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Writing Contest~
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Writing Contest~
Writing Contest~
I'll give a one-word theme, and then you have to write a 100-1,000 word
story based on it. The winner I pick will then give a new one-word
theme, and they'll judge the next round. (So basically like the Poetry Contest thread, but for writing :)) The rules are:
1. It must be related to the theme in some way.
2. It must be in the 100-1,000 word limit.
3. It can be any genre.
4. No fanfiction, please.
The theme is: Bird
I will be judging on May 22th, so that should give you about two weeks. I
can extend the date if nessesary. I'm excited to see your responses!
submitted by pangolin, age she | they, Outskirts of the Galaxy
(May 8, 2023 - 12:25 pm)
(May 8, 2023 - 12:25 pm)
OMG Hex, loved your story, loved your pun.
(August 20, 2023 - 3:09 pm)
There are many different types of friendships. Some, are children, bonded through games and secrets and laughter. Some, forge a friendly aquantice through trade and jobs. Others, through family, or neighbors. But the best, I believe, is through dog and human.
Rainy was a young woman, with coco skin and thick, long dreadlocks. she had full lips and a beautiful smile, and deep chocolate eyes. she was tall, and prefered pants and long sleeves, boots, and a hat. Rainy constantly worked long and hard at her jobs, but she kept on getting passed on, unwanted, and she felt that she needed to hide. To blend into the ground.
Today was no expectation. She had been dismissed into the drizzly afternoon early, and now she was moping down the sidewalks under an umbrella. Dispite her name, she had never liked the rain much. As she passed by a thick bush, she heard a whimper that certaintly wasn't her. she paused, her shoes slowly getting soaked in a puddle, and peered into the dark, dripping foliage. Looking down low, her eyes alighted on a small black nose.
"a puppy?" Rainy said, squatting down to her heels. "Come here, honey." The black nose quivered, and a small, light brown head with floppy ears poked its head out.
"That's right," Rainy encouraged, holding out an hand. "good boy- er, girl- um." She bit her lip. the small dog stepped slowly out of the bush, big eyes looking sad at Rainy. She smiled her big smile, feeling so much better than she had in forever.
The puppy slowly but surely trotted over to Rainy's hand and sniffed it curiosly, then licked it. Rainy giggled, and the puppy looked at her, trust worming its way into the big eyes. "hey, boy," she said, for that was the gender. "are you lost?" the dog came to her, and didn't resist when she scooped him up. No collar, not even an indent as though it had come off. "No owner?" Rainy said, tickling behind his ear, umbrella discarded on the ground. The puppy yipped and lick her face happily. "Well. Now you do." Rainy picked up the umbrella and started walking again. "Friends, puppy?" The dog snuggled against her chest, trying to get warm, and completly agreeing with Rainy.
(August 20, 2023 - 3:07 pm)
(August 24, 2023 - 9:27 am)
Ahh!! How did it get to be the 25th so fast?! I'll move the date to the 26 in case anyone else still wants to join (and to give myself more time as well). @Lord Entropy, are you still submitting your piece? Also, I used your nickname if that's okay
Feiya says IAMTF. You're tax free? All right, thanks for the heads up Feiya! I'm at the age where I still don't have to pay taxes and I'd like to keep it that way please!
(August 25, 2023 - 5:47 pm)
(August 26, 2023 - 9:01 pm)
Alright, sorry again for the lateness of this! I'll try to make this short...
Honorable Mentions (in no particular order oc!)
KatPrincessForever!!
I love your writing style, how you're so to-the-point, and it's just a very distinctive style in general. I love how Nikki doesn't care about being popular, she just wants a friend, which, don't we all? My favorite part was probably when Iris proposed to Nikki and she said yes (very enthusiastically!). I have to appreciate all those ALL CAPS too because that's the way I write and you make them work terrifically! :)
BookGirl!!
I enjoyed reading about how JoJo found her friends group, and how she always had so much fun with them. I think that's what matters most about friends, that you can have fun with them and be yourself and feel good and stuff, and you showed that really well for JoJo! Nice job!
Third Place- Moon Wolf!!
That thing about transferring really hit hard for me because, as you guys know, I just transferred leaving all my friends behind, and a few years ago I was the one left behind by my BFF (she still is my BFF btw), so the way you showed all the feelings that come from friends transferring/moving and being left without any friends I felt was really well done and true. I love how at the end, on a cloudy day (not the usual clear sunny day), Reiyna works up the courage to talk to someone new, and how you left the ending open. Because that's not really what matters (in my interpretation), what matters is that she did that, can do that, that she can find it in herself to have (or is open to having) some friends again, even if the friend isn't who she's comfortable with and who was her friend for a long time (I probably just phrased that all really weird, right? Yeah... sorry)!
Second Place- Hawkstar!!
Your beginning, right off the bat, is amazing (I loved the line, "Some, are children, bonded through games and secrets and laughter." especially), and I was really happy that you took the theme and made it a friendship between a dog and human! Your writing is entrancing, especially the beginning few paragraphs, and you can really get a feel for who Rainy is. I love how Rainy and the puppy can find warmth with each other!
First Place- Hex!!!
How do I say this?? First of all, your writing is gorgeous, the description of "the old fisherman", how you used the repetition of "every morning" and added more to it (just all that repetition in general), something I never would've thought to have done, the description of the boat ("where there was nothing but sea and sky and one small boat"), how you liken it to the old fisherman, the description of the world around us, because it really does feel like the world is around us, your writing draws me in and I feel like I'm there, I can see everything and see everything clearly, and this was all just really well done. The placing of all those hyphens in the fourth paragraph is masterful, I love your interpretation of the prompt, I like the shipspeak (or whatever it's called, I wouldn't know), and oh do I love love love that pun (with my punny dad and all, how can I not? (though you've gotta appreciate it even without one))!! All in all, this was a joy and an honor to read, congratulations! You're our next judge!
(August 27, 2023 - 12:59 pm)
no, sorry man. im kinda busy and i forgot all about it
(August 27, 2023 - 12:35 pm)
oh gosh!! Thank you to Hawkstar for the compliment and Celine for judging! yesssss puns >:) All your comments were seriously so nice.
the next prompt is ghosts and I will be judging on September 9th, in approximately two weeks.
(August 27, 2023 - 9:50 pm)
Ooh, nice prompt! And love your location! And thanks for the compliment (assuming you're talking to me, which oh well even tho I hate assumptions I'm gonna assume anyways cuz I need to cuz whewf, I was so scared that I would end up offending everyone and not being able to get my point across and messing up spectacularly, part of why all that procrastination happened, bc ACKK FIRST JUDGING!!). And, it's fine Lord Entropy, don't sweat it! You see, when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I used to turn things in late all the time... no, I didn't. I was much less of a procrastinator when I was younger than now (my younger mindset: Get home. Do homework. Have fun. My now mindset: Get home. Think about doing homework. Have fun instead. Oh, it's past bedtime now and I still have homework to do! I blame covid. It made me lazy.). My attempts to add that saying to daily conversation have failed. Efforts now only include challenging ppl to use it in daily conversation as I myself obviously cannot. Sorry. BUT, I turn things in late now all the time, and.. well, yeah. You didn't do anything wrong. So yeah. You probably already knew that. Anyways, ghosts ghosts ghosts...
(August 27, 2023 - 11:33 pm)
But yes, everyone gets busy is what I meant to say (ackk what if I thought I was safe and then end up offending everyone anyways ackk)
(August 27, 2023 - 11:35 pm)
The sky was gray, the ground was gray, everything was gray. well, actually, it probably wasn't, but being a wandering and waiting spirit, that's how Esa saw the world. Ever since death, the world had turned gray, different shades, of course, but still gray. Esa had veiwed the world this way for so long, she had forgotten what any other color looked like. And all because she was waiting and would not go on yet was her eyesight like this.
