{"id":12892,"date":"2012-02-17T07:15:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-17T12:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=12892"},"modified":"2012-02-17T07:15:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-17T12:15:02","slug":"flash-fiction-challenge-making-a-sandwich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2012\/02\/17\/flash-fiction-challenge-making-a-sandwich\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Fiction Challenge: Making A Sandwich"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week’s challenge — “The Unlikable Protagonist<\/strong><\/span><\/a>” — filled up with some of my favorite entries to date. Go and read the stories from that challenge — you’ll find them interesting, I suspect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday, I interviewed author James R. Tuck and Tuck said something<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that stuck with me:<\/p>\n

“You can write a whole page on a character making a sandwich and if you do it right it will be gripping and compelling. Have your character make a banana and mayonnaise sandwich while they discuss killing someone, or divorcing their husband, or sleeping with their girlfriend for the first time. You can turn that sandwich into a load of character detail.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I thought, well, shit, that’s true.<\/p>\n

Every scene has to be infused with drama and conflict — you have to make every moment count, even if it’s just a guy making a sandwich or a girl squatting out in a field during a long road trip to take a piss.<\/p>\n

Then<\/em> I thought — hey, this should be a flash fiction challenge<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And so it is.<\/p>\n

You have up to 1000 words to write a story — not a scene, but a story — where a character makes a sandwich. Any kind of character, any kind of sandwich, but the point is to infuse this seemingly mundane act<\/em> with the magic story-stuff of drama<\/em> and conflict<\/em>. Make it the most interesting “person-making-a-sandwich” story you can possibly<\/em> make it. It needs to grip the testicles. It must twist the nipples. It must not let go.<\/p>\n

That’s your task.<\/p>\n

Same details apply: you’ve got one week (ends 2\/24 at noon EST). Post story at your blog or webspace and link back here so we can all swing by and have a little looky-see.<\/p>\n

Now get cracking.<\/p>\n

Make that sandwich. Write that story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have up to 1000 words to write a story — not a scene, but a story — where a character makes a sandwich. Any kind of character, any kind of sandwich, but the point is to infuse this seemingly mundane act with the magic story-stuff of drama and conflict. Make it the most interesting “person-making-a-sandwich” story you can possibly make it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71],"class_list":{"0":"post-12892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","7":"tag-fiction","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-3lW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12892"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12895,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12892\/revisions\/12895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}