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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#140: Down Memory Lane

It’s no secret that many writers draw inspiration for their writing from real life, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, when you’re searching for things to write about, taking a memory of your own and altering it is a reliable way to get out of a bout of writer’s block.

Memory is an important concept when writing fiction, as it helps connect the past to the present — so this week, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

This week's prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Angst – 102 stories

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

Character – 46 stories

End your story with total oblivion.

Horror – 24 stories

Write a story that involves a flashback.

Fiction – 71 stories

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Nonfiction – 90 stories

Stories

“Uncle Chris” by D. Thorne

Submitted to Contest #140

It was a peculiarly cold morning for May. I was living in Zurich, miles from home. The pandemic had made it difficult to see my family back in the United States, and communication between unrelenting schedules and the eight-hour time difference was scarce. I was busy with work, spending all of my days at the Opera House, for I had pursued ballet my whole life to attain the job I had acquired. Having little time for myself or others, I became preoccupied with my own world. It was a busy season at the opera. My exhaustion made me irritable, a...

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“Black Market Memory” by Kirstie Anders

Submitted to Contest #140

Once, just once, I broke the law...well besides speeding and the odd DUI - well twice with that...alright and maybe a few puffs of dope...but besides that straight as an arrow...pretty much. So, when I arrived in Greece via car at the start of a European summer in 1989 with my best friend Wendy, I didn’t for one minute think I’d be performing something illegal on purpose, two months later. We’d bought an Opel Rekord in a small town named Siegburg in Germany six months earlier and travelled parts of Europe we hadn’t yet seen after three mont...

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“My First Dead Body” by Ed Friedman

Submitted to Contest #140

My First Dead Body “My Aunt Carmela died”. These were Roseanne’s first words when I walked into the candy store where she waited for me. I was 19 and Roseanne was 17. We had been dating for a few months. “The wake is at the Gun Hill Funeral Parlor…tomorrow”. I wasn’t sure why Roseanne was sharing that detail until I realized she expected me to go with her. The thought of this terrified me on so many levels. I had never been to a funeral and had no desire to go to one now, but I could tell that this was a social convention and I ne...

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“More Than a Number” by Dru Sumner

Submitted to Contest #140

More Than a Number It was dark inside except for light that washed over the cockpit from the instrument panel. City lights that seemed to move below, along with the comforting hum of engines and the banter between the pilots, helped me achieve a somewhat meditative state. “Hey Dru, would you like to visit the Vietnam Memorial? Have you ever been there?” Talk about being pulled out of a meditative state! That did it for me. I blinked, shutting out the view of the Capitol and the Washington Monument and focused on Jim, our Captain. “No, not ...

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“Memories, Mondegreens, and Witnesses” by Monda Kelley

Submitted to Contest #140

I have left too many witnesses in my wake of ridiculous behavior that I will never live down. Most incidences do not involve alcohol or any other mind or conscience altering drug. Some do, however, involve alcohol or the aftermath of some of that wild elixir. My life is filled with memories and mondegreen’s, and the witnesses I have left behind. A mondegreen is a misheard lyric or word. An example of that in my life is the AC/DC song Dirty Deeds. I am old enough to be a grandmother, I work with high school...

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“Skinny Snowmen” by Jennifer Mathews

Submitted to Contest #140

The Winter held Spring hostage. What should have been a balmy morning was unmercifully icy. “Below zero last night,” my dad said. I assumed that meant it was really, really cold, and it certainly felt that way as I sluggishly got out of my cosy bed to get ready for school. It crossed my mind to feign a sore throat. I’d had many of those recently, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched an excuse. The doctor said I had tonsillitis. At seven years old, I wasn’t sure what that was, but my mother explained that my tonsils were causing my sore ...

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“If Cinder Blocks Could Talk” by Douglas Maxson

Submitted to Contest #140

“If Cinder Blocks Could Talk” The house at 824 Pleasant Street still stands. It was my home from 1955 to 1970. My folks cared for this two-story for another 25 years after I left for college.The memories speak of countless tales hidden within those cinder blocks stacked like legos. They were uneven showing signs of jagged cracks in the foundation from years of settling. You can’t ignore the warmth the blocks absorbed from the summer sun. It felt like a Swedish sauna. Even the winter sun added heat to the inside as the blocks transferr...

