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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#44: Just the Beginning

Two weeks ago, our theme was story endings. This week, we're circling back to the starting line and focusing on story beginnings.

From Zora Neale Hurston's "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." To Jane Austen's "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." And George Orwell's "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." Memorable lines stick with us because they're what propel us into the world of the story in the first place.

For more inspiration, check out our tips for crafting intriguing opening lines, and then dive into our beginning-themed prompts below!

This week's prompts

Write a story that starts with two characters saying goodbye.

Character – 248 stories

Write a story that starts with a life-changing event.

Novel – 175 stories

Write a story that starts with someone returning from a trip.

Character – 111 stories

Write a story that starts with a character-revealing something unusual about themselves.

Character – 142 stories

Write a story that starts by establishing its setting in a different time period — without explicitly stating what that period is.

Historical Fiction – 114 stories

Stories

“Tomorrow?” by Cath Suter

Submitted to Contest #44

Leaves weigh down her body, every limb submerged in a heavy moss. Though her surroundings are unfamiliar she does not move. She does not wrestle with her situation or make any attempt to escape. Not until the pressure of nature subsides and the gravity of the situation releases her. By now the early morning breeze she often found herself enjoying with a nice tea or coffee has morphed into a stagnant late morning air. She finally musters the strength to attempt an escape when the leaves and moss practically peel away on their own accord. She ...

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“Best Friends Even If One Is Furry ” by Kailee Haiden

Submitted to Contest #44

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Margie, she is seven years old, a tall slender brown headed girl and with the most beautiful blue eyes you will ever see. She lived in a big town named Renetta, she had a few friends but not many. One morning, she woke up at 8:00 AM, ate blueberry pancakes with whipped cream on top for breakfast and decided to take a walking around her community with her skipping rope. It was a breezy day with the sun blaring down. She had seen so many trees and bushes everywhere, after hours and hours of skipp...

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“The Only One Left” by Felicity Edwards

Submitted to Contest #44

She flew on and on until there was an ache across the base of her leathery wings. However, that was as nothing compared to the ache in her heart. At last, she saw a black shape winding between the trees. She was nearing her destination. She felt it in her bones. While still small in the hatchery, her mother told her she would leave. It was her destiny to carry out great deeds, her destiny to save her kind.None of it made any sense to her. There were at least twenty young dragons of all colours and ages. The adult dragons also...

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“Darkness” by Ash Praveen

Submitted to Contest #44

I am standing outside the ICU, waiting for my mom’s reports. Will she be alive, or will she be sent to Heaven? My mother was diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). When I was 6 years old, she and I decided to have a race. We ran and she won. However, as soon as we got to the end she stopped abruptly. I was confused. Her face became the color of tomatoes. She fell to the floor and started wheezing. I yelled for dad to come. He ran to help her. He picked her up and ran to the car to put her in. We took her to the hospital...

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“Happy Ending” by Cindy Bennett

Submitted to Contest #44

My feet were aching and my purse was looking a lot lighter than it had earlier on in the evening. But I wanted this night to last forever. Not just because it was my birthday, or that it was the first time i had gone on a wild night out since my ex and i broke up 6 months earlier. It was because I was finally free to be me! I had spent most of my last relationship running around and bending over backwards, just to make sure my man felt happy and loved.Fast forward eleven years later...It felt so good to let my hair hang loose, to dance the n...

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“Beyond the Seas” by Rhonda Valentine Dixon

Submitted to Contest #44

“I’m sorry Janet. I can’t take you too,” Jayne said to her niece. “You’re a good worker and I’m grateful for the help you’ve given me when I’ve needed you, but I can’t employ you permanently and I can’t afford another mouth to feed. I’ll see if Mr Duff in Nicolson Street will take you on as a housemaid.” “I don’t want to be a housemaid, Aunt. I want to stay with my sisters. They need me. It was hard enough when Mother died, then Father died too and now our stepmother has abandoned us. It’s all too much,” Janet replied. “I...

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“Lost souls” by Phil Manders

Submitted to Contest #44

“Why don’t you put the high beam on darling, surely that will help?” Said Bruce. He superficially fiddled with the dials and buttons on the illuminated panel in front of him. His bright red nail varnish completely at odds with its surroundings.“High beam!? High beam!, that’s probably the most stupid thing I have heard you say in the last eighteen months….no wait, in fact, that is the most stupid thing you have ever said man…….well, apart from the time you asked i...

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“Tall, Dark, and Hot” by Robin Owens

Submitted to Contest #44

Monday, June 15thYesterday, I watched Tall, Dark, and Hot roll his suitcase up his driveway towards his house, and he didn’t know I was watching him from my bedroom window. He, who we’ll call TDH for short, definitely doesn’t know I watch him from my bedroom window every single day. Except for this past week while he was gone; what a long, lifeless week.I’m his next-door neighbor, but my house, and my upstairs window, and even I might as well be invisible to TDH. I’m being secretive about his name because, well, I’m a first-rate Peeping Tome...

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“Titanic” by Haylee Crouch

Submitted to Contest #44

The boat was a bit delayed. I mean, it’s a huge ship so I suppose that’s understandable. My sister and her husband had gone on the biggest ship in the world, the Titanic. I saw her off and it was humongous. Archie, her husband, was very rich and got them tickets. I loved my sister, but she was gone for ever and I couldn’t wait for her to be back. But after forever, it was still delayed. Until, one day, while I was waiting by the docks, my sister came to port. Not in the Titanic, but in a small rescue boat.As soon as I saw her, all cold and s...

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“One More Year” by Naomi Irwin

Submitted to Contest #44

Ariana and Liam Taylor embraced as she stepped off of the launching platform. It was the first time it had been tested with an actual human and the tension in the room was high. It had worked, she went back, the time machine actually worked! Ariana had been working on this for a long time now, with many fails and many victories. She was so excited that it worked. She had gone back to yesterday and came back again in just five minutes, her trip was successful. However, she knew that once her and her crew got up to traveling a long time away, ...

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“The story of the last lead holder” by Richard Deatherage

Submitted to Contest #44

The story of the last lead holder Back in the summer of 1979, a project that started off as an attempt by his High School Drafting Teacher to keep him from cutting class, actually put Richard Deatherage on the path to his career. Recognizing Richard's boredom with remedial drafting, the Teacher instead had Deatherage draft and design a new custom home plan for a friend while he was in detention. The plans turned out to be accepted ...

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“Sunglasses by Albert Zygier” by Albert Zygier

Submitted to Contest #44

Harry Baker was returning from his run through Central Park in New York. Still dressed in his running suit, he crossed Central Park West into 64th Street towards Broadway when he spotted a very attractive woman sitting by herself in an outdoor cafe on the corner. She was dressed in a yellow sundress and a large straw hat, and she wore a pair of large designer sunglasses he knew must have cost a week's pay of an executive secretary. He knew that because he was with his wife when she bought the same pair. The woman must be an actress or model ...

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“5 Minutes More” by Emma Qi

Submitted to Contest #44

I saw the happiest moments of my life from approximately 24 different angles. I also saw my life crash and burn from approximately 24 different angles. No – that’s a lie, I saw it from 22. But the principle remains the same. To explain is difficult, to say the least, so I’ll have to take you back to the beginning. The original one. April 16, 9:38. It’s a cool autumn morning, and leaves in brilliant shades of magenta, amber and rust litter the footpath, crunching rather satisfyingly beneath our three feet. Eli has finally been released from t...

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“Sunday Chicken” by Karolina Guilcapi

Submitted to Contest #44

I once worked with a girl who bought a rotisserie chicken every Sunday. She then explained in detail, how she would break down the bird into five equal portions and have herself a chicken lunch every day. This was not news to me, as her desk was next to mine and we often ate at our computers. We hovered with our plastic dishes over keyboards while trying to read emails, the smell of microwaved chicken wafting through the office. I was witness to her rushed chicken lunches regularly. Nonetheless, she was adamant that I learn her routine and t...

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“Flickering Fear” by Gwen Anderson

Submitted to Contest #44

She had never feared fire.Maybe fear isn’t the right word. She wasn’t an idiot; she was still aware that the flames could burn her, hurt her. She was moderately careful as a result, though she didn’t flinch when the campfire blew towards her. Didn’t hesitate to run across the hot coals that night on the beach. Didn’t turn down the opportunity to feed more wood into the fire’s crackling mouth.Her parents thought her naïve, but she knew better than to listen.She once told me that a sense of calm washed over her when she watched the flames. The...

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$50

Prize money

790

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 05, 2020 EST

Won by D. Holmes 🏆

Title: A Gamble

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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