I’m going to give you ten one-word titles.
You will pick one, either by choice or by random generator, to be the title of a piece of flash fiction for this week’s flash fiction challenge.
You’ve got ~1000 words, due by Friday, April 7th, noon EST.
Post the story online.
Link back here.
Here are the ten one-word titles.
Do not combine them.
Do not speak them aloud because they may be a magic spell or launch codes.
CHOOSE.
- Holiday
- Undulate
- Juniper
- Jumper
- Permanence
- Ossuary
- Supernumerary
- Sidereal
- Bushcraft
- Tourmaline
64 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: One-Word Titles”
I picked “Holiday” because as soon as I saw it, I knew the story I had to write:
https://theurbanspaceman.net/2017/03/31/holiday-flash-fiction/
670 words, but I hope they’re 670 enjoyable ones! (no refunds given if story is not enjoyed)
This is just a little flash of fiction, what was on my mind at 4.30am when I couldn’t sleep!
http://caralmckee.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/undulate.html
Dam, I love this. Great use of language and a brilliant premise
Thank you!
Beautiful, dream-like. I really like notion of dragons being responsible for earthquakes and tsunamis.
Very nicely done! It feels poetic and flowing, even though it’s prose.
“Do not speak them aloud because they may be a magic spell or launch codes.”
Damn. I just spoke them aloud and some guy with a metal arm showed up and tried to kill me.
Sorry about that. When I read them out loud my arm turned to metal and I got sucked over to your universe. I wasn’t really trying to kill you per se, but the whole ordeal had put me off my tea. Apologies.
Oh. My. Gawd.
CABLE is at your house?! 😮 I can’t wait to see who plays him in the next Deadpool movie.
I didn’t make 1,000 word, but I also didn’t really feel like making this one longer: https://tealeavesandtweed.com/2017/03/31/flash-fiction-juniper/
Here’s my submission for the latest challenge. I had chosen “Ossuary.” Hope I got it right context-wise. Enjoy!
https://brainfartcom.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/chuck-wendigs-flash-fiction-challenge-ossuary/
Something like that can really ruin your day.
I decided to use all ten words in my flash. It’s a short from the Days Until Home universe: https://article94.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/permanence/
JUNIPER: https://www.facebook.com/notes/grams-cup/juniper/1818180955111018
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/tourmaline.html
enjoy…
I didn’t make it all the way to 1,000 words, but here is my offering this week: https://tealeavesandtweed.com/2017/03/31/flash-fiction-juniper/
“Permanence” —Thanks for keeping me busy. I went the WEIRD route lol. Enjoy!
https://atcrump.com/2017/04/02/permanence/
Oops, bad link. Here’s a working one. https://atcrump.com/2017/04/03/permanence/
I gave it a go. Here’s my link:
https://becca.mreauowpublishing.com/bushcraft/
I enjoyed the sparseness of detail, and the ambiguity. Thanks for posting.
Here is my attempt. I went with the word Permanence. I think my story fits the brief, and the word. See what you think!
https://penultimateuniverse.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/permanence/
One of two I am doing for this week is posted at http://slwhshorts.blogspot.com/2017/04/jumper.html
Here’s mine. I picked Tourmaline. Is it in the spirit of the title? Maybe.
https://modernauthors.org/2017/04/04/tourmaline/
https://jakashadows.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/flash-fiction-sidereal/
“Sidereal”
1,056 words
Still don’t have this one written because I hate the title the random number generator spit back at me and I’m silently protesting the fact that I feel like I must obey the generator.
But in looking through some of my old writing stuff, I came across some items I wrote for a different challenge and thought I’d offer this suggestion up because I found it so difficult. It really make me think about editing as an important ally and not just as the usual idea-eating judgmental self-flagellation.
Write a story in 101 words.
That’s it.
We writers (even the unpaid unprofessional pen monkeys, of which I am one) have big love for words and we use them all, as if they are cheap or something. But what if words were premium and we had to pay to use them? What if words cost us like, a hundred dollars each? Could we write a whole story for the low, low out-of-pocket price-gouging cost of ten-thousand simoleons? Oh the precious, shiny, expensive-as-heck words! Chuck, I would be delighted it if you would not only use this challenge, but also do it with us. You’ve got 10,100 clams just laying around to spend on words, right?
I started out with Permanence as the title, thinking I’d write something about memory and change and just about anything but permanence, so then there was Ossuary, which I just couldn’t get out of my mind, and I’m sorry oh so sorry…
http://wp.me/p1Vfyv-8z
I chose Supernumerary, and a space-opera-like scifi story sprouted from there:
https://medium.com/@VicenteLRuiz/supernumerary-312c5ae0e6b
Can’t work out how to comment on Medium but I love your story, especially the ‘ like he never did ‘ bit.
Thank you!
To comment, you need to sign up to medium (I use Twitter for that) and look for the comment box at the end of an article. And depending on the browser you use, it might not be there. Works well with Chrome and Firefox, not on Vivaldi.
Hi, all. Supernumerary spoke to us (Erik and me). Here you go!
https://nwjnmusings.wordpress.com/writing/supernumerary/
Here is my fiction/nonfiction titled “Supernumerary” inspired by David Shields and Reality Hunger.
https://curioushart.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/supernumerary/
This is very cool. Nice echoes of Shield’s “collage” approach. Thank you!
