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Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.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

“Two peas in a pod” by Alex H

Submitted to Contest #78

-¡Nonsense!- Sarah exclaimed. She encountered herself in a disturbance of her afternoon reading session. One could say she was in great spirits doing what she enjoyed the most. That was until certain someone made an appearance. -Pleeeeeeease, my dear sweet and marvellous sister. You will not know if you like it until you try it-. Sarah was visibly irritated at her sister. -Remember what mama said: “Avoiding things is not going to make you accomplish anything.” Clementine quoted as she imitated their mother's manneris...

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“The Walk” by LE' FROG

Submitted to Contest #78

The sound of children playing outside roused Adred awake from his summer dream. Sitting up and rubbing groggily at his eyes until the sleep drifted away. He glanced at where the sounds of laughter and chatter came from the window ajar. His thin white curtains billowing in the breeze. Adred stared, and contemplated the sounds. TINK! Adred gasped, seeing a small boney hand slap the glass pane of his window, but he relaxed as his friend from the first grade's face flashed under the veil of the curtains. Malcom smiled, and called as he l...

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“A Hobo Hobby” by Kathleen Brosius

Submitted to Contest #78

A Hobo Hobby By Kathleen M. Brosius I was running late. Blame it on traffic, or maybe a phone call that took a moment too long. I ran to the hospital door and dashed to room number 209. “Katie dear,” he whispered. “I Daddy,” I leaned over him and kissed his cheek. “How ya feeling today?” His smile brightened his tired eyes. Those eyes. I could read his emotion by the look in those blue eyes. He was a storyteller. Through the years, I had listened to his stories—some joyful, some sad. He had an expression, through his eyes, for each. I sat...

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“Hurry up Jimmy” by Summer Almeda

Submitted to Contest #78

Now I was never an ordinary kid. I was always one to do what felt right in the minute even if it meant being stuck with the consequence. But this isn’t about any of my dangerous activities sadly. This is the story of how I met my best friend Jimmy. Now my name is Ronald McGee. My family is well known for our farm in our part of the state. We are the leading producers of pretty much anything you can buy at the store. Yeah, we are a pretty big operation. Anyway, one night I was laying in bed when I heard a tapping at the window. I though...

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“Monkeys' Tale” by Ann Metlay

Submitted to Contest #78

Monkey Tales I had pet monkeys. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, sent to Nigeria fifty years ago, I landed in the small village of Abuja, and yearned for adventure. The daily routine of getting up early, teaching half the day, returning home for breakfast, then completing the days’ obligation by one p.m., felt bland. I was in a foreign country. I wanted to do things that were “foreign.” I began to visit with the brother of the Emir, the local chief, for Hausa lessons. I practiced my emerging Hausa skills at the local market. Befriending ...

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“MY STRANGE PET AND I” by Joyful Joel Zemba

Submitted to Contest #78

TW: sexual abuse MY STRANGE PET AND I PART 1 One often likes a pet when they decide to keep one. One often decides to keep one, but I was given no such luxuries of either decision or of needing to hold affection for my pet. I had to keep it. I don’t know if it is was the pet that needed me or I that needed the pet, but one thing was certain, we were both slaves of each other neither wanting to be here but both needing to be. This creature I was given for a pet had horns, and as if that wasn’t odd enough it had or more proper, w...

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“The Fox, the Boy, and the Tree” by Elisabeth Strapp

Submitted to Contest #78

Glaring, and monstrous, the orange of his back gleaming in the bright kitchen lights, his tail, bushy and swaying, he stood there, 14 inches tall and stoic. I swallowed. Rox the fox was a perfectly good excuse to reject my friend Arlo's invitation to hang out. I would have succeeded in my endeavor to deny his invite too, if it hadn't been for the fact that I had lost my house key at school today. Arlo was a dangly 12 year-old who seemed incapable of protecting me against his good friend. Ever since I had stepped inside Rox's domain (Arlo's h...

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“Colonel Higgins” by Audrey McAlister

Submitted to Contest #78

“You’re kidding - she left you a monkey?” I hesitated, searching my husband’s bewildered face. Would he believe me? “Well, technically it’s a lemur.” “A lemur. Great. And where are we going to keep said lemur?” At least he believed me. “His cage is part of the package,” I explained. “We can’t donate it to a zoo?” “Will,” I said firmly, putting my hand on his shoulder. “Gran loved this lemur. Now we have to love it for her.” He ran his fingers through his red hair and nodded, sighing.&nbs...

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“Ferna The Genet” by Lemon Nugget

Submitted to Contest #78

I had lived in Nebraska my whole life; it was my home. The beautiful town of Chadron, I remember the landscapes even now. My parents were lovers of animals, always even when they were kids. They had been childhood friends; as soon as they could date, they did. They had been each other's one, and only, they never needed anyone else. When I was little, I thought that would happen to me one day, I would find my one and only. But I was a lonely kid, regularly dressed in a dark red hoodie and always sat in the back of the class. I was too...

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“Linda's pet Rocky” by Reamae Jorolan

Submitted to Contest #78

Linda had always been keeping a cockroach as her pet. Many people have their own pets similar to each other but different from her. Her pet is treated as a pest because of its characteristics. It may unusual to everyone but she loves her pet cockroach. She treated her pet as her only friend who listened to all her problems in the world. She put her pet in a box and constantly feed it. She named it as Rocky. Just like Linda, her pet is living in the shadows. For several years, Linda has been living in that state. She kept her pet fo...

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“Bay life” by Meredyth Lewis

Submitted to Contest #78

She had adopted one of these animals as a pet before. This was her second attempt. They were always at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, becoming available especially when the huge tanks needed restoration or a big cleaning job that could take weeks, if not months. Well-funded individuals or private parties who ‘adopted’ sea animals and had proven themselves well-equipped to provide a temporary home, were often called upon to help during these times. During the slow winter months, it was extra nice to have the one-on-one, human-animal connection an...

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“Ruby in the Ashes” by Christine Leaf

Submitted to Contest #78

I come home every day to scratches all over the walls. And once a week, I fill the scratches in with putty that I have tinted to match the color of the paint on the walls. And once a month, I re-paint the walls to smooth out the putty-filled scratch marks. This is only in the living room, though. It’s because Ruby flies through the living room everyday when she is not in the basement. Ruby is my cardinal, and she is as red as you can imagine a bright red to be. She brings much needed color into my home. The basement is where she stays most o...

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“Sugar Magnolia” by J. D.

Submitted to Contest #78

Maggie came to Felicita for the most practical of reasons, though it was also, she thought, through the hand of serendipity.Hannah had been dating Tom for months and wanted to show her love for him with a gift to remember. When Tom opened the box and saw Maggie, he was thrilled. He oohed and aahed over her before he turned his attention back to Hannah. They made out for a while until they heard a blood curdling scream coming from the living room.“Uh oh,” said Hannah as she looked over and realized that Maggie had left the room.They ran to th...

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“Uh and Bu” by Yamini Panchaksharam

Submitted to Contest #78

"What a strange place," was one of many thoughts that Duh had as he walked along a sandy beach. The thought kept coming back as he and his parents and friends walked on green grass, desert sand, rocks, and ice or flew over fire and water. There was nothing like this where they came from. During their exploration of this strange blue green planet, they had seen creatures that could walk, sometimes on four legs and sometimes on two. Some could creep while others could fly or swim. The creatures went about doing what they were used to doing, ob...

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“TELL ME YOUR DREAMS” by Masanga Mukelabai

Submitted to Contest #78

Laid on her bed horizontally, her chin propped up on one of her pillows. Bani watched her fish swim around its tank moving from the right side to the left side, pausing there for a moment, and then from the left to right pausing there for a moment over and over, as it usually did. While watching her fish whom she had named Venus, Bani talked about her day and whatever else was on her mind as she usually did. Bani was a very intelligent young child and perhaps somewhat related to this, she was also quite a lonely isolated child. She had bad s...

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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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