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 14, 2015 @ 5:08 AM
He’d found it after getting lost in the vast oceans of his imagination, the trail he’d walked was nowhere to be found but there on the ground it was.
April 14, 2015 @ 6:07 AM
I have to admit, being dead isn’t nearly as boring as I feared it would be.
April 14, 2015 @ 7:38 AM
It wasn’t the fact that it was pitch black that worried me, but what the fuck was that smell?
April 14, 2015 @ 9:05 AM
Who knew that our fate would end up resting in the clumsy hands of a three year old?
April 14, 2015 @ 10:40 AM
I like this!!
April 14, 2015 @ 10:33 AM
He flipped his still glowing cigarette out of the wrecked windshield, squinted out into the rain, not sure if he had just seen a large blurry hunter or a large blurry bear approaching his crash-landed mustang, the deciding that he needed to have a better look, if he was going to acknowledge anything existing outside of the car.
April 14, 2015 @ 4:49 PM
I think- He flipped his still glowing cigarette out of the wrecked windshield. – is fantastic without the rest of the exposition 🙂
April 15, 2015 @ 4:01 AM
Spoken like a bona-fide editor and I second it.
April 15, 2015 @ 1:48 PM
thanks, you’re right.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:11 AM
thanks a lot. 😉
April 16, 2015 @ 10:11 AM
Edited: He flipped his still glowing cigarette out of the wrecked windshield.
April 14, 2015 @ 11:00 AM
Earlier, when the writing tutor talked about death by PowerPoint, he hadn’t thought she meant it literally.
April 14, 2015 @ 1:06 PM
“What we do is serious business, son,” the clown said as he set the bomb’s timer.
April 15, 2015 @ 7:46 PM
Nice sentence.
Clowns creep me out – my nightmare is a magician clown hypnotist trying to sell me something on a street corner. If I chose this one, the bomb would be faulty and blow up the clown.
April 24, 2015 @ 2:25 AM
Love this…going to see what I can do with it.
April 14, 2015 @ 3:14 PM
The machines in the corner of the room beep and wheeze in slow, regular patterns.
April 17, 2015 @ 11:46 PM
This one makes me sad.
April 19, 2015 @ 3:06 AM
I love it. I am going to use it for my story. Thank you for writing it @tshawn
April 14, 2015 @ 4:52 PM
I woke up with scabs on my hands and blood in my mouth.
April 14, 2015 @ 10:17 PM
There is a room in the house that is empty save for new flesh.
April 17, 2015 @ 3:43 AM
todonne how many times do we have we to tell you not to put the flesh in there? it goes off too quickly, put it in the fridge like a normal serial killer.
love it.
April 15, 2015 @ 4:53 AM
Magic starts out as an itch in your fingertips, a maddening itch, and it works its way up behind your eyes and into your brain, until you can’t see what everyone else is looking at—until you realize what they’re looking at—is you.
April 15, 2015 @ 7:20 AM
While waiting, I wandered; dust illuminated by sunshine evoked normality and before-the-war and I escaped through the kitchen window to autumn leaves and laughter, until an imperious knocking echoed in the hall and dragged me back.
April 15, 2015 @ 9:38 AM
“ouch”!
April 15, 2015 @ 10:04 AM
I grew up in the kingdom of the cul de sac.
April 15, 2015 @ 1:13 PM
And died driving a minivan. Nice sentence – This story could go anywhere.
April 21, 2015 @ 11:51 PM
This is awesome.
April 15, 2015 @ 10:16 AM
If I had to choose between being killed by unicorns or werewolves, I would bathe in barbeque sauce and throw myself at werewolves.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:05 PM
This is the opening line for a comedy, right? 😀 I like it!
April 17, 2015 @ 1:11 PM
Thank you. Can you let me know if you use this one?
April 15, 2015 @ 12:04 PM
Facing potential death at the cotton fluff filled paws of a small army of stuffed animals was not how I imagined the end of my evening.
April 15, 2015 @ 1:09 PM
The voracious slurping of noodles was once the tiger eating the writer’s hand writing a Djinn story.
http://aliceekeyes.blogspot.com
April 15, 2015 @ 7:50 PM
edited – The voracious slurping of noodles was once the tiger eating the writer’s hand penning a Djinn story.
