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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 – 94 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

“Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes” by Heather Ann Martinez

Submitted to Contest #31

#3. Write a short story about someone cooking dinner.Meatloaf and Mashed PotatoesBy Heather Ann Martinez The phone rang while I was peeling the potatoes. It was a solicitor asking for someone named David. It was not you. I thought you would have called by now asking me about what I was making for dinner. The phone chimed. It was a text message regarding our overdue mortgage payment. I filled the stockpot with warm water and a dash of salt and set it over the open fire...

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“Once a forest green” by Lee Jackson

Submitted to Contest #31

The spinning vortex sucked me back into a painful habit once again. With all the best intentions change doesn’t come easily. Habits stick to me like cobwebs, determined to string a trail to me, so that I can always be dragged back. They cling to me, forcing me to collect the same things from the supermarket every time; to drive the same way to work every day and to end the night with a glass of red wine.Habit is why that forest green-coloured t-shirt is tumbling around in the grip of the vortex. The churning water seeping through to its...

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“It All Comes Out In The Wash” by Vidya Tamminidi

Submitted to Contest #31

Here’s what’s interesting about laundry: everyone has to do it , Or have it done. It is a thing that everyone has to coordinate the doing-of, somehow. So, it perfectly reveals how certain class things work. If you’re rich, you never think about it, probably. Your clothes float off your body and somehow return to your closet cleaned and pressed. The less money you have, the more work it is to do laundry, and, like so many things, the cheaper option often costs more over the long term.I’ve never been good at laundry. At some point in midd...

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“The Laundry Trick” by Chantel Chamonix

Submitted to Contest #31

Shelly froze momentarily as she entered the dorm’s laundry room. Loading up a dryer was one of the most gorgeous men that she’d ever seen in her life. The ratty Queen t-shirt he wore strained to keep his muscular torso under wraps. He was lean in a way that had he been wearing normal clothes, you would have struggled to notice how toned he really was. His hair was lovingly tousled as was the trend with college boys. A flash of anger caused her to slam her basket down on the folding table harder than she meant to. She sighed. She ...

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“Heart” by Mady Oswald

Submitted to Contest #31

It's funny, what most horror movies nowadays make you believe about blood on clothes. It's funny that most people believe it stays stark red -- like candy coating on an apple.Ah, I wish it stayed that way. It might make it easier to look at. But the crushing weight of reality will always set in when the sun goes down. It, like everythin' else, doesn't stay in a constant state. After a while it turns a sickly, grotesque brown, crusting up and staining everything.And in this case, it really DID stain everything. My shirt, my pants, my underpan...

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“What Happened at the Laundromat” by Julie Squires

Submitted to Contest #31

Trigger warning: threat of sexual assault On a muggy June afternoon, a mass of black rolling clouds overtake the sky above our little town, charging in like a herd of running bulls stirring up dust. And Everett and I barely make it inside the laundromat before the downpour starts. As the washing machine does its thing, we sit silently across from one another in plastic yellow chairs. Each time the lightning casts its ghostly glare through the windows, I brace myself for the moment the splintering sound of the thunder’s booming voic...

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“The big load... ” by D Myers

Submitted to Contest #31

“Boo hoo… ” she moaned, “another big dumping of that white stuff” Shannon stuttered, as she looked outside the window of her three story home. Another big snowfall had descended upon the town of Bootie Falls, Ontario, Canada. This time the snowfall was most crippling and stopped all the busy residents in their tracks. Shanny felt a bit overwhelmed with this latest snowfall, seeing as it was at least 50 whopping inches high in all directions. Furthermore, the height of the shoveled snow mounds, were almost double the height of her bedroom “st...

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“The Dress” by Caroline Smith

Submitted to Contest #31

It was a May midafternoon when Mom called me inside to help her fold the laundry. I pretended not to hear her, because the sun was finally softly brushing the treetops after a strangely long winter, and humidity and the promise of summer vacation hung in the air, and I was spectacularly beating Henry, the boy next door, at a rudimentary game of street hockey.Mom wasn’t a shouter. Instead she sung my name incessantly, a pleasant incantation I didn’t particularly want to hear, like when waiters chanted “happy birthday” at Chili’s or when Mom p...

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“Weeding out the Bad” by Deanna West

Submitted to Contest #31

Weeding out the BadEver since I was a young little girl I would always love to watch and help my mother in her garden. Her garden was the most beautiful and magical garden that you have ever seen. People would always stop her while she’s outside and say “I love the pink and red roses”, “You are doing such a beautiful job, I get soo excited knowing that I will pass your house every day after I get off work” We never realized just how much comfort it brings to others seeing your work come alive until one day… I was just sitting on the por...

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“Gift” by Kelsey Marlett

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #31

I saw an exorcism on T.V. once. I think I was seven or eight, sitting cross-legged on the carpet, and I was bathed in the shivery blue light of the television screen. The girl on the screen writhed and screamed. Her hands clawed at nothing, her spine arched and unlatched, and her eyes were black and draining, unspooling, emptying out as she screamed. I suppose this was like an exorcism. It had been four years now, but my body still didn’t belong to me. I drifted from place to place. Picked up groceries, sat in the garden, felt his ...

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“Dead Garden” by Thomas Braswell

Submitted to Contest #31

Beth stood upon the walkway in awe, and excitement. She could not hide the glee she felt as the Realtor handed her the keys to her new home. Beth stood froze, as the Realtor got in his car to leave, gazing at the plain beauty of her new front lawn. "I need FLOWERS!" she yelled, looking around as she realized it was out loud. Beth strolled happily through the garden section of the hardware store. Selecting flowers based on colors, and shape. Paying no mind to whether they were perennials, or annuals. One hundred...

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“Earning My Keep” by Dawn Lew

Submitted to Contest #31

Yellow rubber boots, faded from years of sun and monotonous scrubbing, sat near the front door this morning. That could only mean one thing. Millette was going outside today. I could go outside today after being cooped up in the house throughout the winter months. I wasn't allowed to roam in the cold, Millette just wouldn't allow it, but today, today just the sight of those old worn boots told me, my captivity was over. I could roam free and bask in the warmth that was Spring. I watched the...

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“Anguish in Her Eyes” by F Dalton

Submitted to Contest #31

Whenever her hands began to shake, and her mind traveled to the violent past, Thelma retreated to the garden. This is where the death that once followed her now rested, beneath the dirt, growing its roots peacefully; tame and silent. And so, on a quiet Sunday morning, Thelma sat on her knees, in the young soil, happily tending to her various plants. Long, gray hair flowed unapologetically down her spine, shifting as she reached forward and planted new tomatoes and flowers and herbs. She didn’t care to separate and organize the plants; she kn...

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“Buried Secrets” by Dawn Rae

Submitted to Contest #31

Sheila was digging in the garden when her spade struck something metal. She released the spade handle as if it were a hot coal and scuttled away from it like a crab on the dewy grass. She didn’t need to see what it was her spade had struck – she knew. Leaving the seedlings and garden tools where they were, Sheila hurried indoors to wet her face and try to still her racing heart. With a hot coffee in hand she stood...

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“Her” by Emma Lin

Submitted to Contest #31

During my undergraduate years at New York University (NYU), I interned with The Three--JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup with an ambition to be with the top of the top, to be excellent.I made strong social relations with project managers, received awards and praise and invitations to luxurious gatherings. Beginning in 2012, I got laid off from my job at Goldman Sachs and it was a good-bye to my handsome six figure salary, Porsche 911, an Upper Manhattan penthouse and other materialistic possessions that money could buy. I reloc...

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$50

Prize money

372

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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