Archive of Our Own

“We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark; and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin on fantasy literature in World magazine (1976)

“The imagination can transfigure the dark matter of life. ... I want to recognise something I never saw before. I want the vision to leap out at me, terrible and blazing—the fire of the transfiguring imagination. … Fiction is experience translated by, transformed by, transfigured by the imagination.”

—Ursula K. Le Guin on the act of writing in The Wave in the Mind (2004)

This flash comp is an invitation to take a leap and explore the gap between imagination and language. The majority of the prompts are words from languages other than English and are intended to spark your imagination so you can run wild with it.

Take any aspect of your prompt for inspiration. Maybe you take the prompt and turn it into a character trait, a plot point, a theme, a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, or even use it to inspire the form or structure the story takes. Maybe you take the prompt and turn it into something entirely different and unexpected. More than anything, I hope this flash comp gives you the space to surprise yourself during the writing process.

Timeline

The challenge runs June 22 - July 5, 2025. All times are displayed in Central European Summer Time (GMT +02:00). Please double check with your own timezone.

Claims Open: June 22, 11 AM
Submissions Due: July 1, 7 PM
Work Reveals: July 1, 9 PM
Voting Due & Author Reveals: July 5, 11 AM
Awards: July 5, 6 PM

General Rules

- Must be a member of the Dragon Heart-String Discord server. Contact host if you need an invite to the server.
- 20 prompts are available with a 200 - 2000 word count limit. Submissions should be a complete, standalone piece. No WIPs or multi-chapter fics.
- Claims are first-come/first-served; one prompt claim per person and one person per prompt.
- All writers must read and vote to be eligible for awards.
- Do not share your work anywhere else before author reveals.
- One beta and one alpha are allowed but not required; they cannot be participating in the challenge.
- Absolutely no use of generative AI allowed (Chat GPT, Claude Sonnet, etc.).
- You must tag your work appropriately and use archive warnings.

Rules Specific for this Challenge

- In the spirit of the flash comp theme, please don’t use the word from your prompt in your story or the title of your story.
- For this challenge, implicit/explicit sexual content is allowed as long as it is not the main focus of the story or serves the plot in some way. Please, no full on smut fics.
- Open to all pairings and gen fics are encouraged.
- AUs are welcome, but no crossovers.
- Dark content, including dead doves, are okay so long as the work is tagged appropriately. Notable exceptions: No pedophilia, no necrophilia, no bestiality.
- There will not be author guessing this round. Writers are highly encouraged to comment and kudos on each other’s works.

Awards

Award Categories subject to change (i.e. if there is only one gen fic, I will rework or replace the Ballad category)

- The Lyrical Ballad: Best Gen Fic
- The Alluring Aubade: Favorite First Line
- The Sublime: Most Poetic Use of Language
- The Volta: Best Use of Prompt
- Ars Poetica: Best Worldbuilding
- The Operetta: Overall Favorite, 200-1000 words
- The Opera: Overall Favorite, 1001-2000 words
- The Nocturne: Host’s Favorite

Playlist

Main playlist for the flash comp, which is mostly instrumental and for vibes: here.