Last Week’s Challenge: Find Your Favorite Opening Line
Administrative head’s up — still tallying which of the opening lines were used the most in the last challenge (unless, ahem, anyone feels like taking that bullet for me).
This week is going to be the start of a five-part challenge that should take us up to and through Christmas. This is a bit of an experiment, so, who the hell knows if it’s going to work? But it is what it is and hey, I wanna try this out, see what happens.
I want you to write the first 200 words of a story.
This will not be a complete story.
Again: this is just the start of a story.
This is, in fact, 1/5th of a story.
You will finish this by noon EST on the following Friday, which is the 29th of November.
Then — and I’ll remind you of this next Friday — you’ll take someone else’s 200 words and continue that story for 200 more (for a total of 400 words). The goal being to end up with a 1000-word story after five total challenges. Each time around you’ll grab someone else’s story and add 200 words to it. We’ll play this weird narrative whisper-down-the-lane variant until roughly the end of the year. So, for right now…
Post your 200 words at your blog.
Link back here. (That part is critical, obviously.)
You’ve got a week.
Go write!
302 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: 200 Words At A Time, Part One”
Here’s mine – tentatively titled “Water” – 200 words exactly! http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3882836649574714556#editor/target=post;postID=9026482784722731233;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname
Just enter the HTTP title into a browser.
Doreen, clicking on your link just results in a message that “your current identity does not have access to this page.” It looks like maybe you accidentally used an edit link (which only you can access), as opposed to a public link that other people can access?
Sorry, I’m new . . . and an idiot!
http://dragonfyreediting.blogspot.com/2013/11/water.html
i picked yours up Doreen. hope its ok…I’m new too and just getting used to wordpress…you may have to scroll down to see yours. I liked the start.
Sounds great – good luck! Thanks for the compliment on it.
Here’s mine – 204 words
http://brickhousepiggy.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/terribleminds-com-flash-fiction-challenge-200-words-at-a-time-part-one/
Hmmm, I like this one. I’m going to run with it and see where it goes. 🙂
And, here it is: http://writeontheworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/the-second-200-words-a-real-live-corpse/
Tasty.
Hi, Ken & Mandy, I loved this. I just posted Part 3 here: http://gwinnydedanann.livejournal.com/925.html Tasty? We’ll see…
[…] Wendig’s Terribleminds flash fiction challenge this week is a challenge in five parts. This week we are to write the first 200 words of a story. […]
It’s been a horrendously long time but this is a challenge I couldn’t miss out on.
Coming in at exactly 200 words – http://thezombiechimp.com/2013/11/28/flash-fiction-in-too-deep/
This was uploaded via my phone so sorry if it looks a bit ropey. I hope you enjoy it.
I think I’ll take this one… A potential next section just popped right into my head as I read it.
Et voila: http://lynnalandstreet.com/stories/in-too-deep-parts-1-2
Great idea for a challenge. Here’s my contribution. It’s a shade over the money at 224 words. I hope you enjoy:
http://scenesandsequels.wordpress.com/
I chose yours:
http://article94.blogspot.com/2013/11/200-more-words_29.html
Also used your piece
http://girlbooksblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/200-200-words-onto-words-a-flash-fiction-challenge/
Not sure why, but I went with a medieval theme (too much Game of Thrones) and have left room for the next writer to do something interesting and unexpected.
Hope someone continues this . . .
http://jeremiahboydstun.com/2013/11/28/200-words-112813/
I chose this one. I went a bit tame thinking there was plenty of room to build up some tension. I hope I did your beginning justice, because it was a great place to start!
This will be fun!
Here’s a suitably open-ended beginning for someone to play with…
http://probablyfalse.tumblr.com/post/68404276619/untitled
Such an incredible starter. I have to continue this one for sure.
I’m honoured, thanks! I can’t wait to see where you take it.
I’m posting it in a few minutes. I’m calling it Jesper, just so it’s a bit easier to follow down the line, although titles are subject to changes at each stage. This was wild. I hope I’ve continued your dark and sinister tale.
[…] this holiday week, Chuck Wendig has bestowed upon us this odd task in his Flash Fiction Challenge. Not the usual “1,000 words or so” this week, but 200 […]
Exactly two hundred words, of which I am very pleased with at least 197. This was fun.
http://wp.me/p3tdUw-wP
I shall take up your challenge and see what I can make of it.
Part 2 by A. Carina Barry
I was ensconced upstairs in my apartment, attempting to write a proper article on the holistic benefits of açai berries when the thin veil of snow swirling over the cars below took on the form of native people riding on horses, Mohave, I thought, the word just coming to me. They chased a coyote with a heart in its mouth, it dove through a gap in the swirling snow and the riders shot past it. That was when the honking began and I realized, I wasn’t the only one seeing it.
I shot up from my desk and pressed my face to the glass. Could this be it? The Great Awakening when the people of the world would catch the spiritual fire and see at last with open eyes as those sensitive to the spiritual world do? I glanced about eagerly, hoping for signs of the brightening of people’s auras as they stepped out of their cars and pointed at the swirling riders.
As much as I tried, I could not see a change. But then the snow spirits above wheeled about in frustration and noticed the gathered mass of humanity below. Glaring, they set their spears forward and charged!
https://www.facebook.com/ACarinaBarry/posts/550308965058240
A great challenge in doing as much as you can with a small word count. Great idea Chuck.
