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Tell a story using a series of diary or journal entries.

Posted in Short Story on Jun 6, 2025

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✍️ 84 stories

Entwined Flowers

Submitted to Contest #306

1 February 2024 Dear Diary, Today, I picked out my wedding dress. In the blinding ivories and lily whites in silk, lace, taffeta, and tulle, I transformed into a bride. Then again, from the very moment I met him, I knew I was meant to walk down a flower-lined aisle towards Florian’s tearful earth brown eyes. As soon as he extended his hand, the aquarelle rows of vibrant blooms at the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens seemed to fade in colour. At that moment, the only thing planted in the soil of my memories of my holiday in the Netherlands was his qu...

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The User Agreement

Submitted to Contest #306

“Welcome to ReWrite®. By using ReWrite you agree to these terms of service. The user acknowledges and accepts the potential hazards and risks involved in memory modification, including but not limited to injury, amnesia, and death.” I am sitting in a sterile white waiting room in a medical gown. My hand trembles as I hand the last remaining picture of my son, Leo, to an attractive young woman, named Circe. “It is okay,” she says with a smile. Her eyes are aquamarine, and her hair is a metallic orchid color that shimmers as she speaks. Those ...

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Astra Black's ZodAIc

Submitted to Contest #306

Astra Black’s ZodAIc, June 13th 2025 Weekly predictions and celestial guidance from Astra Black, your astrological engineer. ARIES (MARCH 21 – APRIL 19) Aries, my Aries, I trust you survived last week’s trial? Tempered those flames as I advised? As the firstborn of the zodiac, you are fire incarnate: impulsive, unstoppable. But sometimes a blaze should simmer rather than scorch. I predicted an argument with a partner, a slight at work, a confrontation with a stranger. Restraint was your challenge and I trust you succeeded.But enough of that...

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If you read this...

Submitted to Contest #306

Sunday 2nd MayThere was a dead mouse in the fridge this morning. A small brown furred one, all stiff and cold. It was laid on its back next to half a squeezed lemon, little paws pointing up towards the ice compartment. I think the mouse had squeezed the lemon into the last bottle of milk as that has gone completely sour and there won’t be any more until Alfred comes on Tuesday. I wrapped the mouse in an old floral tea-towel. I don’t think mum will mind. Then I buried it in the garden under the lilac tree. I think he will like it there. Patri...

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The Diary of Samara Bashir

Submitted to Contest #306

Entry 1 It all started with a promise. The promise of one man. The promise that he alone could save us from a corrupt government that was slowly and secretly taking away our rights and freedoms. Now, the democratic constitutional republic that we once knew has been replaced by authoritarianism, Christian Nationalism, and a state-run oligarchy loyal to a dictator. Freedom of religion – gone. Freedom of speech – gone. Freedom of press – gone. Freedom of assembly – gone. The right to due process – gone. Social programs that protect citizens fro...

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Footsteps of Heroes

Submitted to Contest #306

Kids' faces press against the windows as our old van maneuvers the hairpin turns. Lupines carpet the canyon slopes, and our eyes feast on the spring green. North Idaho’s high-elevation plateaus drop abruptly to precipitous chasms, canyons once gouged by the onslaught of melted glaciers. And deep in their bottoms, the rivers rush with the sound of the ancient monster’s roar.This is Nez Perce country, a country once belonging to a people whose creation story began at the Heart of the Monster, an unexplainable landmark, a mountainous heap of ea...

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Tomorrow is Yesterday

Submitted to Contest #306

June 6th 2000. Tomorrow is the day. I can’t believe it. I knew the day would come eventually but it’s actually here.A new chapter, a new last name, the unknown, an end and a beginning.I can’t imagine my life without him.I’m nervous and a little scared.I wonder what he’s thinking now.Does he have any regrets or cold feet?Will he sleep a wink tonight? I know I won’t.I want to call him but I know I shouldn’t.True love is rare, more so than I could ever have imagined.Will I cry? Probably, I usually do.Ok, enough stalling. Lights off, time for be...

