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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a character setting an unusual New Year’s resolution.

Posted in Holiday on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 26 stories

“Drunk Death” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #126

“Death wasn’t a thing when I accepted the job. It’s not fair to trap someone in an eternal contract when they have no concept of what they’re being asked to do. The way I understood it was I was simply helping a soul pass from the mortal stage of their existence to the next. They got constructive feedback on their life choices, and it would help them be better people.             Reality? No. I have to comfort more than ten thousand children starving to death every day. That’s hard ...

38 comments 38
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“The Bell Keeper” by Santina Forlenza-Pihuličova

Submitted to Contest #126

** Capital punishment.** The paint was not of the most recent and neat, but the Tic-Tac-Toe’s Xs and Os staining it resembled fine embroidery. Flies found death in the old wall’s cracks and printed their last shadows on it, like stamps on a postcard nobody is pleased to receive.The four walls surrounding him had the night sky as a roof and dark stones as a floor. Handy was not sure it was night but if it was then that night was the longest the world could expect. Thirty years. Thirty years in the dim light of something that lo...

13 comments 13
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“The 100 Club” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #126

*Note: The following document was found taped to a lamppost in the middle of Times Square during the New Year’s Day festivities. The envelope had the words ‘Read Me’ and led to a tourist reading through the entire document and then handing it over to the local authorities. The material here is being released in case anyone can provide some information to prevent whomever wrote it from completing their plan. Although it seems harmless, this could cause many problems with the current quarantine rules and restrictions. - from the NYPD * Dear Ci...

4 comments 4
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“Monsters on New Year's” by Grace Gerrish

Submitted to Contest #126

“That’s it, I’m finished!” Calix announced as he entered the abandoned warehouse. Black blood dripped from his clothes onto the concrete floor. “I swear it, Allard. No more prophecies or monsters or fate. I’m done with it all!”         Allard came rushing as fast as his ragged leg would allow. An injury he had sustained years ago from a similar beast Calix had bested tonight. A beast that had punctured his new armor within moments and ruined his celebration.      &nbs...

4 comments 4
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“Item #1” by Maureen MacLennan

Submitted to Contest #126

Item #1 He’s been thinking about it for months now, just quitting. It shouldn’t be hard and truth told it would be harder on everyone if he kept going. Sitting back in his recliner with a pad of paper and pen he decided to write down his resolutions for the next year. His mother had trained him in this habit decades ago. It didn’t always work, planning and promising activities, or in this case the cessation of activities. He could quite literally dig out resolution lists from years gone by. He kept them to remind himself of how far he’d f...

4 comments 4
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“The Ramen Noodle Ban” by Carlie Shaw

Submitted to Contest #126

"Happy New Year!" Everyone around me screams. I am surrounded by my classmates. All seventh graders in the same public school. A girl named Hailey threw a New Years Party. I look over and out of the corner of my eye I see a 12 year old "couple" sharing a forbidden kiss. They think they're grown. I begin walking around trying to find my friends that I somehow wondered away from earlier. I see my friend Lilly. I can tell it is her even though I'm behind her. Her big, curly hair gives it away."I know you saw Max and Ayla kissing!" She shrieks a...

3 comments 3
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“New year's resolution” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #126

A new year is just around the corner… time to reflect in silent meditation on the past months and conjure up resolutions for the new year. What is a new year’s resolution? A decision to do or not to do something, to accomplish a personal goal or break a habit? Have you ever had luck with keeping up new year´s resolutions in the past? I haven´t, and I don´t think I know anybody who ever stuck to their resolution past a few weeks. Lose weight, exercise more. No more alcohol. That one tends to stick till Valentine's Day, and then: pop goes the ...

4 comments 4
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“Proof of Love” by Charlene 🧙‍♀️✨ Boyce

Submitted to Contest #126

TW: abusive relationship described. Old Man Luedecke had released his Proof of Love album in the late summer. Of course we had seen him live four times through the spring and summer. Once in a church, where the sound rolled through the polished wood like amber honey and scotch pouring into a crystal glass. Twice at the coffeehouse where we sipped our craft sodas with an all ages crowd. And once at a giant club where he looked out of place surrounded with empty stage, perched on a chair with his wool sweater and banjo, and where only about ...

