100 Word Story Writings

[sir archely]

So this is based on something Apoc sort of mentioned in part of the 100-Word Story competition thread.

Instead of doing the whole competition thing, just have an open thread for writing 100 word stories, and we're all using the same theme. I've put a sort of testing item on the calendar. It's a ranged event for 2 weeks, and it would just contain the theme for each two weeks, and whoever wants to write a story can put it in here. Everyone would be free to give feedback on any story they choose. Alternatively, if you don't like the themes, feel free to post your own 100 word stories about whatever.

If you are confused, here are the guidelines originally posted in the competition thread by Amos, slightly edited because it's no longer a competition here.

A one hundred word story is exactly what it’s name implies; a story written with just 100 words. Because of this imposing limitation each and every word must be chosen with care. This is to novel writing what mining is to sculpture. An emphasis on precision and succinctness as opposed to quantity and depth. In short, they are short. Well duh. You don’t have to be clever or anything, just able to write and count.

Rules

1. Stories must, obviously, be 100 words exactly.
2. Punctuation will not count as words (i.e. “ ? . ( ) !)
3. Hyphenated words will be counted as two or more words (i.e. Grasshopper-Vic)
4. Two or more words pretending to be a single word will be counted as two words (i.e. greentrees)
5. The title of your story will not count towards the limit, so no worries there as long as you don’t try to be sneaky and include half your story in the title. Try to keep it less than ten words.
6. Stories must be your own work. So no plagiarizing, pirating and/or bootlegging. Influence is one thing, breaches of copyright are quite another.
7. Your story must take into account the chosen theme. For example, if the theme is “reincarnation” then your story must involve reincarnation somehow. Simple. Even if you just imply or include the word/s of the theme, that will be acceptable. Try to make it reasonably clear, or, very subtle and clever if you can.
8. Poems will be accepted so long as they are of a story-like nature, and conform to all the rules.
9. Words such as can't and don't, whatever these are called (contractions?), shall henceforth be counted as only one word, not two words pretending to be one.

Examples

Unsure of where to begin? These sites may be of use to you:

http://www.pacifier.com/~ascott/fictions/100words.htm
http://100words.blogdrive.com/
http://www.wordjourneys.com/shortstories.htm
http://www.100words.net/front.cfm

Originally I wrote I didn't want to unilaterally choose the themes for each two week spread, but since that was about one and a half years ago, I'm just going ahead with this on my own. Current themes are on the calendar, and will be taken from the list generated in the other thread, unless I feel like putting something else up. It probably will help if you indicate the theme you are writing about in your post somewhere.


paranoia
innocence
joy
shapeshifter
ice age
the discovery of fire
starvation
labyrinth
chinese whispers
mask
dictators
red
bacteria
poodles
secrets
bugs
punctuation

[sir archely]

Theme: Dreams

Max woke suddenly. Memories fled, but terror, worry and sweat from the dream remained startlingly clear. Throwing on a robe, he sprinted down the street to the Dreamer. His feet slapped on the cobbled street, disturbing nobody. The light in the Dreamer’s house was on already, of course, and the door opened to meet him. Out of breath, he only stammered, but the Dreamer smiled, patted him on the shoulder and said, “Do not worry, I saw your dream, it was no omen, merely a nightmare.” Max, relieved, turned away too quickly to see the tears in the Dreamer’s eyes.

[jabbernaut]

“I never have dreams,” he said.

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.” He sipped his coffee. “I told you this last time you asked.”

“You had a dream last night,” she said.

He only half heard her. He was trying to read the paper. Breakfast conversation annoyed him.

“You told me all about it,” she said.

“Hm?” he grunted. “All about what?”

“Your dream. Last night.” She sipped her orange juice. “In your sleep.”

He looked up from the paper. She stared back across the table. “What did I say?” he asked.

She looked down into her glass. “Too much.”

[dark fuschia]

She spent her days absorbed in the menial tasks of her new job. Dusting, sweeping and restocking the shelves. She wasn't allowed to serve at the counter yet but she didn't mind. Alone with her thoughts she laboured, staying within the store's aisles and answering only occasional enquiries. “Don’t you have tan shoe polish?” and “Where is the cooking oil?” Now it was only in her dreams that the Teachers looked upon her with disappointment, making her want to hide her face in shame. During her days she felt safe from that at last. She had found her hiding place.

[dark fuschia]

Theme: Catastrophe

"I wish you hadn't told me."

"Yes. It was wrong of me," but she smiled wickedly.

That evening I tutored him as usual. He had always frightened me and I found myself newly repelled by his oddly shaped features. I felt sure he would recognise my disgust and pity. Indeed, in his mismatched eyes I discerned unspoken accusation. Violence there too, unconstrained, though they call it ‘Learning difficulty’. He is only a child, I reminded myself.

“Do you see your Father much?”

He grinned and the violence washed away. “Yes. He brings me presents.”

For a moment I hated God.

[Amos]

Without shifting his eyes from the crowd the golden man reached down to pluck what he thought was a flower. He lifted his hand and winced when he saw that his perfect fingertips cradled a scraggly brown weed. His followers seemed nevertheless enlightened by the gesture, so he smiled at them. “You understand”, he exclaimed. Confused looks. They had not considered that they were supposed to comprehend the meaning of the sermon. It was enough for them to be awed by whatever mysterious charade he concocted, taking it for granted that his teaching was too unearthly to be understood.

[jabbernaut]

He feels the last edifice shifting beneath him, knowing there’s nothing now to stop it. The grip of nausea that accompanies sensations of motion in what should not be moving causes him to do something most uncharacteristic. He stands still.

Around him civilization crumbles. The painstaking achievements of countless generations disintegrate into rubble.

Below, thousands of colonists scramble from passageways in mad panic, most soon to be buried by the very ground crumbling beneath him.

Transcending the brink, he peers upward into the face of their Destroyer – pink, puffy, freckled, and growing slowly bored with its game of tossing rocks.

[sir archely]

Theme: Catastrophe

He was furious. Galaxies would burn. He knew he would be forced to right everything in the aftermath, and yet a large part of Him rejoiced in the nearly apocalyptic destruction. Solar systems flung about willy-nilly, colliding, exploding. The universe itself trembled at His fury. Billions upon billions of beings extinguished in the passing eddy of a dying star’s last gasp. A knock at the door. “Billy, what is all that racket?” “Nothing mom, I just can’t find my sneakers.” “Your room better be cleaned up by dinner.” And so He who was Billy set about rebuilding his broken domain.

[sir archely]

Theme: Betrayal

“Just so you know, I’m going to betray you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, quite.”

“When did you decide this?”

“Just this morning, over breakfast. It occurred to me that I could not discern why I was loyal to you in the first place.”

“Ah. And there is nothing that would change your mind? Nothing I can do to deter you?”

“I suppose that it might have been possible for you to dissuade me, but it is already too late.”

“Is that so? What form will this betrayal take?”

“Why, it happened just now, when I said I would betray you.”

[Amos]

“Four is five denied, five is four befouled, but the seeker is all that she seeks. Nothing can be gained by her journeying selfish paths.”

“Tusita is a rose, but to the rest of the world a thorn. She crosses her blades over her bodies' treasures.”

“A traitor to her kind!”

“Our shadows overlap; into the same blood-bank we bleed. That which is within is of greatest value!”

“For the last time you can't have my kidneys.”

“What did I tell you? Social workers are all whores.”

“Your mother's a social worker.”

“Your mother's the Minister for Social Development!”

[jabbernaut]

His tears, all spent, dried as a mask across his face. Judas slumped, exhausted, in a dusty hollow between two darkened shops on a street he didn’t recognize

Footsteps approached, silent but felt. Judas looked up into the troubled face of a familiar figure he’d known forever but never met. The two acknowledged one another empathetically.

“It’s all just occurred to me, I think,” said the devil. He grimaced and fell silent.

Judas swallowed to find his voice. “You made me do it,” he quavered. Then pleaded, “Didn’t you?”

“If I did,” the devil muttered, “I have no idea why.”

[Tipiman]

He was young. The acne cream was still fresh on that persistent blemish on his chin. A tear rolled off the side of his face.
He sat outside on the steps beside the "club". It was 2 o'clock in the morning. He had no money left. He spent his last twenty dollars in there. Her smile was so worth it though. And the way she'd looked at him from up there on the stage.
But now she was walking away. And with that large man with the tatoos. But her smile had been so beautiful. And her name was Bubbles.

[dark fuschia]

Theme: Betrayal

"Yes I know Kate, she was my personal assistant. ............... She is a nice person, but to tell the truth I wouldn't recommend her. I just kept her on as a favour for a relative. .............. No problem, have a nice day."

The phone rang again. "............. Oh Kate! How is the weather up North? .............. Yes I just heard from them, I gave you a glowing review. Keep sending them my way and you'll have a new job in no time. ............... Hey you know you were my favourite, I will always regret that you chose to leave us."

[dark fuschia]

Theme: Death

In the beginning everyone said it was overkill. We believed that no one except the frail and elderly were at risk and cited a healthy immune system as the best defence. The Government’s swift response and strict pandemic prevention controls created mistrust; because when we saw no one was dying we stopped listening to the authorities and we refused to wear the face masks they sent. That was before the final mutation. Japan was one of the few countries where they didn’t stop wearing their masks, and now, ten years later, it is the only country with anything resembling civilisation.

[Tipiman]

Theme: Dictators

Who would have known? It happened so quickly. And no one believed that a world power could change that fast. First there were the banks. And then the cars. Soon after the other industries fell. The airlines were too big to fail, they said. Just like the banks. And how could a national health plan be bad? But there you had it; all wrapped up in one single government controlled package. With Korea and Iran to be dealt with, the military was easily added. And gun control kept it all in house. It's what the voters wanted. They wanted CHANGE.