Last week’s challenge: “Photos of Impossible Places.”
Motif.
What, is it, you ask? Besides someone explaining that they have plenty of chompers in their mouth? (Wait for it, you’ll get it. I’ll just stand here while you… ah, good, you got it.)
A motif is not a theme.
It is not a mood.
It is a recurring element. A repeated symbol or overarching image.
(Birds are a motif found in my novels Blackbirds and Mockingbird.)
So, today, I’m going to give you 10 motifs.
You will choose one. Randomly, either by d10 or by random number generator.
This motif will be a significant symbol or element in your story. Symbolically and/or literally.
I’ll also toss in two other categories: setting and subgenre.
Choose (randomly or otherwise) one from each.
You have, as usual, up to 1000 words. Post at your site, link back here.
Due by Friday, February 1st, noon EST.
Ready?
Motifs
- Birds
- Skulls
- Blood
- Eyes
- Snakes
- Swords
- Water
- Storms
- Mirrors
- The Moon
Subgenre
- Dystopia
- Erotic Fantasy
- Noir
- Paranormal Romance
- Comic Fantasy
- Cozy Mystery
- Transhumanism
- Ecothriller
- Wild West (In Space)
- Mythpunk
Setting
- A train
- A virtual reality world
- A king’s bedroom
- A labyrinth
- Inside the mind of another character
- An amusement park
- A restaurant in space
- A villain’s volcano lair
- In the chamber of the gods
- Route 66
80 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Motif”
10. The Moon
5. Comic Fantasy
6. An amusement park
This is so far outside of my box that by the time I’m done I’m going to be clawing at the walls looking for any way possible to get back in.
So, I failed. It has zero comedy in it and I went over the 1000 word limit a little. It’s still great practice though and I look forward to the next challenge!
http://www.thegnomecomputercompany.com/ClayAshby/the-orphanage
Huh. Skulls, Wild West (in space), and In the chamber of the gods … I think this is one that’s just sort of going to have to happen. If I think to hard, my brain might do a Raiders on me.
Yep. SkullFeather Whore. I’m so, very sorry.
http://swsondheimer.wordpress.com/this-just-in/skullfeather-whore/
I like that you didn’t use human skulls. Great job I think 🙂 Although I’m slightly curious about things like why she took him to the chamber and why she killed him differently than he was supposed to die 😮
Hey, Amber. Glad you enjoyed. The ideas was: since he “picked” her, he brought Huginn and Munnin (Odin’s ravens “Thought” and “Memory”) together, he allowed her to remember who she really was. Killing him quickly was a reward of sorts. He couldn’t get off lightly — he did think Death was just some “whore” after all 🙂
Ah, great! And I do imagine using Death as a whore wouldn’t make her happy with you.
Thats a hard list to work with.
It just sort of happened. Not sure how successful it was, but it happened
Ooohhh I love it!!
10. The Moon
5. Comic Fantasy
3. A king’s bedroom
Very interesting! I’m going to try to play along 😉
Blood, Comic Fantasy, in a…virtual reality world?
…I’m actually having the hardest time trying to make blood funny.
1. Birds.
2. Erotic Fantasy.
4. A labyrinth.
Well, let’s give it a swing.
Snakes, Mythpunk, and an amusement park. Far, far out of my comfort zone!
Motif: Storms
Genre: Wild West (In Space)
Setting: An amusement park
I hope I can keep it from sounding like low rate Firefly fan fiction.
This already sounds terrible: skulls, erotic fantasy, and a restaurant in space. My goal is to make it even more terrible.
@ Anthony Elmore: I’m a little worried about that too.
Eyes , Erotic fantasy (…) and a train. Hmm
Motif: Birds
Genre: Noir
Setting: Inside the mind of another character
I like the motif, I just had to have Google define Noir for me, and I’ve never tried a setting that’s not a real place. Let’s see how this goes…
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/01/25/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-motif/#comments This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← The Bearded Lady […]
A roll of the virtual dice gave me a motif of birds (fine), a subgenre of mythpunk (gulp), and a setting of a virtual reality world (erm…), not my comfort zone, but I hope you like it.
The Pigeons
http://darlene.underdahl.net/?p=208
aka Darlene Underdahl
http://www.VermillionRoadPress.com
Haha the attack pigeons are great! Its probably from some cartoon in my childhood but they all look like mini Hitchcocks to me.
Motif: Water
Genre: Comic Fantasy
Setting: Space Restaurant
Rebecca, I had to Google what Comic Fantasy. Lets give this a roll!
[…] (Oh my god I can’t believe I just put porn on my blog IT’S CHUCK’S FAULT HE MADE ME.) […]
So I rolled Blood, Fantasy Erotica, and a king’s bedroom.
Uh.
Erotica? Really? Oh dear lord.
Feeling like I was this close to pulling a Delilah S. Dawson to get this done, and sort of surprised I had the chutzpah to post it on my blog, but oh well, here it is…
“Dirty Laundry”: http://itt.ymakadomain.com/?p=87
I really like your last line 😀
Oh wow. Actually, pretty good, just get a Favio model for the cover and you’re set.
I feel bad about missing the last two weeks (damn you far cry 3!) so I’m gonna try really hard on this one. I rolled 8,9,5. This is gonna be weird.
so far, it’s thursday, and I’m at almost double my word limit on a first draft. AHHH! WHY?!?!?! so close to an ending!
Blood. Dystopia. Restarurant in space. Dear God, lol.
[…] another “hopefully will edit it some day” piece for the flash fiction motif challenge today. The random aspect was snakes, the setting labyrinth and the subgenre mythpunk… […]
Mirrors, ecothriller, and a villains volcano lair. I was going to QQ @ ecothriller but now I’m thanking the RNG for not throwing me erotica 😮 I think I will give it a try!
