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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

“Thirty-One Days” by S.d. Schwarz

Submitted to Contest #233

December 1st, 2024 11:11am Challenge: suffer for thirty-one more days. (why couldn’t this month only have thirty?) Challenge: stay alive thirty-one days. Challenge: live for thirty-one days. (Dante, if you decided to be a piece of shit and read this, do me a favor and let everyone at my funeral know I did attempt to change my mindset. Depression’s not a fucking mindset.) 6pm Check-in: Mom called today; asked if I wanted to help decorate the tree. Tell me why she had to mention Moscato? Dad, being Dad, brought out the Tequila, and...

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“Homework to mend a broken heart - a journal” by Roser AM

Submitted to Contest #233

1 Jan Dear diary, Screw this. 1 Jan (later) Right, so my therapist told me to keep a journal. I told her that I couldn’t, that I’m too busy, to which she responded: “What about all the hours you spend obsessing about…?” (that would be you), which I thought was not really fair but here we are. I feel ridiculous writing to an inanimate object (a notebook), so I’m addressing this to you instead, which is kind of ironic as the purpose of this is to move on. From you. From us. Was there ever an us, though? I feel like we didn’t quite get ther...

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“The Crash” by Lady Senie

Submitted to Contest #233

Monday, January 1, 2018 I’m finally doing it! My best friend Carl doesn’t believe me that I can make it through January without a single drink, but I know I can. He pointed out that I tried this challenge before last year. And the year before that. And the year before that… No, I am a man who truly enjoys alcohol. It’s been my friend, my comforter, my release valve since I snuck into my father’s liquor cabinet at the tender age of 11. It keeps me focused. It helps me relax. I feel that I...

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“Unintended Odyssey of Rediscovery” by Jasmyne Straughter

Submitted to Contest #233

January 1st: Dear Diary, The first day of January, and here I am, unintentionally on a month-long break from myself. The usual New Year's resolutions replaced by a curious sense of detachment. As a wife, mother, and high school English teacher, life has taken an unexpected turn. The holiday season has left me drained, and instead of actively participating in Dry January, I find myself unintentionally dry from my own essence. January 5th: The week has passed in a haze, and I'm grappling with the inadvertent consequences of this unintended h...

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“Mother's Diaries” by Katharine Johns

Submitted to Contest #233

Diary of Amy Matthews, age 14 Jan Dear Diary, I hope I don’t offend starting out like this but, this feels strange. I mean I’ve only heard of people keeping diaries. It seems like something so old though that I never imagined keeping one myself. My family is cleaning out my late grandmother’s house and I found in my mom’s “teenage things” this hardcover journal with shining monarch butterflies. On God, it screamed the Y2K vibe that’s so viral right now! Totally on fleek! I showed it to her, she remembers getting it but never wrote in it so...

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“Brewed Awakening” by David Maxim Jr

Submitted to Contest #233

It's easy letting yourself go. Less so letting go of others. I took my usual route home from the office one evening after a particularly long day. A day no different from the others on the surface. However, the painful shortness of breath and drained mental clarity that had inexplicably come over me left me dragging my fingers across the keyboard, as the windowless cubicle showed no signs of the day's passing. Only the sound of the whimsical little jingle on my phone gave warning of the day's end. I dragged myself through the cubicle and ont...

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“Clarity Shot” by S.d. Schwarz

Submitted to Contest #233

“UGH.” I groan through my teeth and continue typing on my phone. My heels clack against the pavement from footsteps so heavy, my bangs start bouncing to the sound. “Running late--” delete. Okay, let’s try again: “Needed to grab pads--” delete. “Leah called--” delete.I stop and exhale heavily. Two young women ahead of me are too busy giggling out all the alcohol they consumed tonight to notice me staring with tears in my eyes. If anything, I need a shot of whatever they had.“Well, the show must go on,” I mutter, diggi...

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“The Need” by Hanna Hathaway

Submitted to Contest #233

“What will it be?” “Give me a whiskey on the rocks, and make it a double.” “Sorry, sir, we don’t serve that here.” Gabriel looked up from following the wood grain of the bar counter. “You mean you’re all out?” “No, sir, we don’t serve that here.” Gabriel scoffed. It was just his luck that he ended up at the one bar in town that did not serve whiskey. “Fine, I’ll take a gin Old Fashioned. Double.” “My apologies, we don’t serve that either.” Gabriel audibly groaned, raking his fingers through his hair. “Beer! Just give me a beer....

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“The Lighthouse on the Point” by Oliver Skywolf

Submitted to Contest #233

The waves roared. Elliot gripped the steering wheel and grieved on the mountainside road. He crossed the vast bridge on the coastline, uncertainty was on his mind as he looked out to the horizon. A silence hummed. He continued as a fog embraced the road ahead. He drove until he finally saw a vast lighthouse in the distance. Far toward the ocean. It was situated on what looked like a tall rocky island with a road winding up the side. It’s not really an island, it’s connected to the coastal mountain by an outstretched strip of land before ri...

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“The Masked Party” by A.J. Williams

Submitted to Contest #233

July 10th, 2040 (28 A.E.) Denver Somewhere in the city a grand themed party for the rich is taking place, and is quite, quite ridiculous… V's words dripped with a bitter irony as she adjusted her mask, its facade contrasting sharply with her sparkly black dress and the fiery red of her hair that complemented her pale, freckled skin. "Funny, to think, I was hoping for a ball but now these masks take the cake," she remarked, her voice tinged with a venomous edge as she observed the masked figures inside of the mansion in front of her. "The peo...

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“Water's Blessed” by Maddy Jensen

Submitted to Contest #233

This story contains mentions of death! My tears had all been used up as I stared out the window. They were all gone and I was left alone. I could no longer feel the pleasant rains of my sister or hear my father’s rippling rivers. It was quiet and there was no sign of the clouds I had so loved. My mother’s beautifully made clouds were now replaced with the scorching sun. I sat and watched as the people below slowly began to die from the heat and from thirst. The water in this land was gone now that my family was too. We were ...

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“A Thirst Not Easily Quenched” by Lex D

Submitted to Contest #233

Joyce could barely feel the bullet buried in her calf. In fact, it's gone from the worst damn feeling she’s ever felt to an icy soreness. Almost as if she just had a fall, but instead of an ugly bruise on the back of her calf, there was lead taking up space in her flesh. She wrapped the thing with torn fabric from her chemise two days ago. Was it two days ago? She couldn’t quite remember. The desert sun was beating her mind away.But it was two days ago, wasn’t it? She thought. Yes. Two days ago Baxter shot a bullet into her leg, rode ou...

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“An Alberta summer.” by Ehis Asibor

Submitted to Contest #233

Warning: This story contains multiple sensitive themes, such as sexual violence, mental health, substance abuse, physical violence, strong/ foul language, gore, and abuse. “Hell yeah! You brought the good stuff!” Bobby yelled as he scurried towards the open cargo bed of Randy’s truck. Bobby was a small man—a dwarf, if you insist—and so were his wife and their daughter Kennedy. McKinney, however, had not caught the strand of dwarfism; she had been deemed the lucky one after she had a growth spurt that made her slightly taller than her e...

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“It's far more fun to be dry” by Susan Zephar

Submitted to Contest #233

It’s far more fun to be dry. Susan Zephar Chapter 1. I’m awake, I’m still alive I think, wait. I start touching myself all over just to check that I have all my bits intact and am indeed still here, oh no! I’m wet, I’m cold, it’s happened again this is disgusting. Oh yuck, I’ve got vomit on my chest and on the floor, oh no! I’m on the floor again, sigh, how did I end up here again? I hope I’m at home at least, let me check, I can’t hear anything, and my vision is blurry so opening my eyes didn’t help at all. Then I remembered...

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“Dry January” by David Lund

Submitted to Contest #233

Doug walked into the office on the first Monday of January, feeling rough and regretting the fact that he had to be back at work so soon after New Year’s. To be truthful, he still felt the effects from the party. They hadn’t actually gone to bed until the Saturday morning, and yesterday had been spent in a drunken haze: strained sleep, feeling queasy, regretting the lunchtime tacos. Doug could still feel his stomach lurching, and every now and then, a wave of nausea overcame him. Why did he alw...

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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.

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