Flash Fiction Challenge: Time Again To Write An Opening Sentence
That classic challenge is back:
Do not write a story.
Nope. Mm-mm, don’t do it.
Instead:
Write only an opening sentence.
Not two sentences. Not three. One. Good. Sentence.
Drop the opening sentence in the comments below, and then next week we will make use of some of those sentences for the next challenge. You’ve got one week — due by next Friday, the 17th, noon EST. Get cracking, word-herders.
April 12, 2015 @ 11:01 AM
My faith in the possibility of the impossible died a little more with each passing year.
April 12, 2015 @ 11:47 AM
(You can’t really expect us to come up with only one, can you?)
The journey between the walls of Ilyria and the gates of Bastandion is over five thousand miles, yet I had to make it on my own.
The baby wouldn’t stop screaming, so I ate him.
The day the robots came, I was playing baseball in the back garden with my kid sister.
It’s not every day you open the door to find your own future self knocking; in my case, it’s only on Wednesdays.
Thomas Edwards walked through his front door, closed it behind himself, and hung his head up on the hanger in the hall.
The snakes were moving again.
If there was one thing he hated more than anything else, Rodrigo would reflect later, it was women who smoked.
It took Jane a moment to realise what was unusual about the letter, but then she noticed that the postmark was the next day.
Phil had read that there were three thousand ways to kill a man; he only knew four hundred himself, but he was still an apprentice.
It was on the ninetieth day of the rains that I noticed something odd.
“Miaow,” said the dog.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:45 AM
The last one is brilliant :’)
April 14, 2015 @ 1:04 PM
That second one is a story all on it’s own. Not sure how one could expand on it. “Then the police showed up” maybe? Perhaps? What an opening line!
April 15, 2015 @ 4:12 AM
The envelope please.. and the award goes to ‘The Letter’.
April 12, 2015 @ 12:21 PM
“Well, that’s bleeding a lot more than I thought it would.”
April 12, 2015 @ 12:35 PM
Haha! Laughed out loud…
April 12, 2015 @ 1:50 PM
ha! Oh, I like this.
April 13, 2015 @ 2:50 PM
Glad to know I’m not the only person who thought this was funny. 🙂
April 12, 2015 @ 12:53 PM
I supposed this all started with paper: real paper.
April 12, 2015 @ 12:59 PM
“I TOLD you if you clicked on that link you’d burst into flames.”
April 13, 2015 @ 1:25 PM
Lol! That’s great!
April 15, 2015 @ 5:01 AM
I thought clicking on links that then empty your bank account was bad but you’re right, flames will beat that every time.
April 12, 2015 @ 1:17 PM
He opened the door and stared out at the vast blackness of space before him.
(Run-on sentence, probably?)
April 12, 2015 @ 1:24 PM
The stains from dragon vomit almost never came out, and being covered in it while standing in a pile of manure, Donovan should have known better than to think the day couldn’t get any worse.
April 14, 2015 @ 12:18 AM
What a beauty! Too good for a short; there’s a novel or series in this. Very nicely done.
April 14, 2015 @ 7:22 AM
https://p33d33.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/how-to-annoy-your-human-a-chuck-wendig-challenge-3/
Thank you, Tori. That was fun.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:12 AM
Glad you liked it. Nice story! Opening lines happens to be one of the areas I do well.
April 12, 2015 @ 1:38 PM
Granted once more the benefit of the doubt, Jirix’s apprentice had set the attic on fire again.
April 12, 2015 @ 1:55 PM
Nick glared at the detour sign and drove around it onto the darkening road.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:35 AM
Mindset of main character and a little something about his/her personality in 14 words- nicely done!!
April 12, 2015 @ 2:40 PM
I stood motionless, up to mis cojones in a murky soup that resembled the bitter cacao the savages drank, while creatures I was glad I could not see scrabbled past my legs.
My One Good Opening Sentence, Challenge by Chuck Wendig | Brenna Faye
April 12, 2015 @ 2:42 PM
[…] This challenge by Chuck Wendig seemed really fun. So I decided to try it out. This is my one good opening sentence: […]
April 12, 2015 @ 2:43 PM
“Let go of the past,” Madeline’s mother had always warned her, “for it feeds upon us all with great appetite, and wants to live again.”
