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”
Her forgotten tears made rivers of clean down her cheeks as she struggled to unearth the dirt encrusted skeleton key from the newly dug grave.
Of late, my nights began with a cool beer and ended with memories that were not my own.
Openings were never my problem, it’s what followed when my luck started to run out.
This is how I collected what Wendig owed me.
She hadn’t meant to put what was left of their baby in the refrigerator; she didn’t even remember covering it in foil.
The Orcs were coming, and once again Trev was high off his tits.
The first one wasn’t as easy as I had imagined it would be.
Tommy beat him with a kiss, and the crowd hated him for it.
I’ve never told this story because I knew nobody would believe it.
“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.”
Seeing as I learned long ago there is no point in starting with “You’re not going to believe this,” I’m not going to bother to say it this time.
“You wrong there,” said Ange, as she strapped on her holster, “There ain’t nothin half so funny – and messy – as a baby learning to feed hisself.”
Every Tom, Dick and Scientologist crowded against the crime scene tape that morning on Hollywood Boulevard.
I should really stop killing people and eating their brains but then again, brains are tasty.
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a lady who liked to flay people alive and then laugh while they screamed.
It was possible I had gone through buggered, past buggeration and right on into screwedville.
Sometimes, having farking great mandibles growing out of your head while in high school can be a serious drag,
Zombies are not the best way to wake up to a morning, trust me on this.
Aw, nuts
I would prefer it if my prey came to me, but that’s not always possible, or hygienic.
Why has that man got tentacles coming out of his nose, mummy?
This was the day my life turned to shit
There are three universal truths; humans are arseholes, cheese is the food of the gods, and I always get the alien-squid hunting mission.
Jack knew he shouldn’t fondle the corpses, and yet, he couldn’t stop.
The night was cool, the stars were bright, and Roger found himself, once again, puzzled by the corpse sprawled before his feet.
“In times of trouble, we become very big or very small”, I thought as the Candleman led another child into the machine.
Nobody expected the revolution would begin in a smoky club full of drag queens.
“Anybody mind telling me why the Unicorn’s got a shotgun?”
I have no idea what happened to the screaming infant in her crib or the grease fire blazing in the kitchen, but I did know one thing, it was time to leave.
There is no taste quite so bitter as that of tears, sweat and shotgun barrel.
There was no greater peace than this.
I draw the line at collaborating with clones.
Ten dollars gets you one throw, and winner draws first blood.
The blood smelled like defeat, and not even the whiskey drowned it out.
The house burned down and Kelly hoped that Travis was still inside, but she knew he would escape just like every other time.
Each time I die, I’m reminded it’s not all that final.
There is a certain amount of beauty in every being whether alive, dead, or somewhere in-between.
He’s a jaded zombie vagrant trapped in a world he never made, she’s a wealthy thirtysomething queen of the dead prone to fits of savage, blood-crazed rage, they fight crime!
Oh wait, wrong challenge…
[…] So, last week’s challenge was for you to write a kick-ass opening line. […]
[…] week, Chuck Wendig asked us to post an opening line for a story, on which a flash-fic piece could be based. I […]
[…] been slowly working on a story that grew out of Wendig’s prompt to write a “kick-ass opening line”, but since there was no actual flash fiction […]
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/04/05/flash-fiction-challenge-the-kick-ass-opening-line/ […]
Faced with the option to go big or to go home, Edward chose to go home.
It wasn’t any one thing that made her act that day; it was a thousand paper cuts that never seemed to heal.
[…] lines have been spewed into the comments section of his blog (which you can find here, here, here, here and here). Some are better than others, but that’s still a lifetime’s supply of free […]