Last week’s challenge: “Must Contain…“
Cyberpunk. Steampunk. Dieselpunk.
The literary subgenre -punk contains, as I see it, a couple key features —
a) A world taken over by the technology or fuel source or by humans (often in an authoritarian role) attempting to control the utilization and implementation of that tech or resource.
and
b) Characters who represent an anarchic, rebel “punk” vibe in this world.
Certainly other definitions could apply, but this is the one I’m going for today. The Matrix works as cyberpunk because you have the authoritarian machine regime and also the radical activists who dress all bad-ass and work to break the regime and its system to itty bitty pieces. Is Star Wars spacepunk? Forcepunk? If you really wanted to be cynical, you might suggest that we — right now — live in an Oilpunk world. BUT I DETECT NO CYNICS HERE. Ahem.
Anyway.
Your job is to write 1000 words of fiction in a new SomethingPunk world.
Where [Something] is a noun (tech/resource, most likely) you choose.
Definitely no cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk.
That said, if you’re feeling a bit daunted by this initial open choice, I’ve included ten options below that you could grab and use in order to write this flash fiction challenge. Grab a d10 or choose randomly. If you grab from the list, the interpretation you choose is entirely up to you. (Most of those can go several ways, I suspect.)
You’ve got one week, par usual — due by noon EST on March 21st (Friday).
Post at your blog or online space. Link to your story in the comments below.
SomethingPunk Possibilities
- Ghostpunk
- Hellpunk
- Cowpunk
- Bloodpunk
- Soulpunk
- Geopunk
- Godpunk*
- Beastpunk
- Dustpunk
- Germpunk
* originally written “godspunk,” which sounds like “god-spunk” instead of “gods-punk.”
Mozette says:
*Puts hand up hesitantly* I’m not sure how to start.. um… I don’t really know how to write something-punk stuff… help please… 🙁
Okay… ‘punk’ is something I don’t really understand…
March 14, 2014 — 7:53 AM
Fatma Alici says:
Punk the part is just like the punk music area. Rebel against the Machine. Spit in the eye of the ‘man’. Government wants to enforce a curfew, punk characters only go out after curfew. That sort of thing.
March 14, 2014 — 8:54 AM
Dangerfield says:
Ignore the nomenclature – it’s an alternate universe where human progress has diverged along a very specific path, so for example, during the Victorian ages, steam-based technology made an incredible amount of progress and became the number one power source. How might that have changed society? Who might be people fighting against whatever the class or social system is in that world? Steampunk! What do you think are the emerging technologies that are going to change the world, and how can you take them to extremes?
Think of your world first, think about who the counterculture or underclasses are, then pick out the detail for the name.
March 14, 2014 — 9:03 AM
Mozette says:
Okay… thanks guys… I have just tried out VampirePunk… I think I got it right. Let’s see if I did…
http://youcantgoback-andotherimpossibilities.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/the-giver.html
Enjoy… and please comment, and let me know what you think. 🙂
March 14, 2014 — 9:07 AM
Pavowski says:
What a neat idea. Initially I was drawn to “bloodpunk” but I thought back to my flash from last week and it got me thinking… “timepunk”… I have to let this marinate for a bit before I begin!
March 14, 2014 — 7:59 AM
Pavowski says:
Originally I meant to take a sci-fi action angle, but instead I ended up with this sort of cynical, sort of sad moment. I beat the clock on this challenge, coming in at 945 words. Haven’t edited it too much because it kind of shook me up. Maybe I will tinker with it later.
At any rate, I hope you enjoy it – and as usual, I welcome any and all feedback if you’re out there reading it.
“Borrowed Time” is here: http://pavorisms.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/borrowed-time/
March 15, 2014 — 10:44 PM
Smoph says:
Oh. That is sad. 🙁 It reminds me a little of the In Time movie with JT, which was a fascinating idea; but yours at least had more of a science feel to it. (This is meant to be a compliment- I liked the movie concept).
March 23, 2014 — 2:43 AM
joeturner87 says:
Interesting. Before I read your list of 10, I had Godpunk in mind, but I’ll see of I can be a little more original.
March 14, 2014 — 8:03 AM
joeturner87 says:
I’ve got it!
SoMeCorpPunk: Social Media Corporation Punk.
Be back with the results.
March 14, 2014 — 4:05 PM
joeturner87 says:
Okay, here goes nothing
http://joetblogs.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/terribleminds-flash-fiction-challenge-sometingpunk/
March 14, 2014 — 8:03 PM
Mark Gardner says:
I had fun writing Coffeepunk last time, so bring it on!
March 14, 2014 — 8:34 AM
Jesse says:
Coffeepunk sounds super awesome. I must have missed the story last time this came around. Would you link me to it please so I can read it?
