Tales Shown, Not Told Discussion Forum

 

 
Choose ONE of the prompts for your story. This round's prompts are:



Choose ONE of these prompts for your story. You're free to explore these prompts in whatever way you wish, but the prompt must be part of the story.

Suggestions.
For genre prompts, stay within the bounds of the genre. For the words prompt, use the words in a natural way, for example in narrative, description, thoughts, or in dialogue. It will help the judges if you boldface the words so that judges can find them. Grammatical variations of the basic word are permitted, for example "glimmering" uses the word "glimmer." For the character prompt, consider showing the reader how the prompt relates to the protagonist's character arc, i.e., their goals, obstacles, or stakes.

Mixing genres would be awesome! A science fiction story that's also a mystery, for example, or a romance that involves a detetective. Be creative.

The contest is currently CLOSED.
We expect to return in JANUARY 2026 for a new round.