Pretty straightforward — given that we’re in the long haul of National Novel Writing Month, feels like a shorter, sharper flash fiction contest deserves to be in play. What does that mean?
It means I want you to write a single story in three sentences. The shorter those sentences are, the better. Remember: a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
It is not merely a vignette — not simply a snapshot in time.
You can deposit this story in the comments below.
Due in one week — by Friday, noon EST.
I’ll pick three random participants on that Friday and will toss each winner a copy of my newest writing e-book, 30 Days in the Word Mines. (A book that has been described as an advent calendar for NaNoWriMo, which is a description I quite like.)
Sound good?
Get to writing.
Three sentences.
Short as you can make them — clarity and brevity are king.
Go.
Mark McLemore says:
The world ends. The whimpers fade to silence. The Earth lives on.
November 7, 2014 — 12:27 PM
mckkenzie says:
Nice!
November 7, 2014 — 1:00 PM
Mark McLemore says:
Thank you.
November 8, 2014 — 12:15 PM
Saxon Kennedy says:
This is my favorite-great job
November 7, 2014 — 4:35 PM
Mark McLemore says:
Thank you.
November 8, 2014 — 12:15 PM
davebessom says:
The rain poured through the cracked roof, filling the buckets scattered throughout the house, and feeding the squirming things inside. Lauren killed them all with fire, dripping gasoline over the rainwater and dropping in a lit match, one at a time, and feeling her soul grow lighter with each new pyre. Eventually, the entire house burned, and Lauren burned with it, satisfied knowing her work had been completed, and the world was safe for another thousand years.
November 7, 2014 — 12:31 PM
dianadiehl1 says:
Love it!
November 7, 2014 — 1:30 PM
Songue says:
“Don’t let me get started on my story. You seem like a nice guy. Don’t want to scare you.”
November 7, 2014 — 12:52 PM
Ridley Kemp (@MrRidleyKemp) says:
“For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” The controversial in vitro procedure was a success, but Charles would never walk like the other children. Of course, it paid off with a gold medal in the 100 meter freestyle in the 2020 Tokyo games.
November 7, 2014 — 1:01 PM
Patti Rose says:
She parked badly. The drive home after receiving the text was a blur. Motionless behind the wheel, she watched the covered figure being loaded into the back of an ambulance.
November 7, 2014 — 1:03 PM
Brenda (sleepingseeker) says:
oh, this is vivid and leaves me with a sinking sense of dread.
November 7, 2014 — 2:13 PM
Liam Hayes says:
His mind was in tatters. His hands, all bloody and bent. Dark Souls had finally beat him.
November 7, 2014 — 1:08 PM
addy95 says:
not too sure if dark evil spirits or the video game.
Actually when i think about it they are the same thing 😛 really good.
November 10, 2014 — 5:24 AM
Holly Geely says:
The line of people stretches as far as the eye can see. Paul’s bladder bulges with agony, and his greatest regret is the jumbo-sized drink at the theatre. The bush is too small to provide adequate cover, but his need is too great; at least, that’s what he tells the police officer who arrests him.
November 7, 2014 — 1:09 PM
serendipitousmc says:
Heh. Who of us can’t relate to this???
November 8, 2014 — 10:59 AM
Russell Appelt says:
She got the test results in the mail, suspicion confirmed. An unused wedding dress was returned that day. He found her body without a note.
November 7, 2014 — 1:12 PM
Rebecca Knell says:
In a terrible rage one night I ran my hands along the wall until I found the perfect place and then I set up like a boxer in a ring. A fierce storm raged outside and yet I’d captured it inside. I chose my punches carefully and let the feeling of my fists against stone re-awaken my faith.
-RKnell
November 7, 2014 — 1:37 PM
Toni J says:
I’m in a weird mood.
Hank was hurt hanging hyacinths. Perhaps poisoned petals painted him purple? Medics mulled over murder, while Mary made for Mexico.
November 7, 2014 — 1:40 PM
Liam Hayes says:
Haha. Brilliant.
November 7, 2014 — 2:01 PM
Brenda (sleepingseeker) says:
Oh no! I loved it! The alliteration was awesome!
