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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#78: Keeping Busy

I’ve noticed that hobbies often get overlooked in fiction. Unless it plays a major role in the plot, many main characters don’t even get a hobby — supporting characters, even less often. Yet hobbies are an important part of many people’s lives, especially in lockdown. They’re the things we bond with our friends over, the pastimes that refresh our spirits over the weekend, and the activities that give us some of our greatest joy.

So this week, hobbies are going to take center stage. From mainstream to obscure, let’s analyze our character’s most interesting quirks and explore the many things they can obsess over!

This week's prompts

Start your story with one character trying to convince another to take up their favorite hobby.

Fluff – 177 stories

Write about someone who keeps an unusual animal as a pet.

Teens – 178 stories

Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.

Fiction – 133 stories

Set your story at a convention for a hobby most people have never heard of.

Fluff – 70 stories

Write about someone who keeps picking up different hobbies but never manages to stick with them.

Character – 176 stories

Stories

“More Than Imitation ” by Joshua Trockel

Submitted to Contest #78

May 15, 1845 Perfect proportions, down to the last hair. Paul makes a broad stroke with his brush, hardly looking at the canvas. Even the ruffles on the shirt, the half-eaten apple on the table. It was all there. Perfect. A still capture. Another stroke and the body takes form. The couch rustles as his subject shifts slightly. Paul grimaces. “Please try your best to remain still,” he mutters, a faux sweetness in his voice. And it was done with no effort! He leans across the canvas to get a better look at his subject, trying to push th...

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“Blue Fingerprints” by Kalina Atanasova

Submitted to Contest #78

In the year 5324 A.C. on the planet Cunvinda 55 or something, nobody really knew anymore since all called it Earth 3, Maeve was sketching a small skeleton on a piece of yellowish paper, covered in big strange spots. Her car was advancing slowly in the traffic jam on air lane 34. The car of the 18-year-old girl hovered over the arid canyon engulfed in red sand for so long that the Toyota’s flaking grey paint began to mix with the sands bellow. The line of cars moved, so Maeve forced the engine, squinting against the sun, reflected by the skyr...

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“Tea song” by J YB

Submitted to Contest #78

Eleven. My mother took me. I remember we had to take the bus for a while - we even had lunch at one of those rest stops. There were mountains all around, and everyone was quiet, but there were so many Songs. It was amazing. I can't remember who did the ceremony, unfortunately. I've been trying to find out for years now. I'm fairly certain it was Stone Tree River style. I can’t remember the tea itself, but there were chimes and I certainly remember the smell of morning glories in the air... Very shortly after. I begg...

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“The “Car Camera” Presenter” by Michelle Andrews

Submitted to Contest #78

Thirteen years have passed by, and she recalls the morning she watched from her upstairs window as her mother wobbled down the pathway toward the carport to get into her Jeep. She can’t help but to notice the mark on her mother’s neck from a recent surgery. Her eyes fill with tears as she worries about the agony her mother must be in as she slowly backs out of the carport.Sickly herself she can’t muster up enough strength to complete the project she was working on the Bible Hotel and theme Park. Later, she renamed the project the Story Book ...

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“At Spoken Word” by Sarah A

Submitted to Contest #78

Teddy walks up on stage nervously. He’s wearing khaki shorts and a polo, his prosthetics showing, but he’s proud of them now. He doesn’t care what conclusions people jump to. He wouldn’t read us his poem before he left the house. All he said was that he was going to be honest and we shouldn’t come if we weren’t going to be okay with that. Of course, we told him we’d support him no matter what. Sometimes, I look at him and see the scared little boy in the hospital all those years ago, when Tyler just wouldn’...

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“The Hobby- a serpent entangled neck by Yakshaya K” by Yashpaul Kalra

Submitted to Contest #78

Daniel Brian born under which evil stars began eating cockroaches, ants and even lizards and by the age of twelve he Had established a big Hobby Hall wherein he kept a vast collection of many lizards, scorpions, pigs and pigeons as well. This collection of different earthly, air and ocean deep water Animals too were very meticulously collected. At the age of seventeen he made it open to the public at five dollars a ticket. Money began to rush in his coffers and gradually it led to the Expansion of his hobby. He was so madly obsessed W...

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“Sweet and Sour” by C Alexis McGregor

Submitted to Contest #78

Standing beneath the doorway about to take my first steps into the convention, my nose fills with the salivating scents -- caramelized sugar and tangy citrus, top notes of orange, lemon — quite the mouth-watering welcome to the 'Edible jewelry,' hobby convention. Arrayed, as far as my sight allows, lie festooned tables in cotton-candy table-cloths, while in and around lanyard-necklaced folks twist, turn, traverse this tasty trail. I accept with an appreciative smile, a generous goblet of Unoaked Chardonnay, my choice for its effects that w...

