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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.

This week's prompts

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

Fiction – 33 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 – 46 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

“The Fire of a new Generation” by Lee Hamacher

Submitted to Contest #4

My younger sister died on my fifteenth birthday. Not that it was much of a birthday anyways. After the global nuclear winter had ended and people had started to rebuild, there were very little resources for people to live on; there wasn’t enough to save my sister from a curable bacterial infection much less throw a party for me becoming another year older. I’ll never forget standing around her bed with the entire family, watching as she arduously took her last breaths. I felt so powerless. We all did. “I wish we could’ve saved her,” my dad s...

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“Till the Sun Sleeps” by Aanya Shahdadpuri

Submitted to Contest #4

As soon as the clock struck one on Sunday afternoon, I would find Mama in the kitchen preparing lunch. She’d have flour on her shirt and in her hair and I would tear off a paper towel and gently wipe it from her face. Then I would take the placemats out from the cupboard under the sink and lay the table. We always ate lunch at two on Sundays, even though I got hungry before then. “Pass me the plate, rani.” Mama flipped over the chapati and browned it on the exposed flame before turning off the stove. Then she folded it over, her...

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“The Prediction ” by Jessica Crenshaw

Submitted to Contest #4

Leaping a generation isn’t uncommon, especially in Anjoulie’s family. Aunt Hattah often and proudly testified to the amount and duration of the family’s leaps. She kept accurate records. A challenge—a smile and wink with a nod—met anyone who dared question. Truth be told, Aunt Hattah was simply continuing the tradition of meticulous record keeping. It was handed to her by her Uncle Tatty. Rather, the key to a storage unit was handed to her when she turned 30. Filled with leather-bound books, spiral notebooks, and three ring binders neatly or...

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“LAST TRIP TO WOODSTOCK” by Tony Hall

Submitted to Contest #4

Last trip to Woodstock by Tony Hall Even though he wore an over-sized bamboo hat to cover his bald head for shade, the old man couldn't escape the sweltering heat of the marsh. Nor the clouds of mosquitoes. They constantly swarmed around him, eating him alive. The old man stooped painfully, using a small scythe to cut the stocks from the many rice plants surrounding the soggy field. He placed them by the handful into a large burlap bag hanging heavily from his shoulder. He was vaguely aware of fellow workers beside him performing the sa...

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“Unspoken” by Natalia Wojcik-Smith

Submitted to Contest #4

Adam never really understood love the way many people seemed to. He thought he'd understood, a long time ago, while living in that cozy cabin with a man who'd promised him the stars. That was a while ago. The same person still passed through his thoughts, every now and then, a ghost wandering through his mind. Before Adam knew him, he was completely sure he didn't know. Some of his friends had said it. But they were just affectionate, and they always said it with that goofy smile.Despite being more committment-averse than anyone else Adam kn...

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“Me or them ” by Levi Hampton

Submitted to Contest #4

The nightmare was the kind that seemed so real, so vivid, for a while after I woke up, I believed it was true. I really thought it had happened. The worst kind, I have been able to adjust, and realize, usually during the night mare, that, a dream was all it was, and sorry if pull myself out of it, or pull myself awake. That's what it feels like anyway. We were in my dad's old truck. A 94 plum purple Ford ranger, the cab with the fold down jump seats in the back, and bench seat up front. Not exactly an off road truck, per se, but the stock si...

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“To Love Somebody by Neil J Milliner” by Neil Milliner

Submitted to Contest #4

To Love Somebodyby Neil J MillinerWe all have a need to love somebody it seems.All of us. Every nation and every culture on this little blue dot we call Earth love in one way or another.This could be in the form of love for a child, a love for the tribe, a love for our family. To love somebody is a need just like any of the other basic needs we humans have: food, water, shelter, etc.Did you know, for instance, that newborn babies can die without human touch? This is a proven scientific fact. To love and to be loved is a basic human necessity...

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“Somebody to Love” by Ben Kauffman

Submitted to Contest #4

I was 7 when my brother was 21. When I was younger everything revolved around Matt. Anything he told me was truth, and I never doubted what he said. Growing up my brother filled in the spots of a Mom and Dad. In Matt’s third year of college Mom and Dad died in a car accident. Everything changed in that year. Matt and I ended up moving in with Grandma Lucy, all doing are best to get used to her tight fit apartment. As older brother and roleplay parent, Matt did the grocery shopping And the back to scho...

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“Breadcrumbs ” by Holly Hollenbeck

Submitted to Contest #4

Breadcrumbs … by holly hollenbeckMy eyes are always scanning for him. Will he come in tonight? I know that when he comes over to speak to me, I will no longer feel the suffocation of the hot and crowed bar. I will be able to breathe again. And in my pathetic drink-clouded mind, I think it is no good to breathe at all when I only wish to breathe for him. My too full drink drips down my hand as I sip from the rim. I catch his eye and his sweet smile sears my skin. It is a smile o...

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“To Love Somebody in Waves” by Carly Goulart

Submitted to Contest #4

I remember it hurt. Looking at him hurt. Being with him hurt. Hearing his name hurt. Passing by his house hurt. Even seeing the car he drives everywhere on the road hurt. I wonder to myself "How can a boy I like this much make me feel so hurt?" or "Why do I feel this way about him if he hurts me so much?". My brain immediately comes up with a million different excuses to these terrifying questions. I think this is just how he is. He will change. I will change him. But then I remember I can't change him because this is really how he is. I thi...

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“Waiting for love ” by Katrin Jahn

Submitted to Contest #4

To love somebody, that's a curious thing. We are taught to believe we love our family, the parents, the siblings, the kids. We are taught to believe we love our friends. Not as we are supposed to love our family of course, but a close second.We are taught to believe there is this one big true love. A love like the one we see in the movies, read about in books, dream of and expect to find one day. If we are just pretty enough, and skinny, enough, and willing enough. Willing to do whatever it takes to be worthy of such a love.Up to a few month...

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“Something Magical” by Kim Trojel

Submitted to Contest #4

My mother died on a Wednesday. I guess I should have seen it coming - she had been sick for a long time, and I went with her to all of her doctor’s appointments and chemo-sessions. I even picked a university that was close to home, so I didn’t have to move out of her house and could take care of her. I saw how small she was becoming, and I heard it loud and clear when we were told that we should stop focusing on remission, and start focusing on making her comfortable instead. Still, I must have been in denial, because it came like a shock. O...

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“Relay Race” by Ramesh Leelasankar

Submitted to Contest #4

RELAY RACE“Don’t! Please don’t irritate me like this, that is too much first thing in the morning. If it is such an important wedding, figure out how you can plan going to it, all by yourself. I do not have any more leaves left and it’s already late. The customer might have come out of the airport by now.” I took a deep breath and ran down the stairs.Throwing myself into the car in a hurry, I tried to move the car even faster. But in vain! The street that I live in is already narrow for two-way traffic. Adding to the pain, the sewage workers...

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“To love somebody” by Vijaya Chandra

Submitted to Contest #4

Xavier is a travel photographer. He visits his high school and is overcome by memories. So, a reunion is arranged through their school WhatsApp group. At the reunion, his friends catch up with him. They hesitantly mentions that Katherine (Xavier's childhood sweetheart) is coming from Singapore. Xavier gets uncomfortable and walks away to be alone. The story shifts to Xavier's 10th grade where he and Katherine belong to the same class. Since the earliest days of childhood, Xavier and Katherine have been friends. Katherine is a talented singer...

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“Unwelcome Season” by Joelle Mielke

Submitted to Contest #4

The cemetery is most beautiful in the Fall, Cal Bennet thought to himself as the crisp Fall breeze caressed his face. Perhaps that’s because it’s the only season he had ever seen it in, as he only comes to it once a year and at this time. There was a small hint of the recent Summer heat left on the heels of the wind, almost cruel in its taunt that Cal’s favorite season had come to an end. A smile teased the corners of his tight knitted lips as he gazed down upon the pitiful, dilapidated headstone. You look better than I do at least. On the s...

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$50

Prize money

134

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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