Last week’s challenge: “They Fight Crime”
I’m going to a random word generator.
*does that*
There. It has chosen ten random words.
Those ten words are:
- Library
- Ethereal
- Dolphin
- Replay
- Undertaker
- Storm
- Envelope
- Cube
- Chisel
- Satellite
You will choose five of those words.
You will include those five aspects — not just as words but as actual components of the story — in your 1000-word flash fiction this week. As always: post at your blog or online space, then link back here so we can all read it. You’ve got a week. Due by Friday the 29th, noon EST.
Pick words. Write story. Go.
120 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Ten Words Will Give You Five”
So I did a random number generator to pick the words. I found I had to do a little bit of world-building to make it happen. I’ve got a start! But I need to pick it up in the morning now that it’s outlined. I just had to share what my number generator gave me.
3 – Dolphin
8 – Cube
5 – Undertaker
9 – Chisel
1 – Library
Tomorrow, we’ll see if I can pull it off!
I’ve written mine. Though it’s a little bit longer then the 1000 word count >.> I had to edit A LOT to get it where it is. It doesn’t have to count since it’s over the word count but I’ll share anyway >^.^<
http://cusstorycorner.blogspot.com/2013/03/neptunes-tribute.html
Very interesting! You picked the same words as me, and yet your story was wildly different. I enjoyed the tale, and did have a bit of a suspicion about the ending, but it was still a bittersweet way to finish. I do think, though, that quite a few of your words were needless tautology (heheheh…), and just by streamlining a few of the sentences it could easily be 1000 words or just under. Nice story, though, very creative!
thanks >^.^^.^<
Creative use of dolphin (telling it from her perspective, I wouldn’t have thought to do that), and not using a literal library.
Nice story 🙂 Love the dolphin angle.
@ Paige S.
That is a little spooky – I looked at the list, picked five words that kind of appealed to me, scrolled down and discovered that you had picked all the same words apart from one – I went with ethereal instead of undertaker.
Nice! I’ve got an outline! Still need to fill it in 🙂 Good luck!
I went with:
1. Library // 2. Ethereal // 4. Replay // 7. Envelope // 8. Cube
The resulting bit of weirdness turned out to be: “Among Books And Trinkets” (Just under a 1000 words.)
http://lonieves.wordpress.com/fiction-insanity/among-books-and-trinkets/
Very cool use of “replay.” I once had three days in a tent with nothing to do but watch Groundhog Day… Now I experience it every day in my line of work. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, Great Ending!
Thanks. 🙂
Ah a spooky Groundhog’s Day. That’s a cool idea.
RNG has given me: 2, 1, 5, 6, 8.
Off to ponder.
I used a number generator like Paige S. and came up with the following:
Storm, cube, replay, envelope, and chisel.
I went with Library, Ethereal, Replay, Storm, Envelope, and Satellite.(bonus one in there because it is only implied).
Website is: http://paranthropologist.blogspot.com/
Fourth attempt to post this:
I went with Library, Ethereal, Replay, Storm, Envelope, and Satellite. (bonus one in there because it is only implied).
My URL: http://paranthropologist.blogspot.com/
Wow, at first I thought your story was heavy-going, then I thought “actually, it’s just really, really deep.” I really liked the comparison between life in the States and life on deployment. It rains a lot here, so I often see people running to cover, wielding umbrellas which fight against them in the wind, and I think; what’s the point? It’s not like it’s acid. There’s bigger things to worry about that a little water (one of those being a lot of water all at once). Kudos for writing something so brief, yet so personal.
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. Now if only I had caught those grammar and typo issues the first five times i re-read it. I need a scribe…Well, the ones I could find are fixed now.
Good work. Very good. An interesting look into what most people don’t know or can’t understand in other countries. I keep books and teach my little one to do the same. I have things I bought, or begged for, when I was 7. I have books my aunt gave me when I was maybe 8. Things are horrible in other places in the world and I know this. But I cry when a book hits water. I dry it, pull the pages apart. Read it anyway and keep it. Because all words are worth keeping. All are something someone put possibly years into, heart, blood, and soul, to make happen. I know not everyone does, but know that there are some that will keep the written word for future generations, at gunpoint if need be.
