Last week’s challenge: A Story in Three Sentences
First things first, some administrative.
I was going to pick my favorites of the three-sentence stories, but you did almost 300 of them, and I’m besieged by some emergency stuff this weekend.
So, HA HA HA HA I’m going to make you pick your favorite.
Here’s what you do.
When you find your favorite — just one! — reply (don’t just comment, but click that magic reply button) and write “+1” in the replying comment. That is how you vote.
I’ll pick the five top choices (i.e. those with the most “votes”) and give out The Prizes.
You’ve got until the end of the weekend — Sunday night at 11:59EST — to get in your votes.
Okay. That said, time to do this week’s challenge. So. I’ve used a random sentence generator to pluck interesting random titles from the ether. You will choose one of these ten titles and write a short story using that title — you can choose directly, use a random number generator, or grab up a d10 and roll that motherfucker.
Then: write 1000-word short story.
Post at your online space. Link back here.
Due by August 8th, noon, EST.
The ten titles:
- The Tempting Havoc
- The Equal Amateur
- Breathing Around Our Abandon
- Such Supervised Luck
- What The Highway Prefers
- The Miraculous Archive
- The Saint Stalls The Scum
- The Enemy Rule
- Heaven’s Flood
- Lusts A Delightful Mania
105 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Random Title Challenge”
Man, I _LOVE_ the random title challenges!
I rolled an eight on my d10, so I get to do “The Enemy Rule.” Here is the continuation of 16Sunsets at 980 words:
http://article94.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/sixteen-sunsets-the-enemy-rule/
Good story. I liked it.
Thanks, Beth.
Good way of putting the title in there.
Thanks, D.R.!
I love it. Very nicely done.
Cheers!
Sounds fun. Let’s see if I can wring something out.
I made the mistake of reading them prior to rolling a random title… now I can’t decide. Blarg!
Off topic but… I was delighted to see your novels, Under The Empyrean Sky and Blightborn, on my Kindle’s screen saver this morning. Is this promotion just something Amazon does, or did you have to set it up somehow? Hope it brings you many new readers.
That is a promo Amazon does, indeed.
[…] flash fiction challenges from TerribleMinds and ThainInVain for today’s post were a lot of fun to mash together. Chuck is responsible for […]
I’m with Mark; I love random title challenges. Here’s my contribution:
http://wp.me/p45IPu-3X
Definitely dark fiction. I liked it.
Good, especially the ending.
Thanks, Beth! I’m glad you liked it.
You built the characters well. I wish you had more words to play with, so I could see some more conflict between mum and daughter. Kinda doubt it’s going to go smoothly “this time”…
Thanks! I really wanted more space to fully realize this idea, too. I’m considering using this as the basis of a longer work. Who knows what will happen when I get around to writing it…
Whoa! Wonderful twist.
Thanks!
Alright. I gave “Such Supervised Luck” a go: http://swithering.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/such-supervised-luck/
My blood pressure was steadily rising through that entire thing. This happens every bloody time. *deep breaths*
I have a hard time working with titles that aren’t my own–titles are so important, so full of … titleyness. But I gave it a go, with “What the Highway Prefers”:
http://www.jpjuniper.com/stories/2014/8/1/what-the-highway-prefers
I really like the tone of this. Very haunting.
Sweet Jesus, I got goosebumps by the end of it. That was great.
Seconded. Or thirded? But definitely goose bump material
Thanks! I kind of creeped myself out with the rhymey bits at the end, I’m glad to hear I’m not alone with my creepiness. 🙂
Loved it! Loved the narration, the concept, the weirdly haunting lusty thing going on, especially at the end. Very cool.
A great read – rich and exotic and a lot of fun! Love the ending.
[…] For Chuck’s prompt I rolled an eight on my d10, so I get to do “The Enemy Rule.” Here is the continuation of 16Sunsets at 980 words. You can read what happened before this by clicking on the 16Sunsets tag. […]
[…] Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge today is a random title challenge. I choose out of the ten titles this one and wrote a little bit of […]
Here’s a little bit of space opera:
The Enemy Rule: http://bethturnage.com/?p=154
Good job, Beth. It’s a great start to a novel.
Thank you, Connie.
Cool challenge – I got Heaven’s Flood. I think I like what I ended up with here:
http://lilliangordontaylor.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/heavens-flood/
It’s been a while since I’ve had some time to do one of these. Hello everyone!
I rolled number 3, Breathing Around Our Abandon, and this is what came out:
http://prose.smoph.org/2014/08/01/breathing-around-our-abandon/
I looked at the titles and found #6 appealing…
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/the-miraculous-archive.html
Enjoy! 😀
Sounds fun!
I rolled nine, so Heaven’s Flood.
I’ll be back tonight with one thousand words, probably some kind of sci-fi / fantasy double-headed thing.
Done, and that was awesome fun. Thanking you kindly, Chuck.
http://drsylvesterfiction.com/2014/08/02/1000-word-short-story-challenge-fo-chuck/
I enjoyed this. The story is self-contained, but allows you to continue it if you are so inclined.
Thanks, mate. Glad you liked it 🙂 I had killed this character off in a novel I’m writing, but I missed her, so… hurray for zombie/ghost characters!
I really enjoyed reading this! I am curious as to the previous story now…dragons? Ships? Hats on fire? Awesome.
Thanks! I would like to say “here it is! My novel! Tada!” Unfortunately it’s still a work in progress at the moment… But you can read a bit more about it on my blog’s (aptly named) about page, and it will be out by the end of the year.
Thanks again!
I did: What the Highway Prefers
http://angelacavanaugh.com/2014/08/02/flash-fiction-friday-what-the-highway-prefers/
Interesting concept!
Thanks 🙂
I’ll second that Angela. Interesting idea; like the open-endedness of it too.
Thirded. Liked the honesty of the characters, the lack of compromise, and most of all the ending.
Great writing, thanks for the share….I felt like I was there 🙂
[…] his minions to write a one thousand word short, based on one of ten different titles (see his post here). I rolled a nine, so I’m doing “Heaven’s […]
[…] flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds: this week’s is Random Title. I rolled a ‘5’ and got the title you see – I wasn’t too sure about (and […]
What the Highway Prefers – and it’s a dark, creepy Highway, that one.
http://wp.me/p4oEkv-27
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/01/flash-fiction-challenge-random-title-challenge/ […]
The Saint Stalls The Scum: A mysterious stranger defends a poor inn-keeper from thugs. Not the most original story (almost every single “mysterious stranger” plot starts this way), but I never get tired of it. Plus, I experimented writing from a blind man’s POV, which was pretty cool.
https://johnfreeter.wordpress.com/2014/08/03/the-saint-stalls-the-scum/
Funny, you mention at the beginning how cliché the story is, and you’re right, but damn me if I didn’t have goose bumps by the end anyway. Great delivery.
The Tempting Havoc, which I combined with a list of things from the YouAreCarrying twitter account. A spyglass, a quantity of water, a basket, an atomic vector plotter, a cardboard box, a gun, a cake frosted with red letters.
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3210369/1/The-Tempting-Havoc
The paperback falling… brilliant.
Random gave me 6 – The Miraculous Archive. It’s been a while, but here goes.
[…] A Random Title Challenge from Chuck this week. In keeping with my last several posts, I thought long and hard about how to attack this prompt, and then realized that the right way was literally right under my nose. […]
Took a while for inspiration to strike for this one, and then like my two-year-old falling out of bed at three in the morning, it just happened.
Here’s “The Equal Amateur,” 956 words inspired by my kids. Hope you enjoy! http://pavorisms.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/the-equal-amateur/
[…] week on Chuck Wendig’s blog is another Random Title flash fiction challenge. He gave 10 different titles, created by a title generator, and I got 8, using Random.org, which […]
I rolled an 8, so I got The Enemy Rule, at 997 words. Hope you enjoy. http://underastarlitsky.wordpress.com
You did that well. I wasn’t expecting vampire hunters.
[…] is a bit crazy, like that is anything new. Anyway, the challenge over at Chuck Wendig’s Terribleminds blog this week is a random title challenge. The thing is the title is created with a random […]
What the Highway Prefers
http://www.10thdaypublishing.com/highway-prefers/
[…] week’s Chuck Wendig challenge. I can’t say I love the title, and I’m not sure I quite did it justice. Where’s […]
I rolled and got “Lusts a Delightful Mania.” I don’t think I did the title justice, somehow, but this is what I ended up with. Over the limit by about 200 words as well.
http://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/lusts-a-delightful-mania-flash-fiction/
That was totally fun, thanks! Had me guessing about the nature of his “job” until the end.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
First time putting this out to the ether. https://tschanz1.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/the-enemy-rule-2/
You had me on the edge of my seat. Wasn’t sure how that was going to turn out. Well done.
[…] post was written for Chuck Wendig’s latest writing prompt. I rolled #1, so my random title phrase is The Tempting Havoc. […]
I rolled #1, The Tempting Havoc, so here it is:
http://drewkrull.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/the-tempting-havoc/
[…] ever, the amazing Chuck Wendig has put forth a challenge this week, the Random Title Challenge. I actually used a random number generator and rolled #2. I wasn’t sure how to get it to […]
I used a random number generator and got #2. Here is my take on it:
https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/the-equal-amateur/
Cool! I liked how you characterized the relationship between Aaden and Abby.
Thank you! I’m happy you enjoyed it. 🙂
Here is my effort:
http://martinwells1.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/flash-fiction-random-title-challenge/
It’s been a while since I participated. I chose The Enemy Rule. http://wp.me/p2AyuM-mF
Connie, could you check the link? The link brings me to an error page.
[…] (http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/01/flash-fiction-challenge-random-title-challenge/) […]
Relished the challenge even if I ran out of time this week. So much more I could have done with this but I’m letting it go. Here’s “Heaven’s Flood”: http://lucywaterfall.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/heavens-flood-flash-fiction-challenge/
Fun – loved the voice of the sheriff in your piece.
Thanks. More time & I would have liked to do more with him…seem quite drawn to writing grumpy men at the moment.
Greetings! I’m back from Camp Nano and looking forward to plenty of flash. Here’s my take on the Saint Stalls the Scum – live in just over an hour (7pm New York time, midnight UK)
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2014/08/08/flash-fiction-friday-the-saint-stalls-the-scum/
I liked the story, but the main character seemed a bit passive. Great foreshadowing though.
This reminded me how enjoyable short stories can be when they let you experience a quick dose of satisfaction…
[…] Wendig, our bearded subdeity, has this week given us the Flash Fiction Challenge of the usual “1000 words or so” using one of ten randomly generated titles. I rolled a […]
[…] Wendig’s flash fiction challenge this week was a Random Title Challenge, wherein you chose from a list of ten randomly generated strings of words and that became your title. […]
Finally finished one before the deadline. I hope throwing a colon into the title doesn’t break any rules.
https://dangerdean.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/lusts-a-delightful-mania/
I got Breathing Around Our Abandon, and the end result is … really depressing. Sorry. http://andreaspeed.com/2014/flash-fic-challenge-breathing-around-our-abandon/
I liked it. That last line was as excellent as it was chilling.
Thank you. Thinking of how to end it was difficult. And could have been even more depressing.
I know I’m a bit late, but I’m pretty satisfied with this one.
What the Highway Prefers: http://ellsimp.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/short-fiction-what-the-highway-prefers/
That’s really good, and makes me want more of it.
[…] story is thanks to the Chuck Wendig Challenge of August 1st at http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/01/flash-fiction-challenge-random-title-challenge/ . He provided a list of story titles and it was my job to pick one and write a story to it. This […]
[…] was a writing challenge from terribleminds.com to roll a random title from a list of ten, and to then write a story based […]
I rolled “The Saint Stalls the Scum”
http://mrdorough.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/the-saint-stalls-the-scum/
Wrote & posted this last night, but forgot to post the link here. (Tough getting good help…)
https://pauljwillett.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3750&action=edit
“You are not allowed to edit this item.”
Minimalist. Understated. Thought provoking.
(Check the link!)
Thanks for the heads up! As I said, it’s tough…
Annnnnd… I’m an idiot today. Try this one.
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/08/07/flash-fiction-the-equal-amateur/