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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#101: Antanaclasis

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quip “your argument is sound, nothing but sound” may be the best known example of antanaclasis. This is a literary device in which a word is repeated but has two different senses (here, “sound” meaning both “sensible” and “a load of noise”) — reminder that in writing, as in everything, context matters.

With this week’s prompts, we're using antanaclasis as a jumping off point to create stories that play with repetitions, routines, and the importance of context in creating meaning.

This week's prompts

Write about a character doing something they’ve done hundreds of times — only this time, it’s taken on a new meaning.

Character – 148 stories

Write a story about a character who fails to understand something until they have the full context.

Character – 75 stories

Write a story in which the same line recurs three times.

Fiction – 163 stories

Write a story about a character who always repeats themselves.

Character – 45 stories

Write a story that involves a reflection in a mirror.

Horror – 295 stories

Stories

“What's Wrong with Eloise?” by Shannon McCumber

Submitted to Contest #101

“What’s wrong with me?” I think to myself with tears trickling down my face, relentlessly. My heart aches, leaving a heaviness in my throat; I can barely breathe. Gregory’s been acting differently towards me lately; closed-off and distant. He suddenly wants to have dinner together tonight as he has something important to talk to me about.“He’s going to break-up with me, I know it.” I shake my head, in an attempt to argue with my own thoughts. I’m not ready for it to be over, not yet or ever for that matter. I’ve never loved anyone like I lov...

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“The Girl In Shadows” by Keya J.

Submitted to Contest #101

'There is no choice of running away today, I have to do it. I am so close to it. I can't run away forever in fear.' The girl thought.Her heart was pounding in her head and her eyes carried the drowsiness of three sleepless nights. She walked across the dishevelled trees, making her way with a jab of the knife, though the real jab was in her heart-a deeper cut. Her tangled blond hair touched the tip of her waist, weaved with bits of withered leaves and dust. A rabbit fur was tied around her waist, dripping blood as she moved. It was a rough h...

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“The Performance We Shouldn't Have Done” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #101

The back room of the church is echoey and cold. It’s dusty as well, and I curl my lips up as I wave a hand in front of my face to keep the dust away. This is the worst place for a warm-up, and in any other circumstances I would be demanding to talk to the manager. “It’ll have to do,” I say. Isabella comes in behind me and looks round. “It’s fine. Thank you.” Her voice is duller than I remember, and so flat that I worry about how well she’ll do today. The door clicks shut and we’re left alone. “Better warm-up,” I say and start jumping...

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“WHAT IS ICE CREAM?” by Oyerinde Samson

Submitted to Contest #101

There once was a little boy who had trouble understanding the meaning of words. His dad explained that he needed to know what the word meant to understand it, but all this did was make him more confused. The next day, they were sitting at dinner when his mom said, “I’m going to get up and clear my plate.” “Clear your plate? What does that mean?” he asked his dad. He told me about how she would take her dish over and put it in the sink so no one else could use it. “I think I might be starting to get the hang of this language,” thought the lit...

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“Singularities” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #101

Ever since Karl Nygaard graduated from Aalborg University in Denmark at the age of eighteen with doctorates in Astrophysics and Quantum Mechanics, he was known as an extraordinary man. When he moved to Cambridge to attend MIT and complete three more PhDs in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), it became clear he was a genius among geniuses. However, it was when, at the young age of twenty-two, he financed, designed, and built his one-man interstellar research rocket, that he became known as “the” ...

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“A story of Resilience. You only stop learning when you die.” by Chacha Jaramillo

Submitted to Contest #101

I’m 53 now. I’m either half up the hill or down the hill, where the top is 100.Many will say I’m a crying baby for what you are about to read. Behind everyone there’s a story of survival, a story of adaptation and aceptante?I’m a normal human being, I believe in equality. We all deserve to be treated equally regardless of their sexuality, background or skin color.Life taught me that planning ahead never helps, at least in my case. For me the more I planned for something, the less chances for me to not happen were higher. It was li...

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“Red suitcase!” by La Reine Margot

Submitted to Contest #101

`` `` `` `` `` `` `` `` `` Red Suite-case Chapter 1 ) ———————- Day 1: Slava - Is this place taken? please ? I asked the usual question. Nat- Never....she replies. Slava- Thank you. Silence ........... S— It is raining. N— Really? I haven't noticed. S —Are you reading a book in the rain? N —Yes. S— I understand. N— Are you shocked? S— No. N— Do you read, too? S —No, I'm looking. ( searching). N —I see. —————————————— She puts her book in t...

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“It All Starts” by Lila Mottram

Submitted to Contest #101

It all starts with a car accident. The music's blaring and Liz's hands are in the air, her hips swinging side to side (to the best of their ability in a strapped seatbelt)- The window's open and the self-created wind has her brown hair whipping at her face. Kaleb smiles widely and turns up the music a little louder as he catches Ryan, Taylor, and Ema, all dancing, hips bumping in the back seat. The world was theirs. That's what he thought anyway. But every good moment has to end sometime, and theirs happened to end with burning rubber,...

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“Fated for Doom” by Madison Smith

Submitted to Contest #101

“You are the chosen one. Tomorrow morning, prepare to meet your doom.” Click. As I sat on my couch, mouth agape, I tried to figure out what in the blazes I just heard. 30 seconds ago I picked up a phone call from an unknown number and now I’m the chosen one of some prophecy? I’m 28. According to the books my niece reads, I’m about 16 years too old to be a ‘chosen one.’ I wracked my brain attempting to figure out what about me would m...

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“Mirror, Mirror” by Tommie Michele

Submitted to Contest #101

Day 14: Entry 1 This is...what, my sixteenth plan in the course of two weeks? Maybe it’s the seventeenth. I’ve lost count, at this point. It doesn’t matter what number it is, though, because I can feel it. This is the idea. This one is going to work. A magic mirror. It sounded better in my head. Here’s the idea: I’ll use my extensive engineering and technology skills to build a living, breathing mirror. A better Alexa, really. That extensive was sarcastic. I’m still a sophomore in college—a better phrase would ...

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“Catechist And their Duties” by Philip Ebuluofor

Submitted to Contest #101

We always go there on Wednesday and another group on Saturday’s. We usually share ourselves into three groups and tackle the four rooms and parlors our parish catechist occupies. Whether if it was by his insight that he selected the alter boys and girls guards the least parish assigned duties group to be cleaning his houses twice in a week, we don’t know. We have done it for nearly two and half year without seeing anything wrong with it until Rumours began spreading like wildfire that the priest don't have any knowledge of that duty....

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“Gene's Reflection” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #101

“I thought vampires didn’t have reflections?” Taiga asked, looking at his immortal companion in the mirror. She looked good. Her leaf green skin oddly suited her. She wore a dark green cloak that hung on a golden clasp from her shoulders. Her reddish-orange hair hung down the back of the cloak that kept the rain off her. They were sheltering in an abandoned house on the long walk up the cliffs to the chapel on the clifftop. The Chapel on the Rocks was supposed to be a he...

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“Carli Evans and The Vigilante ” by Cooper Armstrong

Submitted to Contest #101

“You can do this Carli. You’re a globe trotting adventurer, slayer of mythical monsters, finder of lost treasures, and star athlete in Surfing, Gymnastics, and Powerlifting. You can do this.” Carli Evans said this to herself as she walked through the halls of her high school in the direction of Brandon Wallis, the guy she’s had an eye for since kindergarten, and since the Sadie Hawkins dance was coming up she thought she would ask him out. After all, she was pretty and adorabl...

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“No Mirrors on the Wall” by Heather Mayson

Submitted to Contest #101

The only evidence that there had ever been a mirror in her room was an empty frame hanging on the wall across from the window. Even the glass in the window had been removed so she could not see her reflection at night. She had been beautiful once, or so everyone told her, but she was ugly now. A bear attack had left her with a scar that stretched from above her right eye, across her nose, and ending below the left side of her lip. Luckily, the castle’s garrison had been honing their skills near where she had been playing,...

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“Mirror, Mirror...” by Colin Devonshire

Submitted to Contest #101

“Jen, your breakfast is ready. Do you want it down here, or shall I bring it up?” “Thanks, mum, can I eat it here?” Mrs Perks tightened her cheeks, forced her eyes to brighten. A thin smile battled its way across her mouth as she entered the girl’s bedroom. “Here we are, darling. Oh, you are not in bed?” The bed was patted firmly as the tray was slid across the bedside table. “Come on, Jen, away from the mirror. Put the brush down, you’ll wear it out.” The girl was gently led back to bed, settled with a pillow propped against her back. A stu...

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Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 09, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Colleen

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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