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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#63: Autumnal

It’s finally fall in the Northern Hemisphere. While the leaves are being slow to change out my window this year, the air is crisp and the pumpkin spice products are out in full force. Time to break out the sweaters!

Beyond all the colorful trappings, though, fall is by definition a season of change. So as you craft your stories this week, try to think about how the events you’re writing will change your characters' lives, whether fundamentally or just a little. After all, even a seemingly mundane afternoon can be the turning point of your entire life…

And if you want to drink some apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte while you write, more power to you!

This week's prompts

Set your story in a coffee shop that’s just introduced a new line of autumnal drinks.

Fall – 161 stories

Start your story with the line, “By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” (Whether this is a literal fire is up to you.)

Teens – 324 stories

Write about a character making fall decorations out of construction paper.

Kids – 45 stories

Write a story from the perspective of a bird migrating for the winter.

Winter – 128 stories

Write about two characters going apple picking.

Fall – 249 stories

Stories

“The Lake House” by Victoria Andrade Gomez

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire.” Everything by the lake house was on fire. The wooden chairs on the stairs and some boxes with old stuff in them. I called out for John to come and help me extinguish the fire. We went running with buckets of water from the lake and used the hose. After an hour we had managed to stop the fire from spreading. The lake house was not damaged that much it only got to the stairs. John was looking around. He said we should rest and that we would check it in the morning. I hugged him an...

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“Ashes in the Sky” by Erol Wood

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The sky was lit up by the beautiful glow of ember flame. My heart stopped a beat and I froze but a second as a cold sweat dripped down my brow and eyes widening to take in the scene before me. I was standing in the back of my apartment complex overlooking the yard, it was dusk and the burning fire lit the whole area. The complex playground was just to my right and to my left the gravel path that led aways sloping upwards to the street. On the other side of the burning tree was a f...

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“Lost Time” by Lucian Germiquet

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. A blur of yellows, oranges and reds, a tornado on my driveway. It is Samhain. Halloween. The sun is setting, and the children are overtaking the streets in search of candy. I’m almost late. Rushing back inside, I quickly grab everything I need, tripping over my coffee table as I dart around my living room getting everything in order. The veil will be at its thinnest in the next few hours and I can’t miss it. Not again. Stumbling out the front door barefoot as I shove everything in m...

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“A Life Fulfilled” by Roxanna C Revell

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Some of them were, anyway, because others had already turned brown, fallen to the floor and been crushed into the mud. They'd gone through their life cycle; growing and changing with the seasons, until their purpose was fulfilled. Whatever that purpose was. Was it to look pretty, to shelter birds or was it deeper than that? It was more than that. After all, trees inhale the bad air and breathe out the precious oxygen that we need to survive. Trees are life. Those leaves were trodde...

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“Setting Fire to History” by Islewriter E

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were already on fire. I ran as fast as I could from the flaming manor, pulling my shirt over my mouth and nose, in order to keep from inhaling the fumes. I ran deep into the tall, lush forest that surrounded the large mansion that was now burning to cinders. I sat down, leaning against a tree to try and catch my breath. Thankfully, it was beginning to rain, and therefore, covering up my tracks. With the threat of being caught less urgent, I was able to get my mind all in one place. I, Erris...

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“Kerosene One” by Annika Dauer

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I step outside into the night, the leaves were on fire. The warm wind picks them up and swirled them in a hurricane of yellows, reds, and oranges of all shades. I smile softly and slide into the back of the waiting carriage My Lady kindly sent for me, turning my back to the scene, as beautiful as it was. I have work to do.Earlier... The ballroom rivaled a marketplace in noise and chaos. Women in fancy dresses twirled and waltzed with men in sharp frocks. Walking to the refreshments table was a nightmare, yet somehow I managed i...

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“The Element ” by Jennie Mead

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were already on fire. Since the turn of the season they had been a vibrant display of reds and yellows, but as soon as the flame settled down upon them they erupted into a breathtaking picture of amber and gold. Breathtaking, not because of the beauty of the colours, nor because of the awesome speed at which the small flame spread. But breathtaking fear. It could have been me. It should have been me. If I’d been a good person, if I’d have told the truth, I’d have saved her. Bu...

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“Liar, Liar, Leaves On Fire” by Simran Kaur

Submitted to Contest #63

Liar, Liar, Leaves on Fire“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. And you were too Beatrice, like ignited copper.”The wind pulled at copper haired Beatrice, her hair looked more alive than she did--a dull fire in a game of tug of war with the wind. Beatrice tripped over a storm gutter breaking the illusion. She was just a girl. A girl that Agnes had missed like a warm fire. “Agnes, buddy I was gone for like a week, how did your mind apocalyze the world so quickly?” Beatrice smiled the way a fire would--flickering and fa...

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“Autumn Air” by Sage Henry

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Red and orange bloomed off the trees, devouring the few green leaves that still clung to the branches. The crisp October air filled my lungs as I watched them tremble in the breeze. The grove was at its most beautiful this time of the year, but this was the first time that I had been able to see it. The brightly colored leaves decorated the ground, burying the wilted brown grass that was dying underneath. It was a sight for sore eyes after so much time locked away inside. I sat down on...

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“Allman” by Matias Matias

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. An eternity of stories returning to the earth as all life does. Even our books cannot last forever, at least with their original intentions intact. They may physically survive but their interpretations will eventually crumble the primal concepts. The only hope of a solution to the human condition was burned to the ground by ours truly. The library of Ertus-Cenrik was a collection of books started by a man who has been present all our lives but with different faces. This man witnessed th...

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“Burnt Leaves” by Varun Balodi

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I could still hear the mysterious stranger’s voice ringing inside my head, “Your relationship was like a tree. Full of fresh, green leaves. And now, it is withering, dying. The leaves are dry and ready to break at the slightest touch of the finger. One wrong move and it all breaks. One reason to mistrust you, and it burns.” Oh, he had been so right… ________________________________ It had been late at night; I had decided to go to the local diner. An old stranger with blonde hair and ...

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“Run Away With Me” by Mckenzie Calvin

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Every one of them ablaze with unique patterns of red, orange, and yellow. All swaying in the breeze, whispering what I already knew. “Too late. Too late. Too late!” They hissed. Yes, I thought, it was too late. I had lost her forever. She was probably at the airport by now. She was probably saying goodbye to her family, the friends we share, and no doubt searching for me. Wondering if I had accepted her offer. Or maybe she was already in the clouds, leaving their little town in th...

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“THE GROTTO” by Emmeline Bisiikwa

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The flames stretched out, licking the trunk of the tree. Before long, the whole tree was on fire, and the fire leapt to the next and the next. The forest surrounding our love grotto was on fire, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I remembered the words of the legend that you would find true love and face a challenging test. If the test was failed, all would be lost. The Legends tell of a love Grotto nestled away in the woods. A place where you could have your heart's desi...

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“Scar Tissue” by Diona Reeves

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Not actually on fire, of course. I hadn’t been close to a real fire since my early twenties, when the world last seemed exciting and not in the least bit scary. This kind of fire was the orange, red and gold of late fall, yet I had been too shut up in my own house to notice the colors creeping into the trees. Like the dying leaves, my own life was slipping away, and it had been for years. My dog finished her business, and I let her wander a bit as I picked up the leaves cascading ...

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“Leaf Lucidity” by Tikhon McGill

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Their graceful, orderly orange-yellow forms became engulfed by chaos and inelegance of the same color. This chaos moved along each leaf, I observed, turning everything behind it into a crumbling ruin of its former self. I looked around to see if this was all, and soon found that it was. Everywhere I looked, leaves burned, soon morphing into piles of unrecognizable ash. I looked up, and found the sky was burning too, dark-grey rainclouds rushing away from the setting sun, like the smo...

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$50

Prize money

907

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 16, 2020 EST

Won by Masha Kurbatova 🏆

Title: come to atlanta!

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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