Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

Posted in Science Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 27 stories

“The Hovering Age” by Story Time

🏆 Winner of Contest #134

She’ll come down when she’s ready. My mother used to say when you reach the hovering age, it’s important to take your time. Don’t feel as though you need to keep yourself on the ground if your body wants to do something else. I hit the hovering age at thirteen. The first time I slammed the door in my father’s face, I looked down, and I was three inches off the ground. Always felt useless to me. Not to be able to fly--just hover. So I stopped right away. I didn’t have any interest in being an impractical person. My first boyfriend told me...

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“Dancing Colors” by Patrick Borosky

Submitted to Contest #134

Unending loneliness. "Okay, honey. I've got to go. Can I get you anything to drink before I leave for the day?" asked my dad even though he knew the answer all too well. Granted, my throat was dry, and it was practically begging for a nice, cold glass of ice water, but I really only wanted one thing from my father. Like him, I knew the answer all too well before I even asked the question -- one that was borderline begging. "Do you have to go? Can't you just stay a little longer?" His warm expression paled and became a pained frown as h...

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“Floating” by Hannah P. Simmons

Submitted to Contest #134

Study Log Subject: Human Female, locally known as MITSU 6:45am – BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Subject awakens. Looks at ALARM CLOCK. Heart rate has rapidly increased. Subject is exhibiting signs of distress. (CONSULTS LOGISTICAL STATISTICS) Deviation in pattern detected. Previous beginning time stamp was repeatedly noted to be forty-five minutes earlier at exactly 6:00am. This deviation possible cause of sudden erratic behavior. SCRAMBLE. Gravitational Reading – Base Normality, in spite of accelerated heart rate 8:00am – Subject ...

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“Life Inside A Red Balloon” by Kathryn Gabrielle

Submitted to Contest #134

I could tell you why I am inside this red balloon, but you wouldn't believe it! I recall driving to the party supply store to get some extra red balloons for a birthday party. The weather is stifling hot outside and I welcome the air conditioning inside the store. I pick up six bags of red balloons, when I notice that one of the bags is torn open. Walking over to the customer service desk, I hold up the bag of red balloons and say, “ I don't want this one, it is already torn open.”The woman behind the desk looks at me and without hesita...

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“Floaty Fallon” by Sharon Hancock

Submitted to Contest #134

People are afraid of a lot of stupid stuff, right? Clowns, the number thirteen, snakes, swapping souls with the undead, spiders—you get my drift. And for the most part, I agree, wholeheartedly, that irrational fears are just that. Irrational. Nonsensical. Stupid. I’ve never had much time for them, myself. Except for one teensy-tiny-itty-bitty thing that has always frightened me senseless. I can’t even talk about it. Thinking about it makes me cringe, takes my breath, sweating profusely now,OMG DON’T MAKE ME SAY IT! Heights. (P...

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“I am a Cloud ” by Sarbjeet Kaur

Submitted to Contest #134

I am a cloud. I was not always a cloud, but now that is what I am. I was born a little girl and was given my grandmother’s name. I still find it funny that my name was not even my own. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because I don’t go by anything now and soon it will slip my mind. My life is a peaceful one. I linger above in the great blue and I see the whole world. In the summertime, I would go cloud gazing with my brother on lemonade filled days but now I go people gazing. It’s more boring than I thought because nobody ever seems to ...

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“Uncle Sam and the depression,” by Mark Nicholson

Submitted to Contest #134

I woke up depressed. Waking up with depression is like waking up filthy dirty, but it’s not cured with a bar of soap and a long shower. Depression clings on like a withered snakeskin and I needed to shed this filthy putrid skin before it suffocated me to death. But here’s the rub, depression doesn’t want to peel off its host. It wants to hang on grimly and putrefy slowly making everything smelly and ugly. No few hours of Pythonesque struggle will see a neat sleeve of skin discarded like a ghostly shell of you left hanging in a maudlin manner...

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“Fluttering Feeling” by Anthony Aguirre

Submitted to Contest #134

“Hina! The bell rang.” My head jolted up from my desk. I wiped the drool from my mouth as I looked at who called my name. “Mori. Ah. Um, sorry. I must’ve fallen asleep.” I readjusted my feet, hoping they were firmly planted on the ground. “Yeah, I noticed. You always do this.” Mori teased. She flashed me a soft smile. “Come on. The school’s gonna be locked up soon.” She started walking ahead. “Right.” I got up from my desk and started to catch up with my friend. As Mori implied, it was the end of the school day, and no one else was on campus...

