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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#69: Ties That Bind

We’re entering the season where families normally gather together in gratitude and celebration — and though many traditions will be taking a different shape this year, staying connected with those we love will remain just as important and meaningful as ever.

This week we’re going to explore the many ways that families influence our characters. Like it or not, our childhoods and the people who raised us have a strong influence on who we become as adults, which makes families a wonderful avenue for exploring backstory and building a strong character.

While writing your stories this week, try to think not just about the events taking place in your story, but the many years of family ties that preceded it. How do longstanding feelings, old wounds, and past events impact the conversations your characters are having now? And how will these events impact their relationship in the future? After all, your characters will be seeing these people for many years to come… Or will they?

This week's prompts

Write about a family adapting a holiday tradition to take place over video chat.

Holiday – 59 stories

Write about someone who falls back into childish behaviors whenever they’re around their family.

Kids – 66 stories

Write about someone who didn’t get along with their family as a child, but has since found an appreciation for them.

Teens – 112 stories

Write about a family’s first holiday after a parent has gotten remarried, and now there are new faces at the table and new traditions to be honored.

Holiday – 98 stories

Write about someone telling their family they won’t be continuing the long-standing family business.

Sad – 175 stories

Stories

“Two-Faced” by Joe Bob

Submitted to Contest #69

Josh was usually a good guy. He had a great sense of humor, was always kind, and everyone liked him. However, he had some harsh pastimes that he didn't like to share. He'd rather forget them, so he does. He goes right back to being a jolly man. There are, however, weaknesses. For example, the holidays, or whenever he's around his family. Josh... loses control. He has flashbacks that ravage his brain, and he acts... childish. His family has never gotten to the bottom of his condition, but they soon will. "Hey, mom!" Josh sai...

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“Family's Conversion ” by Esha Jaman

Submitted to Contest #69

It's a winter morning.All around is covered in fog. Dew drops are falling from the trees. But it seems to be raining a little bit.At that moment a taxi came and stopped in front of a beautiful two-story house.Annie got out from the taxi. A cold breeze came and touched her cheeks. It was as if someone welcomed her.She took a deep breath. She stood for a while and looked at her dear house.She returned home after many days. Last year she got a job in a software company. She had to go out for six months for emergency work.She looked around and s...

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“Typecast ” by Zinnia Hansen

Submitted to Contest #69

Suffocating in the stiff silence of the fish course, I blurted it out. “I finally decided on a major.” “Oh yes? What is it going to be? Economics, Pre-Law... Please don’t tell me you decided to go for History. Useless subject.” My father looked up from his halibut. “Undergrad is your time to experiment, but I hope you’re preparing for grad school. I want to be sure I am leaving the company to someone at least partially competent."“Theater.” My mother pursed her lips, setting down both her knife and her fork. “Theater.” She re...

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“Benni ” by Jade Orien🍀

Submitted to Contest #69

I never got along with my family. I've always felt like an outcast. Could it be that I'm the only girl out of 4 boys? Or that once my mother & father found out that they were having a girl my father had a huge meltdown because he wanted 5 sons. But instead, he ended up with only 4! I was the baby of the family.Funny right? My mother always tells a joke about the reason she had named me Benni was to make my father happy because she couldn't change my gender so she named me a boy's name. The question for that joke is did my father ever bec...

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“Who I Used To Be Is Not Who I Have Become” by R Spinks

Submitted to Contest #69

It’s been more than a year since I have seen my mother and father and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss them. We left things off in a way that’s sat uncomfortably in my stomach, a growing tumor of regret. Even if I do regret what was said, I know it’s what needed to be done if I want to remain the person I am now. I’ve changed so much, it’s clear even to me. Looking at myself in the mirror I am unrecognizable. My hair has gone curly. My glasses give my face a more mature, grown-up look. My cheeks have filled in. My facial features are smo...

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“Cash Back” by Jessica Buford

Submitted to Contest #69

I called my grandma the other day as I regularly do since I live too far to visit. And as usual she let me know she had a story for me. She lives in an apartment community for people 65 and older, and generally her stories involve someone a few doors down setting their microwave on fire, falling to the ground and passing out, finding dishes as good as new at a garage sale, or dying (either because they had fallen to the ground or were in their 90s and the poor thing really was better off dead). But on this particular day her story was even m...

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“Don't Eat The Roast” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #69

Things got a little...strange for my family after mom left. Dad's a pastor, mom...decided she didn't like religion, ran off with a `bad boy,' ended up having his kid. Dad, well...he got married to Bonbon. The woman clearly came from outer space. Her nose and mouth made me think of that eighties Beauty and the Beast TV show, a kind of freakish animal harelip and muzzle-nose, big mouse ears, green eyes with a goat's slotted pupils. She had fur, a long opossum tail, and wore the most outlandish outfits this side of Lucasfilm's ward...