Esa was waiting for her love. She had died in an accident years ago, as a young woman, just a few days after she became engadged with her love. It had been swift, and it hurt when she came to as a ghost, knowing she was alone. Ever since, she had wandered alone, waiting, sometimes checking on her love, watching him grow older. He had found new love, and she did not blame him. The other woman seemed quite like how she had been, but it still made Esa feel sad.
Today, Esa didn't know exactly where she had wandered, but the gray scene seemed nice enough. Due to the outfits of the people she drifted around, the weather looked to be nice, and there were flowers in the trees, so it was probably spring. Not that it mattered. Esa, as a spirit couldn't feel anything, and she went through everything. Glancing over her shoulder at a very cute puppy that was eyeing her, she slammed into something quite solid.
"Impossible!" she cried on instinct. To her surprise, a similar cry was uttered from what she had it. Looking, she saw a gray figure with a long nightgown staring at her in surprise. "who are you?" they both said at the same time.
"I'm Esa, and I'm dead. are you?" "Yes, I am dead. If I hadn't, you certaintly would've scared me to be! I'm Tracy."
Esa shook her head in disbelif. "in all my many years of wandering, I never have seen another spirit." "Me neither! I've been waiting a long time. I had an early death, and I'm waiting for my sister." Tracy gave Esa a small smile.
"I've been waiting for similar reasons," Esa nodded. "But it just seems... so long."
"I know," Tracy agreed. "I have almost given in and gone on, but... I'm scared to do it alone, I've been waiting for my sister so long."
"Yeah..." Esa said, lowering her head, "Me too."
they were quiet for a moment, then Tracy grabbed Esa's hand. It startled her all over again, for it had been so unframiliar, physical contact.
"Why don't we go togther?" Tracy suggested urgently. "It would be so nice to be able to finally move on."
Esa hesitated, then nodded slowly. "Yes. I think I'm finally ready." She grasped both of Tracy's hands in hers, and after she spoke, Esa felt a rush go through her body, making it feel real again. Then, color rushed back, blinding the two girls, and they vanished.
The adorable puppy watching let out a very surprised yip!
(August 30, 2023 - 3:41 pm)
Skyla Ever was walking down the road. She always walked down the road. It was worn and broken and gray, and reminded her of herself. Companions, the two were, always would be. The road led to the shabby side of town, the side with ramshackle shacks and children playing in the streets because there was nowhere else to play. And though Skyla came from the other side, from the side with big imposing mansions and clean white walls, she felt much more at home here, where the dirt blew up in clouds and plants grew wild. In fact, she much preferred how this side of the town, which the road, her dearest friend, always led her to, was different from the other side. From her side. She drifted up the streets of the town, passing by readers on the porch and people hanging up their laundry. It was a quiet day, and she reveled in the silence. A soft wind blew, from who knows where, tossing up her hair in gentle waves. Or, at least, it should've. Skyla Ever was a ghost, and ghosts couldn't be affected by outside forces like wind. They could, however, be affected by feelings. By memories. And Skyla Ever had a lot of memories in this town. Down that road. Through these streets. She had died here. Right here. She stopped at a bench, the place where her heart had given out. She had been old, and lonely, and visiting the town to have some companionship. To get away from the expectations and social events the other side boasted. The bench, like the road, which she had discovered on a walk, had seemed lonely, too, and so she had sat. She sat now. She sat and she thought. She had known it when she first started dying. She had felt her heart give way, wheeze, shudder, break under all the pressure. She knew the exact moment breath and pulse were taken from her. Her spirit unattached from her body. She knew when she became a ghost. A reminder of what once was and nothing more. Doomed to haunt a world where she had no true purpose, where nothing she did mattered, where she was forced to watch things unfold and life go on without her for eternity. She remembered that, right then, when she had first realized, she had quite liked it. Quite liked the idea of having only to watch, of not having to do anything, no expectations and no limitations. No one could bother her, could even touch her, anymore. She should've been lonely. But she found contentment in the quiet. In this aloneness. In the kind you could only get from being dead. She quite liked it now, still, though it has been 500 years of endless repetition. Every day the same, never changing, never faltering, routine and consistency and knowing. 500 years of the good life. For it was still life after death, she reasoned, life on both sides of the barrier. Skyla Ever knew she was odd for enjoying death life more than she had life life. She knew, and she didn't care. Maybe, once upon a time, she would've. When she had been alive, trying to fit into society's ideas of her, false ideas, ignoring who she really was. Hiding it. But now she was a ghost, and she didn't care, and there was no point in caring, and what there was was only freedom, freedom to do whatever she wanted, whatever she pleased, untethered from what others thought or wanted or even what they needed. She only had to think about what she needed, now. And Skyla Ever, ghost for half a millennium, sat on the bench, stared down the road, watched the children laughing around her... and she smiled.
