A hundred words of awesome

April 13, 2009 9:02 AM

Name Your Tale. Submit a title, and and one of the authors of Name Your Tale will write a 100-word short story based on the submitted title. For example, "Andrew Received Cancer."[via mefi projects]
posted by dersins (22 comments total)

Wow this looks like fun!
posted by Mister_A at 10:02 AM on April 13

I'm just going to hang out here until missjenny writes my story...
posted by Mister_A at 10:04 AM on April 13

Ooh! Update!

Still not done.
posted by Mister_A at 10:07 AM on April 13

This is an interesting project....in this age of immediate gratification, does anyone have the patience to wait for an actual human to complete a task?
posted by technically yours at 10:26 AM on April 13

I sure hope they do, technically yours! But I think having an actual human write you a story is worth the wait. Of course, I might be biased :)

Submit your story and you'll get an e-mail as soon as it's posted. And, yeah, it might be a while, but when you do get that e-mail, we hope it'll kind of be like when you find $5 in the pocket of some jeans you haven't worn in some time.
posted by missjenny at 10:38 AM on April 13

I have suggested a title for a short tail. We shall see.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:44 AM on April 13

I just tried to submit this title:

Achooo: The tale of the hyperallergic man and the woman he loves who owns a breed of cat so allergen rich that scientists do allergy research with them, their desperate attempts to live together, and the ridiculous lengths (like this title) they go to in order to maximize the amount of time they spend together, while allowing the man to breathe and the woman to spend enough time with her cherished cat so that she doesn't feel like she is giving up on her cat to be with the man she loves because she is an egalitarian in that way.

but it wouldn't let me, since there is a 100 character limit on titles. Dang!
posted by birdsquared at 10:46 AM on April 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

I would've loved to write the story to this: "Achooo: The tale of the hyperallergic man and the woman he loves "
posted by missjenny at 10:49 AM on April 13

Hi missjenny, this looks like a lot of fun for youse as well as us. A couple of question: Do you count hyphenated words as one word or two? Also, I don't remember if I put my name to my title submission! Zoinks! Is there any way to check?

IRFH–tell me more about this tail of yours.
posted by Mister_A at 11:02 AM on April 13

"It's very hard living in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin". That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:23 AM on April 13 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Exploding Dog Works Best When It Doesn't Drabble."
posted by adipocere at 11:35 AM on April 13

Birdsquared -- Your title is in the queue and already been claimed. Keep an eye out for your e-mail!
posted by missjenny at 12:03 PM on April 13

No one's mentioned the quality of the writing -- it's surprisingly engrossing for the length. Neat idea, too.
posted by spiderskull at 12:10 PM on April 13

IRFH–tell me more about this tail of yours.

It's very short. Hence, my suggested title was, "Manx." Thanks for playing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:22 PM on April 13

My submission: "The Savant Cleaned Up Good".

I'm impatient to see if they use it. Someone else write it.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 12:38 PM on April 13

How about... "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote". Or maybe... "The Mayonnaise Chapter".
[yes, I'm feeling metafictional today]
posted by Creosote at 1:01 PM on April 13

By the way, adorable.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 1:23 PM on April 13

My submission: "No One Thinks They're a Hipster."

This is such a great idea. Kudos missjenny et al.
posted by defenestration at 1:38 PM on April 13

I'm already unhealthily addicted to this. Thanks missjenny (and friends)!
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 1:41 PM on April 13

This is great! I'm hoping they'll write my story, "The Pomegranate Experiment."
posted by joannemerriam at 6:25 PM on April 13

Thanks missjenny - I await with bated breath.
posted by birdsquared at 10:36 PM on April 13

I really like this idea. We used to do something similar, only with erotic stories--give us a fantasy and we'd create a custom erotic story for you.
posted by misha at 2:40 PM on April 14