A little taste (well 993 words) of the contradictions of Life in South Africa.
http://lacymuircastle.com/2017/04/05/tourmaline-flash-fiction/
I have written on ‘bushcraft.’ https://kim153.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/bushcraft-terriblemindschuckwendigflashfictionchallenge
[…] bit of fiction posted to this blog and I hope you’ll like it. Coming from a challenge made by Chuck Wendig of Terribleminds, here is a little story set in the world of the novel […]
Just over 1,000 words. Here is my take on Ossuary in cyberpunk genre: https://emweaverblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/ff-ossuary/
I chose Tourmaline, which after a bit of research, turned into a story about alternative medicine. http://davidralphlewis.co.uk/tourmaline/
Nicely done! Very crisp, and I like the way you make the reader wonder what is really going on.
My attempt at Ossuary, in a dark fantasy kind of way. https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/ossuary-a-chuck-wendig-challenge/
[…] week’s Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge is One Word Titles. Chuck provided ten words and said, pick one and use it as your title and give 1,000 words or […]
I have no idea what this is about but I hope you like it. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think. “Jumper”.
https://sambrady.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/chuck-wendig-jumper/
[…] week’s challenge, a one word title. And yeah, this is a sly tie in to some other stuff I’m working […]
Loved the dialogue, very Pratchett-esque as you say. Good stuff
Tourmaline for me with a sprinkling of Sci-Fi 🙂
https://www.booksie.com/501701-tourmaline
I picked “Tourmaline” and added a bit of time-travel, and maybe some humor. Hope you like it! http://runnerskye.ca/flash-fiction-tourmaline/
I loved your take on Tourmaline and I’m partial to a bit of time-travel 🙂
Thanks! It was fun to write.
I picked ‘Supernumerary’ and kept it short. let’s see!
https://medium.com/@tehseen.baweja/supernumerary-bd8fe1b82ac3
[…] had to choose a one word title for this flash fiction challenge and tell a story with it in under 1000 words. I failed to keep it under the 1000 word mark. Oh […]
I picked “Ossuary.” After struggling for inspiration, I ended up writing over the word limit by quite a bit. Here’s some grimdark fantasy: https://mrdorough.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/ossuary/
This is my first foray into the magical world with you (I assume) seasoned veterans of terribleminds so do afford my post some room for inadequacy. I did really enjoy the scaffolding provided by Chuck and how it went about limiting the story and what I was allowed to do as a consequence. Feedback is most welcome, in exchange for cyberhugs!! Enjoy Juniper. https://eiaemlourde.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/first-blog-post/
Wrote a second one for this week. Tourmaline, based upon the gemstone. I also write Jumper, same PoV character, on the 4th. http://slwhshorts.blogspot.com/2017/04/tourmaline.html
I was looking for an F for the A to Z Challenge today – but realised Bushcraft could also be Fieldcraft. So that’s what we have. Enjoy!
http://jemimapett.com/blog/2017/04/07/fridayflash-fiction-fieldcraft-atozchallenge/
Nice selection of words. Ossuary jumped out at me. I got some inspiration by reading up on the Ossuary concept on Wikepedia. Here is my take: http://mywrite.martinperlin.com/2017/04/one-word-titles-ossuary.html
“Juniper” took off in a direction I didn’t expect, so I followed it down the rabbit hole.
https://cameronamount.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/juniper-wendig-challenge/
[…] week’s challenge was a list of one-word titles. I chose “Juniper” and I have no idea why. Started out sort of noirish, quickly morphed […]
My pick was “Ossuary”
https://seriouslyirrelevant.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/flash-fiction-challenge-ossuary/
It’s late because of work and kids and a different time zone and I think it’s a little rushed towards the end because of an arbitrary deadline that I missed anyway.
http://somewordsforchuck.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/holiday.html
Hi, all. Being new to this community, I have a protocol question: do authors prefer to have comments made on their stories’s website, or here in the forum. I’ve seen both, so maybe it’s either or?
Thanks Mr. Wendig – this is a very fun place to hang out.
My personal preference is to comment on others’ blogs, and to have comments left on my blog. That way it doesn’t clutter up Chuck’s comments feed, and allows story links to be seen more easily here.
Sometimes I have to leave comments here because Blogspot hates me and won’t always let me comment, plus I don’t have a Facebook, which more and more people seem to be using for some reason I just can’t fathom.
This isn’t technically a forum, and the limited nesting of comments makes it difficult to hold any multi-post conversations. Plus, more comments means slower page loading times (AFAIK).
Hmm…I tried posting this yesterday, and it didn’t seem to work. So, I’ve switched from my wordpress account to my facebook account to see if that works…
I chose Tourmaline, because I like Tourmalines, and so does Sir Willoughby Gregson-Smythe 🙂
http://melayton.weebly.com/blog/flash-fiction-tourmaline
No offence, but your post is very difficult to read. Light grey text on an off-white background is challenging enough, but the fancy font (which looks very pretty, BTW) is very jarring. I stumble over every capital letter, and the capital “I” looks like “J”. I quite like the font in your menus and as a title font, but for the main body of the text, it’s just slowing my reading right down to a crawl. If I’m honest (which I always try to be) it makes me want to just close my browser window instead of putting the effort into reading it.
Chuck – a serial story (Tourmaline) http://www.lpstribling.com/?p=3396
Undulate. Bacon. That is all. https://www.tumblr.com/reblog/172567346013/DbKxM7OJ