This one is pretty simple:
Write an opening sentence.
Post it in the comments below.
Any genre will do, really, though versatility has value.
The sentence should be on the shorter side. Let’s say, mmm, no more than 25 words. Some things to avoid, since sometimes folks fall into these traps: avoid blood, death, dead people, kids being hurt, and so forth. Think original. Conceive of a sentence that, when crafted right, is a strong hook. The kind that makes people want to read further. It makes them want to know more. Compelling and maddening in equal measure.
By next Friday, I will pick between five and ten I really like, and I’ll pop them into next week’s challenge, and you guys can choose one of those I pick to serve as the opening sentence to a new piece of flash fiction.
Today, no story necessary, though.
Just an opening line.
Due by next Friday, 2/26, noon EST.
Chantal says:
Never again shall I run in between two men about to duel at sunrise.
February 25, 2016 — 9:33 AM
Quinn says:
She is an ocean; she is a mountain; she is a monsoon—-and she is no one.
February 25, 2016 — 10:45 AM
Glen Donaldson says:
Epic..as they say.
February 25, 2016 — 2:50 PM
thatcalamity says:
The cold froze Lin’s breath deep in her throat, turning it silver and sharp before it had even left her lips.
February 25, 2016 — 10:49 AM
Quinn says:
I like this !
February 25, 2016 — 11:06 AM
moteridgerider says:
Nice one.
February 25, 2016 — 2:27 PM
Glen Donaldson says:
Now that’s cold!
February 25, 2016 — 2:51 PM
marydpierce says:
If you remember nothing else about this story, remember this: Gopher was always right.
February 25, 2016 — 12:38 PM
christina crall-reed says:
Any message written on liver pate’ is probably a bad omen.
February 25, 2016 — 1:43 PM
Catastrophe Jones (@CatJones) says:
If Lisbon Bester had known that a single four-minute egg was to be the reason for his downfall, he probably would have ordered the quick and efficient killing of every single laying hen known to man.
February 25, 2016 — 3:30 PM
Alison Boyd Matteini says:
In the glow of the forge the scars on the dusk of his forearms were stars.
February 25, 2016 — 4:16 PM
Tom Byrne says:
Sometimes it pays to be forgettable – and well armed.
February 25, 2016 — 4:22 PM
Stella Wood says:
“Of all the things I expected to find in my tomato soup, this wasn’t one of them.”
February 25, 2016 — 5:19 PM
Lili says:
I was less concerned that I had conceived the fetus growing within me despite living in the celibate isolation of my underground bunker, than I was about the growths sprouting from my shoulder blades and increasingly disrupting my sleep.
Lili Nemo
February 25, 2016 — 6:21 PM
Renee McTavish says:
They had deserved so many more years of ordinary and boring than they’d got.
February 25, 2016 — 8:19 PM
Mila says:
Shadows can fill anything, did you know that?
February 25, 2016 — 8:45 PM
R T Allwin says:
Had I arrived six minutes earlier I would have been on a plane to freedom, but instead I ran straight into my future wife.
February 25, 2016 — 9:12 PM
Indywrites says:
He pressed the accelerator harder as if the brute force would make it race ahead of the jam; slamming the breaks at the next instant.
February 25, 2016 — 9:37 PM
Alice E Keyesa says:
The piles littered every service spoke of disappointment and of a life in despair.
February 26, 2016 — 7:46 AM
the story hive says:
My hands always shake, after I kill myself because I’m too hungry.
February 26, 2016 — 11:28 AM
the story hive says:
My fake daughter loves pancakes, and she won’t let me go -ever.
February 26, 2016 — 11:29 AM
the story hive says:
Wait, this one is better:
My daughter Emily loves pancakes with chocolate chips and bananas, but this Emily at the table is all wrong, and she won’t let me go.
February 26, 2016 — 11:36 AM
the story hive says:
The tiger yawned, looked at me pitifully, folded his paws and studied my CV.
February 26, 2016 — 12:13 PM
the story hive says:
-not trying to hide his boredom.
February 26, 2016 — 12:31 PM
the story hive says:
Sleipnir dipped over the event horizon, and started broadcasting “I got you Babe” over all emergency channels.
February 26, 2016 — 12:29 PM
the story hive says:
“Fuck off, grasshopper,” the monks sucked his teeth and let his arrow fly.
February 26, 2016 — 1:37 PM
the story hive says:
“Don’t know, whose dream is this anyway,” asked the baboon, “I’m bored already!”
February 26, 2016 — 2:10 PM
the story hive says:
Only one more, then I’ll stop. Probably.
“Sorry,” I managed a confused face, “I don’t speak bullshit.”
February 26, 2016 — 2:33 PM
shelton keys dunning says:
Denied, the letter said.
March 1, 2016 — 2:32 AM
glenavailable says:
There’s no denying this is a great opener.
March 1, 2016 — 4:36 AM
Katarina87 says:
She opened her eyes to a sepia sky, like someone’s memory, and she knew this day was going to be different.
March 3, 2016 — 7:18 PM
glenavailable says:
Well done Katarina. I hear in the writing world sepia is the new orange which is the old black.
March 4, 2016 — 7:01 PM
Rayene. F says:
It was a butchered mangle of a language; the sounds too harsh, the stresses too frequent, the consonants too throaty.
March 12, 2016 — 3:56 PM