Set your story in the woods or on a campground.

Posted in Summer on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 82 stories

“Welcome to Nature” by Cora Irelan

Submitted to Contest #143

“I’m telling you, it was awful!” “Come on, sis. It was a camping trip with your boyfriend. Sleeping under the stars, cuddled up in a sleeping bag–that’s romantic. How bad could it possibly have been?” She transferred the baby from her hip to his highchair as she asked. “Oh ho ho! You have no freaking idea! Let me paint you a picture…” # The couple arrived at the site just after noon. The trees offered welcome shade from the blazing sun above, and a refreshing breeze blew over the lake toward them. They could see the water through a gap in...

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“Ice-breaker” by V VAIDEHI

Submitted to Contest #143

It sounded like the drone of an airplane overhead. Kiran pricked up her ears and sat up along with her sleeping bag. She looked at the huddled figure next to her in the cramped tent. He stirred, and peeped out with a question mark on his face. His head and neck were wrapped in a woolen cap and a muffler. He had ignored ...

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“Deep Woods” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #143

If you have ever been up in the hills of California around the Sierras near Truckee, there are some deep woods. As a younger man, I used to be employed by lumber camps. That’s where I met Jim Northrupt, another malcontent from the San Joaquin Valley tired of working on his father’s large alfalfa farm near Tracy. We were just kids back from the war in the Pacific and suddenly the world wasn’t as large as it had been when we left. We were in the same unit, Jim and I. We saw a lot of our buddies get chewed u...

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“The Saga of Scout Ken and Trapper Mike” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #143

The bushes rustled. The taunting hoot of an owl sent shivers through him. Trapper Mike heard soft, hesitant footfalls. Someone was watching him, sneaking up on him. All he had wanted to do was find Frankie Cincinnati’s party. Now he was lost in a pitch-black forest and was about to be eaten. How did his life come to this? The saga of Scout Ken and Trapper Mike began one August night in the early 1980s. Before then, they were simply Ken Radford and Mike Harrison. Their friends tagged them with their nicknames because they had an amusing ...

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“Nobody Can Make You Bleed Your Own Blood” by Carmen Lee

Submitted to Contest #143

You know those moments in life that seem eternal, but are really ephemeral? Those moments when you’re on the brink of existential discovery, because it’s you and nature. It’s you and the universe. It’s just you…zzzzzzzzzzzThen it’s not.ZZZZZZZZZZNo. That is not the sound of peaceful snoring as you sleep in the unencumbered natural habitat of humanity (which is the fancy way of saying outside). That is not a peaceful drifting of a person who has fallen asleep in their tent under the twinkly sky above them, as the trees whisper in a cocooning ...

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“Tony’s Picnic - Another Tony Adventure” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #143

Tony, Antonia’s stuffed panda, tried to control his excitement. He watched the commotion of prepping for a family excursion to the woods. Anticipation made him quiver with excitement. Not wanting to be left behind, he sat amidst the chaos. Tony always wanted to go on a picnic and ‘Get back to the land,’ as the song said. Only Tony heard, ‘get back to bamboo.’ Either way, he wanted to reconnect with his roots. Especially if they were bamboo roots. Antonia placed Tony atop the wicker picnic basket. She called out, “Mom! That’s everythi...

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“She Could Simply Walk Away” by Harriett Ford

Submitted to Contest #143

She Could Simply Walk Away Jemma heard the sound again, a low moan coming from across the swamp. She had previously dismissed it as the groan of a live oak branch rubbing against another in the breeze, a common enough sound in the wetlands. This time she inclined her head toward the fan of palmetto leaves and listened intently. Moonlight penetrated through ghostly fingers of Spanish moss draped above her head, limning the trees in black against the starlit sky. She could smell the scent of decaying vegetation and feel the damp, cloyin...

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“The Frozen God ” by Adam S. Karofsky

Submitted to Contest #143

“Something is definitely out there watching us.” “Hansen, give it a rest, would ya?” Clifford said, giving her coat a shake to dislodge the snow that had gathered around her collar. “I’m being fucking serious Cliff, I swear it’s out there.” Hansen squinted against the darkness and the ever-present falling of flakes for movement in the deep shadows of the forest. The light from their campfire would glance off the trees nearest to them before being swallowed by the depths. “You know these things only come out during the daytime, right? Y...

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“The Rankalank” by Hamzah Malik

Submitted to Contest #143

The RankalankOnce upon a time there lived a boy called Northum, who loved animals fondly. One day, a few days after his eighteenth birthday, he saw a man beating a horse in the woods, its pleading neighing slicing through the cool evening air.Without thinking, Northum ran towards the horse and beat the man with a bag of apples he had, his anger seething out of his mouth in breathless hissing.You see, reader, Northum had an affinity for animals, but also had quite the temper. When the man, who was both shocked and angry that a young boy was b...

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“The Woods Don't Like City Girls” by Ginger Scharpe

Submitted to Contest #143

The Woods Don’t Like City Girls Candice was a city girl. What was she thinking, saying yes to Todd? Go camping, her friends had said; it will be fun, Todd said. Candice really wanted to impress Todd. They had only been dating for a month and she knew he loved the outdoors. She had never been camping, never been in the woods, never even roasted a marshmallow. When Todd told Candice that he had a camper and it was more like “glamping,” glamorous camping, she gave in. How bad could it really be? Famous last words. Todd showed up in front of...

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“Scores Settled - Don't Dig Deep” by Latha Prakash

Submitted to Contest #143

The autumn leaves crushed under Jennifer's feet as she walked in the woods. The breeze cooled her face. The open sweat pores that acted as a fountain were now shut. A calming kind of chill rolled down her neck, arms and hands. This rendezvous with nature was all she needed to calm her frayed nerves. Jennifer was a photographer who worked for a reputed publishing office in New York. Despite her flourishing career, she felt that something was amiss in her life. Upon a suggestion from her friend, she resorted to some soul searching. She...

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“The Bird Sang” by Sherri Moorer

Submitted to Contest #143

That bird has come to that same spot on our back deck every day for two years, I thought as I drank my coffee and watched the sunrise in the woods around my house. It was no coincidence. Two years since the world shut down. Two years since Dad was diagnosed with cancer that took him three months later, leaving me isolated in a frightened, chaotic world, with nothing but the trees and this sole bird singing on the banister to remind me that the world still turned. Two years since the life I knew came unraveled and wove into a new tapestry o...

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“A Clearing, A Waking” by Lucas Malan

Submitted to Contest #143

The fire crackled merrily in the distance, it's flames casting long shadows between the trees that reached until where Klaus was standing. Fiddling with something in the semi-dark, the teenager wasn't paying attention to his surroundings at all. Low voices washed over to him with the wind, talking of haunted huts and lost children. Every now and again gasps could be heard, or a faint whimper.Klaus had been here a lot in his life, and knew these woods like the back of his hand – if it hadn't been for his over-enthusiastic dad he would never h...

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“THE RED POND” by GEORGE LEVY

Submitted to Contest #143

RETURN TO SHILOH 1,057 words The pond haunts my sleep these past twenty...

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“Eternal Dawn” by Dhruv Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #143

As the afternoon turned to evening, Caleb noticed the clouds had thickened through the finely stenciled canopy of spruce trees. In the gathering darkness, they hovered above his campsite like massive totems, peering down at his solemn abode. The ground was littered with caramel colored pine needles mixed with white snow, half an inch deep at its worst. It was late March, and that meant it was the dominion of crows; their harsh tones provided the only auditory stimulus outside of the gentle whistling of the breeze. Caleb stared at the ...

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Set your story in the woods or on a campground.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 82 stories

“Welcome to Nature” by Cora Irelan

“Ice-breaker” by V VAIDEHI

“Deep Woods” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

“The Saga of Scout Ken and Trapper Mike” by Michael Jefferson

“Nobody Can Make You Bleed Your Own Blood” by Carmen Lee

“Tony’s Picnic - Another Tony Adventure” by John K Adams

“She Could Simply Walk Away” by Harriett Ford

“The Frozen God ” by Adam S. Karofsky

“The Rankalank” by Hamzah Malik

“The Woods Don't Like City Girls” by Ginger Scharpe

“Scores Settled - Don't Dig Deep” by Latha Prakash

“The Bird Sang” by Sherri Moorer

“A Clearing, A Waking” by Lucas Malan

“THE RED POND” by GEORGE LEVY

“Eternal Dawn” by Dhruv Srivastava

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who loves cloud gazing.

Start or end your story with a person buying a house plant.

Write about a trip to see a natural sight that’s usually only ever seen in photos.

Write a story involving a friendship between two different species.

Contest #143

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

253

Contest entries

139

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: