Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds

Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line

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!

 

terribleminds

214 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line”

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  16. 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

    Reply

  21. 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!

    Reply

  25. 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

    Reply

  34. 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

    Reply

  43. 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&noteGuid=015a181b-49d4-4300-a45d-b49548ec29fb

    Reply
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