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“THE RADIO” by Liliana Nealon

Submitted to Contest #140

It was always the sound of his voice that called me to the radio. Too young to understand the words, I was not too little to realize my parent’s reaction to the voice on the radio. At times, there was also the sound of a woman’s voice, which they equally hated. From my bedroom, I knew the radio was about to go on by the sound of the heavy wooden shutters at the front of our small flat, which dad pulled down a few minutes before they sat down to listen. Then, daddy’s steps toward the small entrance hall, a small sofa, and a side table with ...

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“Everything I Have Is Yours” by Linda Boroff

Submitted to Contest #140

“You’ll never guess who called me this afternoon,” I can recall my mother saying. It was dinnertime, and she was at the stove spooning something lumpy from a frying pan into Tupperware. We — my father, my brother Lester, Bradley Willis and I — were at the opposite end of the kitchen around a pink and gray formica dinette. “Who?” asked Bradley Willis, mouth full of steak. “Why Helen Leam,” said my...

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“The Girl with the Ocean Eyes” by Lucia Wallen

Submitted to Contest #140

There are people who happen to the world and people who let the world happen to them. She was the ladder. It was a cold November night, the kind of cold that made you ask the people around you if they had a jacket, but not the kind that made you think to grab your own before you left. She bought a dress the week before; loose at the knees, tight at the waist, and hugged her figure in the most flattering of ways. She'd grown up ashamed, told to cover up, told to stop being so perverse, that girls like her were simply asking for it. But she wa...

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“Our secret garden” by Jada Orendorff

Submitted to Contest #140

Our Secret Garden When we saw Mommy get the stroller out of the side porch on those hot, Maryland Spring days we knew we were going somewhere fun. All three of us, too young to go to school, would pull on our Velcro sneakers and fill our water bottles. Kelsey and AJ, the youngest siblings would load in the double stroller, and I would walk next to it, keeping a gentle hand on the handle. “Look Mommy, I can push too!” I would sing as she smiled down at me. Sometimes it would be a trip to the library, a walk to the farmer’s market, or ...

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“One Slug To End It” by Kit Gordon

Submitted to Contest #140

I like movies. Old ones especially. I used to only listen to people’s advice if it suited perfectly the image I had for myself. So, advice escaped me. Friends would tell me, “ You should be an actor. You look like James Dean, and you’re weird!” I enjoyed hearing it, even the weird part. I connected it to art. I didn’t want anything else for my future, but to somehow be artistic. At nineteen I saw ahead of me all the paths of mundane careers. Professions of boredom, an entire life of boredom. I wanted a creative caree...

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“My Grandparent's House” by Luccia Moraes

Submitted to Contest #140

The house was beautiful once. A long time ago. Children ran through it, their laughter echoing through the long, majestic hallways. There was always the smell of the same three recipes she cooked, but the smell was heavenly nonetheless. She probably doesn't remember how to cook them anymore. The first floor was vast. At least one bedroom, a den, kitchen, a dining room with a dining table so grand, I always felt microscopic when I would go into that room. Not that I entered it often. The table and chairs were always covered with a sheet. A...

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“26 Abbey Lane ” by Deanna Flythe

Submitted to Contest #140

I remember, but wait, do I? I think so. Memories of someone else’s memories passed down through the years, delicately intertwined with memories of my own. Memories of words, and images, scents, and sounds, live in my mind with crisp detail, while some are shades of gray, obscured by the shadows in which they were created. Memory is a tricky thing. Many times I’ve watched my family argue over who is remembering the correct version of a certain event, each so sure they are the one whose recollection can be trusted.&n...

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“Never again ” by Sanae Dillard

Submitted to Contest #140

"I remember when I was sexually and physically abused from 1996 to 2003 by Detective Bruce Roberson of LBPD, who approached me at my job when he was a DARE Officer, and then again in uniform at a Dr. Martin Luther King Parade, and then again in uniform at a local Police Station, begging to get to know me, begging to come to my home and later begging me for sex when I was twenty years old. Detective Bruce Roberson is a liar, manipulator, sex chaser and a rotten apple corrupt cop. I remember when he called me, begging me to page him and leave ...

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$250

Prize money

333

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 08, 2022 EST

Won by Cecilia Maddison 🏆

Title: Old Soul

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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