Flash Fiction Challenge: Sub-Genre Mash-Up, With A Twist
Last week’s challenge — “The Body” — exists for your ocular and psychic pleasure.
I love the sub-genre mash-up challenges. Which, if you’re not familiar with them, is when I hand you a list of sub-genres and you take two of those sub-genres and smoosh them together like two different colored blobs of Play-Do, and from the monstrosity you create, a story of 1000 words or less is born.
Moo hoo ha ha.
Ah, but this time, there’s a little twist.
I’m going to give you a theme.
Just one theme. You cannot choose another.
This theme must apply to the story that you write.
(Not familiar with theme? Let me direct you to: 25 Things You Should Know About Theme.)
That theme is:
Love demands sacrifice.
Mmkay? Love demands sacrifice. There you go.
Story must be under 1000 words.
Due by noon EST on Friday, 11/16.
Write at your space. Post a link here.
Now, for your sub-genre mash-up, take two of the following and call me in the m… I mean, and mash them together. Or, if you want to randomly choose, roll a d10 twice or use a random number generator. Enjoy.
Political Satire
Dieselpunk
Alien Invasion
Urban Fantasy
Space Opera
Hardboiled
BDSM Erotica
Ghost Story / Haunted House
Wuxia
Spy Fiction
oldestgenxer
November 9, 2012 at 7:27 PM //
What the hell is Wuxia? Can someone Google that for me? Never mind, I’ll look it up myself…
Danzier
November 9, 2012 at 10:36 PM //
SPOILERS: I am about to post some definitions of the genres, because I guess I like looking things up.
Wuxia: Onomotopia, the sound of kung-fu, jujitsu, and other martial arts. Lends its name to a writing genre which encompasses the adventures of those who use martial arts (or who make this noise at appropriate times).
Dieselpunk: Steampunk’s little brother. This is anything pertaining to the time between the two world wars. 1920s and 1930s styles and whatnot.
Space Opera: Not the fat lady in zero-g. Space Opera is a science fiction derivitive, in space, focusing on adventure and romance. (Ben Bova’s “Rock Rats” comes to mind…)
Yes, I embellished slightly. Some of these genre combos have been done to death (Dieselpunk alien invasion, anyone?) so I’m nabbing something a bit less traveled: Haunted house/ghosties meets Space Opera. And because I actually have a d10 and rolled two nines in a row first, I am adding the demand that someone or something in the story make noises as though impersonating a ninja. Yes, ninjas are invisible–but they can be heard if they want to be.
Shiri Sondheimer
November 10, 2012 at 8:27 AM //
@ oldestgenxer: think Jet Li or Jackie Chan’s early stuff. Martial arts, romance, excitement, and usually the “righting or a wrong” by the underdog (vs the rich/powerful/etc)
Sparky
November 10, 2012 at 3:58 PM //
And yet all I can think of is the invention of new kinds of play and kink when you combine BDSM erotica with most of those other ones.
Wuxia Impact Play
Dieselpunk “machines”
Urban Fantasy: I actually think Dresden covered that one.
And so on.
David Grigg
November 10, 2012 at 10:54 PM //
OK! This time I managed to get all the elements together (though I ran well over length again at 1800 words) : dieselpunk / spy fiction / love demands sacrifice .
Here it is: http://narratorium.com/2012/11/11/into-the-night/
Sarah O'Hara
November 11, 2012 at 6:44 AM //
http://authorsarahohara.blogspot.com/2012/11/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge_14.html
Won’t be posted until Wednesday, I finished it early. Political Satire and Hardboiled sub-genres. I did use theme, but in a very broad sense. I am also horrible with Political Satire. I don’t follow politics at all.
I do like the outcome of the story though, even if it doesn’t quite fit any of the parameters.
Nicki Syler
November 12, 2012 at 2:07 AM //
Here is my contribution! Went for the Wuxia cause it just sounds fun to say that word
http://www.nickisyler.com/chuck-wendig-challengelove-demands-sacrifice-urban-fantasy-and-wuxia/
Josh Loomis
November 12, 2012 at 8:34 AM //
Not sure if this was the sorts of sacrifice you were looking for, but here’s my hardboiled dieselpunk yarn: One Night in Brooklyn.
http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/2012/11/12/flash-fiction-one-night-in-brooklyn/
Danzier
November 12, 2012 at 1:58 PM //
Well, here you all go. 998 words, not counting the title. Comments very much welcome, unless they’re spam, in which case they are very much unwelcome.
“Name The Sun” http://danzierlea.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/back-at-it/
And I still despise the autoformatting on blog posts. Someday I’ll get around to fixing that.
Laura W.
November 13, 2012 at 1:03 AM //
“Tootsie Rolls” http://lauraplusthevoices.blogspot.com/2012/11/flashfiction-tootsie-rolls.html
I had written this for a Friday flash fiction post, and, while it’s not BDSM meets Space Opera or Dieselpunk meets Wuxia, it fits the love demands sacrifice theme so perfectly that I HAD to post it. Sorry for breaking the rules.
You don’t have to read it, I suppose…Consider it an unofficial challenge entry.
Genevieve Williams
November 13, 2012 at 4:12 PM //
Tried to post this before and it never appeared, hopefully this isn’t a duplicate…anyway here you go:
http://welltemperedwriter.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/keeping-the-peace/
Athena McCormick
November 13, 2012 at 4:23 PM //
Mine is here: http://www.devereauxcourt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/invaders-from-beyond-sky-flash-fiction.html
I combined Dieselpunk and Alien Invasion with a dash of BDSM. Would love to know what you think.
Rhiannon McCormick
November 13, 2012 at 8:08 PM //
Tried posting this just now…not sure if it went through so I’m having another go…
If it didn’t, I did this: http://devereauxcourt.blogspot.ca/2012/11/flash-fiction-challenge-human-found-dead.html
In theory, it’s a hard-boiled urban fantasy…but it’s been about a year since I finished anything (or really wrote anything) so I’m terribly out of practice. So I make no promises about whether or not its actually any good.
Also…first time I’ve done one of your challenges (and finished) so…Hello!
Hope you enjoy.
Jon
November 14, 2012 at 1:44 AM //
I drew wuxia and political satire – I did my best. I suppose, if you squint allegorically, it could be considered political. Tough combination; I hope someone else drew the same so I can see if it was possible to pull it off.
Side note, the characters are drawn directly from the character generator I created (based on Stephen Emm’s awesome starting point) for my blog’s sidebar.
Fighting Demons
Athena McCormick
November 14, 2012 at 4:11 PM //
Rhiannon is seriously selling herself short with that introduction. What she meant to write was, “check out my completely awesome hard-boiled urban fantasy flash fiction which has enough emotion, character and depth to be made into a long-running series, but somehow doesn’t feel rushed in just under 1000 words”
http://www.devereauxcourt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/flash-fiction-challenge-human-found-dead.html
Beth L.
November 15, 2012 at 11:13 PM //
Love, aliens, and urban fantasy.
http://knotachance.tumblr.com/
Jeremiah
November 15, 2012 at 11:42 PM //
So I randomly pulled: Alien Invasion and Wuxia. Great combo, but I had trouble working in the required theme. So after some rummaging around, I put this together.
http://www.jqpdx.com/2012/11/16/demands/
Jim
November 16, 2012 at 4:01 AM //
Here it is:
http://dirtymercsbarandgrill.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/love-and-larvae.html
Jeff Ellis
November 16, 2012 at 4:10 AM //
Decided to do Ghost Story and Urban Fantasy. I went over my word limit and wasn’t even able to finish the story, so I am breaking it into two parts. For those of you interested in what I came up with, check out An Old Seaside Dive below:
http://firstwordproblems.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/an-old-seaside-dive/