Year One Fiction in Five Winners

All winning stories from August, 2010 – June, 2011 are now published in the first annual Fiction in Five Anthology, now available at this link: First Annual Fiction in Five Anthology. You can also read each entry by clicking on the months below for each list.

June, 2011 Winners

June, 2011 Prompt

Pick ONE and one only of the following opening sentences for your story. Use it exactly as worded:

  1. “I woke up that hot, summer morning to the smell of fried bacon and the sound of chickens clucking in the front yard — my first hints that something wasn’t quite right.”
  2. “The last thing you expect to find in a swimming pool is….”
  3.  “Aunt Belinda warned me not to go the palm reader at the fair last summer. But of course I wouldn’t listen.”

Then, in the body of your story use all six of these words in any order:

  1. Sunscreen
  2. Umbrella
  3. Charm
  4. Chrysanthemum
  5. Pink
  6. Calendar

April, 2011 Winners

April, 2011 Prompt

Choose ONE and only ONE of the following prompts:

  • Your character is a writer. But his (or her) new neighbors are so noisy that he can neither work nor sleep. He decides to take action….
  • Your elderly character escapes from the retirement home where his or her children have placed him or her….
  • Your character is caught shoplifting. The shop owner says that she won’t call the police in exchange for a personal favor….

In addition to the prompt you have chosen, use all five of the following nouns in your story:

  1. Water bottle
  2. Pineapple
  3. Napkin
  4. Photograph
  5. Chocolate bar

To read the first, second and third place winners in the Previous Fiction in Five Contests, click on the links below. The prompts for all the past contests are listed under the link for each month’s winning entries.

February, 2011 Winners

February Fiction in Five Story Prompt

Please choose ONE of the following prompts as the theme or starter for your story:

  1. Clarence the Candy Maker rubbed his hands gleefully. Today, he would introduce the world to a whole new kind of Valentine’s Day candy.
  2. Mi-Lin woke up itchy. Seeing tiny red spots all over her arms, she groaned. What could be worse than chickenpox on the day of the school Valentine’s festival?
  3. If I had my way, there would be no such thing as Valentine’s Day!

In addition, please use at least five of these six phrases/words in your story:

  1. Red velvet
  2. Tiny bites of chocolate
  3. Street car
  4. Basement
  5. Adventure
  6. Candy hearts

December, 2010 Winners

Story Prompt: This time you have a choice of prompts to work with. Following are three different prompts. Pick ONE of them and then write your story, using the prompt for the theme and making sure the six words listed below the prompts are all in the story.

Prompts:

  1. All the elves were hard at work in Santa’s workshop … all but one, that is. …
  2. Aunt Mable always makes fruit cake in December. She wraps it in rum-soaked cloths to ‘cure’ and then gives everyone a loaf for Christmas. What will you do with your fruit cake this year?
  3. It is Christmas Eve and the bookstore stayed open late, hoping to attract some last-minute shoppers. The bell jangled over the door, followed by a burst of snow and cold air as it was pushed open. I gasped as I saw who was coming in . . . .

Please use the following words in your story:

  1. Holly
  2. Mistletoe
  3. Presents
  4. Twinkling lights
  5. Snowflakes
  6. One bright star

October, 2010 Winners

Story Prompt: Halloween is coming the end of this month, so let’s focus our writing on a fun, maybe a little scary, Halloween story we can tell to a group of five year olds. This month’s prompt will be to write a 750-1000 word Halloween kid’s story using the following six words somewhere in the story:

  1. Spider
  2. Candy
  3. Black cats
  4. Princess
  5. Black pot
  6. Broomstick

September, 2010 Winners

Story Prompt: For this contest, the following three objects must be used somewhere in the story.

  • A dog leash
  • A down comforter
  • A ceramic figurine
  • The story prompt is: The main character arrives at the party 20 minutes late. He/she is looking for the host/hostess to explain/apologize for  his/her tardiness when he/she is startled by . . . you finish the story – and don’t forget to include the above three objects!

August, 2010 Winners

Story Prompt: You come home from a long, frustrating day to your empty apartment. A cell phone is ringing on the kitchen counter. It is not your cell phone.

First and Second Place winners are given access to pre-recorded Webcasts. If you would like access to a 20/10 Webcast (20 minutes for $10), click here!

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