{"id":18307,"date":"2013-04-12T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=18307"},"modified":"2013-04-12T11:20:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T15:20:25","slug":"flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2013\/04\/12\/flash-fiction-challenge-choose-your-opening-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Fiction Challenge: Choose Your Opening Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, last week’s challenge was for you to write a kick-ass opening line<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the post got over 400 entries.<\/p>\n

*blink blink*<\/p>\n

Holy crap.<\/p>\n

And tons of really great stuff, too.<\/p>\n

(Though, some less-than-good ones, too. People: it’s like ten, twenty words. Spellcheck!)<\/p>\n

Curiously, three motifs showed up with… perhaps alarming frequency:<\/p>\n

Blood.<\/p>\n

A gun.<\/p>\n

Someone about to die \/ someone already dead (future corpse \/ current corpse).<\/p>\n

Y’all are some twisted little word-wranglers.<\/p>\n

Anywho!<\/p>\n

I’ve posted below a handful of the ones I really liked. Fourteen(15?) \u00a0of them, as a matter of fact. These are not all “winners” in terms of the contest — I still have to whittle this bunch down:<\/p>\n

Once James accepted that he had no choice but to burn the books, the question became which to burn first. — Valerie Valdes<\/p>\n

Prima donnas aren\u2019t born.\u2028 — Mari Bayo<\/p>\n

The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other.\u2028 — CJ Eggett<\/p>\n

I was born beneath a black veil of mourning, a dark bud blooming deep in its shadow. — \u2028Gina Herron<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always midnight somewhere. \u00a0— Andrew Jack<\/p>\n

My brother\u2019s birth was preceded by three distinct and inexplicable phenomena. — Jason Heitkamper<\/p>\n

Max sat amongst the dead, whistling to himself. \u00a0— Brad<\/p>\n

For the second time in a week, I come over Shatter Hill at midnight and see fire at the crossroad below. \u00a0— Bill Cameron<\/p>\n

I never trusted that statue in the garden behind the house.\u2028 — Cat York<\/p>\n

Larry was on the toilet, shitting his brains out, while cleaning his gat.\u2028 \u00a0— The Philosophunculist<\/p>\n

The problem with the ringing phone wasn\u2019t how loud it was, or that it hadn\u2019t stopped ringing for an hour, but that Tom didn\u2019t have a phone. — Jake Bible<\/p>\n

When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.\u2028 \u00a0— Delilah<\/p>\n

“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long<\/p>\n

Tommy beat him with a kiss, and the crowd hated him for it. — Hector Acosta<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which will be our final three?<\/p>\n

Here we go:<\/p>\n

The ghost of a sparrow flitted through one wall and out the other.\u2028 — CJ Eggett<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

“You must walk three paces behind me,” she said. “And never raise your eyes to mine.” — Nathan Long\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

When the last cherry blossom falls, so will my axe.\u2028 \u00a0— Delilah<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, there we go.<\/p>\n

You three: email me at terribleminds at gmail dot com.<\/p>\n

I’ll make sure to get you set up with a pre-order of\u00a0Blue Blazes<\/strong> slinging your way upon release.<\/p>\n

For the rest of you:<\/p>\n

Your goal is simple:<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I’ll choose\u00a0one person’s story<\/em> — just one! — to win autographed copies of my books\u00a0Blackbirds, Mockingbird, <\/strong>and Gods & Monsters<\/strong>. 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).<\/p>\n

You have one week.<\/p>\n

Due Friday the 19th by noon EST (firm deadline).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Go forth and write!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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

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. […]<\/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-18307","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-4Lh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307","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=18307"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18320,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307\/revisions\/18320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}