Pacing

Slumber. Honorable Mention in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
The Story Slumber I am dreaming of our old family house, the one we lived in before All That happened and Dad and Brian left me and Mother and we became inseparable the way loss makes you.
By Raistlin Allen4 months ago in Critique
Planes, Trains, and Magic?
The world would end in dragon fire. This, Kavik knew for centuries. He breathed heavy, and his lungs drank thirstily of flame instead of oxygen. Elves were heartier than humans, yet his skin burned as sweat spilled from his pores and instantly evaporated.
By Sama Habib4 months ago in Critique
Truth or Dare
By the time the impromptu foursome made it to the green, the tension was tighter than a Delta blues combo in a New Orleans dive bar. Masie missed her birdie putt on purpose so that Ben could ask Josh for a truth instead of her. After Josh sank his bogey, she said, “Why don’t you ride with Marty and let Ben ride with me? Otherwise, I’ll walk the course.”
By Harper Lewis 4 months ago in Critique
Imposter Syndrome. Runner-Up in Not Quite There Yet Challenge.
Indecisive. That’s what I am. What should we have for dinner? What film should we watch? Don’t ask me. It’s not that I don’t have an opinion, especially when it comes to writing a story – In fact, I have so many ideas it's the equivalent of spinning countless metaphorical plates. But choosing one? Well, I might as well be Greek.
By Sian N. Clutton4 months ago in Critique
Fire I Wasn’t Ready to Hold. Top Story - June 2026.
If patience were a myth and I were the confidant of Prometheus, then I would be chained beside him; bound by the force of my own urgency, rushing toward a larger audience. My ambitions were molten. This story is a container for both my younger self and the self I forged later. I only came together after the explosion.
By Caitlin Charlton4 months ago in Critique
A Distant Pride
The story never quite comes together because neither of them has reached the ending yet. Maybe that’s the problem. In my draft, their names are Elias and Rowan.
By The Kind Quill4 months ago in Critique
Detective Kali
I began the story after meeting a who stated that I look like a character that they thought they had made up. Eventually, I was approached with the idea for writing it, and I was so excited because I wanted to make sure that I approached my writing with a very diverse that reflected the world that I grew up in my personal experiences or things that I just simply witnessed.
By Cadma4 months ago in Critique
The Manuscript Beneath the Clock
For seventeen years I have kept a packet of pages within a narrow drawer beneath an ancient clock whose pendulum marks each passing hour with solemn authority. The packet bears no title. Its first page carries a date crossed out so many times that the numerals resemble wounds cut into paper, while its final page ends in the middle of a sentence.
By Tim Carmichael4 months ago in Critique
The Story That Waited
I think, as writers, we all have unfinished and abandoned stories that we never saw through to completion for a variety of reasons.
By Paul Stewart4 months ago in Critique
Daoist Gymnastics. Runner-Up in Not Quite There Yet Challenge. Top Story - June 2026. Content Warning.
Dao. Everything that is, was, and is yet to come. Dao. All. With no judgment or preference, dao begins, moves, and ends everything. It is beginning. It is movement. It is ending. It is in the rush and in the stillness. It is the air we breathe and the breath we expel. It is the thoughts in our minds and the words that we speak. It is both meaning and senselessness; in that way, it is my pain, and it is my suffering.
By kp4 months ago in Critique
Doctor Who’s Uncertain Future Was Inevitable
In a single announcement, the BBC cancelled the promised Christmas special, confirmed Russell T Davies’s departure, ended its partnership with Bad Wolf Productions and placed Doctor Who’s future into the hands of a competitive tender process.
By Ted Ryan5 months ago in Critique
Sunday Dinner
There had been a christening at St. Mary’s that morning, and Susan and her cousin were going on and on about babies. Blair said she would name her daughters Ellen and Beverly, and her first son would carry his father’s name with a Roman numeral following.
By Harper Lewis 5 months ago in Critique