Flash Fiction Challenge: Time To Create A Character
This challenge is a little different. I like doing some different things here now and again, so — instead of writing a story, I want you to create a character.
You can create the character in whatever mode you choose, with the one caveat:
Keep it under 250 words.
Encapsulate the character in that limit.
You can use a story to highlight the character.
Or just a clinical analysis of who the character is.
You can decide what makes a good character and what goes into this.
Then, next week, you will offer that character up onto the altar of the next flash fiction challenge — folks may borrow your character and take them on a test drive through a new piece of fiction.
Dig? Dug? Good.
You’ve got one week.
Write it at your blog.
Link back here.
Due by Friday, 8/28, noon EST.
NOW GO AND CREATE LIFE.
August 21, 2015 @ 2:55 AM
Use someone else’s character!? Isn’t that like borrow underwear?
August 21, 2015 @ 4:46 AM
what you call borrowed. i call free. also a tad too tight
August 21, 2015 @ 5:30 AM
This sounds fascinating, and also like a lot of fun. I haven’t participated in a while, and it’s time to drag myself out of my funk, and start interacting with the real world again. Thanks, Chuck! Does it matter if I go commando?
August 25, 2015 @ 8:59 PM
OK, here’s my sacrificial offering.
https://elctrcrngr.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/character-sketch-menoetius-moros/
August 31, 2015 @ 6:25 PM
Yoinked for my flash fiction this week. Hope it delivers on what you saw for this guy in some way…
“The Forty-Second”: http://accidentallyinspired.com/2015/08/31/the-forty-second/
August 21, 2015 @ 7:27 AM
Is there a theme lurking here? Maybe my char will run a nudist colony….
August 21, 2015 @ 12:05 PM
https://liliweaveswords.wordpress.com/terribleminds-challenges/
My Character- Hazel Doris
August 23, 2015 @ 2:04 PM
I added another character to the same link: Stoney Potter.
FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: TIME TO CREATE A CHARACTER | D.R.SYLVESTER FICTION
August 21, 2015 @ 8:12 AM
[…] Hello all. Here’s a quick Flash Fiction bit I’ve bashed together for a challenge set on Chuck Wendig’s blog – Terribleminds. […]
August 21, 2015 @ 8:16 AM
I done did answer the challenge! It’s a short scene featuring a new made up character chickadee, someone with a lot of heart. The scene is a zombie apocalypse one, but if anyone picks this up they could put her in something completely different of course. Here it is:
http://wp.me/p4GUHD-iR
August 21, 2015 @ 8:23 AM
Okay… I saw this while looking at my email this arvo… and this is what I came up with tonight. 😀
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/celine.html
August 22, 2015 @ 12:13 PM
I like this character already – trouble walking.
August 22, 2015 @ 7:12 PM
Hahaa…oh, you made me laugh (ow, I have cracked ribs right now from a week ago when a ‘wise’ friend of mine thought it funny to hug me and crack my back – he also cracked one of my ribs!)… 😀
Glad you like her…. in every… way… possible… 😀
The Equalizer // Another Flash Fiction Challenge | doodle-doodle
August 21, 2015 @ 9:16 AM
[…] Wendig’s posted another flash fiction challenge–this time to create a character for someone else to write. I’m working on a superhero novel series, and this character […]
August 21, 2015 @ 9:17 AM
Nice! I’ve had this character kicking around my skull space for a while, but she won’t appear in my superhero novel for a couple hundred pages. Meet The Equalizer: http://www.doodle-doodle.com/writing/the-equalizer-another-flash-fiction-challenge/.
August 23, 2015 @ 11:56 PM
Hahah oh damn that character is great.
She sounds like my wife, only a hipster US bad ass version (wife is a crazy, dyed hair, korean who taketh no shit). Might have to try a story with this one if that’s cool?
August 24, 2015 @ 9:37 AM
oh absolutely! I would be so flattered/honored, thanks for even considering!
August 24, 2015 @ 1:24 AM
This one made me smile.
August 24, 2015 @ 9:38 AM
Thanks! Can’t wait for my protagonist to start his “sidekick summer internship” with her 🙂
August 26, 2015 @ 1:56 AM
Yep. That’s fun!
September 4, 2015 @ 10:00 PM
I ended up using your character. It was a blast. You can see what I did with her here. http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/177677.html
August 21, 2015 @ 9:30 AM
Ok this was tough since I immediately think of a character and immediately hold on to them like an overly attached mother at the kids first day of school. So here goes.
Daniel is a normal sixteen year old school kid. He is kind, passionate and forgiving. He is often found defending younger students from bullies and tends to get in over his head when defending an underdog. There are many times he has been sent to the headmaster’s office with a black eye and a kid worst off than he. However he tends to hold back when he has the upper hand and takes most of the punishment for himself.
That is until he moves town and starts a new school. Turns out his memories of his home town are false. Who he is or where he came from is in fact a mystery. Until he is visited by a stranger, he can’t place her but he thinks he recognises her face.
She tells him that someone has stolen his memories and he will need to find his powers to get them back. The visitor calls him Mercy and says he is a very powerful god.
Whether he grants mercy to his foes is up to him, gods don’t always give out their gifts to everyone after all.
August 24, 2015 @ 2:32 AM
“I immediately think of a character and immediately hold on to them like an overly attached mother at the kids first day of school.”
Haha, yeah, that’s the hardest part for me too! Going off now to try to think of someone who doesn’t come with an entire story attached …
August 21, 2015 @ 10:50 AM
This one is mine. It was quite a bit of fun to write.
https://strugglingwriter.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/gnash-liven-flash-fiction-challenge-time-to-create-a-character/
Character sketch – Chuck Wendig prompt | Writing in starlight
August 21, 2015 @ 11:33 AM
[…] Terribleminds […]
August 21, 2015 @ 11:36 AM
This sounds like a cool challenge. I’ve posted my character on my blog at https://tomghadams.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/character-sketch-chuck-wendig-prompt/
His name’s ‘Razorback’, and he ain’t very nice.
Character study | edge of center
August 21, 2015 @ 12:50 PM
[…] Chuck Wendig is a sneaky bastard. I read this morning’s flash fiction challenge, and thought, “oh, yeah, that sounds fun!” and had this piece halfway drafted in my head before I re-read the post and caught the key point: […]
Game Face | Accidentally Inspired
August 21, 2015 @ 1:53 PM
[…] challenge this week is to create not a work of short fiction, but rather a character in just 250 words, the characters to be used in next week’s […]
August 21, 2015 @ 1:54 PM
Here’s one. I hope you like him. (Or her.)
Game Face: http://accidentallyinspired.com/2015/08/21/game-face/
August 25, 2015 @ 8:00 PM
I really loved this. You always manage to pack a lot into a few words, and your a master of subtext.
August 31, 2015 @ 11:28 PM
And I’m an idiot of apostrophe. Just now noticed I screwed that up…
August 21, 2015 @ 2:02 PM
Here’s mine. Sort of a borough wizard.
http://www.agincourtdb.com/2015/08/the-specialist.html
August 22, 2015 @ 1:18 PM
Interesting … bookmarked for possible use.
August 28, 2015 @ 1:56 PM
This one jumped at me. Thanks for the offering them up. I hope I do it justice.
September 1, 2015 @ 8:26 AM
I ended up writing something with this gentleman — http://aimee-ogden.tumblr.com/post/128104216551/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge-82815
Thanks for sharing him — I really enjoyed writing this one!
September 4, 2015 @ 1:18 PM
This is the char I chose for the following week’s challenge and here’s what I came up with:
https://sjmcqwordery.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/scrappy-bit-of-business/
August 21, 2015 @ 2:23 PM
This was fun! I’ve been wanting to write a gym-based horror story!
http://cubiclemonster.weebly.com/writings
August 24, 2015 @ 8:34 AM
I like the potential energy bound up in this one.
August 24, 2015 @ 10:24 AM
Thanks, SamKD!
August 21, 2015 @ 3:56 PM
That’s terrifying. *laughs* But I stand by what I said the last time I played this particular game: sharing is part of the process. And I’m curious.
My current project is a big ol’ can of character soup, the social setting being a huge sprawling extended family, so a lot my flash fiction lately is backstory development on side characters. This particular guy, up to this point, has been nothing but a name on a gravestone and a family tree, so, fair game I guess.
The Middle Brother
August 21, 2015 @ 4:21 PM
Here’s another dark entry from That Toucan Guy….
https://criticalsexualmass.wordpress.com/
August 21, 2015 @ 5:26 PM
Here’s Cecil: http://www.ridleykemp.com/stories/2015/8/21/cecil
Do with him what you will.
