{"id":18239,"date":"2013-04-05T06:43:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T10:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=18239"},"modified":"2013-04-05T06:43:17","modified_gmt":"2013-04-05T10:43:17","slug":"flash-fiction-challenge-the-kick-ass-opening-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2013\/04\/05\/flash-fiction-challenge-the-kick-ass-opening-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Fiction Challenge: The Kick-Ass Opening Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week’s challenge: “The Secret Door<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I love a good opening line.<\/p>\n

You lead with a great first line in a story, man, that’s just hooks you right away, doesn’t it? It’s like a key to a door. Opens up the world and your interest in it lickety-split.<\/p>\n

So, that’s what I want from you.<\/p>\n

I want you to write\u00a0one<\/em> opening line.<\/p>\n

And then I’ll pick three.<\/p>\n

And if those three people are in the United States, I’ll send them a copy of my book,\u00a0The Blue Blazes<\/strong>, when it comes out. If you’re in the UK or anywhere else across the big wide world, you may have to settle for a digital copy, but I’ll make sure to get you one just the same.<\/p>\n

Now, some rules:<\/p>\n

A line means one sentence, not two, not three.<\/p>\n

You get one entry, not two, not three.<\/p>\n

Put your entry in the comments below.<\/p>\n

I’ll pick three of my favorites by the close of Thursday the 11th (11:59PM) and then the following challenge next Friday will be for you folks to pick one of the three opening lines and write a story based on it. Which means you also might want to take a gander at these suggestions:<\/p>\n

Shorter is better than longer.<\/p>\n

Try too to keep in mind that you’re writing an opening line for other stories; the trick is to write something engaging while still writing a line that could apply to a great many styles and genres of story. Something that appeals and hooks in this case not just readers but other writers, too.<\/p>\n

You’re writing lines for\u00a0potential<\/em>, is my point.<\/p>\n

That’s how I’ll pick my favorites. Based on their potential to make interesting stories.<\/p>\n

So! You’ve got a little less than one week.<\/p>\n

One opening line. Let’s see what you’ve got.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week’s challenge: “The Secret Door.” I love a good opening line. You lead with a great first line in a story, man, that’s just hooks you right away, doesn’t it? It’s like a key to a door. Opens up the world and your interest in it lickety-split. So, that’s what I want from you. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-theramble","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pv7MR-4Kb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18239"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18247,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18239\/revisions\/18247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}