Last week’s challenge: “Antag/Protag.”
This is a two-part challenge.
First part of the challenge is a part we’ve done here before: opening lines. I want you to write the opening sentence to a story. That’s it. Just the opening sentence. Can be suggestive of any genre. Should be no more than 50 words (and even that’s pretty long — you’re best keeping it roughly at “tweet” length).
A good opening line is punchy. It may have a question implicit — or, at least, is itself a hook that will snare the reader by the neck and drag them into the tale whether he likes it or not.
Write the opening line.
Post it below.
You get one entry.
Your due date is — note this change — Thursday at noon EST (8/9).
Because then by Friday I will have picked my three favorite opening lines.
And each of those three people will get an early e-copy of BAIT DOG, the Atlanta Burns sequel. Three formats available: PDF, ePub, and MOBI. Oh, but we ain’t done yet, my little squidlings.
Then, your next challenge will be to write a story using one of those three opening lines as, well, the opening line to a piece of 1000-word flash fiction. More details next week.
Good?
Let’s read some opening lines, then.
Gareth says:
The night watchman was dead, to begin with–not lying-down dead, but up-and-walking-around dead, which was my first clue that the evening was not going to go as planned.
August 3, 2012 — 10:57 AM
Paul Baughman says:
I didn’t really start running until my youngest grand-daughter died of old age.
August 3, 2012 — 11:13 AM
Mike (@NewGuyMike) says:
My entire existence had shrunk down to the searing pain of running; I had been born running and I’ll die still panting for breath.
August 3, 2012 — 11:16 AM
Jeremy Morgan says:
‘Words are meaningless!’
His words slapped me across the face and kindled a rage within that threatened to burst forth. Instead, I managed to channel that rage into a monotone statement as I walked away.
“You’ll pay for that statement.”
August 3, 2012 — 11:33 AM
Richard says:
Here’s my homage to the greatest opening line in a novel, ever:
When I finally caught up with Eve Duncan, she’d gambled away her wings and was drinking beer with an alcoholic goblin named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just off the Vegas strip, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.
August 3, 2012 — 11:41 AM
Kelly says:
She would have given anything for a razor or, at the very least, a pair of pants.
August 3, 2012 — 11:45 AM
Renee Ritchie says:
My shackle chains jingled with an infectious rhythm along the courtroom floor as two juiced-up bailiffs dragged me before the judge. I’d’ve danced to that rhythm if my clumsy feet wouldn’t’ve ruined it. My feet ruin everything, the rotten bastards; they’d ruined a perfectly good night, and now I was here.
August 3, 2012 — 11:48 AM
Ash Law says:
The rain fell upwards into her nostrils, as it always did.
August 3, 2012 — 11:50 AM
Jade says:
Bare-chested and with bare feet, Kieran awoke to find himself in a low defensive crouch, favorite dagger in hand, as his foggy brain struggled to catch up with what his body had reacted to through sheer muscle memory.
August 3, 2012 — 11:51 AM
stephen says:
Like good oral sex, decapitating a member of the undead can’t be described; you must go though the experience to appreciate its wonder.
August 3, 2012 — 12:13 PM
Squishy says:
There were two people Lia trusted, until the night one killed the other.
August 3, 2012 — 12:25 PM
Chris Lites says:
Martin’s going on about how America has become a nuclear dinosaur in the 21st century while trying to ignore the alien jelly fish floating in the tank in the corner of the room.
August 3, 2012 — 12:46 PM
stephen says:
Like good oral sex, decapitating a member of the undead defies description; you must experience it to fully appreciate its wonder.
August 3, 2012 — 12:47 PM
Damon says:
As a jizz mopper at the last legal peep show in Houston, Johnny was used to cleaning up after people shooting a load, but seeing a guy blast another guy in the back of the head with a shotgun in one of his booths had him suddenly missing the kind of goo he was used to.
August 3, 2012 — 12:54 PM
Steiner says:
You’d think after working in a butcher shop for some twenty odd years that the idea of hacking a baby cow into its respective tender and less tender cuts and emptying its skull wouldn’t bother you.
August 3, 2012 — 1:01 PM
M.A. Brotherton says:
The rapid fire percussion of the death metal blasting through the speakers was enough to drive him mad, add to it all the narcotics, and you had a perfect cocktail.
August 3, 2012 — 1:09 PM
Mark Matthews says:
This wasn’t one of those Tijuana tunnels built big as an elevator shaft with electricity and vents and running water..
August 3, 2012 — 1:18 PM
Tami says:
I was born wicked.
August 3, 2012 — 1:36 PM
Peter Schaefer says:
“Mr. The Wrecking Ball, I just need you to relax.”
August 3, 2012 — 2:13 PM
Ernesto I. Ramirez says:
*It was ten past nine and Death was running late. Again.*
We want the copy of that book 😀
August 3, 2012 — 2:24 PM
AlamoJack says:
He stood in the rain and wondered if the body buried at his feet was truly his father’s.
August 3, 2012 — 2:27 PM
Travis Hickey says:
Entering the country with a suitcase full of illegal aliens – the ones from Mars – poses certain logistical difficulties; fortunately, logistics is my specialty.
August 3, 2012 — 2:40 PM
Amy Tupper says:
There’s this moment on the piste when it all becomes crystal clear. The depth, the distance, and then I see it, the opening. I ignore the feint to move forward and slash the saber against my opponent. The buzzer sounds. Point.
If only it were this easy with Julianna.
August 3, 2012 — 2:42 PM
Nate says:
I just turned my brother into hermaphrodite shark.
August 3, 2012 — 2:42 PM
Bronson O'Quinn says:
The night was moist.
August 3, 2012 — 2:51 PM
Andreas Habicher says:
“Hellhole” was the first word that sprang to mind as I saw Charlie’s Diner No 2 for the first time.
August 3, 2012 — 3:02 PM
Sexton Burke says:
I thought about eating her, but she was dead already.
August 3, 2012 — 3:06 PM
Jordan says:
“He flopped on the couch, undid his pants, flicked on the t.v. and it exploded.”
August 3, 2012 — 3:19 PM
Chris Scena says:
I was sixteen years old the first time I died.
August 3, 2012 — 3:22 PM
Reagan Daniels says:
Chicky repeated her question, raising her voice to be heard over the pour of water on the dirty rag and the mans gasps and chokes as the fear of death took hold of him.
August 3, 2012 — 3:22 PM
Iain Stevens-Guille says:
Kate had learned the hard way, if you’re going to die, it’s best to pack a return kit.
August 3, 2012 — 3:57 PM
Amanda Lynne says:
My brother fancies himself a king, for all the good that does us.
August 3, 2012 — 4:27 PM
Todd Moody says:
“What part of “Lookout!’ did you have trouble with?” Cardin asked his oldest friend in the world, ringing out the blood from his bandanna.
August 3, 2012 — 4:42 PM
R Thomas Allwin says:
The sky was the color of a day-old bruise; you know, the kind you only find on children whose parents say they slipped.
August 3, 2012 — 4:54 PM
Aaron says:
Like many people, the title of my memoirs came to me long before any reason to write them.
August 3, 2012 — 5:00 PM
Ben K. says:
In a fractured instant, Mick relived his hard life again and again, each day, several times a day, as he started up the old Coup de Ville, sliding the key into the ignition, feeling the blade against the tumblers in the switch, the hard crank forward, the electric catch and the spark of life deep inside the engine, the tragic moment ending only when the car didn’t explode.
August 3, 2012 — 5:14 PM
Kayla Van Eps says:
A hollow ratting sound echoed down the dimly lit hallway behind a burned-out nurse with thinning, frizzy hair and a fraying uniform. She monitored the hall with the intensity of a prison guard—paying little mind to the residents held in her wing.
August 3, 2012 — 5:36 PM
Caterina says:
I have to stop wearing red dresses in my dreams.
August 3, 2012 — 5:37 PM
Danzier says:
“It’s hard not to panic when you’re almost out of air.”
August 3, 2012 — 6:01 PM
Jason Myers says:
He hated killing people right before Christmas.
August 3, 2012 — 7:21 PM
Cody says:
As he bolted past the Forever 21 with the two Ray Ban clad goons behind him, Dan wondered if had been a mistake to shoot the third during the scuffle at Banana Republic and whether he’d dispose of these two in time to pic the kid up at baseball practice.
August 3, 2012 — 7:28 PM
Casz Brewster says:
I closed the book and put it back into my saddle bag.
August 3, 2012 — 7:52 PM
Jared Domenico says:
It is a very stupid man indeed who interrupts my mid-week orgy by shooting one of my guests.
August 3, 2012 — 8:02 PM
schaferlord says:
For three years she was a ghost of a memory, the one thing I missed about a life I didn’t.
August 3, 2012 — 8:20 PM
outlineofash says:
I don’t know why you’re even reading this, you son of a bitch; you’ve already seen how it all ends.
August 3, 2012 — 8:45 PM
Jeremy Jones says:
Experience has taught me when handcuffed to a machine gun in front of an ever-advancing undead horde, it’s important to conserve your ammunition.
August 3, 2012 — 8:52 PM
John Langen says:
Every spy has an embaressing mision they don’t talk about.
August 3, 2012 — 9:36 PM
T.J. Janneff says:
There will not be a death here, but there will be two things: a terrified boyfriend and a red, tomato-paste stain across the floor.
(I don’t even know where that came from, I am so sorry.)
August 3, 2012 — 9:45 PM
MyPopCultureDiva says:
She slumped against the side of the tree and lowered to her knees, gripping her head as if trying to keep it in place, and whimpering; partly in pain – partly in anger.
August 3, 2012 — 9:46 PM
Mac Kintana says:
Her fingers grasping at the edges of the icy cliff side, dangling 1000 feet in the air was not how she wanted to start her Mondays. But life never liked doing things the conventional way.
August 3, 2012 — 10:00 PM