(I totally stole this idea from Chuck Wending. But I’m giving him credit so that makes it okay, right?)
Here’s the deal, Flash Fiction Fans!
Write an opening sentence.
That’s it. Post it below in the comments.
One sentence. Grab me, hook me, scare me, detail a scene, whatever you want. Any genre, murder, romance, you make the call.
The sentence can be any length. Don’t go crazy, and avoid obviously objectionable material – I know you will anyway – but other than that, let your creative juices run wild. Try to make it interesting. Compelling. Grab that reader’s interest – me, in this case. Hook the reader and make them (me) want to read MORE! Show me what ya got!
Then I‘ll select a few for the opening of a short story challenge for the following week.
You’ll get to choose one to start a new piece of flash fiction.
Sound fun?
Ready, set, go!
DAN ALATORRE 
66 replies on “Flash Fiction Challenge: Write An Opening Line”
My eyes are red spheres squinting at a slippery ribbon of highway through streams of rain that slip around the wipers and drift into my periphery; they are a metronome swinging from the rear view mirror to the road ahead.
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So… You are not into the whole brevity thing. OK.
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no, not much.:)
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Oh, I’m delighted, I will check it out for sure!
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Watch as she sits on the couch working on her laptop, one hand occasionally petting the sleeping dog next to her.
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Nice one!
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Wow. Thanks.
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What a challenge! First lines are absolutely the hardest part for me. Okay, I can’t do it in one sentence, but I pushed out two sentences…
“Marla pounded on the delete key, staring once again at a blank screen. Cursing, she dug deeper into her empty head for the words that would save her father.”
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Ha! Awesome.
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I figured pounding the delete key and cursing the blank screen is something a lot of writers can relate to!
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I can!
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Do you know how much I love you, although I’m sure you just gave me herpes.
(Is that a proper sentence)
E6
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E6, you kill me.
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😂
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That’s right little sheep, line up and take the sacrament, along with the special ingredient I added this week.
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Gawd, that’s ominous. Good job!
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Thanks, Dan.
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Cool, thanks. I have a new promo opportunity premiering today, you might want to stop ’round.
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I love you, although I’m pretty sure I just gave you herpes.
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Even better!
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Can I do more than one?
On a normal day, I relished that first taste of coffee and sank into the warmth filling my chest.
When an eight-year-old flips you off on your way to work, you know the day’s gonna be special.
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Quite an array you’re laying out. One, happy and satisfying; the other, kinda not.
Good job!
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Love that second one! LOL!!
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The footstep, just the one, the other matching hers, begun.
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Ooh, eerie.
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There was never anything halfway about Detective Hansen, so it was rather disconcerting to find the upper half of his body lying in the alley, his bottom half nowhere in sight.
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Cool!
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Oo yes, I’m hooked!
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I haven’t written anything in the last two weeks but think I can handle one sentence. Here goes.
The three of us stood over him, but the syringe with the lethal dose of Morphine was in my hand.
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Wow! Love it!
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This was the same place again without knowing how he ends up here..
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Nice one!
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Thank you I’m working a story using my line now 😊
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She deserved it.
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Brilliant!
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Awesome. Brevity is the soul of wit. This will offer a nice contrast to the lengthier ones.
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You bet! I love these short challenges 😊
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The footsteps stopped an echo after hers, not for the first time that night, she wished she had just taken the bus.
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The bus! Good one!
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oooh I think I missed it, sorry Dan.
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Violence has a certain charm to it. (actual first line to one of my stories in the works)
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Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. I LOVE this line!
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This is pretty much the blurb for my latest novel, due for release March 26th:
Their love was impossible; not only was he way out of her league (a king), but he was living over five hundred years in the past.
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That could be the opening for my book The Water Castle! Nice!
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Endless weeks of denial left Leona battling to overcome her feelings, leaving her confused, guilty and no closer to admitting her true feelings for Gary.
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Every day felt longer than the one that came before.
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And this one…
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That’s my lot, trying to write a blurb for the last 9 hours has left me drained!!
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I know that feeling. SO been there.
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[…] last week when we said write an opening […]
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[…] Dare to join Dan’s Dandy Flash Fiction Challenges […]
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[…] that man Dan (Dan Alatorre) again with a flash fiction challenge based on an earlier opening line challenge. We get to pick a line from Dan’s picks and I picked the first one because I […]
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