Human Hair
The Challenge:
Write a story using the following rules:
Must be exactly 6-words, 50-words, or 100-words in length OR between 101 - 500 words. Title is never counted towards word count.
Any genre is allowed but if a Trigger Warning is needed, please indicate so behind the title. (Ex. TITLE [TW])
Share your story in the comments or Substack Notes. Remember to TAG
for a chance to be featured in future posts.
DIGITAL ISSUE OPPORTUNITY
If we receive submissions from at least 5 different people, then one of them will be selected to appear in the next issue. I haven’t decided yet if the chosen story will be based on judging against the others or random or community votes. And, to make things more pressing, this offer is only open to stories submitted in the next 72hrs! For consideration in the next issue you must use the below template in the comments section (stories shared in Substack Notes will not be considered):
SUBMISSION TEMPLATE:
Word Length:
Story Title: [doesn’t count towards word count]
Story:
OPPORTUNITY CLOSES: Wednesday, October 2nd at 9pm EST
[This is only for those who wish the opportunity for their story to appear in a digital issue. Otherwise, please contribute a micro fiction story anytime.]
Good luck!
Bonus Challenges:
For those of you who like to push yourselves beyond what you already know you are capable of…
Write a story using ALL of the unique story lengths: 6-words, 50-words, and 100-words.
Write a STACKed STORY. This is a story that starts as 6-words then is a continuation story at 50-words, then has a conclusion of 100-words.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH:
These are all homemade collages using reproductions of a picture called “Heaven’s Gift” by American illustrator Annie Benson Müller, which was mass-produced in the USA through the 1930s. Crafty mamas who couldn’t afford an expensive baby book or studio portraits would glue locks of their baby’s hair and scraps from christening gowns and baby blankets to these cheap illustrations – a loving albeit slightly unsettling keepsake of their beloved babies.
Locks of Love(TW)
When assuming, always think the worst (6)
“This is some serious voodoo shit here. You keep little mementos of a dead child like a scrapbook and affix them to a baby picture on the lid of this tin box? You’ve got bits of hair, skin, teeth, scraps of clothing, all stuck to this warped collage from Hell.”(50)
“You have not understood my artwork at all. There is a long history behind this kind of adoration and adornment. How dare you critique my masterpiece, my tribute. I have lovingly assembled these tokens and keepsakes from my beloved child. Who are you to …”
Just then the small, decorated box shifted slightly, then more dramatically and emitted a soft growl.
The box pushed open from the inside to reveal an infant, toothless, shorn of all hair, flayed of all skin, shaking tiny, balled fists and howling in pain and rage.
“And who said anything about the baby being dead.”
(100)
50 words
HAIR!
Flow it, show it, long as you can grow it!
Straight or curly, always hurly-burly,
snaggy, raggy, leave it really shaggy.
Gleaming, twisted, smooth or ratted,
wear it straggled, frizzy, matted.
Beaded, braided, bangled, spangled,
let your hair be wild and tangled.
1969. Good Lord! What a year that was!