NFFD 2025 Prompt #5: Open Season

 

  Prompt #5: Open Season

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Seasons. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every six hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 5 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Tuesday, 17 June 2025....

*

For the last challenge of 2025, write a flash with an open ending, where you intentionally leave some questions unanswered, the situation ambiguous, or the central conflict unresolved.  You can still aim for an arc, a shift, or some movement through the piece.

We've read a lot of dark stories this year, so we'd love to see some light in the inbox, but we leave the theme up to you.  As always, optional bonus points are available if you make us laugh or smile.

*

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 5: Open Season.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 15 June 2025 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.

---

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay.

NFFD 2025 Prompt #4: Off Season

 

 Prompt #4: Off Season

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Seasons. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every six hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 5 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Tuesday, 17 June 2025....

*

For the fourth challenge of 2025, write a story in which at least one character has gone somewhere at an unusual time of year.  A beach holiday in winter, a ski lodge in high summer, a holiday destination outside the tourist season...or a more unusual or bizarre scenario.

To make this prompt extra challenging, avoid the following themes: illness, memory loss, revisitings of a place with happy memories.  Optional bonus points are available if you make us laugh or smile.

*

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 4: Off Season 

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 15 June 2025 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.

---

Photo by Wade Tregaskis on flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

NFFD 2025 Prompt #3: Seasons of Love

 

 Prompt #3: Seasons of Love

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Seasons. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every six hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 5 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Tuesday, 17 June 2025....

*

For the third challenge of 2025, write a story involving a caring moment between two people of significantly different ages who aren't family members. Maybe they know each other well, or maybe it's a brief, chance encounter.   

To make this prompt extra challenging, avoid the following common pairings and themes: family members, teachers and students, dating, and abuse.  Optional bonus points are available if you make us laugh or smile.

*

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 3: Seasons of Love

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 15 June 2025 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.

---

Image by Andreas from Pixabay

NFFD 2025 Prompt #2: Hunting Season

 

  Prompt #2: Hunting Season

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Seasons. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every six hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 5 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Tuesday, 17 June 2025....

*

For the second challenge of 2025, write a story in which a character is searching for something specific, and unusual.  Make it a physical object.  What are they looking for?  Why do they want it?  Do they find it?    

To make this prompt extra challenging, avoid having your characters look for: evidence, love, a person, an emotional state (happiness, recognition, etc.), something people commonly lose track of (keys, wallet, umbrella), animal hunting.  Optional bonus points are available if you make us laugh or smile.

*

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 2: Hunting Season.

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 15 June 2025 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.

---

Image from Pixabay

NFFD 2025 Prompt #1: Two Seasons

 

Prompt #1: Two Seasons

Welcome to The Write-In!  This year, we're celebrating the 2025 National Flash Fiction Day Anthology theme of Seasons. Throughout National Flash Fiction Day, we'll be posting one prompt every six hours from 00:00 until midnight (BST), for a total of 5 prompts in all.  You have until midnight on Sunday (BST) to submit your responses for possible publication here at the Write-In.  We'll start posting responses on Tuesday, 17 June 2025....

*

For the first challenge of 2025, write a story with two distinct paragraphs or sections with each section taking place in a different season.  Try to think beyond the obvious; what can spring suggest besides youth or young love?  What can autumn indicate beyond aging? 

To make this prompt extra challenging, the following topics are not allowed: aging, illness, death, memory loss, and coming-of-age stories.  Optional bonus points are available if you make us laugh or smile.

*

If you’re submitting this to us, make sure to note that this is a response to Prompt 1: Two Seasons

You can submit responses until 23:59 BST on Sunday, 15 June 2025 for a chance to be published here at The Write-In.

You can claim the badge for this prompt by visiting our badges page.

---

Image by Justin Wolfort via pexels.

Congratulations to our 2024 Award Nominees!

Congratulations to the following authors whose flash have been nominated by The Write-In for the following awards:

Pushcart Prize

    • A Gift by Heain Joung
    • Bioluminescence by Barbara Renel
    • Pirouette by Uju Obi
    • Robert Burns and Me by Rachel Burrows
    • Standardized Psychological Post-Quarrantine Survey Sb-53 by Chris Albin
    • The Last Day on Earth by Cheryl Markosky

Best Small Fictions

• Rewilding by Rosaleen Lynch  
• Robert Burns and Me by Rachel Burrows
• Sounds of Thank You by Karen Walker
• The Last Day on Earth by Cheryl Markosky
• Woman, Resplendent by Julia Ruth Smith

Best of the Net

• A million tiny cuts by Lucy Brighton
• Come on in, the water’s radioactive by Madeleine Armstrong
  
• Nanna’s Perfect Parkin by Donna M Day
  
• Pieces of Sky by Ali McGrane 
• Rewilding by Rosaleen Lynch
  
• Should Have Taken Ordinary Level by Geraldine McCarthy 
• Take a Bite by Melissa Flores Anderson
  
• Woman, Resplendent by Julia Ruth Smith
  

'Flying to Aotearoa' by Val Harris

Above the land of the long white cloud, where the sky is blue, and it laughs aloud; where a sunshine path arcs east to west. Moving on and on, until the world has spun around and the moon and stars have found new ground. Then the earth’s eyes flash and wink and moonshine paths wind where lakes and rivers are silver strands. Then rippling fingers creep and dwell at the end of all that lies, beneath our ever-seeking eyes. They watch the clouds and the world fly by as steadily above we go until the curved horizon flattens out at the ends of the earth where the sun is out!

'What a Difference Two Years, Six Months and 15 Days Makes' by Madeleine Armstrong

The first time I saw you, you were a screaming, red-faced mess. I didn’t want anything to do with you.  Everyone talked about love at first sight – the great love, the best love – but I felt nothing.

The next six months passed in a fog. By the time I began to emerge into a new, half-lit world, you were sitting, almost crawling. Sunshine spilled out when you smiled, or so everybody said. I waited in vain for that pull on my heart, the one I’d heard all about.

Your first word was “Daddy”, which wasn’t surprising. As more colours began to seep into my life, I yearned to join your little club of two, but I didn’t have the password. I’d missed the induction and I couldn’t do anything right, so I did nothing at all.

Sleep training tears failed to move me. Your first steps raised merely a shrug. Every day I trudged through a long, dank tunnel, and every night I dreamt of clawing my way through clods of wet earth.

I don’t know when things started to change. It happened so gradually I didn’t notice until one day I
looked at you and felt soft instead of hard.

After that, when you clung to me I clung back, a drowning woman who’d finally found land.

Early this morning you burrowed into my bed, and I was almost blinded by the light shining from your eyes. I tickled you, and your laugh was a chisel cracking my frozen heart wide open.

“Again, Mummy. Again.”

Now I’ll never stop.

'Why Doesn't Anyone Listen to their Mom?' by Sally Simon

Mother never told me why she didn’t like my boyfriend. Why she’d say one thing to his face, and another to mine. And I never truly understood why I cared what she thought or said or did. Why it mattered that someone who didn’t know how to show love to her own husband, at least from what I could tell, told me I may want to think twice. Why should I care? Why not?

Later, after we’d been together for twenty years and I stayed fifteen longer than I should have, I knew why. But she died before I got an explanation for what he did, or didn’t do, that set my mother’s brain into overdrive, why she felt the need to warn me. And I’ll never stop asking myself why I didn’t listen.

'My World' by Abida Akram

Fire

Many voices. Fire ants are having their lunch as they crawl up my arms and legs. There is no ceasefire, nor will there be. No aid will get through. Hot and cold.

Blue and purple mottled patterns snaking from the soles of my feet and up my calves. The electric bar heater is too hot. I don’t move away. We red-headed people are told we have a temper and are feisty so why am so I silent. This withdrawal is a bitch. I curl up as if paper torched by the sun. My ashes swirl in the room as if sparking the voices into chilli red flakes.

Air

Oceans deep and the deepest of space, unexplored. So much unknown. I am vulnerable to the invisible. I am vulnerable to the empty space inside. A black hole, never to be filled. Scared, drowning, I can’t catch a breath. I wish I could see you once more before I choke.

Water

70% water. You’re kidding, right? More voices from the TV. Loud. I laugh. My thirst is constant. I am drowning in the shallows of little saliva. Floods everywhere. Homes washed away; cars overturned. Strong trees brought low, slumping over roads. My body tight, holding on, whilst my eyes ache, waterless.

Earth

Bodies in white shrouds, bodies under flags, bodies in coffins, bodies in mass graves. You take all the genocides in your stride, for you will be there when we are long gone. You will cough up our bones when you are good and ready.

The voices are louder. There are no walls. There is no peace for such as I. The voices are knocking loudly. 

They say they are saving me from burning, that it’s all in my head.