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#171 Wanderlust, Wanderlost

If I can paraphrase In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust once said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” This idea of travel has always been popular in literature: most notably, as a way for authors to explore a character’s internal journey through their encounters with the external world. After all, our interactions with people and places are what shape our perspective on things.

Taking inspiration from the idea of the solo voyage — whether it be a big trip around the world, or simply a leisurely walk around an unfamiliar neighborhood — this week’s prompts invite you to hone in on drifting, wandering, and exploring on your own.

🥇 Winner

Silence

Winner of Contest #171 🏆

There is a peace at sunrise that surpasses all understanding. It's a renewal. A feeling that anything is possible. I’d like to say I drag myself from the comfort of my bed every day to enjoy sunrise’s splendor, but you wouldn’t believe me and I would be lying. What is true is I was there that day and so was she. There is a connection between sunrisers just because they are sunrisers. It’s a shared, yet unspoken, appreciation for things quiet and beautiful. That might explain why I was immediately drawn to her, but I know it wasn’t ...

383 likes

263 comments 263

⭐️ Shortlisted

Kaleidoscope

Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

You never asked for this much insight.But you can’t have both innocence and experience. Experience. A charming euphemism for pain and suffering. Either one will drive out innocence altogether. Isn’t that what you’re really after—a return to Eden? Minus the snake. Minus the apple. Minus Adam, for that matter. However, if you had stayed in an unspoiled world, you would have learned nothing. You would have felt nothing. You would have seen nothing. Better to have loved and lost—etcetera etcetera. Now let’s talk about your ba...

75 likes

The Long Way Home

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Dear Holly,Here goes nothing. I ate my pasta with a spoon tonight. It reminded me of you, and how you’d stubbornly say it was the best and only way. It’s one year to the day since I saw your gorgeous face. I miss the rebellious amber strands that refused to tuck behind your ears. I miss the little cleft between your eyebrows, worn by time. I miss the tiny mole behind your left ear that you’d scratch until sometimes it bled. I have to be honest, I haven’t been able to let you go in the way you asked.It’s partly Jim’s fault, if he hadn’t been ...

55 likes

Castles in the Clouds

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

13 June 1886Standing at the edge of the lake’s still waters I stare out at the sublime mountains, still visible in the twilight, trying to ignore the commotion behind me. Ahead is peace and tranquillity, the calm of the water only briefly disturbed by the dance of a fly across the surface and sometimes the flip of a fish, pulling it down. If I keep my eyes fixed ahead and up, locked on the summits of those far-off lofty peaks, perhaps I can disappear from the disturbing present, into thin air, just as he has done.It is not to be. Search part...

52 likes

The Rules of Arithmetic

Delbert Griffith

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Sometimes you just have to leave the dead bodies behind and move on. That’s the logical thing to do. The smart thing to do. So we’re in another city. San Antonio. There is always a need for math professors at universities. For some reason. Probably the pay. And it isn’t a glamorous profession. The rules of math are nice, though. You get a sense that something is dependable in math. Solid. The rules of how numbers work won’t leave you. People leave. People you love. ************** Dr. Phillip Morgan looked around the modest apartment and sig...

47 likes

A World of Opinion

Scott Christenson

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Pundits predicted the death of the news industry back in 2028 when Trump and Biden were both moved to assisted care homes and were taken away from their microphones. The ex-presidents had the option of separate rooms at the home but neither could afford to stay alone for long. As a Pulitzer Prize winning human interest writer, my editor had me invited to hear their side of the story of what it is like to share a room because of the government budget cuts, but from behind their oxygen masks, I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying a...

43 likes

The King's View

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

The King’s View “I’m done with that view. Show me something else,” the King ordered. Dutifully the King’s courtiers unfurled a scroll which appeared in back of the large wooden window frame that stood in the middle of the room. “Not that one. Another!” The courtiers unraveled two more before the King settled on a scene depicting a grove of giant sequoia tree...

43 likes

Partisan Hysteria

Daniel Allen

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

TW: Contains swearing, gory violence and trauma. When the war ended, I thought I would feel free, liberated. I didn’t. Oh, I admit, I felt a fleeting joy as we watched the cursed Nazis turn tail and flee from Belgrade. When women and children wept with joy to see their men return home. But these sparks of happiness soon faded into the empty void inside of me. Even my parents’ shouts of pure delight at seeing me alive did not warm my heart for long. When Marshall Tito spoke to us among the ruins and rubble of Republic Square, proclaiming ...

33 likes

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone looking at a breathtaking view and getting emotional.

Dramatic – 64 stories

Write about two solo travelers who keep bumping into each other in the most unexpected of places.

Romance – 21 stories

Write about a character who is trying to leave something or someone behind — only to realize they carry it with them.

Sad – 72 stories

Write a story where someone decides to take the long way home.

Adventure – 36 stories

Your character is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The story takes place during a long-haul flight, with an open return-date. What happens?

Adventure – 10 stories

Stories

Silence

Winner of Contest #171 🏆

There is a peace at sunrise that surpasses all understanding. It's a renewal. A feeling that anything is possible. I’d like to say I drag myself from the comfort of my bed every day to enjoy sunrise’s splendor, but you wouldn’t believe me and I would be lying. What is true is I was there that day and so was she. There is a connection between sunrisers just because they are sunrisers. It’s a shared, yet unspoken, appreciation for things quiet and beautiful. That might explain why I was immediately drawn to her, but I know it wasn’t ...

383 likes

263 comments 263

Kaleidoscope

Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

You never asked for this much insight.But you can’t have both innocence and experience. Experience. A charming euphemism for pain and suffering. Either one will drive out innocence altogether. Isn’t that what you’re really after—a return to Eden? Minus the snake. Minus the apple. Minus Adam, for that matter. However, if you had stayed in an unspoiled world, you would have learned nothing. You would have felt nothing. You would have seen nothing. Better to have loved and lost—etcetera etcetera. Now let’s talk about your ba...

75 likes

The Long Way Home

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Dear Holly,Here goes nothing. I ate my pasta with a spoon tonight. It reminded me of you, and how you’d stubbornly say it was the best and only way. It’s one year to the day since I saw your gorgeous face. I miss the rebellious amber strands that refused to tuck behind your ears. I miss the little cleft between your eyebrows, worn by time. I miss the tiny mole behind your left ear that you’d scratch until sometimes it bled. I have to be honest, I haven’t been able to let you go in the way you asked.It’s partly Jim’s fault, if he hadn’t been ...

55 likes

Castles in the Clouds

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

13 June 1886Standing at the edge of the lake’s still waters I stare out at the sublime mountains, still visible in the twilight, trying to ignore the commotion behind me. Ahead is peace and tranquillity, the calm of the water only briefly disturbed by the dance of a fly across the surface and sometimes the flip of a fish, pulling it down. If I keep my eyes fixed ahead and up, locked on the summits of those far-off lofty peaks, perhaps I can disappear from the disturbing present, into thin air, just as he has done.It is not to be. Search part...

52 likes

The Rules of Arithmetic

Delbert Griffith

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Sometimes you just have to leave the dead bodies behind and move on. That’s the logical thing to do. The smart thing to do. So we’re in another city. San Antonio. There is always a need for math professors at universities. For some reason. Probably the pay. And it isn’t a glamorous profession. The rules of math are nice, though. You get a sense that something is dependable in math. Solid. The rules of how numbers work won’t leave you. People leave. People you love. ************** Dr. Phillip Morgan looked around the modest apartment and sig...

47 likes

Our Scorched Earth

Submitted to Contest #171

As the dark sky vignettes with bleeding reds and pinks, the comfort of the cool night passes and the scorching sun rears its ugly head once again. Though it’s been what feels like an age since I’ve felt its heat a phantom burn still peels away at my mind each new day. Seven-hundred and eighty-two days since any sign of life, seven-hundred and eighty-two days since the birds fell from the sky, the oceans boiled alive, and man fell to his knees. Counting the days had kept me sane for over two years now but each day it takes longer to recall ho...

44 likes

A World of Opinion

Scott Christenson

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

Pundits predicted the death of the news industry back in 2028 when Trump and Biden were both moved to assisted care homes and were taken away from their microphones. The ex-presidents had the option of separate rooms at the home but neither could afford to stay alone for long. As a Pulitzer Prize winning human interest writer, my editor had me invited to hear their side of the story of what it is like to share a room because of the government budget cuts, but from behind their oxygen masks, I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying a...

