The Shackleton’s Scotch challenge was pretty dang cool, and the results were, frankly, fun as hell to read. And a number of you said you’d be interested in more flash fiction challenges.
So, here I am, once more throwing down the gauntlet.
As you may know, I have a short story collection called IRREGULAR CREATURES (buy here), which features nine tales of bizarre-o beasties, mythological miscreants, and mad monsters — the creatures found in that collection (flying cats, Bigfoot, mermaids, mystic hobos, evil sex monkeys, the mesmerizing vagina of a fallen angel) are in many ways like the writer himself: an odd-seeming and often irregular entity.
This week’s challenge, which runs from today till next Friday (3/11/11) at noon, asks you to take those two words — “irregular creature” — and craft some flash fiction around it.
Whatever that phrase means to you, run with it.
You’ve got 1000 words.
Doesn’t mean you need to stay inside the margins of genre — while fantasy, sci-fi, horror and humor are apropos, anything goes in terms of the inspiration you take from that pair of words.
I’ll once more compile them at the end of the seven days.
Well, what the hell are you waiting around for? Get thee to the word mines!
Your own irregular creatures await.
The Results
Karina Cooper, “Looking Too Hard”
Josin McQueen, “Irregular Creatures”
Jamie Wyman, “Step Right Up”
Angela Perry, “Dog Farts”
Wes Robinson, “Irregular Creatures”
CY, “Signing On”
Tim Kelley, “Snowbirds”
Albert Berg, “The Life And Times Of Casey Jones”
Anthony Laffan, “Three Nights ‘Til The New Moon”
Elizabeth Newlin, “Irregular Creatures”
Amber Keller, “Running On E”
MKS, “Irregular Creatures”
Ben, “Coyote”
Paul Vogt, “Attempt #3”
Snellopy, “Dogspider”
Shree, “Daddy’s Girl”
Marko Kloos, “Seeds”
Aiwevenya, “Writing Class”
Tara Tyler, “Irregular Creature”
McDroll, “My Irregular Little Creature”
Stephanie Belser, “Irregular Creatures”
Sroot, “Angels Or Aliens”
Seth, “Three”
Letters Bloody Letters, “The Story Of Dirty Mari”
Michael Montoure, “Control”
Boys Behaving Badly, “The Horologe”
Sparky, “Waiting Room”
Valerie Valdes, “Hiss”
Gary B. Phillips, “Mottephobia”
Dan, “Jake’s Wake”
John Murphy, “Unintended Consequences”
DeAnna Knippling, “The Last Diary Of Doctor Frankenstein“
DeAnna says:
Squee!
March 4, 2011 — 11:28 AM
Karina Cooper says:
All right, it’s flashed. It’s fiction. It’s 999 words. Because 666 was too small… (I CLAIM NOTHING!)
http://www.teatimeiniquity.org/post/3639546617/flash-fiction-irregular-creatures
March 4, 2011 — 12:32 PM
Josin says:
A little bit of OCD…
http://josinlmcquein.blogspot.com/2011/03/flash-fiction-irregular-creatures.html
March 4, 2011 — 1:14 PM
Jamie Wyman says:
999 words gives you “Step Right Up”. Enjoy!
http://jamiewyman.blogspot.com/2011/03/irregular-creatures-flash-challenge.html
March 4, 2011 — 1:48 PM
Angela Perry says:
How conveeenient. I wrote about a dog for my #FridayFlash, so that fits right in.
http://blog.byangelaperry.com/2011/03/dog-farts.html
March 4, 2011 — 6:43 PM
Wes Robinson says:
Link to my post http://wesawakes.tumblr.com/post/3653008583/irregular-creatures
March 5, 2011 — 1:01 AM
Sparky says:
Excellent. As soon as I am back from Portland and have an actual full size keyboard to work with I shall bravely smash my way into the word vault and bring back an irregular creature.
March 5, 2011 — 11:34 AM
CY says:
A golem and a vampire at the job centre. No, seriously. Hope you enjoy it.
http://bit.ly/ednN2r
March 5, 2011 — 5:47 PM
Tim Kelley says:
Gulp. Here goes nothing.
http://tailwindstimemachines.blogspot.com/2011/03/flash-fiction-irregular-creature.html
March 6, 2011 — 5:11 PM
Albert Berg says:
The Life and Times of Casey Jones
http://unsanityfiles.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/the-life-and-times-of-casey-jones/
March 6, 2011 — 9:52 PM
Anthony Laffan says:
Not sure how good it is. First time trying First Person Present Tense writing. Still, is fun, and the world is one where unicorns dominate and recruit virgin girls to feast on their young brothers. So, yeah…also, winged cat reference ftw?
http://www.realityrefracted.com/2011/01/three-nights-til-new-moon-terrible.html
March 6, 2011 — 11:41 PM
Elizabeth Newlin says:
OK, I tried!!
http://realestatetangent.com/irregular-creatures-a-fiction-prompt/
March 7, 2011 — 2:39 PM
Amber Keller says:
This is the first time I have done this, and frankly, my first short story.
Chew on it.
http://adiaryofawriter.blogspot.com/2011/03/flash-fiction-challenge.html
March 7, 2011 — 5:27 PM
MKS says:
Challenge accepted
http://marlanesque.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/irregular-creatures/
March 7, 2011 — 6:30 PM
Ben says:
God, this isn’t illegal or something, right? Because it’s way too much fun.
http://warnerkirby.blogs.com/clintonaut/2011/03/coyote.html
Thanks — and think about another one some time.
