Flash Fiction Challenge: Life Is Hell
Last week’s challenge: Five Random Words.
This week’s challenge is as straightforward or as oblique as you care to make it:
I want you to write a story about Hell.
Now, this can be a literal Hell.
It can be a literal Hell from actual religion.
It can be a Hell of your own design and desire.
It can be a metaphorical or figurative Hell.
The story needn’t take place in Hell — but it needs to touch on the idea or the metaphor in some way or fashion. Feel free to get creative with the idea — don’t feel constrained by precise definitions (though you can be, if you choose to be).
I put up this challenge as a bit of a nod to the fact that my own Hell-book, The Blue Blazes, is today a Kindle Daily Deal. (And here I’m shamelessly elbowing you to see if you care to check it out.) Plus, I’m writing the sequel, now, so I too will be writing about Hell this morning!
You’ve got 1000 words. Due in a week — in by noon EST on Friday, 4/11. Post the story at your online space, then drop a link back to that story in the comments below.
Welcome to Hell.
We have such sights to show you.
April 10, 2014 @ 2:21 PM
Managed to stay within the word limit this week! Gather round, clay people: http://gigantocellularis.tumblr.com/post/82308109525/flash-fiction-the-republic
April 10, 2014 @ 4:40 PM
I wonder what trauma Lucifer will suffer when the clay re-imagines Hell as a post-modern support group.
April 10, 2014 @ 6:18 PM
Woot, got me one! The setting isn’t original by any means, I’m sure, but I really enjoyed writing this one. http://seanmlocke.com/blog/2014/4/9/frozen-over
April 10, 2014 @ 6:43 PM
Today is J for Juliet day on the A to Z challenge … so I have to give you “Love is Hell” (live in 25 minutes, I hope – night night, all!)
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2014/04/11/j-for-juliet-and-flash-fiction-friday/
April 10, 2014 @ 11:48 PM
Hell’s such a wonderful (literary) place to explore.
Here’s “Swinging Down the Lane” at 1,000 words exactly:
http://deadbeatland.blogspot.com/2014/04/life-is-hell.html
April 11, 2014 @ 12:37 AM
Live in about an hour and a half, “Biker’s Hell”
/2014/04/j-bikers-jahannam.html
April 11, 2014 @ 12:38 AM
Actually, it’s “Biking in Hell,” and it’s under 600 words–keeping things a little shorter for the A to Z Challenge. And I had to find a “J” word for hell. . .
Flash Fiction: 405^405^405 | We Love The Stars Too Fondly
April 11, 2014 @ 1:02 AM
[…] going to hell this week in Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge! The usual 1,000 words, any genre, dealing with the topic of “hell”. It seemed obvious […]
April 11, 2014 @ 1:03 AM
Hell doesn’t scare me, I drive the LA freeways!!
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/04/10/flash-fiction-405405405/
April 11, 2014 @ 3:40 PM
Yeah, well the LA Freeways scare the hell outta me. Good job.
April 11, 2014 @ 5:52 PM
Thanks, Kathryn!
April 11, 2014 @ 8:37 AM
A Demon who collects souls, but has his own agenda
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2014/04/friday-fiction-collector.html
April 11, 2014 @ 11:26 AM
I really thought of a bunch of “hell” scenarios. I honestly believe that hell is a state of mind that is of your own choosing. I thought about an event in my own life and the work conditions that some must endure today due to circumstance and things not of their own choosing. It goes without saying that jobs are scarce and people are scared. Obviously, there is a hell for everyone.
This really did happen.
.
http://taylormaderandomwrites.blogspot.com/2014/04/choosing-life-in-hell-flash-fiction.html
April 11, 2014 @ 3:26 PM
All the elements of hell were there.
April 11, 2014 @ 11:28 AM
I hate cutting it this close to the deadline, but not an easy one to write.
Flash Fiction Challenge: The Return Of The Opening Line Contest « terribleminds: chuck wendig
April 11, 2014 @ 11:37 AM
[…] Last week’s challenge: Life Is Hell. […]
Alice Black Writes | Flash Friday: Hell is Hope
April 11, 2014 @ 3:56 PM
[…] Much belated Flash Friday from Chuck Wendig’s prompt: Life is Hell […]
April 11, 2014 @ 3:58 PM
Holy super-late submission Batman! http://aliceblackwrites.com/2014/04/11/hell-is-hope/
April 13, 2014 @ 5:52 PM
A friend of mine, one time, was going through a crisis of faith. We talked about whether my atheism was about being “angry” with god, and what I thought about the idea of the afterlife. Talking about hell, I told him that the only way hell might makes sense was if it was more like purgatory, a kind of way station on the way to accept whatever needed to be accepted. Sort of like life, but without the unfair biological ending.
If I read your story right, you really captured the horror of that unfairness.
Flash Fiction Challenge: Life is Hell | Half-Mad Rantings with Nick Egelhoff
April 11, 2014 @ 5:48 PM
[…] past few months) the one I’m able to actually do is “Life is Hell” – the thrust of which is to write a story about Hell, whether literal or metaphorical. So, hopefully you’ll enjoy […]
April 11, 2014 @ 5:49 PM
A little late to the show, but here’s mine: https://nickegelhoff.com/2014/04/11/flash-fiction-challenge-life-is-hell/
April 11, 2014 @ 5:58 PM
Shockingly small number of submissions this week! Guess it scared the hell out of us.
And Chuck–you should have set the word count at 666.
April 11, 2014 @ 11:27 PM
I missed the deadline by 11 hours, and I overshot the limit by 1,950 words, but I finished my story about Hell. It’s a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, although I may have tinkered with the ending somewhat.
I also combined this challenge with the 10 chapters one from a couple of weeks ago, since I hadn’t done that one yet. I’m not sure I get to claim success on that front, though, because I kind of blew the word count out of the water.
April 12, 2014 @ 12:27 AM
And you forgot the link!
Flash Fiction Challenges: Hellishly late. | Trine Toft Schmidt
April 17, 2014 @ 6:31 AM
[…] late with this, but last friday, before I could finish my story for The Chuck Wendig challenge: Life is Hell, I was (perhaps true to the subject) smote by sickness and have spent the better part of a week on […]
April 17, 2014 @ 6:33 AM
Sickness struck and I’ve only just managed to finish my contribution. Apologies for the lateness.
http://www.trinetoftschmidt.com/2014/04/flash-fiction-challenges-hellishly-late/