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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

“AN EXPLORER” by Norlie Rabino

Submitted to Contest #36

Hi, there.As a teenager and because of this, I become adventurous and part of this is experienced. In this young age, where I’m curious on everything, I want to travel, to enjoy and to experienced things and to be putted here and as a souvenir, I list all the experienced at the powerful book which knows me the best. My diary, it is the thing that can describe me, the first thing that can know my true feelings. My diary, is myself.In this modernity, I could say that there are many things to explore, to discover and to enjoy. There are th...

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“Finding Her” by Anushka Binoy

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary,I'm finally ready. Today is the day where I will leave behind everything I have ever known : my friends, my life... and my grandma. She has been ever so supportive of my desire to find my mother and she constantly tells me to follow my heart ; but I am worried about her. I was only at the tender age of three, when I was left on her doorstep, but she took me in and cared for me like her own child. There is a voice in my head that is telling me that I am doing the wrong thing , urging me, pleading me not to follow in my mother's foo...

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“The injection of Dear Diary” by Laura Watts

Submitted to Contest #36

“Are you ready?” This could be the moment that changed her life forever. This needle could kill her, or it could make her life worth living again. What did she have to lose? Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded, and the needle was jabbed into her arm. Immediately, her brain became alive, spurting out memory in a frantic flow of concept and purpose, like and ocean wave, flooding the barricades of her mind, sweeping her away in the wreckage. She lifted the pen, and began scribbling franticly: Year 7...

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“No Rest for the Weary” by Eian Wright

Submitted to Contest #36

4th of March of 2020And the 5th of the same month.And the 6th.But also the 3rd and 2nd and 1st.You know what. Let’s just do this:1st of January to 31st of December of 2020Dear diary,Here we are again, my old friend. It’s still only 3 o’clock. And I still can’t sleep. I don’t know why it always ends up like this.Do you ever get lonely? Well, of course you don’t, you’re just a journal. I really am losing my mind, aren’t I? Talking to a journal like it has feelings, not being able to sleep, feeling a pit in my heart. No. In my soul. There’s som...

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“Adventures in ice cream land ” by Tyra Johnson

Submitted to Contest #36

1 November 2000Dear Diary.Let me first introduce myself. My name is Peggy Norton. I am 10 years old. I live with my mother in Hampton a small and beautiful countryside town. I am beautiful, have long hair, I have many rotten teeth in my mouth that resembles a pig and my ears look like a Christmas elf.I attend the Hampton school. Everybody calls me Piggy because of how my mouth looks but I am not a shame because I learn to accept myself and true beauty and children at school would bully me.I have best friends name Rebecca, Mary, Holly and Kad...

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“Is Ignorance Bliss?” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear diary,April 12, 2018 Well, this is a first. Not the first like you imagine as a little girl, like buying that cute sweater with your own money. Not the first like you imagine as a teenager, like getting that first kiss on your porch at eight o’clock. Not the first like you imagine as a young adult, partying the night away and drinking Cosmopolitans and talking about adult stuff. I suppose I must consider this a last. I divorced my husband yesterday. He cheated on me. I am fifty-three. We’ve been married for thirty years. It’s our ...

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“deeper” by Eden Conner

Submitted to Contest #36

April 8, 2020Dear Diary,Sleep is a foreign term in my life. It is like a father who says he will come for dinner, but does not return to his family for days. Usually, I spend my nights lost in a book or trying, with lackluster results, to find a movie that I can manage to sit all the way through without skipping to the end. Some say that writing down my thoughts will help me sleep, but so far I don't believe them. Writing about the fears and hopes swirling around in my brain like an endless whirlpool will not make them go away, but amplify t...

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“Percy Fawcett's Last Journal Entries” by Cassandra Garrett

Submitted to Contest #36

Below are the last journal entries of the famed Archaeologist, Cartographer, British Geographic Society, British artillery man and ultimately explorer, Percy Fawcett. When Fawcett stumbled upon an 18th-century document in the National Library of Brazil written by a Portuguese conquistador who spoke of an ancient city deep in the jungle, he knew that he had to find it. Fawcett made many successful expeditions to the Amazon. Fawcett disappeared at some point during his last expedition to the Amazon Rainforest in search of El Dorado. His l...

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“The lab journal of J. Nesbitt, M.Sc.” by Marte Van Der Linden

Submitted to Contest #36

PhD final year, oh please, let this be the final year year 4I really shouldn’t be writing my personal thoughts in my lab journal, should I? Oh well. It doesn’t matter. No one will ever read this anyway. This is doomed to fail.17 October 2019: First experiment using a live test subject Goal of the experiment: To stop a mouse from dying. It was supposed to be antibiotics research. I was going to improve the current treatments for tuberculosis. My dream was to make a small contribution to medicine. How did it go from antibiotics research to thi...

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“Hunter” by Manan Suraiya

Submitted to Contest #36

9:30 p.m.Mom and Dad are away tonight. They have to go for some wedding. I was mercifully spared from accompanying them and babysitting my annoying cousins. They left after leaving some food on the table, with clear instructions to go to bed on time. I wish I could. But, sleep is something that has eluded me for as long as I can remember. In fact, I am called a night owl by my friends. Of course, I did not tell them why I couldn’t sleep.My parents locked the door from outside, to avoid waking me up when they return. It is also a safe mo...

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“Colorado” by Lilly Blossom

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary, Today is April 3, 2019. The mountains around me are whole kingdoms. As I ride in the passenger’s seat with my best friend, Jenny, I can’t imagine ever going back. The world suddenly looks bigger and life suddenly has felt so empty, until this very moment. We’ve waited our whole lives to take this trip. So, I don’t know how to describe the way I feel now. Excitement? Nerves? Perhaps, both are true. All I know is I couldn’t be happier and more at peace. Jenny and I’ve been best friends since the 2nd grade. I think she always liked ...

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“The Corona Diary” by Sadie B

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary,So it’s the middle of a pandemic and I thought I would write about it. You probably have a lot of questions, so hold on let me explain. I started this journal because a lot’s been going on and well when you're out of school for a month you have a lot of time! We are out of school for a month because of a virus that is taking over the nation- Coronavirus. I’ve always wanted to be a journalist and this is the perfect time. Unfortunately Massachusetts residents have been ordered to stay-at-home. So I decided to report everything...

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“Conversations We Never Had” by Andie Pabon

Submitted to Contest #36

Dear Diary, Have you ever had to grieve the loss of something you never had? I’ve been trying to. For months now. I’ve been so caught up in this loss of mine that I’ve never truly experienced before, it's finally driven my roommate, Georgia insane. She bought me one of those small, spiral bound legal pads from Food Lion and told me to write my crap out so I could finally put it somewhere that wasn’t the air. So, this is it. These are letters to Sam. Things I’ll never say to him. Things I wish I had.Dear Diary Sam, The first time you kissed m...

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“With love, Alicia Lorraine ” by Libby Carter

Submitted to Contest #36

dear diarytoday mommy and i went to the park and got ice cream. it was funwith love, Alicia LorraineDear diary, I thought I lost you years ago. But now I found you so I can write in you again.With love,Alicia Lorraine Dear Diary,You are my only friend. The kids at school started not to like me because they found out my daddys got a fancy business in town and we live in a big house. They say I am a snob and too rich to be their friend. I just want someone to be my friend. With love,Alicia LorraineDear diary, Today Mom...

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“The Ink Flows Freely” by Neha Dubhashi

Submitted to Contest #36

Report 1, 4/8/10 Dad sits in his study. His mahogany wood table is littered with black and blue pens, sticky notes, and odd bits of string here and there. He’s sucked in by the light of his new laptop. I wonder what’s so special about it. He stares at it like it holds the threads of his life. Decides his choices.Damn, he’s obsessed.Or possessed.I wouldn’t know.I’ve been watching too many sci-fi movies lately.He bought me this journal a few days ago. Said he want me to become just like his old man. I mean, I do have a flair for writing. When ...

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$50

Prize money

639

Contest entries

0

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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