First Lines

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

There was only one rule: don’t open the door.

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished

...

Bored yet?

This is what my feed is going to look like, and I'm yawning already.

I know, I know.

I'm complaining.

I whinged that I wanted more fiction challenges, and now I got 'em, and I'm still not happy.

I hate these first lines

I know you want it. I know you want an original, gut busting opening line. I know I do. May we read them. May we write them.

They need to be original. Intriguing. Scene setting. I want to hear your voice. What direction have you chosen for this outing? What mood? Have you made a bold choice, or a traditional one?

Who the fuck even knows, because someone else has written the first line for you. It might even be a belter... the first time you read it. The twelfth time... It's probably going to lose its shine.

Why would you do that to a writer?

It's a bit different if you submit to a contest where only the winning entry is going to be published. Only the judges need be bored spitless by this, and they signed up to it. But a platform like this one, making lots of the new publications look so similar kills the feed.

Turn-offs

We all have little turn-offs in stories. Something that pulls us out, makes it hard to keep going, or even makes us not turn another page. We all have little rules for ourselves, I think. Shaped by those quirks and preferences. Some people think you shouldn't open with the weather. Some think you shouldn't open with a pronoun.

Me, I hate an as-hole sentence for an opener. She did this as she did that. The moon shone, or the rain poured, or his teeth chattered as he did something else. I don't know why I don't like it. Just personal taste, I suppose. I don't think you'll find a story of mine that opens that way. We write what we read, and we write what we like.

I love when you hook me. When you spark my curiosity and pull me, inexorably, into your weaving. Like whatshisname. Theseus? Following the string... Except your string is enchanted, and he can't not follow it. He knows there will be a monster at the end of it, and it's not his choice to move his sandalled tootsies through the dust to face it. He must. He is a fish on a line, the hook is in his belly, pulling, and pulling...

Disappointment

All this to say... you can imagine my disappointment at seeing a fiction challenge with a prescribed opening line. Even more so on a platform like this, where there's a feed (and now all the stories look the same, great move.) Even more so when there's two fiction challenges, and both have prescribed opening lines.

Okay, moan over.

+

Thank you for putting up with me.