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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#170: Best Laid Plans

As the old saying goes, "We plan, God laughs"; no matter how carefully we try and prepare for the future, life tends to get in the way. Sometimes these obstacles are actually opportunities, and things work out for the better. Sometimes, these disappointments don’t have a happy ending. Either way, we have to muddle through.

This week’s prompts are all about plans — whether they work out, they don’t, or we never had one to begin with!

This week's prompts

Start your story with the line “I’ve got a plan”.

Dialogue – 60 stories

Write a story about a character who tries to control their life down to the most minute detail — but has to learn to let go.

Character – 25 stories

Write about a plan that goes wrong, for the better.

Middle School – 38 stories

Write a story that involves the architectural plans for a building.

Mystery – 10 stories

Fly by the seat of your pants and write a story without a plan.

Short Story – 68 stories

Stories

“Xander Meets the In-Laws” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #170

TW: Brief mentions of violence. Nothing is as terrifying as meeting your in-laws for the first time. I’ve met killers that didn’t give me the dry acidic taste that’s dancing on my tongue right now. I asked to hold Tina. Using my baby daughter as a human shield might seem cowardly. Probably because it is. I’ve never had a relationship serious enough to meet family. Perspiration in my armpits threate...

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“Homemade Wine: A Sestina Story” by Michael Mabrito

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #170

Homemade Wine: A Sestina Story by M. S. Mabrito Late on a warm fall afternoon many years ago, I had planned to meet friends behind the abandoned bottle factory and drink as much beer as I possibly could but as I passed my grandfather sitting on our porch drinking a glass of his homemade wine, he intercepted me and began to lecture me about my lack of drive and imagination. I was the only son of his only son and he desperately wanted me to imagine a life beyond what he called, with some contempt and some sadness, the small, unexceptional wo...

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“English Class” by Eloise Griffin

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #170

I’m sitting in English class, ripping my nails apart, dizzy with grief. I had gotten a red gel manicure over fall break with my grandmother. I felt pretty, put together, more like a woman than what I am—a college girl with nothing figured out. Now I’m cursing my choices, as my thumb is a jagged mountain from digging under the shiny red. I need it off desperately, need my hands to be mine again. The red is making my eyes burn, my throat tighten, and my chest collapse. I’m sitting in my English class. It’s a Monday, and it...

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“Wishing and Losing” by Bonnie Jay

Submitted to Contest #170

The candles leave softly blooming imprints on the back of June’s eyelids. She had peeked as Mum was lighting them. “Don’t look, Junebug” Dad says, and her feet leave the ground as he quickly swings her into her chair. He smiles as he says it though, so she knows it’s really ok. It is her birthday and she is old enough now to feel the pure and bright excitement of her special day. A shiny mylar balloon is tied to her chair and she tugs at it, curious about the way it bounces and pulls away from her. Frustration quickly turns to ...

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“Plans and Dreams” by Francois Kosie

Submitted to Contest #170

Daniel watched as the train left without him, leaving him stranded until the next day in the town that used to be his hometown. The warmth of summer still bravely flickered far into the fall, the reds and yellows of the leaves bringing their own kind of warmth, but he could feel the cold seeping in. There wasn’t much left for him here except for a few friends, acquaintances, and old memories. His brothers and sisters had long since scattered to other parts of the country, and his parents had moved someplace sunnier. But maybe she still lived...

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“Leo the Flea” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #170

I can’t undo the zipper! My plan has gone terribly wrong, and now I can't breathe. It all came from me wanting to meet my idol, Lionel Messi. My name is Leo, just like his, except he is Lionel and I am Leonard. We are just alike. His nickname is La Pulga, which is the Spanish word for what my Mom calls me, Flea. She says when I was little I bounced around and was always where she didn’t want me to be. I have to see Leo play, I have to! I didn’t have money for a ticket. But I made a plan. I live right next to the...

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“The Treadmill” by Rama Shaar

Submitted to Contest #170

*This story contains mild swearing*I have to go to the gymI have to go to the gymI have to go to the gymI repeated in my head as I drove the kids home from school. I had been planning to go to the gym for the past week. Ten days to be exact. I knew because my mum had given me a gym membership for my birthday. Really sweet I thought to myself, not allowing my smile to waver, but the witch in my head poked her head as she inspected her nails and asked nonchalantly, is she implying that you’re fat?“It’s a great way to meet guys, I hear!” Mum ha...

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“A LITTLE TRIP” by Susan Catucci

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #170

The lady with the bright blue hat looked on as her speckled cat was swatting at the firefly as it went trapesing by. She then spied a spider whose bottom half was wider, with a hangman's noose beside her, attempt to end it all. Her puppy wouldn't have it, but as he tried to grab it, a caterpillar stabbed it so it could watch her fall. The lady thought it tragic, the speckled cat cried, Magic! The puppy pawed a maggot to forget about it all.The parachute won't open, the elephant had spoken, the latch inside was broken, the monkey did it all. ...

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“The Thinking Part” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #170

TW: Writer’s block, and mild swearing (caused by the writer’s block).“This is going to suck,” I involuntarily announce. Immediately, I wince at the discreet (and not-so-discreet) glares I get from the quiet patrons around me. Shit!The northwest side of the library is congested with people. This section of the branch seems to be the quietest, or it is the ambience offered by its floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing the sun to luminate the room and warm up the cushioned community chairs and study desks, that make it feel more peaceful than ...

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“The Plan” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #170

It is only when looking back, now that I have reached the mature years, that I realise all the sections of my life have contributed to a far superior life plan than I could have chosen. Apart from the purchase of a house and a pension plan I imagined myself a ‘free spirit’ jumping carelessly from event to event, without thought or care. I little knew all those earlier escapades and adventures were there to prepare me for the sheer joy of my sunset years. Like most things in my mature years, moving to Asia had been bizarre...

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“Miguel, Mabelle and Me” by Mike Panasitti

Submitted to Contest #170

A blank page. Every life starts as one. Or does it? If a newborn is born with programs to grow, to cry when upset, to laugh when happy, to eventually speak, to eventually walk, what’s to say it isn’t born with programs to become a scholar, a criminal, a painter, a poet, a writer? Did you, in your mother’s womb, already possess the coding that predestined you to be a generally well-behaved child, to have a passion for music, to excel in school, to end up incarcerated, to put pigment on canvas, to compose verse, to write wo...

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“A LAST MEAL” by BRUCE MARTIN

Submitted to Contest #170

A LAST MEAL Sentenced to hang for the murder of his wife, Frank Stemmer had not for one moment stopped proclaiming his innocence. The trial was fairly straightforward. Circumstantial evidence all pointed in his direction. Three eyewitnesses saw a man who fit Frank’s description running from the murder scene, and all three identified him in a police lineup. A smudged fingerprint on the murder weapon was a partial match. Prosecuting attorneys detailed the crime in exquisite detail, and laid out the motive quite eloquently. According to...

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“Those Valuable Moments” by Amelia Hans

Submitted to Contest #170

Those Valuable Moments My Father My father was a courageous man; an experienced soldier who instilled fear in the eyes of his enemies. He was awarded three medals of honor, lost an arm shielding his commander from a swarm of shrapnel, and walked across the Sahara Desert with nothing but three bottles of water, fifteen energy bars, and a camel for company. At least, this is what I was told. I never actually met my father, because even the most fearsome soul can be brought down by a single well-aimed bullet to the chest. Grandma I was raise...

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“He Looked Better From A Distance” by Shuvayon Mukherjee

Submitted to Contest #170

“When at last we meet, we shall talk so soft, the way young lovers do…”“I daresay,” Natalia teased, “you are making eyes at the bard.”“Lia!” Grace whispered furiously. She dropped her gaze and smoothed the fabric of her dress. “Must the entire court hear your babbling?”Lia’s smirk grew wider. “Gray, the entire court can see you staring at each other. He looks more often at you than at his lute.”“Nonsense,” she replied, though a smile tugged at her lips. As if against her will, her eyes wandered back to the slim figure lounging in the midday ...

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“Fresh Meat” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #170

“I gotta plan." Sy pulled something out of the duffle bag on the ground.Joe sighed. “It wants to be better than the last one.”Brittle wood splintered in the torchlight as Simon ‘Sy the Scythe' Eldridge forced his crowbar underneath the window boards and levered them away from the frame, one by one. A gap, big enough for Sy to squeeze through, was soon inviting the gang into the abandoned church.“Hey, Fingers! You'll get through that right?” Sy pointed at the hole in the building’s defences.“I will,” said Joe ‘Fingers’ Finch, eyeing up Sy’s h...

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$250

Prize money

201

Contest entries

125

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 04, 2022 EST

Won by Camphor White 🏆

Title: Fini Flight

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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