Last week’s challenge: “Random Story Generator”
This week’s challenge is a fun revisit to the idea of mashing up two different subgenres.
So, look at the list of 20 subgenres below.
Pick two randomly (d20 or random number generator).
Write a ~1500 word flash fiction piece based on that world.
(You’ll note I’ve upped the word count a little bit. FOR FUN WHEE.)
Post at your online space.
Link back here.
Due by Friday the 23rd, noon EST.
The list:
- Dystopian Young Adult
- Slasher Film
- Weird West
- Zombie Apocalypse
- Paranormal Romance
- Ancient Myth
- Fairy Tale
- Spy Thriller / Espionage
- Haunted House
- Erotic Horror
- Low Fantasy (“Grimdark”)
- Dieselpunk
- Time Travel
- Murder Mystery
- Southern Gothic
- Noir
- Alternate WWII History
- Kaiju
- Comedic Fantasy
- Psychological Horror
134 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Subgenre Frankenstein”
My contribution for this week is entitled: “Robbing the Agua Fria Express”.
It is supposed to be a cross of “Dieselpunk” and “Weird West”.
I had some trouble creating a cohesive vision involving both the confined and crowded spaces of Dieselpunk and the open and empty imagery of the West. This is further confounded by the fact that these imageries are associated with oppression and freedom. Oh, well. I hope you enjoy.
As usual, feedback is much appreciated.
http://uriemram.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/robbing-the-agua-fria-express/
[…] This week’s challenge was to randomly mash together two subgenres of fiction (full list here if you’re interested). My two subgenres were “Time Travel” and “Slasher […]
A time travel slasher film!
I’ve always wanted to try out time travel in a story. The possibilities are endless. Extremely satisfied with the results. Feedback appreciated.
“Remember What I Told You”
http://www.andablankpage.com/remember-what-i-told-you/
awesome! super creepy. =)
Thanks a lot! So glad you liked it.
The Drop
http://magell2.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-drop.html
Alternate History WWII/Kaiju
I got:
9. Haunted House
17: Alternate WWII History
I feel it’s important to note that I rolled the d20 on my desk and got the statistically impossible (or near enough) five consecutive rolls of 9 before I got a different number. So I guess I really, really had to do a haunted house story. Math demanded it.
Anyway, I came up with this:
“Wind Had Teeth”
http://ironsoap.com/2013/08/wind-had-teeth/
Oh, sheesh. For once I published my early, and then forgot to come post it here. My Weird West Spy Thriller, “Strange Drinks at the Petestown Saloon”: http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2013/08/flash-fiction-friday-comes-early.html
Apologies if it’s overkill to post here since you know about it, Chuck, but here’s my offering if others want to read: “Miss June Berry’s House of Dolls” http://stevenhuff.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/miss-june-berrys-house-of-dolls/
Pssh, Steve — that’s totally the point! Show your work, be proud of it, rock on.
I got Paranormal Romance with Kaiju – and was thinking of changing Kaiju to Alternate WW2 History until I found out what Kaiju was… by then I’d come up with a triple subgenre mash-up… “Long DIstance”
It’ll be online in about 2 hours, but I’m off to bed now 🙂
http://jemimapett.com/2013/08/23/flash-fiction-friday-long-distance/
I got Kaiju and Comedic Fantasy. So basically, Godzilla meets Monty Python. So if you could go ahead and read this in the voice of John Cleese, that would be great. =)
http://curiouskermit.wordpress.com/
[…] Holy Overlord of Foul-Mouthed Motivation, Chuck Wendig, has this week suggested (by which I mean he has ordered us at risk of the loss of our immortal souls) to write […]
The gods of randomness gave me “Kaiju” and “Murder Mystery”, from which came “Dial ‘G’ For Gamera’. It was a lot of fun to write. As always, comments and constructive criticisms are appreciated. Enjoy!
http://wp.me/p3tdUw-hO
I went with the spy thriller/espionage/time travel mash-up. The premise of my story is a man goes back in time to stop the Clinton affair. In 2044, the time the protag is from, it’s theorized that the political division that led to the 21st century civil war all started with Clinton’s affair.
The Presidential Cockblock:
http://benjaminryant.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/flash-fiction-thursday-the-presidential-cockblock/
Scatter: Weird West/Kaiju, with some dystopian inspiration in the background. Whew, but this was fun to write.
The fight starts,as it always does, with a man in a bar.
http://ilonatherose.wordpress.com/scatter/
I like it, I don’t know Kaiju, but the weird west was well done.