April 13, 2015 @ 7:24 AM
thats an awesome saying. well done
April 13, 2015 @ 1:24 PM
Thank you!
April 14, 2015 @ 12:21 AM
This. I’m thinking dragons and time travel.
April 14, 2015 @ 5:04 AM
https://p33d33.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/madeline-a-chuck-wendig-challenge-1/
*Multiple Warnings* gooey romantic chick stuff, planetary distress, guy having to dance with girl, accidental bottom grabbing, songs ‘Let it Go’, ‘Because of You’, and ‘When the Rain Comes’ running through my head.
Thanks for the opening line, Brenna.
April 16, 2015 @ 12:27 PM
I just love this one…I don’t write science fiction so this opinions a world of possibilities.
April 12, 2015 @ 2:51 PM
The Forum demanded sacrifice for security, poverty for a prosperous community, and death for the chance to survive.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:46 AM
Awesome
April 12, 2015 @ 3:31 PM
“Hey, Buster, is that the best fucking outhouse you ever saw?”
April 12, 2015 @ 8:10 PM
LOL
April 12, 2015 @ 4:21 PM
Silenced gunshots are still pretty damn loud, no matter what the movies tell you.
April 12, 2015 @ 4:59 PM
There’s not much you can do with a Glock in your ear.
April 12, 2015 @ 5:24 PM
Having armed strangers of questionable intent breaking the front door down had always been one of Vaccre’s least favourite ways to begin a new day, not least because mahogany was just so expensive now.
April 12, 2015 @ 5:24 PM
iwords1@blogspot.com
April 12, 2015 @ 5:32 PM
When I wake up, the house is too quiet, my feet stretch out seeking to untangle myself form the sheet I’ve twisted into throughout the night.
iwords1.blogspot.com
April 12, 2015 @ 7:04 PM
She knew what he was going to ask; trouble was, she didn’t know what she was going to say.
April 12, 2015 @ 7:29 PM
The darkroom was decades unused, but she found it still suitable for developing photos; and as the contours of the images darkened and formed, so did her impression of the mother she thought she knew.
April 13, 2015 @ 6:45 AM
This is really disturbing. Hope you like horror.
April 14, 2015 @ 5:20 AM
https://p33d33.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/zee-a-chuck-wendig-challenge-2/
*Multiple warnings* strong continuous horror, catastrophic violence, disturbing image.*
Thanks for the first sentence, devsmess.
April 14, 2015 @ 6:21 AM
You’re welcome. 😀
April 12, 2015 @ 8:05 PM
If her raspy breathing didn’t alert him to her presence in the dank closet, surely the blood seeping underneath would.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:50 AM
well now i fear for her life. it sounds perfect for the start to a thriller or slasher.
April 12, 2015 @ 8:09 PM
My first kiss was a story I told myself until it was true.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:31 AM
Mmmm…like how this is both poignant and full of possibility!
April 12, 2015 @ 11:23 PM
They task us to perform duties that would scar our souls because they believe that we do not have souls.
April 13, 2015 @ 2:41 AM
The little girl stared in wide eyed horror at the giant monster sitting at the side of her bed, why in the hell was it trying to talk to her about Taylor Swift?
April 13, 2015 @ 3:32 AM
On January 1, 2016, at precisely 5:15AM, Mt Fuji – along with it’s thousands of New Year’s sunrise tourists – disappeared.
April 13, 2015 @ 7:19 AM
They thought flushing me out an air lock would kill me, HA!
April 13, 2015 @ 7:19 AM
When Ellaya Hault was deposited on the carriage walk at Tanglewood on Midsummer’s Eve, she knew nothing of its secretive inhabitants or the unsettling invitation her grandmother had received on her behalf.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:33 AM
“Tim, your place is going to be robbed tonight,” said the voice on the phone.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:15 AM
congrates you freaked me out and make me feel insecure!
April 13, 2015 @ 8:43 AM
Fuck them and their fancy words—Get out…”Get out!” she wailed.
April 13, 2015 @ 3:21 PM
Nice. From the inside to the outside of the character… pulled me into the story in my head.
