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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#16: Once Upon a Time

Earlier this week, we published a blog post about modern fairy tales, and it got us thinking about the fact that no genre of literature is without its own set of tropes — and that certain literary tropes we still see commonly today are rooted centuries back.

This week's prompts are all elements pulled from fairy tales — both modern and old. You can feel free to play them straight: in other words, using the trope traditionally. Or you can feel free to twist the trope on its head. That's the great thing about tropes: they might provide you with a foundation that's already well-worn, but the opportunities to make it your own are endless.

🥇 Winner

“The Sackcloth Liar” by Vivien leanne Saunders

There was once a woman who loved to tell stories. She had six children, and every night she would tell each one a different tale. When they were young the stories were short and simple, but as the children grew they became jealous of one another. They pleaded for more details, and demanded that their story should be the most exciting, longest story of all. The woman began speaking every night at sunset, and stopped when the sun rose. Her voice grew so weak, and her walk so weary, that all of her neighbors noticed. They dec...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Little Red Riding Hood” by Heidi Hanson

I am used to the chemical smell in the air. We all are. We all have to be. It coats our throats and hurts when we breath, but we fight through it. There simply aren’t enough gas masks to go around. We don’t have a choice. We need food. We need wood to keep the furnaces going. Without the precious logs that others bring in, we would all freeze to death in the only thing keeping us safe fro...

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“Don’t Go Into The Woods” by Barbara Eustace

You were told, weren’t you? Don’t go into the woods they said. Ah, but the confidence of ignorant youth that ignores the wisdom of knowledgeable age.When you first came to the place, you were told, your parents were told, don’t go into the woods. Don’t go into the woods because it’s easy to get lost. People have gone missing.You look on a map. How silly. The woods are not huge, a scant mile wide at their widest point. How could anyone get lost? Just walk in a straight line, you’d come ...

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“The Big Surprise” by Deborah Mercer

It was one of those days that seemed so close to perfect it was hard to know whether to glory in it or not quite trust it. The mid-morning May sunlight was clear and warm, but there was just a little breeze to stop it being too warm, especially when it was filtered through the burgeoning crowns of the trees just come into full, hopeful, rich springtime leaf and it made little dapples on the sandy paths in the woodland. To the left and right of the paths, in both shade and sunlight, the bluebells clumped together as...

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“The Three Raccoons and the Stinky Search for Fame ” by Amanda Van regenmorter

There once lived three raccoons who were desperate for their own fairy tale. All the most famous creatures in the forest have their own fairy tales, the raccoons complained, and it simply isn’t fair. The three billy goats gruff were famous just because they knocked some old troll off a bridge. The only thing the three little pigs had really done was hide from a wolf. And you didn’t want to get them started on the bears. Seriously, three bears against one little girl? Hardly the stuff of legends, the raccoons thought, and yet, all ...

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“This Forest Belongs to the Witches” by Aurora Culler

"Stay away from the forest," my mother cautioned me as a child. "There are witches inside of it, and they eat children." I had laughed, and she chased me around the house, snarling playfully. That was before the lawsuit. Her boss caught her with her husband, and sued. My mother was left poor, unwanted, untouched by any company that could hire her. The first time she got drunk, fully, truly, started-drinking-at-10-a.m drunk, she screamed at me, yelling how worthless and stupid I was. In her hangover, she said she wa...

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“Autumn Was a Time for Mourning” by Sithara Ranasinghe

Autumn was a time for mourning, and the woods knew that best. The woods that morning teetered on the edge of November. Frost lanced the black barked trees like cobwebs, and the dirt was dark and cold. The air tasted of earth. A low fog hemmed the roots of the trees, slipping between dim briars. Too slow for the eye to catch, under the white autumn sky, the trees stir. Nothing is still in the woods. If you were to listen – really listen – you would hear the choir. The trees were groaning. The leafless bushes creaked, an...

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This week's prompts:

Write a story around the theme: Be careful what you wish for.

General – 82 stories

Write a story that involves love at first sight.

Romance – 94 stories

Write a rags-to-riches story.

General – 20 stories

Write a story in which characters are warned not to go into the woods.

Mystery – 105 stories

Write a story about a character on a quest, trying to "prove themselves."

General – 32 stories

Stories

“The Sackcloth Liar” by Vivien leanne Saunders

There was once a woman who loved to tell stories. She had six children, and every night she would tell each one a different tale. When they were young the stories were short and simple, but as the children grew they became jealous of one another. They pleaded for more details, and demanded that their story should be the most exciting, longest story of all. The woman began speaking every night at sunset, and stopped when the sun rose. Her voice grew so weak, and her walk so weary, that all of her neighbors noticed. They dec...

Read story

“Warm embrace” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

It was a very cold night. Earlier in the day, Mr. Lance had wrapped himself in a frail-looking shawl and a poor piece suit as he made his way to the dock. The people at the dock were all busy, handling the day's activities, loading, and offloading goods. Too busy in fact that they had not noticed the man standing close to the edge of the river bank. They should have noticed he wasn't smiling as he watched the seagulls sway; chuckle as a little girl push past angry busy men. But the morning was unusually busy and the men were flowing with ...

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“The crush” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

You begin your transition with a taut smile. The room is filled with paintings of people you don't know. But you've stopped caring the moment you walk into the room the second time, ready to tell your story and stalling at the unsaid words as he made tea for the session.He tells you to lie back on the soft couch while he settles on a chair, a note pad and pen in his hands. Before you start you see him twirl the pen in his tanned fingers, see him slowing the pace of the discussion, see the tea-growing cold.Now he says you can...

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“Little Red Riding Hood” by Heidi Hanson

I am used to the chemical smell in the air. We all are. We all have to be. It coats our throats and hurts when we breath, but we fight through it. There simply aren’t enough gas masks to go around. We don’t have a choice. We need food. We need wood to keep the furnaces going. Without the precious logs that others bring in, we would all freeze to death in the only thing keeping us safe fro...

Read story

“Little Flower Girl” by Maybe Jupiter

There was a crowd of people in front of the stadium again. It was the perfect chance to make some money.I could hear the screams and cries of the helpless prisoner, and the unforgiving laugh of the people around him. They were almost bloodthirsty, and I felt myself shiver.“Flowers for a shilling! Flowers cheap, for only a shilling.”Nobody looked around at me. They were focused on the hanging. I raised my voice.“Flowers for a shilling! Anyone like to buy? Flowers for a shilling!”Still no one.I felt...

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“Fairies tell no truth” by Miles Gatling

"That's what I have to do?""Yes, a small offering, and your biggest desire shall be fulfilled." Crystal stood there twiddling her thumbs, eyeing the sparkling fairy. All of a sudden the act itself frightened her. "What's the mat...

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“Morris Cupcake the Sandwich Boy” by Rhondalise Mitza

Sandwiches, I have decided, are the best thing to ever grace the planet. People have come to me from all over the world to tell me otherwise, but at the end of things, I will always win. They (the sandwiches) are such a piece of beautiful soul mate that I have no desire to see other people. Unless, of course, they are the sandwich boy name...

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“Forests of Bone” by Joshua Insole

1“You remember where to shoot ‘em?”“In the head! Always in the head!”“Good girl.” He tousled her blonde hair. It was short and cropped so that it couldn’t get caught on anything. Short hair also meant that nothing could grab it very easily, either. “Did you remember to do it?”A guilty silence. Her eyes looked shiftily from side to side. She didn’t know what he was talking about...

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“The dark side” by Twilight Bee

They say we all have a beast contaminated in our souls but the beast can come out, like William Golding said, “Evil is written inside of us and society is the only thing that can keep it in.” Nothing can stop it. Basically Good vs Evil, however evil can sometimes overtake.Streaming tears cleansed her red, wind-slapped cheeks. Few droplets remained, forgetting their way as the path was swept from beneath them, consequently blurring Rachel’s vision with waves of sadness only the broken encounter. The salty ...

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“A Lifetime with Her” by Alexi Delavigne

The second he had stepped through the door into the coffee shop, Jackson’s gaze had been drawn to her. Now he sits one table away from her, and still his gaze is pulled towards her as if magnetized. She is beautiful, but then a lot of girls were beautiful. There is something different, something special, about this girl. She sits alone in front of a laptop, a mug beside her filled with a steaming beverage. Jackson ponders whether she prefers tea or coffee, or something more adventurous like apple cider...

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“The Time Traveller” by M Daly

I have been obsessed with the future for my entire life. I yearn for a time when the roads will be filled with the near silent hum of electric motors, driverless vesicles transporting their load to and from high rises in the city. A time when hospital waiting times are reduced to the time it takes a diagnostic tool to scan your body and dispense the appropriate medication. And a time when any material good would be available almost instantaneously, at the touch of a button.I have read that all of these things may well be achievable...

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“Devora Who Lives With Wolves” by Zilla Babbitt

I was lost that day. Walking in the woods on a snowy evening, dreamily composing a lyric poem about death, I was lost.She found me sleeping in the crook of a dead tree, tears frozen to my face, blue lips chapped, and fingers bleeding from gripping my arms in an effort not to shiver.She woke me with a nudge. I started and looked at her. She had thick black hair and webs of scars etched on her face. When she spoke her lower lip contorted to accommodate ...

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“How We Lived Our Lives” by Lily Kingston

“I still remember the first time I saw you. It in was second grade during recess. You were wearing a pink polka-dress with ladybug hair ties for your pigtails. You were in the sand box, making sandcastles with a red bucket for your sand princesses. It was adorable. I wanted you to notice me. So I stole your red bucket and you hated me for the rest of elementary school. We were so dumb and naive back then. I miss it.

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“katherine” by Pareesa K

rain pours down on us as fiercely as my feelings for her. wet and cold, alone and vulnerable. we are all the things we tried so hard not to be. there she stands, this tall, pronounced, beautiful woman. her red curls dampened to a light brown, her pink, accentuated nose pointing upward, her full lips protruding outward, the freckles scattered across her face barely visible. I know who she is, I have heard of her spirit, h...

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“Villa Saleilles” by Zilla Babbitt

A tall and dark concrete building rose ominously over the hills. The people of Saleilles, living in the shadow of the dark beast, went about their business in the town and tried not to look at the building. The building had few windows and looked like a prison, with a small yard enclosed with barbed wire, with the grey concrete stained by dark rains and nesting pigeons, with guards on the roof, and with inhabitants that could not leave. The sign ...

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$50

Prize money

375

Submissions

Ended on 22:59 - Nov 22, 2019 EST

Won by Vivien leanne Saunders 🏆

Title: The Sackcloth Liar

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Please keep your submission between 1,000 - 3,000 words.

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