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Please Do Not Read

Submitted to Contest #306

November 29, 2024 I haven’t done this since I was a kid. It feels silly somehow. Maybe I’m self-conscious of my thoughts. I took the suggestion, though. What else am I going to do? When I was little, my diary was one of those chintzy little things. A fat block that would now lay easily on my flat hand. The edge dusted with gold, a gilding that would rub off on my fingers in the summer. A flat lock pressed against the pages that my sister would undo with her identical key. Maybe that’s the reason I never wrote the truth in it. Or maybe it’...

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Love Through The Ages

Submitted to Contest #306

The Human Fold invited readers to share how technology has shaped their experiences of love and romantic connection. The only request was to submit unedited journal entries, raw and exactly as written, to preserve the emotion as it was felt. Thousands responded—some said their entries would make you laugh out loud; others shared theirs as a final act of letting go. Each chosen entry captures a cultural moment, revealing how we loved and adapted, coped and connected in an increasingly digital world.Names have been changed to protect real iden...

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Together We Burn

Submitted to Contest #306

Entry #1March 3rd, 2024 – 2:47 a.m. I wasn’t going to write about him again.But he’s the only thing on my mind. Again. Two years, two weeks, five days.1138 fights, 334 ignored messages, 4 breakups.And still counting. He calls me annoying. I call him frustrating.But we’re still here. Still burning. Society calls it toxic.But society doesn’t sleep in his arms when the rain won’t stop.They don’t know the smell of tulips soaked into a Pandora bottle.The way he whispers my name like a promiseEven when he just finished yelling. They don’t see the ...

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Fracture Lines: Craniotomy Notes, Day One

Submitted to Contest #306

June 23rd, 2021AMAnother day, another dollar. I am doing my best to remember these daily entries to keep myself focused and composed. Composed? How cute that I think I could ever be composed. I am feverish to write and yet never quite know where to start or end. Irrelevant, these cheap little writing exercises I give myself upon waking feel tiring. I am writing, though. Every day I am writing, it is a habit, a ritual, and a promise I keep to myself. I am a bit anxious today about some meetings at work, maintenance is coming to the house duri...

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Diary of the Apocalypse

Submitted to Contest #306

Dear Diary, Mar 13, 2015 It’s my birthday!!! I’m finally 10. It felt like it took ages and ages. Oh—do you like my new glitter pens? I do! I’ve got pink, blue, and purple and I’ll use them all. Maybe I can make doodles on my homework. My friends got me a bunch of other really cool presents and we ate a bunch of cake! It was really good cake. I love cake, and Mama saved some cupcakes for later. I invited the fairies to my party, but they didn’t come. Mama says it’s too early in the season for them to come and that they’d write. I thin...

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Paper Skin: The Journal of Moon Hae-won

Submitted to Contest #306

Prelude: The Forgotten War of the East Oftentimes, the Second World War is remembered as a European conflict—an arena of white armies, white victims, white heroes. We are taught to chart its beginning from 1939, with Hitler’s invasion of Poland. We learn of Nazi death camps, Allied resistance, and the fall of Berlin as if the world outside Europe were only a backdrop.Japan is mentioned—briefly. Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, maybe the Rape of Nanjing if the syllabus is generous. But even then, Japan is cast as an antagonist whose atrocities are co...

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The Diary of Victor Perez

Submitted to Contest #306

Dear Diary, Ms. Rodriguez has assigned us to do diaries. “To record our thoughts.” I don’t know if I have thoughts. I mean, I have thoughts. Lots of thoughts. But I don’t think they’re good or important enough to write down. My thoughts are usually, “What’s for lunch?” “What’s for dinner?” “When is the next Spiderman going to come out?” These are my thoughts. Dear Diary,Ms. Rodriguez asked us to think about who our heroes are. Not like Spiderman or Superman. Real heroes. Like a fireman or a doctor. If I had to choose one, my hero would defi...

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The Things I’ll Tell My Diary and No One Else

Submitted to Contest #306

Hi all, I would like to add a quick trigger warning for sexual violence and mental health. December 12, 2020 Hypothetically, how many years in prison would I get for cutting out Caden’s tongue? I’m talking sawing that thing off with a rusty, dull knife, fingers crossed that it causes an infection that kills him. That would probably be a few more years, right? I was also thinking I could cut it off, then shove it right back in his mouth and let him suffocate on it. Really, I’m open to any option that involves never hearing him speak ever ag...

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