Journal logo

Microfiction Challenge Collection 2023

A Complete List of all 29 of My Entries into the 2023 Microfiction Challenge

By Megan Baker (Left Vocal in 2023)Published 10 months ago Updated 10 months ago 23 min read
1
Microfiction Challenge Collection 2023
Photo by Umesh Soni on Unsplash

First off, I've got a lot of new folks checking things out after my latest Top Story. I was surprised that one even became one and it feels wrong to promote it openly myself given the sad content, so I won't. But hello, new subs! If I've seemed a bit too active for your tastes so far, do understand that right now is unusual for my turnout for Vocal. Usually, you won't find me posting for at least 1-2 weeks between long posts (usually 3-5,000 words) unless I'm cramming in last-minute entries for challenges. With the current challenges - and the Microfiction one that just wrapped up - I am more active currently. But this came after about a month or so of not being active at all and I expect that after this current rash of stories, I will probably return to a slower pace of turnout. I write a lot of fiction, mostly, but I do enjoy making "Baker's Dozen" lists (lists of 13 things I typically like) and I also write candid experiences about my mental health.

That all said, let's get into it! Despite not cranking out as many stories as I'd hoped, we've got quite a list to look at!

When I first read about the Microfiction challenge, I thought I could churn out a shit-ton of small stories. I mean, I kinda still did, but I expected to do a lot more, especially in terms of using oracle cards - and fortune cookies. But, you know... life. And death. And PTSD... Yeah. I didn't quite squeeze in 30, but 29 isn't anything to scoff about either. Not even with how short 100-word stories are. Selecting the pictures alone...

I saw the possibility to finally hit 100 stories on Vocal after over two years - I only needed about 8 stories at the start of the challenge. I met that goal and then some. I don't think hitting 100 awards a bonus like I'd thought (maybe I was thinking how much bonuses totaled in the past?), so that's a bit of a bummer as I was hoping to cancel out this year's Vocal+ cost. But 100 stories!

'bout time...

The point of this piece is to put all my entries in one spot for others to see, and to give any extra information about pieces that might be fun to know! All stories on this list are 100 words or less. Micro-fiction, yeah? I hope you'll check them out!

Below, my 29 entries into the Microfiction challenge! Some text is taken from a post listing the stories on my personal Facebook page. I hope you enjoy!

1) "A Raccoon Dreamed of the Zaqqum Tree"

By Successfully Canadian on Unsplash

A raccoon dreams of the tree of Zaqqum, shortened to Zaqqum tree for word count.

"I used various oracle card decks to help make this story (just for something different for such short microfiction), which is where the Zaqqum tree came in to play. For the record, I am not religious and spent all of two minutes looking up the tree; I drew the tree from the tree deck when I was figuring out the setting, so... here we are. Think it turned out decent, all things considered!"

Indeed, I used a combination of 4 oracle card decks in order to write this short tale! It was fun taking random cards and connecting them through the story, and I look forward to using the cards again in the future for other stories! I meant to do a lot more this way, but it is a little more time-consuming rather than just clickety-clack on the laptop.

For the curious, those 4 oracle decks are: an animal oracle card (how I got the raccoon and bugs), a tree deck, a dream deck (why there is flying and sailing), and a self-care deck (hey, you do what you can to motivate yourself to take care of yourself with depression and PTSD, okay? Sometimes getting a card that says, "hey, be nice to yourself" reminds you to be nice to yourself!).

2) "The Coffee Fairy Visits"

By Jarek Ceborski on Unsplash

A visit with the coffee fairy!

It's been a cool and rainy May; perfect weather for nice, warm cups of coffee! I've been enjoying some flavored coffees just to mix things up as well, and I'm quite happy I did. Just wanted to share that; it's the little things like mixing flavors up every now and then.

When thinking about the "magic" in "Microfiction Magic", naturally, I had to start thinking about fairies - especially as the backyard greened up and grew wild from all the rain!

