Francis leaned back, listening to the shuffle of tourists and the clack of chess pieces echo through Washington Square Park. The summer heat hung over lower Manhattan like a weight. It roasted skin, soaked shirts, and slowed everything to a crawl. He sat on one side of a stone chess table, with sunglasses shielding his eyes and a Mets cap keeping the sun off his face. He looked at his opponent, then down at the board. Fra...

She rented the house for six weeks. It was small, just one bedroom and a screen porch, with ceiling fans that wobbled when they turned. There was a beach a few minutes’ walk away, but she rarely went. She preferred the quiet of the mornings — the hum of insects, the slow warming of the air, the way the early light filtered softly through the house’s porch screens, pale and golden, casting a mesh of shadow across the floor...

“Good morning, Lil. Big day for you today, isn't it?” Lillian Jackson smiled up from her bed at the young man in the white coat, who was holding a cup of tea. For five years, she had lived at the Castle View Rest Home, ever since she had fallen and broken her elbow and shoulder. Crippled with arthritis, she was no longer able to look after herself, and so, after much soul-searching, she and her son agreed that it was for...

The town of Hazzard was a quiet place, the kind where everyone knew everyone. Or thought they did. The kind of place where the wind whispered secrets through the endless cornfields and the river carried the weight of unspoken truths. A place surrounded by beauty that belied the darkness that seeped from its soil. For me, growing up in Hazard was like living under a microscope, every glance a silent judgement, every whispe...

They buried him on a day that dared to be beautiful. The sky was a tender blue. The sun showed up without apology, casting its light over everything like a blessing no one asked for. Birds sang. Somewhere, a child laughed. None of it touched her. She stood there, hands clenched around wilted stems, watching the earth open its mouth to take him. No breeze blew. No shadow shifted across her path. And yet she shivered. Becau...

You owe it to yourself. You have limited time, and everyone in your position has contemplated the same blank page and how to fill it. Trust me, it’s easier than you realise. Everything we do is temporal: we live in the present, but are driven by the past and shaped by its experiences. So think back to first memories, which are the most uncomplicated, at least to begin with. Use them as a broad brush to paint a background...

At 5 a.m., the bakery is silent, except for the scratch of Madame Thorne’s pen. She believed fortunes should be handwritten. Typed words felt hollow, devoid of the weight true destiny deserved. She shaped each cookie with practiced precision, leaving just enough space to slide in a tiny slip of paper. Each cookie was a secret wrapped in dough, each personal, each burdened by fate. Then came a sharp knock. It was not polit...

The blood drains into my skull and dizziness swirls, heels high above me resting against the wall of my editor’s office. “Can I stand yet?” “No! Not until you appreciate the world from a fresh perspective.” From my headstand, Gary appears slightly crazed, fingers laced on the desk above his head, eyeballs where his chin should be. “If I stay like this much longer, you’ll be finding yourself a new bestselling romance autho...

Once again it’s Groundhog Day; all is quiet on the good ship, AnnieWriter. Well, not quite totally silent. That bloody crocodile in our wake is masquerading as the Mad Hatter, accentuating Captain Annie’s disquiet with a scaly cacophony of tick tock, tick tock. If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it. I know, I know! Of course, like clockwork, this competition story had begun the usual way. A...

So, here I am, sitting in my favourite coffee shop. On the table beside my open laptop stand two cold, empty coffee cups. I have been here for hours and yet, nothing! On the screen is an open page, but it is blank. Not one single word. The thing is, I always write my best stories here. Even a novel began here, but today? Nothing. A blank page and a blank mind. “Would you like another coffee, Ma'am?” I looked up at the you...

“Hey Lucy, where’s Mama?” Richard asked when he got home from work. “Don’t bug Mama,” the little girl told her father as he hung up his coat. “She gots a dandy lion, and it’s makin’ her crabby.” A dandy lion? He frowned. Then it hit him what she meant. Dandelions littered their front lawn, and his wife, Maggie, was probably irritated that he hadn’t put down the weed killer as he’d promised over a week ago. “Did you pick s...

On a sunny winter morning, I put on a coat and headed for Benjamin’s Books. Ten chapters into my second novel, I was blocked with no progress in days. My deadline was still months away. However, I was a perfectionist about editing and wanted to lots of time between finishing the draft and sending it in. Falling behind like this concerned me. I figured a visit to my favourite bookshop might help. I had been a regular at Be...

My three daughters playing peacefully on the floor, I sit back on the living room couch with my laptop, pondering about the theme of the latest competition announced in StoriesSpace. ‘Are they looking for a complete story within the limited timeframe announced? Or a story around the theme?’ I decided on the latter, struggling with how to begin. The cursor continues blinking while nothing comes to mind. “Please,” I cry out...

Alex stared at the blinking cursor, which pulsed like a tiny heartbeat on the empty document. The deadline loomed over him like an executioner's axe. Three days left. Three thousand words to go. Zero inspiration. He had tried everything—pacing, caffeine, yelling into the void, sacrificing an old laptop to the gods of creativity (it had felt cathartic but wholly ineffective). His editor's last email was practically seared...

I smelled gas. However, I remained still. I governed my breathes while exploring my predicament. I saw, felt, and heard nothing. However, my ears rang like I'd just left a concert. Thankfully, the thunderous roar had stopped. But the echo of the silence was too loud to think that I was dead. Entombed, yes. Expired, not yet. Living was on the clock and I was in dire need of a Lady Luck spanking. Having regained my wits, I...