Mine is (albeit loosely) titled Elegant Justice.
http://prose.smoph.org/2013/11/28/elegant-justice/
And here is my little something. Terrorist attack? Alien invasion? Natural disaster? Drug-induced hallucination? You decide.
http://writinword.blogspot.com/2013/11/terrible-minds-flash-fiction-challenge.html
I missed round one, but I’ve added 200 ish words to ‘The Tunnel’… thanks for the start.
http://jeffwroteit.wordpress.com/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge/
Here’s mine: The Forest Road. A bandit attack goes awry – for the attackers. http://snellopy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-forest-road.html
I was looking here for entries that did not get responses then realized I might want to check round 3. Seems yours got some love, but I already wrote this. Heh. So I’ll leave the alternate here.
Part 2 by A. Carina Barry
Jake Corwin signaled his men to aim high and smiled in grim satisfaction as their shots rang out death’s medley and the passengers sitting in the seats fell over one by one. The last one slumped over his wounded side, a dagger clutched in one trembling hand, eyes like granite over a large nose and even larger red-orange mustache. The man swung at him, but the wound limited his reach and Jake sidestepped back before raising his own blade and adding a finishing slice to the inside of the man’s thigh. The carriage rider groaned, but to his credit he did not cry out nor beg in his last moments.
Once Jake saw the light leave the man’s eyes, he stepped aboard to examine the strange prisoner. It looked like what you’d get if you had a baby raised by alligators. The thing looked like something out of a logging camp’s story. Jake would have to pay those stories more heed. “You understand me?” he asked simply. The creature looked up at him doubtfully, its eyes narrowing. It could hear him at least. Probably bound for some freak show or another. Another outcast of life, like himself.
Here’s mine. 🙂
http://undertheochretree.blogspot.com/2013/11/dreamcatcher.html?view=sidebar
Here’s my contribution. Love the concept. Almost like an exquisite corpse.
http://whitrichardson.tumblr.com/post/68453642503/wendigs-exquisite-corpse-esque-flash-fiction-challenge
Oooh, I’m intrigued! 🙂
Thanks. That was the plan!
200 words exactly, about a deathly allergic child, her friend Bloody Marty from the graveyard she saw through binoculars, Crocodile Girl from an imaginary swamp, and The Owl. http://rtwilder.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/for-flash-fiction-challenge-200-words-at-a-time-part-one-titled-harriet/
Hey R.T. – I continued your story, “Harriet.” Check it out at http://jeremypodolski.com/200-words-at-a-time-terrible-minds-flash-fiction-challenge/ (Also added to Chuck’s “Part 2” post). Hope you enjoy the direction.
How did I miss this? Fantastic.
Glad you found your way to it – it was a fun collaboration.
[…] First round is right here. […]
OK, perhaps I missed the memo, but are we supposed to choose which story we want to continue? If so, isn’t that potentially going to leave some out in the cold? I imagined we’d be allocated the next story…
everyone else seems to be simply choosing their own – I’m going to pick one to start on…
Generally Paul, each individual chooses the story they want to continue. I’d suggest if someone else is continuing one, continue another. Less people out in the cold!
Oh, I’m getting that now, I just don’t think it was clear that was meant to happen. I thought the idea would be that everyone’s story would get continued, not just those picked. Also, the sheer number of pieces makes it all a little unwieldy, especially as it runs into the third, fourth and fifth stages. It’s not a problem, my mind just prefers things a little more organised. I’m going to bow out, because, as much as I love the concept, the application’s proved a little overwhelming to me. Just wish I could delete my original link…
[…] Look through the 200-word entries from last week. (They are here.) […]
Just want to say thanks to those who added a little blurb telling what their 200 words is about! It helps narrow things down…
Mosquitoes – http://lpstribling.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/wendig-flash-fiction-200-word-intro/
Levi, I have attempted to continue your story. Hope you like it! 🙂
http://paul-feeney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/flash-fiction-challenge-part-2.html
[…] Chuck Wennings Flash Fiction challenge […]
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[…] For Chuck Wendig’s 200 words at a time challenge. […]
The Helping Hat part two: http://vidacruz.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/200-words-at-a-time-the-helping-hat-part-two/
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[…] I am so late on submitting this. Last week I posted my entry into Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction challenge. This challenge was to write 200 words, the start of a story. In subsequent weeks, others would […]
[…] Story, Part 2by Courtney Cantrell on December 6, 2013 • 0 CommentsThis is for Part 2 of Chuck Wendig’s December flash fiction challenge. (My entry for Part 1 is […]
[…] time for Part 3 of Chuck Wendig’s 200 Words Flash Fiction Challenge. The explanations are getting a bit unwieldy at this point, so I’m just going to jump right into […]
[…] is a cross-posting with my other blog, Gwinny De Danann at livejournal. Chuck Wendig’s latest flash fiction challenge began last week, when he asked writers to write the opening 200 words of a story. It continues […]
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[…] First round is right here. […]
[…] First round is right here. […]
[…] it. Then, the following week, do the same and so on until a 1,000 word story is complete. Here’s the link to the challenge so you can join […]