March 14, 2014 — 9:40 AM
Mark Gardner says:
http://article94.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/coffeepunk/
March 14, 2014 — 10:39 AM
Mark Gardner says:
I’m not impressed with my continuation of coffee punk, but here it is nonetheless:
http://article94.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/coffepunk-part-2/
Part one:
http://article94.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/coffeepunk/
March 14, 2014 — 10:40 AM
JR Holmes says:
Working a bit sideways on this. If “punk” represents the anarchic rebel in that world, what would be the opposite of that. A story that revels in the expression of that vibe.
We’ve already seen things like “steam romance”, which is close, but doesn’t capture the quick image that steampunk has managed. How about “glam”? Everything that is dirty, or malfunctioning in a punk story would be gleaming and smooth in a glam story. To some degree, we are seeing some of the bloodglam stories in some of the current wave of vampire stories.
Hmm…
March 14, 2014 — 8:39 AM
Kate Sparkes says:
OH HOLY SHIT. I am SO on this. It’s the perfect excuse to start the something-punk story that’s been giving me brain-bruises for months but that I hadn’t found time to work on.
And yes, I read that as “god-spunk,” so thanks for not going there.
March 14, 2014 — 8:45 AM
Kate Sparkes says:
Here we go. It’s longer than 1000 words, but I needed to finish the scene. You can stop at 1000 if you like. This one’s going to be continued. I love this character too much to let her go.
I’ve never done -punk before, but welcome to Gempunk.
http://disregardtheprologue.wordpress.com/fiction-short-stories/sparrowhawk-son-gempunk-experimentflash-fiction-challenge/
March 19, 2014 — 8:59 AM
Michael Berkey says:
I actually kinda want to write godspunk anyway.
March 14, 2014 — 8:47 AM
Jesse says:
I read geopunk and now all I can think of is a primitive homo sapian totalitarion government, who enforces strict policies on stone weapons, guarding flint knapping knowledge jealously and a poor neanderthal second-class citizen who just wants to feed his family! He sticks it to the man! … Possibly with an actual stick.
March 14, 2014 — 9:13 AM
Nick Rappley says:
That is awesome! LOL
March 14, 2014 — 11:46 AM
AKjeldsen says:
I think that’d be more like ‘lithopunk’, but – yeah, sounds good!
March 14, 2014 — 5:04 PM
Aislinn (@AislinndeLyon) says:
Dustpunk and Godpunk got smashed together in my head and now I’m about 800 words into a piece I’m thrilled with so far. It is probably not (dammit) going to come in at under 1K. But the prompt was so worth it.
March 14, 2014 — 11:20 AM
Matthew Eaton says:
I really liked the ghostpunk idea, so I decided to take it and run with it…
Get ready for the dystopian slice of life called “Spirit Powered”
http://www.mattheweatonwriter.com/flash-fiction-challenge-spirit-powered/
March 14, 2014 — 11:35 AM
Adrienne says:
I really liked this! Great read!
March 14, 2014 — 11:09 PM
Matthew Eaton says:
Thank you very much. I whipped it up in about 25 minutes before I had to open the shop. I wish I had more time to explore more!
March 14, 2014 — 11:26 PM
angelacavanaugh says:
I really liked your story. It was really original. I think you should develop it into a longer story. I’d love to read more.
March 15, 2014 — 8:03 PM
Matthew Eaton says:
Thank you very much Angela. I am not sure what I could do with it right now since it was “lightning in a bottle,” but I’d be glad to give it a shot one day.
March 16, 2014 — 12:25 AM
J.J says:
I was all ‘uh…never done this’ and now I’m writing and it’s not punk. It’s just…hmmm. I have taken Soulpunk and run with it. This is actually really interesting. And I also saw ‘god-spunk’. Well, I am going to finish this one in time for the deadline, partly ’cause I really like it. And because I need to learn to stick to deadlines!
March 14, 2014 — 12:13 PM
Siddhartha says:
I selected *drumroll* ZOMBIEPUNK!
Actually, there is only one zombie and not much punk, but I hope that I have kept with the spirit of things. Here is my Zombiepunk short story “Right to Die”.
http://ssbasu.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/somethingpunk/
Ta-da! *flounces* *sprains back*
Please read and share your feedback.
March 14, 2014 — 2:30 PM
David Blackstone (@DavidWriting) says:
Mine’s FTLPunk, I guess? I had this idea a long time ago, and never had the push over the edge to write it, but this challenge gave me the approach vector I needed. It’s set in a ‘water monopoly empire’ where the ‘water’ is FTL travel. This is called “King John’s Highway”. Hopefully it doesn’t dip too far into cyberpunk.
http://www.agincourtdb.com/2014/03/king-johns-highway.html
March 14, 2014 — 3:56 PM
jbwhelan says:
Does knowing I just wrote the sentence “The cabbages were unarmed” give you an indication of how much fun I’m having with this one? 🙂
March 14, 2014 — 3:59 PM
jbwhelan says:
And here we go: Clocking in at 1000 words exactly, the world’s first Veggiepunk story, “Wood Green Empire”:
http://jbwhelan.blogspot.com/2014/03/wood-green-empire.html
March 14, 2014 — 5:00 PM
adelinekay says:
“So: the rumors were true. GovCorp had tomatoes now.
