Twelve Days of Fast Fiction 2014

And, so, we come towards the end of another year, and – as is now becoming a tradition of sorts – it’s time for Twelve Days of Fast Fiction. What’s that, I hear you ask, or at least I would hear you ask if I’d activated the telepathic functionality on this thing.

OK, so in 2011, quite some time since I’d answered any challenges to write fast fictions, I wrote twelve stories in response to twelve challenges issued by friends and creators. I had a blast doing them, the creators seemed to have a blast reading them, and from the responses I had to the tales, and the downloads of the ebook that resulted, so did people reading them.

And then in March, for Comic Relief, I wrote twenty-four in twenty-four hours. Yeah, that was… fun probably isn’t the word, but hell, it was a unique experience and unique challenge, (unless I do it again, of course), and again, people seemed to like them. And we – the creators, the readers and I – raised about £1,600 (about $2,600) doing so.

So, that was nice.

At the end of 2013, I did it again: Twelve stories, one a day, leading up to Christmas.

And now… 2014’s Twelve Days of Fast Fiction commences on Saturday. I’m delighted that each of the challengers have said yes, and I hope they – and you – will enjoy reading the stories as much as I’ll enjoy writing them.

The challenge was the same in each case, the usual fast fiction challenge:

Give me a title of up to four words in length, together with a single word you want me to include in the tale, and I will write a story of exactly 200 words.

So, starting Saturday 13^th December, I’ll be answering challenges from twelve very special people, each of whom are supremely talented in their own fields.

Who are the twelve? In no particular order, and not necessarily the order in which they will be written:

• Antony Johnston (the story)
• Matt Brooker (the story)
• Nick Doody (the story)
• Bevis Musson (the story)
• Michael Moran (the story)
• Mitch Benn (the story)
• Neil Gaiman (the story)
• Joanne Harris (the story)
• Rufus Hound (the story)
• Kirsty Newton (the story)
• Steven Shaviro (the story)
• David Baddiel (the story)

I’m very grateful they’ve agreed to challenge me; the stories will start appearing tomorrow. (Note: this entry will be continually updates as the challenge continues, to include story links as they were written.)