Prompt #1: Mudlarking
Welcome to The Write-In! This year, we're celebrating the 2026 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Bridges. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 25 prompts in all. You have until 23:59 BST on Sunday to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In over the course of the next week.
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This year's anthology is called Mudlarking, the practice of searching an exposed riverbed at low tide for objects lost, discarded, or forgotten. Mudlarks find Roman coins, Victorian clay pipes, Tudor shoes, wartime buttons. The river gives things back, eventually, on its own schedule.
Write a flash in which the past surfaces unexpectedly. It does not have to involve a river or a physical item, but use the image as inspiration in some way.
To make this prompt extra challenging, avoid the following: a deathbed revelation, a found will or letter, a character discovering they were adopted, cancer, dementia, and ghosts.
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If you’re submitting
this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 1: Mudlarking
You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday,
14 June 2026 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.
You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.
Artwork by Joanna Campbell.
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