#23 Winter Wonderland

By the time the holidays have passed, and the first week of January is in full swing, it's impossible to deny one fact any longer: winter is here.

Shorter days and colder temperatures often mean more time spent indoors writing. This week, we suggest you sit by a window and let the wintery world outside inspire your newest piece of short fiction.

This week's prompts

You go for a walk in fresh snow. Suddenly you realize you're not leaving any footprints.

Fantasy – 127 stories

Write a short story that takes place in a winter cabin.

Winter – 76 stories

A busy city is quieted by a big blanketing of snow. Write from the perspective of two (or more) characters who live there.

Winter – 51 stories

Write a short story about someone experiencing their first winter.

Winter – 31 stories

Write a short story about people stuck in traffic during a blizzard. There's nothing much to do but wait, and talk...

Dialogue – 67 stories

Stories

Memory Falls Silent as Snow

John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #23

Adam stepped into the cold morning air dressed for frigid temperatures. The secrets of survival in the cold were now old lessons, learned the hard way. He never lost a toe to frostbite, but the nerve damage lingered. Being impervious to the elements is a fantasy born of childish bravado. ‘Get tough or die’ was his youthful motto. The days of venturing out in winter weather, with no hat or gloves were long gone. It began to snow in big, heavy clumps. There is something so wondrous and fantastic seeing those swirling flakes descending. Soon, c...

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Lost and Alone

Akito Yu

Submitted to Contest #23

"Hey mom, where's my breakfast?", I called out from the kitchen.Mom popped her head out from my brother's room, "I'm sorry honey, I've been cleaning all morning, I didn't have any time to prepare breakfast for you.""Now what am I supposed to do?", I grumbled, rolling my eyes."I'm so sorry honey, you know I love you but your younger brothers are quite a handful", Mom tried for a smile, but I turned around and ignored her."What about my coffee? My morning coffee?"Mom froze and put her hand in her head, "I'm so sorry honey, but I can only do so...

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story that takes place in a winter cabin

Sadia Imtiaz

Submitted to Contest #23

The greyed eyes wide opened like a fish jaw when it is without water. I hands up to him Under my gun. he looked up. He was sweating badly.‘’What do you want’’ I asked him setting gun in my hand. He shook his head. ‘’Nothing… just-food’’ he blurted.I frowned. I could not believe what he just said. He dangered his life just the seek of food in this snowstorm in a winter cabin.I removed my gun. And leaned toward an American style kitchen. Which was entirely made of wood. and came with some sausages and mushrooms curry with bread. He hurriedly s...

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TRACKS NUMBER SEVEN: TRACKLESS

Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #23

TRACKS NUMBER SEVEN: TRACKLESSBy Andrew Paul Grell"Ras, whaddaya mean Bretton Woods is off? So far it's forty kay hauling the equipment around the White Mountains and putting up the crew at in-season rates. People love Bretton Woods, it's where they figured out what money is." Erasmus Foyer could practically hear his agent's already irregular heartbeat shift into free-form jazz rhythm. "Bill, we're just moving it up a few miles. I'm telling you, Coös County is perfect for the shoot. We owned a house here, ...

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When I Die...

Lily Kingston

Submitted to Contest #23

Ten. Six. Five. Two. These numbers have no pattern. Only an individual meaning. In the middle of February, I was skiing across the mountainside when I fell into a ten foot pile of snow from a cliff of height only god-knows. My body sank six feet into its fluff. My five-foot figure was practically buried. It took forever to climb my way out. My fingers had turned a dangerous shade of blue by the time I was free. I gazed at the sky overhead. It was a fiery shade of red. Dusk was settling in soon, ready to cover the skies with its blanket of da...

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The colours of snow

Marte Van Der Linden

Shortlisted for Contest #23 ⭐️

With the first snowflakes came a heavy silence. The city hunkered down to weather the storm. Flurries of snow shot down the alleyways and settled in thick piles in the parks. Andrew stood at the window of his apartment on the sixteenth floor and watched the view disappear into a swirl of white. Lena watched the same snowflakes from her apartment, also on the sixteenth floor, but in the tower block on the other side of the street. They both stood in silence as the world shrank down to the size of a window and filled up with snow.The storm ble...

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From Mountains of Sunflowers

Adriana K. Maxwell

Submitted to Contest #23

Lovely grew up in terraced mountains yellow with Christmas sunflowers. “It’s kinda funny,” Amanda said, as they walked the SM mall together. “What?” Lovely asked. “The song,” she said.Lovely didn’t understand at first. Perhaps it was the timing. Christmas music started in August. Amanda waited unti...

