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#194: Idiomatic

If you’ve read a couple of these newsletters, you may have noticed that I’m a great fan of an idiom; they've provided the inspiration for countless contests, and I use them (or perhaps overuse them) often in everyday life. After all, nothing is more satisfying than discovering a snappy turn of phrase that can express exactly what you’re trying to convey.

With that in mind, this week’s prompts are a celebration of idioms, and the entire scenes they can conjure with just a handful of words. Pick out your favorite from the bunch, and let your imagination run wild.

🥇 Winner

“The Idiom Archipelago” by RJ Holmquist

Day 1: The Sundering SeasWelcome to The Pudding, my little ship hung with true blue sails. She is bravely buoyant upon the sundering sea as she bears me questing for proofs among the Isles of Idiom. Aboard there is a crew of only me and my beagle Salty. I steer the ship on the heaving waves and Salty listens to my meanderings, understanding my moods with his plaintive eyes. You are here too, though you understand much less and exist only in the corners of my reveries.I am charting these waters ...

129 comments 129 WINNER 🏆

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“A Field Sown with Grief Mines” by Anne Shillingsburg

CW: Child loss.I shifted my weight a little to straighten an uncomfortable fold in the plastic against my skin. With my fingertip I could feel where it left a crease in the skin at the meeting of my thigh and private regions. Thinking the words “private regions” pushed a mirthless snicker through my nose: as if anything is private.“What is it?” Jacob asked, pulling back a little and tilting the laptop to a dangerous angle. If the nurse came in, she’d tell him to get off the bed, but we had to get this done and sid...

47 comments 47 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Action heroes are easy” by Amy Arora

There are fourteen minutes before the bomb explodes. Greg Powers, bomb disposal expert and all-round man, is kneeling before it, talking urgently to his superiors via the device in his ear. Beside him stands a woman, who shows her anxiety by shaking her long auburn hair back and forth. Her clothes are too tight but her body is so bodacious that it doesn’t matter. At thirteen minutes, she begins to sweat, ...

22 comments 22 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Efcharistó” by Chris Miller

Anyone who thinks ‘the short end’ is the shitty end of the stick ain’t never been hit with a stick. Well, I’ve been hit, and I can tell you, it’s the long end you want to dodge. You ever seen a sword? Lady Justice, she holds a sword. She doesn’t dispense justice with the stubby little handle, does she? It’s the long end she swings, straight and true. Not exactly a stick, but you take my ...

37 comments 37 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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This week's prompts

Write a story inspired by the phrase “It’s hardly brain surgery.”

Funny – 36 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “I’ll eat my hat.”

Dialogue – 19 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “The short end of the stick.”

Character – 28 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “The plot thickens.”

Dramatic – 55 stories

Write a story inspired by the phrase “Back to square one.”

Narrative – 81 stories

Stories

“The Idiom Archipelago” by RJ Holmquist

Day 1: The Sundering SeasWelcome to The Pudding, my little ship hung with true blue sails. She is bravely buoyant upon the sundering sea as she bears me questing for proofs among the Isles of Idiom. Aboard there is a crew of only me and my beagle Salty. I steer the ship on the heaving waves and Salty listens to my meanderings, understanding my moods with his plaintive eyes. You are here too, though you understand much less and exist only in the corners of my reveries.I am charting these waters ...

129 comments 129 WINNER 🏆

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“Searching for Immortality” by Robert Lee

“I hate you! You’re nothing but a liar. I’m glad you’re dying.”“But J3, I never meant—”“I don’t care,” the boy screamed, reaching for his mother with one hand while wiping away tears with the other.“He doesn’t mean it, Dad,” John Jr. assured his father. “He does mean it, and he’s right,” Jonathan replied, turning back towards the window so his son wouldn’t see him cry. Jonathan Farmer never intended to lie to his grandson, but then again, h...

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“Daycare, After Hours” by Zack Powell

CW: References to miscarriage/domestic violence/injury***It's five minutes before six o'clock when Daphne bids the girl and her father goodnight. From the daycare's entrance, she watches them drive off into the dark winter evening. When they're out of sight, she sighs and returns to Wesley, the only thing standing between her and going home."Welp, just you and me now, kiddo," she says.It isn't an unfamiliar situation. Among the daycare staff, Wesley Dawson's ...

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“Empty Nest” by Michelle Oliver

Rosie wilted against the cool bathroom tiles, her head spinning and stomach aching. She had just finished heaving its contents into the toilet. With deep, slow breaths, she hoisted herself from the floor and washed her face in the sink, splashing the cool water on the back of her neck. Today was the day, and her stomach threatened to heave again just thinking about it.Allie was moving out.After living for eighteen years under her mother’s roof, Allie had declared a month ago that she had found a share house near her universi...

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“Trampled Dreams” by Mary Bendickson

(Excerpt from Chapter One of my unpublished novel 'A Brilliantly Scathing Life'. The plot thickens...)Head hung downward, Kendra stared unseeingly as the dry earth passed beneath the massive hooves of the oxen team pulling her heavy Conestoga wagon. Then the freshly turned earth came into view just under her high bench seat. Already it had been flattened by the wagons streaming ahead of her and was fading to blend with the surrounding clay. The wagon master had insisted that was the way it had to be to keep wild...

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“Place to Place” by Corey Melin

Nathaniel strolled the dirt path until he came to the village. Before he stepped forth into the dwelling, he saw the inhabitants and how they acted among each other. “This village will do well,” he muttered. He continued forth, checking out the places the people either resided in or they did business from. Places built of mud and brick. Others of wood that were either board or l...

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“HOPSCOTCH” by Viga Boland

***Trigger warning: violence; child sexual abuse, mental health***“Life is a game of hopscotch,” she tells Emily, her 20-year-old granddaughter. Emily is ebullient, bursting with excitement over landing her first job. Grandma’s thrilled for her, but the pain in her back is so severe she’s struggling to keep smiling. Visits from her daughters or Emily, or whoever’s left of her diminishing circle of friends are so few and far between these days that she really needs Emily’s youthful exuberance to bri...

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“Pruning Synapses” by V. S. Rose

I’ve never sat in a place so devoid of color. The waiting room walls are wax white, the linoleum floor unblemished. My tongue tingles with the lemon-scented cleaning product that lingers in the air. A semicircle of unoccupied leather back chairs face a reception desk fronting the room. The desk is an imposing block of gloss, the fluorescent lights from the ceiling reflecting in its sheen surface.The space is mouse quiet, aside from the incessant patter of fingers on a keyboard. A deadpan receptionist sits behind the desk...

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“The Exchanger of Wishes” by Michał Przywara

Ian Dovecombe reached into the tepid waters of the mall’s fountain and scooped up another handful of coins. For ten years he’d been living like a beast, like half a man, but this haul would finally overturn his fortunes. He knew a guy, Warren, who could help him for a steep price. Not the coins – the wishes on them. “Hey!” a mall security guard shouted, from down one of the wings. Most of the place was abandoned a...

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“Frankel and Kelso at the Track” by Kevin B

“Why did you tell him you’d eat your hat?”“Those were the terms. Joseph Macabee comes in less than third, and I eat my hat.”“But it’s such a nice hat, Frankel.”“I know, Kelso, but those were the terms. You know how these guys are.”“A horse only ever owns two or three nice hats in his life.”“I got at least six good hats back at the stable.”“I’ve never seen six good hats in your stall.”“Well, you shouldn’t be looking...

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“A Field Sown with Grief Mines” by Anne Shillingsburg

CW: Child loss.I shifted my weight a little to straighten an uncomfortable fold in the plastic against my skin. With my fingertip I could feel where it left a crease in the skin at the meeting of my thigh and private regions. Thinking the words “private regions” pushed a mirthless snicker through my nose: as if anything is private.“What is it?” Jacob asked, pulling back a little and tilting the laptop to a dangerous angle. If the nurse came in, she’d tell him to get off the bed, but we had to get this done and sid...

47 comments 47 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Simon Says” by Chris Campbell

“We’re just downloading the patient’s memories to a hard drive. I mean, it’s hardly brain surgery, now is it…?” The operating room comprising of two doctors, one nurse, and the anaesthetist, suddenly went disbelievingly silent, searching each other to see if there was a possible punch line to follow. “I’m sorry, Doctor Abel,” the chief nurse spoke up. “Was that a joke?” “Should it be?” Simon Abel answered with a question. “I know it’s just attached sensors and that you’re not cutting her open,” the nurse attem...

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“Kindness, It's Hardly Brain Surgery” by Cassiee Carol

Bullying is a bold word printed on awareness posters strewn across high school corridors. This is the word they teach you about, they warn you about how to prevent it, how to recognize it, and how to handle it. As a teacher, an adult now with my own kids, I see those posters frequently from time to time. However, often these bullies are described to children as their fellow schoolmates, mean strangers they might happen to stumble upon, or the typical school bully. No one talks or prints posters that include the words: Mot...

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“And the snow fell forever.” by Howard Halsall

What are you fussing about, kiddo? Pops sighed as I rubbed my ski gloves together. He proffered me a shovel and his icy breath hovered between us like a question mark. I thought you loved the snow, he said and chuckled when I forced a weary smile. We’d been shifting snow for over two weeks and the white flakes had descended on our town like the dry skin from a giant’s eczematic scalp. It was fun on the first day when the snow gathered around the windows and settled in the front garden. It wasn’t deep enough to stop...

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“Action heroes are easy” by Amy Arora

There are fourteen minutes before the bomb explodes. Greg Powers, bomb disposal expert and all-round man, is kneeling before it, talking urgently to his superiors via the device in his ear. Beside him stands a woman, who shows her anxiety by shaking her long auburn hair back and forth. Her clothes are too tight but her body is so bodacious that it doesn’t matter. At thirteen minutes, she begins to sweat, ...

22 comments 22 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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$250

Prize money

219

Contest entries

122

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 21, 2023 EST

Won by RJ Holmquist 🏆

Title: The Idiom Archipelago

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.

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