image. Note: This story deals with matters of derealization, mental health struggles, and death. It could have been a river to be crossed, a faceless man transporting souls across the waters. It could have been the hulking forms of dogs guarding a sifting bridge. It could have been a meadow of paradise, an infernal pit, a tomb of ice, a field of reeds. An endless feast after ...

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“Picture Perfect” by Carol Styron

Submitted to Contest #144

PICTURE PERFECT My earliest memory of my irrational fear of not wanting my picture taken was when I was in the 1st grade. One autumn day, my teacher, Mrs. Goosby announced that a class picture would be taken the following month. She insisted all the children wear their best outfits and groom properly. After her announcement, terror had struck me as the nerves in my body pulsed exp...

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“through the eyes of another ” by Mercy Tamme

Submitted to Contest #144

I can’t remember a time when I felt comfortable with the person reflected in the mirror. Anyone who has ever been my friend would disagree, but I still haven’t got around to convincing the voice in my head. It’s not simply my physical appearance, although that bothers me too, I’m just not an attractive person. You know those people who captivate a room? I have always wondered how they are so effortlessly beautiful even when they aren’t trying to be. I feel like I’m always trying, and failing. Failing, not in the way of trying to be...

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Write about a character who’s pathologically camera shy.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 21 stories

“Get in the picture” by Jeanne DeFauw

“Photo Trauma” by Hope Linter

“No Pictures Please” by Cheyenne Schuler

“The Falsity of a Photograph” by Erin Waldram

“Picture Perfect” by Carol Styron

“through the eyes of another ” by Mercy Tamme

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with somebody taking a photo.

Write a story about a wedding photographer.

A character finds an old roll of film, and takes it to be developed. What do they find?

Write a story that centres around an Instagram post.

Contest #144

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

192

Contest entries

114

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: