If you’ve read my blog at all, you know that every week I participate in a writing group called Friday Fictioneers. It is a challenge to write a 100-word story around a photo prompt. I also often do a similar thing on Sundays, called Sunday Photo Fiction, run by Al Forbes.
These aren’t the only ones out there, by far. There are challenges to write 33-word stories, haibun (prose + haiku), even six-word stories. In that spirit, I have come up with some other writing challenges.
1. Mono-words.
Write a complete story with conflict and plot development in one word.
Example:
The Time Billy Replaced All the Thanksgiving Candles with Firecrackers
Blam!
2. The Little Word Challenge.
Write a story with words no longer than 3 letters.
Example:
My Pig Was Sad
I had a pig, Joe. Joe was sad. He saw me and my new gun. I put Joe and my new gun in my bag. We ran to the bus. At the end of the day, I ate ham. Joe was not a bad pig, but he’s not sad now. Now he’s a yum pig.
3. The Alphabet Trainers.
You must write a 26-word story, in alphabetical order by first letter.
Example:
A Beautiful Cat
A beautiful cat dodged Ernie’s fist.
“Gotcha!” he interjected joyously. “Kill little mice now!”
Ophelia proffered Quentin’s red sweater. “Tight underneath?”
“Very warm!” Xavier yelled zealously.
4. The Punctuators.
The challenge is to write a story, then take out everything but the punctuation. It’s up to the reader to fill in the blanks.
Example:
? !
,,,.,,…,..??,?,??,!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.,.,,!??.,.!,.,….,.,,..,.,.,,,.,.,.,??;,.,:;;;;.,.,().,.?;.,.:
The Green-Walled Tower 