So, I won a short story competition
Hey all. Long time no talk. Hope you all are doing well. This week in the writing world I got some pretty terrific news. I won a short story competition.
Each Sunday via Instagram my favorite YA author Gayle Forman (author If I Stay, Where She Went, Just One Day, Just One Year, Just One Night, Leave Me, I Have Lost My Way and many other books), holds a competition called #SundayStory where fans submit stories via Instagram using the writing prompt she gives out. Fans use the prompt as the first sentence of their short story, in any genre, and post them within the comments of the post. Then in two weeks Gayle chooses a winner who will go on to receive a signed book of their choice and be featured on her instagram story (@gayleforman) which currently has 30.5K followers. Talk about the opportunity for exposure.
Well it was my lucky week and I won the competition. The writing prompt went as follows:
"____________! I screamed entering the ___________."
Here's my winning story:
"No!" I screamed entering through the front door of our childhood home. "This is wrong. He wouldn't want this." "It's written right here Sarah.", he says from the doorway. "Michael never would have wanted this. Never!", I scream as I throw myself down onto the couch and wrap myself in his favorite blanket. The one Mom stitched using his old baseball jerseys. It still has the rip in the corner from the time our dog Jessie took it out back to try and bury it. That dog was always into something. "Why are you even here?", I shout at the man still standing in my doorway. Once upon a time I would have called him my fiance. The love of my life. "You shouldn't be alone.", he says while scuffing his feet on the porch floor. "I don't have time for this.", I say as I get up off the couch and begin collecting things. The door opens and he says, "you can't take those things. They've already been donated." He reaches to grab some of the item but I push his hands away and continue collecting. "Sarah please stop. He wouldn't want this." "He wouldn't want this?! No you're right Todd. He wouldn't want this. He would want a chance to go on a date with that cute girl down the street he's always had a crush on. He would want to get his license and have his first legal drink at 21. He would want to live a full life. But guess what? He can't! He can't.", I say as I collapse to the ground once again wrapped in my brother's blanket.
