Contest: Not Quite Write
Word Count: 500 Max
Word: Sun
Action: A character who REVEALS something
Kicker:
Write a story inspired by YANG energy. Yang is often associated with masculinity, activity, warmth, hardness, the sun, and movement.
See where the inspiration takes you. There is no wrong way to interpret this prompt.
Written on: July 26th 2026
Notes:
Was not feeling this prompt. Was going to skip this contest but decided just to write anything. Wrote this in two hours and probably didnt meet the prompts.
I lay in the field, unable to move. It felt like my consciousness was fixed to a location, and I was unable to feel the grass or sun on my skin. I could move my eyes, and I was still breathing. I thought I was still breathing. If I weren’t, I assumed some amount of panic would have been rising in me. However, I felt very content to keep lying in the field and enjoying the twilight.
It was a beautiful late afternoon, one that reminded me of my childhood, when colors were bolder. Those were the days when even the way tree branches swayed in the wind held my interest, each branch conducting a reluctant symphony of cicadas.
I had left my house a few moments earlier to get a better view of the clouds. Living in Florida meant brooding skies that often brought the gift of sun showers and a two-toned horizon. It was this exact sky that created the ominous lighting I loved. Somehow, it was both bright and dark. It was like stopping time during a camera’s flash. I felt like I could see the world as it was, with all its blemishes, and it was more beautiful than I had ever realized.
Why had I wanted to die?
I had never considered myself depressed. Suicidal people often had a plan. I had always just put myself in situations where the odds of death reaching me were higher. I was curious about what would happen next. Death did not feel like an end to me, only a one way trip to somewhere else.
Above me, I saw a butterfly pass, and I heard it. I actually heard the wings of a butterfly as it flapped away. Something I had not thought possible happened. I thought about that until the stars came out and the rolling thunder from the storm that had struck me faded into the distance. If I happened to live, I wanted to tell Nadia about it. Maybe I would take her to this field, and we could lie together when the wildflowers bloomed.
I saw the Milky Way in person for the first time. It was more than a creamy smear in the night sky and when I stopped and focused, I could see the swarm of stars within it. I felt so small, but instead of being overwhelmed by dread, I felt a freedom I had never experienced before.
Had Nadia ever seen this?
If I didn’t stay, I hoped she would experience it before she died. I hoped I would get to be the one who showed her.