25-word Short Story

Hope you all have been enjoying the festive events this month!! ^-^ 2025 is drawing to a close (I know, I can't believe it either), so what better way to celebrate than by writing some 25-word short stories? (Yeah, parties and ball drops and such exist. But. This is a writing site )

What is a 25-word short story?
It's a story written in exactly 25 words! This event is inspired by the 6-word short story, one famous example of which is, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Beyond the obvious fact of the number of words, a good x-word short story often has implications or leads to thoughts beyond what it states on the surface.

Are there prizes?
You bet! Gen. Lit. will be judging the entries based on compliance with the rules (if you're not sure whether your entry is 25 words or not, PM me), creativity, and quality.
The prize involves eternal fame... The top three entries will be immortalized in the YWS quote gen! (If a winner wants to put a different quote in instead, we may be able to work something out.)

When are entries due?
Entries are due on 01/04/2026 00:00 GMT

Anything else?
Please keep your entries family friendly.
If you have questions, feel free to PM me or ask in this thread!

Here is me story:

Once upon a time, @AresFig made rice for the Young Writers’ Society, and it was the best rice the chat had ever tasted. The End.

A centipede of light swam across the second sky, fleeted, then returned. Sailfishes declined its invite to a death race and hid beneath the waves.

I tried xD:


I went to confront noisy neighbours, only to find the windows dark, stuck with two notes. The ghost, too, had "gone fishing". Something still whistled.

I counted it. Best I can do lol <3 I love me a good short story challenge.

To the children, the world and sky was never enough. To the women and men, they are too much. To me, however, they are perfect.

Sea and Sky- both blue. Once, in proposal, Sea turned red. Sky's father- Sun forbade so she wept as rain, uniting the lovers in defiance.

Motivation and thoughts-

Spoiler

I'm sure that if you're a regular user of Instagram, you must have come across this sweet poem



This actually deserves most of the credit for this story! The idea of Sun being a conservative father is nothing new, I thought it'd be really interesting to give this simple love tale some forbidden drama. I've been fascinated by the 'everyone is dead or unhappy' endings in Greek tragedy, so I wanted to challenge the pattern by writing an empowering end of self interest. It's still sad but I think it's a great first piece with the message-'Don't let anything give up the person you love, because you will regret it. I actually had an alternate one in mind (that inspired by a Bollywood movie DDLJ if you've heard of it lmao) which you can find in the context. This is all!

Am I allowed to give this detailed context of this story?

Spoiler

Nvm this was getting way too long, so I'll actually be publishing it as a short story altogether! Going to link it when I'm done.

Edit: Here! Lovers in Blue

Hopefully I'm not too late....



The grand in the hotel rings with broken tunes; the guests frown; the concierge winces. But the blue-hatted boy is happy and braver than they.

Thank you all for your delightful entries!! I'll close this thread now, and we'll get back to you soon with the results

Spoiler

@CrimsonTears @MeherazulAzim16 @Liminality @thetaostedwriter @AlexWrites @TheMythMaster

Thank you all for participating in the 25-word short story contest!! We enjoyed reading all of your creative entries ^-^

Without further ado, I am happy to announce that @Liminality, @TheMythMaster, and @AlexWrites's stories will be immortalized in the quote gen! Keep an eye out for them ;D

Thank you all again and keep writing!! <3

Would you look at this! Came across @AlexWrites's story in the quote gen today

Thanks for sharing, @Roxanne!! It'll be so exciting to come across it myself one of these days. I may have forgotten about it but I'll be keeping an eye out from now on.