Last week’s challenge: “Five Random Sentences“
Below is a list of 20 subgenres.
I want you to roll a d20 twice — or click a random number generator twice between 1 and 20 — and that will give you two subgenres. (Sure, you can choose them instead, but that means YOU HATE FUN.)
Smash those two subgenres into one story.
Write that story. Around 1000 words. Post at your online space. Link back here through the comments. Due by next Friday, May 17th, at noon EST.
Here’s the list of subgenres.
- Men’s Adventure
- Splatterpunk
- Fairy Tale
- New Weird
- Space Opera
- Southern Gothic
- BDSM Erotica
- Superhero
- Sword & Sorcery
- Noir
- Dystopia
- Sci-Fi Humor or Satire
- Lovecraftian
- Haunted House
- Cyberpunk
- Steampunk
- Detective
- Post-Apocalyptic
- Weird West
- Technothriller
153 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Smashing Sub-Genres”
Lovecraftian Men’s Adventure. Um right…
Steampunk-Technothriller… What-how-who-why. Although I like the sound jreinmillers “Lovecraftian Men’s Adventure” – Drink, Brawl, Climb, Discover, Fall-Down, Go-Mad, Wait for the darkness. End. I’d read it!
“Steampunk Technothriller” is obviously a Doctor Who fanfic.
Fairy Tale Superhero. Here goes nothing!
[…] Friday, another Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge! This week, Smashing Sub-Genres. My RNU gave me 5 and 9, corresponding to “Space Opera” and “Sword & […]
Awesome. “Space Opera” and “Sword and Sorcery.” I love it. Sci-fi and fantasy are my two favourite sub-genres. I really like how this one turned out, even though I’ve never written anything like it before.
“The Final Push” — http://mrurbanspaceman.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/the-final-push-flash-fiction-piece/
liked it a lot, very efficient packing job
Thanks!
Nice job! That was a really fun mash-up, I enjoyed the read.
Cheers for the comment!
Great combination. I thought the descriptions in the story were great. Both fantastic and futuristic at the same time. The characters were also good and I really got the sense of a larger world around them.
Thank you, glad it worked for you!
Men’s Adventure in the Weird West – I’ll give a shot!
*Give “it” a shot…sheesh!
Post-Apocalyptic Superhero – good one! I might actually give it a twirl.
Oh, I like this one!!!
EVERYTIME I try to do these one of the random generated genres is BDSM Erotica. Which means I can’t write it at work and then forget about it. I’ll try to get something up…but yeah, Safe For Work it ain’t gonna be. (Got Fairy Tale BDSM Erotica >_>)
Yeah, I keep getting BDSM as well…guess the folks at random.org are trying to tell us something.
16-15? Sheesh. I haven’t done one for a while. Let’s see what comes of steampunk-cyberpunk.
This turned out really good. I give you the CyberSteam story, Master Transfer. http://wp.me/p31vkg-44 I threw a little time travel in as well. Very subtle.
Very interesting, and a very cool way to combine the genres. I liked the sense that we were dropped into the middle of a situation from a much larger work. Cool stuff.
Some great world-building going on–lots of mystery and chaos that I wanted to know more about!
Weird West Splatterpunk? Oh my stars and garters.
Steampunk-Southern Gothic…this should be interesting!
[…] If you want to do some whimsical writing and find yourself pondering the need for a prompt, then go visit Mr. Chuck Wendig and his latest “Flash Fiction Challenge: Smashing Sub-Genres”. […]
Sword and sorcery noir. Half of it is up my alley. The other half I’ve never read or written. But it has potential.
Post-Apocalyptic Fairy Tale… I think this could be a fun one.
Weird West Haunted House… practically writes itself!!
Post-Apocalyptic Southern Gothic. Gonna be strange, seeing as I don’t know anything about Southern Gothic
Huh. I got “Steampunk Fairy Tale” on the first roll. The word gods must love me today. This should be fun.