3) "The Bubbly Seahorse"

By Mikhail Preobrazhenskiy on Unsplash

"A silly seahorse practices self-care to decide what life she wants for herself. This is another piece created with some oracle cards - this time, only the self-care deck."

As stated above, this was another piece that used oracle cards. This time, however, I only pulled from the self-care deck to make an unusually optimistic story.

I will say that this time I chose the animal myself; I'm quite partial to seahorses. They hold a very special place in my heart. I once used to have a dried-out one, but I lost it under my parents' front porch decades ago. I often wonder if it's still there, stuck beneath the planks...

4) "The Sea Turtle Dreamed"

By Randall Ruiz on Unsplash

"A sea turtle's dream, as determined by more oracle cards (having fun with it and the results haven't been terrible yet so... why not?). This one did go from light, to slightly weird, to dark."

I tried to use several cards from several oracle card decks again for this one, and the results weren't awful. A little weird at parts, but overall, not bad. Given it is a sea turtle's dream, though, that's okay.

5) "I Finally Won Something on Vocal"

By Alexander Grey on Unsplash

"Contrary to the title, no, I have never won anything on Vocal (which is why it's fiction). Given they don't help promote writers much at all and I loathe self-promoting and all the sucky ways other Vocal writers try to engage me... I'd rather pull teeth. What happened to platforms doing the bulk of promoting? Yeah..."

I haven't been super happy with the platform for close to a year now, and after that latest dry spell of a month or so, that came out in this piece. I've got pieces looking at the good and the bad of Vocal (in my opinion) in the works, but ongoing challenges take priority once this one is finished. I might even do a post on "what would I do if I actually won something on Vocal?".

To clarify on the full quote from Facebook, I'm not a fan of how the "answer" to more views on Vocal according to Vocal is largely, "hey, after you brainstorm, write, edit, proofread, take/add pictures to this post, also promote it as much as you can by yourself while very little is done on the platform you pay to promote your work"...

I've been so disinterested in writing here this year - not for lack of prompts or not wanting to share things, just... why bother when no one is going to see it? There's some passive promoting here, but... Nowhere near enough. And then I can't tell you how many author pages I've been asked to follow that, honestly, I don't care that much about. Like, I like folks here, but there's not a single one I want to hear that much from, you know? I know where to find you lot.

Okay, I didn't want to get so in-depth into this here, but, uh, this is happening now, and I will elaborate much more in the actual post that will be dedicated to this kind of thing...

I was pissed when Vocal introduced notifications with no way to toggle them off. I was subscribed to most of the big 1% on Vocal - those like 8 people who get Top Stories week after week after week - literally, you can't go a week without seeing one - and often several - of them. Part of their success is writing multiple stories daily, and I hated seeing the same 8 names on every Facebook Page, Discord group, Top Story section, author pages, and now Vocal notifications. Still hate it, really, but they're all great folks. There's just no fucking variety. We know they're good - how 'bout you promote someone that could use more subs and views instead of the same 8 with largely the same overlapping subs?

You know what happened when I couldn't toggle off notifications? I un-subbed from damn near every one of those top 1%. I was so sick of getting walls of notifications for their stuff and none of the smaller writers that might only write every week or so. I think someone from the Vocal team even commented on my comment about not having a toggle, but you know what happened there? The notification got buried under those new 1% stories - and I said, "seems fitting - I'm not looking for it". And I never read that comment response. I am over this frustrating shit. Good intentions, maybe, but kinda shit design and execution folks. Maybe instead of a list of every damn thing someone wrote today, compact that shit into, "so-and-so published x amount of stories in the last 24 hours/week" and let people choose to expand that or not. The last day of this Microfiction challenge? My subscribers would have been hit with I think 9-12 notifications about my stupid little things. No one wants to see/hear/read that much of me, I promise. I was probably really annoying to folks during this challenge with 29 posts and I don't dig being annoying, especially to folks who I want to read my shit. I know those 1% were annoying as shit to me when I was getting their endless notifications. It's so nice and quiet now - and I'm subbed to like 150 people.

