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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#233: Dry January

Like many of my friends, I'm participating in Dry January this year. After the end-of-year indulgences (which, alongside many enjoyable beverages, included far too many forms of potato), spending a month abstaining from drinking feels well overdue. May as well slay one dragon at a time, right?

With that in mind, this week's prompts are inspired by Dry January, and other challenges of endurance — whether taken on by choice, or by chance.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a character participating in Dry January.

Character – 33 stories

Your character, having abstained from their worst vice (big or small), finds new clarity.

Character – 49 stories

Write a story in the form of diary entries, written by someone who has set themselves a month-long challenge.

Narrative – 49 stories

Set your story in a bar that doesn’t serve alcohol.

Fluff – 61 stories

Set your story during a month of drought — whether literal, or metaphorical.

Dramatic – 38 stories

Stories

“Where the Monster Played Compliation” by Gale Hemmann

Submitted to Contest #233

This is, sadly, a story that is still being written … This was written as a PSA, a real-life diary over one woman’s use, though not the target customer, of Monster in 2023. This is a compilation as best she can assemble from real-life diary entries!!! She couldn’t expel the monster until it came out in the form of a true story - a speech followed by a broadside. Consider this taped to a bpu Monster Of all the advocacy work in my life, I looked at my forehead in the mirror one day and literally saw an empty “M.” I’m their product – I’d be...

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“Bleached Bones” by Syd .

Submitted to Contest #233

Entry 4December 7th, 2004Bones, Bones. I wish I could say this is not my first time writing in this thing for a while but there is no hiding the truth from you, Bones. Maybe that's why I cannot help but ignore this book, although it mocks me as if it sits high on a throne, propped above the rest of the mess in my room. It’s not that I don’t want to write, I love writing. But there is something about this book that makes things seem too real. Anyways, my main point is that I’m sorry for not writing to you more often, Bones. Entry 4....

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“The Dope Witch” by Olivia Bruce

Submitted to Contest #233

January 1st, 1996 This is it. The beginning. A new beginning. Today is the day I start my new life. No more running away, no matter how scared or sad or angry or empty I get, I will not fill my body with toxins to escape. I will be coherent, for myself, for my family, I will change. I have to. I can’t keep living a life where I’m paranoid all the time. My mother tells me the things I believe are coming after me aren’t real, that I’ve filled my body with so much booze and drugs, it’s altered my brain… But it all felt so real. She’s got to ...

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“Emery Putnam’s Boyfriend” by Hilary Yelvington

Submitted to Contest #233

January 12, 2012 My name is Emery Putnam and I am 25 years old. I live alone at 222 Carriage Way, Apartment 2B, and I work at Keefer’s pharmacy downtown. To clarify, I am a cashier, not a pharmacist, but it is still a fine job and I am comfortable enough. As you can see, this diary was meant for a young girl, not a young woman, but I haven’t had use for it until now. It was a Christmas gift from my father, and I received it when I was just 8 years old, hence the tiger stripes and rainbow clasp. I received the diary from Santa, or s...

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“Whispers of Phoenix” by Gail Ormsby

Submitted to Contest #233

Elara, at the cusp of twenty-five, felt like a wilting flower trapped in a Victorian greenhouse. Once vibrant and adventurous, her spirit had grown brittle under the relentless sun of societal expectations. Her hometown, a quaint village nestled amidst rolling hills, offered little solace for a soul yearning for the wild symphony of the world beyond. The rigid social code, the suffocating air of gossip, and unfulfilled dreams conspired to cage her restless spirit. Literature was her escape, her passport to fantastical lands where the dragons...

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“A Drink for the Road” by Tawny Molina

Submitted to Contest #233

“What a day...” Maria said as she slammed the door of her car behind her. After a twelve hour shift at one of the local dairy farms she’d just pulled in to the town's only bar’s parking lot. Well, it wasn’t much of a bar these days. They had stopped selling alcohol about a year ago. Well, the whole town had. People had voted them a dry location last year, and the mayor had worked hard to make sure that passed. Now the bar was more like a place people came to listen to TVs and complain about the fact that they couldn’t drink alcohol anymore. ...

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“A Stray in Need” by Noah Thomas

Submitted to Contest #233

As the drunkard came stumbling into the bar, he grasped at his temple and right leg, wincing. He paused in the doorframe, massaging those areas as his facial expression changed to one of confusion, as though he expected something to be wrong, but found nothing. His attention was caught by the sound of someone clearing their throat, looking up, he saw the bartender staring at him expectantly from behind the bar, some distance away. His brow furrowed with additional confusion as he looked at the building he was in, and the bartender especially...

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“One for the Road” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #233

As conciseness begin to creeps back, I open my eyes a crack. My head lays upon my folded arms that are resting on the bar. I try lifting my head, but it feels like it weighs a million pounds. Smacking my lips, I realize just how badly I need a drink. Pushing myself away from the bar, I sit up straight. I see the bartender’s back as he washes some dishes. In front of me sits a glass of what looks like tomato juice. “Ahh,” I think. “A Bloody Mary, just what I need!” ...

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“At The End” by Daniel Kleba

Submitted to Contest #233

At the end of all things sits a bar. It’s warm and inviting with a raging hearth and the perfect song floating above the conversation at the perfect volume. It exists in the space between everything and nothing. A space where Time is respected and not feared. Where Time can create instead of destroy. Because Time is what gives stories their power, and at this bar stories are the spirit of choice. A story is required to enter and a story is required to stay. No one is there to serve drinks as there are no drinks to be had. Time etches...

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“The Hunger” by Hogan Burleigh

Submitted to Contest #233

How long has it been since manna fell from the heavens? Onora has lost count of the days. But it has been long enough for the hunger to return. The streets of Inghariad, once teeming with wealth and prosperity, now sit hollow and cursed, their golden cobblestones chipped and stained with blight. Onora moves like a ghost through the shadows, her feet light enough to make the barest whisper. Even the slightest touch placed too firmly, too carelessly, will betray her. There is no room for mistakes on foraging days. She knows this all too well....

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“The Mirage” by Jaymi McClusky

Submitted to Contest #233

It’s been 412 days since the rains last came. Everyone collected as much as possible, and for a while, water was plentiful. Now, the roads are dry and cracked, starved of moisture. Most of the reserves are gone. My canteen is running low, and my wallet even lower. Sweat beads up on my forehead then breaks loose of its hold, rolling gently down the side of my face, teasing me with its wetness.“How much farther?” Ciara asks. I look over at my 12-year-old sister and swallow down the annoyance that’s rising up my throat. She holds her hand up to...

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“Sharon” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #233

At school she had felt she wanted to be part of a crowd , going along with he gang the odd smoke around the bike shed at senior school. Followed by college and yemp work. Meeting others in wine bars the odd glass of wine or prosseco weekends. Habit formed in her thirties the need to be noticed. Excuses for headaches, not being able to face food mornings and skipping meals. Drink lunch time. Evenings to get noticed. Feeling groogy. Falling asleep on the floor of her small flat where Sharon lived with Moocha her persian cat. The friendly posti...

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“A-1 Recovery Solutions” by Dave Stanley

Submitted to Contest #233

Getting sober and staying sober is rarely easy, but Nathan feels that he is on a roll. Two months into recovery, and he has not had a sip of alcohol. Better yet is the fact that he is actively working on sobriety, which is better than simple abstinence. “Dry drunk,” is how his AA peers put it. This morning, the menu of Progress and not Perfection entails going to another job interview. And for the first time in two months, he wants a drink to quiet his nerves. “I miss the bitch. She was trying to kill me, but boy do I miss ...

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“Celebrating” by Alex Davis

Submitted to Contest #233

Tessa was proud of herself. She had been going to Dr. Navarro for months to work on her addiction, and today was the first day that she could see progress in the real world. Sessions at Dr. Navarro’s office had been hard at first. Finding the initiative to get up and bring herself to the office was a chore worthy of godhood in her eyes. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then punctuality is second best. However, despite her slow, groggy mornings, and mental protestations, she dragged herself to Dr. Navarro’s office week after week, and tod...

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“GRAVE DIGGERS ON STEROIDS” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #233

The loud, angry voice shouting into the phone by my father scared me enough to run outside and hide in the treehouse. Then I heard my brothers come out, slam the door and left the house, shouting loudly back at our father who suddenly opened the door and threw two shovels at them. I peeked out. Dressed in dark clothes, they grabbed the shovels and hoisted them overhead in a farewell salute. How gross! Those still had blood and pieces of dried skin on them. What's going on? The two shouted back to the house, got into the car, turned up the ro...

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$250

Prize money

230

Contest entries

78

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 19, 2024 EST

Won by Ariana Tibi 🏆

Title: Vegan Hamburgers

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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