Last week’s challenge: “Roll For Title!”
Yoinks.
Last week’s flash fiction challenge was easily the most visited challenge I’ve ever run — also with the most participation. That’s bad-ass, and it’s amazing to see such energy and talent on display. Pat yourselves on the back. Eat some ice cream. MAKE OUT WITH YOURSELF IN A MIRROR.
Or something.
Anyway, this week, we’re back with another randomized challenge —
And, this week, I’m letting you have 2000 words instead of 1000.
The way forward is simple: pick (randomly or by hand) one element from each column below (Who, Where, Uh-oh) and smoosh those three together to concoct a single story. For bonus points, you can actually randomize the Who column twice — either to make a combination protagonist (PSYCHIC CELEBRITY! ASSASSIN ACCOUNTANT!) or to choose a second character to go into your tale, either as a supporting character or as an antagonist.
Post this story at your online space.
Link back here.
Due by Friday, the 24th, noon EST.
And the categories are…
The Who (Protagonist)
- Detective
- Ghost
- Bartender
- Dirty Cop
- Psychic
- Assassin
- Accountant
- Celebrity
- Android
- Waiter/Waitress
The Where (Setting)
- Nuclear Wasteland
- Amusement Park
- Chinatown
- Far-Flung Space Station
- Mad Botanist’s Greenhouse
- Virtual Reality
- The Underworld
- Trailer Park
- Pirate Ship
- Casino
The Uh-Oh (Problem)
- Betrayal by best friend!
- Left for dead, out for revenge!
- Encounter with a nemesis!
- Trapped!
- Something precious, stolen!
- Lovers, separated!
- Warring against nature!
- An unsolved murder!
- A conspiracy, revealed!
- Besieged by supernatural enemies!
149 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Who, The Where, The Uh-Oh”
Finally got around to this. Bad Cop Assassin Trailer Park and you can guess the Uh-Oh. Here it is: http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/01/bad-cop.html
I did the ultimate randomization of choice by allowing one of my teenagers to pick my Who/Where/UhOh for me! This got me An Accountant, in a Mad Botanist’s Greenhouse, Beseiged by Supernatural Enemies. The result was…
http://mckkenzie.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/highland-feud-more-flash-fiction-from-chuck-wendig/
As always, critique, criticism, and comments are more than welcome…encouraged even!
Not bad! You packed a lot into a small space. You going to work with these characters some more?
Thanks! You know, I think I probably will. Invented them just for this challenge, but now I kinda like them…
Nice job! I really enjoyed the humor throughout.
[…] Time for another piece of fiction prompted by Chuck Wendig’s weekly Flash Fiction Challenge. This week’s is titled “The Who, The Where, and the Uh-Oh”. […]
Ghost, Casino, and Something Precious Stolen! Here’s “Whispering Luck” and a little first sentence tease:
“The day they killed me was the day Lucky Joe’s stopped being so lucky.”
http://panningforclouds.com/2014/01/21/whispering-luck-2500-words/
1: Assassin
2. Trailer Park
3. Something precious, stolen!
I went for a somewhat campy thriller – Trailer Park Ninja
http://naharavensari.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/flash-fiction-trailer-park-ninja/
[…] The challenge this week Who, Where, and the Uh Oh. Roll a d10 out of each column and we had up to 2,000 words. However, I didn’t even use a thousand. […]
Bartender, Mad Botanist’s Greenhouse, and Besieged by Supernatural Enemies.
I give you: Down At Shaggy’s Pad
http://www.casondrabrewster.com/?p=1564
Love it when my fellow Wendigo’s come and visit and drop me a note. I try to do the same back.
Nice one! We shared two out of three elements…funny to see the parallels! But my characters’ poison was scotch! 😉
I honest-to-goobers got Psychic Celebrity. That, and Casino, and Something Precious, Stolen. It’s not what I would have picked on my own, and that’s why I’m going to use the bits as rolled. Hmmm. If it’s not stupid deathly hot when I get home, I’ll start the draft.
The Dead End
http://www.cjaiferry.com/the-dead-end/
An assassin and a dirty cop walk into a greenhouse…(stop me if you’ve heard this conspiracy). 🙂
[…] for Revenge Already falling behind on my personal flash fiction writing objective, the Terribleminds flash fiction challenge is just what I need to get back on track. As a small diversion to the usual drill, this week’s […]
I rolled and I got an accountant, the trailer park, and a revenge/left for dead uh-oh. Writing 2000 words was a little out of my comfort zone, but hopefully it worked.
Here is ‘Accounting for Revenge’ (Snappy title, eh?)
http://www.thezombiechimp.com/2014/01/22/flash-fiction-accounting-revenge/
Hope you like it.
My random numbers got me Android, Nuclear Wasteland, and Left for dead, out for revenge!
I titled it after the main character’s name because I’m lazy like that, and all the other titles I came up with had the feel of “annoying yoga instructor/self-help guru.”
Niloufar
http://sordidstoryteller.blogspot.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-niloufar.html
Random numbers: 7, 10, 10: an accountant in a casino, besieged by supernatural opponents.
Result: Show-Down at Shadow Lake
This was a fun challenge, even though I found it hard to reach the 2,000.
Enjoy
http://cmsimpson.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/flash-fiction-challenge-result-show.html
That was great! Had me on the edge of my seat!
Thanks, it wasn’t an easy one to write. 🙂
Random rolls: Dirty cop/ghost/trailer park/ besieged by supernatural enemies. Under 2,000 words, but just barely. And despite the title, it isn’t dirty: http://andreaspeed.com/2014/flash-fiction-challenge-bottom-fishing/
[…] Another Friday Flashfic Challenge from Chuck Wendig: the who, the where the uh-oh. […]
I got Detective, The Underworld, Betrayal by Best Friend. And somehow it turned into this, which I like a lot:
http://pensandperil.tumblr.com/post/74271181621
I hope you all enjoy it.
It’s funny how such similar prompts lead to such different stories and settings. I really enjoyed seeing what you did with the ideas.
Detective, The Underworld, Left for dead, out for revenge!
“The river sucks at the rotten pier supports; the greasy slap slurp noise makes my stomach roll. Another Friday night, another case that ends with a sock in the mouth. When they handed me the P.I. license they shoulda knocked my teeth out with a wrench at the same time and have done with it. My laugh sounds hollow as the darkness takes me.”
http://quantumofthought.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/downriver/#more-307
Thank you for the Chuckspiration, Wendigo!
[…] offers up a flash fiction challenge. I finally got around to doing his most recent challenge: the Who, the Where, the Uh-Oh. Basically, I picked two items from one list and one item from the other two to create a story with […]
My options: an assassin and an accountant, an amusement park, and something precious, stolen!
http://bethraymond.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/flash-fiction-challenge-response-the-who-the-where-the-uh-oh/
Nicely written, and concise. I enjoyed reading your story.
[…] one for the flash fiction at Terribleminds. The idea was that you randomly picked three things (The ‘Who’, The ‘Where’ […]
I ended up with a detective, mad-botanist’s greenhouse and an unsolved murder (used a d10 and still managed get detective and unsolved murder in the same lot, what’re the chances… it’s rhetorical). Anyhow, here it is;
Carnivorous Vegetation
http://inksmudgesamuel.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/carnivorous-vegetation/
That was inspiring and vaguely Wellsian. Nicely done.
I got a dirty cop, a celebrity, a nuclear wasteland, and stranded–left for dead! I immediately knew the premise when I got that conflict, and it pretty much wrote itself:
JACKSAW
http://ljglover.blogspot.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-challenge-2-jacksaw.html
That was excellent. Natural and conversational.
Thank you! I quite enjoyed yours also 🙂
I got a new blog address! Same story is up at http://ljglover.com
I was *blessed* with psychic, far-flung space station, unsolved murder and detective. Sounds fairly easy… except that’s completely out of my realm of thought! ha! Anywho, enjoy and let me know what you think 🙂
http://www.miramichelleday.com/flash_fictions_and_short_stories
Bartender, Pirate Ship, and encounter with an old nemesis. I tossed again and made the bartender a detective of sorts as well.
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2014/01/flash-fiction-friday-bartender-and.html
I loved it!
First time participant. Rolled up psychic, dirty cop, nuclear wasteland and left for dead, out for revenge. This was a fun challenge.
http://sczerny.blogspot.com/2014/01/gavotte-beneath-wasteland-willow.html
I changed my uh-oh, because the story didn’t want the random pick, but otherwise I took what I got: accoutant, android, nuclear wasteland. Here’s the link! http://ideasandinkstains.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/marc/
I scored a “DIrty Cop” in a “Casino” who is experiencing “Betrayal By Best Friend!”. I wrote “Pit Boss” here:
http://pauljwillett.com/2014/01/23/flash-fiction-pit-boss/
I went with:
bartender
far-flung space station
an unsolved murder (aka left for dead/trapped)
http://thereallydivinemissm.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/briony-and-the-kachera/
I enjoyed the ever-loving sex-wombat crap out of this. Thanks, Chuck. : )
The random number generator thingy gave me:
Protagonst: Dirty cop ghost
Location: the Underworld
Uh-Oh: something precious, stolen
So, my dirty cop is a dead guy on the run from demons in the Assyrian Underworld as he tries to get his precious back. A romp-and-a-half. I could frolic.
http://courtcan.com/writing/short-story-george-and-the-babylonian-field-trip/
[…] Last week’s challenge: The Who, The Where, The Uh-Oh […]
A ghost, a psychic in a trailer park with a nemesis… it’s Just Business! 😉
http://jodilee.sacredtriskele.net/?page_id=3305
[…] This week’s Flash Fiction challenge was called The Who, The Where, The Uh-oh. We received a list of protagonists, settings, and problems. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/01/17/flash-fiction-challenge-the-who-the-where-the-uh-oh/ […]
[…] Friday, Chuck Wendig posts a Flash Fiction Challenge that gives writers a prompt, word count, etc. to respond to. This week’s involved randomly […]
Detective James Rollins looks for evidence against a serial-killing mad botanist in the confines of his sinister greenhouse…aided by the ghost of his first victim.
Ok, this is the first time I try one of these challenges. It was really fun; hope you like it:
http://johnfreeter.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/clues-from-beyond-the-grave/
Android, trailer park, warring against nature. I made the deadline, right? Just barely?
http://thisiscompletetruth.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/the-old-android/
Waitress, casino, nemesis and unsolved murder.
http://www.glintoflightblog.com/2014/01/jackpot-kyra-walker-flash-fiction-piece.html
9, 1, 6. Android loss of love in the nuclear wasteland. And before you say it, no, it’s not Wall-E. 😉 Enjoy!
http://www.thejdwiley.com/2014/01/eternal-sunset-flash-fiction-friday.html
Sweet…sad…very good!
Apparently I didn’t post mine… though I did finish on time. Better late than never! There’s always next week!
The who: Assassin
The where: Amusement Park (though I took some liberty…)
The uh-oh: Warring against nature
Link: http://www.abewolfgang.com/blog/a-conversation
What a lovely story. A pleasure to read!
I had fun with this but it really wanted to be a longer story.
The who: Detective and Ghost
The Where: Chinatown
The uh-oh: Unsolved murder
I hope you like Chinatown Rebels! http://prose.smoph.org/2014/01/25/chinatown-rebels/
[…] Friday, Chuck Wendig posts a Flash Fiction Challenge that gives writers a prompt, word count, etc. to respond to. This week’s involved randomly […]
[…] piece was spurred by Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge. I chose amateur detective/waitress at a casino and an encounter with a nemesis/unsolved […]