Related tangent; I recall when there was going to be a like, get-together in New York last year for Vocal creators. I considered going as a spontaneous adult trip (I've never lived on my own, I'm in an identity crisis, and I thought maybe a small trip like that would be a short-term way to test out who I am when left on my own). As soon as I saw someone post, "Oh, a great way to network", I lost all interest; I'd been excited about the prospect of chatting it up with other folks that enjoy writing and having this little solo adventure, not that networking bullshit. Get a fucking life.

I dunno. I'm here to create and write - fuck that self-promotion bullshit. Some, sure, I don't mind - but it shouldn't all fall on us alone to also promote the shit. What do I pay the platform for? Sure, entries into extra challenges, but for fuck's sake... Make it worth something without having to put even more time into what I could be using to write another post instead. If I hadn't "had" to promote all 29 of these micro-fiction stories on Facebook and Instagram, I probably could have gotten at least another 6 in for 35 total entries. By the way, despite all that promoting I tried on Facebook and Instagram and trying hashtags - still very few reads on all of these.

So... it kinda feels like a big waste of my time. And I really hate big wastes of my time...

So bearing all that in mind, that was where I was at when I wrote this piece. Very frustrated by all this for like a year, lot of internal struggles with PTSD and our friend being murdered in the last like month, and yeah... Kinda looking at this platform like, "what the hell am I doing here? I feel like this is wasting so much of my time for absolutely nothing or next to nothing". This little section for this piece? The last couple paragraphs? Took like 30+ minutes because I'm trying to put to words the frustrations of an entire year and then I have to go and self-edit because as crude and long as some of this is... you should've seen how it was. I tone it down, believe or not. But, as I said, I've got pieces dedicated to the good and bad on the platform in the works; this is just blowing off steam until they're finished. Sorry - I know this was long and angry. The rest are actual fun stories, I promise.

6) "The Stoner Fairy"

By GRAS GRÜN on Unsplash

Okay, let's chill after that...

"Here I introduce you all to the Stoner Fairy! She’s really budding into the joint! Why don’t you come meet her - she’s very chill!"

Honestly? Though it's still fairly new, I'm surprised this one hasn't had any views yet; usually, weed draws a crowd. Much like my story of the Coffee Fairy, here we take a look at the chill counterpart, the Stoner Fairy.

And no, I don't mix cheese and carbs and peanut butter - I just cobbled some nonsense together for that stereotypical "stoner brain/stomach". Trust me, I've made some... creative dishes to satisfy a high mind. But not cheese and peanut butter... Ew.

7) "A Skeleton Fell Out of the Hanging Tree"

By Tamara Gore on Unsplash

"A creepy tale about a reanimated thief."

Here, a tale of the fate of a thief's corpse takes a wild ride. Suspected to have been reanimated by the local coven, the thief is said to steal the lives of the unwary!

I may - and by that I mean totally - have Halloween on the brain. To be fair, I like and have Gothic decor, so I kinda always have Halloween on the brain. But especially lately... So I wanted to start making some creepy short tales for Halloween (hey, I try to think ahead as far as content goes).

8 ) "The Tea-Time Fairy"

By Content Pixie on Unsplash

"A warm cup of micro-fiction featuring the Tea-Time Fairy!"

What can I say? I was having fun making a whole slew of fairy stories!

This one was also partially inspired by my having a friend over the day prior to writing this for our own tea-time! I rarely do a large gathering - usually only one or two other people. She enjoys chamomile tea, which is why that line is in there; I haven't yet tried chamomile and am partial to chai/herbal teas. It was a fun, cheery write!

9) "My Pet Stegosaurus"

By Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

‌"Fun and whimsical story of a pet Stegosaurus (my favorite)!"

As stated in my quote above, Stegosaurus is my favorite dinosaur! If I wasn't thinking about Halloween tales or Fairies, I was thinking about prehistoric life.

In this short, we look at a very light-hearted tale about finding and keeping a pet Stegosaurus - including using it in place of a car to get around!

10) "My Neighbor's T-rex Bitey"

By Fausto García-Menéndez on Unsplash

"Fun follow-up to "My Pet Stegosaurus", featuring the neighbor's T-rex!"

While Stegosaurus is my favorite, I can't deny the pull T-rex has in the public sphere. Naturally, when writing a follow-up, I had to include the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

In it, my neighbor also finds an egg in the desert, but his hatches into the predatory T-rex! Admittedly, T-rex and Stegosaurus didn't exist at the same time, so this was the only way both could meet.

So come say hi to Bitey (originally I was gonna name him Steve)! Just mind the teeth. His name is Bitey for a reason...

11) "A Mothman Sighting"

By Jackie Martinez on Unsplash

"A Micro-fiction sighting of the cryptid, Mothman."

We dabbled with fairies; here, we start cranking out cryptid tales! Again, with Halloween on my mind, I started trying to make some creepy sightings ahead of time. Plus, I always enjoy listening to reports of sightings.

Really makes you wonder what could still be out there sometimes.

Any case, in this one, we take a look at the infamous/famous red-eyed flyer, the Mothman of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

12) "Smashed Pumpkins - Distressing Theme"

By Marius Ciocirlan on Unsplash

"This one gets dark, and contains a content warning for unintended death of an infant. The premise of a baby in a pumpkin is actually something that truly happened; I was born premature and tiny and my sister put me in a jack-o-lantern my first Halloween. Naturally, I had to ask myself as an adult, "how wrong could that have gone?" This one seemed to work really well for the shortness of micro-fiction - effective, but sad and dark."

Yeah, you read that right. As far as the micro-fiction shorts go, this one is so far the darkest, and it was based upon a truth from my own life!

So the full story is that, my first Halloween (I would have been like 2 months old and I was a small, premature baby), there were so many trick-or-treaters that my parents had to run out and get more candy. My half-sister, 13 at the time, realized I was small enough to fit in the jack-o-lantern, and placed me in it while they were gone. While it was cute and worth a laugh, as I've grown, I can't help but turn that into a worst-case-scenario type of tale. Combined with smashing pumpkins as some folks do... I had my dark tale.

I was actually very surprised how eager I was to use the micro-fiction format for this tale; I've wanted to write the idea out for a number of years, but I worried how graphic I might make it in longer fiction. Condensing it to the 100 word limit seemed to work very well, and despite the dark content, this is one of my favorites for this challenge.

13) "A Goat-man Sighting"

By David Boca on Unsplash

"A micro-fiction featuring a Goat-man sighting (I might already have Halloween on the brain - haven't decorated for it due to COVID-19 for the last few years and I'm so excited to decorate the yard this year!)."

While we already covered my having Halloween on the brain, this was the story I announced that fact under on Facebook. It is another cryptid sighting tale - this time, we take a look at the Goat-man.

Goat-men from around the States often have mysterious origin stories, and this piece reflected that, looking at accidents and curses. And we threw in an axe for good measure.

14) "Dog-man Sighted"

By Jp Valery on Unsplash

"In this tale, folks weather a night in their car with the Dog-man trying his best to get in."

Is there anything more iconic about cryptid sightings than cars being broken down on the road? It's like a must!

Focused on the Michigan version of the Dog-man, folks wait out the predator trying to break in to their broken-down car during a Michigan winter!

15) "The Thing Under My Bed"

By Jp Valery on Unsplash

"A short tale of the typical "monster under the bed" variety."

I didn't want every Halloween-themed tale to be a particular cryptid, but I was having a lot of fun with the creepy sighting vein. Naturally, I turned to the old classics like "the monster under the bed".

