Start or end your story with a character noticing the beauty in something they've seen hundreds of times.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 74 stories

“creation” by Cola Cherry

Submitted to Contest #106

Gathering the fabric of her skirt, she stretches an upward arm Veins straining, she grasps a sturdy branch Red ankles on display. With a final heave, she clambers over Flimsy sandals scraping the surface of its bark She looks mournfully as a small shower of wood shavings float downwards- like bits of paper cast from a building It steals her sympathy for a moment Before she turns, And sees the whole world. Nestled atop the highest branches, she smiles. A strange feeling of vastness pools in her heart Silently, she searches for the...

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“Crepe” by Jarrel Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #106

Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are expensive emerald jewels once lost underground somewhere in Zambia, purchased in an auction by your great-great-great-great-great grandfather and are now family heirlooms? I should warn you that archeologists might try to steal them while you sleep, so their many prisms can be studied until all the wonder is lost. And have you thought about when you let your hair down? It is black as the night sky, in contrast to your milky complexion. A gateway into space. I could fall through it head-first and ...

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“I see it almost every day.” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #106

I see it almost every day. That is not surprising in that it is at the intersection where I cross the road to get to my bank, my pharmacy, and my favourite pub. It is a sad sight. Once it graced the corner with its lifelike beauty. Now it is a rusty wreck, like it had been constructed hap-hazard fashion from the twisted remains of a Ford pinto from the early 1970s. It stands in a small grassy area (too small to even be called a ‘parkette’), accompanied by a few trees that have seen better days. In a way the two of u...

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“Nightshade” by Kurt Karl

Submitted to Contest #106

“Do you mean I’m fired?” Edmund asked his boss, Clive Stanway. The day had started like any other workday. Edmund had risen early, fed his cat, Chloe, exercised, and walked to work from his home in the Logan Square neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was a pleasant early summer day, sunny and not yet humid. Edmund’s walk was a brisk 15-minutes door-to-door, and the lovely weather put a spring into his step. While striding, he remembered how, as a child, he was so good at skipping great distances, outpacing his playmates in races. Edmund worked...

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“Last Night's Fortune” by Maxwell Altman

Submitted to Contest #106

I look in the mirror and smirk. Christine once told me that no one can look at themselves in the mirror dead on. Christine says that when someone looks at themselves in the mirror, they instantaneously make some sort of face, usually to make themselves more attractive. I hate facts like that, and Christine is full of them. It’s like when I’m in the waiting room at a doctor’s office and Christine asks me if I can hear the soft hum of the air conditioner above us, and then asks me if it’s something that “bothers me too.” Well, Christin...

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“Her ” by Avalon Stevens

Submitted to Contest #106

When did it start? Was it the day when she went on her way to save a heart? Or when her frail hands that led me to feel or her eyes that were emotionless but had warmth if you dug deep enough. She knew me more than anyone else, she was just a girl like everyone else, so when did it start? When I decided to break her heart and even if I did it a thousand times she’ll stand by me until she’d waste any dimes. You are not just some girl I know, you are the same girl that made me grow in this place where I thought was cruel but it became beautifu...

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“Beauty of the Bench” by S Rose

Submitted to Contest #106

C/W: terminal illnessConsistency is a curious thing. Every molecule in the world is constantly changing. Change is our secure constant. So, when we have something consistent besides change, losing it can be absolutely life-changing. "Come on, Alex, we're gonna miss the sunrisee." I could hear Jenny singing out the second she walked through the door. "I shouldn't have given you a key." I sang back sarcastically from the bathroom. "I just have to get dressed. Would you allow me that courtesy, madam?" She disregarded me as I walked in...

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“Genderless” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #106

Genderless With our meal over, yet none wish to rush a break away from enjoyable family time. Where each member is allocated specific preparation roles. All part of our ritual. Sundry cooking tasks, child feeding assistance and eventually tidying up. We stay extending positive together time, when possible. I want to point out this is not merely institutionalized quality family time, but who we are, and what we do. ‘I recall a professor,’ reminisces my partner Lyric. ‘Don’t remember what was being read, but I can picture a missing dust jac...

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“Time Gives Everything” by Carrie Fitzgerald

Submitted to Contest #106

In physics, there a principle known as the observer effect. Simply put, the act of measuring something changes it. It should be noted that this is not the same as the uncertainty principle, which tells us that we can only know so much about a thing. That is, if you know exactly where you’re making the measurement, you can’t know anything about when you’re measuring it. Or something like that. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a physics class. Nevertheless, the map had me thinking about both of these effects. To be precise, it wasn’...

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“Halo” by M. J. Riv

Submitted to Contest #106

I’m paralyzed.Swallowed by my couch, I open my eyes to blurry grades of light and shadow. I am warm and numb. Eventually, I see the horizontal beams, created by the sunlight passing through my blinds, striping my walls and highlighting the molecules in the air. I watch the the tiny specks falling like pixie dust. I had dozed off again, surrounded by a bunch of worn blankets and mismatched pillows. I can hear Jessica Fletcher. She had just solved another murder and was explaining the motive to a stunned acquaintance of the killer, while a per...

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“THE SUN SETS ON THE MEADOW” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #106

THE SUN SETS ON THE MEADOW I have been working in the Brothers Grimm and Associates architectural firm for almost twenty years. I have always been involved in the renovation , or refurbishment of bathrooms and kitchens. Never in all these years I have been asked to design a building. And when I say a building I don’t mean a public work (one), not a condominium or even a villa. No, I mean a single house, even a small one. Well, that morning , one of my bosses, A...

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“The Cave” by Jeremy Cook

Submitted to Contest #106

The forms on the wall performed their march as they always do. The same left to right motion they seemed to adore so much. I didn’t know what they were, but I could only assume I was one of them. They never bothered to acknowledge me, meaning either that they couldn’t see me through the darkness or that they just didn’t care. Often I would move my face in different ways, that I thought they might take offense to, but still they would march. I made noise, loud and quiet, I certainly didn’t like it, but they paid no heed. For a while I pit...

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“The Truth About Waiting” by M.K. Hendri

Submitted to Contest #106

Heavy clouds looked ready to shed their weight against the window; the rain is a familiar arrival this time of year - though not equally welcome for all. As I watched the lane outside bustle with a rush of people from a coffeehouse window, an aroma filled with black tea leaves and honey pressed its sweetness to my nose. I hugged my thumbs into my mug to feel its radiant heat, kindly giving some strength to my shaking hands. The blackened sky shot all around me; violent bolts were on their way soon. My eyes were high along the...

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“Kate, The Storm and A Ute” by Linda Foot

Submitted to Contest #106

The earth, dimpled and baked hardtack brown by an Australian summer that had been riddled with blowflies and whining mosquitoes, melted when the first rains of autumn came. Light dimmed, filtered by the mottled, bruised cloud hanging low in the petulant sky. Crisp, cool winds stirred cracked leaves, brittle from a summer’s wrath, and replaced the hot breath that had licked trails of perspiration across Kate’s forehead just moments before. Breath that had at times, felt like a dragon’s; fetid and searing on the intake. Eye watering. Breath th...

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Start or end your story with a character noticing the beauty in something they've seen hundreds of times.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 74 stories

“creation” by Cola Cherry

“Crepe” by Jarrel Jefferson

“I see it almost every day.” by John Steckley

“Nightshade” by Kurt Karl

“Last Night's Fortune” by Maxwell Altman

“Her ” by Avalon Stevens

“Beauty of the Bench” by S Rose

“Genderless” by Karen Lethlean

“Time Gives Everything” by Carrie Fitzgerald

“Halo” by M. J. Riv

“THE SUN SETS ON THE MEADOW” by Mara Masolini

“The Cave” by Jeremy Cook

“The Truth About Waiting” by M.K. Hendri

“Kate, The Storm and A Ute” by Linda Foot

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who’s known to be a cynic, but secretly romanticizes everything.

A mundane ability suddenly becomes a superpower. Write about someone or something affected by this.

Write a story about a character who takes nothing for granted.

Write a story about a character who’s secretly nobility.

Contest #106

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

153

Contest entries

206

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: