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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#66: Ready, Set, Go!

It’s almost November, and for many writers around the world that means the start of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. This wild challenge dares you to commit to writing a 50,000-word novel in just 30 days!

 

It’s an impressive feat, but it’s hardly the only way to exercise your writing muscles. If you like your writing in smaller doses but still want to build up the habit, today I’m going to challenge you to commit to writing a story from one prompt every week in November! (If you already do that, try for two, three, or even all five.)

 

To get you started, this week we’ll be focusing on stories all about challenging yourself. Whether it’s running a marathon, finally writing that novel, or just making it through a tough personal situation, challenge is what consistently pushes us to grow into our best selves.

 

And if you are giving novel writing a try, here are a few resources to help you along:

🥇 Winner

“Mahalo King Cod Filet” by David G.

A slate-grey sky hung heavy over the President James K. Polk Memorial rest area on Interstate 64 in southern Indiana. At the fueling station, eighteen wheelers lined up under bright green lights for diesel and windshield wiper fluid from an army of apathetic attendants. A mother carrying a styrofoam coffee cup emerged from the Kwik Mart, pulling the collar of her neon pink and light purple ski jacket tight around her neck with her free hand and hurrying her two children across the broad expanse of cracked tarmac. A grove of oak...

119 comments 119 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Virtual Reality Show” by Rayhan Hidayat

Mihara leaps into the air, barely escaping the fireball that should have vaporized her. It blooms into a screaming marigold below her, coaxing water vapor out of the marsh.It had to be Marshlands, she inwardly seethes as she splashes down in muddy water and tries to peer through the steam blanketing her vision. And of course I get matched with a pyromancer.“Once again, Rōnin avoids getting flame-grilled by the skin of her teeth,” broadcasts the invisible announcer...

206 comments 206 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Influenced” by Scout Tahoe

My art professor in college hated butterflies. She said they were basic and painless with nothing more than wings that could break when you touched them. If we were ever to paint them in a project for her class, we’d have to make them shriveled and gray.   Those last two words started to make me think that I had made the wrong decision about college. I had thought it was nothing more than cardboard walls and ...

77 comments 77 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Effortlessly Weightless” by Maya

At first when I wake up, it feels like any ordinary Saturday morning. I reach over to hit the tempting orange snooze button on my phone before I catch myself. This morning I can’t afford to allow myself ten more blissful minutes of sleep. Today, there is somewhere I need to be and I can’t be even seconds late. The moment I remember my plans for today, the relentless nerves return. There is a queasy fe...

67 comments 67 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Fall Of the Stars” by Mr. Brohirwani

The heavens glittered with stars as the man silently drove over dirt and gravel, the thousand twinkling eyes mocking his desperation.  Muttering a curse under his breath, he slowed down at the rusty security gate at the entrance of the abandoned mines. To an ordinary person it would be a half-broken gate with just a couple of night guards sleeping their shift away. But then again, the average person would...

8 comments 8 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Binding” by Cathryn V

The road stretches out in front of me as far as I can see, all the way to the horizon, straight and flat with empty fields on both sides like enormous blank pages. Nebraska, almost halfway to San Francisco, I am alone on this endless stretch of interstate 80.The audible book supply is depleted. For a change, I'm riding in silence.In the rear view mirror, a patrol car with flashing lights screams toward me. I slow the car and pull to the side to let him pass. But the lights slow too.<...

13 comments 13 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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This week's prompts

Start your story with one character telling another, “It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.”

Novel – 135 stories

Halfway through a fierce competition, your character is given the opportunity to cheat their way to victory: do they take it?

Short Story – 52 stories

Write about a character who makes a dramatic life change to pursue a goal they’ve secretly always wanted.

Novel – 124 stories

Write about a contest with life or death stakes.

Adventure – 152 stories

Write about a character who’s finally on the verge of achieving their lifelong dream.

Dramatic – 140 stories

Stories

“Mahalo King Cod Filet” by David G.

A slate-grey sky hung heavy over the President James K. Polk Memorial rest area on Interstate 64 in southern Indiana. At the fueling station, eighteen wheelers lined up under bright green lights for diesel and windshield wiper fluid from an army of apathetic attendants. A mother carrying a styrofoam coffee cup emerged from the Kwik Mart, pulling the collar of her neon pink and light purple ski jacket tight around her neck with her free hand and hurrying her two children across the broad expanse of cracked tarmac. A grove of oak...

119 comments 119 WINNER 🏆
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“Pressure” by Angelina Tran

“Work harder!”“Do better!”“Try again!”“No- not like that!”“Do it again!”The sounds of his mother’s ‘encouragement’ —or lack of— had pressured him to work harder, do better, and try again.And he needed to work harder, do better, and try again to win the 2020 Sportsman of the Year annual competition at his school. It was only for seniors, and this year was his chance to shine— especially because winners go to the national competitions...

135 comments 135
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“Virtual Reality Show” by Rayhan Hidayat

Mihara leaps into the air, barely escaping the fireball that should have vaporized her. It blooms into a screaming marigold below her, coaxing water vapor out of the marsh.It had to be Marshlands, she inwardly seethes as she splashes down in muddy water and tries to peer through the steam blanketing her vision. And of course I get matched with a pyromancer.“Once again, Rōnin avoids getting flame-grilled by the skin of her teeth,” broadcasts the invisible announcer...