There are a lot of genres in that list that I am not terribly familiar with or comfortable dipping my foot in, so this challenge intimidates the hell out of me. The random number generator was kind (I think), spitting out “Sword & Sorcery” and “Splatterpunk”. Seems easy enough, but I suppose I should look up “Splatterpunk” and find out what the heck it is before I start writing…
Superhero Splatterpunk … so a 90’s comic it is.
Hmm superhero/haunted house… have never written any of either. This should be interesting.
BDSM Erotica & Steampunk – I CAN SO MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
There will be corsets. This is a predetermined fact.
Cyberpunk Detective… this’ll be a fun, interesting little challenge (I’ve never written cyberpunk)…
Rebekah, I got the exact same one. I’m thinking the same thing, I can’t wait to compare.
haha, that’ll be interesting!
Dystopia and Cyberpunk. Easy!
Detective detective. No. The world will explode
Dystopia – Steampunk.
this shall require some drinking, i mean THINKING! Thinking, not drinking. Oh what the heck, drinking it is. See y’all next week!
Detective Haunted House. I only did it out of curiosity but now I think I might just have to write this thing.
Haunted house steampunk. Ye gods!!
Here’s my Weird West Splatterpunk: “Chasing After Hell”. Enjoy! http://www.writerscarnival.ca/chasing-after-hell/
Good story, very gory and visual. I liked the description of the demons, they sound quite horrifying. Your characters were surprisingly well fleshed-out, for such a short piece.
Thank you! The nice thing about these flash fiction challenges is it forces you to be economical, boil it down to what you absolutely need and get rid of the rest.
did it for me, great pacing in the action
Thanks! Not bad for about an hour’s worth of work.
Nice job! A terrific bloody mess (though not bloody like they mean in England, but like real blood). 🙂
I’d take either meaning, honestly. But still, thank you!
I enjoyed this! I haven’t read much in the Weird West or Splatterpunk genres but the mash-up was great. I thought you could have gone for more splatter and gore…but then again I’ve always been interested in the blood and guts. Good description and character development!
I haven’t read much splatterpunk in years (read a bit of Clive Barker back in high school/college, some Joe R. Lansdale, and I think only one Poppy Z. Brite novel), so this was a bit of a stretch for me. The Western element was a bit easier as I tend to watch and rewatch spaghetti westerns quite a bit.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
You really packed a lot of good stuff into the story; good descriptions, characters. action, and gore. I thought you tied the two genres together well.
Thank you! Nice to know every now and again that I can hit one out of the park.
Weird West Fairy Tale, hm? I can work with that.
If I had time, I’d definitely go with a Weird West/Detective.
[…] story was written for the terribleminds flash-fiction challenge. The aim was to smash two sub-genres together and somehow come up with a story out of the messy […]
Sci-fi humour/satire and superhero? Wow, Watchmen is a might hard torch to follow…
Never mind, I still had fun writing it! http://suziehunt.co.uk/fiction/flash-fiction/man-of-the-hour
I love the tone of the story, your very wry descriptions of The Hawk (reminded me of the wonderfully cheesy tongue-in-cheek superhero computer game, Freedom Force) and the interactions between the PM and Chambers.The idea of people having to sell their entire countries to pay of debt is both funny and poignant. Kudos!
Love it, awesome job! You had some great characters in there. I agree with Spaceman, selling countries was quite funny. Thanks for the ride!
Great! My fav was all the kids clinging to the superhero. Excellent!
There was some good stuff in there. I think the whole sci-fi debt eviction thing on its own would make a great story or even something longer.
Got Fairy Tale and Sci Fi humor.
It’s more of a Fable then a fairy tale, but click my name to see it.
Interesting take on the genres! I like the ‘lesson’ at the end. Very true!
Thank you for the compliment; to be perfectly honest, I was worried that the moral was a bit hackneyed.
I been wrong before tho 🙂
Quite charming, and I liked the flow it had. Good times.
That’s good to hear. Flow can be one of the hardest things to get right in any kind of fiction.
