Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds

Flash Fiction Challenge: Last Lines First

Last week’s challenge: “The Last Line Of A Story”

Holy crap, people. Over three-hundred entries in last week’s challenge.

This is going to be a hard one.

Some of you are out of the running — if you enter multiple times, I mostly discount your entries because you put me into a kind of choice paralysis. Plus, you get lots of the dead bodies, bullets, revenge variety — some of this stuff starts to feel very samey-samey. (Oh, and more than a few of you have a very liberal interpretation of a “last line” of a story.)

That being said, still, so many good options.

So, this is the five I’ve picked:

m3nace: “If it wasn’t for the inflation the devil could have bribed them.”

Lani Gerbi: “And then, being mindful not to spill my tea, I eased into the tartan embrace of Endolyn Muirden’s least offensive armchair, and settled back to watch him die.”

Ben Dodge: “The old man lying in the hold died three minutes later.”

Marlanesque: “She closed the book and watched as it turned to dust.”

Ryan Viergutz: “Cristobal climbed the ladder of arteries to the first universe that looked like it held more wonders and mysteries than the last.”

Squishy: “That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re short a bazooka.”

Josh Roby: “Once upon a time, there was a story so short, it was only a single line.”

lverawrites: “Life was easier before killing all the rabbits.”

David: “They never did find the orangutan.”

Damien Kelly: “Truth be told, I’m not sure any of them are actually dead.”

You’ll note that I’ve chosen ten there.

If you’re one of the lines picked, email me at: terribleminds at gmail dot com.

You will receive some manner of digital goodies.

NOW, for this week’s challenge —

You think it’s going to be, “Pick one of these last lines and using it as a last line in your story.”

BZZT.

Nope.

I want you to pick one of these last lines and use it as the first opening line in your story.

You’ve got up to 1000 words.

Write your tale. Post at your online space. Link back here.

Due by next Friday. July 19th. Noon EST.

terribleminds

118 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Last Lines First”

Newer Comments »

  1. I think I’m going to have to take…

    Squishy: “That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re short a bazooka.”

    Looks way too tempting for me to avoid.

    Reply

  6. “If it wasn’t for the inflation the Devil could have bribed them.”
    Sounds like a winning ticket to me! I’ll be back with: Hot Off the Press

    Reply

  18. The ‘tartan armchair’ is streets ahead of the others, in my humble opinion. The language is gorgeous, and, in so few words, we have a strong sense of this careful, sinister character coupled with intrigue and humour. And that name – ha! Genius.

    Lani Gerbi (real name?) is truly a gifted writer.

    Reply

    • Nice take on a difficult line! I do think the whole ‘vamp’ thing could have been left out, to make the whole story (and the antagonist) more mysterious and a little more ominous, but it worked well enough with the assassination method.

      Reply

      • Thanks man! The moment I read it… I found more words begin writing after it… my brain just added them on! So, I copied and pasted the line into a blank page in word 2010 and kept on writing and came out with a rough version of what you read… I fought with my muse with whether to keep the vampire thing a secret or not; and decided to keep it in. My muse wasn’t any help in that… just shrugged at me.

        And I’ve been watching a lot of Supernatural and vampire shows lately… so mixed a few things I’ve gleaned off them into the writing – always fun when you can do that. 😀

        Yours was great! Loved it – as always! 😀

        Reply

  36. Okay, so I’ve gone and done it! I’ve entered my first attempt at one of these flash fiction challenges and you know what? I bloody loved it! Don’t care how crap it turned out, was just nice to be writing something quick and easy that someone else asked for. You can find my efforts at: http://darkmattersofthemind.blogspot.com/2013/07/terrible-minds-flash-fiction-challenge.html
    Looking forward to reading all y’all other entries.
    Much love
    Bex

    Reply

    • Great story with a complicated main character. The “voice” you wrote with for the narrator works well to give her a personality. I enjoyed how the narrator’s greed easily overtakes any relationship she had with the author and leads to murder. Dark characters and motivations like that are right up my alley. Strong first attempt with the Flash Fiction Challenge.

      Reply

  37. OOps, forgot to say that I went with:

    Lani Gerbi: “And then, being mindful not to spill my tea, I eased into the tartan embrace of Endolyn Muirden’s least offensive armchair, and settled back to watch him die.”

    Reply

  48. […] week’s challenge was to use one of ten winning lines as a starting point.  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/07/12/flash-fiction-challenge-last-lines-first/  This one is actually set on Amon.  I read the line and this was the first thing that popped into […]

    Reply
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