Four Word Horror Stories
(Write a horror story for your industry using just four words)*
I wrote a thing
The screen went dark
Looking good to me
It’s a nice start
First, wait for inspiration
Good stuff in here!
Looking forward to reading
Have fun with it
There is no funding
They paid in exposure
You should be flattered
What’s your follower count?
All in this together
Unexpected all hands meeting
CEO just walked out
Everyone is in charge
We lost your email
The attachment got corrupt
Just send an email
I already hit send
Did you reply all?
Always done this way
New strategic plan announced
First cut all trees
Nothing will really change
Wow it’s hot outside
It is too late
The roadmap is irreversible
Higher ed reform package
Teaching is a passion
Friday afternoon Faculty meeting
Grades due by tomorrow
Student evaluations are in
Your rankings have dropped
What’s your H index?
The numbers are wrong
Start a new committee
The auditors are here
They charged a commission
The client never paid
We have zero budget
We need more money
Information should be free
Personal data is property
Acquired by private equity
They withdrew the offer
No more bonuses ever
Do more with less
We lost the receipt
Email me for rates
Wait, is that public?
News has been leaked
We have no comment
Press conference is delayed
No further information available
Just one more question
More of a comment
Only fund great ideas
We want new voices
Apologies for cross posting
They wanted a name
Then they dropped it
Fill out this form
We received many applications
No proposals were selected
Used Excel for that
I know you’re busy…
You got five minutes?
I’ve a quick question…
Let’s have a meeting
It won’t be livestreamed
Both online and in-person
Lemme pick your brain
Say it like this
Turn your camera off
We can’t hear you
Your mic was live
Please check your mute
Forgot to hit record
Happened for no reason
I followed your advice
The extended warranty expired
Blue Screen of Death
All photos are gone
Try rebooting your phone
187634186 records successfully updated
There was no backup
sudo rm -rf /
The site is down
It’s still alive, no?
What’s it doing now?
The archives burnt down
Let us circle back
Just copy that app
Yes, it’s by design
New app store guidelines
They filed that thing
Research said absolutely not
Isn’t really a contract
Legal won’t sign off
That iceberg looks close!
My last minute booking
The only flight landing
Can I get tickets?
On campus accomodation provided
I need the manager
Guest cancelled last minute
Get me an upgrade
Missed the last flight
Contact the ground staff
Guest didn’t answer call
Painted the wrong house
Everyone thinks it’s over
It’s so quiet today
Kitchen is already closed
Lunch rush is coming
No paid sick leave
What could go wrong?
Big boat got stuck
We need more parking
The connectors were swapped
The labels were reversed
The intermittent symptom stopped
The drip was reopened
Unexplained loose contamination found
DNA came back positive
They found the body
The tomb was intact
Why is this wet?
There are no orders
Forgot to enter order
Sorry for the inconvenience
Client called the judge
We are fully compliant
Let’s hear both sides
This time is different
We launch Jan 1st
Move fast, break things
The computer woke up
I clicked on it
We regret the error
You trusted our users
The account got hacked
Buffer overflow in username
That’s a future issue
Let offshore handle it
My laptop just crashed
Disk not ejected properly
I fixed it myself
Rolling my own crypto
Works on my machine
The password was ‘password’
Users figured it out
The algorithm changed yesterday
Welcoming the new consultant
Can you work weekends?
HR saw the tweet
One line of JavaScript
After we switch framework
Fast, furious, full rewrite
We need multiplayer support
Just adding some code
But will it scale?
Just one more take
We need more energy
Hand over the copyright
Video is blocked worldwide
Play the song now
Auto play with sound
Let’s use stock music
Pick a default theme
It’s just a placeholder
Pay to remove watermark
We’re adding a scene
Fix it in post
My cousin knows photoshop
I can photoshop too
Make it pop more
Make the logo bigger
This isn’t finished, right?
What else you got?
Chuck has an idea
(The logo kept growing)
“Do we have this?”
Bride has new idea
Built with no code
No time for tests
After I hit commit
Force push to prod
Typo in the URL
That couldn’t happen here
We test in production
We’ll fix it later
The client has feedback
To replace print revenue
Oh, that sounds easy
I’ll think about it
We pivoted to video
They went another way
You’re watching cave shadows
What about a slideshow?
A good first draft
Your writing shows promise
The critics loved it
Publisher asked for revisions
I demand a correction
We love it but
Just a few notes
Only a small edit
Just add another chapter
Text is too long
A few minor changes
Text is too short
We found numerous typos
That’s not a word
Forgot to track changes
Reviewer 2 didn’t agree
Reviewer 3 has concerns
Missing many important references
Resubmit: major revision required
Galley proofs just arrived
One last quick proofread
Cover has a typo
Just censor bad stuff
Your story is killed
Perfect, but it peaked
Entire topic got restricted
The shifting due date
We are closing tomorrow
Is something due today?
The drop-dead-line was yesterday
Write once, run anywhere
Built on the blockchain
The Internet is down
Let’s take it offline
I need an A
I am dead, or?
The computer will decide
The lid is off
Make it go viral
That was well told
Be safe out there
* reshuffled tweets selected from https://twitter.com/MorningBrew/status/1409924767147245572 on 30.6.2021