Thanks! Kaiju is the Japanese ‘Giant Monster terrorises city’ genre. My story is barely Kaiju, honestly, but I had nanobots on my mind and a giant dust monster seemed like an awesome idea. I was going to write Scatter as a bad guy terrorising towns from which he’s been exiled with the beast, but I felt bad for him.
I loved it. I liked Red a lot. going right after the giant dust monster. Ballsy.
[…] is an offering, sprung from a challenge from author Chuck Wendig’s blog, terrible minds. A random number generator assigned me 17, alternate WWII, and 18, kaiju. Luckily I saw Pacific […]
I got “Kaiju” and “Alternate WWII”. Yay random number generator picking consecutive numbers. This was hard, because I am not really a military writer. I really hope that you enjoy it though.
Do not engage: http://prose.smoph.org/2013/08/23/do-not-engage/
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/08/16/flash-fiction-challenge-subgenre-frankenstein/ […]
Just a bit late. I got Weird West, and Paranormal Romance.
Straight to the Heart
http://www.ravensview.ca/ravens/2013/08/straight-to-the-heart.html
I felt bad for getting things I liked so I grabbed a random word and got “Chopper” Worked that in there too.
Kaiju: Its whats for dinner.
http://www.keystrokesandrerolls.com/?p=879
[…] is the result of a weekly writing challenge doled out by Chuck Wendig. hopefully, you […]
Murder Mystery and Time Travel. http://wp.me/p16A9R-9E
[…] Last week’s challenge: Subgenre Frankenstein. […]
I’m late (missed that it was noon eastern — it is in before noon central). I drew Postapocalyptic YA and Haunted House. It worked better in my mind than it did on paper.
http://writerjosh.tumblr.com/post/59114041564/a-haunted-house-at-the-end-of-the-world
Wow, I read “dystopian” as “postapocalyptic.” Failure all around.
I liked it! nice creepy atmosphere, good and spooky.
I sorta made it on time this week. lol (if you count that I’m in CA). I always write them right away, but like to wait til Friday to post it. I just don’t get up early in the mornings. I had Time Travel Kaiju. Enjoy
http://angelacavanaugh.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/flash-fiction-friday-a-time-for-kaiju/
That was fun! The egg-blasting scene reminds me of Lt. Ripley blasting away at the egg sacs in Aliens.
Late again. I live in Hawaii, so that six-hour time difference is a killer. Crappy excuse, I know.
I actually had a 2000-word story but scraped the entire thing on Wednesday. On Thursday I wrote the story posed below and spent this morning editing. I had Ancient Myth and Slasher Film, so I took some liberties and did a retelling of the Cain and Abel story, which I’ve entitled “Cabal.”
It’s only a little over 700 words, but I wanted to submit something. Please enjoy responsibly.
http://jeremiahboydstun.com/2013/08/23/cabal/
Oh I really liked that. It was darkly poetic.
I did an audio version of my grimdark/southern gothic story. http://www.scottroche.com/blog/mp3/Refilling_The_Chains.mp3
Cool story! I really like the audio format.
Thanks! I plan on doing one of these a week. So stay tuned. 😉
[…] Wendig’s challenge last week was to write a genre mash-up of two genre’s picked from a list of twenty. I have […]
I know, I am limping across the line years after everyone else have packed up and gone home, but I am just so elated that I managed to finish a genre challenge piece, that I am going to throw this story in the race anyway.
http://www.trinetoftschmidt.com/2013/08/flash-fiction-lateness/
[…] Another week, another flash fiction challenge. This week was “Subgenre Franenstein”. […]
Well it’s taken me long enough, but I still finished. And I wanted to post it out here in the world. It came in around 1,300 words. And the prompts that I ended up with were:
16. Noir
5. Paranormal Romance
Enjoy!
http://nickolaskusen.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/flash-fiction-challenge-3-subgenre-frankenstein/
Forgot to post my story – Dystopian Young Adult + Kaiju
http://www.rockysunico.com/2013/08/01643-dystopian-young-adult-kaiju-flash.html
[…] Flash fiction challenge from August 16: Subgenre Frankenstein […]
Still catching up on the FF challenges.
My story: time travel + low fantasy
http://fountainoflore.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/the-new-girl/
Truly one of the most interesting novels i have ever read. I was planning on collecting this books as reference for our future plays.
[…] am still working on my 1500 word Dystopian Young Adult / Haunted House story from Chuck Wendig’s blog. So far I’m at….2588 words. Okay, might need to do some trimming. I’ve already […]