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“Mini Goat” by Josephine Andersen

Submitted to Contest #78

Mini GoatMini for short. Yup! That’s me. I am the partner and owner of a fabulously beautiful girl called Emily. Emily has long blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, a lovely smile and laugh and is, generally speaking, up to scratch. We have a lot of fun together and she looks after me, keeping me presentable for our performances. All in all I can’t complain.Emily is much admired and needs no introduction to good men. They see her once and that’s it, smitten as they say. The problem is that Emily is still waiting to be smitten. It...

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“Conventional Misdeeds” by Qwynn Pan

Submitted to Contest #78

It was that day where I had learned several important lessons about life . . . I had maneuvered through the pedestrian traffic of the Capital, retrieved my entry pass and ID numbers from the ticket booth, raced into the modernized, warehouse-type convention center, and charged into the auditorium just in time to hear the introduction for the fabulous event. “Here in the majestic city of Washington D.C., we’ve got great lawyers, great whiners, and last but not least, great complainers! Hello, litigious plaintiffs! Accusatory prosecutor...

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“Finding Our Way Back” by Lauren Oertel

Submitted to Contest #78

The last time I danced was in February. Not this year’s February, but last year’s. It’s too many months with no contact. Now I’m walking into a hotel for one of my favorite pre-pandemic pastimes. I’m greeted by a bright welcoming face behind the check in desk. I can see her smile and she can see mine. There’s still a wall of plexiglass between us from when it was needed for protection, but seeing another human this close without masks hiding half of our faces feels incredibly intimate. I accept my room keys and head to the elevator. My finge...

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“What's new Boudreaux” by Richard Hawkins

Submitted to Contest #78

If you are ever in South Texas and find yourself in the need of fishing, hunting supplies or a bite to eat look up Boudreaux Bait and Tackle. The sign out front reads Burgers-Bait-Bullets. There is a shooting range in the back of the store as well as a boardwalk along the parking lot with tanks you can fish in. The real surprise is when you meet the owner Matthew Boudreaux (just call me Bro) . Bro has made a career of changing hobbies and will gladly show you any and all of them, He has everything from archery to zumba and has a place set u...

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“A Certain Calling” by Allison M

Submitted to Contest #78

He was going to be an artist, that much was certain. More specifically, he was going to be a potter. It was his Calling. He had it all planned out — there was a class opening at the community center next week which would serve as the jumpstart to his career. He had already spent countless, screen-lit hours sifting through videos of wheel-throwing and reviews of clays and kilns, glazes and tools. He had tapped in the numbers of three overdrawn credit cards, and now the corner of his living room played host to an array of glossy new equip...

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“Tamara Nelson doesn't do hobbies” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #78

Last night, I wrestled a brown bear in the woods. It was in my dreams but I wrestled one in the woods. I had it in a tight headlock by a river because it claimed I couldn't stick with a hobby, that Tamara Nelson doesn't do hobbies. That's when it clawed my forearms and a list of all the hobbies I quit sprung out and rolled through the trees past the river from pole dancing to needlepoint and axe throwing. And then I leaped awake with an urge to tackle a mess of hobbies and that nosy brown bear. Tennis There’s a tennis court some mi...

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“Amber's Room” by Aisha Khan

Submitted to Contest #78

Amber tossed the phone to the bed. She marched and swung open the wardrobe door. The resulting cold air tickled her neck. She wondered if there was a word for that cold air while dragging an aimless hand from hanger to hanger. Where was her green suit she wondered? Maybe it was in the store; that’s where all her fancy and pricey clothes were usually sentenced to. Since September marked the beginning of the wedding season, the clothes were now going to come out on parole. A neighbor was getting married. Any minute now, Amber’s mother wo...

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“Hobby Less-Ness Activities Of Me And My Friends” by Rahul Kalani

Submitted to Contest #78

I’ve been friends with Abbas and Shoaib for a long time. We all live together in the same apartment. We all have one thing in common that we can’t stick to a particular hobby. I am gonna tell you about some events where we and my other friends picked different hobbies but couldn’t manage to stick to them. Let’s start with Abbas, first I am going to tell you little bit about Abbas, he is a very shy person like he didn’t even use to take part in school’s extra...

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$50

Prize money

735

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 29, 2021 EST

Won by Christina Marie 🏆

Title: Life's Leftovers

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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