Write a story in which each paragraph begins or ends (or both!) with the same sentence.

Posted in Fiction on Feb 17, 2023

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✍️ 77 stories

“I Have a Mouth but Cannot Speak” by Adam Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #186

I Have a Mouth but Cannot SpeakStage OneThere’s nothing quite like the smell of an old church. Perfume from the collective mothers of our congregation fills the air. When I take in their scent, I can see my wife getting ready with her padded shoulders and snake-crushing black heels. The worn cushions atop the wooden pews bring a peace that surpasses understanding. This is a foundational place. Matthew leads the church in worship. Great Is Thy Faithfulness echoes through the aging building. It’s the kind of music that feels like it could anoi...

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“Hindsight” by Aaron Vitatoe

Submitted to Contest #186

I move backward. Impossibly, the person in front of me, with whom I had been most intimate, was a total stranger. A stranger who held my heart in his hands, holding all the power of the situation, possibly aware of his impact, but seemingly not caring. As I took a step back, I wondered how he could do what he had done, how he could betray my trust, how he could take both our worst fears and make it real. His eyes swelled up and tears appeared; at least he felt something. His body remained stoic. No sign of intimacy, no invitation for repriev...

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“Written confession” by Alex Langcake

Submitted to Contest #186

Nina, I'm sorry. I really am, but you have to see where I'm coming from. What else could I have done, after seeing that? I did what I had to do. Nina, I'm sorry. You deserved better than him. Even without... that, you deserved better. I could have been better for you than him. I would have been better. So, you see, he had to go. I had to get rid of him. I did what I had to do. Nina, I'm sorry. I love you, you know that, right? I've always loved you. Two little kids, running around on the playground, swearing to be friends forever. You lo...

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“Wash, Rinse, Repeat” by Deidra Darst

Submitted to Contest #186

The alarm sounds, calling me to begin my day. Eyes still closed, I blindly swing my arm in its general direction, eager to stop its incessant beeping. I slowly sit up, stretching my achy muscles taut like a rope. I open my eyes and tiptoe to the bathroom across the hall. I am so tired, maybe a shower will help wake me up. The hot water feels so good on my tired body. I wash my hair and enjoy the light scent from my shampoo. Wash, rinse, repeat. I dry off and catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Clean hair, a fresh start. Too bad my ...

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“I Didn't Want to Go” by Bailey Cory

Submitted to Contest #186

I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go to my great-grandparents house—it was always stiflingly warm and it smelled funny. Unless we sat outside, where the wasps were building a nest not three feet from the backyard swing. We’d sit for hours, talking about relatives dead long before my birth or events I knew nothing about. It was always grownup stuff and I, as a matter of fact, was not a grownup. Old people in an old house filled with old stuff. However, I guess that stuff wasn’t always so old. My great-grandfather was a Seabee in World War...

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“Injustice” by Kinsley Luna

Submitted to Contest #186

"I'm afraid I can't do anything for you Miss." ‘I’m afraid I can’t do anything for you Miss.’ Those words will scar me forever. They’ve scarred my mind and my entire being. I will forever remember the way those words made me feel. ‘I’m afraid I can’t do anything for you Miss.’ That's all I can think about. My heart is pounding. So much that I think it's going to beat out of my chest. Both out of fear and out of anger. I can feel it trying to scratch, bite, tear through my flesh from the inside out. Just to scream and yell at the woman si...

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“The Ordinary Life of Doodoo Doon” by Roland P. Joseph

Submitted to Contest #186

The old saying: "Life's a circle; the older you get, the closer the past seems," reverberates in his tormented mind. Ensnared by gloomy feelings rooted in his distant past, he pulls deeply on the cigarette, exhales, and presses the butt in the ashtray on the nightstand. He must let go of these depressing feelings, he agonizes. "Thirty-five years later?" he admonishes himself. "There's no reason for me to remember Doodoo Doon! She's six of one, half a doz...

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“Premonitions of the Past” by Henry Fisher

Submitted to Contest #186

The world gets better in some ways and worse in others. Playing chess is apparently the sign of a gentleman while playing chess well is the sign of a wasted life. So they say. It wasn’t until I saw chess played perfectly that I got scared. Like, really scared. I mean, I’ve always been a checkers guy anyhow, but these two bots, these engines, these neural collections of semiconductors - they figured it out, and none of us knew what it meant at the time. We should have noticed. We should have paid more attent...

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“Time is Broken” by Aurora Martin

Submitted to Contest #186

*Warning Notes: Mentions of injuries and ptsd Time is broken. The world is frozen, from the ocean’s waves in mid form, looking more like frosting, to the leaning trees that look like they’ll break. Nature is frozen, and only a few of the world’s creatures still move. A young girl sits on the edge of a cliff, staring out at the scene in front of her. The sun is frozen in front of her, half cut off the edge of the frozen ocean. Her gaze is dulled with heartbreak and confusion. Time is broken. She is aware. She’s aware that time won’t move ...

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“An Angry Meeting ” by Dawn Lewis

Submitted to Contest #186

Trigger Warning: This story contains a scene of a graphic death. Please procede with caution. “An Angry Meeting” The Before Cold brisk wind whistles through the stark buildings. Tall and gray skyscrapers that scream ‘barren’ tower above the population. There, in a sea of people, a young woman walks alone, shivering against the unforgiving elements. Her cheap clothes, thin because of the quality of the fabric, do nothing to hide her from the wind. Her bright red hair shines against the drab fabric draped aroun...

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“Bailey” by Sophia Worsham

Submitted to Contest #186

This story contains mentions of substance abuse, and alludes to sexual violence and assault. Trigger Warning. I stepped out of the party, and into the rain, letting each drop fall onto my body. I was soaked in a few seconds but that was the farthest thing from my mind. I told Bailey that I wasn’t interested. A cold chill crept up my spine, and I could almost hear the slithering scales. I didn’t have a fear of snakes, but feeling that cold snake travel up my back could definitely give me one. The chill was broken by a flash of warmth on my ...

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“Wasted Time Travel” by Lola LaForge

Submitted to Contest #186

Wasted Time TravelEvery day was like the day before. Get up, wash, eat, read, go outside to exercise. Wait to die. What were the things he had most wanted? How many years had passed since he'd planned to go anywhere or dreamt of anything beyond the sequence of events that brought him here? Could he have taken a different path? Sure. The trajectory of a human life can shift with a solitary choice; even a simple one like where to eat; turning left instead of right; shifting one’s course on a whim. Any plans he'd&n...

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“A Mother's Fight” by Victoria Telford

Submitted to Contest #186

TW: mental health, substance abuse, suicide A Mother's Fight She was tired. But her mind kept her up all night, thinking of facts and ideas and stories. Memories of her childhood, where she could fall asleep the moment she was tired. She was tired. She could have sworn she heard something on the porch, so she had to be sure and check it, and then check on the kids again, for good measure. She wanted to stay up all night and watch, again... "Not tonight..." She thought. She was tired. She was tired. It was t...

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“Two Weeks Since” by Ela Mikh

Submitted to Contest #186

It’s been two weeks…Since I heard the sound of your voice. I remember the very first time I heard it. It sounded high but confident. It made me fall in love with you at the very first note because back then it felt like you weren’t speaking, you were singing. And you thought you were so fearless that everyone around you will know how tough you are and respect you for it. But there were times when we could enjoy just talking together. In that soft singy-songy voice of yours, you would tell me about your day or the time we were apart. Those we...

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“War” by Isabella Celaya Franco

Submitted to Contest #186

I sighed. “Past noon now.” The sun burned my face, drove my skin into canyons of weather and erosion around my dark eyes. I had to squint to keep the bright grassy glare away. Hunger tore at the silence of the field surrounding me, growling and grunting angrily with the same vibrato as the bleating sheep that littered the hillside like dollops of cotton. Soil had crawled past the moss which suppressed it and migrated unfalteringly onto my bronzed likeness. Clad in dirt and miserable, I drew my gaze to the stone wall separating the Mac...

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Write a story in which each paragraph begins or ends (or both!) with the same sentence.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 77 stories

“I Have a Mouth but Cannot Speak” by Adam Rodriguez

“Hindsight” by Aaron Vitatoe

“Written confession” by Alex Langcake

“Wash, Rinse, Repeat” by Deidra Darst

“I Didn't Want to Go” by Bailey Cory

“Injustice” by Kinsley Luna

“The Ordinary Life of Doodoo Doon” by Roland P. Joseph

“Premonitions of the Past” by Henry Fisher

“Time is Broken” by Aurora Martin

“An Angry Meeting ” by Dawn Lewis

“Bailey” by Sophia Worsham

“Wasted Time Travel” by Lola LaForge

“A Mother's Fight” by Victoria Telford

“Two Weeks Since” by Ela Mikh

“War” by Isabella Celaya Franco

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story of fragments. Many options here: no verbs, sentence fragments, short sections, nothing but objects, etc. The fragments should relate to one another obliquely, hesitantly, subtly, ambiguously, preposterously, marvelously.

Write a story within a story within a story within a ...

Write a story that formally utilizes a mathematical sequence; e.g., the Fibonacci sequence could determine the number of words in each paragraph, or start with a number and work backwards. Make sure the formula is made clear, either within the story, or before or after it.

Write a story entirely of dialogue. Nothing but dialogue. No attributives (he said, she said, etc.). No descriptions of scenes or gestures or movements (unless these things are presented in the dialogue). Just words between quotation marks. Pure, beautiful, untainted dialogue.

Contest #186

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

481

Contest entries

142

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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