Start your story with a character looking through an old family photo album.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 44 stories

“Ash and Photographs” by Tommie Michele

Submitted to Contest #120

The dreams always ended with rain.Not water—water was a blessing.Not hail—hail left nothing but bruises.This rain was ash.Ash signaled burns. Ash stained skin. Ash left a permanent mark, no matter its source.Ash was her name.It hadn’t always been that way. The ash had left its mark on that part of her life, too.Shadows hid the room around her. She had been here many times, more times than she could count. The musty smell, the dust in the air, the fine grey powder coating her fingers. It felt like home.A single spotlight cut through the air o...

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“My First Fish” by Janis Van Meter

Submitted to Contest #120

My family gathers every few years in a central location convenient to all of us for a reunion. We are direct descendants from our Paternal grandfather’s side of the family since we are children of his five children. Our parents along with our grandparents have all passed away.We are first cousins. Now, we are all older, senior citizens. At first, there were seventeen cousins. Now, sadly, we are down to eleven. Although just ten of us attend the reunions. Our youngest cousin was placed up for adoption when she was only seven. None of our fami...

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“Red Album” by J. W.

Submitted to Contest #120

It was a hot summer day when when Terence Hall found a photo-album. He had come across this collection of photos when clearing out his mother's estate. She had died of a blood clot travelling to her heart shortly after a knee surgery. Eleanor Hall was found unresponsive, laying in her bathtub, her head poking barely above the surface of the cold water, her lips blue with sadness and her eyes shut in peace. "What do you have there?" Clara asked. Clara was his wife and his best friend. She had agreed to come along and help him with this. Al...

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“The Photograph” by Carolina Garcia

Submitted to Contest #120

Scarlett started flipping through the album when she took a long pause. She looked up at her mother and pointed to a picture of a man. “Is that him?” she asked.Her mother’s face turned from calm to an immediate nervousness. She almost didn’t want to acknowledge the picture.“That’s him.” She finally responded with a haunted tone.Her mother couldn’t tolerate to be in the same room while that picture was present, so she scurried off into the kitchen. “I have to start getting dinner ready.”Scarlett did not look up, she was too fixated on the pic...

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“Memory Lane Is Best Walked With Hot Chocolate” by Elisa T-K

Submitted to Contest #120

“Oh, I remember this one,” Jess whispers, pressing his cheek into Mayven’s hair, still curly from when she was asleep some twenty minutes before. “That,” he reaches around his daughter to point at the picture, “is where your papa and I met.”“Really?” The five year old said in an awed whisper. The picture in question, held safely in plastic in the photo album spread open on the counter, was taken in a small diner known as Vera’s. It features Jess, with a cardigan pulled over a button up shirt. His hair is a bit longer, but just as fluffy...

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“Home From the Sea” by Ted Harrison

Submitted to Contest #120

HOME FROM THE SEA “I’d recognize that grin,” my Dad said. The deckle-edged photograph showed a man in a t-shirt, dungarees wearing a sailor hat pushed forward over his brow. The cigarette dangling from his mouth obviously burned his eyes. The grin was a ‘go-to-hell’ smile as far as I was concerned. “When do you figure that was taken?” Dad cont...

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“Familien Weihnacht. ” by Colleen Brownlee

Submitted to Contest #120

Familien Weihnacht. “There here mum.” Pete shouted from facing the window. “What Pete?” as his mum was looking through the family photo album ready to show Amy. “There here mum” Pete shouted louder. Amy and Yan were the last of the family to arrive for the Christmas holidays travelling from England. Yan had moved to England two years ago to study at university in London, had fallen in love with a Southern red head English girl named Amy. It was going to be Amys first time visiting Germany and to experience a...

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“Memories” by Deborah Elliott

Submitted to Contest #120

Memories Deborah Elliott Jackson trailed his trembling hand over the brown leather photo album, a rough spot in his hand snagging on a crack that was along the binding. For a few seconds, he focused on the crack and wondered how long it would take for the rest of the photo album to succumb to age and handling. He glanced up and stared out the window at nothing for several uncounted minutes, and then he slid into the wooden chair; making himself comfortable on the paisley print cushion, and scooted closer to the table. Even though he s...

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“Family Demons” by Catherine Douglas

Submitted to Contest #120

Snow and ice blew against the windows as Captain Westheimer limped into his office. He glared at the massive, leather-bound book on his desk before sitting down to open it to a yellowing page with only his name written on it. The book had been sitting there since the previous night, when he had been going through his cabinets and bookshelves in search of it. He just didn’t have the motivation to actually look through it when he found it. Outside, the yard of the prisoner-of-war camp was empty. It was too cold and too windy for anyone, guard ...

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“My Average Family” by Ramona Scarborough

Submitted to Contest #120

My Average Family I have looked at these photo albums many times. But it wasn’t until I retired, that I opened them again and saw the pictures in a whole new light. I came from an average family, or so I thought. Summers as a kid, cars came rolling into our dusty driveway. Relatives poured out and into our spare bedrooms, bellied up to the large dinner table and swam in the creek behind our house. An only child, I reveled in ready-made friends and vacation from school. “Her...

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“Nostalgia” by Wade Ritter

Submitted to Contest #120

When I go through my dad's photo album and come across his photos while he was serving in the Royal Canadian Navy, November 11 has a special meaning. you see my dad served his country during the Cuban Missile Crisis My Dad's Navy Service During The Cuban Missile Crisis During 1961 President Kennedy visited Ottawa and gave a speech in The House of Commons "Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies."(1) My dad served on the HMCS Bonaventure, the Royal Ca...

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“A pie in the face ” by Jen Borcherding

Submitted to Contest #120

Times were simpler decades ago- as I ponder why, a dusty photo album appears inside my mind. After pulling the cobwebs, it opens- the film covered pages turning fast. That old album smell and that crinkling sound takes me back- a time without smart phones- and the best times of my childhood. My soul becomes flooded with overwhelming bliss.Summers were full of laughter and play. I ran through tall weeds, arms outstretched, eyes closed. I caught bullfrogs near the pond. I roamed with cows in the field. I grimaced with the sharp bite of gr...

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“The Man in the Photo” by Dallas Spires

Submitted to Contest #120

“Oh, and this right here!” Kevin peeled back the plastic sheet covering the page of photos and draped it over the edge of the photo album, letting it hang towards the floor. His fingers worked carefully at the edge of the picture in an effort to pull it free from the adhesive holding it in place. “It’s okay,” his fiancée laughed. “I can see it fine from here.” She put a kind hand on his shoulder. “But you don’t understand,” he continued, unable to contain his excitement. “That summer.” His voice trailed off as he stopped fighting the...

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“Icy Fingers ” by Jessie Hartness

Submitted to Contest #120

Take a look. No, over there... over where that man is getting into his car to leave for work. That ordinary man, who drives that ordinary car, going to his ordinary nine-to-five. He pets his ordinary dog before he closes the door, tells him to go to the back, and then pushes his garage door remote after he sees the tail pass over the sensor’s reach. He drives away after making sure the ordinary door fully closes. He doesn’t want someone to be able to just walk in now does he? If they did, they might find out he is not an ordinary man in an o...

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“Photographic Memories” by Terri Harrington

Submitted to Contest #120

It is my habit each Saturday morning to make a cup of my favorite tea, Earl Grey, and sit on the deck in my backyard to make a list of the reasons to be grateful. Other times the Kansas wind was far too fierce for even my heaviest coat, so I would find myself in the kitchen nook, sitting on one of the benches. I found this space quaint and inviting, and I used it on mornings just like this one—too cold to sit outside—when I have counted it as one of my blessings. On this particular morning, it was difficult to find something to be thankful ...

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Start your story with a character looking through an old family photo album.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 44 stories

“Ash and Photographs” by Tommie Michele

“My First Fish” by Janis Van Meter

“Red Album” by J. W.

“The Photograph” by Carolina Garcia

“Memory Lane Is Best Walked With Hot Chocolate” by Elisa T-K

“Home From the Sea” by Ted Harrison

“Familien Weihnacht. ” by Colleen Brownlee

“Memories” by Deborah Elliott

“Family Demons” by Catherine Douglas

“My Average Family” by Ramona Scarborough

“Nostalgia” by Wade Ritter

“A pie in the face ” by Jen Borcherding

“The Man in the Photo” by Dallas Spires

“Icy Fingers ” by Jessie Hartness

“Photographic Memories” by Terri Harrington

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who yearns for something they lost, or never had.

Start your story with the line ‘Back in my day…’

Write about two characters’ different perspectives of the same past event.

Your character has always viewed the past with rose tinted glasses. Write about what happens when they’re finally confronted with the truth.

Contest #120

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

244

Contest entries

163

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: