Category: Furious Fiction

This month’s 44th edition of Furious Fiction was an up-and-down affair as we asked entrants to either plumb new depths or climb to lofty heights. These were the challenge criteria: Your story must include EITHER an attic OR a basement. Your story must include some kind of insect. Your story

With many writers having some extra at-home time on their hands, August’s Furious Fiction competition welcomed a bumper crop of entries – more than 1600 and the second highest ever! They came from all parts of the world, hoping their words would shine brightest. These were the challenge criteria: Your

Amid the flurry of competition and gold medals being given out at the moment, today is the day that we roll out the podium for the 500-word sprint, our version of the modern “pen”tathlon. As a quick recap, these were the criteria for JULY’s Furious Fiction: Each story had to

It was a descriptive June this month at Furious Fiction. These were the story criteria: Each story had to include (word for word) the following SEVEN descriptions at any point in the story body: THICK AS HONEY SILENT AND STILL GOLDEN GLOW HEART-SHAPED DELICATE PERFUME SOFT AND DOUGHY RAZOR-SHARP And

It was a dark and stormy night at Furious Fiction HQ. The judges gathered around the glow of the Apple laptop and rubbed their hands with glee (a brand of hand sanitiser). Yesterday, the identity of the competition winner was unclear – many sitting on the fence in their decision.

Every month a long queue of writers from all over the map throw their narrative hats into this three-ringed circus we call Furious Fiction, crossing their fingers, dropping their heads in prayer and hoping to get lucky. These were the April criteria: Your story must begin in some kind of

They say a picture is worth a thousand words – but this month we were fine with just 500 as we introduced only the fourth picture prompt in Furious Fiction history. These were the complete criteria for March: Each story had to include the pictured setting (above) at some point.

It was a happy third birthday to Furious Fiction this month (be sure to check out our “stories behind the stories” collection) and to celebrate turning three, every story had to begin with the word THREE. That wasn’t all though: Each story had to be set in a SCHOOL. Each

It’s a new year and we were so eager that we hit the ground running with our first Furious Fiction challenge for 2021 on the first day of January. (Ahem, it may have also had something to do with the calendar.) A new year was dawning, so here’s what we

And so we arrive at the final Furious Fiction edition for this quiet, uneventful year. The criteria we required in December were: Each story had to include a GIFT of some kind. Each story’s first sentence had to contain only THREE words. The following words had to be used somewhere

It’s been a weird year for travel. And so in this month’s Furious Fiction, we thought we’d do our bit for the fiction accommodation industry (you’re welcome) by asking everyone to set their 500-words-or-fewer stories in a hotel. Naturally, that wasn’t the only slice of the criteria cake. Here were

One of the great things about Furious Fiction is that for one weekend, writers all around the world are working on the same brief at the same time – and this month, they did so with a full moon out the window. Here were the criteria: Each story had to

A picture told 500 words this month as we welcomed back the infamous picture prompt to our Furious Fiction criteria club. The picture above was the image in question and the complete challenge for September went something like this: Each story had to be INSPIRED by the picture above. Each story’s

Furious Fiction was this month transformed into a comedy club, as we invited entrants to counter the prevailing 2020 narrative of doom and gloom and bring the funny! To help set up such a tee-hee-friendly scene, were these criteria: Each story had to contain HUMOUR/COMEDY of any kind. Each story

To those who RSVPed to our invitation to this month’s Furious Fiction, we welcome you to the big day. If you thumb through the order of service, you’ll see that the following criteria are gathered here today: Each story had to take place at either WEDDING or a FUNERAL. Each

This month on the Furious Fiction show, we asked contestants to conjure a short story out of thin air using the following criteria: Each story’s first and last words had to begin with J. Each story had to include a game being played. Each story had to include the phrase

May was another huge month for our spritely little Furious Fiction competition – with our second highest entries ever (highest was last month!). It just shows what great word of mouth and marketing–cough cough lockdown pandemic cough— can do! Being the fifth month of the year, or maybe because we

My my… it seems the combination of people being stuck at home and perhaps starved for creativity has led to this month’s Furious Fiction competition smashing previous records as 1700 entries came flooding in! These were the criteria: Each story had to begin on the side of a road. Each