Last week’s challenge: Who The Fuck Is My D&D Character?
As I have noted in the past, I love that some writers describe their stories — usually in an elevator pitch or to sell the story to an agent, editor or reader — as “THIS STORY meets THAT STORY.” Right? “Oh,” the writer says, “It’s like CATCHER IN THE RYE meets SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS.” And you’re like, whoa, what the fuck does that even mean.
Today, we are going to find out.
Below, you’ll find two columns, each of 20 different fairly well-known properties.
You will randomly choose one from each column either by d20 or random number generator.
Then you will literally fill in the variables of the equation:
IT’S LIKE X MEETS Y.
And you will write the resultant story.
You have — let’s go with 2000 words this time around.
Write the story. Post on your blog or online space. Drop a link here so we can all read it. The stories will be due and ready one week from now — next Friday at noon EST.
Note: your goal is not to literally mash these up in fan-fiction (though I suppose if that’s where your head goes, hey, I can’t stop you) — the goal is to take the idea, the spirit of the combination and make them into a story all your own. What is the theoretical mash-up look like and feel like? Diggit? So, what’s the story like if you get: “It’s like HARRY POTTER meets INDIANA JONES?” Or, “It’s like GAME OF THRONES meets SCOOBY DOO.”
Smash them together, see what original story squishes out.
Ready? Set? Write.
COLUMN X
- Terminator
- Seinfeld
- Lord of the Rings
- When Harry Met Sally
- Jurassic Park
- Watership Down
- The Matrix
- John Carpenter’s The Thing
- James Bond
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Transformers
- Harry Potter
- Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
- Fast and the Furious
- Being John Malkovich
- Frozen
- Top Gun
- Rambo
- Game of Thrones
- The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
COLUMN Y
- Star Wars
- True Detective
- True Grit
- Toy Story
- Die Hard
- Scooby Doo
- Friday the 13th
- The Avengers
- Star Trek
- 50 Shades of Grey
- Super Mario Brothers
- Indiana Jones
- Alice in Wonderland
- Twilight
- Jaws
- Titanic
- Back to the Future
- The Godfather
- Charlotte’s Web
- The Hunger Games
Pavowski says:
“Frozen” meets “The Avengers.”
I took the mash-up a little bit more literally than perhaps the challenge is meant to be taken, but I don’t care. I had more fun writing this than anything I’ve written in recent months. I even forgot we had 2000 words and kept it short and snappy.
Here’s Cold Fury, in 960 words.
https://pavorisms.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/cold-fury
January 18, 2015 — 11:20 PM
Ada Ireland says:
* takes a deep breath and steels herself for the next flash fiction challenge *
* wonders what kind of beast born warrior or interplanetary conflict she has to write about now *
* finally reads this week’s challenge and almost chokes with disbelief: When Harry Met Sally? Twilight? WHAT THE HECK??? Finally something that a romance writer can work with??? *
* throws guilty looks at the voodoo doll she ordered from Amazon; it bears an eerie resemblance to Chuck *
* does a quick search for “how to safely dispose of voodoo dolls that are no longer needed” *
* looks back to the challenge and prays to Aphrodite that she’d roll a 9 and 14 *
* brings out her loaded dice just in case *
* Sweet Cupid!!! It worked! “James Bond” meets “Twilight” it is! *
January 19, 2015 — 2:29 AM
Ada Ireland says:
I’m cheating right now since my piece is not done yet. Major crisis of the heart with all dramatic bells and crisis made it impossible for me to focus. Still, here’s the link for where my story will be … tomorrow.
http://unashamedwriting.com/james-bond-meets-twilight-flash-fiction/
January 23, 2015 — 11:57 AM
Samantha Millea says:
I got Game of Thrones meets Friday the 13th, I’m already thinking no one comes out alive in this one lol
January 19, 2015 — 12:19 PM
S.Stars says:
Haha. That’s what I thought too. I look forward to it!
January 20, 2015 — 12:52 AM
Casondra Brewster says:
The Matrix meets The Hunger Games. I like the grit that allows. Here we go….
January 19, 2015 — 2:33 PM
S.Stars says:
I rolled 3 and 12. It’s The Lord of the Rings meets Indiana Jones!
Great! Haha. It’s a little over 2000 words. Here it is. Cheers!
“Found but Lost”
http://shootin-stars.jimdo.com/flash-fiction/
January 20, 2015 — 12:38 AM
john freeter says:
The Matrix meets Fifty Shades of Grey. I’m really sorry, but since I already wrote the thing, well….
https://johnfreeter.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/fifty-shades-of-matrix/
January 20, 2015 — 2:55 PM
Rebecca Douglass says:
LOL!
January 22, 2015 — 10:45 PM
Layla Lawlor says:
I got …. Top Gun meets Super Mario Brothers.
I admit that my first reaction was “HELP! DO-OVER!” … but then I thought, no, I can do this! And I did manage to write 2000 words of it. For extra bonus fun, there’s even an illustration!
http://laylalawlor.com/wordpress/blog/2015/01/20/flash-fiction-mission-savepoint-beta/
January 20, 2015 — 6:33 PM
Dae says:
LotR meets … 50 Shades. Oh dear. xD
January 20, 2015 — 8:12 PM
CJ says:
And it turns out Frozen meets the Godfather was a great premise to play with a subplot of my novel. Although a straight Elsa as the Godfather would have been pretty fun (who says their parents’ deaths were accidents?) buttt I had more fun remembering just why one of my queens is a bit crazy.
Sisterly Love – http://imagination.cjreader.com
January 21, 2015 — 11:50 AM
mckkenzie says:
Noticing that the two of us so far who had to write 50 Shades mashups went for humor. It’s our only defense!!
January 21, 2015 — 3:43 PM
john freeter says:
Definitely. At least for me it seemed like the way to go, since I don’t know much about fifty shades. Good job on avoiding the fan-fiction trap, though. I really liked how your story ended.
January 21, 2015 — 8:31 PM
mckkenzie says:
Thanks! I did not read the book, so I was kind of at a loss. Got all my quotes from a Daily Beast article listing the “14 Naughtiest Bits” of the book. Ugh!!
January 22, 2015 — 2:42 PM
mckkenzie says:
Oh and Wikipedia, of course!
January 22, 2015 — 2:52 PM
Alister Davison says:
Top Gun meets True Detective.
http://mister-alister.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/flash-fiction-challenge-its-x-meets-y.html
January 22, 2015 — 4:50 PM
Henry says:
I pulled Transformers meets Toy Story, so of course I ended up with a western horror with hints of sci-fi and some magical girl-esque figures (though not before despairing, re-rolling, and then ditching my re-rolls out of stubbornness). I think it works.
http://fistfulofwits.com/2015/01/22/flash-fiction-trouble-close-behind/
January 22, 2015 — 6:50 PM
smkay70 says:
Harry Potter meets Scooby-Doo. I went over the word count, but this is what I got:
http://sabrakay.com/flash-fiction-friday-ruh-roh-shaggy/
January 22, 2015 — 7:37 PM
Matthew X. Gomez says:
Okay, so I got Top Gun meets Star Wars and give you “Dancing with Lightning.”
https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/dancing-with-lightning-a-chuck-wending-challenge/
Slightly over word count, but hey, who’s really counting here?
January 22, 2015 — 9:23 PM
aspeed says:
I got Harry Potter meets True Detective. And I threw in some Lovecraft, because why not? http://andreaspeed.com/2015/flash-fic-challenge-dark-at-heart/
January 22, 2015 — 10:28 PM
Rebecca Douglass says:
I cheated a bit to get something I could do without a lot of research (I realized that there are a lot of those things I know of, but don’t know). The 3rd roll got me…James Bond meets Alice in Wonderland. I darned near wrote that just as it lay–can you imagine the meeting?
http://www.ninjalibrarian.com/2015/01/friday-flash-call-me-nails.html
January 22, 2015 — 10:42 PM
Jemima Pett says:
Same here!
January 23, 2015 — 4:49 AM
momdude says:
I rolled a seven and an eighteen, so “It’s just like ‘The Matrix’ meets ‘The Godfather’!”
http://pauljwillett.com/2015/01/22/flash-fiction-the-sysop/
January 23, 2015 — 2:49 AM
Jemima Pett says:
I got James Bond meets Toy Story, and then realised Toy Story IS James Bond – isn’t it? Anyway, this is how I got out of it…
jemimapett.com/blog/2015/01/23/flash-fiction-friday-a-covert-assignment/
January 23, 2015 — 4:51 AM
Jemima Pett says:
or a clickable link: http://jemimapett.com/blog/2015/01/23/flash-fiction-friday-a-covert-assignment/
January 23, 2015 — 4:53 AM
Anthony Karcz says:
I got “It’s like Game of Thrones meets Scooby Doo!” I had way too much fun with this one. So much, in fact, I have at least another 2,000 words in me to finish the story. For now, here’s the first 2k (link goes live at 8 AM EST):
http://www.thetailthehead.com/2015/01/flash-fiction-challenge-collectors.html
January 23, 2015 — 6:15 AM
crow365 says:
I rolled “Jurassic Park” and “Charlotte’s Web” and came up with “For Freedom”: http://nickegelhoff.com/2015/01/23/flash-fiction-challenge-its-x-meets-y/
January 23, 2015 — 8:04 AM
ikmercurio says:
“Jurassic Park” meets “Indiana Jones”! This was fun. I called it, “Mummies ALIVE!”
http://ishtamercurio.blogspot.ca/2015/01/flash-fiction-jurassic-park-meets.html
January 23, 2015 — 10:33 AM
nadiaorenes says:
I was really happy with the first combination I got, so I went on with it:
It’s Jurassic Park meets The Hunger Games!
http://nadiaorenes.es/blog_en/2015/01/jurassic-park-meets-hunger-games/
January 23, 2015 — 10:56 AM
Marshall Sutton says:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VChFgMnegj8F8D5U92-BrY0QGCOM7dbBb-SO-LvPxXo/edit?usp=sharing
Titanic meets Lord of the Rings. Something gets thrown into a pool of liquid never to be seen again.
January 23, 2015 — 11:58 AM
Marshall Sutton says:
Didn’t read the rules. Mine is more of a straight up mash up.
January 23, 2015 — 12:08 PM