The Story Behind the Stories
Check out Auld Lang Syne and Surreal Estate at Quotidian Bagatelle.
WARNING: Here Be Spoilers
I did my first Twisted Tournament in February 2025. I had writing friends that raved about the competition so I joined, though the thought of writing 3 stories in such a short time – especially a 250-word and a 100-word – scared me.
The prompts for the 250 round I received were:
Assigned Prompt 1: Ghostly
Assigned Prompt 2: Something broken
Assigned Prompt 3: A Deal Is Made
Ghostly made me think “haunted house” and the “deal is made” prompt brought the realtor to mind. Something broken would be easy to work in, so I just needed a bit more – namely, plot. I’d seen cheeky “not haunted” signs before on for sale signs and the story just developed from there. I knew comedy was a risk (and it was- the story didn’t do well in the competition) but it was really where the idea was taking me. Despite the poor contest performance, I enjoyed writing Surreal Estate and am so glad QB felt the same way about reading it!
The prompts I received for the 100 round were:
Assigned Prompt 1: Rooftop garden
Assigned Prompt 2: A countdown ends
I actually wrote an entirely different story first. Sadder and very “end of the world” with the countdown aspect. But it felt overly trope laden. So then I got the idea of trying a story that feels like one thing but becomes something different once you read the end, which felt like a challenge in 100 words. A countdown made the New Year’s Eve setting perfect and the rooftop garden gave me the idea for the murder. The story came from there. This one almost made the leaderboard. I think it is a lot of fun and I’m stoked QB wanted to publish it!