Flash Fiction Challenge: The Kick-Ass Opening Line


Last week’s challenge: “The Secret Door.”

I love a good opening line.

You lead with a great first line in a story, man, that’s just hooks you right away, doesn’t it? It’s like a key to a door. Opens up the world and your interest in it lickety-split.

So, that’s what I want from you.

I want you to write one opening line.

And then I’ll pick three.

And if those three people are in the United States, I’ll send them a copy of my book, The Blue Blazes, when it comes out. If you’re in the UK or anywhere else across the big wide world, you may have to settle for a digital copy, but I’ll make sure to get you one just the same.

Now, some rules:

A line means one sentence, not two, not three.

You get one entry, not two, not three.

Put your entry in the comments below.

I’ll pick three of my favorites by the close of Thursday the 11th (11:59PM) and then the following challenge next Friday will be for you folks to pick one of the three opening lines and write a story based on it. Which means you also might want to take a gander at these suggestions:

Shorter is better than longer.

Try too to keep in mind that you’re writing an opening line for other stories; the trick is to write something engaging while still writing a line that could apply to a great many styles and genres of story. Something that appeals and hooks in this case not just readers but other writers, too.

You’re writing lines for potential, is my point.

That’s how I’ll pick my favorites. Based on their potential to make interesting stories.

So! You’ve got a little less than one week.

One opening line. Let’s see what you’ve got.

 


448 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Kick-Ass Opening Line”

  1. Gin made it a point to hate things that her mother found pleasant – lavender soap, sunshine, Fourth of July fireworks – but especially her tomato-shaped pin cushion.

  2. When I met Hannah she was already on death row, and though I had seen the pictures and the evidence and knew that she could be nothing but guilty, I still could not believe this delicate tulip sitting in front of me behind three inches of glass was capable of filleting a fish, never mind a former cop — and that was my first mistake.

  3. My body registered the searing pain as another drop of some acrid acid, which smelled strangely like glue, splashed into my eye socket, forcing my body to twitch, which in turn resulting in a dull thud as my limbs once again collided with my cold, metallic bonds.

  4. Lainie watched in fascination as Uncle Mort’s body bounced down the stairs, his head whacking each mahogany tread with a dull thunk, thunk, thunk in perfect syncopation with the grateful beating of her heart.

  5. Nathan forces himself back up from the ground on red and raw knuckles and through eyes blurred by beating he sees that the three boys, all bigger then himself, are still going at it with the girl, laughing and cheering, and he takes a deep breath and says softly, not for the first time: “Get away from her!”

    (In medias res, mathafackas!)

  6. Never try shoot the messenger when the messenger’s packing an Avenger- it only gets messier from there.

    • [Typo, sorry]
      Never try shooting the messenger when the messenger’s packing an Avenger- it only gets messier from there.

  7. Veblen, as prolific at increasing the branches of his family tree as at expanding his empire, clenched his jaw as he snuck into the darkness of the beach and away from everything he had built.

  8. Only six of us left alive in that agate dawn, but four still dismissed as harmless the faint almond scent bittering the breeze.

  9. Julian tilted the cup, munched latte froth, his legs crossed, and asked Caroline how she thought Jane Austen would have treated a severe case of hemorrhoids.

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