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

“Left Right Left… Right” by Kendra Nash

Submitted to Contest #186

My left fingers tap, so then my right fingers tap. This time on the steering wheel. I always skip the pinky and go from the ring to the pointer. Everything must be even and symmetrical, so that the chaos does not ensue. I hit a pothole on the right side. That makes seven on each side. Each makes on seven side that. My left fingers tap, so then my right fingers tap. I turn on my left blinker, check my mirrors, and look over my shoulder before changing lanes. Then I wait for the green light to allow me to turn into the store parking lot. When...

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“A Dream” by JC James

Submitted to Contest #186

Tommy was sitting where he had always felt most at home, under his oak tree, on the hill. Feeling the cool breeze of the morning air wisp off the pond sent shivers down his spine. Getting up and brushing off his jeans, he made his way down to the bank of the pond. As he continued his descent down the hill, he felt his feet begin to get damp. He glanced down to see that he was standing on tile flooring and noticed something. The floor was wet.Looking back up and around, Tommy could see that the house was in absolute disarray. A woman that he ...

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“WHERE WERE YOU AT THE TIME” by Jocelyn Yeomans

Submitted to Contest #186

Where were you at the time? It would have been more meaningful to ask why I was here in the first place. I don’t usually come to these gatherings. Never liked them. Even when my husband was around. For the past 9 years being on my own, I didn’t want to attend as I felt like the odd one out. This year, with much persuasion from Paula with whom I had more affinity, I decided it would be good to meet the gang again and catch up with all the gossip. How I wish I had stayed home. I was not prepared fo...

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“A Certain View” by Robert Koch

Submitted to Contest #186

A Certain ViewWritten by Robert M. KochSpring was always an important time of year. Every year the trees bloomed, and the grass grew in thick and soft. Life began anew. Experiences began to flourish as people went back to their normal routines refreshed by the unchallenging weather. It brought hope and change. Colors returned to the neighborhood, and vibrancy to the sunsets every evening. The dawn was truly dawn, and the mornings were truly mornings. Spring was always an important time of year. The town’s spirit was in full swing....

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“The Little Red Book” by Trevor Caswell

Submitted to Contest #186

“Beep! This is your final attempt. Failure will result in a total reset.” A woman's sinister voice blasts out over the town and reverberates in my jaw. I don’t know what it is about her, but she doesn’t sound human to me. The mechanical voice exploded from the top of the looming black tower. Its exterior is so dark that it steals all of the sunlight around it. I feel the warmth drain from my face as I stand there gawking at it. A long ominous shadow hangs over the shanty wood buildings making up this pathetic town square. Ahead of me is...

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“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #186

This is so old, it's got mold. Here we were on the way to clean out the remains of a house trailer that had been stuck in the same location for over eighty years. It's buried like a grave site imbedded in the ground but there was still access to get inside to hopefully find the answers to the questions that have surfaced at family get-togethers over the years. It was an unforeseen moment in time when a hurricane lifted the house trailer only to neatly set it down about a hundred yards away. That was the craziest moment highlighted years ago ...

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“10 a.m.” by Lindsey B

Submitted to Contest #186

We lie awake in bed and stare at the light the curtains let through.We lie awake in bed and listen to the distant groaning of approaching snowplows, and let the knowledge sink in that life is continuing for others out there.We lie awake in bed and try to ignore the sting of shame in our chests, and the familiar voices echoing that we're lazy and that we're going to lose our jobs.We lie awake in bed and check our work emails on our phones, to make us feel like we're working.We lie awake in bed and wonder. We lie awake in bed and think about w...

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“Band-aid” by Fatima Akhtar

Submitted to Contest #186

On the fourth day, her fingers began to burn. It had become an uncomfortable habit, to pick at flesh as her fingers bear the consequences of thinking, and the burn is her punishment. And in between the punishment and thinking she wondered if it was a mistake. To know of the very thing that should never be revealed. But the cards were already laid out. And again, they told Eden she would die. She knew that fate is for everyone, but the soothsayer looked in pity and apologized for her misfortune. As had the others. On the fourth day, he...

