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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#216: Show, Don't Tell

As autumn marches on, we once again find ourselves back to work and study, hopefully filled with renewed energy and the desire to write. But before we start typing away, why not revisit some craft fundamentals?

"Show, don't tell," is age-old advice that encourages writers to tell stories through sensory details, actions, and images, rather than exposition. But that’s easier said than done. The best way to incorporate it into your writing is to practice.

With that in mind, you might enjoy our free 10-day email course on Show, Don't Tell, along with this week's prompts, which are inspired by it and invite you to refine this foundational storytelling skill.

This week's prompts

Start your story in a coffee shop without using obvious words to describe it (e.g. barista, coffee cup.)

Narrative – 69 stories

Write a scene in which a character’s behavior or reaction to something is affected by a past experience — without saying what that experience was.

Character – 51 stories

Include dialogue that shows that a character is socially awkward.

Dialogue – 28 stories

Include a scene in your story in which a character's body language conveys their hidden emotions.

Character – 25 stories

Write a story with an open ending that gives readers just enough details to draw their own conclusions.

Narrative – 111 stories

Stories

“The Results” by Ben K

Submitted to Contest #216

(Sensitive content: terminal illness allusions)----------------------------------------------------------------Our world could be turned upside down. Lori and I sit alone on the cold, hard chairs. Uneasy, restless silence hangs between us. As we quietly shift in our places, rustling noises punctuate the heavy breathing and overwhelm the miserable patter of rain against the small windows.My shoes squeak on the floor as I fidget. The white-walled office is spotless, aside from the scribbled papers on the desk opposite us. The aroma of hand san...

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“Transient Departure” by Liz Leness

Submitted to Contest #216

Weasel, still awake, lies motionless; the disturbing events of the evening before tirelessly dancing through his mind. He pulls the covers tightly over his head. He lies like this for several minutes, his comforter-coffin rapidly filling with hot and humid air. His heart beats faster and higher into his throat and the birds' relentless symphony grows louder still. Weasel can hardly take it any longer, and he throws the blankets off of him, gasping as he cools his burning, suffocating lungs, the fresh air a welcomed relief. He opens his eye...

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“Found” by Joy Allen

Submitted to Contest #216

Charlotte and a fellow beachcomber nearly collided as they strolled in opposite directions with their heads down, eyes scouring the sand. “What treasures have you found,” asked the woman. She wore her grey hair in two long pigtails and had the deeply baked-in tan of a year-round beach dweller. Charlotte opened her hand and the woman pointed to the whimsical shell in the center of her palm, “Ah! A limpet!” &...

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“Double Blind” by Tony Smith

Submitted to Contest #216

Double Blind By Tony Smith Balancing a tray in his arms Cecil mounts the stairs, muttering: ‘I’ve strangled the cat, poisoned the fish, put glass in the toothpaste and spat in the cocoa’. He pushes open the door with a shoulder. “I’ve brought your breakfast, dear. The cocoa’s just as you like it.” “Don’t stand there, idiot. Put it down . . . not there, on the table, fool.” “I’ve run your bath, dear.” “Don’t mutter. I’ve told you about muttering.” “Sorry, Agnes. The bedroom has that cloying fetid smell of sleep: a witch’s brew of unwashe...

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“Elizabeth” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #216

With her back to the door, she took a shot of the whiskey, grimaced and replaced it in the bottom drawer of her boss’s desk. Smoothing her skirt, she returned to her own desk just outside his office. “Order the wife some flowers, will ya, sweetheart?” The boss appeared behind her starting his morning demands. “Have them write something nice on the card for our anniversary. Use the company account.” He walked through his office doorway, leaving the stink of cigar hanging in the air. With the phone wedged in the cr...

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“Back Off Buttinsky” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #216

It’s a typical day filled with amusement for Monique Vermont as she looks around Marvin Garden’s courtyard. Monique laughs as six-year-old Charity Chase spins her four-year-old brother around until he’s dizzy and collapses on the seat of his pants. Seated on a bench near the back of the courtyard, Ilsa, Julie Auger’s au pair from Switzerland, puts her head on the shoulder of would-be musician Vinnie Vincent. Monique, a high school principal, and Leland, her broker husband, had once been Marvin Gardens’ leading socialites. Their parties wer...

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“All together now” by George Hughes

Submitted to Contest #216

Darren squinted in the light rain, his face lit orange by the Battersea side street lighting. He scanned the quiet scene of ongoing property development with muddy tyre tracks on the road and cement bag shreds tumbling in the breeze. He looked up again at the latest apartment block to go on sale within the lucrative regeneration zone surrounding what was once a famous southwest London power station. He studied lower apartments on the corner of the riverside ten-story tower. “I can do it,” he said in a hushed tone, with a forced smile.&nbs...

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“Cow Sense and Nonsensibility” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #216

It was a pleasant enough day for a stroll in the country, a day hike from the Town of Ryton to Hinksbottom village. For Randall it was an opportunity to evaluate Debbie as a potential spouse, to do so at leisure and in isolation from her friends. For Debbie it was an opportunity to try out her new gun. Randall was an odd looking fellow, resembling a praying mantis from a distance, picking out long ponderous strides, one for every two taken by Debbie. Debbie however was an ordinary looking woman, perhaps thirty years of ag...

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“The Strange Travellings of the Archangel” by Edd Baker

Submitted to Contest #216

This story contains brief descriptions of gore, as well as implied suicide.Journal entry, August fifth, 1712. It has now been, according to my count, three days since that mighty and terrible tempest descended upon us on our voyage eastward across the Atlantic, being already pursued by the relentless Captain Jericho. The storm threw us off our course and inflicted great damage upon the Archangel. With what little skeleton remained of our once great beauty, we drifted until the break of the new dawn, pulling upon the shore of an uncharted isl...

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“A Little Hill” by Pebble K

Submitted to Contest #216

In a place that is not here, there is a hill. It is a bit small and grassy, the kind that kids go through on their way to school and complain about as they go up the slope. The hill has a few trees, but it is mostly the green with the manicured grass that indicates that it belongs to somebody. Or at least, that is what the somebody who pretends to own the hill would like to think, as they gaze over their property and frown a little at the misshapen lump. It is what most people like to think, in fact, whenever they survey something that the...

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“Power of Love” by Darsh Mishra

Submitted to Contest #216

“Honey are you ready?” Daniel asked his wife. “Coming in a minute.” Mary responded. They were going on a date for their 5th anniversary as a girlfriend and boyfriend. Daniel was a surgeon, and his girlfriend was a doctor. “C’mon lets go.” Mary said. They both got in the car and headed towards their dinner restaurant. They were going to a fancy French diner because they both loved French food. They were listening to music and having a great time. Daniel had thought to propose to her today. When they arrived at the restaurant Daniel se...

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“The fast and the furious” by Meva Rabe-Harinoro

Submitted to Contest #216

Trigger warning: contains sensitive language"Okay, keep calm," said Melanie, my best friend, in the seat next to me. "You won't get faster if you're angry.""No but I can show this motherf***r what happens when you mess with me." I tap rapidly my fingers on the wheel, trying to shake off the anxiety. "I mean, why does he cut in like that?""Seriously, Maddy, we talked about this. It's called having an episode of rage. You have to at least pretend to be normal around others.""And the f***ing policeman does nothing?" I honked my horn three more ...

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“House of Needles” by Mack Denver

Submitted to Contest #216

In the spring of 1929, the house was more beautiful than it ever would be again. It was on a property perfect for the two children. They could run through it without ever worrying about a rock. Soft grass was all their feet would touch. There was enough room to have a small garden. Tomatoes and lettuce and strawberries and watermelons would make a great addition to the family’s meals. Unfortunately, the Colinsons cared not for growing fresh fruits and vegetables and herbs. The purchase of the house was not an ordeal. Jeremiah Colinson...

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“Playa Love” by Rado Randriamamonjy

Submitted to Contest #216

EROSI awake. I look at Eveline. She’s still by my side. The woman looks like an angel who fell from the sky, too beautiful for the heavens, and wholly out of place here on earth. She somehow alighted on my life here in this burning desert and lit a spark in my sleepy soul.As I take in every soft feature of her exquisite coffee-colored face, I play with the idea in my mind, again, that that may not be her real name. It could be Allanah or Maya. Many people come here and take on whole new personas, whole new lives...

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“The Observers” by Shawn Palmquist

Submitted to Contest #216

They haven’t kicked me out yet, from this house of casual addiction, with its whooshes of steam venting out from chrome machines and its perpetually inconvenienced clientele floating in predictable patterns through the zig zags that lead to their daily fix.Last time I tried to drink the stuff, my thumb developed an uncontrollable rhythmic twitch that lasted three days and kept me from sleeping. The caffeine poisons my peace, so I refrain. I love the smell though, the bitter chocolatey air feels as if it washes over me in a bath of nostalgic ...

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$250

Prize money

284

Contest entries

115

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 22, 2023 EST

Won by Hazel Ide 🏆

Title: Long Live the King

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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