April 15, 2015 @ 8:39 AM
Thanks! 🙂
April 13, 2015 @ 8:53 AM
I thought I was alone when something cold gripped my arm.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:40 AM
well that sounds *puts on glasses* chilling.
well done, its a creepy way to start something.
April 21, 2015 @ 1:56 PM
Hehe, chilling *winks* And thank you 🙂
April 13, 2015 @ 8:55 AM
As he slipped through the throngs of tourists like water, Jared mused that there are some major advantages to being dead.
April 13, 2015 @ 9:00 AM
From my cell i could see the noose fluttering in the wind, my time was fast running out.
April 13, 2015 @ 9:38 AM
– When Chairman Mao told us he had an idea, I was almost done chewing a bite of medium- rare steak.
– The actual number was 78, but the true death toll from bungee jumping could solely be blamed on the weather.
– We left the freezer door open, but only because Gerald’s hand wouldn’t fit with the rest of him, and ice cream is always better after it’s melted a little.
April 13, 2015 @ 3:50 PM
Haha…! I like that last one. It went from ‘oh, shit is serious’ to ‘well, ya know…’ in a second. And the voice is great.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:43 AM
She sent the cats out before dawn, so they could poke round the bins and infect people before breakfast.
April 17, 2015 @ 12:57 PM
Love anything with cats in it. I want to know what the infection is.
April 13, 2015 @ 3:02 PM
Give me a handful of Bulldog shit and I will open a portal to a world of terror.
April 13, 2015 @ 3:41 PM
“Statistically speaking, it doesn’t matter if you drank the blue one first.” she said.
April 13, 2015 @ 4:41 PM
Bees were the answer to her constant interruptions at the office.
April 15, 2015 @ 5:23 AM
If they’re killer bees we’re talking thriller/horror.
If they’re bumble bees we’re more into the comedy line of things.
Where we goin’?
April 17, 2015 @ 12:14 PM
Well, the new challenge is to pick a line from this challenge and write a story. So, where *you* goin’? 😉
April 13, 2015 @ 5:48 PM
Helen thought George over-eager but then he hadn’t had sex in over 300 years.
April 13, 2015 @ 5:56 PM
Life’s never quiet when you’re a mortician married to a banshee.
April 13, 2015 @ 6:02 PM
She’s the world’s most thrilling date, according to all the guys who survived.
April 13, 2015 @ 6:09 PM
Still four shopping days till Christmas and already nine department store Santas dead.
April 17, 2015 @ 2:37 PM
Love it!
April 13, 2015 @ 6:10 PM
He never stopped writing cursive but the characters in his text started to dip the older he got, as if leaning their ear to the ground, made thinner by the weight of time, the strain of days.
April 13, 2015 @ 8:03 PM
This is beautiful.
April 13, 2015 @ 7:02 PM
The girl was twiddling a scalpel about in her fingers, idly, as any other student deep in thought might do with a pencil.
April 15, 2015 @ 5:25 AM
Beware of The Twiddler!
April 13, 2015 @ 8:06 PM
He was beautiful, and he knew I wanted him.
April 13, 2015 @ 10:00 PM
While taking a shower that morning, the numbers embedded in John’s neck flashed red for the first time since his asshole boss installed them.
April 15, 2015 @ 5:29 AM
I once had a boss who talked about doing this but never had the follow through or electronics knowledge to carry it out.
April 13, 2015 @ 10:26 PM
In retrospect, I suppose he didn’t have to die.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:28 PM
Tia stared up at the violently flashes, frozen momentarily with a fear unlike anything she had ever felt before, its metallic taste filling her mouth and sweeping away all abilities to think or reason, and she barely had time to turn onto her side before vomiting helplessly onto the dry, scratchy grass of the field.
April 13, 2015 @ 11:51 PM
Mia stared up at the violent flashes, frozen momentarily with a fear unlike anything she had ever felt before, its metallic taste filling her mouth and sweeping away all abilities to think or reason, and she barely had time to turn onto her side before vomiting helplessly onto the dry, scratchy grass of the field.
April 14, 2015 @ 1:11 AM
The war has been over for months, they tell me, though nobody bothered to pass us that memo.
April 23, 2015 @ 9:33 PM
I ended up using this one. https://mxgomez.wordpress.com/2015/04/23/wars-end-a-chuck-wendig-challenge/