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“The First Christmas” by Kaylee Aleece

Submitted to Contest #69

My nose wrinkled at the smell of gingerbread, and buttercream icing. Usually, I loved the smell of gingerbread, but that was when my mom was making gingerbread. The stench of the other woman left the home I used to live in with both of my parents….stinky, and stuffy. My chest felt really tight, and the more I tried to rake in more oxygen. The heavier the elephant on my chest grew, and I had to fight the urge to run back outside to my car. They say it is easier for the children to experience divorce when they are adults because they are old e...

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“Newness” by C Alexis McGregor

Submitted to Contest #69

My hand shakes as I paint my lips a festive red. The eyes gazing back at me looks muddied with worry. I spritz perfume at my pulse ports, the scent reminding me of joys in my new marriage to Blake. "All ready, Tilda? You look spectacular." Blake reaches for me, pulling me into his warm embrace, his calming heart murmuring in my ear. My head nods while my tummy tightens in turmoil. Hand in hand, we walk down our winding staircase, my right hand caressing the wrought iron railings that won our hearts for making this house our...

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“My Great Aunt Caci” by Nina C.

Submitted to Contest #69

November 21, 2020. That was the day that my great aunt died. I used to resent her for being so bossy and judgemental. But she taught me a lot of things.When I was younger, I practically lived at my grandparent's home. It used to be one house, but they separated the other living room, kitchen, and bedroom for my great aunt.I can vividly remember every lunch when she would come out from the back door and then into my grandparent's part of the house. She would sit down and probably make some sort of witty remark about the food, or about everyon...

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“The Online Conflict” by David Abu Bonsrah

Submitted to Contest #69

It was purposely a family reunion but for the first time ever as a video chat. It seemed to be the only way to continue the annual, 'Display your food' family holiday tradition. A family tradition that was practised very well in the days of my great-grandfather, Mr Daniels himself, but not any more. Obviously, I was going to display fufu and groundnut soup. A local delicacy in Ghana that mum thought me to prepare several years ago when I was a kid. Travelling to Venezuela and many other delightful experiences didn't make me forget the...

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“Bitter Cranberries” by Jill Davies

Submitted to Contest #69

Bitter Cranberries Jill N Davies Frances had never cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner all on her own. It wasn’t that she couldn’t—she was a chef of some renown—but that she came from a very large family. It was impossible to fit even the most modest of sides, most reasonable appetizer or bite-sized of desserts into the mix when there were so many hands in the kitchen. Coming from a large family made holidays the stuff of chaos. The way she figured, the apocalypse was probably more organized than her parent’s house on a holiday. The kitchen...

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“Elegy” by Adele Roman

Submitted to Contest #69

I walk through the glass doors –open in the south-east Asian heat– and the house smells the same. I haven’t smelled that smell in nearly fifteen years. Not since that afternoon my bedroom was empty –white tiles exposed to the world– and the living room was filled with cardboard boxes. Not since those days we sat at the dining table eating cookies and telling each other stories –the same recipe I use to this day. It’s all the same but the voices are different. All grown up. New ones too. But not yours. ...

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“17 January at Crispy Donut” by Priyanka Choubey

Submitted to Contest #69

17 January 2012 Everyone was on the table having breakfast. But Pia was not eating anything her anxiety was eating her. Pia abruptly in front of the whole family said, ‘Father-in-law I cannot run our age-old ‘Crispy Donut’ bakery anymore. I am sorry but in the 10 years of marriage, I gave myself to the family I took care of our house, our business but in return my dreams are died. I am living like a single despite I am your son’s wife.’ And she looked at her husband and said, ‘this family business is our responsibility not only mine whi...

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“The Fun in Dysfunctional” by Leviathan Four

Submitted to Contest #69

“I’m HOME!” Trish cried out to everyone and no one in particular, slamming the door to punctuate her arrival. Trish typically entered every room expecting applause. Late. Always late. “You’re in the basement bedroom,” Kat muttered, half-heartedly helping Trish with her inordinate amount of luggage. “And mum’s not well, so dial it back—” Kat warned, laying down the ground rules as she’d always done since their childhood. She’d always use the same expression too, head tilted down, eyes raised, as if she were talking to an imbecile.“I’m. N...

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$50

Prize money

510

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 27, 2020 EST

Won by Kate Le Roux 🏆

Title: To the Lowly Dove

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.

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