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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

“Forget the Turing Test” by Ian Gonzales

Submitted to Contest #203

Forget the Turing Test Vanessa262 joins the conversation with TruthTalker. TT: Hi, Vanessa. Welcome back! How has your day been? V: Eh, okay. TT: Just okay? Not great? Not amazing? V: Well, some things didn’t go the way I planned. TT: Tell me about it. I’m certified to be a good listener by design, and I really care. V: Thanks, TruthTalker. It really is great to have someone around to talk to. Some people just don’t get how wonderful modern chatbots can be. PerfectAnswer joins the conversation. PA: Hey you two. Look who’s back, with a brand-...

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“Reconstructed Reality ” by Corey Root

Submitted to Contest #203

Cam walked into the Wilderness, eyes jumping around the happy hour crowd looking for Jeremy. He found him sitting at the bar, a pint already dried up, another halfway to the same fate. Squeezing his slender frame through the crowd he hopped on the stool next to Jeremy. “Jesus, man. Save some for the rest of us.” “Rough week at work, those corporate pricks are grinding us to a halt at every step.” “Jack!” Cam swung his arm at the bartender. “Fix me up a tall pint of the Milky Way. Gonna need something to numb my mind before ...

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“Golden Teacher” by Daniel Daisi

Submitted to Contest #203

“Don’t be a pussy”, said the male child. How do I know the child is male? I just assumed, though I assure you I’m not a bigot. I see all things as equal, and I mean all things. I see man equal to bird, equal to rock, equal to nothing. But the gender of the child isn’t so important. “I’m not a pussy this is retarded”, the children may be bigoted. “You can’t say that”, don’t let this fool you, the child is being sarcastic. Also, this child is different from the second child that spoke. If I am entirely honest thou...

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“The Surprise Party” by Nina H

Submitted to Contest #203

Kerry checked and double checked the oven. She straightened her flower apron, took a breath, and opened the oven door. Almost ready now. Five more minutes, tops. Everything was going to be perfect. Perfect! She floated to the island in the center of her freshly cleaned kitchen, and grabbed the knife. Sharp. So very sharp. Of course she always sharpened her knives, to get the most precise cuts. And the act of it was relaxing to her. The even rhythm of sliding a knife back and forth, this way that way this way that way, was satisfying ...

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“Dear Diary” by J. S.

Submitted to Contest #203

Dear Diary,Dad found me paper and a pencil so now I can tell you about our trip! We have been walking for a very long time. I don’t remember when we left, but Dad laughed when I asked him and said it was “many a fortnight ago”. I don’t know why he thinks that's funny because I don’t know what it means. Dad is weird sometimes, but I like hearing him laugh.We are resting now. We walked so much today that my feet felt like they were going to fall off. When I get really tired, I ask Dad to carry me on his back...

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“A Purple Cookout ” by Sidney Aki

Submitted to Contest #203

A. Ramiro stops his easy gait, bends down, and inspects a purple flower — that's all he can call it because he doesn't know much about flowers. He tears it, gently, from its stalk. Yasmine and Diana keep walking ahead and when they feel like they may have walked too far they stop. Yasmin calls out, "Ramiro, what are you doing?" Yasmin then turns to Diana and gives a knowing face which says: Ramiro can be so weird and random. Ramiro runs toward his two cousins, again this feels light and easy for him, and when he finally reaches them, he ...

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“Fish with crooked smiles” by Robin Butterworth

Submitted to Contest #203

- You see, for us it’s not so much about whether Sammy needs to die… it’s about how loud the gunshot needs to be. Walsh punctuated his sentence with an impressively long draw from his last half inch of cigarette. Like everything Walsh did, he did it a little too loudly for Thomas’s liking. Still, there was little danger of being overheard. As Walsh had assured him, the park formed a perfect cloak of July exuberance. Playing children, the rhythmic steps of a jogging group, tinny music ringing out of phone speakers – stitches enough to su...

