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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#230: In a Flash

I’ve been reading a lot of flash fiction recently. It’s a great format for close study, as its compression forces writers to question the function of every sentence.


Since there are many lessons to be learned from reading, writing, and thinking about flash fiction, I thought we could make it the focus of this week’s contest. To be clear, this contest accepts stories between 1,000 and 3,000 words, but this week, I’m inviting you to try and stay as close to the lower limit as you can. Our usual word count range is still the official guideline, and stories that are closer to 3,000 words will not be disqualified — but I hope that with flash stories in mind, you’ll feel inspired to be as economical with language as possible. 


Not sure how to begin? Check out our best tips for writing flash fiction.

This week's prompts

Write a story framed by a single scene: something happens, a flashback or inner monologue intervenes, and then the story ends with the rest of the original scene.

Narrative – 90 stories

Write a story in which a character achieves a new level of clarity about how they’re really feeling.

Character – 57 stories

Start your story with someone uttering a very strange sentence.

Dialogue – 52 stories

Write a story that hides something from its reader until the very end.

Mystery – 101 stories

Write a story in the form of a list.

Narrative – 62 stories

Stories

“Memory GPT” by Iakov Shuvalov

Submitted to Contest #230

“How much did you sell your memories for?” asked the young office worker. “Enough to pay my rent.” the older worker answered. “And what ones did you sell? The ones of your ex-wife?” “Cheeky bastard.” the older worker snapped. “Those memories probably trained that fancy therapist AI you’re speaking to right now.” “Maybe not. They may have been used for the new President AI.” “No. You’re not that valuable yet. Right, sir?” Their boss did not answer. It was roughly an hour until the bells would ring for the year 2100, and only the three ...

3 comments 3
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“The Cellmate” by Zoë Irene

Submitted to Contest #230

      “What are you in for?”            A long, skinny body relaxed on the flat twin mattress against the right wall. That left me to infer the unwelcoming mattress to the left was mine. I ignored my new slender roommate and walked over to the left. I let out a sigh and sat down on the bed to face the middle of the room. I took in the whole scene, which wasn’t much. Tiny tin sink. Tiny, stained mirror above it. Tiny tin toilet. Cold, hard floor. Cold, dark w...

8 comments 8
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“Sensation” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #230

Dr. Adrela says it happens to everyone.“We’ve forgotten how to feel with our bodies. We get stuck in our heads, and we try to rationalize all of our feelings. Our brain is a wonderful resource, but we are overusing ours, especially when it comes to this. It can lead to problems…”Dr. Adrela says we’ve become over-domesticated, that we’ve lost our connection to our animalistic nature. “Do you think animals in the wild are depressed? Of course not! There’s no time for depression when you are hunting for food, fighting for your life, fucking, or...

19 comments 19
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“Groceries” by Mara M

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #230

Black ink on yellowish paper, careless scribbles; my mother would have turned it around and decided it to be art, paper raw but somehow still too soft for my own hands, they had started growing thorns lately, even my neighbour’s cat was not willing for me to touch her anymore.FROZEN VEGETABLES. Christmas eve. I was eleven years old and she allowed me to help make dinner for the first time. Explosion of colours in the pit of my stomach, excitement only a child was able to feel, something that gotten lost somewhere between that first bad maths...

4 comments 4
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“We Need to Talk” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #230

Dennis spread the checkered blanket out for their picnic. He scanned the river and the view of distant trees turning vivid fall colors. An arpeggio of birds soared over the water. The breeze was warm, a glorious day. Sandra, his date, his steady, unwrapped the wine from its cloth. She smiled at seeing the label from the same vintage they’d shared for their first dinner together. It had been a glorious summer. Dennis admired how she arranged things on their blanket, just so. She placed the glasses on paper plates for stability. ‘Wouldn’t wan...

11 comments 11
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“A Different Perspective” by Jed Cope

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #230

Bill looks up at the sky and he smiles. That smile is worth a thousand words, the depth of emotion hanging from it is everything and more. He feels that sky in a way he never knew was possible. Until now. “I’ve never taken the time…” he whispers to himself as a cloud creeps silently over him. He has. He knows he has, but that was am impossibly long time ago. So long ago that it may as well have been in another life. He marvels at all he has lost and then he wonders how it is that he carelessly discarded so much. To dwell under ...

12 comments 12
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“Cheeto fingers.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #230

How to stay single when surrounded by eligible men. An 18-step program: 1.     Cheeto fingers. Keep Cheetos on hand – literally. If you eat the little orange twigs with your fingers and take the opportunity to like the unnaturally fake orange cheese from your fingers, it will paint your fingers to the color of a faded sunset. 2.     Overthink everything. If he says that he likes Marvel, assume that he has dolls, figurines, and life-sized character cut-outs in his bedroom. Imagine yourself goi...

14 comments 14
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“Today I Will Wake Up ” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #230

“Goal setting is so important, it helps to break the impossible tasks into possibilities. Write them down, have a plan, have a goal. Tick things off the list as you go. You will be surprised at how much you can achieve,” said my therapist to me.“I know.” And I did know, I just never did it. But I will today.Today I will:1) wake up and I will get out of bed. I will do it without groaning or moaning. Nothing will hurt. I will be refreshed and rejuvenated. I will have energy to face the day. It will be a great day.2) get dressed and I will look...

23 comments 23
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“The 3-Way Conversation” by Christine Boyce

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #230

Once upon: 1) a time 2) a fork in the road 3) a frozen river I came across: 1) royalty 2) a traveler 3) an Olympic skater Who told me: 1) "Kneel down." 2) "Which way?" 3) "Don't fall." And I replied: 1) "Yes, sir," while whispering, "to tie my shoe." 2) "No road is without potholes, but..." 3) "With ice, there are no guarantees, except that you are bound to feel something while you are skating." The person transformed in that instant to: 1) a butterfly 2) a dinosaur 3) a sparrow 4) a mermaid 5) a wizard 6) an hourglass 7) a prophetes...

6 comments 6
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“The Shopping” by Nathaniel Miller

Submitted to Contest #230

1. Set your work backpack down. On the meticulously clean table is a printed “Heavenly Halibut” recipe. Next to it is a piece of stationary that poorly-drawn, fair-skinned, hand-holding children obnoxiously smile out of. The grocery list. Groan when you see it. You were planning on watching the season fifteen finale of a badly-written soap and had forgotten you’d agreed to make dinner.2. The soap lets you forget about Katharine’s shrill voice, her perfectly-piled curls, her expensive taste, her uppity parents, her badgering: it’s only you an...

9 comments 9
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“Shadow” by Aidan Romo

Submitted to Contest #230

The shadow’s flesh was of a devil’s hide. It silently echoed screams of old pains, pains I hoped never to feel again. This shadow has followed me for as long as I can feasibly recall. Even now, it continues to hover over me. Though I have tried to run from its grip on my soul before, I swear it. I have yet to see it, but I just know it’s always here. For me, and for us all. Just when I’m at my most vulnerable, it will appear once more. You take me mad, don’t you, raving about such a ghastly thing? I assure you, it’s all too real. Most don’t ...

4 comments 4
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“Promotion of a Pimply Teenager” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #230

"You've only been here for two months," Gary, a middle-aged man in a white, button-up, grease-stained shirt, said. "I thought of that, and so I wrote down several reasons you should promote me," Brice, a pimply teenage boy wearing a red Captain John's Seafood work shirt, replied. Gary pinched the bridge of his nose with resignation. He was on hour sixty-five of an eighty-hour work week and had no energy to resist. "Alright, let's hear them." "First, I want to thank you for the opportunity to present my reasons for promoting me as the n...

4 comments 4
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“HD - 496327584” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #230

The world has come to an end. Oh, it's still spinning, the sun is still shining, she supposes. Dogs still bark, cows graze, probably, but life as Diane has known is gone.A week ago, what the movie Independence Day had predicted, had happened. Hundreds of alien ships had appeared and hovered just outside the earth's atmosphere. Thousands of smaller ships, stuffed to the gills with humanoids, had been deployed. It really had not been a fair fight.Something resembling dirty bombs had been detonated, paralyzing all humans. In just a matter of ho...

13 comments 13
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“Waitress ” by Mallory Jones

Submitted to Contest #230

I love Tuesdays. On Tuesdays, Daniel takes me dancing, and we always get malts afterwards. Although, one time last week, we stayed out dancing far too late and the soda shop was closed. Daniel really tried to pry the door open— we can just get the machine running and make our own!— and I was laughing so hard my sides hurt. Eventually he quit when a police car drove by and I grabbed his arm quickly to pull him away. It started raining and we kissed in an alley as we hid from the policeman— that was a lovely Tuesday. It’s Sunday now, so we’ll ...

12 comments 12
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“A Start” by Kristina Adams Waldorf

Submitted to Contest #230

The walk to the social work office led me down a long hallway lined with medical assistants and physicians coming in and out of exam rooms. A bustling hive of activity that I normally thrived on. Typically, I would greet several people with a smile and quick exchange of words even when I was walking at a fast clip. Not today. My peripheral vision was fading, and my usual smiling face was ashen. Uncharacteristically, I kept my head down as I walked down the hallway. The tears were already welling up and I didn’t want the medical assistants ...

9 comments 9
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$250

Prize money

362

Contest entries

108

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 29, 2023 EST

Won by Ethan Zimmerman 🏆

Title: The Lop-it-off-a-me List

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!

Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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Prompts | Many Hands | 2024-09

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