Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds

Flash Fiction Challenge: 100 Words Only

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.)

terribleminds

395 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: 100 Words Only”

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  9. […] Chuck Wendig challenged his readers this week with a one hundred word flash fiction contest.  Well shoot.  I just happen to have a few of those from the Shark’s very own one hundred word contests.  How convenient.  And besides, Chuck threw down a double dog dare, and that means I have to do it, right? […]

    Reply

      • Thank you for reading and thank you for the kind words. I’ve got to admit it feels really good having someone say something nice about something I wrote – and on my very first try, too. This will not be my last time participating, I’m sure 🙂

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      • Thanks! It’s interesting to see how you are all left with very different feelings about what you just read. This is actually what I was going for but it’s even more amazing to see that it really can and does go both ways: kind of cute or straight up terrifying.

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      • I was trying to come up with some funny remark comparing your son to Ted but it just wasn’t all that funny. Instead, I will leave you with a smile and a thank you.

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      • Shoot. When I posted my reply the server was inaccessible and the response got deleted. The short version is this:
        Thank you very much. I truly hope to be back with a new story for next week’s challenge. The responses to this one have all been so amazing! 🙂

        Reply

    • Ok, you have to tell us more!! Develop that story on out, because I want to see what is going on there. Fantastic!

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      • Wow, thank you so much! I actually thought about developing it further. The earlier versions revealed more than this one does but I actually like it better when it only subtly hints at what is going on. The ambiguity is what makes it shine, I think. For now I will rejoice in these kind words, then perhaps for the next challenge I’ll take the opportunity to ruin a perfectly good story with a terrible ending.

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  22. Just posted on my Facebook wall> https://www.facebook.com/mateja.klaric.7

    “In 100 words I need to express my gratitude for the 400 like at my Psihologija z Matejo Fb site, wait no, it was not about that, I was supposed to write a 100 words of flash fiction, guess what, who knows what is fiction and what a reality, who says that I’m not only imagining those 400 likes and that my life is anything more than a dream,” went through the head of a 100 year old creature on her deathbed just as the movie of her life kept rolling and was somewhere in the middle and then, snap.

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  26. Panting, James snatched up the radio and replaced the batteries with the last new pair. In exactly two minutes fifty-five seconds, his contact would broadcast the message. His first and only chance of ever finding her again.
    Twisting the battered knobs, James trembled as he remembered the code. They had devised it together for a situation like this. Single-use only.
    “And now”, chirped the presenter, sounding muffled in the age-old speakers, “we pause our show to announce-”
    James stared at the radio in shocked silence. The moment passed, and it dawned on him:
    The batteries. He used the old batteries.

    Reply

    • Yes, I want to know more about the backstory of the little girl and her mother. I’m guessing the protagonist is a child welfare worker? Great response to the 100-word challenge!

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    • Shelton, I left a comment on your post. I loved the story and subject matter and your writing is quite graceful. It wasn’t merely a simple “100 words.” You said a great deal in those 100 words. Fantastic.

      Reply

    • I LOVE this. Please, write a short story. I loved the characters, the scariness and the bit of humor. I felt like I was there watching. Really great.

      Reply
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