DISCUSSION THREAD -- January 2022 -- 300 Word Writing Challenge #44

[Ursa major]

Get ready to blow away your long-form challenge writing cobwebs, for here is: 300 Word Writing Challenge #44 -- READ FIRST POST!!

As always, the Challenge thread is closed until the 10th of the month, but this thread is open for discussion and comment.


Good luck everyone!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Well, that picture has the potential for some spooky tales.

 

[Rafellin]

Oh, good image. Got an instant story from that. Now to let it cool.

 

[The Judge]

This quarter's stunning image comes courtesy of Mouse. And knowing the propensities of all you lot, despite this being a picture of a very happy occasion, in the Staff Room we're already taking bets on how many gruesome stories we get, with variations on Bluebeard/the Robber Bridegroom tales likely to be the most popular!

And don't forget, that just as with the 75 worder, the winner of this Challenge has the option of having his/her story read out on Dan and Chris's Official Chrons Podcast!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I thought that was Mouse! Stunning

 

[Ursa major]

Bluebeard/the Robber Bridegroom tales likely to be the most popular

As it happens, I've just noticed that the image provides an inevitably pun-based link to yet another tale of horror (one I probably won't use, but might reveal once the Challenge is over, assuming no one else has picked up on it in the meantime).

 

[Phyrebrat]

Oddly (and annoyingly) the first thing I ‘got’ was something about a hummingbird…

Hopefully the other side of her face is all M R Jamesy… unutterable horror.

Dibs on stories about pike and velociraptors (which I might set in the Mastern House)!!

 

[Parson]

I thought Wow! what a stunning bride about to enter the sanctuary. And then like the staff room was wondering what kinds of horrors awaited her. Now that I know it was Mouse all kinds of stories open up. @Mouse .... You are beautiful, and a stunning bride.

 

[Abernovo]

My initial thought was a Sapphire and Steel type prompt but, on closer inspection, and realising it's a dear and lovely friend in the picture, I have rethought that. A stunning picture.

 

[Phyrebrat]

That’s actually @Mouse ?!?!? She wasn’t wearing her fur coat made from Dalmatians so I didn’t recognise her.


What a beaut

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ah I should write a bucolic story about Mouse, for sure. I mean, you have zero hope, but the thought was briefly there

 

[Mouse]

Yes, tis I. I always look better when you can't see my face.

Please don't let knowing it's me put anybody off from writing anything gruesome, if that's where you were gonna with it. I'm fully expecting (and hoping for) evil/dead/undead/alien brides etc.

edit: Oh, and it was @Juliana's idea to use this image as a prompt!

 

[Starbeast]

Yes, tis I. I always look better when you can't see my face.

Please don't let knowing it's me put anybody off from writing anything gruesome, if that's where you were gonna with it. I'm fully expecting (and hoping for) evil/dead/undead/alien brides etc.

edit: Oh, and it was @Juliana's idea to use this image as a prompt!

You are lovely and an awesome good sport. Ironically (not knowing it's you), my sister-in-law suggested an Alien Bride tale. She also suggested to me that since I've written many humorous stories, it's time I wrote a scary one.

I've got a couple of ideas, but I'm not sure how to end them.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Mine's kind of a genre-bender.

 

[Dan Jones]

Wow, @Mouse what a lovely picture! I hope the inevitable glut of grue and grim doesn't detract from the happy day
Happily, Sir Reggie has been engaged to be married six times so far in his stories, so maybe I'll have to finally marry him off given the pic.

 

[The Judge]

It's the 10th, so the Challenge is now unlocked!

Good luck, everyone!

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Thanks @The Judge , @Ursa major & @Mouse ; got there first, at least it'll be the fastest tale this time around -the advice in the text attribution thread almost put the skids on things but good advice doesn't always get heeded.
Looking forward all the stories

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

AnRoinnUltra: Within this lighthearted science fiction comedy of manners can be found a bitingly satiric portrait of human foibles. The pretentions of petty bureaucrats and the nearly universal vice of vanity are mocked in a way that amuses us, and makes us take a searching look inside ourselves.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Guttersnipe: In this dreamlike and allegorical fairy tale the reader finds much to ponder about the nature of reality and consciousness. The eternal question as to whether we are truly the captains of our souls is presented in a poetic fashion.

 

[Parson]

@AnRoinnUltra .... The Dipple Fringle of Namibar .... I can't stop thinking that the old proverb beginning "the best laid plans of mice* and men..." is going to be perfectly suited for the next scene of secret agent intrigue in the Dipple Fringle story series.

@Victoria Silverwolf .... The Laughing Woman .... Sometimes the wisdom of age loses so much in translation it just sounds like crotchety complaining never to be understood, ..... until too late.

@Guttersnipe .... What Am I? .... Guttersnipe riddles us a story which leaves us wondering about what happens next.

@Rafellin .... All Rise .... In the ordinary wedding the surprises and the extraction from a sticky situation move a bit more slowly that Rafellin's assassin bride, but this wedding is spectacularly memorable.

*No pun intended! (@Mouse I promise this is true.)