Still, a beautifully written piece, though sad..
Thanks. I think there will always be a market for old books, I also think libraries are greater than the sum of their parts, and that is something the “steal and delete” culture of e-books will never be able to replace.
Really enjoyed this, the memory of books, isn’t that sad? The memory of war is sad as well. I really loved it.
That was a really touching story. You did a great job taking a small “normal” moment and not only make it important, but show all the layers beneath it. I really liked this one.
I love this story. How that, in the midst of a war, the books become things of extra value, but at the same time are something that is shared freely and with no ownership. This really touched something inside of me.
[…] flash-fiction piece for Mr Chuck Wendig’s latest […]
From the chooser of such words as: Library. Ethereal. Dolphin. Undertaker. Storm.
Comes the mediocre flash-fiction piece, “From Beyond The Veil”
http://mrurbanspaceman.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/from-beyond-the-veil-flash-fic/
Coming to a wordpress near you RIGHT NOW!
Haha, I almost opened my story with that line. It so called for it. I did really enjoy that opening paragraph. The word choice really brought me “there.” I also thought that was a good way to use undertaker, involving Egyptology and that culture.
Thanks. As soon as I saw the word ‘storm’, my mind went into ultimate cliché mode, and I couldn’t resist.
I like the way you set the story, burying the lead, and the way this dear old lady turns out to be quite the greedy old soul 🙂
Thanks! Though when I was writing her, I didn’t see her so much ‘greedy’ as ‘driven’. One of those people who’ll do anything to succeed.
Random Number Generator:
4- Replay
8- Cube
3-Dolphin
1-Library
7-Envelope
But I’m swapping out dolphin for storm, because when confronted with that list of words the only opinion I had about them was that I did not want to write about dolphins. Boo, dolphins. Even the word looks weird, now.
I’ll comment again when I finish it!
I’m gonna go with Ethereal, Storm, Cube, Chisel, Satellite. Did the picking myself!
[…] the Flash Fiction challenge over at TerribleMinds. The idea was that you pick five words from the list of ten and use them to create a story. I chose […]
I chose ‘Library, chisel, storm, envelope and replay’ and then came up with this, hope y’all enjoy it.
Intestacy: http://wp.me/p2vhH6-2T
I liked the concept, showing things one might not normally think of. I especially liked the bit about the cornflakes. Gruesome and funny at the same time.
Super morale to this story. And I like the underlying current of humor.
Thanks guys! I hadn’t intended it to be funny, but I can see what you mean and I’m glad it tickled your giblets anyway.
Okay, I did mine. 565 words. Library, Chisel, Storm, Satellite, Dolphins.
http://reggielutz.blogspot.com/2013/03/flash-fiction-challenge-welcome-to.html
Nice one 🙂 I like the mysterious properties of the dolphins, though I would like to know if Wetkill indeed was doomed and cracked.
I thought I would be a writer when I was young. I have given up on it for most of my life. I am now 40 and have the urge again. I have never submitted anything anywhere. This is the first. Please be brutally honest.
Regards,
Mark
http://disastrouscreations.wordpress.com/false-harvest/
Never too late to start. I’m 42 (or will be in a few days) and just got a novella picked up.
Congratulations on your acceptance letter. I suggest a strong antacid to keep the flesh-eating butterflies at bay.
Very interesting. Definitely like the Beautiful Mind meats sci-fi vibe.
Meats? Maybe your story stuck with me a bit more than I imagined. Heh. Well.. “meets”.. anyway
Thanks, I am glad you enjoyed it. His dementia disturbed me as I wrote the words.
Brutal honest as requested, on your wordpress site.
Thank you for taking the time to review and critique my submission. I was having trouble getting started and don’t have adequate revision strategies yet which let to the repetition you pointed out. I’ll be sure to slow down a bit before submitting and give my work a better scrubbing. There are several other things I am dying to touch up now that it is posted. I guess something was learned.
You have a good imagination; keep writing. Don’t let it slid for another five, and then another five. Yes, the years will give you experiences to draw upon, but on balance, starting younger is better if you can find the time and energy.
aka Darlene Underdahl
Good use of scifi-ish without being over the top or too in your face about it. Having the opening be the end was also well done. For a first submission I thought it was really quite good. With some more polishing I can see you submitting some really good stuff. Don’t stop!
[…] Yep, another 1000 word flash challenge. Went about a hundred over this time, but don’t feel like trying to cut the words/rewrite. So here it is, the Chuck Wendig Ten Words Will Give You Five Challenge […]
Went a little over. Don’t feel like trying to cut a hundred words. I took, Ethereal, Storm, Satellite, Cube, Envelope.
I called it, The Tesseract Gamble. Enjoy.
http://www.danielrdavis.com/2013/03/22/chuck-wendig-challenge-tenll-get-you-five/
Very cool. There’s not many times when I think “Man, I wish that idea had been mine!” but this is definitely one of them. One of the ultimate tragedies, that a thing meant to save you actually ends up destroying you. I can see only two glimpses of silver lining; 1) At least it was faster than Leviathan. 2) Something died so something else could eat. Karmically speaking, it actually balances.
Thanks. 🙂 I do write a lot of Outer Limits styled short stories and those words just jumped out at me as perfect fodder.
Cool story, I think it’s the best middle of a story I have read.
Thanks! I wasn’t a hundred percent either, but you had some good work.
Good job on this one. Came across smooth for having to explain the complexity of what was going on. I have to admit I figured it was going to end badly (for the humans), but that’s half the fun of these kind of stories I think.
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/03/22/flash-fiction-challenge-ten-words-will-give-you-five/#com… […]
I picked them myself, and I got Ethereal, Cube, Storm, Library and Undertaker. I’m looking forward to this.
Well, here we go. Hope you all enjoy it, I did enjoy writing it.
Here is ‘Cube Route’ – http://www.thezombiechimp.com/2013/03/23/flash-fiction-cube-route/
I was kind of hoping to write about a friend’s Siamese and his mockery of dumb human sitters, but I’ll stay within Chuck’s perimeters using library, ethereal, undertaker, storm and envelope.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
http://darlene.underdahl.net/?p=224
aka Darlene Underdahl
http://www.VermillionRoadPress.com
Interesting piece. I know you wrote it this way on purpose, but I found the dialogue to be very jarring and unnatural. Your intro to the characters was great, but I found myself not caring about them in the slightest.
A very twisted tale indeed. Definitely got the soap opera vibe off it. It felt like a big reveal scene of a much longer drama. So with that concept, I liked it.
I wish I could capture the essence like you did in so few words. I always have to delete…
Library / Ethereal / Storm / Cube / Satellite
Went a bit over at 1145. If anyone wants to suggest somewhere I can trim this, feel free.
http://centrepaul.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/flash-fiction-challenge-ten-gets-you-five/
Very cool. I think I would like to hear more about Billie and Jared 🙂
I’m thinking I could easily expand this into a longer work, a novelette maybe.
Got a Halo vibe off this. Probably from the description of the Librarian. The conversation came off natural. Had a cool feel to it.
Great story, I like the mystery of the Library.
My five words chosen were: Dolphin, Library, Cube, Undertaker, Ethereal.
It’s my first attempt at doing this, I totally went over the word count too, I’m at 1139. I liked a lot of little parts of it, and I can see it could maybe be a bigger story, but it was a fun challenge.
http://www.bastardgenres.net/?p=51
Interesting concept, I like the way you worked the words in as themes. I did find some of it a little jarring though, such as the switches between perspective/narrator, and wonder if there’s a way you could make such switches clearer in future. Also I’m a bit confused about your use of ‘we’ and ‘us’ towards the end, as you hadn’t written any first-person perspective before that. Other than that, the pacing was really nice, with a little refining I think you could get it down to 1000 words.
Thank you, I’m terrible with perspective. I probably could have taken a couple more days with it, I just… it was there and needed to get out, I can see how it should be all about Frank experiencing it.
Don’t worry, every word written is a lesson, and it gets easier to write flash-fiction the more you practice. A perfect excuse to enter as many challenges as humanly possible. 😀
[…] and the flash fiction challenges hosted at Terribleminds.com are a damn good way of doing it. The challenge this week was to take five from a given list of ten words and write a piece of fiction in which those words […]
I ran a RNG against the list and got:
2. Ethereal
1. Library
5. Undertaker
6. Storm
8. Cube
I needed to keep it light for myself this week, so I did. Here’s what I came up with.
http://www.jqpdx.com/2013/03/23/the-library/
Great story! From the first couple of sentences it had a Pratchettesque vibe to it, which it kept all the way through, which I think came from the dry humour. Though I could quite easily read a lot more words for this story, it is a complete work on its own. The gargoyles were a great idea. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Library to find…
I picked out:
Storm, Library, cube, envelope, undertaker.
and I wrote my first draft in 45 minutes… this is great seeing I haven’t written anything creative in over 3 months…. today, I edited it for about an hour and got it to 993 words or so. The number of words doesn’t include the title.
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/the-right-hand-man.html
Well that certainly had a weird creepy vibe to it. A bit of a Phantasm-ish thing going on. I thought there were a couple pacing things, but I liked the concept and how you didn’t talking head it too much and let the story unfold.
Actually I dreamt about the cube thing… it was a really creepy, exhausting dream; and I found it turned into a great storyline too; which still need tweeking. However, I’ve used a town I’ve dreamt about a few times with a massive library in it. And when I saw the word selection, I was stoked that I could use another part of this particular town for another twist on the same story.
I try not to get into my characters’ heads too much as then my writing begins to run on too much.
oh look at that, we all chose library – must be a bunch of word nerds – lol
I chose library, storm, ethereal, cube, replay – 761 words
http://amgray.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/the-library.html
Great, great story. I liked the commentary on each library section and how it was used as communication. Good job.
A friend challenged me to write the other five words, too.Dolphin
Undertaker
Envelope
Chisel
Satellite
So here is, ‘Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?”
http://amgray.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/is-it-wrong-to-wish-on-space-hardware.html
My five words were library, ethereal, undertaker, replay, storm, envelope, chisel, and satellite. I’m an English teacher; I can’t count. 998 words. (Word counted for me.) Inspired I think somewhat by “Monkeys, Blood, and Radiation,” which I’d read just before the challenge.
http://absurdscenarios.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-undertaker-flash-fiction-challenge.html
[…] weeks challenge at Terribleminds, was to select five words out of the given […]
I didn’t feel like letting fate dictate to me this week, so I chose my own words.
1) Library
2) Ethreal
3) Undertaker
4) Envelope
5) Cube
the result of which, can be found here:
http://joetblogs.wordpress.com/2013/03/24/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge-ten-words-will-give-you-five/
Ok. My words: Library, Undertaker, Cube, Envelope, Storm
My Story: http://www.jeffxilon.com/some-weird-flash-fiction/
The result is somewhat bizarre, but I like it.
Dolphin, cube, satellite, replay, storm
The Age of Aquarius
http://wp.me/p3h787-1g
[…] Relevant Chuck Wendig blog post. (clicky) […]
“Flutter” – from library, ethereal, storm, undertaker, and envelope. The butterfly effect is alive and well in a library at the end of a life.
http://knotachance.tumblr.com/
What a great concept. Beautifully composed.
Thank you! Appreciate the kind words.