“You’re not even vegetables!” he shouted to them as they approached. Then a broccoli soldier raised his weapon, and fired—and the world went dark, and smelled of radishes.”
FTW!! Loved it!
March 17, 2014 — 7:39 PM
jbwhelan says:
Thanks! I was having a tremendous amount of fun with this one. 🙂
March 18, 2014 — 4:46 PM
angelacavanaugh says:
What happens when the world’s main source of energy is Water?
Craig, a desalinization plant worker, is tired of double and triple shifts with only single rations. Can he fight back, or will it be his undoing?
HydroPunk
http://angelacavanaugh.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/flash-fiction-friday-hydropunk/
March 14, 2014 — 7:09 PM
ian says:
Often, I will crowd source my friends (usually via Facebook) for a few disparate story elements that I forge into a Flash Fiction (usually written in just an hour or so). I haven’t done so in a while, so I took the opportunity to take this one from Chuck by the horned. I present: Lifepunk.
http://ianeller.com/2014/03/14/friday-flash-fiction-lifepunk/
March 14, 2014 — 11:43 PM
dangerdean says:
I actually finished one this week. So unlike my half-finished talking cat and alcoholic beverage stories, I give you the “ghostpunk” story “Ponies.”
http://dangerdean.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/ponies-or-death-rides-a-pale-horse/
Now I’m going to bed.
March 15, 2014 — 2:55 AM
David Wilson says:
I enjoyed it. Interesting take on bring back the dead.
March 15, 2014 — 1:40 PM
Nick Nafpliotis (@NickNafster79) says:
I decided to go with ‘soulpunk.’ I’m still not sure if I did this correctly, but hopefully it makes for an enjoyable story. Please let me know what you think and/or offer constructive criticism. I can take it 🙂
http://www.ramblingbeachcat.com/2014/03/flash-fiction-friday-somethingpunk.html
March 15, 2014 — 11:37 AM
Ryan says:
Interesting idea. Instead of the world being “powered” by souls, they are simply financed. Interesting take on the financial crisis.
March 15, 2014 — 9:22 PM
Alison DeLuca (@AlisonDeLuca) says:
http://bit.ly/1fzg53S I went with skin and ink: Tattoopunk in “The Incredible Thaumaturge.” Thanks so much for this fun prompt!
March 15, 2014 — 11:48 AM
Ryan says:
I made this piece with way too many words. But then again, punk is all about fucking the system.
The style here is something I like to call Mage Punk.
Check it out.
March 15, 2014 — 5:31 PM
Ryan says:
Whoops, sorry; the real blog is right here
March 15, 2014 — 5:32 PM
Nick Nafpliotis (@NickNafster79) says:
Still no link 🙁
March 16, 2014 — 12:11 PM
Ryan says:
gotta click my name
March 16, 2014 — 12:14 PM
Ryan says:
If that doesn’t work, here’s the url
http://flashchallenger.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-matter-of-syntax.html
March 16, 2014 — 12:16 PM
Nick Nafpliotis (@NickNafster79) says:
Good stuff. A little slow to start, but the magic fight was excellently choreographed.
March 17, 2014 — 8:15 PM
ryanvgr says:
I wanted to introduce the world as well as the characters. Might have helped to start off with Jack meeting Aden
March 19, 2014 — 9:14 AM
Fatma Alici says:
Alright, this challenge has been around before. Then, I went with Soulpunk and I do so again. With the same character, the Wanderer. She’s far too fun to write.
Soulical Sciences
http://wp.me/p4ifXa-9J
March 16, 2014 — 4:48 PM
Scott A. Bullard says:
Here’s my entry based on Infopunk where information is what drives the country more than money.
http://glipho.com/writingbull/soulcharge
March 16, 2014 — 4:52 PM
tinydotty says:
yo everybody. I posted my first flash fiction last week with my link in the comments box, and there was a message saying my comment is under moderation. Just wondered what that meant because i didn’t see it on any other peoples posting. do i need to change something in my settings or does everyone see that message on their own post. Any info is appreciated.
sincerely,
the newbie
March 17, 2014 — 12:26 AM
Josh Loomis says:
1000 words of Hellpunk? Sounds right up my alley.
http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/2014/03/17/flash-fiction-burned-out-souls/
March 17, 2014 — 8:55 AM
Shane Vaughan says:
So, as it’s St. Paddy’s day, I thought I’d do a little Paddy-Punk.
So find out what really happened to all those snakes in Ireland.
http://writesomethingsmidge.blogspot.ie/
March 17, 2014 — 4:30 PM
springinkerl says:
As I’m naturally lazy, I pulled up the RNG. And as laziness is naturally punished immediately, I got a 3.
Cowpunk. I’ve never written any-punk ever, and now that. Here we go.
http://springinkerl.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/flash-fiction-paula/
March 17, 2014 — 8:54 PM
Jon Stoffel says:
Nailed it!
…too soon?
Anyway, good to see another cowpunk entry. Well done!
March 21, 2014 — 10:56 AM
Alison DeLuca (@AlisonDeLuca) says:
I did 1000 words of TattooPunk in “The Incredible Thaumaturge.” Thanks so much for this great prompt!
March 17, 2014 — 8:56 PM
Alison DeLuca (@AlisonDeLuca) says:
and here is the link if you are interested: http://alisondeluca.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-incredible-thaumaturge-flash-fiction.html
March 17, 2014 — 8:57 PM
underastarlitsky says:
i’ve come up with what i think is either an AWESOME punk or a CRINGEWORTHY WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? punk. i’m not gonna say what it is until i post the story…but it’s …interesting, if nothing else! 😀
March 17, 2014 — 10:25 PM
Jon Jefferson says:
The battle between cats and dogs in a beastpunkish story.
http://www.10thdaypublishing.com/lonely-tears-hunter/
March 18, 2014 — 12:09 AM
H. says:
I chose…I guess it would be called waterpunk? I really enjoyed this challenge and pumped it out in one frenzied sitting. Here it is: http://everydayjetsam.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/waterpunk/
Maybe sometime I’ll try “ghostpunk,” that sounds interesting, too. 🙂
March 18, 2014 — 12:45 AM
D. E. Wright says:
I chose Soulpunk, mostly because the idea of souls powering a city has been bouncing around in my brain for years now. http://8thage.blogspot.ca/2014/03/city-souls.html
March 18, 2014 — 4:36 AM
jotter monster says:
Aquapunk! Water seems a pretty popular theme.
http://jottermonster.tumblr.com/post/80007723624/aquapunk
March 18, 2014 — 6:33 PM
awhendry says:
Figured I would have a pop at this. Somnambupunk…
http://awhendry.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/somnambupunk/
March 18, 2014 — 7:07 PM
Aly says:
I loved this challenge! I chose FatePunk.
http://www.alysummers.com/fatepunk-a-flash-fiction-challenge/
March 18, 2014 — 10:38 PM
Tyro Vogel says:
previous challenge (cat, manuscript)
https://plus.google.com/106417640175496251231/posts/21W4Ln3Geer
just wrote it cuz forgot to do so earlier (was busy) 🙂
March 19, 2014 — 4:29 AM
Mildred Achoch says:
Loved it! 🙂
March 19, 2014 — 10:00 AM
Vicente L Ruiz says:
I chose Bloodpunk, and I cheated… a bit. For starters, I went up to 1300 words or so, though I suppose I could cut it down. And then, Bloodpunk is spot on for some stories of my own, so I used this as an opportunity to tell how the two previously existing characters I’ve used in my story met.
Here it is:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/107723033976421966282/posts/Dd19WUeJeEB
(Warning: there may be typos, I was in a hurry to post).
March 19, 2014 — 2:48 PM
Vicente L Ruiz says:
Ah, the setting is also a bit post-steampunk, dieselpunk even… though it’s barely glimpsed at.
March 19, 2014 — 2:50 PM
abillyhiggins says:
Because I’m a smart-ass and a bastard, I decided to do an Oilpunk story. It’s a sweet and sentimental story about a guy who sets his boss on fire.
http://billypeery.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/fucked-up/
March 19, 2014 — 5:00 PM
Tony Kelly says:
I first devised this as “PeatPunk,” in keeping with the energy theme, but I think it might be better classified as “FeudalPunk”
http://wombatspouch.blogspot.com/2014/03/chucks-flash-fiction-challenge-this.html
March 19, 2014 — 6:51 PM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
Went with something akin to HellPunk. http://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/on-the-side-of-the-angels/
March 19, 2014 — 8:23 PM
dangerdean says:
That reads like it would do well as a graphic novel.
March 19, 2014 — 11:02 PM
dangerdean says:
That was aimed at the previous post.
March 19, 2014 — 11:03 PM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
Thanks. If I had any talent lying in that direction, sure. Unfortunately, I’ve no talent beyond stick figures.
March 20, 2014 — 9:53 AM
john says:
First attempt at this.
Magic Punk. http://www.strangefarplaces.com/2014/03/20/my-left-foot/
March 20, 2014 — 1:07 AM