YES, JEEZ, I KNOW, last week, no flash fiction challenge showed up.
This one below was supposed to, but I was traveling and the post failed to fire for reasons unknown — and I was unable to properly troubleshoot whilst in the sun-humped cactusland of Phoenix, Arizona. And I would’ve posted late, but this is a good enough challenge I wanted to grant it the full week that it properly deserves.
That said, we’re back!
And we’re back with a title mixup challenge.
Here’s how this works:
You pick one item from each table. You can use a random number generator to do so, or grab your nearest d20 and get rolling. You mash Column X with Column Y and you get yourself a title to use.
You can modify that title a tiny bit — permutations allowed are adding “the” and making a word plural or non-plural as you see fit. But that’s it. Don’t fidget too much, goddamnit.
Examples might be:
The Dismal Warbler!
God’s Own Testmaker!
The Radioactive Mummy!
And so forth.
You’ve got 1500 words this go around. Write it up at your blog post or other online space, and make sure we have a link in the comments so we can read it. Due by Friday the 12th, noon EST.
Get to randomizing, folks.
Column X
- Red
- Executioner’s
- Madness of
- Fist Full of
- Termagant’s
- Distant
- Undying
- Forgotten
- Unholy
- Stolen
- Five Days of the
- Bloody
- Doc Gurley’s
- Whispering
- Back Country
- Dismal
- God’s Own
- Cleansing
- Radioactive
- Neon
Column Y
- Warbler
- Cobblers
- Expanse
- Mummy
- Lockbox
- Testmaker
- Bridesmaid
- Jeweler
- Monster
- Bullets
- Dreamscape
- Sands
- Villanelle
- Dingo
- Junction
- Straitjacket
- Trenches
- Hearts
- Brains
- Cartographer
146 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Random Title Jamboree”
[…] herewith, the new random title challenge, “Five Days of the […]
Five Days of the Cartographer — this one was a real challenge, but once the idea hit, it added a whole new plotline to a series I’ve been working on–worldbuilding, one flash fiction piece at a time!
http://www.herravendomain.com/735/
This one made me want more–always a good thing.
Great stuff, love the worldbuilding.
“So close to home, yet ever so far away” is such an awesome line!
Thank you! 🙂
Very intriguing tale. It was a good read, but the name in the last paragraph shouldn’t be Cal should it?
[…] story is brought to you by the Flash Fiction Challenge: The Random Title Jamboree at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds. Enjoy! — […]
Forgotten Dreamscape – not my normal writing style, but seemed to fit the subject matter. (Or I’ve gone a bit crazy, either way, it was fun)
http://fredgyost.com/2015/06/10/forgotten-dreamscape/
That was excellent. And I learned a new word…chitinous. Neato!
Glad you liked it!
I can’t wait for the weekend so I’ll have time to read everyone else’s entries.
Really enjoyed this! Reminded me of Stephen King in its somewhat mundane, matter-of-fact description of strange things. Great job!
Good stuff.
This week I got “Five Days of the Straightjacket.” This should be an interesting one…
[…] week’s challenge was a random title generated by picking from two lists. I ended up with STOLEN BULLETS. I opted to […]
https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/stolen-bullets-a-chuck-wendig-challenge/
Stolen Bullets, a post-apocalyptic kind of story in my Burned Lands setting.
That was really cool! I wanna know more about Powder.
So, here you go – THE DISMAL CARTOGRAPHER! http://www.whiskypixel.com/the-dismal-cartographer/
The title didn’t get me inspired straight away, but once I started to work on it I ended up having a lot of fun with this. Hope you all enjoy!
Very intriguing! This one left me wanting more.
Got each of the kids to pick a number between 1 and 20. When their guesses produced “Undying Hearts” I wanted them to pick again. But “No” I said. That’s cheating. Run with it. And so here we are. https://grahamwrites.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/flash-fiction-challenge-undying-hearts/
I like this quite a lot.
Thanks, appreciate it. Have yours teed up for later.
I got NEON STRAIGHTJACKET.
https://crazyphils.wordpress.com/?p=51
Hello! An acquaintance linked this challenge to me, so I thought I would give it a shot. I’m quite new to wordpress and Chuck Wendig, but I found this challenge to be fun, even though I think my story is a bit different style from the others. Oh, well, at least it got my creative juices flowing.
https://pomegranatepithos.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/executioners-junction/
Decided to finally try one of these challenges.Cleansing Bullets
http://wordlier.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html
Awesome!
I got Forgotten and Brains, and then my brain went to a very dark place. Also, look! I did a thing! I took my wussypants off and put my big girl pants on, and I did the thing! Huzzah!
http://mschaotica.tumblr.com/
Red Sands. I was going to go with something seriously grim, but went 180 degrees the other way–a light bit of fun intended for kids.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2015/06/friday-flash-fiction-red-sands.html
Great story!
Nice!
Very nice! A good read!
I got Stolen and Mummy. I just started writing and this is what I came up with.
http://www.mymothersbooks.com/stories/i-was-a-stolen-mummy/
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge, courtesy of Chuck Wendig. I rolled a 15 and a 15 because random number generators are lazy and got […]
I got 15 and 15, Back Country Junction and just managed to squeeze out this. https://evathereseebert.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/flash-fiction-challenge-the-random-title-jamboree/
Got the two kids to pick numbers between 1 and 20. When I got “Undying Hearts” I wanted them to pick again. But that would have been cheating. https://grahamwrites.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/flash-fiction-challenge-undying-hearts/
Thanks for the encouragement Chucky Boy. Like reading the site. Here’s my attempt, in before said deadline. “The Whispering Monster” http://www.writerfiles.com/?p=203
lovely challenge! After I got mine, I kept randomising (i love options..) and found some fun titles for other short stories I’ve been musing on! Love a randomiser.
here it is, Five Days of the Straitjacket.
i’m not crazy. http://imagination.cjreader.com/five-days-straitjacket.html
Oh I really enjoyed this one!
“Executioner’s Junction” http://www.jamiewyman.com/?p=2571
I love the visuals of your story but the one nagging question is “are they dead, if not how do they meet up reach this nexus of time and space for whence they come and go to?”
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8688895641368752476#editor/target=post;postID=1340684545454685716;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname
[…] words, this is in response to a flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds, seen here, called “The Random Title […]
Here we go, just under the deadline — and hopefully there’s another one up shortly!
The Forgotten Jeweler
Or, due to my computer time being off — just OVER the deadline. BAH.
Gah! I’m late. Oh well, I’ll post anyway 🙂
A Fistful of Cartographer(s)
http://codenameprocrastinator.blogspot.ca/2015/06/terrible-minds-flash-fiction-challenge.html
Okay, I’m hooked. Very, very curious what’s in the Black!
This link is the one that works?
http://lissaword.blogspot.com/2015/06/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html
I’m even later.. but it’s been a busy week. I got Termagant’s Brains. Yikes.
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2015/06/12/flash-fiction-friday-the-termagants-brains/
Unholy Bullets.
http://torsteinmagnus.blogspot.com/2015/06/unholy-bullets.html
Bit late but was trying to work on my other WIP. 🙂
Cough cough, is this thing still on? It seems a little dusty over here, like everyone moved onto new posts, but I finally completed this flash fiction challenge. I got “Five Days of the Straightjacket.” Enjoy!
http://nickolaskusen.com/2015/06/29/flash-fiction-challenge-6-random-title-jamboree/
[…] week Chuck Wendig posted a Flash Fiction Challenge involving random titles and the one I came up with (A Fistful of Cartographer(s)) seemed too good […]