Challenge Me: FFM 2017

Once again, my friends (and foes, and passing acquaintances, and those I have yet to make the acquaintance of): here is a chance to WIN FABULOUS PRIZES and MAKE ME A SLAVE TO YOUR WHIMSY. Your wishes, dear readers, shall be my commands.

That’s right: Flash Fiction Month begins in less than a month.

[Obligatory explanation, as always: FFM is a month-long challenge to write a piece of flash fiction, fifty-five to a thousand words long, for every day of July. I’ve participated for the past three years, and I intend to make this a long habit. Give it a go, if you like! FFM is fun, rewarding, and an excellent way to push your limits.]

Last year I crowdsourced an additional challenge to carry me through the entire month, which resulted in a whole lot of murdering people with shovels (good times, good times). I promised I’d do the same again this year if it went well. I also said I’d choose two challenges this year instead of one: I’ve since decided against that, partly because the response last year was decent but not overwhelming, but mainly because one of last year’s challenges went “ALL the challenges” and if that comes up again it really won’t combine well with, well, anything. So we’ll do this the same way we did last year. To wit:

Rules

Absolutely anyone may enter. You do not need an account here or anywhere else: as long as you have some way of communicating your challenge to me, anonymously or otherwise, I will accept it.

Here are some avenues through which you can reach me:

• Comment on this post, anonymously or otherwise (this does not require an account).
• Comment on this mirror post on DeviantArt.
• Note me on DeviantArt.
• Challenge me on Twitter.
• Hunt me down, lurk behind some bushes, and shout your challenge at me as I walk past.
• If you happen to have my email address or be on speaking terms with me in person anyway, or regularly communicate with me in any other fashion, that option is certainly open to you as well.

(If you choose an anonymous method of communication (and I can’t reliably get back to you) but do not wish to be credited anonymously, please include whatever information you’d like to have included; also, if you have a deviantArt account, keep in mind I’ll need to know what it is in order to distribute that part of the prize if you should win.)

You may issue as many challenges as you like. You may also add your vote to an existing challenge (the winning challenge will be chosen randomly: this will increase its chances), or modify an existing challenge by adding or changing criteria. (Keep it to one vote per person per challenge, please. I will enforce this as far as I am able; don’t exploit the loopholes of anonymity.)

I will reject challenges only if I feel that the challenge is undoable (by, for instance, being incompatible with the actual rules of FFM) or in conflict with the spirit of the event. Please stay away from fanfiction challenges or ones that involve each story throughout the entire month having the same specific length; pretty much anything else is valid!

Your deadline is noon (Central European Standard Time) on June 30^th. There will be no leniency. Winner(s) should be announced by that afternoon.

Fabulous Prizes

You stand to win:

• Official credit for the challenge in whatever form you’d like, from complete anonymity to a name and a link, both in the eventual ebook collection and on the stories themselves.
• Up to 500 DeviantArt points, if you have an account.
• The grim satisfaction of watching me dance through your arbitrary hoops, knowing I am but a puppet upon the strings you have laid.

Complicated technical details on who wins what in which fringe scenarios are available on last year’s post; I haven’t included them this time because it’s all sort of long and boring to read through, if admittedly important to have worked out in advance. Last year’s rules on that still stand.

Challenges So Far

1. Every story must include a fictional fictional character.  ~Damon L. Wakes
2. Every story must feature the word ‘glamorous’.  ~TheCrazyTarantula (deviantArt)
3. Each Sunday’s story must shockingly recontextualise each Saturday’s story.  ~joe-wright (deviantArt)
4. Every story must begin with the last word of the previous story. The 31st story must end with the first word of the first story.  ~ilyilaice (deviantArt)
5. Do at least one of all the “important varieties” of twist endings as seen here.  ~ilyilaice (deviantArt)
6. Each story must be connected to the one before it in some way, shape or form.  ~Domaex (deviantArt)
7. Each story must include a piece of cutlery.  ~Domaex (deviantArt)
8. Upvote #3.  ~Domaex (deviantArt)
9. Upvote #3.  ~squanpie (deviantArt)
10. Upvote #4.  ~squanpie (deviantArt)
11. Every story must feature something edible (or something usually inedible that gets eaten anyway). Bonus – story 3 and 14 must feature pie in some way.  ~squanpie (deviantArt)
12. For every story, the story’s word count must be mentioned in the story itself.  ~squanpie (deviantArt)

Thank you, and happy challenging!