Smell that?
*takes long sniff*
It is the first flash fiction challenge of the year.
I’VE THAT SCENT OF SHEER STORY POTENTIAL CLINGING TO THE INSIDE OF MY NOSE.
And it is wonderfully sweet.
I’d actually like to take a little moment to say I’m so happy that these challenges seem to get people writing and I’ve seen more than a few folks sell-through stories based on these challenges, which makes the brittle broken snow-globe that I call my heart twitch and shine for one second.
Anyway, let’s get to it.
All you need to do this week is to use a d20 or a random number generator to consult the table at the bottom of the document to roll for a story’s title. It’s a two-part title (meaning, two random numbers 1-20) and whatever title you get must fit the story you write for it.
You’ll have 1000 words, par usual. Post at your blog, link back here. Due in one week — January 17th, Friday — by noon EST. Easy-peasy story-squeezy.
(Example of an earlier, similar challenge here.)
The title tables are (and you’re free to put the word “The” in front of your title):
Column One
- Snowbound
- Devil’s
- Accursed
- Whispering
- Amethyst
- Griefstruck
- Lovestruck
- Red
- Cartographer’s
- Chaos
- Orbital
- Jackdaw’s
- Minotaur
- Invisible
- Dog Star
- Helical
- Flight of the
- Cerulean
- Seamstress’
- Ten-Year
Column Two
- Murders
- Kid’s Club
- Angel
- Vault
- Bookshop
- Champion
- Palace
- Fear
- Skull
- Potion
- Birdhouse
- Encyclopedia
- Peacock
- Prison
- Wire
- Rider
- Story
- God
- Parasite
- Earth
410 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: “Roll For Title!””
Hmmm…. 6 & 17. “The Griefstruck Story.”
http://article94.blogspot.com/2014/01/griefstruck-story.html
“Amethyst Angel”, ooo alliteration.
“The Helical Potion”… I might have difficulty here…
Hang on….
That’s better…
Note to self: angle brackets don’t work. The missing sentence has kinda made my comment a little creepy.
Quick question. Where did you come up with the words in each column … a random word generator or enigmatic brilliance?
I just sit and think of cool words.
The Accursed Bookshop 🙂 Oh yes!
Ooo! I’m making a note of that one for sometime when I need a prompt and Chuck isn’t obliging!
I hope that’s not the Devil’s Birdhouse!
Hah! You got bookshop too. That’s fantastic. Can’t wait to see what you write.
I’m reading yours now 🙂 Hoping to get mine finished today. We’ll see!
Alrighty then – Not sure if my link will kick back here or not so here is the post if anyone cares to read:
http://ardenrr.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/the-accursed-bookshop/
The Accursed God. 🙂 should be fun
This could be interesting. I need to think about what I’m going to do with this.
“Flight of the Birdhouse”
I’m not sure what the story would be, but it’s a lovely title.
The Devil’s Rider.
Please be gentle…this is my first flash fiction 🙂
8/18: “Red God.”
I don’t know if that’s a gimmie, or a trap. Reversed, it would have been “Cerulean Fear,” which might be even less biguous.
Hell yeah, I’m all over this like cream cheese on a bagel!
Lovestruck Birdhouse, ok then!
Helical Murders. Well, this could be interesting.
15&8 “The Dog Star Fear”, that sounds interesting.
“The Dogstar Bookstore”. Huh. I am not sure. Do pirates read? Would they have a bookstore? A FLOATING bookstore in an old galleon? Gasp! Could you imagine?
Flight of the Vault… i can’t even come up with a smart-ass response.
Not even a safe being thrown out a window?
Ha!
Generation/Seed ship. WITH A DARK AND TERRIBLE SECRET.
Have you ever thought of compiling all of the Random Table posts from the blog into an ebook or PDF? There’s lots of great stuff here to stir the imagination.
Ah…. “The Cartographer’s Peacock”
No, but my sincerest hope is to one day put all of these in a giant website with a ton of cool random story generators.
Snowbound Angel. This could be cool. Out of curiosity, do people who sell stories based on these challenges ever have issues with them (or a core version) having spent time publicly posted on a blog?
Not that I know of? I dunno.
Okay. At this point it’s pure hubris for me to worry about it anyway. 🙂
Having read the work from this prompt, it seems a pressing concern. The story was excellent.
It’s still your copyright. You can do what you want with the story even after it is publicly posted. Unless Chuck changes his terms of service and makes everybody assign their copyrights to him, like Facebook does.
Right, but many publishers want first internet publication and chuck’s blog counts as internet publication.
I sincerely doubt any publisher would count this as that unless I literally posted the story on my blog. This is why I ask that people post their stories at their blogs. I don’t own it and claim zero rights to it.
You may indeed be right, but I’ve had shorts rejected since they were on my blog. Plus, the evil amazon spee-ider bot sometimes flags self-pub stories that are enrolled in KDP and available for free on a blog.
These were the kind of issues I was considering. I guess if I was pitching something I’d already posted I’d probably extend or tweak it somewhat.
I would want to expand and tweak my FF in any case, to make stories more in keeping with standard short story length. Actually, doing that to a bunch of my flash fiction blog posts is on my to-do list for this year.
“Cartographer’s Potion.” I will have some fun with this.
Great collection of words this week, Chuck–almost every title people have come up with is something I would like to write!
It will take me all week to get this one written, but I posted a story today based on the older prompt Chuck referenced:
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-friday-forgotten-library.html
And finally the current story: The Cartographer’s Potion
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-friday-cartographers.html
“The Cartographer’s Parasite.” Map mites. Got it.
I truly hope someone gets Lovestruck Encyclopedia!
“Flight of the Parasite”! Excellent…
The Devil’s Skull. That’s almost dull.
Griefstruck Cerulean…
I think I can work with that.
Thanks for the Random.org loveliness, Chuck
Far be it for me to be a rules lawyer (you write what you wanna write!), but you’ve chosen two words from one list, when the letter of the law is to choose one from each and pair them together. But if you got a story for “Griefstruck Cerulean,” by the gods, write it.
This is how revolutions begin.
🙂
Thanks for pointing out my faux pas with the letter of the law, but far be it from me to mess with serendipity.
Here’s the link for The Griefstruck Cerulean:
http://paulamillhouse.com/2014/01/12/flash-fiction-challenge-roll-for-title-chuck-wendigs-terrible-minds-and-the-griefstruck-cerulean/
That was pretty good. I really liked the fairy.
What’s cool six days in are the comments in favor of my sticking to my guns on the extra-exuberant choice to stay with my violation of the rules.
How cool is that…?
Well, Paula, you may think it’s cool now, but you might be headed for Andy Cowley’s Chaos Prison for breaking the rules and you don’t even know it.
4 & 12. Whispering Encyclopedia. This will be my first try, as well.
Here’s my first story, ever: Whispering Encyclopedia.
I liked it, Kathryn!
Thank you.
That was neat. I liked it.
Thanks, Kyra. It’s a little intimidating posting a story when surrounded by all this talent, I must say.
I liked it, too – sweet idea, well executed. I can picture the characters, the Encyclopedia included, and I really enjoyed picturing James’s face when he got “Breaker Morant” right. I would not have guessed it was your first time out.
Thanks, Joanna. I’m glad you liked it. I might have to write another. Chuck may have gotten me hooked on a nasty, ill-paying habit.
I liked the beautiful comfort of this story. The established setting at the beginning of the story was strong and I liked how you showed us that before you revealed that it was the day of the funeral – good job for your first story ever!
Thank you, AJ. I appreciate your kind words.
Congratulations on your first story! I truly enjoyed it.
really enjoyed this. it was beautiful! thanks for sharing it!
Nicely done.
Thank you, Bill. And The Flight of the Birdhouse is pitch-perfect.
Hm, “Minotaur Angel.” I don’t know what that’s about.
Can’t wait to find out.
Lovestruck Encyclopedia for me!
I’m pretty sure that one has to be comedy! Can’t wait to read it 🙂
I got 10,14: “Chaos Prison” and, as I’m sitting at home, off my tits on painkillers due to a back injury, my mind rapidly farted out the following:
http://infinitegibbons.wordpress.com/short-stories/chaos-prison/
1,000 words, right on the button… Somehow
I liked it. The pain killers must be working.
Thanks dude 🙂
Gah! That ending is quite chilling. Nice work.
Cheers 🙂
Oh wow… intense! Great job!
Thank you!
That sir, was well done. Even if I guessed the ending. Would work well as a start to something longer, I think.
Yeah, it was telegraphed a bit. I wanted to try and double cross it, but the other ending I wrote was really flat. I think it might make a slightly longer short story.
Thanks for the feedback!
I came. I read. I loved.
Great job, man.
Cheers dude
(17,18)Flight of the God. Wow, talk about possibilities
[…] Captain of the Penmonkeys, Chuck Wendig, has set a writing challenge this month and I wanted to have a go. Follow the link for details, but the premise is, roll a die twice to […]
19, 3. Seamstress’ Angel. I actually wrote something for it in a rush, but it came up to under 1000 words and I don’t want to pad. Is 1k the upper limit?
“For Sale, Christening Dress, NEARLY NEVER USED.”
There you go.
well anyway, it’s here. http://gloriousmonsters.tumblr.com/post/72878405893/the-seamstress-angel
It turned out to be an odd sort of fairy tale, almost.
Yeah, 1000 is the upper limit. You don’t have to hit it. What’s more, no one is giving grades on these. I’ve been known to hit 1200 words and Chuck hasn’t come and hunted me down yet. Mostly, I think 1000 words is about as much as most people are willing to read on a blog.
Great concept. I enjoyed it.
Amethyst God….
Like Rebecca, I keep old lists for missing weeks… you can find The Horse-drawn Lighthouse on my blog today 🙂 http://jemimapett.com/blog/2014/01/10/flash-fiction-friday-the-horse-drawn-lighthouse/
[…] I’ve been waving my D20 around at Chuck Wendig’s behest. Here’s the 1,000 words that […]
Helical Earth — good words on this list. Makes for a a solid and challenging prompt.
http://fantasy-schmantasy.blogspot.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-challenge-helical-earth.html
Yo, Wendigo! Angel Chaos hit me right in the Tom Holt happy place. I’d never have written anything like this without the prompt. Maybe you’re my guardian angel. My drunk, profane, poop-noise-making guardian angel:
http://quantumofthought.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/angel-chaos/
Amethyst and God. Now, what the heck does amethyst mean?
18 & 18: Cerulean God… Fantastic!!!
I see the potential for some shared-world action here. Red God. Amethyst God. Cerulean God. IT’S A RAINBOW OF DIVINE WRATH.
Hmmm that notion is sounding quite agreeable 🙂
Chaos Rider… on the surface, probably the easiest combination to work with.. on the other hand, new and interesting….game on!
Cerulean Palace… awesome!
Griefstruck Earth…Challenge accepted!
I got that too! 🙂 am interested to read what you do with it as a title 🙂 i went sci fi
I have been absent from these contests for the last six months or so, working on my next manuscript, but that’s done and I have a little free time and I hadn’t written a Thor Slaymaster story in ages, so here’s THOR SLAYMASTER’S SNOWBOUND ANGEL: http://www.curtisedmonds.com/thor-slaymasters-snowbound-angel/
These are always lots of fun. God bless Chuck Wendig’s beard crumbs.
19 and 13 – the seamstress’ Peacock.
By jove I had fun with this one: a poor factory worker, an injured peacock and something about the Indian God of War and Violence. Read on, dear monkies, dear on!
http://writesomethingsmidge.blogspot.ie/
Ha! Love it! Very silly indeed 🙂
Thanks Andy! 😀
Mine’s The Red Prison, Other people drew Red God and Chaos Prison, so I see two anthologies in the making – red things and sub-specialty prisons,
WHOO-HOO! Back in the saddle! Thanks Chuck for taking the time to provide these awesome challenges.
My title? “Seamstress’ God”
I can feel the gears turning already…
“The Devil’s Encyclopedia”… hmmm… 🙂
Cerulean Palace.
It took my brain roughly half a second to figure out what I was going to do for this one. And in 2nd person. Maybe. A first for me if I have the balls to go through with it. We’ll see.
[…] Flash Fiction Challenge: […]
Jackdaw’s Bookshop. Sounded so tame when I started it, but… well, you’ll just have to read it to see what happened: http://thematticuskingdom.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/jackdaws-bookshop/
Thanks for the prompt/challenge.
That was good fun. I enjoyed the mystery.
Glad you liked it!
10, 6. Chaos Champion! Yeah, I can get on board with that! And write!
I rolled “Snowbound Bookstore”. Now that sounds positively mundane. Or maybe chick-littish. But we will see.
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