Start the story with the absence of a sensory detail (eg. silence when there should be noise).

Posted in Fiction on Sep 29, 2023

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✍️ 52 stories

“The Case Against Michael” by Jonathan Page

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #218

At about midnight, I walk out to the courthouse steps on Schermerhorn to bum a cigarette and swap stories with Michael. Thursdays are always busy, and I’ll be in late at arraignments, and he’ll drop a message with the bridge officer that he’s coming down. I tell the clerk I’m taking a break and head outside. It's odd. Speaking to the clerk, the sound of my own voice is startling. In the buzz and bustle of the courtroom the last half hour, waiting for my case—absolute silence. Locked in the anechoic chamber in the interior of m...

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“This Wall of Silent Darkness” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #218

Pain, the memories of it flit along the sharp edges of my brain like wounds from a weapon wielded by an iron butterfly. I cry out in the silence, but the unending sea of darkness that I float upon swallows my voice. Sometimes this sea rocks and swirls gently, and at other times it churns with violent, silent waves that torment and spin me around, drowning me in the void. Fragments of memory assail me. Vague recollections of awakening from a suffocating sleep, arms flailing, hands grasping, and the instinct to survive battles with the encroac...

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“Goodbye” by Alice Brooks

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #218

It was awfully quiet. Too quiet for her comfort, the room had never felt this silent before. The only sound she could hear were the raindrops leaving an intricate pattern on the foggy windows.She flicked the light switch, but nothing happened. Flicked it again, and one more time for good measure, but the bulb stayed cold. She let out her breath in a short, sorrowful sigh, releasing every emotion she didn’t know she felt, emotions that kept her mind captive, like cold, dead fingers squeezing and clinging onto her heart.The room was rathe...

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“Nothing Can Make You Forget” by Khadija S. Mohammad

Submitted to Contest #218

For all I know, my eyes could be open. Although I fell to the ground as I lost consciousness, I might be sitting or even standing. I have no way to tell.I might be dead. I might've fallen sideways onto the road and been run over.I always imagined death as an exciting thing, if I'm honest. Something that would send a shiver down my spine to tell me that I was dead the moment it happened. As it is, I'm not even sure if I have a spine.I try to wriggle my fingers, but I can't even feel them. I can't see them. Maybe there's nothing to see.I strai...

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“Enough ” by Beth Jackson

Submitted to Contest #218

I nudge open the front door and the silence of your absence tumbles towards me in a deafening wave of inevitability. I stumble back, and the door slams, leaving me dithering on the front steps, breathing heavily, unable to cross the threshold and step inside the coffin of our relationship.One day I will.Just not today.#I cried at work today. Just in case you care. Mary from Accounts found me. The nauseating wave of expensive perfume and clacking heels preceded her presence. Her lips shrinking into a thin, mean line when she caught me leaning...

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“SILENCE: The Beginning” by A.R. Eakle

Submitted to Contest #218

In the forgotten town of Eldridge the silence was palpable. It had been this way for centuries. Not the serene quietude of a tranquil meadow, or the mindful looking-on of a faraway mountain, but a stifling void where the absence of laughter is thick in the air. No children’s laughter echoes through the streets, no birdsong whispers in the neglected parks. It was as if sound itself had packed its bags and abandoned Eldridge, leaving behind a haunting stillness that begged to be unraveled. And in the heart of this auditory void,...

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“Black is Black ” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #218

Prompt: Start the story with the absence of a sensory detail (eg. silence when there should be noise).It's dark. Not time to get up yet. More merciful sleep. Awake again and still no sign of light. No stars through the window. No window. Feel like I have slept for hours. Time for work, but the world’s black. Feel for an eye shade, keenly aware that I don’t own one. My hand explores my face. Cogito ergo sum. I extend my fingers to the duvet but find instead the struts of a wooden chair in which I’m sitting upright. It’s quiet except for ...

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“Butterfly Hunters” by Rose Lind

Submitted to Contest #218

Void. Nothing. "Don't overtink this," I thought without my mind. Permeating me, the words, "Peace, perfect peace," Blackness.Thoughts... more thoughts pervaded me. A force, like petroleum jelly, collided into me; like I was some sort of dam burst, or an accessible creek where run off from a storm rolled over children's carefully placed rocks and pebbles, in Easter school holidays, trapped guppies for their fish tanks. Rivers, Creeks, flowing, flowing, flowing as thoughts with energy. More black, more thinking. Hyper focus. No...

