Please Note: When a twist is included in the image, you must submit a story that includes the twist. (For genres, see below for the elements of different genres.)
Every day check to see if we're throwing you a twist.
Today, there's a twister. 🌪
The editors were chatting about how much y'all like a good twist in the story, so we put our heads together and came up with a few special twists for June.
- Occasionally, you'll be asked to use a random word AND write the story in a randomly chosen genre. We'll do this several times throughout June. (I will assign the genres as randomly as the words, I've written them on strips of paper and am pulling them out of a hat. Literally.)
- Watch the post for other little things we might pull, like an extra option to write the end of a story. We'll publish a link to another writer's story (with their permission, of course) and your job will be to write a second half drabble. (More on that later.)
- We might also throw you the first line of your story, to go with the random word.
So, Are you ready to play?
Elements of various genres
Feel free to google for more elements. This is just a jumping off place.
Horror Terror and dread! Stephen King… need I say more?
Mystery/Crime Murder and mayhem! Detectives, PI's, Nancy Drew, and Inspector Lewis.
Romance Think Hallmark movies, happily-ever-after, meet-cutes, initial dissonance
Sci-Fi Futuristic concepts, high tech, advanced science, outer space, etc.
Thriller/Suspense Relying on plot and plot twists, evoking anxiety, surprise, anticipation. The emotional ending is more important than the story's structure.
Historical Fiction Set in the past and revolves around historical events/people
Fantasy Inclusion of magical elements, inspired by mythology and folklore
Humor (Or Humour for my UK/Aussie writers.) Make us laugh… or at least chuckle.
My goal for Fiction Shorts has always been to present a publication that attracts readers because of its quality, and writers because of its community.
We know 100 words are not a lot, but please tell a story that has a plot, a who, what, when, where, and why. It will help your reader connect if your character has a name. You want your readers to care. This is the challenge.
First, big thanks to the writers who consistently submit stories that are ready to go. You're awesome!
Second, even the best mess up occasionally… This isn't directed toward you.
Third, for writers for whom English isn't their native language, we expect to work with you a little more. That said, many of you are amazing! I speak only English and can't imagine doing what you do. (Tipping my hat.)
If there are misspellings and grammatical errors we will reject them without notes.
Add a link to Fiction Shorts and to another writer's story.
If you want people to read your work, you have to read theirs. It's that simple.
If an editor leaves a note on your story, do not delete it.
Five of us go into the queue on and off throughout the day. If you delete an editor's note, the others cannot see what they asked you to do. Don't delete editor notes!
We want to write as well, so, I beg you… do your job and make sure your story is ready to go. We publish over 60 stories a day! Think about the amount of time that takes.
A FS Drabble Cheat Sheet
Plot, spelling, grammar, punctuation, title, subtitle, image credited properly, word of the day above the story, word count, tag publication, tag another writer … submit! (Feel free to print this cheat sheet.)
Get Grammarly Free or write in Hemingway and copy to Medium. I often paste dialogue or complicated sentences into Google's Gemini and ask it to check punctuation. I don't care how, but in the interest of my sanity… we will begin to reject without notes if the current volume of required edits continues.
The word is the word. The only changes allowed are an '-ed' or '-ing' or an 's'. If it's already one of those things, don't change it. :)
Two of your tags must be Random and Drabble
New words are posted on Fiction Shorts every morning at 10 AM CST.
Usɪɴɢ ᴘᴀsᴛ ᴡᴏʀᴅs… We don't have time to find the date of a past word, so please add a line that says: The word on (date) was (word). If you want to write drabbles using past words, you can find them in the navigation bar across the top of Fiction Shorts under Daily Words. I've got them back to Day 20 but haven't found the time to add 1–19. 🫣
If an editor leaves a note on your story, do not delete it. After the editor publishes your story, they will dismiss the note. If a different editor is looking at the story upon resubmission, they have no idea what the original editor requested.
Subject to the publisher (that's me) messing up …
If you submit your story early, it will be scheduled to be published at 7:30 or 8:30 AM (CST) on the appropriate day. (The editors are in different time zones and I don't think I can set one for the pub.)
If your story is for any word other than the current day, it will be published around 10 PM CST. Our goal is for people to be able to visit the publication and read all of the day's stories together. That way we see the many different ways people approach the same word.