206 comments 206 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Shamina's Dream” by Melissa Hassan

She heard the loud cheers of the crowd. Through eyes brimming with tears she could almost make-out the outlines of a few audience members seated nearby, now on their feet cheering and chanting her, name, Shamina...Shamina, and waving the colourful lion flag. The flag of her country. The tiny island of Sri Lanka. As the last year’s winner, removed the crown from her head and placed it gently but ever so carefully on h...

29 comments 29
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“The End, Less Possibilities” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Trigger warning: abuse   “Where do you think you're gonna go?” her husband sputters, blindsided by his wife’s packed bags at the bottom of the stairs. “It doesn’t matter,” she replies, dead-eyed and somber. She puts on her coat, the black one, the one for special occasions.  “The kids—” “The kids are thirty,” she says, turning away from him to gather her things. “They have their lives. Now you have yours.&rdqu...

47 comments 47
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“The Silver Ring” by Wolfy 🐺

"What is WRONG with you, man?" "Nothing, heh heh. Why do you ask?" "Bro, you're sprawled out on the floor, covered in blood, moaning about some long lost love, and you don't expect me to ask you?" Gareth lay sprawled out on the floor of the dormitory, scratched up and muttering about 'Julia'. Don't ask me who Julia is. I don't know. All I do know is that Julia was the reason we were here, wh...

39 comments 39
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“Achieving a dream” by Robert Grandstaff

Achieving a dreamOnce, it mattered most, being independent. Fulfilling a lifelong dream. All it took was education and hard work, the proverbial toss of the dice, and a little luck. Then one day you learn you can’t make it alone, no one ever does. The person who said they did it all by themselves is a liar. To say, “I walked down this road through the rain, sun, the good, and bad, you name it, I always had you by my side.” Those are the words of an achiever.The house door slid open and closed with the ease of a firm grip. Ev...

37 comments 37
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“Influenced” by Scout Tahoe

My art professor in college hated butterflies. She said they were basic and painless with nothing more than wings that could break when you touched them. If we were ever to paint them in a project for her class, we’d have to make them shriveled and gray.   Those last two words started to make me think that I had made the wrong decision about college. I had thought it was nothing more than cardboard walls and ...

77 comments 77 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Dear Noah ” by Malz Castell

Dear Noah, You don’t have to do this. Do you understand me? You. Don’t. Have. To. Do. This. Stop it. Just come back. We’ll figure out another way. We always do, don’t we? So, stop acting like a stubborn ass and just come back. I know what you’re planning to do. You’ve blocked my calls, you’re ignoring all my messages, you’ve even blocked my emails. So, I’m writing this letter to you as one last attempt at talking you out of this insane plan. 

59 comments 59
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“Triscin and Muz: A Duet :) ” by Rhondalise Mitza

Triscin sat on the porch of the Colorado cabin, his arms heavy inside the coat Eleanor had returned to him as he left the hospital. He stared down at the phone in his hands. He’d been scrolling through old pictures and thinking of deleting them, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Every time his finger got close to that dreaded trash can, every time he got close to shredding another strip from the paper mache sculpt...

191 comments 191
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“Effortlessly Weightless” by Maya

At first when I wake up, it feels like any ordinary Saturday morning. I reach over to hit the tempting orange snooze button on my phone before I catch myself. This morning I can’t afford to allow myself ten more blissful minutes of sleep. Today, there is somewhere I need to be and I can’t be even seconds late. The moment I remember my plans for today, the relentless nerves return. There is a queasy fe...

67 comments 67 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Sonder” by Amiable Sorceress

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.” The room smells like the incense our family lit when my brother died, old flames licking the frostbitten air. Ling stares at me, her hazel eyes boring into my own as we sit uncomfortably across one another, her words stinging the incense ridden air. “I know.” The night is cold, just like that night, I will be missing in his memory tonight. For a minute, I want to run back to the warmth of home, but the soft glaze of the moon shines on ...

22 comments 22
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“The Annual Life or Death Beauty Pageant” by ♡ ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 ♡

Everyone tells me I’m beautiful. I’m serious, everyone. Strangers strolling down the street will drop their coffee on the sidewalk and gawk at me, then ask how my complexion is so clear. All of the girls at Wilmington Academy beg me to style their hair and apply their makeup. All of the boys practically drool whenever I pass them by in the halls. Everyone wants to be me. Which is why I decided to enter into the Life or Death Beauty Pageant. The Annual Life or Death Beauty Pageant - or ALDB Pageant for short - is a con...

230 comments 230
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“The Quest to Bring Her Back” by 𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖎𝖗 𝕷𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓

 I sigh as I take one more glance at my notebook before shutting it and tossing it onto my bed. I cringe when the notebook slams against the wall, producing a loud bang. I close the cap to my blue sharpie and throw it back in the old tea container that I use as a pencil holder. My hand reaches for a black pen placed askew on my light blue desk, decorated with faded stickers from when I was younger. I hold the pen up to my wrist, already seeing the light markings of a rose I d...

270 comments 270
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“Who Loves Lives” by Writer Maniac

“You are going to die today if you don’t do this right. And I mean literally.”“I know,” I squeeze out between clenched teeth.I pull the arrow as far as I possibly can without breaking the bow’s string and aim.My fingers let go of the arrow.It lands a few inches away from the centre of the target.I curse.******It’s my WWL today. Who Wins Lives. I’ve been training for this day for ...

27 comments 27
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$50

Prize money

603

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 22:59 - Nov 06, 2020 EST

Won by David G. 🏆

Title: Mahalo King Cod Filet

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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