Last week’s challenge: “Behold Your Theme.”
Here, then, are three random sentences:
“The borderlands expire thanks to the hundred violins.”
“A poetic pattern retains inertia.”
“The criminal disappears after the inventor.”
That’s it.
I generated them randomly, online.
You will choose one of these three sentences and include it in a piece of flash fiction, maximum of 1000 words. (For bonus kudos, use all three sentences in one story. Ooooh.)
Due by this Friday, the 16th, noon EST.
Post at your blog.
Drop a link to it here so we can all see it.
Go forth and write!
90 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Must Contain This Sentence…”
seems pretty doable, hope to get a quickie story out today. BTW where do you go to generate these random flash thingies?
Can’t do this one. I’m actually socially over-loaded this week.
You ?
Yeah me ,really!
Was looking for this over the weekend! Gah. I think I can make it happen.
[…] week’s Chuck Wendig Challenge. This is somewhat familiar ground for me. It would probably be considered a tad adult, so the usual […]
http://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/a-call-of-vengeance/ I went with the second line.
Nice use of the challenge! I really liked your grasp of this genre. The story was fun and thrilling to read. Well done!
Nicely worked, very enjoyable.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Properly dark, with a nice trajectory back to the beginning.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
[…] have never written a piece of flash fiction but for whatever reason the challenge posted by Chuck Wendig inspired me. Hopefully I did it right. Here goes […]
I was an over achiever and went with all three. http://blog.kmckinley.net/2014/05/12/flash-fiction/
The really cool thing about this super-short form is that there’s no time to explain backstories; you just take them for granted and roll with it, and this is what makes this piece work.
Thanks! I’d never written any flash fiction so I found it fun to write a scene in the middle of a story
Wow. This was hard. I managed to work in 2 of the 3 lines, but I’m not sure what I worked them into is actually a story. It might just be a 700-word infodump. It also contains spoilers for a book I haven’t written yet, so… there’s that. I am preambling too much. Here it is: http://jpjuniper.com/from-the-journals-of-dr-douard-bliveau-aug-2nd-1915
This line: “History crawls across the dead cities of Mars, darkens their tunnels, rides their manufactured winds like a dandelion seed.” This is perfect. I loved your whole story, marveled at it, but that line gives me chills. Awesomeness! I am struggling with this challenge, and now, I feel ridiculously inept to follow this.
Thank you! I really, really, really (xN) struggled with this one too. I didn’t finish it so much as give up on my ability to make it make any more sense. Then this morning I realized that the last line should be “Where is her Vesuvius?” instead and I was … well, I ate an entire piece of cake with my tea, that’s what I was. A giant piece of cake eater. And I’m still kind of mad I couldn’t get that third sentence in.
Of the three, the only one I couldn’t manage to squeeze in was the violin line. It seems to me like it SHOULD fit the proem-thing I made, but I just couldn’t get the rhythm right, even with some tweaks. I might find that lightning will strike later and cause it to behave for me.
Very cool piece!
Pitch perfect, period-correct, and culturally specific, all of which is pulled off with the special effect of language. I want a whole collection of pieces like this. (And I want to eat all the cake, too.)
Got all three in! Wooooo! Load Balancing –
OK, upfront I must confess this one hits all my kinks: clever hackery, management that underestimates the intelligence and ill-will of its underlings, revolutionary endgame … oh yes, and just plain weirdness. Great job with the alternating viewpoint, with complete confidence that we’d follow — because I did.
I am so glad you said *something* – thank you for the wonderful praise. Can live on it for weeks. *spikes ball*
I’m a bit dumb, so I included all three! At ~950 words, I present:
Songs of Dust
http://www.jdstoffel.com/2014/05/songs-of-dust/
Nightmarish, constantly shifting landscape — that’s the aftertaste here, and of course the eerie music of the violins.
Woot! I managed all three! 😀
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/political-caresses.html
That’s terrifying!
That one’s a trip to one of the nastier suburbs of dystopia.
[…] to be put up on Friday, but didn’t post. This time, the challenge was to choose one of 3 randomly generated sentences and use it in the story. I chose the 3rd sentence, ‘the criminal disappears after the […]
Here’s mine:http://underastarlitsky.wordpress.com/ I titled it the same as my blog…it seemed appropriate. I just used one sentence (the 3rd). comments welcome/ appreciated!
Steampunk surrealism, or surrealist steampunk … anyway, some kind of genre-rendezvous is going on here. Very entertaining.
Why thank you! Steampunk surrealism (or surrealist Steampunk) – I like that description! And might just use it to describe my other steampunk stuff!
I continued a project Rob Sadler and I are working on from the Cooperative cliffhanger challenge from about seven months ago. I used the second line.
http://article94.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/my-son-part-4/
[…] am beginning to resent Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenges– they’re making me stretch. A lot. And my joints aren’t as limber as they once […]
Failure–
http://douglasdanieldotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/flash-fiction-challenge-the-poetic-and-the-pragmatic/
I like the calm, ceremonial dialogue — with the sense of really dark things moving under the surface — and the radical twist at the end.
Inspired by TWO sentences from the challenge. Oh yeah, I’m all about overachieving, baby. Sat down at the typewriter and (literally) banged this sucker out almost immediately after reading the e-mail.
http://writingcyborg.blogspot.com/2014/05/untitled.html
This one is fiction in the way that some of the postmodernists are fiction. More of a…rumination? No…characters, per se. Maybe one. But hell, isn’t Chuck all about breaking those rule-things? Hopefully it works. This is a first draft, so I’m sure I’ll tweak the crap out of it.
I enjoyed that, very thought-provoking!
Thanks, Alex! I think it’s a “proem.” I’m calling it a “proem” now. That’s a thing, right?
I like going on Trips — why else read, or write? and not enough fiction is written about the ultimate Trip that is reading.
[…] For this flash fiction challenge. […]
I chose the first one:
Overture/Finale (With Cannons)
http://justafeverdream.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/overturefinale-with-cannons/
REally twisty self-justifying narrator (I think this one takes a few steps beyond “unreliable”) and I have really serious questions about the motives of the human star-warrior, which all adds up to a really strong aftertaste.
It’s good that it made an impression!
[…] the terrible mind of Chuck Wendig comes this week’s Flash Fiction challenge: a story of no more than 1000 words, incorporating […]
Alright, here’s my go at it…all three sentences used. http://wp.me/p4AFse-39
An entire epic-picaresque novel packed into a thousand words. At the usual exchange rate of 1K words = 1 picture, you’ve painted quite a canvas, with the most exciting bits implied just beyond the frame.
I am beyond flattered by your praise! Thank you so much for your compliments – I can’t tell you how encouraging they are from a writer of such excellent caliber!
Went with all four for a short short piece found on my ancient dA account, because why not?
Mechanical Spirit: http://tinyurl.com/nj9aomn
the opening pulled me in with its intense absorption in details of the craft – and then events took off wildly from there. I am still wondering what the heck happened, but in a really good way, as in “must reread this.”
Couldn’t resist! http://wp.me/p43Qpz-O
Love your work.
“Gorgon-glaring teenagers” wins my part of the internets, and the story just gets better from here. Yours is the first entry that takes the prompts as hilarious (and occasionally disturbing) translation errors. Whether you’re writing from first-hand experience or well-researched intuition, you’ve nailed the dynamic here.
For some reason that first sentence gave me something to run with:http://mainewords.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-borderlands-expire-thanks-to.html
An exquisitely hideous little study in compartmentalization, where all the worst things are implied via flashes of detail.
So I tried to get all three…but alas the creator and inventor didn’t really fit what flowed out of my head….here you go.
http://orderneedschaos.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/flash-fiction-challenge-must-contain-this-sentence/
http://mirrorknobdream.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/poetikinesis/
Managed to get a story written this week – it’s very short, I used the sentence “The criminal disappears after the inventor.” and was inspired by the one hundred violins, too.
Nasty, Brutish and Short
http://chriswhitewrites.com/2014/05/15/nasty_brutish_short/
Let me know what you think!
Interesting blend of prose and poetic elements.
Here’s mine. http://contradictionparadox.blogspot.com/
Ok, I cheated and grabbed a random trope too.
http://lauralibricz.blogspot.de/2014/05/friday-flash_15.html
Very enjoyable, and great how much POV can affect the reality of a story. 🙂
Especially if he’s a writer 🙂 Thanks for reading Mark
Took the opportunity to provide some more of Pete and the Swede’s story – my Orichalcum Miners…
It’ll be online in about 40 mins… I’m off to bed now 😉
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2014/05/16/friday-flash-fiction-the-gallery/
Jemima is evil 😀
[…] Last week’s challenge: Must Contain This Sentence. […]
[…] This week’s flash fiction challenge from Terribleminds. […]
Same universe as last week’s story, but a completely different set of characters.
http://epbeaumont.com/2014/05/15/flash-fiction-poetics/
Whoa. Being late seems to have cost Chuck a lot of story-posters! Here’s mine. . . I’ll try to get back to read others. . .migraine tonight and this is about all I can look at the computer.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/05/flash-fiction-friday-power-of-poetry.html
Really enjoyed your story! Love the first contact idea.
Thanks!
[…] week, another flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wending over at Terrible Minds. The challenge was to compose a short piece using one […]
Mine turned out slightly Victorian. You can find it here: http://freejackklugman.com/shorts/victorian/
And for any Ripper fanatics out there, you’ll have to forgive me for exercising a little artistic license with the geography of Whitechapel.
Enjoy!
Well written.
[…] week, my Flash Fiction Challenge entry is posting very, very early Friday morning instead of in the usual Thursday time slot, […]
Damn, it’s late. Damn, I’m tired. The idea came quickly, the execution more slowly, with multiple drafts before it hung together a bit better and fit under the 1,000 word target. Enjoy!
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/05/16/flash-fiction-nuntius/
Very nice twist! The first paragraph had me thinking that the main character might actually be a dog, lol. I was picturing a golden retriever for some reason. Did you ever consider that?
Didn’t see the golden retriever scenario, but now that you mention it, it does fit the first paragraph, gave me a good laugh! I’ll keep the “canine POV” idea in mind for one of these weeks.
I didn’t think I was going to write anything, but then… this happened. I’m not even sure what it is. It’s 350 words, and mildly surreal: http://jennwritesstories.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/terribleminds-flash-fic-challence-fire/
Very nice! I’ve written some more abstract stories before and enjoyed them. This one was funny too and I liked where it went with the fusing of electronics and man. A modern Dr. Frankenstein.
Yeah, I didn’t even realize how Frankenstein-y my main character was until I was almost done. Thanks!
Great job. I like the slightly surreal, which the prompt this week kind of lends itself to.
Here’s my entry – Senselessness in Suburbia. My first thought when I read the challenge was an alien whose translator was malfunctioning but then my brain said aphasia. http://melorajohnson.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/senselessness-in-suburbia-a-flash-fiction/
Finally finished my entry – Beyond Borderlands – which has all three phrases: http://www.andreablythe.com/2014/05/friday-flash-beyond-borderlands/
Kept it short this week. But I’m enjoying playing with these two characters.
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2014/05/friday-flash-fiction-don-johnagain.html
[…] Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge from 12 May […]
Here’s my effort – “The second that time forgot”. I used all three sentences, but I did go slightly over the word limit… Glad to see lots of people went for all three sentences 🙂
http://inkoherent.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/the-second-that-time-forgot/
Read it and it works well as a stand-alone – the kind of passage that will get you to read the novel.
aaargh.. hit the wrong button or something. this reply belongs with Doug Daniel’s entry.
[…] Recently, I was perusing the writer-webs and came across Chuck Wendig’s blog (http://terribleminds.com/). I found that weekly he invites writers to participate in a Flash Fiction Challenge, ranging anywhere between 1000-1500 words. Although, I totally missed the deadline I nonetheless took part of the challenge. In the future I’m hoping to be a bit more punctual! Below is my story in correspondence to this prompt: Chuck Wendig’s Challenge […]
I am late at below atrocious-with-the-devils-fecal-swiping’s levels on this challenge. Life has a way of plucking you out of the writers stream of time and you have to be courageous enough to dive back in (excuse?). I wrote this story for this particular challenge and wasn’t able to get back to actually posting it on my blog (absent of life, lol) or linking it back here, lol. I’m hoping to be a bit more punctual in the near future!
http://storiesarewords.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/the-hundred-violins-flash-fiction-story/