Prompt: Write the opening sentence (25 words or fewer) to a story incorporating these three words: fresh, hair and tangled.
Thanks to everyone who voted on WD’s Your Story #46! Here are the results. The winning entries, in ranking order, are as follows:
1. With last night’s fight still fresh in her mind, she awoke with everything tangled – her hair, her thoughts, and her emotions. (Kathleen Karp)
2. The blood was still fresh, and the only clue Detective Brennan had was a strand of auburn hair found tangled around Jesse’s wedding ring. (Wanda Kiernan)
3. The fresh batch of human stew didn’t please the witches because the hair kept getting tangled in their teeth. (Kara Alere)
4. The body swung from the boat, its long blonde hair tangled in the propeller as the scent of fresh blood drew the sharks. (Judy Anderson)
5. She could smell the fresh snow of one more winter as another prince tangled his coarse, bloody hands in the golden ladder of her hair. (Melinda McCamant)
6. It was the same old tangled mess, but with a fresh twist: she found my hair in her best friend’s shower. (Charles Sanderson)
7. Getting my hair tangled in the thorns as I fell headlong into a ditch gave me a fresh perspective as to the meaning of pain. (Thomas Bruce)
8. Our remote island vacation took a fresh turn when I found that my daughter had just combed out the tangled hair of a headhunter’s skull. (Jeff Raudebaugh)
9. My plate was full of fresh spaghetti and sauce that reminded me of the bloody mass of tangled hair rotting in my bathtub. (Devorah Reiss)
10. Sissy remembered when she first put fresh skunk scent on her tangled hair to keep her incestuous father at bay. (Anna Unkovich)
For more writing exercises to spark your creativity, check out The Writer’s Lab!
The funeral had his thoughts all tangled, the idea of mourning was a hairsplitting concept that seem fresh to his mind.
It’s the same contest. You did NOT have to post your entry there for your it to be considered. If you entered via the online entry form or the Your Story Contest email, then your entry will be counted in the contest.
Someone’s got some ‘splainin’ to do.
Are the entries for the Your Story Contest 46 supposed to be located here? Because my entry is not. That page looks like a Friday prompt to me.
Did the two contests get combined?
Am I an idiot and just don’t know what is going on?
Have you ever gotten any of my entries for anything?
And when I try to post a comment, and only one comment this blasted page says to slow down because I am posting to fast!
Very frustrating.
When will the top-ten selections be posted?
Thank you ever so much Tiffany Luckey for aiding me with the newsletter. It is comforting to know that the artist cry does not go unheard. Thank you and all those who aid us who wish to express our inner voice to the world and bring some form of entertainment.
hfykes@frontier.com
I have not seen my entry for the Nov 26th competition please comment
For some reason every time I try to submit my e-mail for the contest newsletter error pop up. I don’t want to miss out on next year’s Writing Competitions. I would like to receive occasional updates on upcoming competition deadlines, when winners are announced and other writing contest information, sign-up for the Writer’s Digest Newsletter. My email is hfykes@frontier.com:
You have been added to our newsletter. Thanks!
I resubmitted my entry via email; I didn’t see mine posted along with the other entrants. If you could please delete one or the other of my postings, I would appreciate it. Thank you!
I just realized that I also posted an opening line with Zachary Petit, thinking it was a little different contest, I did a different opening line…did not intentionaly enter twice, so if needed, please delete one of them. Thank you :)!
Still not seeing my submission. It was there, and now is gone.
I submitted my entry on 11/20 on Your Story Entry Form, This a.m. I saw Zachary Petit’s site with 117 current entries.Not seeing my submission there I was confused. Believing my entry wasn’t submitted, today 11/21 I resubmitted my story on Your Story Entry Form. Would you delete one so I am not disqualified.
I see DrG2 commented on Petit’s site as to his confusion also, and had asked if there was a need to enter his submission there also. Thanks.
Yes, we’ll delete one of your entries.
Hi, I had trouble sending in my submission, for some reason my computer kept saying that I was posting comments to quickly– so I posted from my phone, and it auto-corrected the word “dispose” and turned it into “depose” for some reason. I sent in a new submission and I was wondering if you could please delete the one with the misspelling.
Thanks,
Kristen
I sent my submission in awhile ago… still can’t see it? Just wanted to make sure it was received!!!
Thanks!!
Hi, I had some trouble with the submission form and am not sure if my sentence was submitted so I sent it again in an e-mail. I hope you can delete the one from the form as I do not want to be disqualified. I just saw the new prompt, but see it is for your story 46. Should I post my sentence again in the comments section like so many people are doing?
You don’t have to post it in the comments section. If you’ve sent it via the Your Story email, then we have it. Thanks!
What issue are the winners going to be published in?
The winning submissions will be printed in the May/June issue.
Morning,
I sent in my submission yesterday and it was awaiting moderation. This morning I couldn’t find my entry anywhere. Not sure if I was supposed to do something different. Thanks!
Your comment/submission has been approved. You can find it here.
Thank you
To be clear, the submission is only meant to include the first sentence. Then, if the submission is wins, we will be contacted and asked to provide the entire story. Correct?
No, you do not need to provide the full story at all — just the opening sentence. The top 10 winning sentences will be posted on the Your Story forum, then forum members will help rank the winners by voting for their favorite. After voting, the ranking of the winning sentences will appear on the forum as well as here.
Okay. Thanks!
Thank you.
Do the words need to be in the order listed? As in fresh, hair and tangled? Thank you
No, they don’t have to be in the order listed.
Does the participant need to log into his or hers account for submission? I submitted one earlier but was not logged in to my account. Thanks
No, you don’t have to be logged in to your WritersDigest.com account in order to submit via the online submission form.
My first submittal was in error, I resubmitted (I was missing the word fresh), Would you please delete the first submittal?
Yes, it will be deleted.
Hi
I suspect that this is a rather ignorant question but, seeing as I’m still fairly new to this, I’m going to go ahead and ask it anyway. I presume that said opening sentence must use the three words precisely as given? For example, the sentence cannot used the word “tangled” instead of “tangle.”
Thanks!
Yes, you must use the three words precisely as they are given; no variations. Good luck!
About when will we know the winners of this contest? It’s my first time entering; I can’t wait! Thanks.:)
The top 10 entries will be posted on our Your Story forum at http://www.writersdigest.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=18 in early December. You can sign in to the site at that time and vote for your favorite entry to help rank the winning entries.
Is there a limit on how many entries you are alllwed? Thanks!
Yes, only one entry per person. Thanks!