16) "Spiderweb Symphonies"

By Nick Fewings on Unsplash

"A tale of nature's natural harpists. More whimsical than most on this list."

Still creepy-ish, but this was a more whimsical, elegant piece than most written for this challenge. Here, a spider's web is lure and trap; an elegant pied piper for unsuspecting insects.

17) "Silhouettes on Loch Ness"

By Ezra Winston on Unsplash

"A sighting on Loch Ness."

This was a super simple premise based on so many reported Loch Ness monster sightings; monster hunters see something strange on Loch Ness, but fail to capture it on camera.

This is perhaps the downside of micro-fiction; these sighting type of stories would likely do better at standing out with more details, but for the overall sense of most sightings, micro-fiction isn't terrible and makes us deliver such things more directly.

Pros and cons. I don't think it turned out terrible, but I would have rather fleshed this tale out.

18 ) "The Smiling Deer"

By Jeremy Manoto on Unsplash

"A tale of an encounter with a smiling not-deer."

For those that have never heard of "not-deer", well... they're just what they sound like. Not deer. Except, at first, they are often mistaken for deer...

This was actually my first-ever attempt at a not-deer focus! I've enjoyed podcasts telling tales of the creatures, though. Many focus on the odd manner in which the creatures move, or odd behavior.

Like, I dunno; smiling at passerby with sharp fangs...

19) "Fairies of the Snowfall"

By Jessica Fadel on Unsplash

"The elegance of snowflakes with a touch of fairy."

Thought I was done with fairies? Think again!

In fact, I had several more fairy ideas including the other seasons that I just never got to! But at least I managed to fit this one in!

Snowfall has never been so elegant a dance...

20) "Phantoms"

By Drew Tilk on Unsplash

"A micro-fiction looking at hauntings and ghosts."

Why do the dead linger on? Well, there's a host of reasons, so come check them out!

Here, we take a look at phantoms and their haunting behaviors. Not a super fleshed-out tale, but it also didn't really need to be.

21) "Life in Azeroth: Shadowsithe Ghostsrike"

"I decided to try a micro-fiction for my World of Warcraft main, Shadowsithe Ghoststrike before the challenge closes tonight."

As we can see here, the Facebook text mentions that this was the last day of the challenge! In my recent "Baker's Dozen" post celebrating 100 stories on the platform, I lamented how I always wanted to write more about my World of Warcraft main but never really knew how I wanted to go about it - what I wanted to share. Especially as a gold and mat farmer and seller - I don't need to help out the competition.

Here, I decided to showcase my main as I see her: a bulk farmer and seller as well as a helpful guide and giveaway host! I've been enjoying playing her since her creation in 2009, so to say this character is a big part of my life is an understatement! She's even got playlists I've made dedicated to her!

22) "The Headless Horseman"

By Valeriy Kryukov on Unsplash

"An encounter with the Headless Horseman!"

Hot on the heels of my own ghastly rider, Shadowsithe Ghoststrike, this spooky tale delivers a headless horseman sighting as he bolts across a bridge, throwing his jack-o-lantern head at the trespassers to his bridge.

23) "Mammoth Reincarnate"

By Maud Beauregard on Unsplash

"A story of a mammoth reincarnated."

While there's still some spooky entries coming up, I wanted to switch things up at this point - on the last day - of the Microfiction challenge. And so, we went the prehistoric route again. This time, we didn't go as far back as the dinosaurs, though.

Here, "I" am a mammoth reincarnated, walking the plains "I" did many lifetimes ago as the resident giant of the land.

Given that I recently joined in in a webinar about South Dakota's The Mammoth Site and received one of the tapestries I've been waiting a long time for - with, you guessed it, mammoths...

Well what else would we expect from me? I'd love to go to the dig site, but that is outside my budget. So, here's as close to mammoths as I can get right now.

24) "The Hunt"

By Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash

"A prehistoric hunt gone wrong."

