Write a story including the line “I can’t say it.”

Posted in Dialogue on Feb 16, 2024

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✍️ 59 stories

“A Little Better” by Kyle Sager

Submitted to Contest #238

In Wyoming, the undersides of the leaves were bright silver. I never understood why, it was just something I had noticed, but I always chalked it up to the fact that they didn’t start growing on the trees until the first week of May, like they never had enough time to become the same deep green as elsewhere in the country - places that were much closer to sea-level. The trees in Laramie were tall and wild-looking, like giants with long arms, cradling the road to create a tunnel for the sparse parade of cars rolling back and forth down...

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“Can This Be Mended?” by Cara Fidler

Submitted to Contest #238

Can This Be Mended? by Cara Fidler I was upset. I had just returned home after having an argument with my good friend, Tim. Some harsh words were exchanged that would've been better left...

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“Whispers of Truth” by Cynthia Hansford

Submitted to Contest #238

Claire took a deep breath as she stepped outside the library doors, the crisp autumn air filling her lungs. The familiar sights and sounds of Willow Creek enveloped her—the chatter of locals outside the corner cafe, the rustling of fallen leaves skittering across the sidewalk. But today, something felt different. Ever since the arrival of that mysterious stranger, the town’s tranquility had been disrupted. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her encounter with him yesterday. Alex Turner. Even his name seemed to hint at some dark...

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“Enough” by Sarah Montanez

Submitted to Contest #238

Dana drove to pick up her son, physically and emotionally drained. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and heavy. Her dark hair, still up in a bun, but messy and frayed. As an ER nurse, she had a lot of tough cases. She’d seen terrible accidents, violence, and too many deaths to count. Today, the trauma was a little too close to home. A 35-year-old man who was in a car accident driving home from work. He was severely injured. She had worked with her colleagues to stabilize his broken bones, inflate his collapsed lung, and pu...

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“A vocal frustration. ” by Andrew Venn

Submitted to Contest #238

“I can’t say it”……….. “no, I really can’t say the word ‘it’, nor any other words”! A stroke ‘struck me down’, very unexpectedly and very inconveniently at the young age of 24 years, and on a day that was supposed to end with big celebrations, because it was New Year’s Eve! So, instead of my Fiancée and I celebrating being in our very first home together, I started New Year’s Eve off in a collapsed semi-conscious heap on the bathroom floor, and to be precise the unfortunate collapse was on the ‘pedestal mat’- ‘the mat around the toilet pan’! ...

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“I Can't Say It” by Gary Robinson

Submitted to Contest #238

I Can’t Say It Lyndsey was standing at my front door with gifts in her hand. It was my birthday. She was once my lustful fantasy and now my forbidden love. The first moment I met her, Lyndsey made my nostrils flare. We met at the corporate office. Lyndsey was a vendor, and I was an executive. She had long strawberry-blonde hair and beautiful green eyes. She was a former ballerina - athletic, muscular, and petite. When she would drop by my office, I would disguise my attraction. I struggled openly, panting, stammering, and breathless....

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“Grace” by Isabella Krieg

Submitted to Contest #238

At my aunt's East Village apartment, my little brother sat by the window to document each car passing by. "Black car, blue car, yellow car, yellow car, yellow car," "Sounds about right," my aunt chuckled. She took a sip of tea from one of the mugs she made in her pottery class. This one was red with white daisies painted all over. I took a sip from the one she painted in blue and white stripes. "White car, yellow car, yellow car, red car," We were visiting my aunt so that I could pick up the birthday present she had for me. Seeing her after ...

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“Family History” by Susan Lamphier

Submitted to Contest #238

"All Rise!" called the bailiff. "The Fulton County court is now in session, Judge Jeffrey Cross now presiding." "Be seated. What have you got, District Attorney?" "Hit and run, your honor, with manslaughter." "Let me see." The bailiff took the papers from the District Attorney and brought them to the judge. He scanned the charges, and cocked an eyebrow. Before him, a small blue-haired lady leaned on her cane. She was dressed in a cheap dr...

