Last week’s challenge: Pick an Opening Line and Go.
This week, I’ve given you 50 random character snidbits (gleaned from Seventh Sanctum character generators).
You will choose five of these and include them in a 1500-word piece of short fiction.
Post at your online domicile.
Link back here in the comments.
Due in one week — by May 2nd, noon EST.
Fifty Characters
- The slothful, unheroic teacher.
- The fear-ridden, short-tempered theologian.
- The unathletic, boastful gigolo who belongs to a secret organization.
- The aggravated thief needing a friend.
- The athletic, cruel architect looking for a challenge.
- The negative rogue.
- The clumsy, wise, sleazy mentor on the wrong side of the law.
- The athletic, tired, arrogant bounty hunter with no hope.
- The agile, serene traveler.
- The philandering architect searching for purpose.
- The actor with unexpected depths.
- The laid-back champion who hates children.
- The dexterous, funny hermit.
- The strong, contemplative prospector.
- The plain, biased gigolo who fears the future.
- The pretender who can’t resist a fight.
- The weak, homely ambassador who suffers from a chronic disease.
- The shiftless rascal.
- The athletic, tough wanderer.
- The dexterous, neurotic, chaste servant who is a complete fraud.
- The awkward, tolerant, philandering teacher who hates children.
- The weak, tolerant architect.
- The quiet wanderer.
- The biased prostitute with uncanny abilities.
- The graceful official searching for truth.
- The mysterious, heroic outlaw.
- The unpredictable hunter who is considered the worst in his/her profession.
- The selfless bandit.
- The poised, snide, bloodthirsty fence with uncanny abilities.
- The tough, burnt-out, opinionated assistant hiding a dark secret.
- The clumsy, materialistic, moralizing teacher searching for employment.
- The poised sailor who is considered the best in his/her profession.
- The unhealthy jailer.
- The tactless ambassador with big dreams.
- The healthy trader with unusual luck.
- The rude boatman.
- The enduring, joyful, tactless actor.
- The clumsy, generous fence who fell in with the wrong crowd.
- The agile heir.
- The plain actor.
- The dexterous, persuasive student from a small family.
- The puerile, aloof smuggler who belongs to a secret organization.
- The strong actor searching for a family member.
- The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
- The friendly musician.
- The brutal businessperson.
- The plain comic.
- The spy who hates children.
- The unheroic impostor.
- The pompous boatman who has an odd way of speaking.
92 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Fifty Characters”
Interesting idea, I’ll be unable to write until Sunday, though. Them ideas will percolate until then…
Okay. It took all weekend, but I finally finished “Five Characters.” See if you can identify these five characters in this 1392 word story:
4. The aggravated thief needing a friend.
30. The tough, burnt-out, opinionated assistant hiding a dark secret.
25. The graceful official searching for truth.
34. The tactless ambassador with big dreams.
45. The friendly musician.
http://article94.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/five-characters/
Ack!!
Can I just say, that I think it’s funny, you use Seventh Sanctum as well? I use that page every time I have to name something on the fly. Minor characters, cities, whatever.
This is the part where I say, okay, that looks tricky, and then I remember that it’s called a challenge and is therefore, of course, meant to be tricky.
But still.
Five characters in 1500 words? That’s tricky!
Took some doing, but once I made my mind up about the five I wanted, this one happened pretty quickly. Bonus points — this one DOESN’T make me want to slit my wrists on the back of its depressive, dark overtones. It’s actually kind of fun.
The Potioneer’s Ploy is here:
http://pavorisms.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/the-potioneers-ploy/
Excellent tale! You probably can’t hear it but I’m banging my sword against shield even as I type this in appreciation. Don’t ask how.
Thanks! Just be careful where you point that thing.
If this was chapter one, I would totally read chapter two.
Good to know! Appreciated 🙂
And I was just really getting into the tale! Nicely done- fun, good detail- very enjoyable!
That was a lot of fun!
Yummy! Gutsy heroine, useless hero, my favourite kind of fiction. Seriously I thought it was pacy and fun
lol, the Useless Hero. I smell a book title.
My gift to you.
Ooh intriguing. You could expand this to make a larger story if you wanted.
They were randomly generated, so I figure they should also be randomly selected. I got…
The weak, tolerant architect.
