Flash Fiction Challenge: Post An Opening Sentence
This one is pretty simple:
Write an opening sentence.
Post it in the comments below.
Any genre will do, really, though versatility has value.
The sentence should be on the shorter side. Let’s say, mmm, no more than 25 words. Some things to avoid, since sometimes folks fall into these traps: avoid blood, death, dead people, kids being hurt, and so forth. Think original. Conceive of a sentence that, when crafted right, is a strong hook. The kind that makes people want to read further. It makes them want to know more. Compelling and maddening in equal measure.
By next Friday, I will pick between five and ten I really like, and I’ll pop them into next week’s challenge, and you guys can choose one of those I pick to serve as the opening sentence to a new piece of flash fiction.
Today, no story necessary, though.
Just an opening line.
Due by next Friday, 2/26, noon EST.
Chantal
February 25, 2016 at 9:33 AM //
Never again shall I run in between two men about to duel at sunrise.
Quinn
February 25, 2016 at 10:45 AM //
She is an ocean; she is a mountain; she is a monsoon—-and she is no one.
Glen Donaldson
February 25, 2016 at 2:50 PM //
Epic..as they say.
thatcalamity
February 25, 2016 at 10:49 AM //
The cold froze Lin’s breath deep in her throat, turning it silver and sharp before it had even left her lips.
Quinn
February 25, 2016 at 11:06 AM //
I like this !
moteridgerider
February 25, 2016 at 2:27 PM //
Nice one.
Glen Donaldson
February 25, 2016 at 2:51 PM //
Now that’s cold!
marydpierce
February 25, 2016 at 12:38 PM //
If you remember nothing else about this story, remember this: Gopher was always right.
christina crall-reed
February 25, 2016 at 1:43 PM //
Any message written on liver pate’ is probably a bad omen.
Catastrophe Jones (@CatJones)
February 25, 2016 at 3:30 PM //
If Lisbon Bester had known that a single four-minute egg was to be the reason for his downfall, he probably would have ordered the quick and efficient killing of every single laying hen known to man.
Alison Boyd Matteini
February 25, 2016 at 4:16 PM //
In the glow of the forge the scars on the dusk of his forearms were stars.
Tom Byrne
February 25, 2016 at 4:22 PM //
Sometimes it pays to be forgettable – and well armed.
Stella Wood
February 25, 2016 at 5:19 PM //
“Of all the things I expected to find in my tomato soup, this wasn’t one of them.”
Lili
February 25, 2016 at 6:21 PM //
I was less concerned that I had conceived the fetus growing within me despite living in the celibate isolation of my underground bunker, than I was about the growths sprouting from my shoulder blades and increasingly disrupting my sleep.
Lili Nemo
Renee McTavish
February 25, 2016 at 8:19 PM //
They had deserved so many more years of ordinary and boring than they’d got.
Mila
February 25, 2016 at 8:45 PM //
Shadows can fill anything, did you know that?
R T Allwin
February 25, 2016 at 9:12 PM //
Had I arrived six minutes earlier I would have been on a plane to freedom, but instead I ran straight into my future wife.
Indywrites
February 25, 2016 at 9:37 PM //
He pressed the accelerator harder as if the brute force would make it race ahead of the jam; slamming the breaks at the next instant.
Alice E Keyesa
February 26, 2016 at 7:46 AM //
The piles littered every service spoke of disappointment and of a life in despair.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 11:28 AM //
My hands always shake, after I kill myself because I’m too hungry.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 11:29 AM //
My fake daughter loves pancakes, and she won’t let me go -ever.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 11:36 AM //
Wait, this one is better:
My daughter Emily loves pancakes with chocolate chips and bananas, but this Emily at the table is all wrong, and she won’t let me go.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 12:13 PM //
The tiger yawned, looked at me pitifully, folded his paws and studied my CV.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 12:31 PM //
-not trying to hide his boredom.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 12:29 PM //
Sleipnir dipped over the event horizon, and started broadcasting “I got you Babe” over all emergency channels.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 1:37 PM //
“Fuck off, grasshopper,” the monks sucked his teeth and let his arrow fly.
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 2:10 PM //
“Don’t know, whose dream is this anyway,” asked the baboon, “I’m bored already!”
the story hive
February 26, 2016 at 2:33 PM //
Only one more, then I’ll stop. Probably.
“Sorry,” I managed a confused face, “I don’t speak bullshit.”
shelton keys dunning
March 1, 2016 at 2:32 AM //
Denied, the letter said.
glenavailable
March 1, 2016 at 4:36 AM //
There’s no denying this is a great opener.
Katarina87
March 3, 2016 at 7:18 PM //
She opened her eyes to a sepia sky, like someone’s memory, and she knew this day was going to be different.
glenavailable
March 4, 2016 at 7:01 PM //
Well done Katarina. I hear in the writing world sepia is the new orange which is the old black.
Rayene. F
March 12, 2016 at 3:56 PM //
It was a butchered mangle of a language; the sounds too harsh, the stresses too frequent, the consonants too throaty.