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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#203: Back to Basics

If you’re signed up to the Prompts newsletter, you’re probably interested in writing short stories — and love getting emails from people called Laura. With that in mind, I have a recommendation for you...

Editor Laura Mae Isaacman offers a free, 10-day email course on How to Craft a Killer Short Story. She has edited literary giants like Noam Chomsky and Joyce Carol Oates, and her course breaks down the principles of short story writing into manageable chunks.

This week’s prompts take cues from Laura’s tips and examples, taking us back to the basics of storytelling, and can help you brush up your short story skills alongside the course.

This week's prompts

Write a story during which two conversations happen simultaneously.

Dialogue – 28 stories

Write about how a single event affects a seemingly unrelated area of a character’s life (their friendships, career, romantic relationships, etc.)

Character – 35 stories

Write about two friends getting into a fist fight.

Angst – 31 stories

Write a story that experiments with tone — perhaps a difficult subject dealt with in a playful way, or an ostensibly happy scene that hints at darkness lurking beneath.

Short Story – 63 stories

Start your story in the middle of the action.

Short Story – 69 stories

Stories

“Realism” by Michele Seidelman

Submitted to Contest #203

"WE NEED TO GO NOW." The panic in his voice echoed through the house hard and loud. He insistently threw random objects into the luggage bag and screamed at me to do the same. Still sobbing hysterically, but obliging his demand, I asked, "What does that even mean?!" He repeated, "WE NEED TO LEAVE, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE, IT'S NOT SAFE. WE NEED TO GO HOME." Tears unyielding, and voice heaving, I asked again, "Isn't this home?? Where is home?" The journey we took wasn't an easy one. We had just left one state to start all over again in...

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“Promise” by Isaac Walker

Submitted to Contest #203

My heart hammered at my chest as if trying to break through my ribs and escape. With my lungs burning and my legs seizing up, I sprinted faster than I ever have before. Behind me, the stupid ass dog named Pinky or something barked madly, nipping at my heels. Neighbors yelled at me, though I couldn't hear them. Now, you may be wondering how I got into this situation. You see, my friend and I had been playing baseball in a nearby park when I pitched it a little bit too hard, causing my best friend, Derik, to hit the ball a little bit too hard...

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“Reset” by B Lou

Submitted to Contest #203

“CLEAR!” All he could hear in the dead of night is paramedics and EMTs rush to the scene. “CLEAR!” He never seen this coming. “Still no pause!” It hit him like a freight train. “Charge at 150!” one yelled directing orders to the others. Then the sound of another electric current shock pierced his ears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This can’t be happening. He thought to himself as he sat off to the side on the curb. He had his face in his hand. “This can’t be happening” he muttered. This was sup...

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“The Rothschild Funeral” by Rebecca Edelman

Submitted to Contest #203

Not many fist fights break out at funerals. But not many families are like the Rothschilds. For one, the number of billionaires in the world is finite, and the crusty corpse in the coffin, glassy eyes staring up eerily at the action, was one of them. A multi-billionaire if we want to be absolutely accurate. As the Old Vulture (an unaffectionate nickname used behind his back by all who knew him) liked to say, “After the first billion, the rest just seem to roll in.” Per his wishes, he was preserved, eyes wide open so he c...

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“Drive to Survive the Chaos” by Niven Cabello

Submitted to Contest #203

There was fire. All I remember, was the fire. Fire, that engulfed the land- turning it into a sweltering heat. And, I, was the only one that survived. A bombardment of missiles had fallen from the skies, turning the land-scape into a “brace-for-impact" location: Bohol- Manila- Cebu- Ilocos. All of them. All of those places, gone in an instant, there were no screams; just-anguish. What happened then- would happen once again. A soldier, pointed his gun at me, he told me: “Move!” So, I did. I moved to the side, as the next person in line w...

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“ROCKET VS TANK” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #203

Hit, punch, kick. Hit, punch, kick, headlock. Rocket and Tank are going head-to-head. Rocket lands another hit. Tank lands a hit. Rocket lands another hit. Tank misses a hit to the head. Rocket lands another hit. Tank lands a kick to the leg. Rocket lands a kick to the leg. Tank misses again. He's getting pissed. Tank lunges at Rocket. Rocket ducks and lands a kick to the stomach. Tank bends over in pain. Tank punches Rocket. Rocket slips but gets back up. Tank is seething. He can't knock Rocket down. Rocket is quick. He's using his speed ...