November 7, 2014 — 2:14 PM
smkay70 says:
Okay, that was just awesome!
November 7, 2014 — 8:31 PM
Walterburgle (Ward Weatherford) says:
Awesome alliteration.
November 8, 2014 — 12:13 PM
Taylor Johnson says:
Perfect! Love it
November 9, 2014 — 12:30 AM
Hugo Nue says:
As a kid I’d wait for the predawn and sneak through the house with my toy pistol ready.
In the academy my nickname was “Ghost Gun”.
Tonight one hand wraps my rosary; the other, my Glock as I enter the Pope’s room.
November 7, 2014 — 1:44 PM
Ashlee Jade says:
Badass! I love it.
November 8, 2014 — 4:58 AM
Hugo Nue says:
Thank you!
November 9, 2014 — 1:12 AM
Trevor Johnson says:
Hellz yah..I wanna know WTF behind someone wanting the pope dead and how it plays out.
November 13, 2014 — 2:50 AM
Ashley Morgan says:
His eyes rolled and gnashed against the base of the tree. A misjudged uncalculated swoop and his leg was in tears. A poor conclusion with a humbling verdict, he lay dying there, ironic.
November 7, 2014 — 2:08 PM
Deanmcsmith says:
The Shinigami
The dog looked up at me as I walked past, his muzzle buried deep within his paws. His owner, a homeless man with a guitar and face that had traveled further than the years on his driving licence glanced at me, brief recognition flaring behind drink stained eyes. It would have been a mercy to stop and end his sorrow, but I take no man before his time.
November 7, 2014 — 2:08 PM
dianadiehl1 says:
All around the Brobdingnagian craft of the winged alien, clusters of curious onlookers fell in heaps like rag dolls. “But how?” cried out one scientist. The alien fixed the crumpled woman with its beatific gaze and said,”We built a backdoor into your DNA.”
November 7, 2014 — 2:08 PM
serendipitousmc says:
Really like that last sentence. So much possibility there.
November 8, 2014 — 11:01 AM
Jeff Lovering says:
Three Weeks a Lifetime
They had met through shared friends and almost immediately gave into lustful appetites.
The intensity continued on into the next week, but as it passed so did their passion.
Seven more days would have seen an end but instead reveled the prospect of a new beginning.
November 7, 2014 — 2:14 PM
dianadiehl1 says:
Wait! I must read directions. You said “short.” Revised:
Everywhere people collapsed like rag dolls. A scientist gasped, “How?” The alien replied, “The backdoor we built into your DNA.”
November 7, 2014 — 2:21 PM
boydstun215 says:
When Simon didn’t come home last night, I knew that was the end. The change had been so quick that none of us had time to prepare, to ready ourselves for what would come next. So now we just waited, huddled behind walls that were too thin, clutching weapons that were too small, whispering prayers that were too late.
November 7, 2014 — 3:23 PM
tedra says:
So much can be inferred. I love this dearly.
November 7, 2014 — 4:10 PM
Trevor Johnson says:
I agree with tedra. Personally, I picture something along the lines of Jews in hiding. Very nicely done..
November 13, 2014 — 2:55 AM
Joe H. says:
She was born to the sound of fiddles and dancing. At her coronation, brazen fanfares. She was laid to rest to the sound of a heartbreaking requiem.
November 7, 2014 — 3:43 PM
tedra says:
That has so much emotion in it. Job well done.
November 7, 2014 — 4:11 PM
smkay70 says:
Simple and lovely.
November 7, 2014 — 8:32 PM
ditanoelani says:
His hands fit into mine perfectly. She saw that. Now our hands no longer fit.
November 7, 2014 — 3:57 PM
Jeff Lovering says:
“Where’s my money bitch?”, screamed Pauli as he repeatedly bashed the man’s head into the floor. He felt angry, he felt rage, but what he didn’t feel was the man pull his own gun from its holster. A moment later and money was the last thing on his mind.
November 7, 2014 — 4:00 PM
Brandon O'Brien says:
They came out of the sky not like angels or aliens but like great rusted ships left adrift. They spoke all of our languages. Now we speak all of theirs.
November 7, 2014 — 4:03 PM
tedra says:
This made me laugh. I don’t know if that was the desired effect but I thought it was brilliant.
November 7, 2014 — 4:18 PM
Brandon O'Brien says:
Thanks!
November 7, 2014 — 4:24 PM
tedra says:
Mr. Alexander watched her walk away, imagining the the sound of her heels through the rain, the smack of matching red lips as she popped her gum. Death was following her and she knew, just like he did, but what she didn’t know, was that life always had a way of coming back. This is what he told himself as he matched her steps stride for stride.
November 7, 2014 — 4:06 PM
Hugo Nue says:
I like this!
November 7, 2014 — 6:50 PM
tedra says:
Thanks so much!
November 8, 2014 — 4:30 PM
Kai says:
My ribs creaked, a barn door jammed against a brick.
I couldn’t breathe. So I stopped trying.
November 7, 2014 — 4:23 PM
WTF Pancakes says:
When they met, she said she’d give him everything he could ever desire. When she left him, she said it was hopeless, that she could never satisfy him.
“That was all I ever wanted in the first place.”
November 7, 2014 — 4:33 PM
Dan says:
They met over artisan whiskeys in a bar that had once been a dentist’s office. With little to go on, she thought he could be kind to her, safe enough in his own skin to teach her to live safely in her own. It broke apart years later, amid tears and pleas and a final, raging silence, on the floor of a hollow space that had once been a whiskey bar.
November 7, 2014 — 4:57 PM
Christopher Dow says:
An incomprehensible spark of desire caused his existence. His entire life seemed to be controlled by that same phenomenon. He then left this world, a victim of his very creation.
November 7, 2014 — 5:01 PM
Tsara says:
It seemed an impossible feat, and yet they kept coming. Three sentence stories of every style and taste. I’d had my fill yet with uncharacteristic selfishness kept coming back for more, devouring every word and giving back nothing.
November 7, 2014 — 6:02 PM
Mike says:
Whoa! Do i like this.
November 7, 2014 — 6:33 PM
Tsara says:
Why, thank ya Mike! Though it isn’t fiction, which means I can describe my day in only three sentences. I’m not sure if I need to get a life or if I’m impressively succinct! tee hee!
November 10, 2014 — 9:38 AM
Rory J Cole says:
I open a vein and scrawl you a message, using my tendons as a sensitive brush. “I’ll be gone by the morning. Please feed the cat.”
November 7, 2014 — 6:18 PM
Jessica Ruprecht says:
The story of a lifetime:
I cried. I laughed. I died.
November 7, 2014 — 7:03 PM
Valerie says:
He said he’d die without me. I didn’t answer. Now he can’t.
November 7, 2014 — 7:13 PM
Walterburgle (Ward Weatherford) says:
Whoops.
November 8, 2014 — 12:15 PM
Maggie says:
I didn’t think it would hurt when I fell for you, but now I’m falling again and I can’t believe how wrong I’ve been. I’ve told people all my life that when you hit the ground the pain is gone, and I really hope I’m right this time.
It would kill me to die a liar.
November 7, 2014 — 7:35 PM
Valerie says:
The sun rises, a warm kiss. The sun falls, a cool, trembling hand. The sun is gone, a harsh, cold stone.
Sorry, I wanted to do a second one for fun 😛
November 7, 2014 — 7:36 PM
Walterburgle (Ward Weatherford) says:
He said this. She said that. It was over.
November 7, 2014 — 8:06 PM
Phabienne says:
You’ll never know how much it hurts until it happens to you. Darkness surrounded, Emptiness settling, Lifeless and Sad. You’ll never know how much it hurts, until it happens to you.
November 7, 2014 — 8:06 PM
Bob Bois says:
Her dead child sent her to Kodiak.
Mama bears hustled their cubs away from her all that summer.
Naked and cold, she chased the bears through whitewater, yelling, “Look at me, look at me, god damn you!”
November 7, 2014 — 8:09 PM
Mike says:
Yep!
November 7, 2014 — 8:45 PM
Jeremy says:
They say every story has a starting and ending. Bullshit. Where was my child’s start?
November 7, 2014 — 9:11 PM
david mobbs says:
The crocodile head sat on the surface of the water. Through many summers, winters and springs it stayed tethered to it’s rope. That crocodile head was the best thing Mohamed ever bought on ebay.
November 7, 2014 — 9:25 PM
david mobbs says:
Douh. I should have started with ‘A’ crocodile head….
November 7, 2014 — 9:34 PM
Kiyakiy says:
They said I wouldn’t make it through the forest. I entered, unafraid. The forest was beautiful, so I never left.
November 7, 2014 — 10:07 PM
Mike says:
Wonderful twist.
November 8, 2014 — 7:18 AM
Charles says:
I ran straight into the cage, the fucking vertical-turn-it-yourself mantrap that’s the exit for so many travelers of our fine mass transit system. Hand on the curved rod and pushing, clink, my weapon hits the floor and the turnstile is stuck; they’d put a rail spike in the maiden to stop the spin. I’d made my peace over past weeks and, bending down then looking up, seeing the hollow dark eyes, the crazy bastard grins cast in shadows from the submerged go and stop lights, I picked up my piece, put it under my chin, and gently retired.
November 7, 2014 — 10:39 PM
Glen Donaldson says:
I won’t dance with you. No reply comes, only footsteps slinking away. Still, I love their hurting rhythm.
November 7, 2014 — 10:47 PM
sofiagrey1 says:
The chick sitting opposite him on the train was crying, and Joe stared at the giant tears that tracked down her face. As he watched, unable to tear his eyes away, she wrenched a diamond solitaire from her finger and in a rapid, twisting movement, hurled it from the window.
“Um, whoever he is, he’s an asshole,” Joe murmured, “but we’re not all like that.”
November 7, 2014 — 11:23 PM
shadowedbreath says:
“Hickory dickory dock”- His last words are a nursery rhyme as the timer stops, then the sound of gasping and the silenced ticking clock. His lips part, in slight relief before the world explodes suddenly in singeing white – drowning him in flame. She smiles, watching beyond the glass reveling in the look of morbid surprise on his now charred face as the magicked words failed him.
November 8, 2014 — 12:07 AM
EleanorStars90 says:
A virus kills social networks. Young people in despair roam around cities, screaming for likes and comments, until they too were killed by the virus. The virus’ name is maturity.
November 8, 2014 — 3:52 AM
Ashlee Jade says:
She awakes restrained and confused. The knife flashes in the firelight as it draws precious blood from her heart. With the life of an innocent, the gateway is finally opening.
November 8, 2014 — 5:11 AM
serendipitousmc says:
From the path leading up to the castle, he could hear the anguished screams and cries of his wife.
He doubled the speed of his clumsy gait, desperate to reach her, and then flung open the door to bellow her name and wait, not breathing until her voice exploded in the darkness.
“I’M LATE!” roared Mrs. Frankenstein.
November 8, 2014 — 10:34 AM
Ronit Jadhav says:
They always said he was weird. Then, one day, he figure it out. When she awoke, she was happier than ever.
November 8, 2014 — 10:58 AM
craig211 says:
He finished the last tequila shot and staggered to the door. He knew she had to be out there in the darkness somewhere, probably with the remnants of his heart in her Coach purse. Alone at 2:15 a.m. on a Tuesday he began the long walk back to a home that he knew would be empty.
November 8, 2014 — 11:35 AM
RivkahRaven says:
He would see her face, a pale, wistful oval, distorted a little by the wavy kitchen window glass, staring toward the barn where he worked long on his paintings – until one day it wasn’t there any more. As his hands, bent with arthritis now, cleaned his brushes for the last time, he looked toward the kitchen window- wishing for that face. He would tell her he had been wrong- he was sorry – life comes before art.
November 8, 2014 — 11:38 AM
Mark McLemore says:
(2nd entry, since I reread the contest post by Chuck. I just had too.)
The rules were vaguely clear. Write three short sentences, the shorter the better. Winners picked at random.
November 8, 2014 — 12:37 PM