Flash Fiction Challenge: The Randomized Title Rears Its Head


Last week’s challenge: Holiday Horror!

I love the random title challenge.

I love it so much I wanna hug it.

I wanna hug it so much it explodes.

Anyway.

Way it works is this: you pick one from the two columns of 20 either by using a d20 die or a random number generator, and smooshing the word from Column One with the word from Column Two gets you a title. (You can modify that title slightly by putting “The” in front of it or making the title plural or possessive in some way.) You write the story — we’ll say 1500 words max this time around. Then you post it at your online space and drop a link here so we can all read it. Due by next Friday, noon EST.

Get it? Got it? Great.

Column One

  1. Skyborn
  2. Murderer’s
  3. Cocktail
  4. Night
  5. Dead
  6. Obliterated
  7. Heaven’s
  8. Thirteenth
  9. White
  10. Armored
  11. Wrong
  12. Daniel’s
  13. A Song For
  14. Screaming
  15. The Oathkeeper’s
  16. The Day of the
  17. Bleeding
  18. God’s Own
  19. Ghostly
  20. Endless

Column Two

  1. Inkwell
  2. Treasure
  3. Waitress
  4. Keeper
  5. Bird
  6. Corps
  7. Traveler
  8. Padlock
  9. Comet
  10. Elf
  11. Starfish
  12. Medallion
  13. Absinthe
  14. Rats
  15. Reason
  16. Crusade
  17. Nebula
  18. Screwdriver
  19. Snowflake
  20. Forge

152 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Randomized Title Rears Its Head”

    • Good fun, all the way through. It might use a little…tightening? I’d have to go line-by-line to find where it wanders, but the voice and tone are dead-on. Thanks!

  1. Heavens’s Inkwell. That sounds just right for my asteroid miners Pete and the Swede. You’ll have to wait till next Friday for it, though!

    • This was an intriguing short piece with some beautiful sensory detail. It also really made me want to learn the “before” and “after” of your main character’s story. Thanks for sharing!

  2. I used my daughters as random number generators and ended up with two titles. That’s what happens when you have three kids and a husband who want a turn at choosing a number between 1 and 20.

    The titles are: “Screaming Snowflake” and “Endless Medallion”.

    I foresee no problem coming up with some good piece of flash fiction. After all:

    1. I’m a romance writer who has just started writing. Those lists of words seem perfectly suited for romance … not.
    2. I didn’t even know what flash fiction really was until today. When I first read that term it made me think it was some kind of NC-17 rated, steamy writing. That’s why I got excited about the challenge. 🙂

    Enough complaining. Time for some writing. Out of the sci-fi/fantasy suited titles, a beautiful romance … or two … shall come forth.

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