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

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...

41 comments 41 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“This Wall of Silent Darkness” by Michelle Oliver

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 recoll...

37 comments 37

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“Goodbye” by Alice White

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.T...

12 comments 12 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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

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 the...

12 comments 12

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“Enough ” by Beth Jackson

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 pre...

17 comments 17

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

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 Eldrid...

3 comments 3

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“Black is Black ” by Josephine Harris

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 blac...

7 comments 7

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“Butterfly Hunters” by Rose Lind

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. Mor...

5 comments 5

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“Until it’s Gone” by Marina Pacheco

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 b...

6 comments 6

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“Pieces” by Emily Grace

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 bloo...

4 comments 4

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“Special” by Cade Holter

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. N...

1 comment 1

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“Senseless” by Sam Delainey

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...

3 comments 3

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“In the Hall of Gods” by Jack Gorzo

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 thei...

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

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...

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“What Would Gladys Think ?” by Chris Day

The young man gently pulled on the reins, the rough rope feeling almost silky in his heavily calloused hands. The horse exhaled and shook its large head as it responded to its master’s demands, coming to a halt in the short, dew-rich grass beside the gentle stream. The horse appeared uncharacteristically nervous and agitated, a feeling that was shared by the knight mounted on its back. An indescribable sense of dread and...

2 comments 2

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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 White

“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

“Until it’s Gone” by Marina Pacheco

“Pieces” by Emily Grace

“Special” by Cade Holter

“Senseless” by Sam Delainey

“In the Hall of Gods” by Jack Gorzo

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

“What Would Gladys Think ?” by Chris Day

🌟 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

348

Contest entries

99

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: