This week’s challenge is not one of subject, theme, or other detail — the challenge is simply one of length. Because normally? You get 1000 words. Today? You get only 100. (I think this is technically called a “drabble.” You can call it “Bobo” for all I like.)
So:
Go to your online space.
Post 100 words (no more!) of fiction.
Link back here so we can all see it.
Due by next Friday, 3/27.
That’s it.
I double dog dare you to do it.
(edit: I also double dog my friend, Erin Lynn Jeffreys Hodges, to try it, too.)
395 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: 100 Words Only”
First time actually participating, I’m not sure but I hope this works. http://wp.me/p5WH9n-c
100 Words of Betrayal.
http://wp.me/p5WH9n-c Here’s mine.
Niiiiice. Was a punch in the gut, in the end.
Here’s mine:
RINGS
The boy pulled his finger through the fine dust.
‘So many rings. Like Mum’s fingers.’
‘Every ring represents a year,’ the man smiled.
‘I always got seasick. I hated it.’
‘The rings are part of the tree’s history. This mast is part of yours.’
‘I don’t wanna be part of that history.’ He blew away the sawdust. ‘So the middle, is where the tree began?’
‘Yes.’
The boy lay head to head with the trunk’s dark centre and squeezed his eyelids shut. His history was only had two rings; before and after. ‘Send me back,’ he whispered.
Whoops posted wrong version!!! Should be this:
RINGS
The boy pulled his finger through the fine dust.
‘So many rings. Like Mum’s fingers.’
‘Every ring represents a year,’ the man smiled.
‘I always got seasick. I hated it.’
‘The rings are part of the tree’s history. This mast is part of yours.’
‘I don’t wanna be part of that history.’ He blew away the sawdust. ‘So the middle is where the tree began?’
‘Yes.’
The boy lay head to head with the trunk’s dark centre and squeezed his eyelids shut. His history only had two rings; before and after. ‘Send me back,’ he whispered.
“His history only had two rings; before and after.” — Nicely done.
[…] This drabble (which by the way may now be one of my new favorite words) was written in response to a flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds. So you should check that out too. […]
HI, first time caller here.
http://wp.me/p41CL6-v8
first time? you’ll do well here.
very good, loved the twist, especially since its only 100 words
[…] … I love Chuck Wendig’s awesome Flash Fiction Friday challenges but I’ve yet to participate. Because I procrastinate when I’m fearful. […]
The Ginger Butcher http://quillshiv.com/2015/03/26/the-ginger-butcher/
Thanks to Chuck for bringing me out of quasi-retirement.
I had to jump in after putting these challenges off for … oh, a very long time. It was the double dog dare that got to me. Can’t turn down a double dog dare.
http://laurabowers.net/write/writingwithoutreins-wednesday
[…] I get back into the groove. So, this week in an effort to keep writing, I have decided to accept Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge. If you don’t follow Chuck’s blog, you should. I can’t tell you how many times […]
My 100 words are part of a longer blog post about finding inspiration t keep writing. All the way at the bottom of the post you’ll find my 100 words: https://michellerlane.wordpress.com/2015/03/26/fake-it-until-you-make-it/.
I tried to be brave. I tried to be strong.
I knew it would hurt but, still, I gathered myself to face this ordeal.
It wasn’t the first time and, sadly, I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Some told me, laughing: “Get rid of this one, you’ll find more! Tenfold !”
Some other, gently said that it was a pain quickly passed and forgotten.
And the more I prepared myself, the more I braced against it, teeth clenched, ignoring my wailing heart, the more I cried in the end.
Bloody butt hair…
Giving this challenge thing a try. Yeah, it’s that double dog dare. Can’t let that go without taking a swipe at it: https://creatrix-chaotrix.squarespace.com/blog/one-last-detail
https://moonlightronin.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/flash-fiction-100-words-the-kyu-court/
99 words! Not all that happy with it, but it only took five minutes to write. I forgot about the challenge until about twenty minutes ago. Anyway, here’s the link: https://lurawilcox.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/flash-fiction-naming-the-band/ (Will go live at 1 am EDT, so in about ten minutes.)
