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.
118 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: Last Lines First”
[…] this week’s challenge was to pick one line spit-balled during the previous week and build a story based around that. I […]
I chose “That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re short a bazooka” and came up with “The Candidate”: http://nickegelhoff.com/2013/07/17/flash-fiction-challenge-last-lines-first/
[…] which I often try to write for – I love challenges. This week’s was called ‘Last Lines First‘. I narrowed my lines to choose from down to two – then I talked to Michelle, who said […]
I had narrowed it down to two lines to choose from to start my story when I made the mistake of bringing this up to a friend – she said why not pick one for the challenge, but give myself the extra challenge of trying to use another as the actual last line, too.
I did it. I used Damien Kelly’s “Truth be told, I’m not sure any of them are actually dead.” to start my story off. Then Marlanesque’s “She closed the book and watched as it turned to dust.” as my outside-the-challenge extra.
Escape: http://fontofrandom.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/escape-story-for-a-flashfiction-challenge/
[…] response to Chuck Awesomest Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge. Share this: Pin ItShare on TumblrPrintEmailDiggLike this:Like Loading… cartoon + […]
Hullo! It’s not too late to participate in this challenge, yeah?
http://happinessisnotadisease.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/robot-in-the-box/
So good to take a break from novella writing, take some pressure off myself, and just have a blast writing utter nonsense:
The Device: http://ilonatherose.wordpress.com/the-device/
[…] Here’s the Flash Fiction link and below are the sentences I used for inspiration and in the story were: “Once upon a time, there was a story so short, it was only a single line.” […]
I used ‘Once upon a time, there was a story so short, it was only a single line’ as my first line but I also used rabbits, orangutans, Endolyn, Tartan Embrace, Cristobal and Squishy’s name – bonus points???
Those dastardly rabbits
http://alreadynotpublished.wordpress.com/flash-fiction/those-dastardly-rabbits/
I used, “She closed the book and watched as it turned to dust.”
“A Brand New World”
http://jmboverthinking.blogspot.com/2013/07/flash-fiction-challenge-last-lines-first.html
Took a stab at, “She closed the book and watched as it turned to dust.” The story is “Deep Magic” at http://sarahcain78.com/2013/07/deep-magic
[…] picked his favorite five (by which he meant ten) submissions (sadly, mine was not one of them) and this week’s challenge is to pick one of the ten and write 1,000 words or so using that line as the first line of our […]
I used Ben Dodge’s “The old man lying in the hold died three minutes later.”
“Ejecta” http://wp.me/p3tdUw-bE
[…] This week’s flash fiction challenge: Last Lines First […]
I used Squishy’s “That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re short a bazooka.”
“Morning Commute” http://foundationoflore.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/morning-commute/
I used Damien Kelly’s “Truth be told, I’m not sure any of them are actually dead.” Because that’s too damn good of a first line not to use.
Here’s my story, “The Obnoxiously Dead.” http://dumbstupidfakestories.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/the-obnoxiously-dead/
[…] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/07/12/flash-fiction-challenge-last-lines-first/ […]
“Truth be told, I’m not sure any of them are actually dead.”
I had fun with this one:
http://benjaminryant.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/flash-fiction-thursday-first-line-of-a-story/
[…] is my work for Chuck’s Last Lines First challenge. I used Squishy’s line: “That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re […]
I took Squishy’s most excellent line and created the following:
Putnam Priorities:
https://iamwritingwhileblack.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/flash-fiction-putnam-priorities-1000-words/
My story, Mutations, was from the last of the last lines.
http://nanoweylyn.livejournal.com/131192.html
Using my own line feels a lot like cheating but the characters have been festering in my mind since I wrote the darn thing, so, for the sake of my own sanity, I present ‘The Murder of Endolyn Muirden’. 😛 Enjoy!
http://lanigerbi.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/fiction-murder-of-endolyn-muirden.html
[…] this week I posted a poll to help me focus my efforts for Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge: Last Lines First. Indecision clearly plagues my followers as well (plus those were some good last lines!), because […]
After much deliberation, I used Lani Gerbi’s “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.”
Judge, Jury, & Executioner: http://erinmjustice.com/2013/07/19/flash-fiction-judge-jury-executioner/
Here’s mine for the week, it’s a short one but I had fun with it.
http://contrastsolution.blogspot.com/2013/07/metafiction.html
[…] Last week’s challenge: Last Lines First. […]
““That plan didn’t fly, superhero, and now we’re short a bazooka.”
http://angelacavanaugh.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/flash-fiction-last-line-first/
I opened with Life was easier before killing all the rabbits, used damien kelly’s line, referred to Squishy’s line, and ended with david’s. Cause I COULD! Bwhahaahaha. The Rabbit Dun Died http://wp.me/p18cfA-r