Last week’s challenge: “Choose Your Motif”
The haiku.
Three lines in syllables of 5 / 7 / 5.
You’re going to use the haiku form to tell a story.
I’ll be nice: you can have three haikus to tell that story.
Hew to the 5 / 7 / 5 structure — yes, there are other permutations of the haiku form, but we’re going to go with the base level structure we all know and love from English class.
This week has a prize:
If you win, I’ll toss you a copy of each of my writing-related e-books. That’s both Penmonkey books and all four of my “lists of 25” books (starting with 250 Things).
You’ll get those e-books in PDF format.
You have till next Friday to post your three-haiku story in the comments below. That is to say, by February 8th at noon EST. You get only one entry, so choose well. (Multiple entries will disqualify all entries.)
I’ll choose my favorite the week following.
Now go forth and haiku the hell out of this place.
Or, rather:
The terribleminds
haiku challenge is now live
for you to conquer
EDIT: Winners!
THREE WINNERS, DECLARED. I know, I said one but c’mon. This was a very, very hard challenge to judge. Because so many good options. Sooooo many. Anyway. The three winners:
UrsulaV!
Valerie Valdes!
and…
Spenschwartz!
CONGRATS, HOOMANS.
Hit me up at terribleminds at gmail dot com, if you please.
— c.
165 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Three Haikus Tell One Story”
jingles echoing through darkness
giant shoes tapping
Jingles puts on his makeup
cigarette burning
he opens a drawer
removes a vial, syringe
wets the needle’s tip
he’s eager to play
bulb of his spitting corsage
filled with sweet poison
-Belly Peterson
Running from danger
Trying my best to survive
Blurring the future
A flurry of pain
Blood smeared blade grins my way
The world now blurring
Stumbling consciousness
Looking for help where theres none
Black void beckoning
Tantrum
Story betrayed Russ.
He pouted, threw down, shouted,
“Stories are not real.
“They do not matter,
Dressed-up lies for children’s eyes.”
Story stayed silent,
Hurting but content.
Russ can go catch twenty-two,
As Story abides.
Uncle Sungei, look!
The white egrets are leaving!
Is your grass not sweet?
Summer calls them north.
While my beard grows greenly wild,
Egrets will return.
Uncle Sungei! Why
Is your beard shaved – the fields paved?
Are the egrets late?
“I cannot write it
until it is complete here.”
He pokes his temple.
She bites back her sigh
and merely nods. It will
fall to her, of course.
Nothing is ever
written in this house until
she picks up her pen.
It happened like this:
One moment they weren’t here,
And the next, they were.
The invaders came,
They saw, they conquered, and then
They laid down and died.
In just an eye’s blink
We were defeated. Again.
CONTINUE? YES / NO
Knick-knacks from their shelves
tumbled with each violent shake.
No common quake, this.
From the bric-a-brac
littering the old shop floor,
Several inches deep,
A tiny hand rose.
Another, and another…
The figurines lived.
Outside my window
was a nightmarish creature
lurking in the dark.
Can’t be what it seems…
evil in my own backyard…
staring back at me.
Chill runs down my spine,
realize just a reflection.
It’s right behind me!!
“Follow the Clues”
Smokey-eyed silhouette
The curvy distraught wife asks
“Who killed my husband?”
I follow wild geese
I wait as the cards unfold
Dice roll on the board
Not Colonel Mustard
In the kitchen, with the pipe
It was the butler
[…] much if it weren’t for Chuck Wendig, I would never write anything. This past week he had a Three Haikus Tell One Story challenge over on Terribleminds. I thought it would be fun to write a story with some misdirection. My goal […]
[…] Wendig over at Terrible Minds issued a little haiku competition last week that I had to get in on. You know I love my haikus. The challenge was to tell a story […]
[…] Last week’s challenge: “A Story In Three Haiku“ […]
THREE WINNERS, DECLARED. I know, I said one but c’mon. This was a very, very hard challenge to judge. Because so many good options. Sooooo many. Anyway. The three winners:
UrsulaV!
Valerie Valdes!
and…
Spenschwartz!
CONGRATS, HOOMANS.
Hit me up at terribleminds at gmail dot com, if you please.
— c.
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge: Three Haikus Tell One Story […]
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge: Three Haikus Tell One Story […]
[…] the day later, I entered a writing challenge hosted by sci-fi/horror author, Chuck Wendig, entitled “Three Haikus Tell One Story”. After editing my three haikus for a whole week (!), I finally submitted my entry. Once again, […]