My trusty d10 rolled up the following: ‘library’, ‘storm’, ‘envelope’, ‘undertaker’, ‘chisel’… once I’d convinced it duplicates were not allowed. The result: Letters from Beyond at 999 words. Enjoy. And thank you, Mr. Wendig, for another delightful brain stretcher.
http://cmsimpson.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/free-read-challenge-response-letters.html
My 5 words: envelope, storm, ethereal, dolphin, undertaker
http://thisisnotajazzbar.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/223/
http://lpstribling.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/gordons-recording/
Gordon’s Recording
[…] It’s a little bit of flash fiction based around a set of perimeters set by this: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/03/22/flash-fiction-challenge-ten-words-will-give-you-five/ […]
Here’s my contribution (please be gentle it’s my first time).
My five words were: Dolphin, ethereal, envelope, undertaker and storm.
http://awkwardtreedstrikesagain.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/tom-reed-flasher-of-fiction/
[…] week’s Chuck Wendig flash fiction challenge was to pick five words out of ten. I picked Dolphin, Storm, Cube, Ethereal, […]
I chose Dolphin, Ethereal, Storm, Cube and Library, and this is what it turned into 🙂
http://www.trinetoftschmidt.com/2013/03/five-word-flash-fiction-challenge/
Great story. I love the fantasy vibe, and your inclusion of the dolphin was the most inventive I’ve seen yet. I would like to know more about these mysterious cubes, I hope you’ll let me know if you ever continue (or develop) the story into something more!
Thank you 🙂 I want to continue it, so I’m just waiting for Chuck to come up with a new challenge that fits into the realm.
Bribe him with the most expensive whisky you can find. 😉
[…] flood in our basement last Friday, and most of this week has been dealing with the aftermath). This week I randomly rolled the words “dolphin”, “undertaker”, […]
I rolled “dolphin”, “undertaker”, “chisel”, “satellite”, and “envelope”. It’s over the 1000 word limit (clocks in around 2200), but I felt that if I trimmed it down, it just wouldn’t make sense. So, I give you “Route 9 & Bingham”:
http://nickegelhoff.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/flash-fiction-challenege-ten-words-will-give-you-five/
Hello! I’ve been a lurker for about a month, and this is my first time contributing.
I had a friend who had no idea what I was asking him about to pick five numbers between 1 and 10, which I then matched up to the numerical order of the random words in the original post. He went with all even numbers, so the five words I worked with are: “Ethereal,” “Replay,” “Storm,” “Cube,” and “Satellite.”
I think I went over by maybe 49 words or so.. I may work on trimming it down and editing it a bit more.
Link to my story: http://jdflom.hubpages.com/hub/Missionary-jdflom
[…] Relevant Chuck Wendig blog post. (clicky) […]
[…] piece of flash fiction was done for the weekly Flash Fiction Challenge, posted on the terribleminds blog (a great blog, great books, check […]
Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gents.
My words, chosen with a random number generator, were Storm, Library, Ethereal, Undertaker, and Envelope.
My story, “Letter for an Undertaker” has a dash of alternate history and fantasy in it, and comes in at exactly 1k words, though certainly not by design. I trimmed this, added that, trimmed again, and ended up right on the 1k mark.
Please take a moment to check it out, any comments/critiques/hate-mail will be much appreciated!
http://klneidecker.com/2013/03/28/flash-fiction-challenge-10-makes-5/
(A quick FYI – the word ‘bawn’ appears in the story, and is not a typo for barn, though a barn and a bawn are related)
Hello! Needless to say, the story took the reigns and chose where it wanted to go and surprised me at where it ended. I love it when that happens. Enjoy!
The five mandatory words I used out of the list of ten were satellite, ethereal, replay, undertaker, and library.
http://orangeflavoredrice.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/flash-fiction-hamilton-morgue/
Starting yesterday, I just chose the tail end of the word list
Storm – Envelope – Cube – Chisel – Satellite
and came up with this 666 word sketch: The workingman earns his bed