April 15, 2015 @ 3:40 PM
“To gaze upon the Great Pyramid of Giza*, with its gargantuan proportions, its cruel and bloody history, and its indifferent permanence would have been life-altering for Jan and Barry, but they had taken a wrong turn somewhere, and their chance was irrevocably lost.”
You can pick a natural wonder, a Wonder of the World, or make up one to insert in lieu of the pyramid and its description, if you wish.
April 15, 2015 @ 7:25 PM
They said everything went right the day his mother died.
April 19, 2015 @ 10:38 AM
I love it!
April 15, 2015 @ 8:40 PM
The war ended long ago, but nobody told us.
April 17, 2015 @ 12:45 PM
This I like (1)
April 18, 2015 @ 11:33 AM
Such a simple opening, yet epic at the same time.
April 15, 2015 @ 8:54 PM
She hefted the sack into a splintered canoe and, not for the last time, cursed her father.
April 16, 2015 @ 3:12 AM
To a people-watcher, there is something uniquely special about the post-midnight caffeine imbiber; there’s always a story.
April 16, 2015 @ 5:49 AM
“I know you’re a really happening guy but I just wish you’d happen somewhere else.”
April 16, 2015 @ 10:09 PM
A good story is about to happen. I can feel it.
April 21, 2015 @ 11:52 PM
Oooh. Nice.
April 16, 2015 @ 7:14 AM
We walked along the beach at the end of the world, holding hands for the last time.
April 18, 2015 @ 10:02 AM
I would write this story,except that it happened to me, and it’s just too painful. Really.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:59 AM
“…?”
April 16, 2015 @ 12:56 PM
“Awww, that’s cute… you think you’re people.”
Flash Fiction? It Wasn’t Me | Fistful of Wits
April 16, 2015 @ 4:23 PM
[…] it. Bizarre, but useful since I have so much other work I really ought to be doing. Anyway. Chuck Wendig’s challenge this week is to write the opening sentence to something, nothing more. Here […]
April 16, 2015 @ 4:23 PM
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a teenager, it’s that plausible deniability is everything.
April 16, 2015 @ 4:51 PM
White lights float in my vision, my brain pounding out the tune of Zeppelin’s Black Dog against my skull, as I begin to retch.
April 16, 2015 @ 6:02 PM
Every Thursday in recent history Doctor Tongue had brought a cake for the library staff, but for some reason this Thursday rated pie.
April 16, 2015 @ 7:42 PM
I like this a lot, actually made me smile. Could be tightened up a bit for more impact but I’d definitely read further.
April 16, 2015 @ 6:38 PM
The golden blaze from the eastern sky illuminated me as I stood on the hilltop overlooking the quiet town, trying to suppress the need that was rising again.
April 16, 2015 @ 7:50 PM
He was just sitting down to a cup of tea and a book out on his patio to enjoy the brisk autumn morning when he felt the hairs on the back of neck stand up.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:15 PM
They say that to err is human and to forgive is divine, but I think they got the second half of that saying all wrong.
April 17, 2015 @ 2:43 AM
Revision: They say that to err is human, to forgive is divine; the second half of that saying is a complete lie.
April 17, 2015 @ 2:46 AM
Well, it looks like you erred. I will not forgive you. 🙂
April 22, 2015 @ 11:54 AM
I used yours, though I simplified it a bit (and made it two sentences). It will be up on Friday 4/24. I’ll post a link then.
April 16, 2015 @ 10:24 PM
The Dark God rose behind her, quietly building the fury it would unleash.
April 17, 2015 @ 2:46 AM
I would write the story but I’m afraid that it would make the Clean Reader app gag and then self-destroy.
Nobody on this forum wants that, right? :-))
April 17, 2015 @ 2:48 AM
It’s alright, Ada. Your writing isn’t THAT bad. Hey! Stop pinching my arm!
April 16, 2015 @ 10:30 PM
Most couldn’t bear it, they turned away, but Mr.Patendale had seen it all in his day.
April 21, 2015 @ 11:54 PM
I like this!
April 16, 2015 @ 10:45 PM
Everyday I visit the same pond and everyday I see the same silver duck with the grey tail.
April 17, 2015 @ 1:18 AM
I remember exactly where I was when the first bomb went off.
