UPDATED WITH WINNER: LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown: July Edition
Flash Fiction: A style of fictional literature marked by extreme brevity - Dante Edition
Welcome to LitReactor's Flash Fiction Smackdown, a monthly bout of writing prowess.
How It Works
We give you inspiration in the form of a picture, poem, video, or similar. You write a flash fiction piece, using the inspiration we gave you. Put your entry in the comments section. One winner will be picked and awarded a prize.
The Rules
- 25 words is the limit. (You can write less, but you can't write more.)
- The whole story must only be 2 sentences. No more. No less.
- It can be any genre.
- Give it a title (not included in the word count, but keep it under 10 words).
- We're not exactly shy, but let's stay away from senseless racism or violence.
- One entry per person.
- Editing your entry after you submit it is permitted.
- We'll pick a winner on the last day of the month.
- LitReactor staffers can't win, but are encouraged to participate.
- All stories submitted on or before July 30 will be considered. We'll run the winner on July 31.
This Month's Prize
An Advanced Reading Copy of Chuck Palahniuk's upcoming novel Doomed (which doesn't come out until October!) It's a follow-up to the popular Damned. Here's a teaser for ya from Amazon.com:
Madison Spencer, the liveliest, snarkiest dead girl in the universe, continues the adventures in the afterlife begun in Damned. Having somewhat reluctantly escaped from Hell, she now wanders the Purgatory that is Earth as a ghostly spirit, seeking her do-gooding celebrity parents, fighting the malign control of Satan, recounting the disgracefully funny (to us, anyway) encounter with her grandfather in a fetid highway rest stop in upstate New York when she . . . oh, never mind, and climaxing in a rendezvous with destiny on the new, totally plastic continent in the Pacific called, not at all accidentally, Madlantis.
Dante Aligheri, watch your back, Chuck Palahniuk is gaining on you.
Your Inspiration
Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed
To form the angelic butterfly, that goes
To judgment, leaving all defence behind?
Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,
Since ye, disabled, are as insects, mean
As worm which never transformation knows?
from Dante's Purgatorio.
Now Get Writing!
And the winner is ...Barry G
This was a really hard choice, but, as always, I had to go with my gut. Barry G's entry is succinct, clever, and makes great use of the one-two punch that makes the short, short fiction genre work. He also worked in the themes of worms and doom quite well without going over the top. Here's his winning entry:
The worm that knows
“Today, I shall soar like a butterfly”, mused Jeff, poking his head through the dew-drenched earth. The early bird, swooping upon him, cawed in agreement.
That said...
You guys must really like Chuck, because there were 90 ENTRIES --the most ever in the Flash Fiction Smackdown. There were many that I loved for different reasons, and that made me wish I had more books to hand out as prizes. In a Flash Fiction Smackdown first, I would like to extend honorable mentions to two other entrants who made my choice that much harder.
From Charlie McFarland
Anti-Climactic:
The second sentence will be much better than the first.
I'm as disappointed as you are.
From jyh
Poet's Purgatory, Terrace Four: Enjambment
Thanks to all for making this a really hard choice!
Column by Taylor Houston
Taylor Houston is a genuine Word Nerd living in Portland, OR where she works as a technical writer and volunteers on the marketing committee for Wordstock, a local organization dedicated to writing education. She has a BA in Creative Writing and Spanish from Hamilton College and attended Penn State's MFA program in Creative Nonfiction. She has taught writing at all levels from middle school to college to adult, and she is the creator of Writer’s Cramp, a class for adults who just want to write!
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Comments
The Blade That Seeps
She held the knife dripping red in one hand while looking at him. The discreet sound of slicing a steak.
The Crimson Dragon Lord
The Inn’s patrons suddenly silent, stunned by their sudden arrival, bloodied and soaked from the rain. Victory remained theirs as the dragon lord was dead.
Coma
It's been years since i've slept well, haunted by the guilt of living. Apathy carries me by the silent nights, laughing of what i've become.
Anti-Climactic:
The second sentence will be much better than the first.
I'm as disappointed as you are.
John
Disgusted, he watched the world out the window - men overdosing, women pickpocketing, children starving. Dropping $20 on the nightstand, he rushed to meet his wife.
John
Disgusted, he watched the world out the window - men overdosing, women pickpocketing, children starving. Dropping $20 on the nightstand, he rushed to meet his wife.
Exalted
The penitent woman listens as the god is interrupted by a distant rumbling. With renewed vigor, she walks past the professor mumbling, “You Worm”.
The Sidewalk Reunion
She's been ravaged by years of vanity, loathing and purging. When our eyes catch and she pretends they don't, I gratefully oblige and slink away.
A Trip Back to Purgatory
All I could taste was sulfur and ash.
Fuck, my mom's cooking is terrible.
Parole Hearing: Denied
"Nobody can love her more than me and he shoudn't've tried," he offered as empathy bait. His shoulders burdened by his burrowed head.
DELETED
Succumbing to a harsh, cruel world, something she alone had created, with a deep sigh, Casey laid back. Opened veins flowed and she felt comfort.
Changeling
My sinews twisted and popped as my body transformed into something new. And then I lurched toward you, no recognition or love holding me back.
Free
Oh
I stopped paying attention, am I still growing?
When will the wind carry my mind away with the leaves?
People are exhausting; sweating, dieting, exfoliating, coveting, drinking, smoking, medicating, recycling...
All I want is to set fire to the hallways, and breathe the smoke.
Tenacity
Numbed by the cruelty of the world above, she waits, gathering strength.
Again, full of raw defiance, she claws her way back to the light.
Everyone Always Forgets About Jimmy
I take a nap for ten-goddamn-minutes! Now those guys are all out raising hell, and I'm still stuck in this God forsaken cell.
Clever Worms
God clapped his hands together and smiled when the lamp lit up again. Finally, they had come up with something he hadn't spoon-fed them.
I'm Not Like Them Anymore
My old life, old friends, the refuge pile of squirming inhumanity, reached out with gaping maws. I flapped my wings, and soared away from there.
Poet's Purgatory, Terrace Four: Enjambment
Virgil said to Dante, "Remember when the
Devil was chewing those guys? That
was awesome, but the best is yet
to come."
Stories From When Books Used to Burn
The older gentleman shouted, "I was just reading a book, why did you shoot me?" The German soldier thought, "silly jew, that is exactly why I shot you."
After Life
Do you not know, that reality is but a fiction masking emptiness as somethingness? Should eternal non-existence scare you then?
My Baby Girl
They dumped her body in the woods. There was a note in her pocket, written with letters cut from magazines: ThE BiLLs weRE seQUEntiAL
A Refusal to Kneel
After the trial in Shamgorod, I signed up down in the kitchen to make humble pies to chuck at your gates. Shades crusade for Hades.
Olympus is just a mound
You lied, cheated, and stole, just to get a little closer to the top.
But even at your pinnacle, there are mountains towering above you.
Wasted in Wonderland
Seconds before dropping dead eight feet from her trashcan, Moira thought, “I look fantastic.” Too bad no one ever saw her in her perfect underwear.
In the judgement
Adorned with jewels and mundane presumption, he swore to tell nothing but the truth. After divine votes, he was sentenced to half-eternity of purification.
Sacred Bodies
The neurologist perceives a mob through the biological phenomenon of her consciousness.
“Reductionist!” it roars, brandishing crosses and PhDs, clinging wormlike to a Cartesian soul.
What now?
Dirty, dark, desperate, what the new day did not bring, the apex of our being. What now? Fuck if I know worm.
Human behavior.
The worm died but resurrected as a glorious ascending butterfly. Now she lies wingless agonizing crushed by the envious hand of the human uglyness.
The Last Man on Earth
He unbuckled his shredded pants and proceeded to douse the pile of blackened rubble with steaming piss. One for the road, he thought.
This only feels like it
The writing meant the changing meant the fire meant living is just the end of the world
My God, What Have I Done?
Floyd died old, alone, wealthy, and happy. As his soul floated on to the end, he looked back upon his life, in horror, and in tears.
Reversed Causality.
A tornado in Austrailia caused a butterfly to flap its wings in Arizona. No papers were written about the timing of the two events.
De Cura.
The stars above our dreams fade with waking morning. As the westering sun seems destined too to die, we rise expiring, virgin sight sought.
Cocoa Puffs
I open the refrigerator door and see there is no milk. I cry at the heavens, "there is no milk, there is no God!"
The Method
The boy witnessed the transformation and then joyously crushed it between his fingers.
After all this time, we still haven't learned.
Monoxide Bukkake by Carlos Chino
Franklin Carbone wrapped his lips around the Odyssey's tailpipe and dreamt of Palahniuk's Madlantis. He closed his eyes and choked on every last drop.
Beatitude
Can any man or beast have felt such holy bliss?
I wipe away the cum, ashamed.
What did you do (there was maybe some hope)
Your hips are broke, a hemorrhage in the brain, there goes a scholarship -- oh well, there's reason for everything. Put down the gun -- Calling 9-1-1.
Rise of the Tapeworm
Bullied and belittled, I’m no longer your superhero.
It’s time for my villainous turn — the Tapeworm will devour everything (evil guffawing).
Pride Goeth, Goeth, Gone
The car tore through the guide rail as if it were paper.
"Probably shoulda wore a helmet... and a diaper."
Meta-fiction: second to none (except Barry G).
Congrats, Barry