Here is ‘I Favor Fire’ http://onethemis.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/i-favor-fire/
Please enjoy.
Very poetic and enjoyable to read.
[…] flash fiction goodness, and this week it is all about motifs. Terribleminds.com gave us a list of motifs, settings and sub-genres to randomly choose from. Whatever we chose or […]
I’m a bit late with this one, but it was still a lot of fun to write. I got ‘skulls’, ‘cozy mystery’ and ‘a villains volcano lair’. My weird and comic tale is called Tea with Dr Chaos, I hope you like it.
http://writewayround.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/flash-fiction-tea-dr-chaos/
First time with using motifs so let me know how I can improve.
Thanks
6. Swords 2. Erotic Fiction 3. A King’s bedroom….wow going to be interesting strech out of my comfort zone. I’ll link to it when I’m done. 🙂
Okay, so I finished it.
Motif: Birds
Subgenre: Noir
Setting: In the mind of another character.
Title: Pigeon’s Eye View
Link: http://rebeccaralstonwriter-com.webnode.com/news/pigeons-eye-view/
So, it definitely was a stretch for me. My first time writing with Noir and with a motif.
[…] is my entry for the Flash Fiction Challenge from Terribleminds. I’ve never done one before but it seems like a good way to work on my 1337 skills (lol). The […]
Hi, I was generated Blood, Wild West (in space) and Restaurant in space. Like many have said, it was a challenge and the thousandth word sneaked up on me this week.
http://alanjohnpresents.wordpress.com/flatrock-9/
Motif: Eyes
Sub Genre: Comic Fantasy
Location: King’s Bedroom
Done
This is not intended for audiences under 18! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
http://jess-riegler.blogspot.de/2013/01/an-erotic-fantasy.html
You tell me what I got.
The first couple are easy but the third, which is clearly a king’s bedroom, could almost also be inside of another character’s mind. I guess I didn’t understand that as a setting and am glad I didn’t roll it. Glad I’m over 18 and was allowed to read it.
Motif: Swords
Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance
Location: Route 66
Story: Right here. http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/2013/01/28/flash-fiction-knight-of-swords/
Here’s the link to my entry!: http://laceysmonologues.tumblr.com/post/41740506729/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-motif
[…] Motif: WaterSubgenre: MythpunkSetting: TrainWord Count: 827Link to Challenge […]
Motif: Mirrors
Subgenre: Erotic Fantasy
Setting: Route 66
http://jmboverthinking.blogspot.com/2013/01/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your.html
3-9-4. Blood, the wild west (in Space), and a Labyrinth.
What? Star wars responses on the next post? Oh, sorry… 😉
Motif: Eyes
Subgenre: Noir
Setting: Amusement Park
I sort of went out of noir, but I like where it went.
http://willcaraway.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/energy-drinks-bad-for-you-naaahh/
Does anyone know which story was chosen for last week’s selection of interesting places?
@cats —
I don’t choose a story every week, only one where there’s a prize on the line.
Thanks!
— c.
[…] has come to Terriblminds.com, and a Hellstorm follows at its heels. This week’s challenge was to choose a motif, a […]
Motif: Storms
Subgenre: Wild West (In Spaaaaaacee!!!)
Setting: Amusement Park
I’ve always wanted to write a cowboy story, so hunker by the campfire and listen to the tale of Frost’s Hellstorm.
http://www.barelyok.com/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-motif.html
[…] is, a usual, courtesy of Chuck Wendig and can be found here. My random picks were: Blood as motif, Supernatural Romance as subgenre and A King’s Bedroom […]
I got Blood, Supernatural Romance and a kings’ bedroom. I had difficulties getting the setting to fit, so in the end I had to use interpretation. http://evathereseebert.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-motif/
[…] his latest flash fiction challenge, The Great Penmonkey Chuck Wendig has flogged asked us ever-so-very-nicely to choose a motif, […]
The Dice of Cursedness declared I should scribble something random about Eyes, in a Cozy Mystery, on a Train. Agatha Christie send-up, anyone? 😀
I give you “Blood, Ink, and Mrs. Fortescue”: http://catemorgan.com/2013/01/30/youve-been-flashed-blood-ink-and-mrs-fortescue/
I pulled 2, 1, and 5 from the RNG. So a Dystopian tale of skulls inside another character’s mind it is.
http://www.jqpdx.com/2013/01/30/inside-job/
This was my post for two challenges ago, except it was also part of a class and I was waiting for feedback. Never happened. Fortunately, I think it kind of fits here. So while it doesn’t technically follow the rules, it’s going up. Sorry.
Motif: Yellow Scarf and an itch
Subgenre: Noir
Location: Train (and with a stretch, in Someone Else’s Mind)
http://thestrangethoughts.blogspot.ca/2013/01/hipster.html
motif: water
genre: dystopia…sci-fi…romance.. couldn’t help myself
setting: route 66
http://gembolding.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/nephraim/
A water motif, transhumanism, and the temple of the gods, combined in “Antediluvian”.
http://knotachance.tumblr.com/
Motif: Eyes; Subgenre: Ecothriller; Setting: A King’s Bedroom… Yeah.. Tried putting all three of these in one situation… Here we go!! lol 🙂
http://sidtrickster.blogspot.com/
It’s the story called “The Eyes of Always”… Enjoy!!! 🙂
I rolled mirror, dystopian amusement park.
http://amgray.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/beware-jabberwock.html
Random choice
motif: swords
setting: amusement park
subgenre: erotic fantasy O.O This one would definitely not have been my pick. But I guess that’s why it’s a challenge, right?
Queen of Swords http://wp.me/p1BAlV-42
Birds, Transhumanism, Trains http://colemorrissey.wordpress.com