All right! This week’s challenge is late — I’d written one to post on Friday but WordPress… ate it? I don’t know. It was there one day, then the next it wasn’t. And by then I was at BEA partying with Grumpy Cat, so, it was too late.
Just the same, I’ve had a few folks email me and ask me to still do one.
SO HERE WE ARE.
Your challenge this week:
Pick three words from the list of ten.
Incorporate these words into your story.
Ready?
- Scarecrow
- Mint
- Epidemic
- Tongue
- Republic
- Scorpion
- Divorce
- Moon
- Holiday
- Legend
Again: three words. Incorporate into the tale. Which doesn’t mean simply using those words — it means making them parts of the plot, characters, or motifs found within. You can choose these words randomly (d10 or random number generator) or eschew chaos and hand-pick ’em.
You’ve got (less than) one week.
Due by Friday, June 7th, noon EST.
Write ~1000 words at your online space. Link back here.
CHOOSE YOUR WORDS AND WRITE.
83 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Random Words”
Hmmmm the agony of choice.
Think it will be scarecrow, moon and holiday for me.
Hmmm, this will be interesting. RNG gave me 6- Scorpion, 10- Legend, and 5- Republic. This should be fun!
Thanks Chuck!
Scorpion, Holiday, and Legend. Ought to be interesting.
Here it is! From the words Scorpion, Legend, Republic: I give you
Baber’s Tale at http://jdsfiction.wordpress.com/
I hope you enjoy!
6, 8, 9 from the RNG. Nothing coming to mind yet. Must go ponder.
So glad you went ahead and did this. Saves me having to invent my own idea, you know? RNG gave me 1, 2 and 6. Sounds like in might fit into Skunk Corners, the world of the Ninja Librarian.
Well, the Title “The Legend of the Scarecrow Epidemic” has just jumped out at me, but I may not be able to fit it in my schedule this week. I’ve got a substitute for this Friday all prepared though 😉
Have fun, Rebecca!
I like that. Makes me wish I’d gotten epidemic! I can see that story better than my own.
Well, I haven’t started yet. May have to keep it for my next free friday 🙂 Feel free to use the title!
I did keep it for a free friday… http://jemimapett.com/2013/06/21/the-legend-of-the-scarecrow-epidemic/
Better late than never
So here’s what I got–a little historical fiction and only the tiniest bit creepy. Didn’t land in
Skunk Corners, though.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2013/06/flash-fiction-friday-scarecrow-and.html
Mint, Epidemic, Tongue. http://caferisque.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-desparate-hope.html
[…] using some of Chuck Wendig’s random words – scorpion, divorce and Republic. Comments and criticisms (and votes!) always […]
Here’s mine, it’s the latest installment in a serial I started writing because of the Smashing Sub-Genres challenge (a Steampunk/Men’s Adventure story called The River of Crawling Death.) I used Republic, Scorpion and Divorce…
The River of Crawling Death (Episode VI)
[…] boy, here we go again! Chuck Wendig at TerribleMinds has given us an interesting challenge this week. The same rule of using 1000 words or less apply. […]
[…] blog entry for Chuck Wendig’s weekly fun contest. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/06/02/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-random-words/ Check out the link if you want to read a pretty amazing blog, or enter the contest […]
I got Scarecrow, Mint, and Moon. Which is basically what I called the story.
http://naharavensari.wordpress.com/2013/06/02/scarecrowmintmoon/
I confess I was so distraught at missing your prompt I went back to March and picked 5 words from a challenge there. ‘ll reserve this list for another future emergency 🙂 “Dolphin Replay” still won’t appear on my blog till Friday, though.
Glad you’re back, Chuck!
Oh, yay, the challenge appears!
The d10 speaks and gives me 4, 8, 10 – Tongue, Moon, & Legend. Hm. I foresee . . . werewolves.
Haha I got the same ones! My mind went a completely different direction though, so we’ll see what happens. 🙂
Oh, cool! That will be interesting to see, then. 🙂
Under the Strawberry Moon – http://fontofrandom.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/under-the-strawberry-moon-story-for-a-flashfiction-challenge/
Late, but here nonetheless. You’ve Got to Eat Them: http://toothsomefiction.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/youve-got-to-eat-them/
[…] week’s Flash Fiction challenge from Terribleminds was for random words. The die of destiny chose mint, scorpion, […]
The Die of Destiny chooses mint, scorpion and Republic.
http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/2013/06/03/flash-fiction-the-cruelest-sting/
[…] Chuck Wendig challenge. Hope you liked it! Share this:PrintEmail Pin ItShare on TumblrLike this:Like Loading… […]
RNG picked 3,6 and 9 so here it is. The holiday. Hope I’m getting better at these!
http://fuchsiaoutbursts.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/the-holiday/
3, 6 and 10. Epidemic, Scorpion, Legend. Hmmm.
And here it is.
http://thequickfics.tumblr.com/post/52222108824/the-scorpion-epidemic
Warning, lesbiands and swearing and post-apocalyptic worlds can be found within. If you have a particularly prudish work, they probably wouldn’t like you reading it.
What is meant by “online space”? Must I have my own blog site to participate?
Before I set up my blog I posted to Archive of Our Own (http://archiveofourown.org/) and there are a number of other archives that will give you a place to post original work if you don’t have a website or blog of your own, and don’t want to create one.
(Of course, I think you’d only need one if you want to share your flashfiction online afterwards – you could certainly write for the challenge without that. Um. Sorry for randomly seizing on your comment. I hope I said something helpful, at least.)
I don’t even know how to link back to your page, which makes me a proper numpty..RNG gave me 9,10 & 6 . Holiday , legend ,scorpion !!
http://youcakeordeath.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/flash-fiction-challenge-1/
I chose, holiday, scorpion and mint. Enjoy. It’s my first one, be nice…actually, be honest 😉
Cheers.
[…] it is that time of the week again. As per Chuck’s request, I’ve picked three words, Mint, Scarecrow and Moon. I have on top of that willfully ignored […]
I was already knee deep in my homegrown flash fiction story when you posted the challenge, but luckily the words fit perfectly. Here is Dragon Initiate. Word total: way too much.
http://www.trinetoftschmidt.com/2013/06/dragons-and-flash-fiction/
Yup, should perhaps mention that I chose Mint, Scarecrow and Moon.
[…] Create a Flash Fiction for this week’s challenge. I didn’t get a chance to finish late week, but this week, I’ll have something posted […]
[…] by Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction prompt of the week. We had to pick three words out of a list. The three I chose were Republic, Moon, and Divorce. […]
I chose the words Republic, Moon, and Divorce. That mixed with “The Rains of Castamere” equals a very somber high fantasy flash fiction piece. I DIDN’T SEE IT COMING. http://elisanuckle.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/flash-fiction-husband-and-wife/ Hope you like it. It came out to around 700 words. I keep barely making it below 1000.
Actually I messed up the link. http://elisanuckle.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/flash-fiction-republic-of-the-divorced-moon/ is the proper one. 😀
[…] (so please be kind in your critiques) using the words: republic, epidemic, & tongue. Go to Wendig’s blog and do it for yourself. You have until friday and noon. Share this:Like this:Like Loading… This […]
Republic, Epidemic, and Tongue. Should’ve fleshed the themes out a bit more, but I can always edit later.
http://greyspacethoughts.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/athens-flash/
Good job on this, your story hit me right in the feels.
Thanks for posting this! Fridays just aren’t the same without it.
I got scorpion, Republic, and Legend. Enjoy “The Mark”
http://jasminestanford.blogspot.com/2013/06/flash-fiction-mark.html
[…] Here’s a new short story, another flash fiction entry in Chuck Wendig’s weekly writing challenge. This week’s is titled Choose Your Random Words. […]
My words were Scorpion, Holiday, and Legend. I don’t even know what I did here, but it was fun to write.
A little first line tease to get you interested: “The bass rumbled to life and the ground began to dance.”
http://panningforclouds.com/2013/06/04/shortstories-st-johns-scorpions/
I did a random role, and tried my best to use meanings that weren’t quite as obvious. Here is the result.
http://www.justinpaulwalters.com/2013/06/03/flash-fiction-random-words-2/
Err, ROLL that is. Also, forgot to mention, my three words were Moon, Holiday, and Divorce. Enjoying everyone’s stories so far!
[…] Pick three words from a list of ten, and write a story around them. […]
I chose divorce, legend, and republic – here is my story: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgc494qkqbg954k/The%20closing%20door.doc
For me, it’s the Scarecrow, holiday and mint… 😀 yeah, weird but I know I can do something with these 😀
Okay… here it is. Now you guys who are Supernatural fans will probably see a bit of that in this, but I’ve turned the story around a little… the scarecrow is there in the apple orchard and so is the premise a little, but I’ve used this story a little differently.
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/mint.html
Epidemic, scorpion, and divorce. Certainly won’t be dull!
Read “Stings” here: http://secondstaronther.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/stings/
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge from Chuck Wendig where three random words must be incorporated […]
Scarecrow, holiday, legend ovah heah
http://decemberpaladin.tumblr.com/post/52157659008/scarecrow-holiday-legend
[…] I was very sad, and kept poking the blog waiting). This week’s challenge was called ‘Choose Your Random Words‘, which I did with the aid of my d10 (I keep a small set of D&D dice on my worktable, of […]
RNG led to: Scorpion, Moon, Holiday. So here we go:
http://www.jqpdx.com/2013/06/05/holiday-bound/
[…] Create a Flash Fiction for this week’s challenge. I didn’t get a chance to finish late week, but this week, I’ll have something posted by […]
Moon, divorce, and holiday, together in Honeymoon.
http://knotachance.tumblr.com/
I rolled “Moon”, “Holiday”, and “Divorce”; and came up with a short-piece entitled “Moonlight on the Pier”: http://nickegelhoff.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-random-words/
[…] but strange or dirty laugh, check out posts like Ten Stupid Writer Tricks (writerly advice) or Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Random Words or two of my absolute favourites so far, A True-To-Life Tale of Bonafide Darling-Killing and The […]
[…] courtesy of Chuck Wendig and can be found here. My five words, chosen by a random number generator were: Scorpion, legend and holiday. […]
My three words, choose randomly, were: Scorpion, legend and holiday. My story can be found here: http://wp.me/p2X1mW-Y
Heh, same words as me, imagine that.
Epidemic, Scorpion, Legend:
http://www.writerscarnival.ca/servant-of-the-scorpion-queen/
I’m not going to lie, I really don’t think this is my best work at all. But I could be biased.
Can’t say if it’s among your best, but I liked it. Very creative, and good visuals.
Thanks Rebecca, glad you liked it.
This is the first story I’ve written in over 15 years. I welcome any criticisms you may have!
Moon, Scorpion, Epidemic : The Bitten
http://adhdrelax.blogspot.ca/2013/06/flash-fiction-challenge-bitten.html
About 550 words, I’m having trouble breaking the halfway point to be honest. I don’t want to force the 1,000 words if I don’t have 1,000 words to say, but it also feels like I’m cheating/lazy if I don’t expand it at least a little. Anyways, here you go!
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-wordsmithing-continues.html
Tongue, Mint, Legend were my randomly chosen words.
The Hitchhiker:
http://ericsourwine.blogspot.com/
[…] Last week’s challenge: “Choose Your Random Words“ […]