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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#36: Dear Diary

"April 4th, 1984." So begins Winston Smith's first diary entry in the George Orwell novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Of course, this dystopian tale isn't the only one to involve diary entries. Bridget Jones's Diary, Gilead, The Yellow Wallpaper, Dracula, and I Capture the Castle are among a long list of other books told at least in part through diaries or journals.

This week's writing prompts challenge you to write a short story in the epistolary format.

P.S — On April 3rd we're hosting another LIVE Write-In on YouTube at 4pm EST! We'll guide you through a series of 20-minute writing sprints to give you the boost you need to stay productive. During the breaks, you can share your progress, talk about your struggles, and ask our hosts any questions you may have.

Join us on YouTube HERE at 4pm EST. We hope to see you there!

This week's prompts

In the form of diary/ journal entries, write about someone who's just decided to take up journaling.

Adults – 117 stories

In the form of diary/ journal entries, write about someone on a long-awaited trip.

Holiday – 56 stories

In the form of diary/ journal entries, write about someone who's just experienced a big "first."

High School – 94 stories

In the form of diary/ journal entries, write about someone who's up late at night because they're having trouble sleeping.

High School – 237 stories

In the form of diary/ journal entries, write a story that provides glimpses into a person's life at different ages.

Character – 135 stories

Stories

“Dirtbag” by Janet Inglis

Submitted to Contest #36

Mum said I should start a diary.1st January 100Mum said I should date my entries.18th December 1992Mum said I should use the real date.Mum said I should write about things that happen to me and how I feel about them.Mum read my diary.I hate it when Mum reads my diary and tells me what to write.*****25th December 1992Santa (Mum) got me a Super Nintendo for Christmas.Santa (Mum) didn’t get me Super Mario World.Santa (Mum) got the Super Soak 6 cartridge instead. So gay it sucks!Mum (Santa?) says she’ll get me Super Mario World for my birth...

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“Ten Fingers, Two Hands” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #36

Wednesday 13th April, 2:33 a.m.Dear Diary, I have lied to you. Or was it myself I lied to? Perhaps they’re both one and the same. After all, I’m the only one who writes in you and I’m the only one who reads from you. The entries for the last week are scribbled across the pages preceding this one, and whilst the handwriting gets messier and messier, the content of those passages show no distress. I look at the entry for Monday — Nothing new, just can’t sleep. Diary, I know you’ve got no ears through which you can hear me, but I have just laug...

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“Found Diary” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #36

Warning: If you find this and you care about me – destroy this immediately. Do not read. Thank you in advance.I may be better or I may be worse. I am not who you think I am. If you knew me as I really am, you would not love me.Monday Dear Diary. Is this how you do it? It seems so awkward. I never...

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“Bella Noche” by Katherine Stevens

Submitted to Contest #36

March 12th, 2019 I’m bored; it’s three in the morning and my family lay sound asleep in their beds. I don’t remember when sleeping got to be so hard. I don’t remember when the dark started seeming like a friend. I relish daybreak in a completely new way since it became so hard to fall asleep. I am a restless soul; I need to move. Being confined to my room each night when I could be out in the moonlight is its own kind of torture. I’ve been having trouble sleeping for awhile now, maybe a year? Then again, I’ve never been quick to fall asleep,...

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“the day i lost you” by Kara Assmar

Submitted to Contest #36

dear diary i have an exiting story to tell let me start from the begining  "and cut that's a wrap", the director called   Nancy Larmon age 17 exited the set. she was as perfect as you could get. platinum blond hair and blue eyes. "nancy awesome job,'' said Shane who happened to be nancy's best friend.   "It was ok I hated playing the part with Gary. He smelt like fish and kisses even worse", nancy stated. Shane leaned in for a ...

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“baked with love” by Masha Kurbatova

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary,I think I’m dead. Nothing scares me, nothing delights me, nothing makes me scream or laugh or clap or smile. A swarm of deadly hornets could descend down and cover me with their poisonous kisses and I’d just give each and every one a blank-eyed look. Well, no, I lie - I do enjoy eating. My pudgy belly betrays me. She is full of everything all the time, salami and banana nut muffins and salads-from-a-bag, baby carrots and salt-and-vinegar chips, Reese’s peanut butter cups and pale flavorless white bread. Not much of it is tasty or ...

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“Best of Quarantine ” by Janetsa Keovorabouth

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear neighbor,You just moved in at just about a horrible time. I never got to meet you, talk to you, do something, with you before the world kind of went to hell. I was planning to give you and your family a pound cake (something my mom was going to force me to do) yesterday before the world went to shit. My mom's bought whole stacks of toilet paper and rice, what about you?Welcome to quarantine! Let's make the most of our 93-day lockdown. Whipee.But, I hope this letter finds you well, (I still don't know how I'm going to send it to you, thr...

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“Nocturnal Mind” by Pauline Da Rocha

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary,Today is April 5th and the strangest thing in this strange time is my new relationship with the Night.When I was younger, can you recall, I was afraid of the dark, I was terrified of the owls hooting by my window and I was paralyzed by the idea of all these nocturnal beings living their lives when everyone was finally sleeping. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees gave me cold chills since I could feel the breeze meandering through my room until it caressed the back of my neck and I would hide under my blanket hoping th...

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“Seven Entries To Salvation” by Gip Roberts

Submitted to Contest #36

4/3/20Well, I finally got this thing started.4/4/20Why am I even bothering with this? I'm not a writer. Journals are such a waste of time! Whoever wrote that article was full of it! Nothing whatsoever "life-changing" is going on here. The Manual is right: "Writing is a pathway to self-destruction." I must stop doing this immediately, before I become corrupted to the point of no return by selfish, unwholesome distractions!4/5/20I have failed. I've failed the Organization, I've failed the Family, and I've failed as a worthy Unit of the Mission...

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“Uganda...on a whim! ” by Peace Nakiyemba

Submitted to Contest #36

Day 1 Apologise.I looked up journal entries on Google and they suggested I should title my entries. How does this help the story but anyway…. I find the song fitting for how I’m feeling right now. Towards my brother. Snoring off on the other side of the room. It’s too late to apologise. Not that he is apologizing either. But I think I will get into the fall full story of why he should apologise. Kill the time. Find a way to fall asleep. He handed me this journal and said journalling is known to help people fall asleep. I don’t see ...

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“Ain't worth a driver's license” by Harken Void

Submitted to Contest #36

“So… I just speak into the damn thing?”Grandpa scratched his chin. He was already feeling regret, having his nephew talk him into actually trying this out. It seemed ridiculous.“Yes,” sighed the boy, nodding his head hastily. Only fifteen years old and already in such a hurry.“Don’t get impatient with me, boy,” he said, pointing his finger at the voice recorder in the boy’s hands. “This was your idea.”“Actually, it was the doctors’,” his nephew said. “He said it would help boost your memory, and keep off the dementia. And since there’s no wa...

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“April 2, 2019” by Kya Broderick

Submitted to Contest #36

The time is 10:59pm. I’ve been watching the steady tick of the clock’s handle for three hours now. I hate the way it moves, back and forth and back and forth and back and forth; no understanding of why; no reason to work. I hate how its red grasp stares to me, stringing down lie after lie after lie as I stare right back at it. I’d screamed at this clock yesterday, you see. Cried at it the day before that. But now, as I stare into its gaze and it stares into mine, I do nothing but smile. Not a happy smile, of course—in times like these, for o...

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“The Lament of the Mediocre Hitman” by Esme Gal

Submitted to Contest #36

|||| |||| |||| ||||Every evening as the food heats up, I turn the stove to low. I drink my coffee and listen to the ocean by the window. And I wonder—and I wonder, if tonight will be my last supper. Every night, I roll out of bed at this unholy hour, a quarter to three in the morning, and I wonder how close I am to dying. I wonder if the tiniest crack of a twig is the click of a gun, and if that window with the sea will be the last thing I see. I know why. It’s been twenty nights since I let my humanity go. I tally them as I go r...

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“I Want To Be Remembered” by Artemisia Pearl

Submitted to Contest #36

August 29, 1358Dear Diary,At first, the plague was slow. Nothing to worry about. Just in Southern England…. But now it is everywhere. My neighbor, Aldith, just contracted it. Her husband, Charles, had died from it; her children were staying away from their parents, in a bedroom. I really hope that I don't catch the plague. I have hardly taken off the cloth that I tie around my face. I change it out once every week, so Mother can wash it. I am terribly scared of the circumstances. I can't sleep at night, for the fear of catching the plague an...

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“In the Quiet of the Night ” by Rachel Ryan

Submitted to Contest #36

December 16th, 20111:48 AMThere is no rest for me tonight. Outside, the wind howls with yet another winter storm; here, in this remote cabin the university has so graciously afforded me, I find the gale closely resembles the sound of a woman screaming. It is maddening to toss and turn like I have, so preoccupied with falling asleep that the effort itself is what is keeping me awake. So I return to these pages once more, a man half-crazed with exhaustion – yet the impulse to record these musings jolts the energy to my bones that is so strange...

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$50

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Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 10, 2020 EST

Won by Zilla Babbitt 🏆

Title: Kiss of the Snake

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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