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”
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.
just saying…I LOVE this one.
I didn’t recognize anyone in the room, but they all turned when I entered.
When the ice sculptures blew up, I knew it was time to leave.
Falling was not the whole of her being, but it was the first thing she recognized.
The smoke rose, and the vermin fled.
The light of the campfire flickered across her face, casting shadows across her cheeks, and I was reminded again of why I once loved her.
I love you Jennifer.
It was the pain from the straps around his wrists and ankles that woke him, that and the smell of gasoline.
The toddler seemed not to notice that the rug on which he was playing was covered in dried blood.
On this day we are forced to remember.
She stared at the long and manicured loc that had fallen, in its entirety, into her bathroom sink.
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.
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.
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.
The nocturne promised romance, of supple limbs suffused by moonlight, and soft sweet breaths upon loins held sway by the hypnotic rhythm of night.
It wasn’t that the ultra-sound tech told me one arm ended in a suction cup but that it was the third she’d seen that week.
You are fired.
I wasn’t always dead; it just happened.
Nice
All I wanted was to make sure her beautiful eyes stared back at me with the coldness that only comes after death.
**Correction** (It took me far too long to notice the damned typo… -_-”
All I wanted was to make her beautiful eyes stare back at me with the coldness that only comes after death.
Creepy…I like it.
“The world has layers, boy,” he whispered. “Sometimes it’s better not to see what’s underneath.”
It was fun, as far as blind dates go, until one of us murdered the other.
It’s always midnight somewhere.
Like it!
@Beau Hall Nice! Great opening line 🙂
Thanks. Been holding on to that one for too long.
Damn.
At first, nothing happened.
“We need to talk.”
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!)
“all bigger then himself” ??
Dammit.
That should say “all bigger than him”, shouldn’t it? Or what?
“My brother’s birth was preceded by three distinct and inexplicable phenomena.”
Carter fucked women the same way he lived his life: hard and fast.
Excellent!!
She wanted to take it back.
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.
There’s few things more annoying than a bored alien.
*There are few things more annoying than a bored alien.
Damn typos.
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.
He pushed me over the edge to witness my demise and I was free falling now, wondering what it felt like to die.
The campfire was a beacon in the moonless night.
New blood was congealing on the old floor.
I could be rubbing one out in peace instead of these fucktards clawing at my genitals, but no, I had to go that extra inch.
I’m pretty sure- okay I’m 100% sure- I was drunk at the time.
Fucking A was what I wanted to say, but my report card showed differently.
My embarassment was not because I was naked but that I was hurtling toward Earth.
Do you want me to tell you about the best day of my life?
Born lame, he died climbing Everest.
If you thought your life was boring before, try being dead for a change.
“Never leave your house on auto-pilot,’ I said serious to the crowd before me…
Only six of us left alive in that agate dawn, but four still dismissed as harmless the faint almond scent bittering the breeze.
Opening Pandora’s Box was nothing compared to what was about to happen!
After drawing that extra pink line on the cheap dollar store pregnancy test. I was certain to get my foot into the door, and then I could kill the bitch he called mom.
Erick floated in the air like an angel; his wings were clipped and in place were two taut wire cords attached to his shoulder blades.
Roderick Trench woke atop a snow covered roof, his head resting on his violin case.
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.
When she finally spotted him in the crowd, the first words that came to mind were virgin in a whorehouse.