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Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.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

“Down by the river” by Robert Gersohn

Submitted to Contest #78

Gavin sat down on the bank of the river and squinted from the sunlight. Casting a knowing eye over the water in wonder of the stillness, the tranquillity and beauty. He took a deep breath and hoped his lungs filled with the purity of nature. Only out here did he feel himself. Away from here, he felt as though he were a stranger, a man biding his time serving penance. Thwak! His moment of introspection evaporated in an abrasive second. The sound had come from his son chucking a tall fishing rod onto the ground, which landed just next ...

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“Dance the pain away” by Nina Had.

Submitted to Contest #78

TW: Suicidal ideation Oh god! What am I supposed to do? I've never been in this situation before! But I know I should do something...god I should do something quickly. I need to figure out something to do. I had run to my house in pouring rain, while non-stop thinking. One less step in all this haze and that truck would have turned me into pulp. And the ironic thing is.. I hate pulp. I turned on my laptop and impatiently watched the screen light up. My hands were shaking, I wasnt sure I could type anything sensical, but I had to...

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“" OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON OUR HOBBY "” by JIGAR CHAVDA

Submitted to Contest #78

This is the story of two friends . One is clever and one is dull . One is very excited and feels thrilling to speak in public . And one is afraid of the people who asks him about his hobby . Because he had no hobby . So Let's start . Once upon a time Jigar and Richard were going to the school . They were excited . Because In the school , there was a speech competition on ' Hobby ' . Jigar was very upset because he don't know what his hobby was . They reached the classroom . All the students are preparing . Richard gives consolation to Ji...

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“Ready or not” by Joseph Smith

Submitted to Contest #78

In the darkness, things were whispering. I was sure, as I tried yet again to scramble over the shattered square of rock blocking the passage, that if I turned my head to look behind me, I would see it there. What was it? I didn’t know. Still don’t, which is exactly why it bothers me as much now as it did that first time. “Sean?” I called, keeping my voice low to stop the echoes of my words knocking against the stone ceiling and adding to the indistinct chorus around me. “Sean, mate?” I stopped struggling, listening for his foot...

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“Joining 'Chelsea's Zone'” by Flakey J

Submitted to Contest #78

Chelsea groaned, throwing another spotted black-and-white pillow at me which I caught the moment before it hit my face, letting it dump onto the ground beside me. I leaned my feet on the small table, tilting slightly backwards. I watched as Chelsea reached out her hand, grabbing a handful of the sour cream & onion chips placed in a small bowl on the other side of the table. It was weird, the way she ate chips like it were popcorn."Come on, Peter! We both know that you have the talent, the technique and the exact connections that'll help ...

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“Suzanne: A desolate spectre” by Ritu Singh

Submitted to Contest #78

Honey glazed almonds, caramel popcorn and a ukulele have one thing in common -- they are aesthetically wholesome. Looking back at the years she had spent in sheer loneliness, this was an out of body experience. With the first vibration induced by the nylon-string ukulele, she could feel her soul reverbing. At that point, all that mattered was what she had gained in her life. Loss was a thing that was known but never felt, for she had suppressed feeling altogether. She had repressed her mum, dad and even herself which was lost, wandering for ...

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“Scars” by Kelsea Paine

Submitted to Contest #78

"Come on Ev." Kat slipped off her flip flops and wiggled her toes into the cold sand. Everything was different at night. The water in front of her was black instead of its usual blue, the sand shadowy grey. The moon was a waning crescent that only barely illuminated the scene. Of course Kat knew that Evelyn's enhanced sight meant they saw the night world as bright as the day, and the day world as unbearably bright. She turned back to her friend. Evelyn stood in the shadow of the bushes at the edge of the beach, their eyes glowing despite t...

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“Killing Tim(e)” by C.I. Koverty

Submitted to Contest #78

Tim struggled to open his eyes, both eyelids weighed down by an unfamiliar heaviness that was present throughout the whole of his person. Numbness was the prevalent sensation, or lack thereof, as bit by bit his appendages tingled and joined him in the starkly dark room. Mind awakening, wits sharpening, he rolled his flopping head around to scan the abyss around him. The only light shone down upon him aggressively in the center of the room, where he sat on a wooden chair without a shred of clothing upon his pasty flesh. Movement was deterred ...

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“Moon Over Pensacola” by Liz Merker

Submitted to Contest #78

Warning: this story contains foul language "C'mon, it'll be fun," Jack says, knocking back another Jaeger shot. I eye my own shot apprehensively, not sure if I need to be this drunk in a hurricane. We drank the whole way from Abilene, 12 hours and 26 minutes of lite beer and Jimmy Buffet's greatest hits ( the only tape Jack has left kicking around in his '84 Nissan 720) and him trying to convince me. Now, as the sky grows dark outside the tempered glass windows of the bar, I am far less convinced than I was back in Texas. Eve...

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“What's in a Hobby?” by Amanda James

Submitted to Contest #78

What’s in a Hobby? “I don’t think you understand what a hobby is,” I told Dr. Sharna, as I quickly closed the screen. If we were still meeting in person, I would have grabbed my journal back and held it close to my chest, but our appointments had been virtual since the Spring. Dr. Sharna had given me homework to find a hobby, and I did just what she said. I found something to do that would -- keep me busy, that I could do everyday after Zoom school, and that didn’t require me to leave the house. “I think you misunderstood m...

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“Nature's thorn” by Kamile SunSun

Submitted to Contest #78

I need to pretend dead! I need to pretend dead!I was screaming again and again in my mind, willing my body to act on it. But it wouldn't. All common sense left me, giving way to fear."Nikki, we just have to go!""I don't know. It's not my thing.""How can you say that? You saw so many documentaries, read so many books about nature, animals.""You're exaggerating."Faster! Faster! My instincts were shouting, overshadowing the lonely thought in my mind: I need to pretend dead... Willing my legs to run faster, my lungs - expand better, my heart - p...

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“The Stray” by Jean A

Submitted to Contest #78

I. You don’t really remember when the creature first appeared – only that it was there ever since you could remember, a pet you’ve unwillingly acquire and a constant companion throughout your whole life. At first, it hovers in the background like a vengeful specter – always watching, a constant cold presence following you around. It was an odd thing, skittering at the corner of your vision, a flickering image you could never clearly see. Yet sometimes, you see a glimpse of a giant slobbering maw as wide as your head, with every inc...

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“Loren and Grandpa” by Ariana Monteab

Submitted to Contest #78

As I pour coffee into my favorite black mug, I recall the time I went on vacation to my grandparents' place. I was quite young at that time, barely 8 years old, but I was aware of my surroundings. Their place was built at the beginning of the 20th century, when my grandma's father, my grand grandfather, was still a young man. Whenever I think of their house, I remember the smell of wood and incense, and I can't help but remember all those landscape paintings on their house's walls. Since her father died, my grandma had been collecting those ...

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“What Goes Around” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #78

“I’m supposed to write a story about an unusual pet. Any ideas? I just don’t have the creative imagination you have. Or it seems that way to me. But then maybe, it’s just because you are old. If you can think of something, anything, please help me.” I would suggest, should I be asked, that the statement would be uttered by the majority of people given the identical assignment. The majority of people seem to have little, to no belief in their own ability to bring imagination to life. I’m not talking about th...

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“Crotalinae” by Dave Jones

Submitted to Contest #78

The bite from a diamond back rattlesnake can be lethal, however, it is quite rare for people to die from one. Yes, it's very painful but there is antivenom available which is plentiful in supply. The fear people have of them does not seem to reflect this fact.This is one of the things that attracts Tim to these animals. He has had a fascination for all reptiles since he was a young boy, and kept slow worms and salamander lizards throughout his childhood. It wasn't until his late teens that he began to step up his collection. Not only did he ...

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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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