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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

“Speed Dating” by Link Oberon

Submitted to Contest #44

"I'm non-binary, I own ten cats, and my favourite pastime is making fossils of mythical creatures out of animal bones."Jace stared at the person before him, unsure how to respond. He was beginning to regret letting his sister coerce him into coming. He shifted slightly in his booth, straightening his cuffs and tie. "Uh...."The person across from him (they hadn't given a name) pushed a curl of their luxurious, lime hair out of their eyes. One side of their head, Jace now perceived, was shaved short, so close to the skin that he could see the ...

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“NEPTUNE” by Martin Mururu

Submitted to Contest #44

“I touched the grass,” I said faintly. “It felt real, like the grass in the city. I thought I wasn’t supposed to know, so I didn’t say anything about it.” I lay on the ground. I turned my gaze from the little boy and faced upwards at the collapsing skyscraper; the last of the standing buildings in our town. The sun was beautiful. It shone its radiance directly at me. A cool dusty breeze blew by. That was the only sound I heard. Time slowed. Small pebbles gradually fell on the ground around me. I couldn’t feel any that landed on m...

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“A Strange Dream” by Kristine Murdock

Submitted to Contest #44

“You don’t understand, Tiana!” I fumble with the crumpled newspaper in my hand, eyes darting every which-way around the room. I don’t know what to do with the stench of urine and human waste, either. “But Jules--”“No.” I cut her off, my voice more cold and dark than I expect it to be. “You don’t understand, you can’t understand. Your whole life has been fine, no ugly secret to constantly push behind, no poverty to fight, no lack of family! My whole life, Tiana, my whole life has been about concealing my uncle’s treachery--which I can only te...

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“"Her Eyes"” by Donna Jet

Submitted to Contest #44

*Blair*I have a secret, and I cannot tell anyone because if they knew, they may want to kill me, or others may end up hurting them...Its been a week's long journey, just me and one friend. They're loud and obnoxious, and often a hot head, but I can tell that they care about me for whatever reason. We contrast so much, I am quiet and secretive, Lake is loud, blatant and honest. They volunteered to help escort me to the wastelands were I will live in exile. Well, they said they'd only escort me until we got to the wastelands but knowing them t...

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“Blemish” by Synia Sidhe

Submitted to Contest #44

"I can't take the job, I have a really embarrassing tattoo... under my shirt," Connor admitted, sipping his light beer and averting his gaze from the glowing smartphone screen Josef was waving in his face."Really? I didnae think ya had any ink. Still, Conna, it's 2020. No one's gonna care if ya got like a skull or a sexy lady on a car hood or ya mama's name-.""Why do they need a lifeguard anyway? I thought we were all supposed to be staying in, on account of what China did," Connor leaned to the side, following the path of the oscillating fa...

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“What began in the dark” by Kate Jones

Submitted to Contest #44

Lucian had always been a creature of the night. So it came as no surprise that he found himself completely at home in the darkness, casually lounged against the brick wall of his local bar. The flickering of a distant street lamp was so dim that the embers of Lucian’s cigarette cast a red glow over his pale skin with each drag. On the other side of the wall, the bar was humming. The music cranked so loud the walls pulsed with the base of the current song. It wasn’t a song Lucian would have chosen, he much preferred 80s rock to the stran...

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“Unvarnished Truths” by John Messing

Submitted to Contest #44

“Yes. I killed your father,” he said, peering up guardedly through wire-rimmed spectacles.There was a long, heavy silence. “He left me no choice.”Then, “A jury ruled it was self-defense.”He sighed. “It was a long time ago.”The speaker was a craggy man, with extra weight around his waist over a thin frame. He was dining alone in a candlelit San Francisco restaurant, overlooking the wharf. He had a bushy mustache, and closely cropped blond hair. He was in his late forties. He wore a business suit, perhaps an accountant.A folded newspaper...

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“I cried, but you were too busy!” by Lala Joy

Submitted to Contest #44

I come from a nation of violence; it’s the only way my country knows how to communicate. We kill; slowly, violently and consistently. So when I checked out of the breaking news gossip mill years ago, as my first steps in adolescence, I naturally stopped conforming to the tumbleweed mentality, little did I know the price for this was so unbelievably high.Hi, my name is Isabel, I’m twelve years old and I am facing the battle of my life. I have an abdominal tumor the size of Texas; whether the cancer has spread we cannot say for sure as hospita...

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“Decision time” by Lynne Fellows

Submitted to Contest #44

“What I wouldn’t give to be that happy again,” Monika whispered, listening to the ripples of laughter coming from the staff room as her colleagues began their annual plans for their New Year’s Eve celebrations. Just thinking about it made her want to cry, even though they were on the cusp of a supposedly exciting, new decade. Life in Friedrichshain had been tough for the nineteen-year-old, made tougher still since her father’s escape. Following her mother’s death two years ago, her father had rediscovered his revolutionary zeal, spout...

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“The In Between” by Cynthia Grove

Submitted to Contest #44

It was time for a change, but that change didn't come in time. At least not in time as people usually understand its passing. My name is Annabelle, or Belle as I was known to my family and friends. The Belle of the Ball they use to tease.I was always considered one of the privileged and well educated in our community. But people rarely understand the fact that well educated doesn't always exude awareness nor does it exclude ignorance. Privilege can sometimes be a hindrance to possessing the right kind of knowledge.Considering my current plig...

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“Fleas ” by Sandra Claros

Submitted to Contest #44

- no,! It can not be 27.It is 28! - mended the greenish three legged old parrot, trying the real figures they were in.- Dat is gud. Ai laik.- Tell me, birdy, do you really like these rings above our heads ¿- Dat ¿- Yes, the ones getting out of the huge branch of the broken arm of our planet.- Nais - and the three – ok three and a half – legged bluish parrot a kind of tiny pillow hidden under his legs that looked more like some branches, full of feathers. It brought closer to his luminous &nb...

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“My First Day at My New School in my New Shirt ” by Kiara Grace Koeller

Submitted to Contest #44

I rubbed my eyes at the break of day, letting the sun sting my unadjusted eyes. Once my vision cleared I slowly crawled out of the thick blanket that provided warmth for me during the chilly night. Mama had laid out my nice plaid button down shirt and bow tie with black dress pants to slip on for my first day at my new school. The clothes were neatly folded and draped over my dresser. My dresser also has a faded picture of my friends and I on our first day of Kindergarten. I sure do miss all my friends from my other school, but Mama said I w...

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“Annihilator” by Kevin DuPont

Submitted to Contest #44

“This sorcery will not be tolerated. A warlock may dig oneself beneath the Earth to the realm of the Devil, but he shall be treated like no more than the sewage rat he his.” The other men in the tower murmured and jeered as the iron persuader was delicately placed on the mantle above a low-glowing orange fire. Together, the men in pointed hats and black cloaks looked like a row of bishops on a chessboard. “I shall...

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“The Last Goodbye” by Kristine Murdock

Submitted to Contest #44

Painted ceilings held up by gold pillars. Men and women in their dazzling array of ball gowns and tuxedos. People cheering and laughing. Horns blaring, violins singing. Flutes whistling their delicate melody, and the trumpet balancing it out to the best of its ability. The opera house is packed with people tonight.I glance behind me in the crowd. Hundreds of people’s voices crash against each other, and it’s hard to hear beyond the din. Liam stands there, amid his friends, chatting and laughing with them. An escort begins to shove me towards...

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“We Said Goodbye in a Hospital Room” by Mary Lombardi

Submitted to Contest #44

We said goodbye in a hospital room, with the ever slowing beeps of the heart monitor. We held hands as we have done for over fifty years, and then he left. Holding my hand and smiling at me one moment, still and lifeless the next. The tears I had held for so long started to spill, slowly dripping to our hands, still wrapped around each other. They are old hands, knobby with arthritis, marred with patches of blue-purple, but they are our hands. Hands that have belonged to each other since we met all those years ago. It had been at...

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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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