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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

“Dr. Truth” by Daniel Legare

Submitted to Contest #170

Warning: Violence and mentions of torture, languageOctober 27th, 2079I've got a plan now and all the pieces are in place. I’ve cleaned my office and organized my desk. The letters are addressed and ready to be sent out. God knows it’ll be a while until I can see my family again. When I started this journey, I wanted to make sure the world understood that anyone can be a hero, and anyone can be a villain. In the end, we’re still all just people. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I've no doubt that after today…the world will n...

11 comments 11
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“20 Years ” by Chris McTaggart

Submitted to Contest #170

Clifford’s 20 Years    “Good morning everyone!” Said a man in a thick white cotton scarf with a bright smile and crooked teeth.    He smiled at a group of people that sat in a circle on the floor on soft pillows. The sun shining down on everyone from the high windows in the gym and reflecting off the shiny wooden floors highlighted everyone making them look heavenly. The man in the scarf glowed the most as the sun highlighted his soft brown skin.    “Welcome to grief counseling” said the man as he...

2 comments 2
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“Ted” by Corrie McCue

Submitted to Contest #170

Sunday means the day will begin at 10:12 a.m. The shower water needs to run for two minutes before it warms, if the handle is turned to align with the chipped tile to the left. A squirt of shampoo the size of a quarter massaged into my scalp in twenty counterclockwise circular motions cleanses my hair quite well. The bar of Irish Spring needs to be rubbed onto the washcloth six times to produce adequate suds lasting through two up-down motions over every section of my body beginning with my left arm and ending with my left leg. Drying is acc...

2 comments 2
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“Anticipation Is” by MB Campbell

Submitted to Contest #170

Anticipation IsWill is half asleep and doesn’t brace himself against the impact. It is his good fortune. The driver is thrown against the steering wheel and it is now pressing on his chest and restricting his breathing. Ian’s head is whipped sideways and cracks the passenger window, knocking him out. The Range Rover comes to a stop with its front wheels dangling over the edge of a rock wall. A hundred feet below runs the Bartang River, a pearlescent ribbon of water and ice that has traveled from the Alai Range.“Holy shit,” Will cries out.The...

6 comments 6
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“A Plan Blows up” by Jackie Ross Flaum

Submitted to Contest #170

Margaret Lowell stepped on her porch to escape the vinegar aroma of the tomatoes and cucumbers she was canning—and shrieked.  Smoke as black as death billowed from her daughter’s home.  She flew down her front steps toward the house where her daughter Emma and four-year-old granddaughter Betsy lived. Margaret didn’t bother with the path but plowed straight through the acre of corn between the houses. A faint siren sounded near the Starlight Galleria mall two hay fields from Emma’s house.  Sudden screams of agony ec...

2 comments 2
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“Trip of a Lifetime” by Shelbrea McCleese

Submitted to Contest #170

“Got your keys?”, yes, I answered as we hurried out the door. We were on our way to the airport. Consumed by our checklists and carry-on bags, time was of the essence to avoid missing our flight. It was our third year together. Nathaniel and I were college sweethearts who’d met in my junior year and his senior year. Now that we were totally engrossed in adulting, we both managed to scrape our coins together and take a trip. You know, one of those all-inclusive getaways that would make us feel like we’d work hard to p...

2 comments 2
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“The Great Building” by Jason Szwejkowski

Submitted to Contest #170

Prompt: A story that involves the architectural plans for a building I am here because people appear as shapes to me. It is a strange phenomenon and honestly, I wasn’t impacted by it until now. It’s gotten to the point where I can hardly function because of it. Obviously, I know it’s strange or else I wouldn’t be sitting in here with you, and I hope you can make sense of something that I saw. I apologize beforehand If I talk too much, but I’d like to explain myself before we work on a treatment. Anyways, like I said, People appear as shapes....

1 comment 1
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“A Nice House on a Napkin” by Austin Penn

Submitted to Contest #170

“Listen. We need to talk to your sister about the house,” said Leon to Ash, his fiance. She had on flowery perfume potent enough that he could taste it, especially in the car. She was gorgeous, pretty, stunning, but he would forget that under stress. They were getting married in the spring, the best time to marry. Flowers, rain, dresses. The venue was set, the cake picked out, tuxedos fitted. But they still needed a place to call home, a place to sleep at night, a place to prepare and eat Japanese food Leon couldn’t pronounce, a place for As...

2 comments 2
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“Hydrangea Blue” by Susan Beggan Paganie

Submitted to Contest #170

The bright glint from the corner of the closet cast rainbow colored prisms that danced along the wall and ceiling of my small confines. The sun entered the tiny space through the open door at just the right angle to discover what was there all along waiting to be found. I looked at it with curiosity after I had studied the dancing colors to find their source. Not only was I mesmerized by the magical display but now I was caught up in the intrigue of just what this object was. I didn’t reach for it just yet. I didn’t want the moment to b...

1 comment 1
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“Wild Rose of the Canyon ” by River Horn

Submitted to Contest #170

After Maya and her girlfriends had been busy in the tea mountain for a day, they all flew out of the tea forest like butterflies and gathered. They did not rush back to the tribe village but decided to come to the canyon ridge not far from the village for nothing but to listen to the wind. There was an endless canyon, with steep cliffs on both sides and a rushing, unsurpassable torrent beneath the ten thousand feet. The opposite ridge was not far off, with rocks, trees, and wild deer visible. The sound of the wind lingered in this canyon r...

4 comments 4
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“RoadHawk” by Kristin Johnson

Submitted to Contest #170

The roadrunner always knew she wanted to fly.Since the first time her talons touched the human sky-road where the metal birds flew, she knew she wanted to fly like the metal birds. Away from the desert heat. Away from the coyotes and the bobcats, and definitely away from the snakes. And the humans.But she couldn’t fly on her own.One of the metal birds sat on the human sky-road. It looked far bigger than any bird ever grew. She wanted to fly inside the bird. Then she could soar above all the other desert predators. Including the hawks that sw...

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“Dallow House ” by Carissa Cherrington

Submitted to Contest #170

CW: suicide/self-harm, physical violence. Arthur Wellston came into possession of Dallow House by misfortune. The grand estate had been owned for many years by a distant cousin of the Dallow family, who then passed on rather abruptly after a bad bout of pneumonia. The cousin’s son took it upon himself to sell many of their own possessions, as their financial situation was not as stable as it had once been. The house, unlived-in for nearly a century, had once been the pride of a very proud family but had to be sold at a mere fraction o...

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“Where is my horizon!” by Sri Vi S

Submitted to Contest #170

I drove to the edge of the cliff LongHope in my rented camper van. This was the most unplanned journey. Prior to setting out on this sojourn, I was going through a mind-set shift and an inner turmoil, fired for a new beginning. Yes, also a sudden inner urge to get going and adventure. Seven years prior to this day, my son was young and innocent, so I had to be around him to care for and nurture him. As he was coming to 20 now, a man of his own thoughts and actions.  The breaking of innocence had happened a few years before. I visua...

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“To Stand By Noah” by Drew Herron

Submitted to Contest #170

Noah and his dad, Stephen, had just taken their seats a few rows behind Cleveland’s away dugout. The game was against the Angels and had been on their schedule for nearly three months. They had gotten to their seats a little late because Stephen wanted to buy a hat, and Noah wanted a veggie burger which was only sold at one specific food stand on the second deck. It was the top of the second inning, Cleveland was down by one, and Trout was on deck. There was a smack of leather followed by a staccato yell from the umpire. “Three!” The Angels...

2 comments 2
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“The Second Garden” by Joseph Schowengerdt

Submitted to Contest #170

It was found that a young man and his wife had violated the policy of a very exclusive garden. The Owner was not happy and said the only reasonable option was the couple should be banned for life. The young man's wife cried bitter tears, she loved walking with her husband in the garden and she knew grapes wouldn't taste the same anywhere else. "I'm sorry my sweet," said the young man trying his best to comfort her, "We still have each other, Don't we?" "You have my companionship still, my friends." said a wolf,  This story took place a ...

4 comments 4
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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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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