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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.

This week's prompts

Write a short story about someone doing laundry.

Adults – 95 stories

Write a short story about someone tending to their garden.

Spring – 77 stories

Write a short story about someone cooking dinner.

Nonfiction – 56 stories

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

Nonfiction – 64 stories

Write a short story about someone heading home from work.

Nonfiction – 81 stories

Stories

“Taking Orders” by Riley Cross

Submitted to Contest #31

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. I’m not sure I will ever u...

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“Five Blocks” by Lilly Blossom

Submitted to Contest #31

The store on the corner was only 5 blocks away. Five blocks. Five blocks to collect my thoughts and dream about my life. Five rows of houses to stare at and admire their architecture. Five blocks of trees, and gardens, and kids playing in the yard. Five, short blocks filled with lazy cats, 7-year-olds riding their bikes, and men washing their cars. I enjoyed this walk perhaps more than I knew. My life was crazy, crazier than it ever had been. After 3 kids, one of which is my husband, 2 dogs, 1 lazy cat, and never-ending piles of laundry, fre...

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“The Washing Machine Perspective” by Joseph Worrell

Submitted to Contest #31

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 sheets sort of,...

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“No Place Like Gnome ” by Bree Kokiri

Submitted to Contest #31

Lucy Peterson awoke on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, eager to start the day. Following her husband’s passing, she had spent the last two weeks at her daughter’s house in the city, and had finally convinced her children she was well enough to be on her own again. Visiting was always pleasant, but when you stay there too long, the sounds of the city start to bog down a country heart. Not to mention the screams from her grandchildren, playful or otherwise, were enough to make your head spin. She was eager to get back to her home to the thing...

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“Casseroles Cause Problems” by Lily Kingston

Submitted to Contest #31

In my local newspaper, a couple of math geeks pooled together to buy an ad spot every Sunday. Once a week, I crack open that newspaper to see their ‘Einstein’ riddle—you know, the type of riddle where you have five people and all these requirements to figure out who everyone is? Those riddles. Anyway, the first time I saw their riddle, I cracked it in like five minutes. Not because I’m *pushes up glasses* super smart or anything—but because I live that riddle every evening. I have five children. Chad, Chelsey, Charlie, Chace, and Chelle. Con...

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“Home is her rescue story” by Rebecca Lee

Submitted to Contest #31

“The Same Old, Same Old,” Dani Williams stood at the bottom of the stairwell leading up to the front door of the log cabin building. There were rocking chairs lining the front, and big green ferns hung from hooks screwed into the awnings above a rail.She was reading the sign above the stairwell. “The Same Old, Same Old, Simple Cooking and Living.” There weren’t but three vehicles in the paved parking lot - one was the business vehicle with its logo and name on it, and the other two were employees’ vehicles.A golf cart with the business’ name...

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“In-Between” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #31

I’m doing the laundry again because no one has coughed through our musty apartment in four days. Four days of having to hold my breath and bite my tongue and count every cent that leaves my fingers. It wasn’t always like this, and it won’t always be like this. The in-between, not the never or forever, is the worst part though. You see, when it’s just me and my little sister, Jo, it’s quiet. When Mom comes swinging through the apartment in a cloud of perfume and smelling of sex, it’s busy with people I don’t know. When Dad dips through the ap...

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“Laundry day” by Hallie Blatz

Submitted to Contest #31

Laundry day is exhausting but it is also rewarding and I enjoy it. My sisters don’t so I do laundry while they clean the house. In the summer we do the washing every other week. The water is warm, the sun is shining and the birds are singing. I join along with them as I scrub the last of the sheets and start the drying process. For this part I have to call for my sister to come out. We twist each item and then pull to get the excess water off before hanging it on the clothesline. When everything is hung up my sister goes inside and...

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“Bed of Roses” by Jᴇʀᴇᴍʏ Rᴏᴢᴇɴ ✍

Submitted to Contest #31

Eleanor tended to her roses every chance that she had. She admired them proudly, delighted in their luscious, full blooms and intoxicating, sweet scent. Elinor bred Hybrid Tea roses, they grew in a broad spectrum of both colour and fragrances. She was good at it too, her flowers had won first prize at the local fair, the Double Delight and Folklore blooms stole the show two years in a row. The roses were her babies, having never born children of her own, but, since her husband of forty years, Mark Bernard had passed, the rose garden wa...

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“My Life, No?” by Tim Maddox

Submitted to Contest #31

I glance to the right at the clock on my desk. Half past five, and I've been here since six. I’ve been running all over the plant for a week, trading time between a whole line being installed, an overhead conveyor going in, and a half dozen different companies trying to fit their work around each other. Another called a day ago and moved their install back two weeks. I have a schedule to keep, my manager wants to cut that time in half, and all my guys are stressed. My life, no?My gaze returns to the project chart. The delayed company’s work ...

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“Adelaide” by Jess Errington

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #31

The blouse in my hands is a fresh white. It’s simple, plain but for the flowers embroidered on the cuffs. It was strange to find it again, this shadow of my youth; it doesn’t fit me any more, which is hardly a surprise, but I can’t quite bring myself to throw it away. I remember buying it, in town with Adelaide. She said it was one of the most beautiful shirts she’d ever seen as I stood, side-on, before the changing room mirror. “If you like it so much, why don’t you buy it?” “I don’t like it on me,” she said, “I like it on y...

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“Grandma's Garden” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #31

1Grandma was always tending to her garden. Eleanor watched her as she went about her duties, a smile stretched across her kind and wrinkled face, a pretty little melody being softly hummed (and occasionally whistled), a wide-brim straw hat pushed snugly on her head. The hat always made Eleanor laugh, due to the ridiculous way in which the brim flopped all over the place. Knowing this, Grandma moved her head as often as possible, and in as exaggerated movements as possible, to cause the hat to flip and flap more often.Eleanor loved her grandm...

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“Blue Mondays” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #31

Blue MondaysFile 2543eNYFrom The Diary of Anonymous, 1871(Somewhere in New York State)January 2I dun the sweeping. Diana moped and baiked 3 pies, mins meat and berry. I washed the good close. I cut off sausage meat helped strain Lard in the evening. Sunny day but winda and cold.January 9A snowy monday day. I washed.January 15Diana and I are mostly sick. Nobody knows how lonesum we are without Loamena.I dun all the work and sewed on the mechine sum and ironed.We brought water to wash with. Filled the tub and set the firewood to boil it tomorr...

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“In the Garden” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #31

Penny munched her filet o’ fish sandwich and scanned her shady backyard. Birds chirped in the stillness of the early evening. A dog barked a few yards over. The new garden ran around the perimeter of the yard. Flowers grew in profusion.Two ancient citrus trees, a lemon and an orange dominated the back yard. They grew there long before Penny arrived on the scene. Glorious Hummingbirds nested in them and would dart about all summer.The sun had already passed behind the big tree in front. Hours of light remained but she had a lot to do. K...

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“A Bitter Medicine” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #31

“You wouldn’t know from looking at me, but I am strong and earthy. I am a rare commodity and should be used sparingly.” He looks up for approval, and I nod that he should continue. “Don’t use a laundry list of others with me… who am I?” I pause my slow stirring, raising an eyebrow at him through the steam of the pot. “I really want to say… Himalayan salt, but that isn’t earthy. I think.” From his perch on the counter, he flashes the label at me: black truffle salt. “That doesn’t make sense. Did you not finish the sentence earlier?” “Yeah, I ...

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$50

Prize money

373

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 06, 2020 EST

Won by Ariel Kalati 🏆

Title: The Memory Garden

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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