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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#31: The Ordinary

The very last line of the NBC sitcom The Office is spoken by former receptionist Pam Beasley. She says: "There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kind of the point?"

This week's writing prompts embrace that sentiment, and challenge you to write stories that take ordinary, everyday tasks and turn them into meaningful pieces of short fiction.

🥇 Winning story

“The Memory Garden” by Ariel Kalati

Submitted on 03/04/2020

In sixteen years, she will leave the garden. She will tell the buyers of the house how to tend each patch and plant, carefully, and they’ll do it for a while and then the garden will fall apart, because they have other concerns. The soil remembers, though. The soil always remembers. In eleven years, her firstborn child will pick unripe blueberries in mid-spring, try to taste them and recoil from the sour. She will ...

64 comments 64 WINNER 🏆

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This week's prompts:

Write a short story about someone doing laundry.

General – 103 stories

Write a short story about someone tending to their garden.

General – 84 stories

Write a short story about someone cooking dinner.

General – 61 stories

Write a short story about someone going to the corner store to buy an everyday item.

General – 74 stories

Write a short story about someone heading home from work.

General – 89 stories

Stories

“The Memory Garden” by Ariel Kalati

Submitted on 03/04/2020

In sixteen years, she will leave the garden. She will tell the buyers of the house how to tend each patch and plant, carefully, and they’ll do it for a while and then the garden will fall apart, because they have other concerns. The soil remembers, though. The soil always remembers. In eleven years, her firstborn child will pick unripe blueberries in mid-spring, try to taste them and recoil from the sour. She will ...

64 comments 64 WINNER 🏆

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“Susannah's” by Kendra Stone

Submitted on 03/03/2020

Susannah. She was quite old, indeed, a delicate woman that blows on her warm coffee, not once, not twice, and not three times. It was four, big blows, and still sometimes is too hot on her tongue. She blew this time, exactly five deep ones. She took a sip — then started to fan her mouth immediately. She burned her tongue, her tongue that was more fragile than a lizard’s. She steadied herself. I mustn’t be in shame in front of my children, she thought.Susannah walked gracefully toward her cottage with three children....

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“Voice” by Kendra Stone

Submitted on 02/29/2020

Lightning. The lightning. That’s the only thing that mattered. The loud, clashing storms headed toward her. The lightning was about to strike her; screaming for help didn’t matter now. No one would care. No one would rescue her. She would die, alone.“…Wake upppp!!” my younger step-sister Rose whined. “Wake upppp!” She continued shaking the bed like it was her package she needed to open.“Geezy geez, get off first!” I said, irritated but relieved. “I’ll get changed! Jesus!”Rose beamed. “Mommy! I did what you ...

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“The Wood's Voice” by Kendra Stone

Submitted on 03/02/2020

“Out of milk again?” Madeline sighed as she opened the refrigerator door. Tanya smirked. “It’s right behind you.”Madeline turned around, embarrassed. But the milk wasn’t behind her. “Just kidding,” Tanya said, laughing. “If you want milk, get it from the corner store. The… what’s it called? The Corner Shop?”Madeline dropped her jaw. “The Corner Shop? That place was alive for over for like a thousand years! The whole place is like nothing but trash and wood! The milk there is always expired! I’m very surprised t...

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“A Night Without Dinner” by Kendra Stone

Submitted on 03/01/2020

“Nathan, Lana, dinnertime,” their mother called. The sweet smell of cooked salmon, rice, and dumplings filled the summer air.“Five more minutes!” Nathan exclaimed. The little six year old held tight to his remote control, his heart pumping from the intensity. “I’m almost done with this one!”Their mother, Eun-Jung (also familiar with the name Grace), sighed wearily. “Nathan, you need to eat. You need enough strength to prepare for his division test!”Lana groaned. “Eomeoni (

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“The Practice of Half Memories” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

Submitted on 03/01/2020

She puts a pot on the stove and watches as the flames burn their orange and blue flames through it. She has a half-empty cup of tea beside the kitchen table. Tea, already cold and tasteless as it struggles being caged in the unwashed cup. She puts it in her lips again and lets the brown liquid slip into her sore throat. The flames keep flaring up as the empty pot sits calmly on it. She stares at the smoke already rising up from the pot. In her mind, she tells herself she isn't ready to do this yet and then she pours water into...

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“I, Chocolate” by Naveena Srinivas

Submitted on 02/29/2020

I was neatly packaged and sent to this hideous supermarket in a very non-public atmosphere. I sat in the second row of the first column in the chocolate aisle. I was happy that I wasn’t placed in the back, along with the unfortunate few others, which was probably covered in cobwebs. Perhaps the deadly ants might even find a chance to creep through the neat packet we were covered in. The h...

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“Choose your adventure” by Miles Gatling

Submitted on 03/01/2020

"Hey buddy, got a light?":( "Shut up and let's do business!":) "Sorry, I don't smoke."

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“Ljúfur and the Singer” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted on 02/29/2020

Ljúfur was a fierce Icelandic woman with big bones who took no giggling from anyone. She lived in New York in a large flimsy apartment building with a half-thousand other degenerate human beings. She hated all of them and would tell the plant on the windowsill that they were all stupid and the people in Iceland were a hundred times better.Ljúfur talked to plants. She had no family, no friends, no one ...

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“The Laundry Room ” by Najwa Zandlo

Submitted on 03/02/2020

Your mother is in there - in the laundry room - washing your clothes right now. She’s sorting out the darks from the lights, and she’s making neat piles on the floor of your dirty clothes. Let’s face it - they’re more than dirty,

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“Use Cold Water” by Phoebe Barr

Submitted on 03/05/2020

When my sister left, I thought my first text to her would be something sweet. Something like I miss you or the neighbors ask how you’re doing. Or at least something coherent like

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“Taking Orders” by Riley Cross

Submitted on 02/29/2020

My first cup of the day is ready. It’s a decaf skinny vanilla latte drowning in milk with a dusting of cinnamon. I glance at the door while trying to create a mocha-colored heart against the backdrop of milky foam.She smiles at my artistic attempts. Every morning at 5:45, she strolls into the lobby and stops at the Coffee Express counter, waiting with a sense of urgency that rivals my most caffeine-crazed customers. Even on the days when she is in a rush for her elevator ride, she never skips her latte ritual...

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“It’s All Worth It In The End” by Roshna Rusiniya

Submitted on 03/06/2020

After glancing longingly at the beach wallpaper on the screen one more time, I shut down my laptop. As I leaned back in the chair, sipping the lukewarm coffee-my eyes grew heavy with exhaustion. I stared at the half-organized clutter on my desk, reminding me of my action-packed day. What a day it was!It started off normally, just like any other Monday morning- answering phone ...

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“ A PARTNERSHIP WITHIN THE GARDEN” by Shirley Medhurst

Submitted on 03/05/2020

A modest little house stands alone, surrounded by a disorderly sea of green. Not that its garden is completely unkempt, but it is hardly a neatly regimented English garden, nor is it a beautifully manicured Mediterranean oasis. It is chaotic, colourful and cheerful. Behind the house, small square paving stones lead upwards past a pergola which leans over t...

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“The Washing Machine Perspective” by Joseph Worrell

Submitted on 03/02/2020

It has always amazed me how seldom these humans wash their outer skins. Although I liked all of the different patterns and colors they would shed and put back on after letting me wash them. My favorite thing is when they would come back with bags and bags of new skins to wear. A lot of people buy nice skins. Sometimes I think people buy them just because they were cheap or something. I've heard them use the word "buy" before; the dryer helped explain to me what it meant one day. He told me that they use paper, like his dryer shee...

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$50

Prize money

505

Submissions

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 06, 2020 EST

Won by Ariel Kalati 🏆

Title: The Memory Garden

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