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“Planet NFW” by David Phillips

Submitted to Contest #134

“Son of a,” I said out loud as I tripped and fell on my face again. I had no idea what was happening on this planet. According to all the readings, this world should have had a similar gravity to earth. The last instrument reading I took before landing my tattered ship showed the g-force would be just ten percent greater than that of my home world. I had experienced much worse conditions and was not worried when I decided to land here for some much-needed repairs. As with all terra landings I was required to recon a boundary around my land...

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“Space Cat Adventures” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #134

My stomach gurgles in the engine room and I have to set down my wrench to address the emptiness. I pat my vest pockets for some semblance of food and I feel flatness. A bag of freeze-dried barracuda strips. Beautiful. Beggars can’t be choosers though. First one out the bag and down my throat launches my body into a uniformed squirm. It’s edible enough. The engine is fixed at last. The hull has seen better days but I’m a room over from the gravity chamber according to the blood-muddled journal of the nameless, long-deceased engi...

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“Explore Weight” by Minerva Noiropp

Submitted to Contest #134

Auriel plummeted through the layers of ether. Dark colors spiraled behind her. It was the only evidence of her having passed through the thin atmosphere. This atmosphere was not made of air, however. It was of a spiritual substance. The ether was also her home. Looking to her south she noticed Michael struggling to catch his fall. His wings he depended on to keep him aloft in the ether had disappeared, much like hers. Streamers of red and green billowed out behind him. To the east she noticed Raphael blazing a purple and gold trail through t...

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“New North” by Sam Wilson

Submitted to Contest #134

Gravity separation is the idea that two items can be separated by weight, using gravity as the filtering factor.The idea that a soul weighs twenty-one grams has always seemed a bit foolish to me. However, the soul must have mass, and our souls must weigh the exact same, down to the milligram, because there’s no way I can imagine we would have found each other if not for the gravitational separation. Everyone else had been filtered out from the world, and we went colliding into each other like atoms in a molecule bound for an inseparable chem...

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“Priscilla falls for Dr Anderson and Things Get Heavy” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #134

Priscilla floated out of bed. The idea of gravity never occurred to her before she fell for Dr Anderson.Without gravity she never “picked her head off the pillow” in the morning. She never “stood” for anything, nor felt “heavy hearted” when decisions needed to be made.Those were the types of things he said, but for Priscilla most days she happily drifted through life cleaning and organizing, checking in on neighbors. Occasionally playing a practical joke when someone wasn’t home and moving their things around just to keep life interesting.“L...

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“Gravity, is working against me” by Gianluca Angelucci

Submitted to Contest #134

Gravity, is working against me.Just to be clear, I’m not a moron. I know my Newtonian physics, the laws of gravity work on me just like anybody else. The thing is, and I know for sure, the thing is that gravity has got something against me.Why would it be so aggressive is beyond my understanding, but I can feel it pushing me down, compressing my bones, my stomach. Opposing my every move.I tried to get it checked, first I got to the best physicians in the country. They tried with blood analysis, x-rays, postural gymnastics, positrons, CT-scan...

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“Emotional Baggage” by R. B. Leyland

Submitted to Contest #134

Stamping furiously towards the monolith of a building in front of her, Agrile drew the eyes of the many passers-by with her bedraggled look. The first time She had sent one of them out in years, and it had to be on a bloody day like this. She had a sense of humour, it seemed. That didn’t even break a smile on Agrile’s face as an icy tendril of water slid down the back of her collar, courtesy of the cheap umbrella she had bought as the storm had set in. Weighing her down as always, her anger fuelled her forwards and kept her feet on the groun...

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Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 27 stories

“The Hovering Age” by Story Time

“Dancing Colors” by Patrick Borosky

“Floating” by Hannah P. Simmons

“Life Inside A Red Balloon” by Kathryn Gabrielle

“Floaty Fallon” by Sharon Hancock

“I am a Cloud ” by Sarbjeet Kaur

“Uncle Sam and the depression,” by Mark Nicholson

“Fluttering Feeling” by Anthony Aguirre

“Planet NFW” by David Phillips

“Space Cat Adventures” by Daniel Brown

“Explore Weight” by Minerva Noiropp

“New North” by Sam Wilson

“Priscilla falls for Dr Anderson and Things Get Heavy” by Scott Christenson

“Gravity, is working against me” by Gianluca Angelucci

“Emotional Baggage” by R. B. Leyland

🌟 Similar prompts

Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual — what is it?

Set your story beyond our own world.

Write about a character who has a ‘hot and cold’ personality — or is affected by someone like this.

End your story with a character looking out on a new horizon.

Contest #134

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

224

Contest entries

128

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: