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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

“When I Stepped Outside It Was Already Over” by Bridgette McClain

Submitted to Contest #63

When I Stepped Outside It Was Already Over By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. No, not literally, but we were in fall now. How could this happen? The last time I closed my eyes, the leaves were gone, and the trees were frosted over. Why was I in a hospital? So many things were running through my mind, but no one would tell me anything. Their lips were moving but I couldn’t hear them. What is wrong with me? Why isn’t anything working? Am I broken? They were trying to explain to me what had happened, but I was to...

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“Season of fall” by Mariah Danielle

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire they were all over the place! They were all colors ranging from bright red to a fire orange to a lemon yellow. As I walked on them, they crunched and crackled like a fire would. They made the trees look like their on fire and not a normal healthy green. The air crisp and cold blowing through the trees making them clash together to make a peaceful noise to go with the chirping of the beautiful birds of the world. From Blue Jays to Cardinals to Ravens to even Hawks ever more beautiful the...

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“The Ballad of Rick: The Beginning” by Jean Nacua

Submitted to Contest #63

I went outside to a world on fire. The nearby buildings were either smoking or still blazing. There were cars and trucks in smoking wrecks. What the hell was going on? And what is that godawful rotten smell? I better return inside. Great, no one's around. This was a hospital, goddamit. There should be someone around. And where was Laurie? My wife should at least be here to watch over me. My already dizzy mind was making want to vomit. Take a deep breath. And I gagged. What is that awful smell? Deep breaths, calm down and look around. Some ki...

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“Squirrelly Confrontation” by Dede K.

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. My face burned from the purple in the flames. Loud pops and cracks exploded from the fire. “He’s gone, he’s gone, finally he’s gone!” A maniacal laugh escaped my dry scratchy throat. The neighbors began to gather, staring at the glare of the fire in my black rimmed glasses. “How did this start?” The crowd was whispering amongst themselves. “Someone needs to move her now before she hurts someone.” You may be asking the same question as the crowd. Well, this al...

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“What Will It Take?” by Gina Bierman

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. They weren't actually on fire although my mind felt like it was. Trying to comprehend rather im doing right by the people in this world is hard to come by. Everything was happening so fast, faster than my mind was able to comprehend. Why can’t I just get everything together, why is it so hard for everyone to just work with me on things. They aren’t even important things people just like to make things harder than they actually are. Of course they would, it isn’t them who has to w...

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“Flitting Samaras” by Sleepy Sheepy

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I could have missed it. I could have kept my tongue in the back of my throat when a knock came at my door the night before, then an older cousin who came carrying dishes of chicken and rice up to my bedroom, wouldn't have shifted my drapes open. They took a peep out my curtains, and I'd regretted even calling out that they could come in so much, I had hoped staying quiet throughout their visit would give a hint. But they're open, and this morning, they bother me. I think about get...

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“The Summoning” by Dan Willmot

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Not a single wooden soldier had escaped Autumn’s chilling touch, so cold, it burned the branches to nothing more than twisted bark draped in all hues of red. The frigid concrete step beneath me froze my bare feet. While wisps of wind playfully tugged at the thin fabric of the long coat covering my pyjamas. "Ari, get in here!" My mom hollered from inside the house. I grunted and turned back inside, abandoning the peace of the neighbourhood in the early morning light. ...

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“Peculiar Hot Mess” by Amilie Tang

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire!” I exclaimed. “Wow! Is that so? You must be kidding! Tell me the whole story from the start.” Mika, my best friend said with disbelief. She had just come back from the washroom when I was relaying my autumnal holiday story for the third time today. “Okay, here I go again…” " Ooof! " I groaned. I had fallen off my bed and that was because I had smelled bacon. Ah that smell. I sniffed around following the scent of the sizzling smell of bacon like as if I was in a trance. Imagining ...

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“Ignis trees” by Nova Nite

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. Great, how am I going to get to work through all of this? It was Autumn, which meant all of the Ignis trees were going through abscission. Ignis trees were beautiful trees, but deadly in Autumn. They only grew in this part of the world, and no matter how hard anyone tried they could never be cut down. When their leaves fall they catch on fire, resulting in a lot of dangerous accidents. Even better, I’m a firefighter. There’s no hope for a break in Autumn. I groaned as I went back inside ...

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“Acceptance” by Jullie Mae Dorosan

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves is on fire. I am running, dying to reach the peak of my solemnly and generously dreams that where tired of me. Wearing my black sweater tucked in inside my denim ripped jeans I climbed the tree which has a great amount of leaves falling from each of its branches. I feel hard to do it but did not care and just sit in the middle of an autumn sight infront of me. I like autumns. I consider it as the most great season every year, wherein I just sit and relax with a bit of drinks to enhance my c...

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“Maybe?” by Layne Reid

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. At least, they glowed as if they were. The heat pulsed in the air and pressed itself against my face like a dense and stifling wall. It’s safe to say this was one strong campfire. I turned to zip the tent closed, tugging it to make sure there wasn’t even the slightest gap for any critters to sneak through, and proceeded to walk towards the setup of chairs beside the fire. We’d been needing this getaway for a while. It had been a difficult few months filled with money woes, therapy sess...

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“Autumnal” by Laurie Longo

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. The embers enveloped the air and grew up inside my dying body in the same way they expanded through the sinews of the branches of the tree. These, although manufactured in the places they were planted in the city, still breathed life to the last, even to the last shred of hope and that ever lingering last thread that interwove the tip of the branch with the thinning of the stem. We would see in the Summer how the leaves would fly on their wings, the branches like fingers before we start...

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“Ignis” by Megan Faith

Submitted to Contest #63

“By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. There was a smell unlike the scent of the bonfires we danced around. The darkness of the smoke choked me and I was completely alone. I fell into the grass, gulping down my last of courage hoping to escape. When I awoke, the forest was ugly with the destruction done by the hunters. They wanted to weed us out, wanted to hunt us like animals. But they did not know it was just me, I sent the others to the river. By the time the fire was set, they had caught the scent and ran for their cove...

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“Love's Flames” by SARAH WOODHOUSE

Submitted to Contest #63

Love's Flames By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I ran to the hose and turned the water on, spraying the fire out. Cursing to myself, I see how close the leaves were to my house and I know that they were set alight on purpose. But who would do such a thing? I had just moved into my house a week prior. I haven't even had a chance yet to meet my neighbors. A man comes out of the house next to mine. “What happened?” He asks. “I'm not certain. I was inside my house when I smelled smoke and I came running outsid...

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“The ash of the leaves” by Brighton Muklebust

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I step outside, the leaves are on fire. My eyes blur with the harsh light of day and I know something is wrong. Soft dapples of red and orange cloud my sight. The alluring colors pull me towards the ground, and I can’t comprehend what lays before me. I quickly outstretch my arms to snag one of the balls of fire, but a faint crunch frightens me. Everything feels so new, so different. I have stepped into another dimension, but I drift back once my father pulls me into his arms. Then, abruptly, my vision fades into darkness. ...

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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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