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.
AE Smith
April 10, 2014 at 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
Andrew Hilmer
April 10, 2014 at 4:40 PM //
I wonder what trauma Lucifer will suffer when the clay re-imagines Hell as a post-modern support group.
Sean
April 10, 2014 at 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
Jemima Pett
April 10, 2014 at 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/
Alex M. Rodriguez
April 10, 2014 at 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
Rebecca Douglass
April 11, 2014 at 12:37 AM //
Live in about an hour and a half, “Biker’s Hell”
/2014/04/j-bikers-jahannam.html
Rebecca Douglass
April 11, 2014 at 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. . .
momdude
April 11, 2014 at 1:03 AM //
Hell doesn’t scare me, I drive the LA freeways!!
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/04/10/flash-fiction-405405405/
Kathryn Goldman
April 11, 2014 at 3:40 PM //
Yeah, well the LA Freeways scare the hell outta me. Good job.
momdude
April 11, 2014 at 5:52 PM //
Thanks, Kathryn!
Dana Alyce-Schwarz
April 11, 2014 at 8:37 AM //
A Demon who collects souls, but has his own agenda
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2014/04/friday-fiction-collector.html
Tony Taylor
April 11, 2014 at 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
Kathryn Goldman
April 11, 2014 at 3:26 PM //
All the elements of hell were there.
Tony Taylor
April 11, 2014 at 11:28 AM //
I hate cutting it this close to the deadline, but not an easy one to write.
thatcalamity
April 11, 2014 at 3:58 PM //
Holy super-late submission Batman! http://aliceblackwrites.com/2014/04/11/hell-is-hope/
Andrew Hilmer
April 13, 2014 at 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.
crow365
April 11, 2014 at 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/
Rebecca Douglass
April 11, 2014 at 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.
kamackinnon
April 11, 2014 at 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.
Rebecca Douglass
April 12, 2014 at 12:27 AM //
And you forgot the link!
Trine Toft Schmidt
April 17, 2014 at 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/