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#163 Leo Tolstoy

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9th, 1828 — so happy birthday, Leo! In his novels, Tolstoy explored the intricacies and contradictions of ordinary people, as well as examining the nature of power, history, and society as a whole. In his later years, he renounced his aristocratic lifestyle to focus on a more spiritual path, promoting the idea of nonviolent resistance. 


This week’s prompts pay homage to one of history's greatest writers and most interesting thinkers.

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone breaking an awkward silence at a family dinner.

– 36 stories

Write about a character who is living through a major historical event — whether they know it or not.

– 39 stories

Write about a character who risks everything to pursue their heart’s desires.

– 19 stories

Write a story about someone facing death for the first time in their life.

– 86 stories

Write a story in which someone says “You'll never be content.”

– 51 stories

Stories

By Many Names

Weekly Contest #163

Breathe in. The world moved too fast and too slow all at once, the edges of my vision black and spotty.  “Get an IV started immediately, we might need to start the surgery.” I didn’t recognize the voices that swirled around me, in a way, I felt very much like Alice trying to understand Wonderland through talking flowers and smoking caterpillars. Breathe out. I took a catalog of what hurt, I knew there was a burn somewhere on my arm. I knew there was pressure building in my head, and bruises blossoming on my chest and neck. “The assai...

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Cream Colored Misery

Weekly Contest #163

The midday Saturday sun creeps in through the cracks in the crappy hotel blinds; they roll over in the lumpy bed and groan.  The Advil on the bedside table has a blue child safety lid already uncapped and waiting for them. They fumble for it without opening their eyes, hitting the lamp with the back of their hand and retracting it, hissing in pain. Finally, they settle on the medication and pull it back into the fortress of a lumpy bed, shaking a couple of pills into their hand and swallowing them dry.  Outside, a vacuum sounds– th...

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Cherry Bomb

Weekly Contest #163

Despite being a successful television actor, Cherry Adams is a wayward young woman. Tonight, she fixates on a shopfront with pulsing neon signs—pressing her face on the glass and bathing hungrily in the rainbow light. She smears the windows with her oily skin, but the despondent newsagent who usually shoos her away with his broom has not made his presence felt yet. An automated street cleaning vehicle follows its preset route along the street where Cherry is ensconced. The sleepy nightshift operative who is supposed to be looking out fo...

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Closing The Circle

Weekly Contest #163

Damn the traffic. Three hours sitting in a traffic jam, horns blaring, angry drivers thumping their steering wheels even though it was futile. The sun went down in a blaze of red, burning like hot coals. It was a stunning contrast to the concrete of the motorway, the traffic moving slowly now, too slowly. I had meant to get there in daylight. I'd hoped to see the outside and inside of the house, a house I'd left hurriedly twenty years before. It was not to be.I dissociated from all the cars. My mind was full of the past, the rustle of beauti...

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Sacrifice

Weekly Contest #163

The smell of blood and waste hung in the air like a wet blanket, smothering everything with its weight. Nelina Maefield wrinkled her nose, breathing through her mouth to keep from throwing up.Dead soldiers littered the corridor, their bodies lying there like broken marionette puppets. Nelina had started this tour with her blue silk skirt lifted high above the carnage, but now a dark stain was creeping its way up to the point where it no longer seemed to matter.The young servant acting as her guide walked stiffly, his face a pale shade of gre...

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Truth and Happiness

Weekly Contest #163

I sat idly at the table playing with my food, doing my best to avoid telling my daughter about my decision. What would Amanda think, I said to myself. Glancing at her eyes, I could tell she sensed something was off. She repeatedly shifted her focus from her dish to my face, until she couldn’t stand it anymore. Gently, Amanda placed her fork on the table, and as it struck its surface, its sound broke the deathly silence filling the room. “What is it, dad,” she asked. It was a simple question, one that should have been easily answered, but ...

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Family Dinner

Weekly Contest #163

Family Dinner  “Dinner has arrived!” Lydia announced her voice shaking, placing the beautiful turkey at the centre of the table surrounded by everything else.  The silence could be cut with the very carving knife her husband, Thomas, held. She took her seat to his right and smiled nervously at everyone around the table, as he began carving. Her in-laws,Clara and Robert scowled at her. Her sister, Zara, sat on the edge of her chair, trying to keep her temper in check, waiting for even the slightest comment to unleash her rage....

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Dinner Cross Talk

Weekly Contest #163

Note: this story contains the topic of cross-dressing.  John put his fork down. The bustling family dinner had gone quiet. Even his kid brother, Carl who’d blabbed on him was silent, but his cheeks were puffed out, like he was going to explode.. Mom in her light blue cotton shirt was looking down at her own plate, salisbury steak half eaten, same with gravy covered potatoes and peas. Dad, at the end of table, still in his work shirt, stared up at the dingy popcorn stucco ceiling, only the whites of his eyes dangling from his brows.. ...

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The Eavesdropper

Weekly Contest #163

It’s so quiet at the Quinbee dinner table. All I hear is clinks and clanks of silverware scraping across plates. Oops. I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Annabeth June Quinbee.  This dinner we’re having… I made it, but I didn’t have a choice. Either I make it or we all starve.  No one helped me either. My mom, dad and sister had more ‘important’ things to do.  There’s one person missing. My big brother, Alexander. He’s away at college. Anyway… As I reach for the bowl of creamy mash potatoes, I glance arou...

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The Bold and the Bashful (or Time Fortunate)

Weekly Contest #163

Time travel isn’t supposed to be possible. Hell, it’s not even probable. In fact it’s damn near the most improbable thing you’re expecting to hear about, especially given my situation. I’ve been in some tight jams before. But this? This one really takes the cake. Hell, this one takes the cake, the whole cake and nothing but the cake. If I was a gambler then I would comfortably tell you to put your money on my happy ass having extreme difficulties figuring out how to get out of this one. There I was: shirt untucked, pants down…did I mention I...

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I Was There

Weekly Contest #163

I don’t know why I went. I had never been there. It was not my kind of town. Not my kind of people, bunch of loud mouth rednecks. Not likely to buy any life insurance from me. I suppose, like most of the country, I was fascinated by them. They were drawing crowds everywhere, especially since that Paris trip. That day was no different. I suppose, it was because he was young, handsome, had that self-effacing humor. And that wife.I was surprised by the lack of traffic but then I realized most everybody in town was watching them. I drove around ...

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One Day

Weekly Contest #163

September 11th 2001 Three weeks of university life has been amazing. I love everything about college life from living in the dorms, to meeting new people, to my classes, even the food has been great. NYU is the best, the city is so wonderful. I was born and raised in New York and I never imagined city life would be this great. My parents were happy I chose a school near home. My father Lincoln is a firefighter who works a couple blocks from NYU and my mother Morgan is a doctor who works at Mount Sinai Beth Israel which is also close to me....

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Because it's boring

Weekly Contest #163

The old man is long-winded. That’s why I don’t ask him anything. Sure, I guess it was my fault. But in my defense the assignment was boring. Write about World War II. What did I know about something that happened seventy years ago and why did I care? So yeah, I kept putting it off. Until Mom found out and freaked out. I told her I didn’t know what to write. “Oh my God, James,” she said. “Why don’t you ask your grandfather for help? He was alive at that time. Or ask anyone, you crazy child?” Like she’s one to talk. Th...

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Birthday is an Ugly Word

Weekly Contest #163

In a large bedroom on the second story of a millionaires mansion in California, a tall girl with black hair that shines in the moonlight sat on the brick wall of her small terrace. She swung her socked feet gently as she watched the gentle wind sway the tulips that she had planted last summer. The breeze blew the scent of citrus from the orchard across from her house over to her. She inhaled and smiled, closing her eyes.  She could hear the stream behind her house, the frogs and crickets singing inside it. The leaves swayed and shook w...

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The Other Woman

Weekly Contest #163

Sitting in her dark room with nothing but the vanity lit, she looked at her naked skin, wondering if she was as beautiful as everyone else seemed to think.  Picking at every flaw  from her eyes to her teeth.  She put on her low maintenance makeup, and she began to think of how tonight was like any night, a night of socializing and being the only woman at the party with no one to hold on to.  Seeing all the women with their arms wrapped around their lovers’ arms, she knew she would walk in beautifully yet pitifully with no...

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