So, last week’s challenge was for you to write a kick-ass opening line.
And the post got over 400 entries.
*blink blink*
Holy crap.
And tons of really great stuff, too.
(Though, some less-than-good ones, too. People: it’s like ten, twenty words. Spellcheck!)
Curiously, three motifs showed up with… perhaps alarming frequency:
Blood.
A gun.
Someone about to die / someone already dead (future corpse / current corpse).
Y’all are some twisted little word-wranglers.
Anywho!
I’ve posted below a handful of the ones I really liked. Fourteen(15?) of them, as a matter of fact. These are not all “winners” in terms of the contest — I still have to whittle this bunch down:
Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first. — Valerie Valdes
Prima donnas aren’t born. — Mari Bayo
The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other. — CJ Eggett
I was born beneath a black veil of mourning, a dark bud blooming deep in its shadow. — Gina Herron
It’s always midnight somewhere. — Andrew Jack
My brother’s birth was preceded by three distinct and inexplicable phenomena. — Jason Heitkamper
Max sat amongst the dead, whistling to himself. — Brad
For the second time in a week, I come over Shatter Hill at midnight and see fire at the crossroad below. — Bill Cameron
I never trusted that statue in the garden behind the house. — Cat York
Larry was on the toilet, shitting his brains out, while cleaning his gat. — The Philosophunculist
The problem with the ringing phone wasn’t how loud it was, or that it hadn’t stopped ringing for an hour, but that Tom didn’t have a phone. — Jake Bible
When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe. — Delilah
“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long
Tommy beat him with a kiss, and the crowd hated him for it. — Hector Acosta
Which will be our final three?
Here we go:
The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other. — CJ Eggett
“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long
When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe. — Delilah
So, there we go.
You three: email me at terribleminds at gmail dot com.
I’ll make sure to get you set up with a pre-order of Blue Blazes slinging your way upon release.
For the rest of you:
Your goal is simple:
To write a story using one of the opening lines above. You can choose from the whole lot — not just the three “winners.” Any of the opening lines you find on this page (again, I think I’ve listed 14 of ’em) are open game. Choose your opening line and write a piece of flash fiction (up to 1000 words) with that line as the opener. Post it at your online space, link back here.
I’ll choose one person’s story — just one! — to win autographed copies of my books Blackbirds, Mockingbird, and Gods & Monsters. This is open only to US residents (international are welcome to play, but the best prize I can offer you is e-copies of my writing books).
You have one week.
Due Friday the 19th by noon EST (firm deadline).
It’ll take me a week to choose. At which point I’ll email the winner and announce here on this post both in the comments and in the post itself.
Go forth and write!
214 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line”
[…] Written for the Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line over at Terribleminds. […]
I used “Max sat amongst the dead, whistling to himself.” It’s no barn-burner but was fun to write…
http://serialdistractions.com/2013/04/16/the-tough-part-a-bit-of-flash-fiction/
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/04/12/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line/ […]
I hope you enjoy reading it and I thank you if ya do.
http://disastrouscreations.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/when-the-last-cherry-blossom-falls/
When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.
http://thegirlwhotrodontheloaf.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/anna-marie/
I also used Brad’s line
But here’s the link:
http://ecysmest.deviantart.com/art/Flash-Fiction-terribleminds-366115853
[…] here for the rules of this Chuck Wendig flash fiction. Share this:FacebookTwitterGoogle +1Like this:Like […]
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Forgot how much fun they can be.
I chose the opening line Andrew Jack “It’s Always Midnight Somewhere.”
Enjoy!
http://literarybandit.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/its-always-midnight-somewhere/
From Nathan Long’s entry, a sort of twist on Eurydice.
http://knotachance.tumblr.com/
Very unique. Liked the way it ended…wanted more. 🙂
Thanks for reading! This is actually about the way I feel at work sometimes… and there’s some sort of novel maybe brewing. After a while. Thanks so much!
There were a couple lines I really liked, but in the end I chose this one.
Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first. — Valerie Valdes
Enjoy!
http://www.bitemybook.com/2013/04/the-rehan-federation-flash-fiction.html
I really liked the story, very interested in what happens to James
Thank you.
