Write a short story about someone reflecting on their previous year's resolutions.

Posted in Holiday on May 8, 2021

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✍️ 33 stories

“New Year’s Restitutions ” by Matt Strempel

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #25

She’s late but Christina remains in the Uber. Salim wishes her a happy New Year while he taps away on the phone for his next job. Christina asks if she can just stay a minute longer to hear the end of the song even though it’s the new Ed Sheeran song she can’t stand. She just needs another minute to compose herself. “I’ll give you five stars and the maximum tip if you let me sit here til this song finishes,” she says. Salim squints in frustration but, perhaps sensing her unease, replies, “No problem.” Christina can see the silhouettes of Jes...

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“The Red Rice ” by Mariah Tyndall

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #25

For the last 4 years, I’ve measured my success in designer coats. January of every year, the suppressed monster of unreasonable reinvention rears its head and makes me buy a coat. Last year’s coat was orange, it’s predecessor was pink; lavender, white, leather, fuzzy, double-sided, windbreaker, even sleeveless-- some even bought through the year, different in every way except for one: they were all two sizes too small. I’m an avid believer in corporate America despite its reputation, the reward and punishment system really ...

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“Forced Resolutions” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #25

Anna was the first to arrive at the restaurant, which of course had been her plan. It meant she could take her seat and gather herself, without having to worry about being late and flustered. She’d hope that by being there, the same place they always met, she’d be able to absorb the atmosphere. She’d hoped she could find the person that she once was, if only for an evening of normality. It wasn’t going well- not drinking made it particularly hard- until Lucy turned up and started yammering away. Listening was easy. All Anna needed to do was ...

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“Celia Lied” by Perry Terrell

Submitted to Contest #25

Celia LiedBy Perry Terrell The very first day of last year Celia wrote down five resolutions that she was bound and determined to keep. Number one was to lose weight. She has two closets full of clothes and cannot wear over ten pieces. She has to keep washing and wearing those same ten pieces of clothing over and over again. Sometime, when she is in a hurry, they don’t get washed; and she stays self-conscious whil...

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“Jannus' Eyes” by Kara O

Submitted to Contest #25

Winter came resolute to the fields of Jannus, the two-faced god of new years and New Year’s resolutions. His workers filed into two lines: those who had accomplished their New Year’s resolutions, and those who hadn’t.In one line was a girl with curls like descending clouds around her ebony face, who looked to the other line with a shy smile. Her calloused hands gripped her worn out apron as her heart beat with emotion she would not divulge. When her friend caught her look, her friend grinned and waved. They had said their farewells in ...

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“Reflection” by Sam Kirk

Submitted to Contest #25

Worried that I might be late for class, I took two steps at a time as I rushed upstairs towards the classroom.“Sociology canceled” – the sign on the door read.It went on to explain that the professor fell ill at the last minute and that a make-up class would be scheduled and announced via email at a later time.Sociology was a two-hour long class, after which I had Politics. A dilemma presented itself. Since I did not live on campus, I could not go back to my room and nap for the next two hours. Instead, I would have to wait for the bus, whic...

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“I'd Rather Not” by Cassia Y

Submitted to Contest #25

Boots clicking on the brick floor, gloved hands in the pockets of my coat, woolly hat snugly fitted over my head. People taking down their Christmas decorations, shoving snow out of the sidewalk. Cars rumbling down the road, tires grinding each turn they take. And pedestrians spitting into the gutters, sticking their chewing gum underneath the railing. It's the New Year, but it doesn't seem any different from last year.The frosty breeze tickles my cheeks as I continue down the pavement, the cold seeping through the layers of my clothes and g...

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“My Biggest Regret” by Gillian Brayne

Submitted to Contest #25

It was pitch black. It came so quickly, and the sheer horror of the fall along with it. Who knew that once it came to that time, you would freeze. The thing that you had always prepared for, the moment that you were so sure that when you were thrown into it, you would make the right decision. I looked up into the ineffably blue sky; the sun gleaming hard and unsettlingly into my eyes. I laid quietly, absolutely still as the thoughts of what just transpired seeped into my mind. How did I get here? What did I do to deserve this? How is it that...

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“Something New” by Amelia Coulon

Submitted to Contest #25

Priscilla watched the long, slow burn of the cigarette in her left hand between her first two fingers with something akin to hatred. And desire. The taste of each draw was like poison on her tongue and the air she breathed in, a concoction of waiting death. She exhaled, nearly unable to wait to get the stained filter back up between her lips for another draw. After a few more puffs, she crushed the half-smoked stick against the nearby ashtray in disgust. It joined the myriad of other barely used cigarettes which littered the tray atop the pi...

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“Better” by Emma W

Submitted to Contest #25

"I'll do better this year." I say the words to myself in the gas station mirror, the cracks and scratches into it distorting the image of my face. It is a simple resolution, the same one I made last year. Yet here I am, dying my hair and changing my clothes in a gas station bathroom needing to get anywhere but here. I don't know that grand larceny counts as doing better. I don’t know that dying my hair and changing my clothes and trying to get as far away from here as possible to avoid spending my foreseeable future in an iron cell counts as...

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“I will resolve to” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #25

I will resolve to Wanda thought that New Year’s resolutions were important. Each year she wrote them down and printed them up, so that she could check them off at the end of the year, or repeat them and try harder to stick to them the next year. That was part of the routine she had developed for December 31st . She would go through what happened during the year, would give her body a careful check (concerning the effects of desserts and beer), and see how well she had kept the resolutions from the year before. &nb...

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“Guideposts” by Lenore Butcher

Submitted to Contest #25

Guideposts If a plan is just a list of things that didn’t happen, then resolutions are just guideposts on a path never taken. That cheerful thought was in Gabby’s mind as she resignedly yanked on the cord that raised the garage door. She had promised herself that she would tackle this chore today and while she’d never kept a resolution in her life, she didn’t want to start breaking promises to herself as well. &nbs...

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“The Power of Resolutions” by Tom Kottackal

Submitted to Contest #25

Alex is fourteen years old boy studying in Standard VIII. He was a hyper active person and his parents were almost fed up of helping him. They could not understand him. They gave him many guide -lines to study and behave. Unfortunately none of those was in his dictionary and so he could never keep them. Teachers failed to help him and they gave up training him. He was good at football but he would break the leg or hand of one of his companions on the ground and there would be fight regarding that. The companions used to call him by a ni...

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“A final resolution. (for Sara. ××) ” by Jindu James-Ibe

Submitted to Contest #25

Last year, when the year was still new, I said it would all have changed before we ran out of another three sixty-five. I promised that it would all change for the better. I couldn't keep that promise, or the one I made before that on the same day, three hundred and sixty-five days prior. Or the many others that now lay at the bottoms of your hearts and mine like pennies tossed into a fountain, a fountain that spurts forth blood instead of water. A fountain that can barely stay in one piece now, because how can a heart entrusted with the pie...

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“An Awakened Resolution” by Lily Matheson

Submitted to Contest #25

Last year, what of it? I recall events that feel to have lasted for years, when they merely composed weeks. You see, I have not forgotten all that had burdened me last year. It’s silly really, all the odd things that managed to distort the year I had planned to be the year. Perhaps it was those pestering neighbours of mine, who still can’t seem to keep their newborn dragons quiet, or perhaps those nettlesome elves — who I always find meddling in my kitchen, as I try to bake my le...

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Write a short story about someone reflecting on their previous year's resolutions.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 33 stories

“New Year’s Restitutions ” by Matt Strempel

“The Red Rice ” by Mariah Tyndall

“Forced Resolutions” by Iona Cottle

“Celia Lied” by Perry Terrell

“Jannus' Eyes” by Kara O

“Reflection” by Sam Kirk

“I'd Rather Not” by Cassia Y

“My Biggest Regret” by Gillian Brayne

“Something New” by Amelia Coulon

“Better” by Emma W

“I will resolve to” by John Steckley

“Guideposts” by Lenore Butcher

“The Power of Resolutions” by Tom Kottackal

“A final resolution. (for Sara. ××) ” by Jindu James-Ibe

“An Awakened Resolution” by Lily Matheson

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a short story about someone writing Valentine's Day wishes.

Write a short story about someone who refuses to write New Year's resolutions.

Write a short story about someone accomplishing one of their resolutions.

Write a short story about someone in the self-help aisle of a bookstore. What book do they pick up?

Contest #25

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

263

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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