[…] little piece was written in response to the 100 words only flash fiction challenge posted by Chuck Wendig last Friday, 20 March 2015. It also serves as an introduction to next […]
Nearly forgot to come link back.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2015/03/friday-fiction-100-words-about-gorg.html
[…] This week’s Flash Fiction Challenge is to write 100 words. There isn’t a comma and an extra digit missing – one hundred words or less. Any subject, any genre. […]
https://nightshadeblues.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/drabble/
My first challenge. =)
LOL! Don’t stop!
Thanks, I’ll try. =)
Alas, I am just a “tad” late to the party, it already being Friday, March 27. Not to mention, I don’t really have much in the way of an “online space” to write yet.
I wait with baited breath for the next challenge.
Wow, sticking to 100 words was hard! Here’s my entry. Not sure what’s going on with the formatting but it is still readable, think WordPress is just having a tantrum. Hope you enjoy it!
https://penultimateuniverse.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/i-simply-walked/
I’m thinking Centenaries here. Interesting that I wrote nearly 200 words to start with. It was hard cutting it back to start with, but I think the result is much better. Enjoy!
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2015/03/27/friday-flash-fiction-centenary/
[…] week’s challenge over at terribleminds was to write a story in one hundred words (though, I ended up with a count […]
Here’s my shot!
http://www.loudlyintroverted.com/my-assistant/
I ended up with 161 words (sue me), but here’s my shot: http://nickegelhoff.com/2015/03/27/flash-fiction-challenge-100-words-only/
Posted this last night, forgot to put the link here — http://pauljwillett.com/2015/03/26/flash-fiction-trash-night/
Amazing how weird a neighborhood can seem in the broad daylight, much less in the pre-coffee fog of morning or the darkness of evening. But I think every neighborhood has people who enhance the effect. The trick is just to BE that person, and then you don’t have to worry about it anymore.
Max. The saddest 100 words I’ve ever written. http://mireles-musings.blogspot.com/2015/03/100-words-only.html
Takes me back to similar scenarios from childhood. I wonder if we just get fucked up by these things, or if they (blah blah) deepen our character and give us a better grasp on mortality. Can it be both?
99 words:
https://poordicks.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/flash-fiction-challenge-99-words/
Nice. I have one of those creatures at home and sport the scars to prove it.
I know that cat. Very amusing. Perhaps, 100 word stories should be called amuse tete?
Ah! A well known cat as it is all cats. I’m glad it was amusing!
As for your comment about brain treats, I prefer German to French. That said, the variations I could think of in German were all filled with greater existential emptiness.
100 words exactly. https://thattypingsound.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/win-her-over-100-word-story/
Possibly a bit late, but why not post anyway?
Here’s to cooked frogs:
https://sayitsultry.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/emotionless-girl/
Quite a quandary, I would think about deminishing returns if the legs might be the tastiest.
Possibly true, although brains, brains, brains! I’ve heard brains are delicious in omelets. Although admittedly that was calves’ brains.
holy crap. it’s Friday already. let’s do this right this time.
http://cookingthehook.blogspot.com/2015/03/100-words.html
It made me chuckle
I know i’m late but i heard 100 words only and one of my favorite WIP characters creapt into my head. Hope you like it:-
It may seem like a strange request and it still gives me goose bumps when they ask. But to me it is ever so exciting.
I have been waiting for this for years, the opportunity to practice my true craft. Sure I have other professions; surgeon, artist, undertaker, but this is where I excel.
And sometimes I do it for free, other times payment is required. It all depends on who’s asking.
So when a young woman asks me to make a deal how can I resist asking.
“Why do you want to live forever?”
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge: 100 Words Only […]
[…] [My response to Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge] […]
[…] Chuck Wendig set the challenge on his blog this week to write a mini flash fiction–only 100 words. Here, for your enjoyment, is “A Hulk, a Picard, and a Longshot.” […]