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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

“Turquoise” by Blessing Aniekezie

Submitted to Contest #44

It took me exactly fourteen-point-four seconds to register the shrill scream that fell off my chapped lips.Fourteen seconds of shock.Fourteen seconds of welcoming a panic attack.Sharp gasps escaped me and I jerked sharply as I tried to shake off the feeling of being strangled deep inside. My palm covered my lips immediately as I emitted soft sobs."V, I swear it's not-"I couldn't listen to what she was saying.Who would?My gaze moved from the jittery 25-year old in front of me to my 5-inch stiletto. Its glitters and fancy stones almost blinds ...

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“Lonely but not alone ” by EJ Nickerson

Submitted to Contest #44

I must sleep and I can’t. I’m in a foreign country, on the other side of the planet, I wouldn’t see my mother for a half a year, I got 50$ in my pocket. I will live in an unknown place with the strangers. I’m grateful to God that He helped me to win this round. I know My life is about to be changed forever. I’m a Russian girl born in former USSR. All my life I lived in Ukraine and now I’m in Barbados. It’s a midnight and tomorrow will be my first day working onboard the cruise ship as a cruise ship photographer. After restles...

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“Rags to Gold” by Regina Owens

Submitted to Contest #44

RAGS TO GOLD“Mr. Carter; you things are ready,” a now millionaire hears his housekeeper says to him as Mr. Carter is in his bedroom preparing to go on another cruise the many perk Mr. Carter has been enjoying since the time he was discovered to be one, exceptional poet. After thanking his housekeeper reminding him; Mr. Carter aka Jeffrey Carter or simply Jeff by his well meaning colleagues of poetry will cell call for his limo to come to his penthouse followed by Jeffrey Carter riding to the international airport in New York City. New Y...

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“Making it Grind!!” by Hussein Mohammedali

Submitted to Contest #44

When life demands a reset from its routine, it takes time to adjust. I am no exception to that. It took me a while to not react to my morning alarm that pushes me to wake-up early, go for my morning workouts, cook my breakfast, pack lunch for work, go through the sweaty commute to work in the blazing Indian summer, the post work catch up with colleagues/friends for a supper on Friday evenings, etc. All of it needed to pause before change imposed itself upon us. This pandemic has been an unwelcome guest, prompting a long list of changes,...

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“The Accident” by Rebecca Green

Submitted to Contest #44

One minute we were cruising along the road, tyres hissing in the wet, the muffled roar of motorway traffic, white lines emerging out of the darkness towards us. Calm, safe; normal. Then everything disintegrated into chaos. I didn’t find out until much later what had actually happened. For a long time, my world was pain and blood and staring at a patch of sky through the crazed and shattered remains of the windscreen. There were voices coming and going around me, paramedics sticking their heads in at crazy angles and telling me I was go...

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“The Darlings' life” by Rebecca Kuester

Submitted to Contest #44

Chapter 1 The incident On a frigid night in Autumn, Jonathan Darling was walking home from his friend's house. It was so cold that Johnathan could see his breath go in front of him in a small white cloud, only to disappear as soon as he took another breath.. Jonathan was wearing the coat that his mother had just bought him, accompanied by his best blue plaid shirt, and his favorite pair of pants which had many pockets to hold all of his pencils; that he had a habit of losing. Jonathan's hair was a dark chocolate brown, so dark that it l...

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“Miracle” by Nkiruka Ezewuzie

Submitted to Contest #44

I became a mother at the age of 16. My name is Judith Eke. I am from Delta state in Nigeria. I have an older sister named Lilian. We were just two in the family and I loved her with everything in me. My dad was a business man so he was always traveling around the world making lots of money for the family. I had always thought that we were rich enough so Dad should spend time with us but anytime I mention this, my parents scream at me as if I just said a bad word. My mum was a celebrity, an actress to be precise so she had a busy schedule and...

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“Spectrophobia” by Jane Doe

Submitted to Contest #44

Dan Sleeter was a fifty year old man. No, that couldn’t be. But it was, it really was. He had been born in 1925 and it was 1975. All of a sudden his daughter wanted “Bell bottoms”. His wife’s face had become lined with age. His own, he didn’t know. He’d stopped looking at forty. He had lived in Salem for fifty years. He had lived in his house for thirty. The movie sign that had been so vibrant in his teenage years was now crooked and faded. For thirty years he had worn a button up shirt, fastened his tie, and walked out the...

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“"I'm Home"” by Jaydan Taylor

Submitted to Contest #44

The winds outside carried a breeze of promise as Sam reached under his bunk bed and lugged out his stained and tattered red, blue, and yellow backpack and tossed it up and onto his bed that, if all went well, he wouldn’t have to spend another night in. Inside the backpack were Sam’s stash of goldfish crackers, packaged gummies, baby carrots, and cheese sticks that he and Simon had been stealing from the pantry and fridge when the adults were occupied watching the fifteen boys wreaking havoc on the group home or ignoring the ruckus. In betwee...

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“Luna for Earthen Reform” by L. Williams

Submitted to Contest #44

Luna for Earthen Reform“Hello?”“You’ve been requested for a transplant. Please make your way to the nearest hospital for the extraction process. Thank you.”Stupid data banks. I couldn’t tell if I hated the fact that I had to donate whatever they needed, or loved the fact that I had the ability to save someone. I live on Earth, in the year 2050. Everyone’s bone marrow, stem cells, blood type and kidneys were sampled from the moment they were born and out into the international data banks. So if someone needed a bone marrow transplant, they co...

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“If he was not gone” by Eman Rana

Submitted to Contest #44

It was a dull grey afternoon. The sky had turned pewter with rumbling, roaring, thundering and threatening clods. At some distance the thunder roared like an old man. The trees swayed with its strong force. In a blink of seconds the rain started to fall down in long knitting needles. The rain "pitter,patter...."on the window pane and the rain drops were like tears on the window. Roanld was sitting on his cozy staring vacantly. He could not believe that his brother John was no longer with them. In a twinkling of an eye John was simply gone. S...

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“Should I cool it or should I blow?” by Nicolas Salamanca

Submitted to Contest #44

“How?” Chris asked himself out loud in the desperation of what was probably the most crucial moment of his short life.“Why!?” he screamed in anger and frustration and shock and bewilderment and disgust.Carefully, hanging on to dear life, Chris removed what little grass and dirt were separating his foot from eternal oblivion. It took him a few seconds, but once he was finished, he confirmed his worst fears: it was a mine. He´d stepped on a landmine. Chris figured that as soon as he took his foot off the mine that it would explode and surely k...

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“The Dark Walk” by Shawnalynn Cromwell

Submitted to Contest #44

The Dark WalkThe water was ice cold and hypothermia was a certainty and not a maybe likelihood. The splash of her body falling into the water was loud, like a quick burst of noise, in the quiet crisp winter night. But not something that would be noticed by anyone at this time of night. But fortunately for Kelley, a fisherman was on his boat doing some repairs in the cabin of the boat. He stuck his head out of the cabin and looked around for the cause of the splash and then from the corner of his eye, he saw a body i...

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“I'm Sorry” by Thorn S

Submitted to Contest #44

Calem raced through the field, kicking up dirt as he rushed toward a lime green house that lay in front of him. He could almost feel its familiar cracking paint under his fingers. He could almost taste his favorite pies that his sister made often. It was almost unreal how close he was to finally coming back home.The wind made the grass sway as he trampled them under his feet. As he got closer and closer to the house, the long grass thinned out into a patch of dirt in front of the house. He stepped through the patch of dirt, rubbing his feet ...

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“Trip of Recovery” by Julyssa Hernandez

Submitted to Contest #44

As I finally entered my home town I was met with a sigh of relief. So much had changed in the last couple of years, but my home stayed the same. No matter where I went and no matter how drastically I changed I had a place I could return to. As I walked through the old town memories of the things I had done in my youth flowed through me. When I had finally made it to my home, I got nervous. I had been gone for so long on my trip that they might have forgotten about me. I began to pace back in forth in my worried state of mind. Would they...

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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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