Fucked Up Fairytales - An Unofficial Challenge

I've just had my birthday, so I feel allowed to ask you to indulge me. Get your tiniest pen out! This is also a call for volunteers. If you'd like to volunteer as tribute, use the comments or find me on Facebook.

By L.C. SchäferPublished 2 years ago • Updated 2 years ago • 3 min read

Top Story - April 2024

Thank you, AI (DALL-E)

I've just had my birthday, so I feel allowed to ask you to indulge me. Get your tiniest pen out!

How is that for an image? I was going for "fucked up fairies". What do you think? I was hoping to get one where someone is passed out and someone else is drawing genitalia on his or her face, but this is OK.

Microfiction

This is a microfiction challenge. If you're not along for the yearlong microfiction madness, I hope you'll still flex your micro muscle for this one. 😁

If you know me at all, if you've been following me (thank you for your support, by the way), you know some things about me:

I love fairy tales.
I love them even better turned upside down or inside out.
I'm writing a microfiction story every day this year

Join me

I would love for you indulge me, and scribble some fucked up micro fairytales... And then join me in the fun task of picking out the best one 😁

The Criteria

Word count - 366 words. Preferably bang on 366, but if you dip under the minimum count is 350.

It's got to be a complete story: beginning, middle, end

It's got to be a recognisable fairytale

It's got to be fucked up. Turn it on its head, put your own spin on it. For the purposes of this challenge, "fucked up" does not have to mean drunk, or on any other substance, legal or otherwise. It can, but it doesn't have to. There's some wiggle room here, for your interpretation. In short: straight re-tellings are a no.

Them's the Rules

Closing date: 30th April. Post it any time between now and then.
Link to it in the comments
Link back to me
Submit more than one if you like

Easy peasy!

Judging

When: I'll aim to do it first week of May, but this is going to depend on how many people join in, and whether or not I team up with anyone for it.
How: I absolutely suck at choosing, so there's enough entries (say, five or more) I'm planning to open it up to you lovely lot to help me narrow it down. If that goes down like a lead balloon, I'll just umm and ahh and dither and eventually pick one.
Who: If anyone has experience in doing that and would like to collaborate, please let me know! (Use the comments, or find me on Facebook.) Otherwise, it'll just be me. Do you really trust my judgement?
Winners Tips: $10 to the winner, provided more than, say, two people give it a go. If there's enough entries, I'll send $5 to runner up as well.
My own micros won't count, obviously. If anyone collaborates with me on the judging bit (thanks) yours won't either (sorry).

Collaboration

The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation.
Bertrand Russel

(Don't be fooled, I'm not that cultured. I'm only aware of this quote because we're watching Shaun of the Dead - again - and the esteemable Shaun is only aware of it because of a Guiness advert.)

I'm serious, I would love some help on this one! Not least because I was so late doing the Sex Robot (haha) that I would love the accountability of a buddy, and someone to bounce thoughts off.

It's a volunteer position, sorry. I'm not paying.

Community Voting

I'm envisioning this will be dead simple, everyone just comments with their favourite three. #1 gets 3 points, #2 gets 2 points, #3 gets 1 point. This will only kick in if there are enough entries to make it worth it, ie. more than five.

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Thank you for reading!

Thank you also, in advance, if you decide to join in, or would like to team up to be my Number Two when Judging Time rolls round.

I first mentioned this challenge idea here 👇 where you can also find a bunch of other fiction prompts: