The other day, I said: “Hey, you. That’s right. You. With the clown shoes. And the iguana. And the faint aroma of spoiled milk. It’s time to write a flash fiction challenge based on Shackleton’s Scotch.”
And somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of you crazy motherfookers stepped out of the shadows and tossed your flash fiction down on the stage and were like, “BOOM goes the dynamite.”
Or something.
Anyway, below I present to you the mighty Shackleton’s Scotch challengers — it’s some good stuff, so do yourself and them a favor, click on over and read away.
Before I present those links, I’ll ask: did you dig the challenge? Do you want more excuses to write flash fiction? Let me know. I could be convinced to do this again.
These Playas Be Ice Cold
(If the fiction had no title listed, instead of going with “untitled” I’m instead listing them with, most frequently, the first sentence of the piece. Also, I’m listing them in the order they were received.)
Josin McQuein: “First You Run Out Of Food, Then Fuel”
Dan O’Shea: “Shackleton’s Hootch”
Albert Berg: “The Stone Saucer”
McDroll: “Whisky Island”
David Blakeley: “Inner Child On Forgotten Scotch”
Levy Montgomery: “That Single Fly’s Foot”
Adam Maxwell: “Bullet Time And The Beer Taxi”
Me Myself And I: “I Don’t Drink Anymore”
John Kenyon: “Endure”
Sparky: “Booze Run”
Billy Prophet: “Shackleton’s Scotch”
CY Reid: “The Best Laid Plans”
Marc Nash: “Drying Out”
Ben Kirby: “Last Case Run”
KD James: “Scotch On The Rocks”
Sean Preston: “Distillation”
Gary E. Weller: “Mackinlay’s Samba”
Paul Vogt: “Gun Nut”
C.M. Stewart: “Snotrunningly”
Aiwevanya: “Jeannie In A Bottle”
Shullamuth: “A Paean To Spring”
Frank McBride: “That Box My Brother And I Buried”
DeAnna Knippling: “A Fly In Amber” (use purchase code QN26W)
Rob Hart: “Stealing Shackleton’s Scotch”
Madison: “Three Men On A Snow Day”
Anthony: “Shackleton’s Magical Whiskey”
Orange Tango: “He’s Not Sure Why He Went To The Bar”
T.N. Tobias: “A Drink At The Edge”
Marian Allen: “For A Few Bottles More“
Josin says:
I love flash fiction challenges – they really knock loose the writer’s block by making me think about something else for a few minutes. And when it’s something like this, that’s WAY out of my normal writing scope, it’s even better. I still can’t figure out why the thing wrote itself in 2nd person, though. That was unexpected, but interesting.
It always amazes me how many variations come about from the same prompt.
February 25, 2011 — 12:49 AM
KDJames says:
This was fun! It was a real eye opener to read the other entries and see just how psychotic– that is, how creative and original and different everyone else’s entries were.
Unfortunately, since I’d never done this before and have NO IDEA how to write a short story, I neglected to include that thing called an “ending” and kind of left people hanging. And believe me they were not happy about that and so then I had to write an addendum in the comments to reassure them that everything turned out okay but then they wanted me to write MORE and make it an entire book or something and I’m kind of in the middle of final revisions to another book and I tell you what, Wendig, you ever try to seduce me into doing something like this again, I will fucking cut you. Um, I mean, I will totally ignore you. And resist the temptation. Stoically. Yeah. That’s what I’ll do.
Unless, of course, you say, “You know that scene in the middle of your book, the one that sucks, the one you thought was about X? Well, trust me, it’s not. It’s really about Y with a subplot of Z. Go write that instead.” Because I’ll be all over that.
Seriously, thanks for assigning us calisthenics for our creativity.
February 25, 2011 — 1:27 AM
Frank R. McBride says:
The challenge finally was the starting point for my blog! I had kicked the idea of the blog around for a few weeks now … this got me to finally start it. So thanks for that …
This was also something out of the ordinary for me. It took me a few hours to come up with something suitable, but then it came together quickly.
And yeah … throw another challenge out there, I need an excuse to write. So far I only find excuses to not write … which is frustrating. So many ideas … so little drive to put words on paper.
February 25, 2011 — 4:15 AM
Sparky says:
Well that was entertaining. I shall have to read all the other stories penned by this in short order. Yes do it again. It was an excellent excuse to hammer something out quickly and enjoy the process. Not that I don’t enjoy my usual writing but this cleanses the palate as it were.
February 25, 2011 — 4:39 AM
Aiwevanya says:
Add one hell yeah from me to the ‘do this again’ list, that was fun. Interesting seeing what people took away from the prompt as well, whether they focused on the adventurous aspect or the lost and found, or the expensive drink (or ‘100 year old spirits’ huh, don’t the Japanese have a myth about them?… apparently my brain is the organic equivalent of round about page three of a google search), goes to show it was a well chosenn prompt as well I think.
February 25, 2011 — 7:49 AM
Shullamuth Smith says:
And another hells yeah. Once all my short stories turned into novels or parts of novels. This is my second short that stayed short and ended up a story. You forget how much fun it is to play with a single elegant idea.
I also enjoyed travelling the diverse directions everyone else took with their bits of flash. 🙂
February 25, 2011 — 8:26 AM
Kate Haggard says:
Yes. You must do it again, and on a week where things aren’t exploding in my face, because I’d like to participate next time. :-p
February 25, 2011 — 8:40 AM
DeAnna says:
This was fun. It was also specific enough to push me out of the kind of thing I normally write. Usually, I’m not interested in flash fiction challenges, because they don’t actually challenge you, just give you a kick in the pants to write. I already have that kick; I want the challenge.
I’d do it again.
February 25, 2011 — 11:40 AM
Gary B. Phillips says:
Congrats to everyone that participated. I wanted to write something but my two existing short stories and novel didn’t let me come out and play.
February 25, 2011 — 12:28 PM
Anthony says:
I had a lot of fun doing it, and would totally like to do more. It really knocked loose a few things, gave me an excuse to write something (I mean, c’mon, it’s just 1000 words!) and has really gotten the creativity flowing again.
Also, getting to read other people’s stuff was a huge blast too.
February 25, 2011 — 1:48 PM
CMStewart says:
This flash fiction challenge was a nice interruption of my current WIP.
Heck ya, I’d do it again!
February 25, 2011 — 2:55 PM
Madison says:
It was great! I command CMSteward for taking time to leave most kind comments on all the blogs! I hope to participate next time, too. Will even pull up the stakes for self by , on top of sticking to the suggested theme, using 5 randomly chosen words.
February 25, 2011 — 10:35 PM
Gary E. Weller says:
This was a blast Chuck. I can’t wait to see what you’re twisted and terrible mind will come up with next.
February 26, 2011 — 11:11 AM
Ben Kirby says:
I need another shot at that. There’s no question — line that up again.
I’m there.
February 26, 2011 — 10:04 PM
CMStewart says:
@Madison Thanks! In the spirit of writerly cooperation, I tried to read / comment on all of them. There were a couple links that didn’t want to cooperate with my browser, though.
February 28, 2011 — 2:16 PM