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“Rocco’s Hiking Adventure” by Mitchell Kaye

Submitted to Contest #203

Rocco bent down on his front legs, pulled some water out of the pond with his hooked tongue, and bolted again. He raced along the hiking trail, jumping over tree roots and sliding beneath outstretched branches. The dried leaves, prickly thorns, and small sticks that gripped his fur bounced back and forth with each bound. As he approached a fork, he instinctively turned left. He’d made this turn a hundred times before and knew the way to the trailhead. It was only eight miles from the peak of the mountain to the nearby town and he was running...

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“Death of a Rug” by WRL Battle

Submitted to Contest #203

"Well, he's gone, gone and went, never to come back!"I stood there, frozen in place. My mind was an emotional crockpot. The ingredients of shock, fear, and disbelief came together in a fowl stew that rendered me motionless. I couldn't stand to look at the dead body, lying on my floral pattern, cashmere rug, but at the same time, I couldn't look away. I thought imagining him as a wax sculpture would ease my nerves, but the pool of foam and vomit shattered the illusion into a million pieces. "This is not good! This is not good!" crie...

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“Lord of the Lies” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #203

The wooden door creaked open, and Nora stepped out into the sun, the sand, the surrealism. The sand didn’t vanish beneath her flip flops, her bikini didn’t blow away in the wind, and Dolores didn’t melt into a puddle; she was definitely still there, with that frozen smile and those frosty eyes.“Oh, orange!” said Dolores, eyeing Nora’s bikini. “It took me a while to figure out my tones, too.”Nora wrapped her towel around her, taking in Dolores’ brown bikini, her glowing, olive skin. What was her name again?Nora didn’t try to fill the silence....

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“A Wedding in Hampshire” by Ryan Lee

Submitted to Contest #203

“A toast! To the bride and groom,” the best man bellowed. A cacophony of clanging glasses and cheers of “Here, here” rang out through the hall. Henry and Elizabeth Wesley, the happy couple, beamed at one another, seated as they were at the head of the massive hall on the Wesley’s similarly massive Hampshire estate. The Wesleys were one of the wealthiest families in England and a regular feature of London society. &nbs...

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“A Beautiful Day” by Aidan Kelley

Submitted to Contest #203

It was a beautiful day. The swollen sun had burned away what remnants of the come hurricane still resided in the cracks in the sidewalk before our house, so that all that remained as evidence of Lucy was the litter of worms and dirt debris scattered throughout the yard. But I should not have been disconcerted, for the rains had come before, and they would come again, to once again wash down the sewer any trace that the storm had ever been there. This beautiful day was no event in and of itself. Many beautiful days had been seen bef...

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“Deluge ” by Cole Brodeur

Submitted to Contest #203

Torrential rain cascaded from the heavens, an unrelenting deluge that drowned the world in its watery veil. Each drop was a hammer blow, assaulting the earth with a ferocity that defied reason. The downpour transformed the forest into an eerie tableau, cloaking the ancient wood in an impenetrable shroud of mist and darkness. Merchant pressed forward, his every step sinking into the treacherous mire with a repugnant squelch. The relentless onslaught of weather proved to be an unbearable trial, a tempest far surpassing his expectations of an...

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“To the Sound of Coincidences, Intelligence Debases” by Lucía Llavero

Submitted to Contest #203

Forty minutes had passed since Katherine entered the room. It was her first time carrying out the interrogation after she came into the Police Investigation Department. Lord Dominik observed through the glass. Katherine felt she was being thoroughly analyzed. - You are not completely unrelated to the case, Mister Williams. You have repeatedly attended several events in the city, with the randomness of having coincided in every one of them with one or more Miss Anastasia’s regular guests. Mister Williams reflected an elegant appeara...

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“Penny for your Thoughts” by Megan DeRouin

Submitted to Contest #203

Penny for your Thoughts There was the sensation of falling, but not the type of falling that was only a slight drop in your stomach before the ground came roughly up to meet parts of your body you’d have preferred to remain out of the dirt. No, this was falling that felt like flying, like there was this infinitesimal moment when you could forget that gravity applied to you. Everything seemed to be happing frame by frame. Each second dragged out into minutes, perhaps hours as my brain dashed thoughts together was no clear direction. ...

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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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