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“forward” by Cambria Denim

Submitted to Contest #238

When I was cursed, Mama wasted no time. She had every right to crash to her knees, to wail with an agony so pure she could be put behind ropes in a museum as a monument to grief. She had barely aged out of her own childhood, my papa had left her without a word or any money, and now her own sister had used her dark magic against her child. But love was the language Mama was most fluent in, and so it was the one we used with each other. I was 4 when I was cursed. I barely moved, back then, stayed rod-straight, so afraid of what the sligh...

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“The Demon Within” by J.B. Redel

Submitted to Contest #238

The force of the door slamming shut caused Karina to startle in her chair, the chains connecting her wrist and ankle cuffs clinking loudly against the metal rings holding her in place. With an audible huff, a large, cleanly shaved man in a crisp black suit sat heavily in the chair across the small metal table from her. His dark brown eyes were as hard as the rest of his features. He didn’t even try to hide his disdain for her as he tossed a folder on the table between them. She had just enough time to notice her name stamped across the top b...

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“'I can't say it.' by Ruby Beard” by Ruby Beard

Submitted to Contest #238

To hear your every sigh and your every hope and dream and I would do anything just to stop time in those moments, so we could talk for hours and hours and forever if you wished. Or we could simply sit in silence and just listen to the sounds of our breathing, of the breeze… of the sea as it crashed on the shore or the wind as it blew through the fields, or the fire crackling in the hearth, or even just the sounds echoing in a cave. I cannot tell you how much I want to hold you after every day you come home. I cannot say how much I want...

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“A secret in golden ink” by Nao Sei

Submitted to Contest #238

A secret in golden ink Lost between the waves of my memories, buried in the depths of the waves, the echo of the "lost half" calls to me. This phrase, written in gold ink on a precious notebook, had intrigued countless curious individuals. Some persistently tried to decipher or question its author, but she just stared glassily at the line. Out of frustration, one might think it was some kind of beautiful phrasing, one of those sentences with no real substance that aim only for the most aesthetic form in order to make a few simpletons exclai...

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“Who am I?” by Esther Andrews

Submitted to Contest #238

Sensitive themes: Violence, Mental Health Who am I? I’m a monster. I’m grotesque. I am, in equal measure, an alluring woman and a venomous snake, coiled and ready to strike. I surreptitiously draw men in by exposing my exquisiteness while simultaneously masking my repulsiveness. Then I attack. My poisonous venom oozes through their veins, seeps into their brains, and drives them to the brink of insanity. I slowly, but systematically destroy them. They call me Echnidia. Whoa. Though one or two of my exes might beg to differ, I’m pretty sure t...

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“The Sorry Standoff” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #238

“How could you do something like that to me? I am your wife.” “Can you please keep your voice down? It is embarrassing when you get angry like this. The neighbors can hear you through the walls. Remember the fight the people next to us had last Christmas Eve. We could hear every word. The walls in this apartment are thin as paper.” “I don’t care if the neighbors hear me yelling at you. They should probably know how much of a fool you are, anyway.” “But you shouldn’t be yelling at me...

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Write a story including the line “I can’t say it.”

Submissions are closed

✍️ 59 stories

“A Little Better” by Kyle Sager

“Can This Be Mended?” by Cara Fidler

“Whispers of Truth” by Cynthia Hansford

“Enough” by Sarah Montanez

“A vocal frustration. ” by Andrew Venn

“I Can't Say It” by Gary Robinson

“Grace” by Isabella Krieg

“Family History” by Susan Lamphier

“forward” by Cambria Denim

“The Demon Within” by J.B. Redel

“'I can't say it.' by Ruby Beard” by Ruby Beard

“A secret in golden ink” by Nao Sei

“Who am I?” by Esther Andrews

“The Sorry Standoff” by Madeline Honig

🌟 Similar prompts

Start or finish your story with a speaker unable to finish their sentence, perhaps overcome by emotion.

Write a story in which a conversation takes place where the true subject is only implied.

Write a story in which an important message is cut off, leaving characters to wonder or puzzle out what was left unsaid.

Set your story at a silent retreat.

Contest #238

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

285

Contest entries

98

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: