Tag: fiction (page 12 of 17)

Okay, last week’s challenge — “The Flea Market” — requires you crazy kids to get over there and vote for your favorite starting today, and ending tomorrow (Saturday, we’ll say noon EST). Easy enough to pick your favorite: in the comments, just write the author’s name and the story name. Participation in the challenge is not required for voting — voting is open to anybody.

As you may have seen this week, I offered up 25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters.

And now, I want you to do exactly that.

Your task is to write a flash fiction piece wherein the protagonist of that piece is subject to some manner or method of torment, trial, and torture. It’s your job to put that character through the wringer, whether that be physical, emotional, spiritual, moral, or some combination of the bunch. I want you to fuck with and fuck up that protagonist. I want to care deeply about that character and feel every sting and barb.

Limit: 1000 words.

So, get in there, and do your worst.

You’ve got one week. Challenge ends Friday, August 12th, at noon EST.

This time, I’ll pick one random winner from the entrants. That entrant will get all three of my e-books in PDF format. Maybe that excites you. Maybe it elicits throw-up noises. Either way: them’s the deals.

You know the drill. Post the fiction at your blog. Link back here. Point us to your story in the comments.

Have fun by making sure your protagonist does not.

Go forth and torment.

Last week’s challenge — “That’s Right, I Said ‘Unicorn’” — earned an incredible response, and you can check out those stories at the link.

So, I did a quick thing on Google+ yesterday where I had people list possible options for today’s challenge — and Brooke Johnson came up with the idea of a flea market, and the strange things you might find there. I remember once I found a photograph of the Devil. For real. I mean, okay, it was a goofy looking guy from the 1960s in a spandex Devil suit — waxed mustache, poochy pot belly, delicate calves — but hey, it counts.

And it was autographed. Seriously. It was signed, “The Devil.”

You don’t have to write about the Devil. Just write about something you might find at a flea market. Something strange. Wonderful. Or dangerous. As magical or mundane as you see fit, long as it’s got a story.

Any genre will do. This is suited toward speculative, but crime or horror or any of that will play well here.

You again have 1000 words.

Due here by Friday, August 5th at noon EST.

Once again, I’m going to give away free e-books.

Top five get a choice of one of my three DIY releases.

However, there’s a catch — I won’t be picking them.

You will.

Starting Friday the 5th at 12:01 EST, you will have 24 hours to choose your favorite of the bunch. All you have to do is comment with the name of the author and his/her story in the comments. The top five chosen favorites are the thumbs-up high-five ichiban winners. You can’t pick your own. Because that’s jerky.

Standard stuff applies. Post at your blog. Link back here. Point us to your blog in the comments on this page. Go forth and dig deep into the flea market, see what kinds of crazy shit your mind finds.

A couple quick follow-up notes, though: a suggestion to those who host stories at your blogs. It helps if those stories are a) readable and b) open to comments. Not critical, but you’ll get more mileage out of a blog whose font isn’t tiny, whose text isn’t bright white on dark black, whose comment section is open to those who want to offer kudos or insight.

Have at it, bargain shoppers.

Last week’s challenge — “An Uncharted Apocalypse” — had some amazing stories, so you should go check ’em out. I’m going to take the weekend pick my favorite five and then toss those five folks a copy of my newest e-book, 250 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WRITING.

I like unicorns.

I mean, not in the sense that I have hundreds of unicorn collectibles on my shelves — *hurries to drop a blanket over my shelves* — it’s just, dang, unicorns crack me up. A pretty white horse with a big horn sticking out of his head and, boom, that’s it. Instant mythological favorite the world around. It’s an absurd animal.

Real reason I talk about unicorns so much — *quick runs to tear down wall of unicorn posters — is that the “unicorn” represents that kind of bullshit special snowflake precious writer mystique, right? The same people who believe a glittery Muse is going to fill their heads with hot notions are the same people who probably believe a unicorn is how babies are made.

Unicorns are just really weird and really goofy.

*darts to closet, slams door before you can see the unicorn cosplay outfits*

Anyway.

Thus, it seems high time to have a unicorn-themed flash fiction challenge.

I want you to incorporate the unicorn into your 1000-word story.

I don’t care how, but you get bonus points for thinking creatively or doing something different with the creature that we haven’t seen or don’t otherwise expect. Bring some attitude to it.

Any genre will do.

You’ve got one week. Friday, July 29th, by noon EST.

Get on it.

Oh! And this week, I’ll pick one favorite.

That favorite will get all three of my e-books.

Peace in the Middle East, yo.

Last week’s challenge — “The Lady And The Swordsman” — demands your eyeballs.

The Apocalypse.

The end of the world. The end of days. The end times.

Armageddeon Ragnarok 2012, blah blah blah.

We know how the Apocalypse comes, how it all ends. Meteors, tsunamis, earthquakes, plague. It’s been done a thousand times before. Nobody’s really bringing anything new to the apocalyptic table.

Oh, except you.

Here’s your task: I want to see flash fiction set in a very unconventional, never-before-seen apocalypse. A Create Your Own End Times kinda story. Get as creative as you want. I want the world to end — or be in the middle of ending — in a way we’ve never seen before.

In this story, we want the characters to say, “Whoa, we didn’t see that coming.”

Humor, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, tragedy, literary, whatever. Go nuts.

Once again: 1000 words and one week to fill them. Get your tales done by Friday, July 22nd at noon EST. Post them at your blog, then share the link here in the comments.

Tell us how the world ends, will you?

Oh — and this week, we’ve got prizes again. This time, I’m going to pick my five favorite and toss them a PDF copy of my as-yet-unreleased e-book, 250 Things You Should Know About Writing, which is a collection of ten (well, technically eleven, shut up) of my 25 Things lists from this site.

Now: unveil the end of days as only you can write it.

EDIT:

Okay. Jinkies. I finally got through all the stories.

And I’ve picked my five.

It was difficult. I had about ten I really liked, but had to really carve ’em up.

Here, then, are the five —

Samantha J. Mathis

http://samanthajmathis.tumblr.com/post/7670809842/candy-coated-chaos

Brian Buckley

http://briandbuckley.com/2011/07/21/flash-fiction-scissors-with-running/

C.M. Stewart

http://cmstewartwrite.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/grey-goo-flash-fiction-plus-science-fact/

Albert Berg

http://unsanityfiles.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/salt-of-the-earth/

And Sean Riley!

http://jackslack.tumblr.com/post/7838270330/flash-fiction-challenge-shard-of-heaven

You guys, bounce me a message at terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com or use the contact form here at the site and I’ll get you “250 Things You Should Know About Writing.”

Last week’s challenge — “The Fourth Of July” — demands your reading eyes.

It’s another photo-based flash fiction challenge.

Look at that photo above.

Write 1000 words based off whatever that picture calls to mind inside the crazy teacup that is your skull.

Any genre will do.

As always: you’ve one week to complete this. Friday, 7/15, by noon EST.

Post at your blog.

Drop a link below.

Link back here if you’re so inclined.

And that’s that.

Get to writing.

Oh — wait.

One more thing.

Everybody still enjoying these challenges? Want to make sure that you’re all into them. Further, if you’ve any requests or suggestions, you know my ears are peeled back, the earholes ready to receive your wisdom.

(Further, I’ll add that above, “Swordsman” may be inaccurate — that masked individual looks to be wearing a woman’s blouse, so excuse any sexism implicit in the title. I just thought it had a nice flow. You don’t even need to cling to either of those ideas — just use the picture as your springboard toward awesome fiction.)

Go write, gods-damnit.

Check out last week’s players in the “Sub-Genre Mash-Up.”

Monday’s the Fourth of July. In this country, that means grilled meats, flag-waving, fire-crackers, humidity, parades, patriotism, picnics, baseball, families, and so on, and so forth.

It’s a day of celebration.

But fiction, well. Fiction likes a taste of the dark stuff. Fiction seeks to subvert happiness with a foul tincture of darkness. That, then, is your task for this week. Take the Fourth of July and muddy it up.

The flash fiction must be set on the Fourth of July.

This is a good challenge for horror or crime fiction, I think. Less so for fantasy and sci-fi, but if you think you can make it work, do it. Just be sure you show how long the shadows are on this hot summer holiday.

Once again: 1000 words.

Post it on your blog, and link back here, then make sure to let us know in the comments where to look for the fiction. You’ve got a week. Closing up shop Friday, July 8th, at 12 noon EST.

Load up them bottle rockets.

Jump into the pool.

Tell the grillmaster how you like your burger.

And be sure to hide the bodies.