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Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.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

“Family Tree” by Kylie Wallis

Submitted to Contest #78

Kayleigh Torres almost drowned when she was five. She’d just begun learning how to swim. Some kid thoughtlessly pushed her into the deep end of the pool. To be fair, there were a lot of people around the Acacia Heights Aquatics Centre. So, it may have been pure luck, that one of the lifeguards spotted the little girl in trouble and dived in. Austin Perry’s CPR training saved her. Kayleigh would never forget that. Or him. He always sent her a birthday card. The frightening experience also gave to Kayleigh an unexpected gift. Or curse, howev...

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“Sans Serif” by Julie Ward

Submitted to Contest #78

I’m sitting at a table outside a café called Les Biscuits on a pleasant little surprise of a street situated between busy freeway interchanges taking important people to downtown high rises and back. Cars whoosh by like water rushing over boulders in a distant river. The sound always makes me think of words filling a blank page, paragraphs, chapters; pause, close the book, start again tomorrow. Sometimes, I think of myself as a tiny speck of India ink on that page, here in this city full of exclamation marks.A cool breeze ruffles the le...

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“Jim and George” by Susan Sidell

Submitted to Contest #78

“George.”Jim closed the side door, shutting out the tempest that tried to rip the handle from his hand. He fumbled with the latch, his back to the steamy kitchen, and hoped he could pretend to not hear the single word Laura uttered like an epithet.Courage summoned, Jim wiped his boots and turned to face the woman he loved. His you-can’t-resist-this smile pulling at his reddened cheeks, he took his time removing the snowy coat, making sure to puff out his hard-hewn chest and biceps. Maybe if Laura could be distracted by the glory of muscles s...

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“Oh Puddu – Not again !!!!!!!” by Alkaa Sharma

Submitted to Contest #78

Puddu, a creative young boy from a small town always had a curiosity in him to try new things and experiences in life. This interest brought him to the city where his cousins and maternal aunt lived . The city was huge as compared to his small town and he was enthralled to see the big buildings, roads, fashionable people, new varieties of food and other amazing things which he never knew even existed. As Puddu had visited during the summer break he decided to take up the hobby classes available nearby. As he was very keen on fitness, ...

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“THE STRANGER” by Godwin Kirimi

Submitted to Contest #78

It's been an hour or two since I stood by this penthouse window. But am not as bored as you probably already are about this story. Maybe you are wondering why i can't be precise on how long it has been, worse even, how there's someone who doesn't own a clock in the twenty first century. Well, there's a huge artistic designer Wall clock that had belonged to a temple, just over the dresser, a proud and only trophy of my week long adventurous hobby as an Antique's collector. I also hate having to make guesses and one or two hour...

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“Hot Water” by Kelly Ellen

Submitted to Contest #78

From the drop down menu I find the “hot teas” section. Click.The first option is “chai latte”. Click.Change the size to venti, 4 pumps chai, modify regular milk to soy milk. Click, click, click.“Thank you! Your order will be ready in 5-7 minutes. Please give the barista your name.”---The weather is perfect outside so I am going to take my computer out to the back porch and set up for a morning of responding to emails, browsing social media and maybe even do a little online shopping. My first sip of the creamy, cinnamon, spiced black tea is a...

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“Pyramid Schematics” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #78

“So tell me more about this pyramid scheme, Ted.” Joe didn’t get it. “Again, it’s not a scheme nor a scam. It’s a convention of the latest pyramid technology.” Joe and Ted walked through the jammed parking lot. The convention center loomed in the distance. “So, why are we here again?” “I thought I might run into someone.” “You remember where we parked, right?“ “Of course. Just be patient. It’ll be amazing.” “Well don’t expect me to buy one. I hate heights…” They approached the entrance and joined the line of ticket holders dressed in pyrami...

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“Here, There, Everywhere” by Trina Ann Pion 🍀🌹🍀

Submitted to Contest #78

Typing. It was all my manic ass did for the past five days. I’d say my disorder was a curse, except for times like these when the creative symptoms just seeped right out of me, like syrup from a maple tree. My fingers couldn’t type fast enough to get the story up on screen. I was writing a novel—an epic saga about a mental hospital taken over by the patients—kind of like George Orwell’s Animal Farm meets Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It was my best work yet. I searched for a character’s perfect monologue as I st...

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“Paint Something” by Emily R Bellas

Submitted to Contest #78

She wanted to ask why the dipping sauce was a brownish grey color, but she didn’t want to insult her mother-in-law who she had just met for the first time. Maybe it was a cultural thing. She had never eaten authentic Indian food before and take-out from Bengal Tiger hardly counted. “This is delicious, Mrs. Patel,” Katie spoke with her hand covering her partially full mouth. Truthfully, she didn’t really have an adventurous food palette. She always tried to like Dev’s food from his home country but it just wasn’t her cup of sweet tea, ...

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“The Model Railway” by Gerald Daniels

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #78

THE MODEL RAILWAY "It's a hobby that'll keep you interested for years, you'll never finish the layout you know, it'll keep growing with you" My father's words contained both enthusiasm and disappoi...

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“Kongo” by Sun Set

Submitted to Contest #78

Allow me to take you back in time.Back in time to when a thirteen year old young boy existed.His name was Kongo and he was as unique as they came.You are probably thinking "ooh he must have had superpowers."Well I guess you could say that,but his superpower came nowhere close to swinging from building to building or throwing a hammer only he could yield.His superpower was the ability to change his mind faster than the speed of light.In short,he got bored easily and so the journey to end the boredom began. The initial motivation kicked in a...

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“UNSPOKEN” by Godwin Kirimi

Submitted to Contest #78

Sambi watched her sister lying quietly in their bed, eyes peacefully closed and lips too dry making her last will to survive come crashing down her wall's. She felt helpless and defeated but then life has it's fair number of twists. Only, she felt fate was being too harsh on her. She left the hut and fought her way through the villager's crowded by their door to view her twin sisters body and headed to what had used to be their favorite spot. She arrived at the bank's of the river climbed to their rock and to her little comforti...

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“Wreath” by Kelly Pawlik

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #78

Cora snipped a few branches of eucalyptus and smiled. She was pleased with the plant, which flourished under her care. Normally Cora would have placed the greenery in her basket, but she already had a large collection of assorted pine and fir branches next to her work table, and this wreath was a simple one. “I’m really not sure why you won’t even try it.” “I don’t want to, Mom,” sighed Charlette as she fussed with the end of her long blond braid. Cora smiled, remembering her own similar nervous habit from so many years go. She turned back ...

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“The Biosbardo” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #78

For RocíoDaniel Campo was hurrying to work when he ran - literally - into Lavinia. Both of them looked slightly embarrassed, since it wasn’t clear whose fault it had been. They had really collided, and their umbrellas had jostled perilously in the pouring rain. As they got tangled up, with sharp umbrella points, packages, and tote bags, they came face to face, very close, and stopped. They were smack in the middle of the little plaza known as O Toral, or according to folk etymology, O Toural. The first version of the name refers to how ...

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“Measuring Time, Finding Place” by Kathleen March

Submitted to Contest #78

Today Lavinia was especially drawn to the lace fragments that were included in the little box that had appeared during the remodeling of the old bar into the new A Tertulia. She put aside her interest in the literary texts to look at the threads that had been twisted and tied into tiny, almost weightless treasures, their designs planned rather than haphazard. As she looked, she thought that maybe they weren't fragments at all, but rather had been deliberately begun and completed, like a poem. They weren't remnants of a garment or an adornmen...

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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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