March 7, 2011 — 9:28 PM
Paul Vogt says:
My entry: “Attempt #3”
http://paulvogtwrites.blogspot.com/2011/03/attempt-3.html
March 8, 2011 — 8:27 PM
Snellopy says:
Loved the idea to this, perfect motivation to start me on the road to writing. Here’s my entry, Dogspider. Its a bantam weight at only 555 words, but no point in dragging it out if the story’s done.
http://snellopy.blogspot.com/2011/03/irregular-creatures-dogspider.html
March 8, 2011 — 11:15 PM
shree says:
Hi! Came to this post through Albert Berg’s Unsanity Files. I’m not exactly a writer…actually I’m not, but thought it might be fun to try to come up with something…
So….here it is: http://callmeshree.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/daddys-girl/#more-1232
March 9, 2011 — 5:12 AM
Marko Kloos says:
Okay, Herr Doktor Wendig. I will play your game.
http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/seeds/
March 9, 2011 — 8:04 AM
Aiwevanya says:
So I took the idea of writers being irregular creatures a bit literally… http://metamuse-aiwevanya.blogspot.com/2011/03/writing-class.html
March 9, 2011 — 12:07 PM
Tara Tyler says:
Here is my humble entry. Now I have to find time to read the rest!
http://taratylertalks.blogspot.com/2011/03/irregular-creature.html
March 9, 2011 — 12:13 PM
McDroll says:
Here’s my little contribution..I’d love to have your comments! Thanks for reading.
http://mcdroll.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-irregular-little-creature.html
March 9, 2011 — 4:54 PM
Stephanie Belser says:
I’ll play.
http://downrange-impact.blogspot.com/2011/03/irregular-creatures.html
March 9, 2011 — 6:54 PM
Sroot says:
Here’s my little addition:
http://notablyconventional.blogspot.com/2011/03/angels-or-aliens.html
March 9, 2011 — 9:29 PM
Seth says:
I call my story “Three”
http://www.mostlymuppet.com/2011/03/10/flash-fiction-irregular-creatures/
March 10, 2011 — 12:09 PM
terribleminds says:
Seth:
For some reason, that link keeps redirecting me somewhere, but then never loads.
— c.
March 10, 2011 — 12:12 PM
BoysBehavingBadly says:
I like to call it “The Horologe”
http://boysbehavingbadly.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/irregular-creature/
March 10, 2011 — 3:16 PM
Seth says:
Chuck,
Thanks for pointing out the problem. It should be fixed now. Link works fine for me, but I’d love it if someone could independently verify.
Thanks!
-Seth
March 10, 2011 — 3:22 PM
terribleminds says:
Seth:
Seems to do the same thing for me? Goes to the site, then redirects to googleads.g.doubleclick or something.
Might just be on my end!
I can get to your site directly, though.
— c.
March 10, 2011 — 3:28 PM
LettersBloodyLetters says:
http://lettersbloodyletters.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-story-of-dirty-mari/
March 10, 2011 — 6:40 PM
LettersBloodyLetters says:
Mari was was serving stale beer and cold food in a crummy pub when the Flying Spaghetti Monster walked in and ordered a Bloody Mary with extra tomato juice.
http://lettersbloodyletters.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-story-of-dirty-mari/
(apologies for the double post …)
March 10, 2011 — 6:42 PM
Michael Montoure says:
Neat! Here’s mine, clocking in at 878 words, a little piece I call “CONTROL.”
“It was dreaming, he supposed. Eyes darting back and forth under closed eyelids. The set of the eyes, the mouth, the shape of the face — all of it was a close match for his own face, the skin just a shade lighter than his own. From there, all resemblance fell away …. “
http://www.bloodletters.com/2011/03/control/
March 10, 2011 — 9:29 PM
Valerie says:
A bit outside of my comfort zone here, but figured I’d give it a shot. Mine is “Hiss.”
http://candleinsunshine.com/asthemoonclimbs/microfic/hiss/
March 10, 2011 — 10:46 PM
Sparky says:
http://sparky29252.blogspot.com/2011/03/waiting-room.html
It started as a lighthearted idea and turned into a horror idea rather quickly. Enjoy.
March 10, 2011 — 11:44 PM
Gary B. Phillips says:
Here’s my entry. This was a lot of fun. Hope I’m not too late, considering you’ve already posted the results.
http://garybphillips.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/mottephobia/
March 11, 2011 — 12:17 AM
BoysBehavingBadly says:
Not to be a bother, but I was curious as to why my entry wasn’t included in the results?
March 11, 2011 — 1:54 AM
CY says:
Seth: It works fine, don’t worry. Thanks everyone for all the awesome comments, and thanks Chuck for yet another fun writing exercise.
March 11, 2011 — 4:33 AM
terribleminds says:
BBB:
Fixed! Sorry, wasn’t actually done adding all of them — I’ll in fact also continue to add them throughout the day. (In the future, I think I’m just going to add them to the post as I go.)
Thanks, folks. This is really fun stuff. Hope you enjoyed it?
— c.
March 11, 2011 — 6:07 AM
John Murphy says:
I’ll toss this little piece into the ring: Unintended Consequences
March 11, 2011 — 8:36 AM