43 likes

The King's View

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

The King’s View “I’m done with that view. Show me something else,” the King ordered. Dutifully the King’s courtiers unfurled a scroll which appeared in back of the large wooden window frame that stood in the middle of the room. “Not that one. Another!” The courtiers unraveled two more before the King settled on a scene depicting a grove of giant sequoia tree...

43 likes

Seven Books I'll Never Read

Story Time

Submitted to Contest #171

There were seven books on the nightstand. We had packed up the rest of the bedroom. In the other room, I could hear my sister taping up the last of the cardboard boxes that would contain what we wanted to keep from our mother’s house. The house that we grew up in. The previous morning had featured a yard sale. We parted with the things that held no sentiment for us. This was more difficult than we thought it would be, because we were not raised to be emotional. Our mother grew up in a rural part of Pennsylvania. We never saw her cry or bec...

39 likes

Callum's Cabin

Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #171

Brett gasped when they got to the top of the hill. He saw the entire valley, filled with stoic evergreens, severe rock formations, and the sparkling lake. And there in the sky, to welcome them, a vulture which he mistook for an eagle. He was so moved he immediately turned around and took a selfie.“Oh my god!” Brett said. “Isn’t this place amazing!?”Chuck swatted a mosquito, and then another one. He grabbed ahold of his shorts and jerked them around, and then buried his hands in them to better adjust his boxers. He grimaced at all the sweat, ...

36 likes

Sunshine on the Ones I Love

Submitted to Contest #171

Red light of the rising sun caresses the cheeks of my two loves. Tina’s mouth lies open, cheek squished against her mother’s chest. Outside the window is a view that people remember forever. I’m watching the drooling beauties on my sofa. Breath catches in my chest as happy tears smear dark lines on my sleeve. For all the darkness in the world, the sun sheds light upon happiness I never knew was possible. &...

34 likes

Partisan Hysteria

Daniel Allen

Shortlisted for Contest #171 ⭐️

TW: Contains swearing, gory violence and trauma. When the war ended, I thought I would feel free, liberated. I didn’t. Oh, I admit, I felt a fleeting joy as we watched the cursed Nazis turn tail and flee from Belgrade. When women and children wept with joy to see their men return home. But these sparks of happiness soon faded into the empty void inside of me. Even my parents’ shouts of pure delight at seeing me alive did not warm my heart for long. When Marshall Tito spoke to us among the ruins and rubble of Republic Square, proclaiming ...

33 likes

Arthas Gets Blown Away

Submitted to Contest #171

Mark Brigg fiddled with the neon sapphire sleeve of his prison jumpsuit. “Is there any way to get an outfit that doesn’t glow in the dark?” “It brings out the blue in your eyes,” said Detective Arthas Jacques in his Martian capital Arab-French sounding accent. Cheap prison soap scent filled the air. “My room is tiny. Shouldn’t I be with other prisoners? So I don’t go crazy?” Mark’s voice had the cont...

31 likes

Sunrise

AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #171

TW: swearing, abuse, violence, death, dark ominous tones.Where land meets its end, there is only water and sky, and it is enough to take my breath away as I slowly drive through the juniper trees towards the cliff’s edge, gravel crinkling loudly beneath my car.The sun is rising behind me, casting its light upon the ripples of the sleepless sea like twinkling stars dancing across its surface. The horizon is made clear by a blemishing pale blue sky and cotton candy pink streaks brushed across it like smeared paint, creating a stark contrast ag...

29 likes

The Ballad of Major Tom

Submitted to Contest #171

“Good morning, Houston... A precursory check on readings, show all systems are nominal on this fine morning… Well, my body clock says it’s morning – even though, I’m encircling the Earth at seventeen and a half thousand miles per hour, I’ll probably see sixteen mornings before your day is done.” “…Copy, Major. We hear you loud and clear and congratulations on the inaugural deployment of FODOC, Space Force’s first Forward Operational Defending Orbital Command…” “…Hey Mac, why the formal greeting?” “Sorry Tom, orders… We have a developing situ...

29 likes

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Contest #172

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

203

Entries

79

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 11, 2022 EST

Won by Thom With An H 🏆

Title: Silence

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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