The unathletic, boastful gigolo who belongs to a secret organization.
The brutal businessperson.
The plain comic.
The spy who hates children.
Hmmmmm…. off we go then.
The dexterous, funny hermit.
The biased prostitute with uncanny abilities.
The friendly musician.
The rude boatman.
The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
The gears are already turning.
You gave us a real curve ball, Chuck! But you know me! I worked it out and swung the bat and I think I hit a home run! 😀
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/devils-collection-agency.html
A waiting area to be reborn. Sort of. Very nice.
Thanks… thought you’d lke it. 😀
They all fight crime!
I am totally new at this not-just-lurking deal, but I loved this challenge. So … yeah. Here is my thing:
http://jpjuniper.svbtle.com/four-acrobats-and-a-moon
Oh! I should say which ones I picked. My cast (in order of appearance):
The agile heir
The agile, serene traveler
The dexterous, funny hermit
The dexterous, neurotic, chaste servant who is a complete fraud
The dexterous, persuasive student from a small family
I found this one gripping. Nice development of tension. Really well done.
Thank you!
Okay, I have no idea what a “fence” is other than what a literal fence is but this one ( 38.The clumsy, generous fence who fell in with the wrong crowd.) inspired me to write the below little flash fiction. It’s not 1500 words but hey, it’s Friday and I’m feelin’ rebellious.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
http://dont-delete-me.com/2014/04/25/a-letter/
Short and sharp, like a, well, like a murder-stained knife.
BTW, a fence, as a person, is typically one who traffics in stolen goods.
Thanks!
And now I know what a fence is haha!
[…] is a piece I wrote for a Flash Fiction Challenge posted over at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds. The challenge was to write a story featuring five […]
My story features:
• The slothful, unheroic teacher
• The negative rogue
• The weak, tolerant architect
• The friendly musician
• The poised sailor who is considered the best in his/her profession.
You may find it here: http://freejackklugman.com/shorts/sedition/
Enjoy!
good stuff, I enjoyed reading it
Thanks! Glad you liked it.
[…] writing challenge from the cheerfully profane Chuck […]
I went ahead and let random.org pick my characters for me.
The plain, biased gigolo who fears the future.
The strong, contemplative prospector.
The puerile, aloof smuggler who belongs to a secret organization.
The selfless bandit.
The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
Somehow it ended up with a scifi, heist flavor. lol enjoy!
http://angelacavanaugh.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/flash-fiction-friday-gathered/
I like what you did with these characters.
Thanks 🙂
[…] short fiction is inspired by Chuck Wendig’s latest challenge, to pick five characters out of a list of fifty randomly generated characters and write a 1500 word […]
The clumsy, wise, sleazy mentor on the wrong side of the law.
The quiet wanderer.
The agile heir.
The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
The friendly musician.
http://douglasdanieldotcom.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/short-fiction-challenge-the-crossing/
Another failure, forsooth.
This was very good. I tried to comment before but it was under the wrong ‘reply’.
Thanks.
Your story flowed nicely and I liked your characters, they were all worth more words than you were allowed by the challenge. I particularly liked the last incident, it was quite biblical.
Very, very good.
what do you do if you don’t have your own online domaine but still want to participate
WordPress and blogger are two sites that you can get rolling with very quickly and easily. If you are writing – you need your own space!
I use Glipho.com. It’s good for just about any sort of blogging and the responses are almost always positive and useful. And it’s free.
[…] Potioneer’s Ploy By Pavowski Chuck’s challenge this week: Pick Five Characters. I used random choice to get me down to eight and went with the five that I felt best fit together. […]
[…] by Chuck Wendig’s 50 Characters Challenge. The challenge is to write a 1500 word story including five characters chosen from a list of fifty. […]
This challenge looked interesting, so I thought I would de-lurk and give it a try.
http://ftlpizza.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/puck-uranus/
I think you have a great story there. It has an unusual setting, a smidgeon of love interest, a degree of tension and the possibility of more to come. I’d buy that in print.
The clumsy, wise, sleazy mentor on the wrong side of the law.
The dexterous, neurotic, chaste servant who is a complete fraud.
The weak, homely ambassador who suffers from a chronic disease.
The dexterous, funny hermit.
The selfless bandit.
Welp, Random.org speaketh. Off to wordsmithery I go.
For your reading pleasure, lovely peoples. http://traversethroughfantasy.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/the-theft/
Here is my shot at this. Ha, foreshadowing. http://glipho.com/writingbull/five-liars
The fear-ridden, short-tempered theologian.
The unathletic, boastful gigolo who belongs to a secret organization.
The actor with unexpected depths.
The weak, homely ambassador who suffers from a chronic disease.
The tough, burnt-out, opinionated assistant hiding a dark secret
Rather reminiscent of “Saw.” I wonder, if he’s the mastermind, why it’s his girlfriend and why he’s so upset by the violence?
That’s what is tough about this challenge, squeezing in so much info in 1500. He planned it using her for help. He was acting for the camera, which is why he nearly smiled a few times, until he realized he was actually in jeopardy. I didn’t want to give too much away so the ending would have more surprise. Guess I should have hinted at him being a bit more callous. Thanks.
Took another quick look and patched a few holes, I hope. Thanks again for the input.
You have a seriously weird mind or a massive dark secret.
Why, yes I do. Thank you for noticing.
[…] Mark Gardner Okay. It took all weekend, but I finally finished “Five Characters” for Chuck’s challenge this week. See if you can identify these five characters in this 1392 word […]
Here we go then. http://idreamofgypsies.blogspot.com/
I chose…
The graceful official searching for truth
The actor with unexpected depths
The puerile aloof smuggler who belongs to a secret organisation
The Rude boatman
The fear-ridden, short tempered theologian
…and I broke the word limit slightly. The story just sort of took off on its own! But it ended up as the story Method Acting.
Hope you like it
I think your choice of characters was interesting. Great idea. I didn’t guess what was going on till near the end.This was a hard one wasn’t it? I found the word limit difficult too.
Glad you liked it! It was a really tricky one, especially to start.
This is a really weird comment, but I’ve been doing British accent work for a play I’m in, and I really enjoyed reading the narration in my accent. Also, I liked your take on the boatman.
My story ‘Three Wishes’ is over on
http://nanowrimoroman.blogspot.co.uk/
please take a look and tell me what you think.
Ta ever so
Fun read with a couple cool twists, like the Twilight Zone. Kind of confused about the ending, though. Did he die, become a fairy to replace the elf? I wasn’t sure.
Nah! He just became Mr nice weak architect. Thanks
[…] the Terribleminds Flash Fiction Challenge, “Fifty Characters“. RNG results […]
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/04/25/flash-fiction-challenge-fifty-characters/ […]
I’ve been lurking (and writing for the challenges) for a while but I’ve never been brave enough to post anything until now.
*gathers courage*
A random number generator gave me these:
The mysterious, heroic outlaw.
The agile, serene traveler.
The strong actor searching for a family member.
The unheroic impostor.
The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
And I came up with this:
http://justafeverdream.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/the-rat/
🙂
Okay, I ran into this blog only a week ago, and I have to say, this is one of the most awesomest blogs I have come across (not being a kiss-ass). I love writing, like everyone else here I suppose, and have found a lot of interesting posts here.
Anyways, here is the link to my blog post that contains the story. Sorry for the long comment. I hope the story makes up for it 😛
http://darkwordsfromablackmind.blogspot.in/2014/04/the-tragedy-of-haraki.html
I got:
31. The clumsy, materialistic, moralizing teacher searching for employment
46. The brutal businessperson
41. The dextrous, persuasive student from a small family
23. The quiet wanderer
16. The pretender who can’t resist a fight
by using random.org. I was having a time coming up with something, but this came to me while I was driving to work. I added one additional character.
http://jennwritesstories.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/terribleminds-flash-fic-challenge-the-interview/
Marvellous and interesting. I really enjoyed your story and the mystery character was exactly what was needed I thought.
Thanks so much for your feedback. I’ve been having a lot of fun writing to these prompts lately.
Here’s mine…I couldn’t think of a better title so I just kept the working title I was using. XP
Did anyone else find it was easier to write this as a fantasy genre?
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2014/05/weekly-writings.html
Mine uses these characters:
5 The athletic, cruel architect looking for a challenge.
26 The mysterious, heroic outlaw.
27 The unpredictable hunter who is considered the worst in his/her profession.
29 The poised, snide, bloodthirsty fence with uncanny abilities.
30 The tough, burnt-out, opinionated assistant hiding a dark secret.
http://rtwilder.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/the-curators-house/
I didnt want too much repetition from the random generator thing, so I selected my five to go on a Pilgrimage:
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2014/05/02/flash-fiction-friday-pilgrimage/
Live at 7:09 pm this blog time (just after midnight UK time)
Jemima, I liked your story and the use of pilgrimage.
[…] week’s challenge from terribleminds was to pick five characters out of a list of fifty. Fifty. Fifty crazy, […]
Alrighty, here we go! My five were:
The aggravated thief needing a friend
The athletic, tired, arrogant bounty hunter with no hope
Mysterious, Heroic outlaw
The unpredictable hunter who is considered the worst in his/her profession
The domineering assassin looking for a challenge
And you can read it here: http://wellfrockedlass.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/5characters/
Squeezing in under the wire as usual. I randomly picked six, then chose five of those for my story. Which five is listed at the end of the story. I took liberties 😀
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/05/friday-flash-fiction-cleats.html
A little cute and “fourth wall-ly”, but I had fun writing it, hope you have fun reading it.
#12 – The laid-back champion who hates children
#13 – The dexterous, funny hermit
#21 – The awkward, tolerant, philandering teacher who hates children
#32 – The poised sailor who is considered the best in his/her profession
#03 – The unathletic, boastful gigolo who belongs to a secret organization
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/05/01/flash-fiction-sample-collection/
[…] (Written for this.) […]
I tried. This is my first time ever writing a piece like this. Hope you guys like it.
44. The domineering assassin looking for a challenge.
19. The athletic, tough wanderer.
48. The spy who hates children.
28. The selfless bandit.
7. The clumsy, wise, sleazy mentor on the wrong side of the law.
http://r0kud3n4sh1.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/the-bandit/
[…] Last week’s challenge: Fifty Characters. […]
This was a fun challenge, and it was a challenge! Hope you have fun reading.
16.The pretender who can’t resist a fight.
17.The weak, homely ambassador who suffers from a chronic disease.
23.The quiet wanderer.
24.The biased prostitute with uncanny abilities.
36.The rude boatman.
1,464 words.
http://storedstory.blogspot.com/p/fast-fiction-slow-whisper.html
[…] I am, getting this in just under the wire. I know Mondays are the day I normally share the Chuck Wendig Terribleminds flash fiction challenge piece. But it has been an odd […]
Coming in just under the wire this week. Check out Ice in the Fryer…
http://www.10thdaypublishing.com/ice_fryer_bodycount/
Out of time and over word limit (sorry), I present Provers and Portents: http://gigantocellularis.tumblr.com/post/84529879212/flash-fiction-provers-and-portents, in which we encounter the following characters (in no particular order):
-The fear-ridden, short tempered theologian
-The philandering architect searching for purpose
-The biased prostitute with uncanny abilities
-The agile heir
-The pompous boatman who has an odd way of speaking
Thank you.
I arrived too late to win (accursed day job) but I did want to submit my story just the same: Come Forth the Rising Tide: http://wp.me/p3t25B-J
My characters were:
The slothful, unheroic teacher – Darrin Wells, former master of the mystic arts, now drunken slackard after loss of best student
The fear-ridden, short-tempered theologian – Father Finnigan, harbinger of the Rising Tide, a demonic force slowly encroaching on the heroes location
The athletic, tired, arrogant bounty hunter with no hope – Renwick, bounty hunter and immune to magic, bringing in next best magician for the job
The philandering architect searching for purpose – Collin Reaves: Creator of the Artful Madness, a living house with the ability span dimensions
The shiftless rascal – Jillian Pace, second most powerful magician in the world, forcibly recruited to retrieve Gabriel’s Horn from Hell.
Thaddeus Howze
Master of Hub City Blues: http://hubcityblues
[…] week’s Flash Fiction Challenge – is a repeat, because for the life of me, I can’t see where Chuck Wendig posted a […]
[…] (Written for this.) […]