August 21, 2015 @ 6:01 PM
Here’s mine: meet Xun Jun, a boy living on Zodiac Station and making a living spinning the Tsa Lin for the local crime lord.
http://strangeandcuriousthings.blogspot.fi/2015/08/terribleminds-challenge-creating.html
August 21, 2015 @ 7:12 PM
Instead of doing a character break down, I decided to an interview. Carthin, the character, is very much about how he interacts with other people. I hope the format works. It does sound exactly like him.
http://www.fatmaalici.com/2015/08/21/challenge-character-in-250-words/
August 22, 2015 @ 1:12 PM
Ooooh … lots of possibilities. I’m bookmarking her for possible (ab)use in part two. 🙂
August 22, 2015 @ 10:21 PM
(Ab)use away : )
Challenge: Character in 250 Words | Fatma Alici
August 21, 2015 @ 7:15 PM
[…] hertiage, his deep inter struggles are all missing. But this is a good cross section of him. Go here to read more character […]
TIME TO CREATE A CHARACTER (Chuck Wendig Challenge) | Dark Perceptions
August 21, 2015 @ 8:43 PM
[…] week’s challenge? To create a character. That’s it. Some total. Keeping it under 250 […]
August 21, 2015 @ 8:44 PM
Here you go: https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/time-to-create-a-character-chuck-wendig-challenge/
August 28, 2015 @ 9:02 AM
I’m choosing Luísa de la Cruz. Thanks for the character 🙂
August 21, 2015 @ 11:50 PM
Really Chuck!? Only 250? Man. I had a nice scene going on with about 350, but I had to cut some juicy rib meat from this one to get it under 250.
Coreal hummed a light minor key melody. She opened a small black box that matched her dress and dark heels and began removing an array of medieval medical instruments. The prisoner watched. Coreal took out a long piece of wood sharpened to a point and set it on the desk. She opened a bottle and dropped four small items into her hand.
The prisoner felt his fangs grow inside his mouth; garlic. He could smell it from across the room. Coreal walked to the prisoner. She lowered the contraption that kept him pinned to the wall, his arms spread wide like paintings of Christ.
She gripped his head at the back and slammed it against the wall. When he opened his mouth she stuffed the cloves inside. It tasted like he was eating the core of the earth.
He couldn’t swallow the cloves, so he rolled them to one side of his mouth.
“Please” he cried, his eyes watering. “Please don’t do this!”
“I know you’re talking” Coreal said, her back to him.
“Yes!” he said. “Yes!”
“But it doesn’t matter,” she continued. She turned around, placing a plague doctor mask on her face.
“You see, while I know you’re talking, I can’t actually hear you. As a matter of fact, I can’t hear anything at all.”
She slipped on rubber gloves, snapping them at the wrist.
“Which means I won’t be able to hear how much this hurts.”
ICYMI – Coreal is a deaf Vampire Hunter.
August 22, 2015 @ 12:00 AM
Ok, so technically Chuck did say we needed to link it to our blogs. Here’s mine: https://thewritingblocks.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/flash-fiction-challenge-create-a-character/
August 22, 2015 @ 2:40 AM
DAMMMMMN. She brutal. Also, from her perfect pronunciation and humming a tune, I’m guessing she wasn’t always deaf? How’d she get that way I wonder… interesting.
I feel you about the 250 words. Damn hard to get a scene out in that space without cutting it all to hell. This was cool though.
August 22, 2015 @ 6:25 AM
This is a cool, zarjaz scene and a unique character. Much respect.
August 23, 2015 @ 10:12 AM
Hmm .. bookmarked. I just had an interesting idea for her in a … non-traditional Vampire Hunting setting. 🙂
August 23, 2015 @ 8:10 PM
Yeowch! How cold is this character!? Love this one.
She gave me the shivers… Buffy the Vampire Slayer without the heart … or soul or fun. Just … ice cold.
August 22, 2015 @ 1:24 AM
Borrow my literary undergarments, humanoids!
https://apostrophobic.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/the-noun-that-verbed-nounsville/
August 22, 2015 @ 1:08 PM
Hmmm … bookmarking this one as a possibility. 🙂
August 22, 2015 @ 2:06 AM
Milady sipped her tea calmly, peering out at the landscape that lay beyond the balcony. Though she was not certain that the sky would clear up in time to take a walk, she was almost certain that the game was going well.
“If you were actually serious about chess,” the man sitting across from her said, “you might spend more time looking at the board and less time gazing at the scenery.”
“Never,” Milady snarled, looking across the table at her opponent. “You will never beat me at chess.”
“I just did,” her opponent said. He adjusted his top hat ever so slightly. “Checkmate.”
Milady’s eyes grew wide with shock. Hardly anyone beat her at chess, especially not a men, and especially extra-especially not men who owned white terriers rather than black poodles.
“Well,” said Milady, “if we’ve finished the game, I suppose you can leave.”
The man gave her a small smile, as if he were gloating. Milady was quite sure he was.
“If you’re going to sit there and make rude remarks,” she said, “then you can leave at once.”
Her opponent didn’t dare to mention that he hadn’t said anything at all. He had seen that glint in her eyes only once before, and it had spelled trouble. But he wasn’t about to leave.
Milady threw the teacup at the man, who seemed to disappear as soon as it was thrown. If you looked closely, just as the hot liquid was splashing on the carpeted floor, you would have seen two birds, one black, and one white, chasing one another against the dark sky.
August 22, 2015 @ 11:20 PM
https://wordpress.com/read/post/feed/16100996/786385857
Here’s the link-y link
August 22, 2015 @ 2:36 AM
I posted a link earlier, but maybe it’s easier to read these in the comments if we need to pick one for next week? Here’s mine:
My father was an optimist, not a quality often found in Silicate-105 miners; when you expect to die of silicate-lung in your forties, why bother? But he wanted better for my sister Min and me. That’s how he got indebted to Liu Bai, the White Dragon of Zodiac Station.
My father named me Jun. He told me it meant “supreme,” “talented,” and “handsome,” which is funny because I am none of these things. My only talent is twirling the Tsa Lin, the spinning top. I can make the top dance like it’s alive, jump over obstacles, and knock chute-scurries out of the air. A waste of time, Father called it. He wanted me to apply myself to my studies, like Min did. But I always found studying a chore.
Father never shirked from chores. He worked twelve-hour days until the silicate dust rotted his lungs, like it had Mother’s. When Father couldn’t make the payments, Liu Bai was unexpectedly merciful, perhaps of the fondness he had harbored for my mother. He didn’t cut off Father’s hands, or even his thumbs; he didn’t throw us off the station. Instead, he offered to settle for a different form of payment: my sister or me.
Father chose me.
My Tsa Lin danced for Liu Bai after that, up to the day he threatened to break Min’s arm for defending Widow Hu.
That’s when I made the Tsa Lin fly right in his face.
Created Character | The Second Cycle
August 22, 2015 @ 3:10 AM
[…] of the Chuck Wendig Challenge. Create a character. 250 word […]
August 22, 2015 @ 3:29 AM
Uh… guys and gals…
You’ve all mis-read what Chuck asked: to write it at your blog and link it back here.
August 22, 2015 @ 5:07 AM
Whoops! Humble apologies, O Great Bearded one. Please don’t send the facebees.We shall retire to our writing caves to study the lesson of patience.
August 22, 2015 @ 6:23 AM
I’m still waiting for my blog character link to be approved, so I can understand if people have just put the text straight on this forum.
August 22, 2015 @ 8:45 AM
So am I… this has been happening lately, hasn’t it? I’ve emailed Chuck and let him know, but it still happens. :/ bummer. 🙁
Character sketch – Chuck Wendig prompt – Writing In Starlight
August 22, 2015 @ 5:34 AM
[…] Terribleminds […]
Valerie – a character sketch | Karavansara
August 22, 2015 @ 6:48 AM
[…] taking part in the latest Flash Fiction Challenge from Chuck Wendig. The challenge: create a character in less than 250 words, and leave it open to […]
August 22, 2015 @ 7:29 AM
Yeah, mines still stuck in moderation limbo, but I’m trying to be patient and now just copy/paste here 🙂
August 22, 2015 @ 8:07 AM
Sheila Barnsworth: Nocturnal Flesh Puppet.
August 28, 2015 @ 11:23 PM
Nice, lots of possibilities!