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“Obliterated” by Angela Jewitt

Submitted to Contest #203

(Mild Sensitive content including: Death, Swearing, violent destruction) I struggle to hear the desperate shriek over the sound of helicopter blades above my head. So close I fall to the ground before it takes me off my feet. Why am I outside? “Where are you?” I try to shout as loud as I can, but the thick smoke sticks in my throat, threatening to choke me before I can reach them. Disorientated and with a pain in my side that I didn’t have a minute ago, searingly hot. No time to check it out. I am sure that was a child I heard! I heav...

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“Midway In Our Life's Journey” by Nancy Weber

Submitted to Contest #203

Midway In Our Life’s JourneyDivine Comedy II: Purgatory. As If!by Annie Fox for Mr. Rowles’s AP English 22 May 2023“You want to start in the middle, my darlings? Well, you’ll have to get up early in the morning to beat Dante Alighieri.”Thus spake the notoriously halitoxic Sherman H. H. Rowles, a once-upon-a-dream Yale Younger Poet now, at sixty-something, taxed with a Sisyphean uphill roll: turning twenty wildly self-indulgent prep school juniors into Writers. “Listen hard, keeds,” Mr. Rowles went on. "This is John Ciardi’s tr...

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“The Letter” by Ao Mori

Submitted to Contest #203

Aaaaaaaa... A strangled, mute cry of pain and despair escaped from somewhere deep in my chest. I was sure that I had forgotten how to make sounds. My lungs were immediately filled with piercing icy air. At once it became indescribably painful, as if thousands of needles had stuck into my throat. I think I made it, I thought to myself as I sped up my pace. I tried to remember how it all started, but all I could remember was the moment when I received a letter from an old friend from school. We hadn't seen each other for a long time, and out...

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“A Carver's Sacrifice” by Jocelyn Nelson

Submitted to Contest #203

Holla was out of breath as she the open the familiar green door to her small farm house. Her husband was right on her heels as they found her sister bustling around the small room in front of her as if she already knew what was coming for them. In fact, it was not a stretch to believe she did. Saffy picked up the Holla’s crying babe from the crib and hushed the other two small girls holding traveling sacks in the corner. They were already garbed in traveling clothes thick enough to weather a cold night on the water. That confirmed for ...

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“Virtually New to This” by Chelly Jo Welch

Submitted to Contest #203

It’s hard to describe the feeling of taking a life for the first time. The guy- that’s right, I didn’t even know his name- was on the ground in a pool of his own blood and vomit. Okay. Maybe a little bit of the vomit was mine. Just a little bit. I...

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“A Sibling's Battle” by Joanna Smart

Submitted to Contest #203

The ringing of metal on metal echoed as Lynx blocked Ace’s blade, parrying and pushing back to put some distance between them. She watched him stumble a step before recovering, his ragged breaths mirroring her own. Apparently, he hadn’t been idle these past ten years either. He fought with a voracity that told her he had been waiting for this fight since the moment their last fight ended. “What’s the matter Hellcat? Weren’t you always better than me? Have you gone soft since we last fought - after you destroyed ever...

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“Azrael ” by Miller George

Submitted to Contest #203

On a deserted highway in the southwest of the United States, a black Dodge Challenger raced fiercely without any intention of slowing down despite all the twists and turns of the road ahead. Not too far away, behind the wheel of an electric blue Mini Cooper a young woman was singing her heart off to Firework by Katy Perry celebrating her newfound freedom and her upcoming 21st birthday in two days. She was determined to spend the ninth day of June in a majestic pool in a lavish Las Vegas hotel. She finally saved enough money to leav...

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“Here be Monsters” by Peyton Bee

Submitted to Contest #203

Sensitive content: explosives, injury My first thought: Cold. My second: Hell, I can’t breathe. The explosion had sent me flying into the Eno river. I wrinkled my nose, the pollution stinging my eyes. I’d never planned to set foot in the river that was more trash than water, but here I was anyway. I squinted towards the surface. Bombs painted the sky orange, but I could no longer hear them. It was so quiet down here, peaceful in a way. Not to mention it was safe from the fighting above. The...

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“The Missing Crystal of Sapphire Cove” by Keturah Johnson

Submitted to Contest #203

She pumped her legs as hard as she could. With every step the muscles in her legs screamed for her to rest but she couldn’t. She only had 30 second to get out of the cave before she was buried alive. Alice knew that this was a bad idea. She knew that she should have listen to that little voice in the back of her hear head telling her not to search for the missing crystal of Sapphire Cove but she couldn’t ignore the fact that her parents had look for this same crystal and never found it. He parents had used their last communication to tell he...

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$250

Prize money

226

Contest entries

121

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 23, 2023 EST

Won by Kris Hawkins 🏆

Title: Echelon

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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