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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

“Blue Sky” by EJ Firestone

Submitted to Contest #44

Blue SkyIt ended with a short handshake against the backdrop of a bright blue sky. A weeks worth of ridiculously cheesy frolicking down the pier, riding two seater bikes, eating ice creams, holding hands, and committing a few petty crimes, ended in that short exchange of palm sweat. As she walked away, the familiar view of the back of her head gave me a pang of nostalgia - she always liked to walk in front. No, it’s too early to miss her. She messed with you, fucked up your morals, made you do everything you knew that your parents would abso...

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“Champagne-coloured Farewell” by Valentine Favreau

Submitted to Contest #44

I could no longer breathe. Still, my legs kept chasing the lengthiest goodbye my sunken heart had ever encountered. Was I to smile, to scream, or to cry as my love reciprocated the symbolic hand gesture? As fast as I ran, the train was much faster. The desperation resonating through my heels and the clunking of the rails submerged my last whisper. “I love you”. Nevertheless, amid the crowded station, the outline of my unheard words were captured and understood. The man I hoped to see again gently pressed his hand atop the buttoned pleated po...

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“The Punishment” by Muhammad Ali

Submitted to Contest #44

In this place, where you were destined to live all your life and are destined to die, I have to abandon you. Your end point is here and you can do nothing to save yourself. This mansion, in which you lived your life, waiting for someone to save you, to take you out and show the world; will become your grave. And I must do it. I must leave you to die here. I’m not as brave those ancestors who abandoned their lives to protect the heir of this place. This horse I’m sitting on, will take me to a place where I will live my life peacefully, bearin...

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“Water for eyes” by Melodie Karczewski

Submitted to Contest #44

We pass a melody back and forth, through the empty space between us. 'Goodbye my lover’.'Goodbye my friend’.'You have been someone’.'I think it's ''the one’'.'You have been someone for me’.We giggle. It is an eruption of glee. When we’re together we are a volcano about to spew out love. Although Theia is metres away from me, pretending to be dragged away from the cafe I work in, I feel the glow of her company as if she is koala bear hugging my side. She is mid-way out the door and I am imprisoned behind the counter in my worn out apron ...

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“The Lost Goodbye” by R. E. Rule

Submitted to Contest #44

People in brightly colored jumpsuits bustled around us, loud voices echoing off the spaceport’s metal walls, as we stood in silence, foreheads pressed together. I held him as long as I could until the blaring voice announcing the last call for his flight tore us apart. His hand slid from mine as he reluctantly moved toward the gate, but he stopped halfway, turning back to me. &...

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“A Bleeding Heart” by Ellen Rosenberger

Submitted to Contest #44

For a moment she was all that mattered. Small face, framed in my hands. Soft beautiful eyes holding my gaze. Pleading with me. Why couldn’t I keep her with me? I saw pure love in her eyes. And also great loss. She didn’t want to leave Mommy. But I had to send her away. I couldn’t go on like this. I had finally come to admit that I couldn’t care for her anymore. Not right now. Maybe not ever. I brushed the thought away like a pesky fly. I couldn’t think about the future. I had to keep my sights on the present. I turned my attention ...

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“Tuesday” by Liv Wrightson

Submitted to Contest #44

(Trigger warning: contains depictions of suicide.) It was a Tuesday when we said goodbye, and on Wednesday she jumped. It all came out on the Thursday. In the local paper, block letters bemoaned the ‘tragic loss’ of ‘promising 21-year-old student’, Poppy’s smiling face staring unblinkingly back. I recognised the photo. Her face had been cropped from a recent group shot of our university friends celebrating the end of third year exams; the arm visible in the background was mine, wrapping tightly around her. Most of the calls happened o...

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“The Road Taken ” by Jack Kiyonaga

Submitted to Contest #44

“Thanks.” I said. “The world is yours.” She replied and handed me the change. It was sunny and hot and I was getting coffee. I had been in a car for about five days. Trees and roads and my friend Ally and his loud music had been my only company. We were in my car because Ally’s dad was a librarian who worked across the bridge over in New Jersey and he definitely needed his car. So here we were in my sister’s Volvo with the fender that hangs over the edge and the sunroof that leaks and the air conditioning tha...

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“I'm Better Than This ” by Will Williams

Submitted to Contest #44

‘’Ma, I love you, I'm sorry. I need to do this, you know I do.’’ She ducks out of the tent without saying a word. Her bony back showing from the top of her stained tank top. I watch her through the flap as she walks away, her spider vein legs covered in bruises and scars from the million needles she’s seen in her day. Her matted red hair stagnant in the air, molded into an unmoving clump of filth. I could have better than this. We both know it. I’ve got time left to live and a ticket to rehab, any mother in the world other than her would be ...

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“Good Night My Heart” by Celia Fraticelli

Submitted to Contest #44

I’m sorry but we could not revive your daughter. We tried everything within our power but she has died. We are so sorry. Words that no parent ever wants to hear. Aren’t births supposed to be happy and joyous times? A time to celebrate a new life, an extension of you and more importantly, a part of your heart opened as never before. But what of a life not fully given? A birth and death juxtaposed into one event at...

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“Goodbye then.” by Kasie Ernst

Submitted to Contest #44

" Goodbye then " was the last thing Carlson got to mutter before a door slammed in his face. The meeting had been crude with a short and brutal ending. It was like a kick in the face to Carlson. He didn't even bother to get in his car. He sat down on the curb in front of the house and thought to himself. What had he done? Well he didn't know much himself. Jessica and Carlson were best friends. Since third grade they were very close. Even with different internists and ideas, they listened to each other and had a healthy relationship. They...

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“A Sonnet in Needlepoint” by Heather Ann Martinez

Submitted to Contest #44

A Sonnet in NeedlepointBy Heather Ann MartinezIt was the end of spring and the beginning of summer. Evie said good-bye to Linus as he boarded the plane. They both wanted different things. That was what they told themselves and one another. It was not what their parents hoped for them. They knew they could have stayed in an assumed engagement for another year to appease their parents and the society they had grown accustomed to. Linus decided his talents were better served in under developed countries. He had been a doctor for several years a...

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“That life-changing Goodbye at the Airport ” by Purvasha N

Submitted to Contest #44

Awkwardly lifting his duffel bag with essential items, he gave me a half-hug saying, "It’s just a three-week business trip Jess, and it’s not the first time I’m going to Ireland, right? I’ll be back in a jiffy, okay?'' Tears rolling down my cheeks, I gave him the slightest nod in history. How’d I live alone for two long weeks?“Can’t you do this some other time? Since the day we lost the baby, I’ve struggled badly with being alone Mark, and you know that.”Did I mention I had an ugly miscarriage less than a month ago? No?''You know how it is; ...

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“Rouge: Alice's Transformation” by Cinnamon Pilcher

Submitted to Contest #44

After the horrible mistake has happened, Alice had fell into the ground, she's in a deep sleep. And all the kids except for Rebecca and Anna and Lincoln stayed there.Kid: Somebody call 911.Kid 2: There's a phone next to the fire alarm.Rebecca: Alice?Lincoln: Alice?They both tried to call her name but she didn't respond, she did hear them but she can't open her eyes.Rebecca: Alice can you hear me?Anna: What happened.Rebecca: Don't know.Anna: Not to mention, I heard all this coughing and sneezing and then later all the sudden the snot and the ...

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“Suicide Adjacent” by Mackenzie Schmidt

Submitted to Contest #44

Ashley was holding her knees with a blanket draped over her upper body slightly clouding her face as she always did. She had a look of tiredness in her eyes. She couldn't tell if she had emotional paralysis or was getting 'Billy Dune' good at repressing what had just happened. Her mother sat watching her while sipping tea like a person watches a train before they step on the tracks. Wren, Ashley's mom, usually could stroke her daughter's hair, while telling her it's okay. Wren not that she always believed herself when she ...

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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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