Still in the vein of prehistoric life, here we look at a prehistoric hunt gone wrong. It wasn't just the fear of a stampede our ancestors needed to worry about; there were plenty of much larger, more formidable beasts roaming the land.

25) "Thunderseeker"

By Victor Chartin on Unsplash

"Thunderseeker lives up to their name, only how they seek it out is dangerous at best..."

Thunderseeker is well-named, as they (I never specified a gender in the 100 words) seek out thunder in all forms, no matter the danger.

This, it turns out, includes getting a little too close to a herd of bison for that ground-thunder...

26) "Monster in My Closet"

By DDP on Unsplash

"A look at the monster in my closet."

Back to creep-city with this entry! We saw the monster under the bed...

But now it's time to visit the one in the closet...

27) "The Jersey Devil"

By Lorenzo Fustaino on Unsplash

"An encounter with the Jersey Devil!"

Yeah, it's not a Halloween or cryptid list without the Jersey Devil!

The long version of this monstrosity of horse, bat, and spaded tail is that Mother Leeds, pregnant with her 13th child, cursed the child, wishing it would be a devil (I mean, I don't even want 1 kid - 13 sounds awful!). Supposedly, at birth, the baby was normal and healthy, but very quickly transformed into a freakish beast unlike anything seen alive today. It then fled into the forest where it has since dwelled for hundreds of years.

28) "The Rake"

By Stefano Pollio on Unsplash

"An encounter with the cryptid, the Rake."

No, we aren't talking about a garden rake, folks; this creature is the stuff of nightmares. I've even had nightmares involving what could be considered the Rake - before I had even become aware of the cryptid!

Gangly, paper-white, with a terrible jaw packed with needle-sharp teeth...

29) "The Wine-Bearer Fairy"

By Jeff Siepman on Unsplash

"A fun night with the wine fairy!"

This was it, folks; the very last entry I fit in for the Microfiction challenge! After a long day writing out 9-12 of these short tales between other household tasks, I was ready for a glass of wine. Given I had just been promoting fairy stories of coffee, tea, and weed... Well, I couldn't just leave the Wine Fairy out, now could I?

She's quite sweet and just wants everyone to have a good time. She's a great host too - there's always plenty for everyone! So raise your glass and let's toast the wine-bearer!

Thank you for checking this list out. I imagine one is due for the recent "Unexpected Uncovering" challenge as well, which I dumped, I think, 23 of my old fiction stories into. In fact, this is the first time in a long time that I never entered a new piece into a challenge! All the entries I submitted for that one were old stories. I also imagine a few "Baker's Dozen" lists around Halloween will touch on some of these micro-fiction shorts.

As for micro-fiction's place on Vocal in the future, in my opinion? I'm not opposed, though I also don't know if i'd want it around all the time - especially as Top Stories if 100 words is going to net the same $5 that a 5,000 word story is. that just seems so wrong. But I did think it was useful for some tales that I wanted to tell but didn't want to get too graphic with and would like the chance to work with it more in the future.

Thank you for your time! Feel free to like, share, and/or tip! It means a lot to me - especially for my longer works here!

If you are interested in some of my longer fiction, here are a few that could use more views that have similar themes to those on this list:

"Digging the Digs" - A fictional first date at a fossil dig!

"The Pleistocene Death Trap" - A fictional tale of an exceptional prehistoric dig.

"Glare" - A couple staying at a cabin encounter something staring at them from the woods.

travelsocial mediapop culturelisthumanityfeaturefact or fictioncriminals
1

About the Creator

Megan Baker (Left Vocal in 2023)

A fun spin on her last name, Baker enjoyed creating "Baker's Dozen" lists for various topics! She also wrote candidly about her mental health & a LOT of fiction. Discontinued writing on Vocal in 2023 as Vocal is a fruitless venture.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

Megan Baker (Left Vocal in 2023) is not accepting comments at the moment

Want to show your support? Send them a one-off tip.

Find us on social media

Miscellaneous links

  • Explore
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Support

© 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.