Write about a character reflecting on the previous year.

Posted in Christmas on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 19 stories

“Alone” by Edward Farber

Submitted to Contest #126

AloneIt’s New Years Eve, and for the first time in more than half a century, I am celebrating it alone. Alone. Lonely. Sad words for what should be a happy celebration. I stare out the window at the empty, snow-covered street in front of the condo. Ah, Marilyn…why did you have to die?I turn away from the window, forcing back tears that come unbidden every time I think about her. This year had been the roughest yet, with her Alzheimer’s becoming more and more obvious and pain increasing from those damned lumbar fractures. Even with all that, ...

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“My Year of Dreams and Drinks” by Amarah Friedman

Submitted to Contest #126

The new year starts on the bathroom floor with a man, thirty-six years older than me, throwing up. Maybe he’s had too much booze, or maybe too much life—it can be hard to tell—but vomit looks like vomit, no matter the cause. The chunks are just as pink from whisky-and-bean mash as they are from debt-and-lies soup. The man moans a bit and turns on his side. His head clunks against the porcelain toilet base, and it feels nice against his frown lines—cool and soothing. He stays there for a while, and when he’s ready to leave, to rise above th...

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“Zeeland” by A K Enneff

Submitted to Contest #126

Salman Nazari sits behind the wheel of his taxi watching a roadworker break up concrete with a jackhammer and the sound sounds like the sound of the machine guns that rang out all over the city where he once lived far from here, far from this city called Auckland where he’s jammed in traffic again. But Salman doesn’t care that he’s not moving because he could sit here all day and watch that jackhammer and listen to it because it takes him back to that place where his life was good and he was happy and his son was still alive. &nbs...

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“New Year's Eve” by Ash Simons

Submitted to Contest #126

New Year’s Eve I have always hated hospitals. They reek of bleach and pine-sol and whatever fucking chemicals they can get their hands on to erase the aroma of the dying and the deceased. It was a nauseating odor meant to reassure all patrons that the sturdy, straight-back chairs—the ones forcing our spines into an unnaturally upright position for the hours we’re confined to this dreaded place—are pristine. Another thing I loathe about hospitals: those god-awful smiles. Those smiles that act like steel shackles encircling and su...

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Write about a character reflecting on the previous year.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 19 stories

“Alone” by Edward Farber

“My Year of Dreams and Drinks” by Amarah Friedman

“Zeeland” by A K Enneff

“New Year's Eve” by Ash Simons

🌟 Similar prompts

Start or end your story with one or more characters shouting “Happy new year!”

Write a story about two people who don’t know each other but bump into one other on New Year’s Eve (either once or every year).

Write a story about someone seeking a fresh start after a difficult year.

Write about a character setting an unusual New Year’s resolution.

Contest #126

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

162

Contest entries

100

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: