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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#4: Woodstock

Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the 1969 music festival that attracted an audience of more than 400,000 visitors, and was known as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music." Its a legendary cultural event, and a large variety of books and documentaries have been dedicated to telling the story of Woodstock. So this week, we thought we'd take inspiration from it too.

 

Each of the following five writing prompts are titles of songs that were played at Woodstock. As far as writing prompts go, they're pretty broad and open to interpretation, so we're looking forward to seeing the many different directions and stories they lead to.

🥇 Winner

“Lela” by Tula Singer

As soon as Lelo fell asleep we went out to the balcony for lunch. Lela made mariquitas and black beans, and I cut an avocado for the salad, then dressed it with olive oil and vinegar. We each served ourselves and took the plates outside to eat.  Neither one of us spoke while we devoured our food. Once I had finished I gazed at the sea for a few minutes; the water was blue and green and old. When I was younger, we would go down to the coast and swim for hours while Lela sat on the rocks and watched. Enrique was always...

19 comments 19 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“A Profound Study into Paternal Relationships” by Shaz -

The first and only time my father said that he loved me was when I was eight and a half years old. Out of all the cloudy images and half-memories that would revisit me throughout my life, this was the most distinct: June twenty-third, nineteen ninety-five.  June twenty-third of nineteen ninety-five was a glorious day. I know that because it was the last thing I had wanted. A gleaming red circle mark...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“I Love You, Sara” by Arabella McClendon

I have always been a light sleeper, so when she slipped out of our bed and crept through the house, I was dredged up from the depths of sleep. Not as much by her movement as by her absence. Never leave me, Bea. I find her on the lawn, lying in the soggy two-am grass. I wonder if she knows I’m there, halfway between the inside and the outside. I move along the patio and catch that look in her eyes. ...

3 comments 3 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Cell Phone” by Ron Scott

Harold really didn’t want to go.  He heard a giggle and turned to his left to find his granddaughter, Julia, engrossed in a typed conversation on her cell phone, grinning like a madman. Madwoman.  Madperson.  He had to be careful about that; Julia was constantly correcting him, telling him to be more careful with the things he said.  He was trying, but it was hard.  People never used to be so sensitive about these things.  He had never even considered that his style of speak...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Seasons” by Jim Hirtle

I wish you could hear me. I wish you would open your eyes and see what I see, hear what I hear. Do you remember this song? You declared it our song. Remember. I thought it was silly—we had joy; we had fun; we had seasons in the sun—not a song of lovers, but that didn’t trouble you.           I turn the volume up too high, praying you will hear and wake up. Too high. Now that’s ironic. The old woman upstairs doesn’t like this song. She keeps pounding on the floor. I...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“By the Sea” by Mushroom (flammulina Velutipes)

I sit by the sea, watching the waves crash down on the shore. The sickening smell of rotting fish and dried salt envelops me every time I step outside, so I try to stay in the house as much as I can. The sun burns down on the shore, and seabirds scurry around on it in dizzying patterns. Everything about this situation I’m in is so wrong

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“A Big Sensation” by Isabella Grey

“You stand accused before a court of your peers. How do you plead?”“Not guilty, your Honor.”Marlena could feel dozens of eyes on her, likely millions more behind the glass window of the news cameras, but she did not notice them. Her attention was fixed on the man who stood across the room, the man who lied so well that she was certain he had been in this exact situation before.And yet, here they were.Hardly a month had passed without a new trial broadcasted in the papers. When she saw the first news screening, ...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Love at a Funeral” by Karen Kalbacher

A matte black suit ensured he blended in with the shadows. His tie was a vibrant purple in deference to the corpse who practically drowned his house in sweet-smelling heliotrope. Normally he skipped these things, too expected, especially with the scythe. He had to bring the scythe cane to funerals on the off chance someone could see him in the graveyard. Stupid, really, making Death visible in a graveyard. He pulled at the half Windsor knot of the tie in frustration at the...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Addie” by Kaitlyn Lee

John lay on the dark blue paisley rug of the creaking house across from Addie and tapped her nose gently until she finally opened her eyes, glazed with irritation, and let out a deep sigh. Their splayed positions, reminiscent of bear-skin rugs, mirrored one another’s with only the fifth appendage of Addie’s tail breaking the symmetry. “Addie, why is life so easy for dogs?” John mused, continuing to stare at her in an effort to avoid the half-filled moving boxes with haphazardly scrawled labels that towered around the pair inside th...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Write a story based on the song title: "Beside The Sea"

Fiction – 35 stories

Write a story based on the song title: "My Generation"

Fiction – 22 stories

Write a story based on the song title: "To Love Somebody"

Nonfiction – 47 stories

Write a story based on the song title: "You Can Make It If You Try"

Nonfiction – 14 stories

Write a story based on the song title: "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Nonfiction – 19 stories

Stories

“Lela” by Tula Singer

As soon as Lelo fell asleep we went out to the balcony for lunch. Lela made mariquitas and black beans, and I cut an avocado for the salad, then dressed it with olive oil and vinegar. We each served ourselves and took the plates outside to eat.  Neither one of us spoke while we devoured our food. Once I had finished I gazed at the sea for a few minutes; the water was blue and green and old. When I was younger, we would go down to the coast and swim for hours while Lela sat on the rocks and watched. Enrique was always...

19 comments 19 WINNER 🏆
Read story

“Sea Salt and Elves” by Waverley Stark

She laughed too loud, she swam too fast, her eyes were too shiny, her fingers too long. Her skin was greenish, her hair was the darkest violet, she howled to the sea at night, and she licked the salt spray eagerly off her lips.  The villagers called her strange. She was different, frightening, a thing to be avoided. “Not from this world,” breathed the old nurse Gertrude, to anyone who woul...

3 comments 3
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“Beach Town” by Amy St. Pierre

Sarah grew up in a tiny coastal beach town. Every summer it was the same – tourists would flock to town over Memorial Day weekend, nearly doubling the town’s population, and there they’d invade the town’s beaches and shops and restaurants until Labor Day weekend, when they went back to where they came from.           For those three summer months, the town was transformed. There were as many out of state license plates as there were in state license plates. Businesses and resta...

1 comment 1
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“A Profound Study into Paternal Relationships” by Shaz -

The first and only time my father said that he loved me was when I was eight and a half years old. Out of all the cloudy images and half-memories that would revisit me throughout my life, this was the most distinct: June twenty-third, nineteen ninety-five.  June twenty-third of nineteen ninety-five was a glorious day. I know that because it was the last thing I had wanted. A gleaming red circle mark...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“I Love You, Sara” by Arabella McClendon

I have always been a light sleeper, so when she slipped out of our bed and crept through the house, I was dredged up from the depths of sleep. Not as much by her movement as by her absence. Never leave me, Bea. I find her on the lawn, lying in the soggy two-am grass. I wonder if she knows I’m there, halfway between the inside and the outside. I move along the patio and catch that look in her eyes. ...

3 comments 3 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Entitled, Lazy, Stupid” by Ash Brinton

“Alice Glade, please report to the main office. Alice Glade,” The announcement boomed over the silence of the classroom. All eyes turned to look at me. Slowly, I rose from my seat and left the room, my chin down to hide my burning cheeks. Every step I took felt like a noose tightening around my neck.

5 comments 5
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“The Cell Phone” by Ron Scott

Harold really didn’t want to go.  He heard a giggle and turned to his left to find his granddaughter, Julia, engrossed in a typed conversation on her cell phone, grinning like a madman. Madwoman.  Madperson.  He had to be careful about that; Julia was constantly correcting him, telling him to be more careful with the things he said.  He was trying, but it was hard.  People never used to be so sensitive about these things.  He had never even considered that his style of speak...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Seasons” by Jim Hirtle

I wish you could hear me. I wish you would open your eyes and see what I see, hear what I hear. Do you remember this song? You declared it our song. Remember. I thought it was silly—we had joy; we had fun; we had seasons in the sun—not a song of lovers, but that didn’t trouble you.           I turn the volume up too high, praying you will hear and wake up. Too high. Now that’s ironic. The old woman upstairs doesn’t like this song. She keeps pounding on the floor. I...

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“Water Wears Rock” by Joshua G. J. Insole

1The seagulls are circling overhead, crying. The ocean’s waves are lapping up against the sand, whispering. In the distance stand the resolute shadows of mountains, shimmering.A man is motionless before the darkened sand where the seawater has licked the shore, holding his hands behind his back. The man carries with him an air of well-earned wisdom, but if he were to walk, we’d see that his movements are slow and pained.

2 comments 2
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“By the Sea” by Mushroom (flammulina Velutipes)

I sit by the sea, watching the waves crash down on the shore. The sickening smell of rotting fish and dried salt envelops me every time I step outside, so I try to stay in the house as much as I can. The sun burns down on the shore, and seabirds scurry around on it in dizzying patterns. Everything about this situation I’m in is so wrong

0 comments 0 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“The Sea” by Melanie S.

Beside the sea, I stand alone, listening to the laughter of the bodies that stand beyond the faded lights. I walked away an hour ago, and so far I see no indication of worry that I am missing. I am at peace beside the sea, tasting the remnants of champagne on my tongue, the champagne that I swapped with my sparkling cider when no one was looking. He tol...

0 comments 0
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“Beside the Sea” by John K Adams

“Look at that!”The surf line shone brilliant white against the distant blue. But Margaret pointed elsewhere. She tugged at Charles’ sleeve. “No, look, Charlie.”Charles shifted his gaze beyond his wife’s gnarly index finger and saw the sign, ‘Beside the Sea Cafe’.“That’s it. That’s where we’re going.”The door jingled as they entered the small, clean dining room lit by shimmering sand reflecting through the picture window. Old nets draped around the perimeter of the ceiling. They’d been catching dust for y...

0 comments 0
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“Beside The Sea” by Arthur Tiberio

Sometimes his eyes forgot the land. Not always, no, and perhaps not even often, but there would be days when hours of gazing at the sea stirred within him an undeniable loneliness, and his pupils shrank to suggestions of darkness in a sea of washed grey iris and his feet twitched as if wondering what this solid weight beneath them could possibly be. On occasion, a memory.These days it was one of hands: strong, muscled hands that must have once been his... he blinked, rheumy eyes rejecting the paralysis of being, looked down at his ...

1 comment 1
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“Beside the Sea (Turtle Whispers)” by Adriana K. Maxwell

When he was a young man, a year and 97 days ago, he lived beside the sea. They all did, his mother, his father, and him, up in a tired house that smelled of salt and old nets and home. Every dark morning, he would tramp down, check her hull, test the ropes, and shove off. Then hours throwing the net and hauling it up, looking to see what the sea would let him take. Back to harbor, checking and mending the nets, sorting the fish, and flinging away the seaweed. Finally to market, haggling for the best price, ...

2 comments 2
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“Betwixt and Between” by Deborah Mercer

 I don’t give a flying you know what about labels and demographics ( handy word – learnt it from an Open University Course in Politics, even though I never finished it – well, not yet) and all that jazz. Honestly.     Okay, maybe I protest too much! Of course I don’t want to be stereotyped but I still wish I had something more concrete to complain about – and it’s quite liberating that the tutor in my course in Creative Writing said it’s absolutely fine to end a sentence wit...

0 comments 0
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$50

Prize money

137

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 30, 2019 EST

Won by Tula Singer 🏆

Title: Lela

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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