Flash Fiction Challenge: Predictive Text Fun

So, I love the predictive text meme, where you tell a short little story or poem or sentence based on the predictive text your phone or mobile device gives you —


Like, last week, one was to type in “I was born” and then let predictive text fill in your autobiography, and mine came up with:


“I was born a perfectionist and a monster


I had no idea what I was doing”


And I thought, goddamn, that’s fucking good.


That’s “opening line of a memorable novel” good.


So, let’s play with predictive text here today.


Start with the words, “Once upon a time,” and then let predictive text take over the story. Keep tapping the predicted words (you should get three choices, I think, at least you do on an iPhone) until you’re satisfied with the story. Note: we’re not really looking for complete stories here, just a sentence that could serve as an interesting opening line or weird little narrative. We’re doing this in part because a good number of you are, I’m guessing, neck-deep in NaNoWriMo, so this should serve as a fast and easy steam-release of storytelling fun.


You can drop your predictive tales right into the comments below.


[My example: “Once upon a time I had a great idea, and when it got to the end, the first person who wrote it out for me died.” Commas added by me, not the predictive text.]


[EDIT: Interestingly, you can also change the predictive story by adding bits to Once upon a time — such as, “Once upon a time there was,” or “Once upon a time I was” etc.etc.]

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Published on November 10, 2017 06:55
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message 1: by Andy (new)

Andy Luke Once upon a time in the middle of nowhere and the bottom of the American Presidential race...


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