April 17, 2015 @ 7:53 AM
Near the end, he could feel her presence closer than ever.
or
Once the first bullet flew over my head, all my faith perished.
or
Sweet Valya is dead.
April 17, 2015 @ 8:27 AM
The barman turned with a grin and spat into my whiskey.
April 17, 2015 @ 9:16 AM
There were only two people in front of Roy in the queue, and one of them was dead.
April 17, 2015 @ 12:46 PM
This I like (2)
April 17, 2015 @ 4:38 PM
You’re my favorite.
April 17, 2015 @ 9:45 AM
A day without fusion is like a day without sunshine, and, unfortunately, we were running dangerously low on fusion.
April 18, 2015 @ 8:35 AM
Thank you! I’ll use this one 🙂
April 22, 2015 @ 9:38 AM
Clever. I like
April 23, 2015 @ 4:15 PM
It’ll be up in about three hous time (Friday my time 🙂 ) It’s also letter U for the A to Z Challenge… http://jemimapett.com/blog/2015/04/24/flash-fiction-friday-upwelling/
April 17, 2015 @ 10:16 AM
Happiness is a cold beer, an enormous burrito, and enough time to down them both before the werewolf catches up with you again.
April 19, 2015 @ 10:45 PM
Yoink!
April 17, 2015 @ 10:46 AM
I had hoped that my past had forgotten me… right up until the moment they kicked the door in.
April 17, 2015 @ 7:50 PM
Like this. Was picturing an opening scene from “Alias” when I read this.
April 18, 2015 @ 2:23 AM
Oh, I could right something about this ….
April 20, 2015 @ 6:11 PM
Story is up: http://andreaspeed.com/2015/flash-fic-challenge-past-prologue/
April 17, 2015 @ 11:23 AM
“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli” — some time travel expeditions sound a lot better in the brochure.
April 17, 2015 @ 4:40 PM
Very Douglas Adams– I like it.
Flash Fiction Challenge: Pick An Opening Sentence And Go « terribleminds: chuck wendig
April 17, 2015 @ 11:29 AM
[…] Last week, over 400 (!) of you wrote opening sentences for the challenge. […]
April 17, 2015 @ 11:55 AM
Little did Harold know that the sneeze he was about to experience would bring about the end of humanity and the world as he knew it.
April 17, 2015 @ 2:58 PM
… I think I just had a Douglas-Adams-y moment of some kind…. 🙂
April 17, 2015 @ 3:30 PM
I aim to please. 🙂
I imagined Stephen Fry reading it as I wrote it.
April 27, 2015 @ 2:52 PM
I used your sentence to start a story – this is part one. https://thestoryhive.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/tick-tick-tick-achooo/
April 27, 2015 @ 7:50 PM
I can’t wait to read part two! I think I can sympathize with the AI – I’d find those routine tasks boring as well.
Amusing note: When I read Brack and Pain, my brain immediately inserted Barack and Palin, and produced some interesting images.
April 23, 2015 @ 11:44 PM
Haha, looks like you have two writing you’re line. 🙂 Here’s my contribution, a case of *really* bad luck:
https://whatrealityisthis.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/flash-fiction-challenge-harolds-sneeze/
April 24, 2015 @ 12:23 PM
As a cat-owning Dick, I really enjoyed reading your story. While it was a bit rough (as first drafts are), it actually made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions, and that is the highest of praise from me.
(While I greatly enjoy humor, it is a rare comedic work that even manages to make me crack a smile – let alone laugh loudly at multiple occasions.)
April 24, 2015 @ 11:10 PM
Wow, thanks for your praise, I’m glad you enjoyed it! As a newbie writer, comments like yours helps keep me writing, knowing I have the potential to entertain. Cheers!
April 17, 2015 @ 12:42 PM
I need you to stop petting the test subject!
April 17, 2015 @ 1:00 PM
He forced me to watch the hanging.
I Can’t Open My Legs! Chuck Wendig Challenge #4 | Periodically Demented
April 18, 2015 @ 3:54 AM
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/04/10/flash-fiction-challenge-time-again-to-write-an-opening-se… […]
April 18, 2015 @ 3:06 PM
Just when you think you have everything going right in your life, the fist of Satan smacks you in the face so hard with unexpected swagger and sting.