Ten Word Short Story

Tycho has a contest up at Penny Arcade:

Securing these mounds of treasure is simple, but not effortless: you must write a short story, set in World of Warcraft, and this story must be precisely ten words long. Then, you must mail your story to Gabriel, with the subject line “Ten Words.” This contest is easy and fun. At least, for me! But Gabriel has told me that I cannot win, so you’ve got a shot. Something along these lines, maybe:

His father’s sword, shattered to the hilt, fell like stars.

It doesn’t have to be especially epic, it merely needs to ring true. For example:

“Help,” he cried. “My dick is stuck in this Treant!”

See what I mean? It paints a picture. You know everything you need to know about the dick and the Treant. You’ve got until Thursday, the 10th of April. We’ll announce the winners next Friday.

What have you got, DNSH?

kg at 12:19 pm on Saturday, April 5, 2008

15 Comments

14650

Comment by kg

April 5, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

The best I could come up with so far uses the recursive strategy:

He sent in this short story and was handsomely rewarded.

I’m trying to shrink down Cody’s classic line from Mock Trial:
“Let’s get one thing straight: John Hammond had no idea those dinosaurs were going to escape.”

14651

Comment by kg

April 5, 2008 @ 12:26 pm

Unfortunately, hiding was futile–the raptors could smell his sins.

14674

Comment by Boughter

April 5, 2008 @ 5:22 pm

Hmm, I’d love to compete, but two things are hindering me: 1) The prize is WoW related… and 2) It’s P-A.

14742

Comment by coach

April 6, 2008 @ 11:28 am

Heh, this looks like a fun idea! Here are some random ideas I had. More people should toss some out, get those creative juices flowing.

It was all for naught, the asteroid hit Earth anyway.

She said “I do”, and they lived happily ever after.

The lottery winner stared in despair at the washing machine.

Finally it was out. He pulled on pants and left.

14744

Comment by coach

April 6, 2008 @ 11:36 am

Haha, I love your velociraptor one, Kyle!

14747

Comment by Boughter

April 6, 2008 @ 1:45 pm

Does it have to be WoW related? I thought I read that in the rules. (I like your #3 Coach =p)

With no options left he eat the sandwich, happily smirking.

He never told… Being drunk he’d thought she was alive… [just to clarify: this was WoW related, there's an Undead race, that's what I was going for.]

His sword broke! Hopefully he put backups in his backpack. [this one is WoW related too, not very good either]

There wasn’t much to say. She’d never loved him, anyway.

14812

Comment by Jeff

April 7, 2008 @ 10:13 am

a short story, set in World of Warcraft, and this story must be precisely ten words long.

14813

Comment by kg

April 7, 2008 @ 10:40 am

Yah, sure if you’re going to enter it, but I was mostly just asking for fun.

14814

Comment by Boughter

April 7, 2008 @ 11:34 am

ah ya, not gonna enter, but its fun to think them up. Fixed my typo on my last one in my comment above (the = there).

also, I guess I can’t count. cause my first one has 11 words.

fixed my first one. well, just changed it to stupidity.

14898

Comment by cody

April 8, 2008 @ 11:08 am

baby shoes. thrown out. never worn.

Thats hemingways famous short story of six words.

14975

Comment by dylan

April 9, 2008 @ 11:41 am

“How is the Draenei plot coming?” “How do spaceships sound?”

bah I give up

maybe this works better:

Writers working on expansion: “How do you feel about spaceships?”

15022

Comment by Brandon

April 9, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

I play WoW all day, my hand is my girlfriend.

haha, it’s gross

15035

Comment by dylan

April 10, 2008 @ 10:21 am

The defeated warrior drowned his sorrows in cheetos and mountain dew

it’s 11 words though

15412

Comment by kg

April 18, 2008 @ 9:40 am

The results are up, and they’re pretty hilarious:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/

15522

Comment by Boughter

April 20, 2008 @ 7:06 pm

ha some of those are pretty good. I really didn’t find the top three that great in all honesty, but some of the others were good stuff.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.