(September 3, 2023 - 11:14 am)
Awww, that's a good story <333
(September 5, 2023 - 3:21 pm)
Thank you!! :))
(September 5, 2023 - 5:22 pm)
Elyria had always appreciated wolves, from their beauty to their mysteriousness to their fierceness. So when a silver wolf showed up at her doorstep, what was she to do except follow it?
But she was worried about her mother, who laid sick in bed in their cottage, wracked with coughing and pain. Her father had gone off to the nearest town, as they lived in the forest, to find medicine to give to her mother. Elyria was to take care of her mother while her father was away. And if she went off into the forest with a wolf, would that really be taking care of her mother?
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly. Maybe she was just imagining the wolf. But when she opened her eyes again, the wolf was still there, waiting expectantly. Elyria finally decided that she could try to bring her mother along, so she could keep an eye on her. She gently eased her mother onto a wagon, and went back to the wolf.
The wolf seemed to signal to Elyria to follow, so Elyria closed the door behind her gently, pulling the wagon behind her, before going out into the forest. Elyria rarely ventured into the forest, as both her parents said it was dangerous, but ever since she was young, she always wondered what mysteries and secrets the forest had to offer.
The wolf led her out to a forest clearing, as night began to fall. Elyria set down the wagon. Nothing happened, until the moon finally came out. Elyria could see ghostly figures roaming around, appearing as all sorts of animal species, as well as several human figures.
“Wh…who are they?” she asked the wolf.
The wolf, being a wolf, didn’t answer. Instead, it turned towards her with glowing yellow eyes, with something meaningful within them that she couldn’t tell what it was.
Suddenly, she heard her mother start coughing. She hadn’t been coughing at all during the forest venture, but now she had started to. Elyria rushed over to her mother, and gently cradled her mother’s face in her arms. She coughed for a long time, until finally, she stopped, her head dropping back onto the wagon.
Elyria knew at once that her mother had died. Her skin was becoming cold, and her heartbeat had stopped. Tears slowly leaked down from her eyes. Through her tears, she could see a ghostly figure now, slowly emerging from her late mother. The figure took the form of her mother before she had fallen sick, when she was still full of youth and strength.
Her mother gazed at Elyria’s confused and tearful face, and glanced at the wolf, who dipped its head. She smiled, a gentle smile, and cupped her hands around Elyria’s face, although Elyria only felt a cold air around her.
“Elyria, dear, don’t cry. Even though I have to leave you, you can still remember my presence, my love for you.” Now Elyria could see that ghostly tears were forming on her dear mother’s face. “I will always be in your heart. Now, I must go.”
Elyria, knowing she couldn’t stop her, gave a small nod. As all the ghosts began to fade from view, Elyria turned and saw that the wolf had disappeared into the forest undergrowth.
Elyria stood up, said one last goodbye in her heart, and walked towards her cottage.
(September 5, 2023 - 8:52 pm)