5 comments 5
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“CEO makes a binding New Year Resolution for Corporate Underlings” by Rajiv Iyer

Submitted to Contest #126

[Note: Some profanity (mainly the a-word and f-word), sharp satire]On New Year’s Eve 2021, Grimraj reflected upon the year that went by, and the grim tally of everything he had achieved with grim satisfaction, while he was en-route to a watering hole to ring in the New Year with his co-workers, and celebrate their achievements in grand style. For you see, 2021 had been a stellar year for him; he had clocked-in only God knows how many hours , achieved all his targets and then some. 2021 was the year when the CEO finally noticed him as a stand...

6 comments 6
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“Resolutions” by Kev Neylon

Submitted to Contest #126

There were six of us sat around that table in The Crown on New Year’s Eve. The same six of us who met in the pub nearly every week; Dave, Chris, Tony, Karl, Simon, and me. Doing what we always did; drinking lots of beers and taking the mickey out of each other. We had all made New Year’s resolutions previous years, big fanfare announcements to the rest of the boys. Promises to give up bad habits, or to take up something new, change something in our personality, trying to better ourselves. None of them ever stuck, so we had a new idea th...

6 comments 6
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“The New Year Steak” by Dragos Marcean

Submitted to Contest #126

“Ugh! Why must Samantha insist on having this atrocious ‘tradition’ every year? Must she always host the New Year’s Eve party? From the crack of dawn it’s nothing but dusting, vacuuming, decorating, cooking, cooking and more cooking. It’s exhausting! At least the house smells delicious, but is it worth the hassle? Not to mention the morning after when the dishwasher starts working and finishes at Easter.” It’s almost “showtime” and I'm starting to feel uneasy. I would have loved to spend the night alone with Sammy and enjoy the warmth of t...

5 comments 5
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“Resolved” by Rich Hosek

Submitted to Contest #126

Roger looked at the woman curled up next to him on his sofa while the New Years Eve show they were watching played on the television.  She smiled back at him. “So, any resolutions?” she asked. It was the same question he had heard from hundreds of different women in all the variations of New Years Eve he had experienced so far.  It was the question that had started it all. The first time had been asked about his resolutions for the coming year he had laughed it off. But his companion on that first changing of the calendar seemed of...

2 comments 2
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“Fortune Cookies” by Dorah Blume

Submitted to Contest #126

Inside a booth at the Golden Temple Chinese restaurant, he had ordered his standard beef with broccoli and frozen daiquiri; she slurped her second bowl of won ton soup. A half-eaten PuPu platter sat between them.  “A friend is a person with whom I can be sincere,” she said sipping her coconut drink. He ate with his mouth open. She avoided face-to-face contact even though they sat opposite each other. “Sincere about what?”  “Everything,” she said, thinking: Danger! Tread lightly.” She had deemed New Year’s eve the ri...

3 comments 3
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“Cactus Conundrum” by Catherine Douglas

Submitted to Contest #126

The final day of 1943 was a dismal one—gray, snowy, and cold. The Christmas attitudes of goodwill and kindness to each other was still prevalent among the German guards and their British prisoners as they sat at a table in the mess hall, playing cards and chess and enjoying the last of the Christmas cookies. “Does anyone set goals for the new year?” Private Kesby asked, breaking the silence. “Is that a thing here in Germany?” “It is, but it’s not something I do,” Corporal Viermitz replied. He looked at his fellow guards. They were shakin...

0 comments 0
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“Authentic” by Goddess V

Submitted to Contest #126

Amber stared at the ceiling watching the rain hit the skylights. The mimicked the feeling she couldn’t display and felt so deeply in the pit of her heart chakra. She would have to leave soon despite the fatigue. Rolling over in the condominium she rented, she thought over the last week of the conference. That awakened a soft smile. At the end of the year, she would go away for a week-long conference for the last six years. All week she met new people in her field of work and got a chance to see friends she made from previous years. This was...

6 comments 6
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🌟 Similar prompts

Start or end your story with one or more characters shouting “Happy new year!”

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Write about a character reflecting on the previous year.

Christmas – 19 stories

Write a story about two people who don’t know each other but bump into one other on New Year’s Eve (either once or every year).

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Write a story about someone seeking a fresh start after a difficult year.

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Contest #126

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