IT IS TIME ONCE AGAIN. We shall force subgenres to have little story babies.
I will give you 20 subgenres. You will pick two from the list either using a d20 or random number generator (or use tea leaves or badger guts or something), then you will write a short story that mashes up those two subgenres.
Length: We’ll say 2000 words.
Due by: Next Friday (8/12), noon EST.
Post at your online space.
Link to it in the comments below. So we can all read it!
THE SUBGENRE LIST:
- Kaiju
- Cli-Fi (Climate Change Fiction)
- Gothic
- Shapeshifter
- Weird West
- Fairy Tale or Fable
- Body Horror
- Sword & Sorcery
- Whodunit?
- Military Sci-Fi
- Comic Fantasy
- Creature Feature
- Superhero
- Bodice Ripper
- Heist / Caper
- Magical Realism
- Parallel Universe
- Noir
- Time Travel
- Musical
77 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: The SubGenre Blender Spins Again”
I don’t believe I’ve ever hear of bodice ripper before. Intriguing…..
So is there a maturity limit to this because I have ideas for the bodice-ripping shapeshifter story but there’s only one direction it’s going in my brain xD I’ll place a warning on my link
Creature feature musical. I don’t know about that. It might be a cute movie, but as a story…
I tried again. Now I have time-travel musical. Totally works as a concept, but musical? As short fiction?
You have genres I never even thought of on this list.
Body horror and shape-shifter. Holy hell. David Cronenberg? I’ll give it a shot.
Cli-fi Musical. Sounds right up my street 🙂
Kaiju whodunnit. Um, okay.
Fairy tale + parallel universe. The princess and the pea goes searching for a good mattress across universes. (I wonder if I can get Casper mattresses to sponsor it…hm…)
http://insani-x.com/2016/08/06/the-perfect-mattress/
Who wouldn’t want the ability to switch between worlds for a nap? Just me?
I read the last sentence and my mind immediately went “Casper mattresses, the online retailer that gives you premium mattresses for a fraction of the cost… etc.” I listen to a lot of podcasts. 😀
I may…or may not have been listening to a podcast with a Casper mattresses ad while thinking this story up.
I didn’t go with Casper. I think I lost my sponsorship opportunity.
Time Travel + Parallel Universe… yep, I got mine going well. A little sad, a little happy… and a little different.
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/the-ring.html
enjoy!
[…] flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig. Two subgenres mashed up. Mine? Fairytale and parallel words. Sort of the princess and the pea across […]
Random number generator gives me Cli-fi & heist/caper…’kay.
Shapeshifter military sci-fi . Hm. I think I could work with this.
Whelp, here goes nothing. I went with ‘werewolves in space!’ kind of theme. Think it worked.
https://fredgyost.com/2016/08/09/flash-fiction-challenge-trial-by-moonlight/
Love it! What a rattling great yarn.
Musical/Bodice-ripper. Holy hell. Uhm. Think it’s time to go back to the drawing board!
Fairy Tale/Time-travel. Think I can work on that mashup!
Well, I went to random.org and got “Superhero Bodice Ripper”. I wasn’t exactly happy with that result, so I cheated and “rolled” again, and I also got “Kaiju Whodunit?”. I was going to roll again when an idea hit me, and I started working on it.
Here’s the result (a bit over 2000 words, I’m afraid): “Deceiving Appearances”.
https://medium.com/@VicenteLRuiz/deceiving-appearances-ef23986f1527
Oh, oh, oh. That’s beautiful and sad.
Thanks!
Okay, that hurt at the end. Well done.
Thank you!
Military Scifi, magic realism. Hmm. Not sure 2k is going to be enough…
Whodunnit + Musical isn’t a bad combination and means I didn’t have to look up Kaiju. Of course I did look it up, but only to avoid ignorance … Time for tea and inspiration.
[…] Challenge provided by Chuck Wendig. I rolled noir and heist/caper and came up with this, based on a loose idea I’ve had rattling around my head for a few years. […]
I got noir and heist/caper and decided to pull up an old idea. https://evathereseebert.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/the-subgenre-blender-spins-again/
Oh nice closer!
[…] words – Prompts: Terribleminds, #3WW, Inspiration Monday, Sunday Scribblings 2 & The Writing […]
#13 & #18 – Superhero Noir: http://wp.me/p4le2s-1Ew
Loving how this story continues to unfold.
Thanks, Bunny! I’m burned out on writing lately, so I’m glad you’re enjoying the story.
Welp. Gothic kaiju. This should be interesting. See y’all Friday.