Thank you both for your compliments!
Short and sweet. I quite liked it.
My noir fairy tale, fresh off the word processor:
http://latemorningtea.weebly.com/
A fun fairytale, grim and full of delicious apple plotting! Very entertaining tale.
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it. 🙂
Fairy Tale and Post-Apocalyptic. I think this game is rigged, hehe. Love it.
Here it is, enjoy. 🙂
http://jdsfiction.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/flash-fiction-challenge/
I really liked it. Both of the genres came through strongly and the story was a fun read.
Thank you. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.
I went with ‘Noir’ and ‘Lovecraftian’ for ‘Darker still…’ http://www.keithbwalters.com/?p=2615
You’ve blended the genres together very well, and I really liked the quiet, muted tone of the graveyard, how casually your protagonist went about his business. My one little tiny niggling criticism is the word ‘anyways.’ I hate that word. I’d like to knife it to death in its sleep and bury it so far underground that nobody could ever bring it back as a zombie-word, to be used again (before it eats everyone’s brains). But my irrational hatred of that word aside… cool story. 😉
Hmm, a little more Detective Sword & Sorcery than Fairytale, I would have thought, but an interesting story nonetheless! I’ve always felt that you can’t trust a sorcerer as far as you can throw him.
Ignore this message, it ended up completely the wrong review in completely the wrong place. *kicks browser*
Good imagery. I could almost hear the lonely trumpet shadowing the ‘detective.’ Fantastic!
[…] week’s TerribleMinds flash fiction challenge is a genre mashup. The random number generator saw fit to grace me with “noir” and “weird […]
Noir and Weird West. Thus, I give you: NOIR VS WEIRD WEST!
I think my brain is melting.
http://swsondheimer.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge-noir-vs-weird-west/
Weird West and Haunted House, I really enjoyed writing this! Hopefully you enjoy reading it. http://jasminestanford.blogspot.com/2013/05/flash-fiction-desperate-slayer.html
I did the random number generator and it came up with 9 – sword and sorcery and 16 – steampunk
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/trust-no-one.html
Tried to reply on your site but the comments authenticator seems to just be hangin’. So here’s roughly what I remember writing: Definitely got the Sword & Sorcery vibe from this story, but I’m a little unclear on the Steampunk angle. Your characters were very well developed for such a short piece. Overall an enjoyable and entertaining read!
Damn! I hate it when things online do that! I’ll see if I can fix it – if not, I’ll complain to Google.
I don’t normally write Steampunk; so I did my best at it… and it turned into a time travel one… I think I had been watching too much of re-runs of ‘Merlin’ last night 😛
Detective Fairy Tale?
Let us see…
Weird West and Haunted House, I really enjoyed writing this! Hopefully you enjoy reading it.
http://jasminestanford.blogspot.com/2013/05/flash-fiction-desperate-slayer.html
A lovely tale, and well done on blending these two genres so well. I really enjoyed this story.
3+10= Noir Fairy Tale: http://latemorningtea.weebly.com/index.html
Wow, I really liked this! I am drawn to stories that use time and order to make the piece more interesting. Very nice job!
Thank you. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it. I watched Memento recently, so backwards story telling was kinda on my mind.
so I got 14 and 9 which means a Sword and Sorcery Haunted House…. I will give it a go and post back soon…..
Lovecraftian BDSM Erotica. This baby will just write itself.
(A) I’m so glad I still have my D&D set of dice from the early ’80s. Right in my desk drawer where I write.
(B) This is a great list of subgenres. This could exercise could turn into a hobby. 🙂
[…] we’ll see. If I have time, I do have a prompt from Chuck Wendig’s latest flash fiction challenge. But that cannot be posted here. Not with who might read […]
Geeeeez what is Splatterpunk Lovecraftian?!? Guess I’ll give it a go, once I find out what it is…lol
[…] the Flash Fiction challenge Smashing Sub-Genres, the die of destiny chose Post-Apocalyptic and […]