August 22, 2015 @ 12:09 PM
Have some fun with Max.
http://normalisjustasettingonmyclothesdryer.blogspot.com/2015/08/pushing-baby-out-of-nest.html
Green-Eyed Monster | Write First, Ask Questions Later
August 22, 2015 @ 10:28 PM
[…] from the original idea. I also saw an opportunity to respond to Chuck Wendig’s prompt over at terribleminds, which involved creating a character in less than 250 words. Thanks for […]
August 22, 2015 @ 10:46 PM
Hey, jumping back in on these prompts with a weirdo actually inspired by a blogging101 task about responding to a Daily Post Prompt and…Well, it doesn’t matter, here it is. https://write1st.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/green-eyed-monster/
Seytan Robb – Hooker | wuthering bites
August 23, 2015 @ 10:50 AM
[…] (Created for Chuck Wendig’s “character” challenge.) […]
August 23, 2015 @ 10:51 AM
Chuck Wendig, you make writing fun. https://wutherornot.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/seytan-robb-hooker/
August 23, 2015 @ 1:48 PM
There’s a fistful of mind-bendingly good characters in that passage. Don’t use them all up at once!
Flash Fiction Challenge: Claudia Artifex | Read Write Repeat
August 23, 2015 @ 3:32 PM
[…] story is brought to you by FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: TIME TO CREATE A CHARACTER at Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds. So here’s a rough sketch of a character that has been […]
August 23, 2015 @ 3:33 PM
Ok, so I’ve got one. Hope someone can have some fun with her. http://fredgyost.com/2015/08/23/flash-fiction-challenge-claudia-artifex/
August 23, 2015 @ 5:06 PM
Your character’s got story written all over her. I may be tempted to use this one.
August 24, 2015 @ 5:32 PM
Thanks! She’s one of the Shiny New Ideas that keeps trying to distract me from my current project, so I’m excited to see what someone else will do with her.
August 27, 2015 @ 9:01 AM
That is excellent. Like a pitch for a tv show 🙂
August 28, 2015 @ 9:27 AM
Thanks! Honestly, that’s how I originally envisioned it. 5 seasons, the first four taking place in different towns, with different supporting characters, and the fifth where she calls in all her favors to take on the series big bad guy.
Of course, if it was TV, the first season would be mostly a stand alone arc with hints of the bigger picture, that would resolve neat enough if it didn’t get picked up for a second season.
August 23, 2015 @ 3:35 PM
here is my offering. He was a lot of fun to create (or maybe I just want to play in a poison garden).
August 24, 2015 @ 12:37 AM
Ooh, I like this one. I think I’ll take him out for a spin later this week.
August 24, 2015 @ 3:14 PM
Cool. have fun if you do!
August 23, 2015 @ 4:14 PM
Didn’t think I had anything for this challenge either till this sprang from my forehead fully-formed:
http://samkdsonlinepace.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-character-in-250-words-or-less.html
Flash Fiction – Jersey Malone | This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time
August 23, 2015 @ 4:59 PM
[…] the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning, so I guess she wants to come to life. Chuck’s challenge this week was to create a character in less than 250 words that someone else can use next […]
August 23, 2015 @ 5:01 PM
Okay, I haven’t participated in a while, but this one just sort of happened. Meet Jersey Malone. https://helenespinosa.wordpress.com/2015/08/23/flash-fiction-jersey-malone/
August 28, 2015 @ 9:25 PM
Ooh, I like Jersey. I may see what I can do with her.
A character - Look Forward
August 23, 2015 @ 6:04 PM
[…] latest Flash Fiction Challenge at terribleminds. A character in 250 words. (Luckily not 250 […]
August 23, 2015 @ 6:09 PM
I had no idea what I was doing until it was done. (It was fun to challenge a couple of other people do to this, though they won’t be posting and sharing, at least they got in on the writing.)
http://insani-x.com/2015/08/23/a-character/
On the Outside, Looking In: Flash Fiction Challenge | That's a Lot of Hats
August 24, 2015 @ 1:04 AM
[…] enough about me; you came for the flash fic. This week’s Wendig Challenge is Time to Create a Character. The premise is simple: create a character in under 250 words. As I understand it, next week we […]
August 24, 2015 @ 1:15 AM
This character has been hanging around outside my house for a couple of years now. I recognize her, but I can’t find her story. http://wp.me/p4SL5v-R
August 24, 2015 @ 3:18 AM
O nose! Caught in the awaiting moderation vortex!
August 28, 2015 @ 5:06 PM
The most terrible of vortexes!
August 28, 2015 @ 6:54 PM
🙂
August 28, 2015 @ 5:06 PM
I’m digging this one a lot. I think I’m going to give it a try. 🙂
August 28, 2015 @ 6:55 PM
Looking forward to seeing what you do with it. 🙂
August 30, 2015 @ 2:33 PM
love this one!