That isn’t fair. LOL. Very nice story. Loved the attention to details.
😉 lol Thank you.
Fahrenheit 451 meets Farscape? Neat world-building. Or universe-building, I suppose!
I wavered between which opener to use, but I eventually chose Andrew Jack’s, “It’s always midnight somewhere.” After much whittling and agonising, this clocks in at 999 words 🙂
http://spikala.livejournal.com/61267.html
Hm…looks like it didn’t post properly.
Here’s my story based on Andrew Jack’s “it’s always midnight somewhere.” Enjoy!
http://literarybandit.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/its-always-midnight-somewhere/
That isnt fair. LOL Nice story. Very detailed.
Long time reader first time commenter. I chose Delilah’s line “When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.”
Hope you like it.
http://laurenstonewriter.blogspot.ca/2013/04/chuck-wendig-flash-fiction-challenge.html
Here’s my offering, I chose CJ Eggett’s line “The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other.” I hope you enjoy.
http://beephead.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/flash-fiction-challenge/
I wasn’t going to do this one, since I’ve got a lot of other work that needed doing this week, but Delilah’s line infiltrated my brain pan over the weekend and I ended up with something I wanted to write. Only when I re-read the line, it wasn’t quite what I remembered…
I did use the proper line, “When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.” But I also pulled the word Delilah into my story 😉 No connection to the author of the line is intended.
Please enjoy “Soror Ex Machina”
http://jmboverthinking.blogspot.com/2013/04/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your.html
[…] This story is part of Chuck Wendig’s Choose Your Opening Line Flash Fiction Challenge. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… This entry was posted in Flash Fiction […]
[…] I got this idea from Chuck Wendig’s's blog. […]
I picked “The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other”.
http://kyriacities.com/?p=139
All the opening lines were terrific, and I could have taken them in different directions, but I already had a story brewing, and Andrew Jack’s line seemed to fit perfectly. “It’s always midnight somewhere.” Brilliant.
Here’s the link to my submission!
http://drunkenspacepenguin.blogspot.com/2013/04/flash-fiction-surviving-daddys-betrayal.html
Quite a fun read!
This is my first time entering the challenge. I’ve read many of the other entries and am more than a little intimidated!
I chose the first line:
“Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first.” by Valerie Valdes
https://paigewilliamswriter.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=bJs1HT4BAAA.KOR_BGldQsM-asZAC49Dnw.6Eek9ZJj0sf0YFuYdXxq8A&postId=2690140764856298039&type=POST
I thought it was a magnificent opening line!
That was a cool take. It’s fun seeing people come up with such vastly different reasons for the books needing to be burned.
Thanks so much Valerie!
It has been a wonderful first experience. (First for posting an entry and first for writing a piece of fiction under 1,000 words.)
It can definitely be tough to keep something that short… I think half the challenge is finding the right idea! And now that you’ve done it once, you’re over the first hurdle.
[…] is my entry for Chuck Wendig’s latest challenge, based on a first line from Jake Bible. I suppose it’s sci-fi/horror, I’m not entirely […]
I used Jake Bible’s line and I came up with this: http://sjihollidayblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/the-man-flashfiction/
Whew. I felt this guy’s disturbance. Good story.
Thanks Vicki 🙂
Well, God loves a trier. I chose Valerie Valdes’ line.
I seem to have slumped into have deeply self critical stage of writing, I hope that this is at least better than Robert Stanek.
http://steamcritter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/flash-fiction-challenge.html
*into that deeply self critical
I don’t know how ‘that’ transformed itself into ‘have’. Yeah doesn’t bode well does it? xD
Neat… Pyrokinesis seems underused in stories these days. I’m ready for it to make a comeback.
I used “Its always midnight somewhere”.
Keeping it under a kiloword left me with something I’m not happy with, but maybe I’ll rewrite it longer someday.
WIth a Bang, not a Whimper is here
Inspired by Delilah’s cherry blossom line here is my submission
http://jamesalexander2013.blogspot.com/2013/04/cherry-blossoms.html
Hope you all enjoy my 986 words
[…] (Written for Chuck Wendig’s Choose Your Opening Line contest.) […]
I used this one: “Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first.”
Good Night, Jack London
Aw, perfect book choice. I think London of all people would understand.
Thanks CJ Eggett for the opening line.
My take’s entitled Kader’s Vale and is at http://kathleenmagner.wordpress.com/kaders-vale/
[…] Flash Fiction challenges. This one is simple: Choose a sentence from the options he posted here, and write a story with that as your opening line. I chose ‘I never trusted that statue in […]
I chose Cat York’s line “I never trusted that statue in the garden behind the house.”
Here’s my story: http://bookewyrme.straydreamers.com/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line/
As always Chuck, thanks for this. I enjoy these so much. ^_^
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/04/12/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line/ […]
I went with Valerie Valdes’ Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first.
http://magell2.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-warmth-of-good-book.html
First off, it was very cool to be included in that handful of liked opening lines. 🙂 Secondly, I probably cheated a bit by using my own line for this challenge. In my defense, prior to this challenge that line wasn’t just the opening it was also middle and end. I had a sort of vague idea I’d like it to be about psychics but then this challenge happened and somehow…zombies. Hmmm.
Anyway, my offering, Hibernation Season: http://maribayo.wordpress.com/hibernationseason
I chose this opening line: ”You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long
http://creatingyourselfblog.com/2013/04/18/chuck-wendigs-flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line/
[…] Here’s my 1,000 word (Okay, 991) flash fiction piece of Chuck Wendig’s challenge: Pick a kickass opening line and write a story. […]
Here is my entry: “Where the Shadow is Darkest.” I used Nathan Long’s opening line. Thanks Chuck for hosting this challenge!
http://nuyangwriter.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/flash-fiction-challenge/
This one was very cathartic to write:
http://mireles-musings.blogspot.com/2013/04/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your.html
I chose to use Valerie Valdes’ opening line.
http://dyerama.tumblr.com/post/48354379309/burnt-legacy
My entry is “Mourning Bird.” I chose two lines, one for the beginning and one for the ending:
I was born beneath a black veil of mourning, a dark bud blooming deep in its shadow. — Gina Herron
The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other. — CJ Eggett
http://www.erinmhartshorn.com/flash-fiction-mourning-bird/
I loved many of those opening lines but settled on Nathan Long’s sentence: “You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.”
This is my first blog post so hopefully the link works! http://chantalnair.blogspot.com/
I went with Jake Bible’s: “The problem with the ringing phone wasn’t how loud it was, or that it hadn’t stopped ringing for an hour, but that Tom didn’t have a phone.”
http://candleinsunshine.com/asthemoonclimbs/short-story/tourist-trap/
Way too long for the challenge, but a hell of a lot of fun to write. Pun intended.
We had an awesome time with this challenge over the past couple of weeks in our writer’s group– I took a stab at Valerie’s despite her many attempts to dissuade me from using her sentence (you will never stop me, woman!)
Here’s my attempt, Eulogy.
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s112/sh/015a181b-49d4-4300-a45d-b49548ec29fb/a4c2de72ddb162ab7c4f014906db78ac?noteKey=a4c2de72ddb162ab7c4f014906db78ac¬eGuid=015a181b-49d4-4300-a45d-b49548ec29fb
Thank you! I absolutely loved that you wrote Max as a female protag. Nice change up. 🙂
Haha. The above reply ended up in the wrong place. I was thanking Trine and telling her I liked her Max tale. Fun stuff, everyone.
I’ve never had a Flash Fiction entry before, but I figured I’d give it a shot this week. I used Nathan Long’s first line. http://omnivoroushabit.com/2013/04/19/flash-fiction-welcome-to-catawampus/
[…] a little writing of a different kind to open my world back up – Chuck Wendig came along with a little flash fiction contest. Here’s my contribution. I’m not sure I like it, but what the […]
Screeching in at the deadline! I’ve never done flash fiction before; this was fun!
http://exploringtheattic.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/feathers/
[…] week’s challenge is, “Choose Your Opening Line.” Winners will be chosen in a week or two because lawds-a-mercy, you folks sure turned in […]
Linked another place … I’m an idiot!
http://hobobone.wordpress.com/
Efficiency
http://lpstribling.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/efficiency/