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Concerning Lambs

Arthur Tiberio

Shortlisted for Contest #23 ⭐️

Smog diluted the orange lights, giving them an eerie tint. The motor-coach rattled over the uneven stones, alone in the reaches of the night. From far away came the singing of drunks, riding erratic eddies of the wind.It is dark, and Thaddeus Grey watches the moon.He has never considered himself a man of mystery, for the very simple reason that men of mystery tend to know what it is that they're doing, and to an extent, why. Eccentricity, he has long ago decided, requires a good amount of sanity to count for anything. Else you're just a schm...

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The Winter King

Bruno Lowagie

Submitted to Contest #23

Ice flowers were growing on the window of the attic bedroom.“We can’t pick those flowers,” Helena explained to Mister Rabbit, “And even if we could, we’re not allowed to do so. The Winter King would come and catch us. He’d lock us up in his cold palace.”Mister Rabbit only listened with half an ear. He was hungry. He wanted breakfast.“Do we really have to get out of bed already?” Helena moaned in reply, “It’s so nice and warm under our blanket.”But Mister Rabbit insisted, and Helena felt an urge to pee coming up.The splatter of her water was ...

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Transience

Mia Hunter

Submitted to Contest #23

A spine chilling breeze swept into the living room when Berry opened the door. As far back as she could remember, Januaries had always been odd in this place. Then again, what did she know about January? She had never even left the house! But from what she had seen on television, this place looked different from other places during winters.Even with the fat blankets of glistening white weighing down the black branches, in this place, life thrived among death. In winters, lands in other cold parts of the world would be covered in smooth snow ...

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Onwards, Towards the Witch

Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #23

I see you, child.The words slithered into her brain, as if they were her own thoughts. The world flashed a momentary red. And then they came again.I see you, child.Monika’s eyes snapped open, immediately awake. “Who’s there?” she demanded of the darkness, leaping the chasm from sleep to awareness in an instant. “Who speaks?”There was no response.“Answer me!”The silence was stifling and somehow mocking. Monika could feel the very air vibrating with tinkling laughter. Had she imagined it? Conjured up the voice out of nothingness? Had she final...

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Axiom the Fourth

Arthur Tiberio

Shortlisted for Contest #23 ⭐️

The problem was their clothes. Everything else was just downright freaky, but wearing the thin cashmere and cotton of the desert, while four feet of ice covered the dunes? Blackened appendages were only the beginning. Horrible things happened to people who strayed too far from the fires, which had begun to tax the endurance of the man who was supposed to maintain them. Coleman eyed him with more than a trace of concern, up there at the head of the marching order. From beside him came a nudge."How much longer, do you think?""Days. Maybe week...

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When it snows, it blizzards.

Bruno Lowagie

Submitted to Contest #23

“I think I forgot my keys,” I say. When I turn around to go and fetch them, I suddenly realize that I didn’t leave any footprints in the snow. “Oops, I might even have forgotten my body.”I walk back to the office, and indeed: there I am, sitting behind my computer screen, still trying to figure out how to fight global freezing. Watching myself I must admit that my wife is right. She always complains that I do look like an old, scattered professor. I wonder if she still loves me.“Come on,” I tell my physical self, “It’s time to go home.”“Is i...

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A Very Merry Cretaceous Christmas

Charlie Murphy

Submitted to Contest #23

I walked across the snow as I dragged the pine tree behind. The freezing wind blew my green scarf over my face. Thick snowflakes fell from the gray sky as I made my way to the cabin. Freezing wind blew on my face, making the tip of my nose numb. Almost there! Then I can have a nice warm cup of cocoa. I looked behind at the tree. Yep, you’ve outdone yourself this time! As I stepped up to the porch, I heard barking coming from within the cabin. I opened the door, and Spock jumped on me. “Well, hi, boy,” I said. My Scottish terrier wagge...

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Winter In A Day

Brittany Gillen

Submitted to Contest #23

Experiencing winter sounded like a good vacation suggestion. The word winter literally had the word “win” in it, so it had to be fantastic. The only decision left to make was where? I remembered from my science class that every part of the Earth experienced some form of winter during the year. Winter was really just a word that meant the opposite of summer, and I had experienced plenty of summer in my three decades of life. I wanted to experience winter in all its traditional glory. Cold...

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