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“Pieces” by Emily Grace

Submitted to Contest #218

I’ve a mouth, a nose, two eyes, and two ears; each of which I was born with and each I knew were meant to serve me. One day, Mother approached me and said: “Oh, darling, you know how I love you so.. Please, allow me to cut off your left ear so you never have to hear your Father and I argue again.” I was four. How was I suppose to know the permanence of my yes? With a butcher’s knife, Mother struck my left ear and promptly removed it. She opened the kitchen cupboard and put the bloody mass in a jar for safe keeping. “I lov...

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“Until it’s Gone” by Marina Pacheco

Submitted to Contest #218

It starts at the railway station with the cathedral high glass ceilings, wide marble concourse and constantly updating digital destination boards. A silence so abrupt I freeze like a rock in a zen garden, people tracing wave like tracks around me. They blur and zoom. The silence robs them of their humanity and they become meaningless orange blobs. One looms closer, features coalescing. A woman, her hazy lips moving, her head tilted to the side. She looks worried. Then something, like a distant train, no, a distant underwater burble of s...

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“Darkness” by Stephanie Redieske

Submitted to Contest #218

It’s dark. There is a ringing in my ears that feels like it is bouncing around, reverberating against the inside of my brain. My fingers are damp, and I can feel a tight, coarse cord binding my wrists together. There is a pressure digging into my skull, covering my eyes and secured in the back of my head. The taste of blood lingers in my mouth and a distinct bodily order is filling the air around me. A force is pulling me backwards as my heels drag limply, and I am suddenly aware of the presence of two arms interlocked with my own on either ...

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“Special” by Cade Holter

Submitted to Contest #218

Toronto has a population of 2.93 million people, and not a single one of them was making a sound. There were no horns honking or people shouting or sirens blaring out through the crowded streets. Not even the sound of footsteps on the sidewalks broke through the wall of silence that had descended. Marcus took note immediately and looked up from his phone at the throng of people surrounding him at the crosswalk. No voices. Nothing at all but eyes. Pair after pair of them was on Marcus. A man, tall and flabby in his business suit, had his cel...

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“Senseless” by Sam Delainey

Submitted to Contest #218

SENSELESSIt was dark.Not just an ordinary dark, but a total absence of light. It was an inky blackness that seeped from the walls - if walls there were - and made those walls cease to exist. It was a blackness that was all encompassing, smothering in it's totality. It muffled sounds - it muted other senses that struggled to compensate for the lack of light, striving to facilitate some sense of...something. This dark was a black blanket that spread over everything - absorbing everything and giving nothing in return.Something.Then, within the ...

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“In the Hall of Gods” by Jack Gorzo

Submitted to Contest #218

Elena was in her office when the gods called upon her. Documents pertaining to her most recent client were stacked in neat piles on her glass desk. She read them one by one, taking time to let the details sink in. The small things mattered in court, especially in a nasty eviction case like this one. The family had come to her in complete desperation. They were willing to give her their life savings if she could save their home. She refused the offer, of course. Their case would be handled personally by her, pro bono. It sounded fun, like a s...

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“Stranger than a Yeti....” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #218

It should have been raining. But there was no comforting sound of pitter patter steady on the roof of the convent. All was silent, except for the television. Winter time was setting in for the nuns in the retired teachers' convent, somewhere there in the hick town of Old Blithering. Luckily, the night was clear, very frosty. All the nuns were in their usual armchairs, viewing their weekly favorite television show. Only the national broadcaster made it on the airwaves at the Back of Beyond. After these devoted clergy had gazed at the mind n...

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Start the story with the absence of a sensory detail (eg. silence when there should be noise).

Submissions are closed

✍️ 52 stories

“The Case Against Michael” by Jonathan Page

“This Wall of Silent Darkness” by Michelle Oliver

“Goodbye” by Alice Brooks

“Nothing Can Make You Forget” by Khadija S. Mohammad

“Enough ” by Beth Jackson

“SILENCE: The Beginning” by A.R. Eakle

“Black is Black ” by Josephine Harris

“Butterfly Hunters” by Rose Lind

“Pieces” by Emily Grace

“Until it’s Gone” by Marina Pacheco

“Darkness” by Stephanie Redieske

“Special” by Cade Holter

“Senseless” by Sam Delainey

“In the Hall of Gods” by Jack Gorzo

“Stranger than a Yeti....” by Julie Grenness

🌟 Similar prompts

Begin a scene with a non-visual sense. Describe a specific sound, smell, taste, etc to capture your setting, then expand the story out from there.

‘Hit a tripwire of smell and memories explode all at once.’ Use the senses to transport a character back to the past.

Write a story that begins, ends, or changes with a song played by a busker.

‘The worst meal I’ve ever tasted.’ Imagine a zero-star TripAdvisor restaurant review: capture the customer’s evening out that compelled them to complain.

Contest #218

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

334

Contest entries

97

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: