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.

Posted in Fiction on Feb 17, 2023

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✍️ 54 stories

“Search Results for an Unhappy Marriage” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #186

Where did I leave my keys?Where do people usually leave keys?How often does a woman in her mid-to-late forties lose her kids?Keys not kidsHow often does a woman in her early-to-mid-to-late forties lose her keys?Is losing your keys a sign of dementia?DEMENTIA HOME REMEDY CURES NO WESTERN MEDICINEWhat is a romantic dinner you can make for your 20th wedding anniversary?What is a romantic dinner with ingredients that cost less than $60?What is a romantic dinner with ingredients that cost less than $70?What are cheap restaurants near me that have...

49 comments 49

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“Disjointed” by Wendy Kaminski

Submitted to Contest #186

Do you really want to hurrrrrt meeeee, do you really wa– HONNNNNK SCREEECH Wow, I need to clean this spot on the windshield better… SMASH CRASH TINKLE TINKLE ... that took care of it... Wheeee I’m a bird! Never seen the sky like this before, amazing Oh man pavement, that’s gonna hurt like a son of a bit– Sploot skiddddddddd Nothingness NothingnessMurmur murmur murmur murmurNothingnessMurmur murmur murmurrrrrrr murmurrrrrrr distant screamingMurrrmm “... out of nowhere!” MutedUnderwater sounds … is that screaming?Sounds like underwwuuuhU...

78 comments 78

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“READ THAT BACK” by Susan Catucci

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #186

Mary had some Mary Janes with creases white as snowand everywhere that Mary spent,her credit cards would . . .Show and tell, then everyone will . . .No, I won’t and you can’t make . . .Me and you and a dog named . . .Boo! Trick or . . .Treat me like that again and I’ll knock you . . .Down the drain, that’s where the money went, and where I wantedto . . .Go to school and earn a degree. Then, good luck finding . . .Work with me, people! The bride gets here in less than an . . .Hour to go before quitting time. And...

55 comments 55

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“Not-Fine Print” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #186

Background *This feeling, this dread, compressing your chest into a nervous, acidic pulp like putrid, century-old-squeezed orange juiceTM. Hereinafter referred to as “this anxiety.” Subscribers of "this anxiety" may feel worried, ill, and/or not fine. Subsidiaries of “this anxiety” include (but are not limited to) Generalized Anxiety Disorder®, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder® (“OCD”), Panic DisorderTM, and Social Anxiety DisorderTM. Services of this anxiety and its subsidiaries are operated and brought to you by the Overactive Amygdala of the...

19 comments 19

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“The Texture of Love” by Delbert Griffith

Submitted to Contest #186

The Texture of Love3:37 A.M.ur sexy11:57 A.M.Reno. WTF?3:22 P.M.Wantd to cum ovr4 sum lola luvlast nite3:40 P.M.Maybe 2nite.Take me out?3:41 P.M.Be thr at 7Me, slurping oysters. Reno staring. Imagines me doing this to him. A wink. Done deal. Saturday night. Reno happy. Reno satisfied. Leaves before noon. Oh Sundays. Terra cotta loneliness. Psyche, buttered and battered. Sweet, sweet Sheila. Saving me. Again.1:15 P.M.Lola dear. Uhome?1:16 P.M.Sheila, my sweet!Come over.I need you.Sheila. My adoration. My air. Love her, but not in love. Can’t....

34 comments 34

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“Put a Lid on It, Take Charge!” by Suma Jayachandar

Submitted to Contest #186

CW: LanguageReverse the mini truck. Wedge it between A4 and the parking ramp. Tease the stacked crates. Lay them out. Fresh oranges, spinach, and coriander. Day-old beans, cucumber, and cauliflower. Many days old onion, yam, and the rest. Set up digital scales. On the steel table. Punch in the day’s rates. Set the register. Put up QR code signages. Go pee in the common toilet. Check your teeth. Come back to the cold table. Check the messages on the cell. Play a couple of videos. Lean on the wall. Leave the right shoe imprint.People trickle o...

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“Glass Beach ” by Cindy Strube

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #186

Glass BeachCome—walk with me this strand of glass Through mists of time To other daysWhose memories, in this mingled massOf splendid hues With bright arrays, Are scattered here.Come—follow me the world around,To places farAnd near. Anon,The touch, the smell, the taste, the soundAnd sight of allThat is bygone Will gather here.These motley particles enshroud The sheltered cove With stories. EachThough now obscured by veil of c...

27 comments 27

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“A Child Lost” by Jessica Lunn

Submitted to Contest #186

Disclaimer: This story is based off a real event and personal experiences of a child drowning. Names have been removed, genders and ages have been changed, some events have been altered, and location has been left out in effort to maintain patient privacy. Child found floating face down. Bath water still warm. Mother desperately crying while trying to save her child who’s dying. Twenty-nine, thirty, off the chest, deliver two breaths. Child’s older sibling stands back and watches as she, the witness, the discoverer, the one who wa...

7 comments 7

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“Shopping List” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #186

Eggs, milk, bread, butter, peanut butter…Should have written it all down, or used the damn phone for more than…“Turn left at the next intersection.”Right.What else is on?“If you leave me now…”“Lady in red…”“She knocked me out with those American…”The kids; did Sheila pick them up?“Weather warning: snow squalls and…”About thirty-five pages tonight… Not a break; not even with time-and-a-half…“Rock the casbah, rock…”No traffic; not bad on a Friday.“Return all carts to the proper section after use.”Five things…anything I missed?Eggs?Brown? Duck?...

28 comments 28

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“Tick” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #186

Tick. The second hand on Maya’s watch moves six-tenths of a millimeter to the right, the click of the cogs lost in the space of the cathedral's soaring arches. In that same instant, Maya tips her face to the three celebrated windows gracing the cathedral’s western facade and she breathes in the light. The window in the center is eight meters of radiance forged with hundreds of panes depicting the ascension of Christ into a golden sky. To the left and right, angels glow in serenity and exaltation. Crimson and cobalt shimmer across Maya’s sk...

11 comments 11

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“More Things in Heaven and Earth” by Molly Kelash

Submitted to Contest #186

A boy. No, a man, a young man, blue dawn across his fluttering eyelids. Out his open window, purple and gold through the mesquite tree. Yucca flowered breeze. Iron smell of pumped water. Bird chittering. Flitting silhouettes. Swoop and dip, swoop and dip, choreographed dancers in a stillborn sky. Raven-guttering from the corrugated barn roof, an eerie echo reverberating across the valley Awakening slow, with a shuddering yawn, blissful dreams of boyhood tugging. Another raven’s cry, pulling him out all the way, and remembering returns, pan...

16 comments 16

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“Today I Made The Bed” by Hannah P. Simmons

Submitted to Contest #186

Everything changed. The day my doctor called. And told me to go check myself into the Emergency Room. I had almost fainted a few weeks before. While I was at work. And my manager brought in the paramedics. They told me that my blood pressure was too high. And I was shocked. Because I’d never had any heart trouble before. But they were right.Everything changed. The day my doctor called. And told me I was at Stage Four Hypertension. “That can mean fainting. A heart attack. Or even a stroke.” So we started with the basics. With watching my diet...

14 comments 14

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“Sing a Song” by Marisa Billions

Submitted to Contest #186

I don’t remember much about my birth mom. She was beautiful. And she could sing. I remember she would sing to me all the time. She would sing while she put the bows and pigtails in my hair. I would sing with her. We would harmonize. Her with her beautiful and powerful voice. Me, with my high pitched kid voice. I loved her. She was my world. Beautiful. Sweet. Doting. I know she loved me. Unfortunately, she loved heroin more than she loved me. Imagine, four years old, and your mother is on the kitchen floor. You don’t unders...

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“The Aftermath ” by S N

Submitted to Contest #186

Is there a name for the line of space between where the ceiling and the standing wall meet? There must be. If I were in construction, I’m sure I would know it like the back of my paint covered trousers. A man enters the white space. It could be called a bathroom, but there is no bath. Just a standing shower. If I were a builder, I would know how long it takes to lay and grout five-by-five-inch tiles upon every surface of a hundred-and-twenty square space. As a laymen who can’t caulk over the ident of an Arrow Pin nail, I am not equipp...

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“Vacation” by AK Lee

Submitted to Contest #186

Hot afternoon. Pair of legs, bare, unshaven. Skin turning red. Red as lobsters, but less tasty. Red as white people skin in tropical sun.Denim shorts, torn at the pockets. Pale blue, almost bleached white. Originally jeans. Time and wear and a pair of scissors, snip-snip. Brand new look, same old comfort.Sea’s beautiful. Not Maldives-beautiful but still beautiful. Blue-gray-green, gentle waves. Shooooosh-sssssssssssssst. Shooooooooooooooooosh. Too hot to sleep though.Coconut trees, no coconuts. Rougher bark than imagined. Scrubby grasses bef...

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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.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 54 stories

“Search Results for an Unhappy Marriage” by Story Time

“Disjointed” by Wendy Kaminski

“READ THAT BACK” by Susan Catucci

“Not-Fine Print” by Liv Chocolate

“The Texture of Love” by Delbert Griffith

“Put a Lid on It, Take Charge!” by Suma Jayachandar

“Glass Beach ” by Cindy Strube

“A Child Lost” by Jessica Lunn

“Shopping List” by Kendall Defoe

“Tick” by Kristin Neubauer

“More Things in Heaven and Earth” by Molly Kelash

“Today I Made The Bed” by Hannah P. Simmons

“Sing a Song” by Marisa Billions

“The Aftermath ” by S N

“Vacation” by AK Lee

🌟 Similar prompts

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

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

482

Contest entries

142

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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