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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

“The girl with the bumble bee tattoo” by Verda H

Submitted to Contest #44

Here is a secret: I am allergic to bees. I found this out while murdering the high-ranking banker in his private greenhouse on his multi-billion dollar estate. Forgot to load the gun, had to improvise with the shears: they were painfully dull. (For someone stealing so much money, he should have invested in hiring better gardeners.) Apparently he liked bee keeping. And committing fraud. My swollen face prevented me to be commissioned for much kills after, but business never slows down… I guess the only thing you don’t nee...

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“The Cruelest Month” by ℙ𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕪 𝐻𝑒𝒹𝑔𝑒𝒽𝑜𝑔

Submitted to Contest #44

One day, it was the first of April, and just like that, the winter melted into sweet spring, and the first blossoms of the year bloomed already from the frost. It was also the day I last held my sister’s hand, the last pure, happy day of the ignorance of childhood. I was running around the train station, my bashful, cheerful self tugging on my mother’s skirt. Our mother always wore long skirts that billowed into a delicate bell shape in the wind. Olivia, my sister, was sitting with her suitcase, mindlessly tugged at a hardy purple flower jut...

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“The Rectifier” by Erick Morin

Submitted to Contest #44

It’s been too long for me to remember all the pain and suffering I may have caused. The path I am on nearing its end, a supernova. I try to feel an ounce of guilt or an ounce of empathy, but I get nothing. Duty above all, as my father used to say. Without responsibility, there is no coherence, no purpose. I am who I am, there is no doubt about that. I have come to terms with the decisions I have made, with the actions I have taken, with the death I have wrought. After all, I am just correcting the wrongs of the universe. I reach for the...

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“Dragonfly Memories” by Iris Koga

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #44

Mei stood in the back of Ba's herbalist store, a tattered building with faded lettering along the exterior and older ladies behind the counter displaying dimly lit Ginseng and Donqua roots. She clutched a once crisply folded letter, an elegant letterhead on the corner above flourished print, Congratulations! On behalf of Boston University, I am pleased to announce your admission for Fall; the rest obscured by Mei's fist. Her shoulders were hunched, and her face cast in shadow under the bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling by its electric ...

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“Puppet Master ” by Catherine Stevens

Submitted to Contest #44

We are lost in an action film, the sounds of pounding feet, shouts and breaking glass are the musical score and the smoke and heat blanketing the street are the special effects. This insanity has to be fiction, real people aren’t monsters that destroy property, raze neighborhoods and attack and kill others! But as I sit in the middle of Main Street cradling my dying sister in my arms, I know this is my reality, not a high budget action film. Tears make long furrows down her soot staine...

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“I Belong Here. ” by Oshin Dhawan

Submitted to Contest #44

It was Sunday morning, birds were chirping. I had just returned to the town after my trip. I stood still, looking at the sky and wondering if I even belong here?“Hey, idiot! Can you move aside? I almost tripped over your suitcase.” screamed a guy who was passing by my side. “I am so sorry, I lost my way.” ( I said while standing right in front of my ‘house’, flat technically.) “Okay, google it on the side of the road, not in the middle. You will lose your life too.” Said the man and went ahead. This incident took me back to my...

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“Aloha, Good-bye” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #44

Abigail took one last look in the mirror. She saw the person she always knew.Making a little wave with her left hand she said, “Aloha.”The taxi driver honked his horn. Abigail turned and left.Ten minutes before, her Aunt Maryann saw her looking in the mirror.“Abby! Stop staring at yourself. You look fabulous!”Abigail turned to her. “Thanks Auntie. I know. I love this dress.”“It’s your wedding day, Abby. You look worried.”Abigail looked down. “I see a person in that mirror who I’ve known all my life. I don’t know when I’ll see her again. Or i...

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“Twenty Years of Walking Away” by Adam Wright

Submitted to Contest #44

“Is that it then?” she asked. “That’s it. Nothing more to say. See you around, Sara,” Francesco said. She blew on her hands for a moment and then shoved them into the pockets of her pea coat. Her steel blue eyes met his. They lingered on him. It was a searching look, one filled with despair and the slightest hint of hope. His eyes turned away. He turned around and started walking. He felt the pinch of his toes ins...

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“Reader, I murdered her!” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #44

I’ve committed a murder. And I’m not going to plead my innocence, and I’m not going to say that it was self-defence (because it wasn’t) and I’m not going to say I had a lousy childhood (because I didn’t, even though I could wish to this day that Mum had checked the dress code at Melanie Beamont’s ninth birthday party and not sent me in a frilly pink frock when everyone else was in jeans!). I wasn’t being threatened by my victim, unless you count feeling someone grate on your nerves every minute you’re with them or ...

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“The Lie I Told Myself” by Alexi Delavigne

Submitted to Contest #44

“I don’t love you anymore.” I saw Parker jolt as if I had shot him. A bullet might have hurt him less than my words did. He stared at me, and I could see first shock, denial, and then pain etched into his features. He stepped forwards, slowly reaching out his arm as if he wanted to take my hand. I moved back, away from him, away from us, away from all we had been and all we could’ve been. He saw me move away from him and stopped where he was, letting his arm fall to his side. “Please, Mel, talk to me. Tell me how to fix this. I don’t wa...

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“The Suicide King” by Christopher G

Submitted to Contest #44

The middle-aged man sat in the black 1972 Chevy Nova and tore the plastic from the overpriced deck of cards he purchased from the closest operating store located in butt-fuck nowhere. He assumed the cards ran for at least half the price in the city but was glad the store carried playing cards rather than having to worry about the lower price of them in a town farther away. He pulled the cards from the cheap cardboard package and shuffled twice before meticulously selecting one from the deck. Traditionally, most people pick a c...

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“The Passage” by Clyde Roan

Submitted to Contest #44

The boy is weak.It is not long before they take him. His mother cries, but even she has been expecting this day to come.They drag him to the Passage. That is what they call it, for it looks to the outside world like nothing but a dark corridor, extending for an unknown length into the black.The boy begins to weep as they pull him closer and closer. “Mama, I don’t want to go.”“It’s okay, my sweet boy,” she says. “Just think of it as a new adventure, a game. Every day, you play hide and seek and then when night falls, you run home, okay? ...

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“WHO ARE YOU?” by Farida Yakubu

Submitted to Contest #44

“Welcome back my daughter, I have been waiting for your return" My mum said in a soft spoken voice, looking so happy and excited to see me, the trip was so stressful; I really had a hard time on my way back.“I missed y-you so much mum, I really wanted to come back early but the jour-journey wasn’t easy, traffic on the road was hectic.” I said speaking in a brittle voice.“Oh! My baby why are you getting so emotional did something happen on your way back home?” she asked observing the sudden change on my face and voice. I really can’t tel...

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“IT IS A FUTURE.” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #44

The last light of day was just about gone as Abby walked back to the old farm house she shared with her family. Shabby and in need of repair as it was, the warm glow of light from the Windows was a welcome sight, her family inside and the normal chatter of the days sharing that was so much a part of this family, she could feel the welcome. The contrast to where she had spent her day, to where she spent every day was stark. Never enough heat, or light, never a smile and words so few that when spoke...

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“Adventure” by Trevor Dutcher

Submitted to Contest #44

We stood next to the old train tracks at the edge of town in the cold February air, wearing our matching aviator caps. I liked my goggles down, but Jessie wore hers up, just like Charlie Broadmoor did in the movie Flightpath. Nobody kept watch over us, and nobody was there to keep us out of trouble. Nobody ever was back then, it’s just not how things worked. It was just me and Jessie. She was the girl next door, and my very best friend for all of time. We stood side-by-side, staring into the dull grey fog, where the train trac...

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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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