Fifty-word round up and new prompt!
Hello Fifty-Worders and Friends of Fifty Words. Okay, I just made that up. In this post you'll find highlights from last week's #fiftywords posts, and a new prompt for this week's 50-word fun and games.
I had a great week, and I hope you did too! I wrote a couple of flash fiction pieces for short story contests (En Route, a fantasy/historic fiction piece for an Art Prompt contest, and The Char Man of the Candahashee Bridge, my foray into the horror genre for @dirge's horror fiction contest), and two 50-word posts for last week's prompt (In that moment, a romance story, and What remained, a ghost story).
But enough about me. You guys! You produce such interesting stuff each week. It really is like opening birthday presents each time I sit down to read these pieces. The clever vignettes of life, the moments of heightened emotion, fear, love, loss and crazy stuff going down, all told in 50-words, just take my breath away! And the support you all give to each other for producing and posting these little gems continually warms my heart. Kudos to all.
About the 50-word challenge
I always include a little something in these posts for the uninitiated. The week kicks off on Sundays with a one word prompt, and the fifty-word writers use the prompt to create a micro-fiction story in just 50 words.
Each week I also pay homage to the #fiftywords challenge founder, @miniature-tiger who has been developing a seafaring strategy game called Archipelago for the Utopian.io open source community. Check out the linked post for the latest update.
(Image credit: Original image by pixel2013, Pixabay)
Last week's 50-word stories
Last week's prompt -- wing -- resulted in an amazing variety of stories as you might expect! What is a wing, after all? It is a part of a butterfly, a bird, fairy, a plane, a building, and an angel -- not to mention mythological characters such as Pegasus and Icarus. As usual, picking a top story was impossible, so I've chosen "highlights" of the week.
Here is the complete list of last week's mini-masterpieces. If you haven't done so, I hope you read them all.
- Wings, by @iamthegray
- Heartbroken: She wants to fly, by @lightoj
- Astral Travel, by @puppetmaster1111
- Fairy Wings, by @pyrowngs
- Tradition and Science, by @botefarm
- On the wing of love, by @desmoniac
- Timeless love, by @donnest
- Blowing Amid the Gloaming, by @creatr
- Fixing the Wing, by @ablaze
- Death of Icarus, by @marie-jay
- Final Exams, by @dirge
- To fly or be invisible?, by @ficciones
- Apocalypse Just Now, by @anikekirsten
- undiscovered discovery, by @negativer
- North wing, by @anixio
- Pegasug, by @foxfiction
- Wings of Death, by @theironfelix
- A 5 Year Old's Flight, by @thatlovechild
- In that moment, by @jayna
- What remained, by @jayna
Highlights of the week
Oh my, so many great stories! Here are just a few special highlights from the week with a little teaser about their plots:
- A 5 Year Old's Flight, by @thatlovechild, is so poignant and powerful that it took my breath away. I think this may be the first time a 50-word story brought me to tears.
- Death of Icarus, by @marie-jay, reminds us of the powerful mythological character, Icarus. What, you skipped that class? Well, go read this story!
- Fixing the Wing, by @ablaze, explores a universal idea in 50 words, and leaves us hungry for more. What will happen?
- Apocalypse Just Now, by @anikekirsten, throws us into a cataclysmic event with lightning and flying beasts. This one could definitely be expanded, Anike!
- undiscovered discovery, by @negativer, tells of the metamorphosis of a butterfly, with his own amazing pictures.
- Final Exams, by @dirge, examines (pardon the pun) the painful pressure a student must endure.
- Blowing Amid the Gloaming, by @creatr, is a charming poem about dandelion seeds. I dare you to read it and try not to smile.
- Pegasus, by @foxfiction, tells the story of the beautiful winged horse, Pegasus, and leaves us with a fearsome question.
Great job, everyone!
This week's 50-word story prompt
The prompt for this week is “hatch.” Let's see what you come up with, #fiftywords friends!
Guidelines
Please review carefully. Images must not be pulled from any Internet site.
- Write a story in 50 words. (It's especially cool if you can hit 50 words exactly!)
- Use the #fiftywords tag, and post the link in the comments of this post.
- Be sure to read and upvote the work of the other participants. It's all about community!
- Use only artwork that you have the right to use, and attribute it properly. See the “Proper use of images” topic below.
Proper use of images
Proper use of images means one of the following:
- It is your image.
- The image is public domain, or under creative commons licensing rules.
- If it is not one of the above, you have actual permission.
Be sure to mention that the image is yours, or attribute its source. And if it's not public domain or creative license, be sure to state that you have permission.
I have two resources for you, from my friends at @thewritersblock:
And speaking of #thewritersblock, if you would like editing help for your stories before posting them, follow the tag to find them on Discord.
Deadline for this week: Saturday, May 12th.
The 50-word story clan
Welcome new 50-worders!
I'm mentioning you here if have participated in the #fiftywords short story challenge in the past. Please let me know if you would like your tag removed in this or future posts. (Note that I am starting to reduce the list. Those who have not participated for a long time or are not active on Steemit will eventually drop from the mentions.)
@ablaze, @adigitalife, @agmoore, @ahmadmanga, @aksounder, @alheath, @andyartland, @anikekirsten, @anixio, @anjkara
@beginningtoend, @bhop42moro, @botefarm @brandonsadventur, @bryarose23
@caleblailmusik, @carn, @cheekah, @cizzo, @clacrax, @creatr
@damianjayclay, @deirdyweirdy, @desmoniac, @diebitch, @dirge, @divineinyang, @donnest, @douglasbalmain
@eaglespirit, @elementm, @emwalker, @enjar, @eroticabian, @evgsk
@feebie, @felt.buzz, @ficciones, @fitinfun, @foxfiction
@galactichunter, @godwine
@hope-k
@iamthegray, @ilt-yodith, @intheory, @isa93, @isufbakaj
@jadams2k18, @janine-ariane, @jakeybrown, @jayna, @josecarrasquero
@kaelci, @kimberlylane, @kingernie, @ktfabler
@ldacey-laforge, @lightoj, @lucylin, @luiskrupaz
@Mammasitta, @marie-jay, @mark-dahl, @mikesthoughts, @mineopoly, @miniature-tiger, @momzillanc, @mydivathings
@naquoya, @naso, @navaneeth, @negativer, @niallon11
@onewithearth
@paintingangels, @photovitamin, @pixiehunter, @poeticnest, @preparedwombat, @prydefoltz, @puppetmaster1111, @purpledaisy57, @pyrowngs
@rodgriocabrera
@saoirseronan, @sciencevienna, @sharoonyasir, @skoolielove, @spalatino, @stayoutofherz, @steemitdiversify, @sukhasanasister
@tanglebranch, @thatlovechild, @theblackcrow, @theironfelix, @therosepatch, @tiatu, @tibra, @tin-tin, @tony-duke, @tuwore, @tygertyger
@udayakumarage, @upen-srv
@vaitelavicius, @vivek-g
@wales, @whitewizard, @wilfredn, @wordsalmighty, @wylde
@yimiipsa, @yomibolo
@zen-art
Thanks so much for reading. As always, your upvote, comment and resteem support is greatly appreciated!
Okay, here it is! https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@therosepatch/dragon-egg-part-2-a-50-word-story
I somehow missed commenting on your post link when it came over the wire. Thanks so much for helping to carry on the tradition of #fiftywords, @therosepatch. (And Happy Mother's Day!)
Hi @jayna, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
Join us on Thursdays for Pimp Your Post Thursday at 11am EDT or 7PM EDT in the Steemit Ramble Discord or:
If you’d like to nominate someone’s post just visit the Steemit Ramble Discord
Thank you, @steemitramble!! ❤️❤️❤️
Here's mine for this week :)
https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@foxfiction/hatch-fiftywords
Love it! Thanks for being part of the #fiftywords challenge!
Oh oops, I forgot to post mine here the other day, so here it is:
https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@pyrowngs/a-dozen-chicks-hatched-fifty-words-challenge
My entry:
https://steemit.com/dlive/@carn/11d339fb-55fc-11e8-8263-0242ac110002
yes, I know it has a weird url, but I was overwriting a dLive failure :P
Thanks so much for participating in the #fiftywords challenge, @carn!
Glad to join this round and slip my entry in towards the end. Thanks for hosting @Jayna!
https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@aksounder/pacific-brood-50-word-short-and-an-homage-to-mothers
Love this one! In fact, it has inspired the theme of today's post... coming soon.
Oh neat! Thank you Jayna.
Little did I know that I picked a Mother’s Day themed prompt. It was fortuitous on my part, vs. clever. So thank you for the idea, @aksounder! 😊
My pleasure, but I've really got @therosepatch to thank for pointing out the correlation when looking over my 50 word short at the Block. I pretty much responded with "duh! You're a genius!" and ran with it.
She is a clever one, @therosepatch!
Thank you once again, Jayna, for the challenging inspiration.
My entry this time is here:
Cheers!
😄😇😄
It's always fun to see what you come up with, @creatr!
😄
Here is my entry as well!
Looking forward to reading it! I am going to have a 50-word story reading bonanza sometime in the next day or two. (Job and life are completely bonkers this week!)
I know the feeling, good luck. And have fun with reading #50words :)
Haven't entered in awhile, but here's my story for this week.
You may be able to tell that I am an admirer of birds, and also a mommy myself! The empty-nest struggle is real and my daughter is only 12 and still IN my nest! ♥
Much love to you, Jayna, and all of the talented writers here!
Serena
https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@paintingangels/beyond-the-cracks-after-the-hatching-a-mother-s-mission-love-jayna-s-fiftywords-story-challenge-hatched
Oh, it's so fun to have you back! I will be sitting down with a cup of tea to read all in the incoming stories in a few days, but just wanted to applaud you for turning in a story and say "Welcome back to #fiftywords!"
Aww thanks so much! I'm determined to try every week now: ) Took me awhile to get more comfy with steemit, haven't been here long (just started really posting in late feb). Love your challenge!
Got the post done, was a neat little challenge I say. Link here - https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@theironfelix/i-was-hatched
I'm so glad you are having fun with the 50-word challenge!