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“Her Rebellion ” by J Belle

Submitted to Contest #186

First, there was Analise. War, and Analise. People weren’t supposed to have books, during the Repression of 2076. This is her rebellion. Fingers traced lovingly over crumbling spines. Books upon books, volumes upon volumes, stacked in rickety shelves, on the floor, in the dust, knowledge moldering. She slides another volume onto the shelf. Poetry, this time. She examines the effect. Very pleasing. Analise picks a story from the crowd at random, a lottery to choose her adventure. She collapses into a chair that puffs dust. Red, in the su...

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“The Horror of Tea” by Janet Kaul

Submitted to Contest #186

“Why don’t you come for tea?” These were the words I had been dreading ever since I moved to Yorkshire. It was a lovely day outside and I stopped on my way out for a walk to say hello to my new neighbor, who was working in her front yard. I’d left my job, my family, and my friends in sunny California six months earlier to join my English boyfriend in this quaint Devonshire village. I looked forward to wonderful museums and traditional pubs, to cozy rainy days inside and the resulting lush gardens surrounding stately homes. And all that ...

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“Sleep, Supernova ” by Henri Porritt

Submitted to Contest #186

Content Warning: sexual assault and violence implied. Soft light creeps in through the narrow slits of the softly waving blinds, dancing off the fresh, cream walls and baptising the youthfully familial scene in warmth, a love tinted lens. A new mother, hands still shaky, eyes still flighty, gently pushes and pulls the wooden crib that rocks her infant daughter. She finds herself subconsciously whispering words and sounds that exist at the midpoint between song and coo, brain disconnecting as instinct begins to take over (though she doesn’t...

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“Pacific Parade” by Bridget Haug

Submitted to Contest #186

“When did I last see him? Well, I don’t personally meet each of the residents as such. We have over five-hundred units here—I just try and keep up with the place. Shuffling paper up here in the office most days, to tell you the truth. Except for Christmas lunch each year, where I have to be present—company policy. But then they’re like a blur of greys and blue rinse, if you know what I mean. Anyway, not that my time is more important than yours, but I am a busy man. Let’s look up what we’ve got… Albert, was it? Alfred… I haven’t met him in ...

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“Looking Through Different Eyes” by Hannah Lloyd

Submitted to Contest #186

I looked through your eyes. And when I did, the world was all blues, purples and greens. The colors were fresh, the sounds and feelings new. A new perspective was in my own gaze, as I looked through your eyes. I looked through your eyes. Those were eyes that would light up when I walked into a room; those were eyes that grew dim with each passing day, as the disease pulled the life from your body. Those eyes could flash like a burning fire, or twinkle like the stars on a cloudless night. They would narrow and widen, laugh merrily without mak...

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“Next time.” by Adrian Elliot

Submitted to Contest #186

He was right there. His eyes glared deep into my soul. I stared back, scared to move. I heard the yelling from his friends at mine. And the yelling from my friends to his. I was silent. He was silent. He was right there. Why didn't I speak? I had the opportunity. To say all the things I never did. But I couldn't speak. I wanted to. I needed to. Why didn't I speak? Why didn't I scream? Like all the times he screamed at me. Like his ...

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“I Left the Lights on and Ran Errands” by Abelard Lormond

Submitted to Contest #186

I left the lights on and ran errands. And thank Christ, I did. They always call my kind animals and savages but look at what they do to my house when I'm away. Torching my home where my wife and my kids sleep. And for what? Because we live in their neighborhood? To torch your neighbor's home because he and his family live here is obscene. And my kind is called animals and savages. Simply because of the pigmentation of our skin. I left the lights on and ran errands. But I didn't leave them on purposely. I was in a rush to get to m...

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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

“Left Right Left… Right” by Kendra Nash

“A Dream” by JC James

“WHERE WERE YOU AT THE TIME” by Jocelyn Yeomans

“A Certain View” by Robert Koch

“The Little Red Book” by Trevor Caswell

“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?” by Debbie Curtin

“10 a.m.” by Lindsey B

“Band-aid” by Fatima Akhtar

“Her Rebellion ” by J Belle

“The Horror of Tea” by Janet Kaul

“Sleep, Supernova ” by Henri Porritt

“Pacific Parade” by Bridget Haug

“Looking Through Different Eyes” by Hannah Lloyd

“Next time.” by Adrian Elliot

“I Left the Lights on and Ran Errands” by Abelard Lormond

🌟 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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