[…] week’s TerribleMinds challenge was to mash up two subgenres as decided by a dice roll. I’m not saying I cheated, […]
Cli-Fi Noir. Here is The Artist: https://comradecharlie.wordpress.com/2016/08/08/the-artist/
Oh so delectably creepy.
Thank you very much. 🙂
Wow, brutal. Very nicely done.
Thank you. 🙂
So creepy!! What a seamless mashup! Well done!
Thank you!
That was horribly good and creepily written. I loved it.
Thank you, kindly. 🙂
Wow, that is an excellent execution of the pairing. And, yes, creepy as hell.
Cli-fi (yay) plus fable (not so yay, but a writer has to stretch from time to time)
http://www.loucadle.com/2016/08/short-story-wendigs-flash-fiction.html
Excellent fable.
Beautiful story, Lou. Thank you.
That was lovely!
Comic fantasy and heist/caper. I wrote a not-so-subtle parody and turned my characters into thieves.
Got superhero and kaiju. This thing writes itself.
[…] in this random challenge, I got whodunnit and creature feature, and I let my weirdest impulses take over. Leading to this […]
I got whodunnit and creature feature, and that, combined with me feeling unwell, led to this. But really, there’s hardly an excuse for it: http://andreaspeed.com/2016/flash-fiction-challenge-mad-monster-sleep-over/
I love the throne of ants image!
[…] week’s challenge. I’m going to admit I cheated a bit and wrote a story I could then fit into the blender, […]
Weird West/Shapeshifter.With some body horror and creature feature (probably) thrown in for good measure. https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/what-price-a-brothers-blood-a-chuck-wendig-challenge/
Funny story, this is actually my second attempt. My Gothic Sword&Sorcery went way over the limit and into proper short story territory so… thanks!
Fairy-tale/noir, “Payback for Fay.” I had a lot of fun with this one! https://christopherslagle.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/flash-fiction-payback-for-fay
I laughed out loud when I got the punchline. That was fun to read!
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed!
Creature Feature and Sword and Sorcery. Almost not a mashup at all, really.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2016/08/friday-flash-some-heroics-required.html
Getting in just under the wire again, here is my Whodunnit + Musical genre mash-up called, originally, Whodunnit, the Musical!
http://www.bunnyandthebloke.com/blog/flash-fiction-whodunnit-the-musical
‘A Present for Amy’. Fairytale/Fable and Magical Realism. Not too much of a mashup, but it was fun. http://bit.ly/2bcMOXq
Kaiju + shapeshifter? Sure, sounds fun. https://tonij.com/2016/08/12/the-kaiju-curse/
“The Creature”. My attempt at mixing body horror and creature feature. Definitely a challenge!
http://thescifinovel.com/blog/the-creature
I did roll an extra time to get out of body horror because the idea that popped into my head threatened to ruin my appetite and I was hungry. So I ended up with Creature Feature and Gothic.
https://violetgraves.com/2016/08/12/managing-the-monarch-a-terrible-minds-flash-fiction-challenge/
http://aliceekeyes.blogspot.com/
mash up between Comic Fantasy and Magical Realism genre – this is just the start of a story
I’m totally late…but in my defense, I started late, and there was laundry, and ants. And that all ended up making this turn out way darker that I hoped.
Super-hero / Parallel Universe
http://gappage.com/flash-fiction-captain-viridian-and-the-alternate-reality/
Oops. Missed the EASTERN noon deadline. Bummer! Well, I did have a good time writing the story.
[…] night drinking beer and spitting out the first draft of a 2,000 word piece of flash fiction for Chuck Wendig’s weekly challenge. Today I learned that I have to let such a thing sit for a day or two; I know what the story […]
I posted this yesterday, but don’t see it now. “Josie’s Whale,” a weird west creature feature,
https://justanordavgguy.com/2016/08/11/josies-whale/
Hours past deadline, but I like this one. Noir meets body horror in: “Ricky’s” Shell Game
https://fistfulofwits.com/2016/08/12/flash-fiction-rickys-shell-game/
[…] right? Not the easiest of topics to fit nicely into a story! (If you want to see the post, here it […]
Yep, I missed the deadline, too. But wanted to share anyway…
Jack, Some Cows, a Giant, and, Oh yeah…a Beanstalk:
https://thenotebookblogairy.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/short-reads-jack-some-cows-a-giant-and-oh-yeah-a-beanstalk/
[…] a little late with this sub-genre mash-up that Chuck Wendig gave us at the beginning of the month. But it took time to leave my Princelings books behind and […]
[…] week’s flash fiction challenge from Terrible Minds: WEIRD WEST X KAIJU – let the games […]
[…] introduced me to Chuck Wendig, who offers some really interesting prompts. One that was offered on August 5th (2016, that is) […]