The First Line

Too bad, @Set2Stun and @Louanne Learning. Any chance @Homer Potvin will sweep in with a killer story? I'm going to give this one a shot.

 

Hello writing friends -- Just wanted to let you guys know that the firsts lines for 2024 have been posted. These ones seem a lot easier to me than the last ones, but I'm not really sure how that might affect the completion. What do you think?

http://www.thefirstline.com

2/1/2024 deadline -- "Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes."

5/1/2024 deadline -- "'Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.'"

8/1/ 2024 deadline -- "When she was eight, Alice Henderson briefly held the world record for filling her mouth with marbles."

11/1/2024 deadline -- "The parking lot was empty."

I think the third one is my favorite. Anyone thinking about giving The First Line a shot next year?

 

Thanks for sharing the prompts!

I think the second one is the one I like most. Instantly gives me some social commentary vibes. Three seems completely batshit, and I can't help but admire it.

I'll definitely try at least a couple of these, though I'd have to put on my thinking cap to write something for all four in a series. Though, the idea is tempting. I do appreciate how none of these prompts have characters named Harriet.

 

I, too, find the idea of doing a series tempting, but that sure is a lot of work. There is a lot of time so definitely worth giving some thought. I do plan on trying to get something submitted for each one even if I don't attempt a series. But @Set2Stun, I think you've probably got more practice in than I do when it comes to longer works or series.

I bet we can get @Homer Potvin do go for the third one. I have no idea where he would go with this, but something tells me he would come up with something good for the third one.

 

Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes. He had been a barefooter, and had stopped wearing shoes for over three years. He no longer had any shoes. It was alright for him, he worked as a lifeguard, and never needed them anymore, and had very strong feet with thick soles, and he walked better. But suddenly there was a job opportunity that he knew he should take, he was a shoe in, but it would mean he would have to get shoes again, to start with. Now he was trying to go into a shoe store, and explain the situation to the store manager he met at the door while he did not have shoes yet, and not even socks...

 

Did the manager shoo him off or just sock him in the jaw?

 

This is a barefooter's perspective, no law being there to exclude any people from being barefoot, but no protection for them in being excluded from any business or any institution based just on their being barefoot. Mr. Morton in this writing now has encountered this very issue, and is at the mercy of the management letting him buy shoes, and socks that should go with those, that they would be paid for, or they lose this one ready to be a customer, and he loses his future position, because this is the one place he can go for the needed shoes for that. We can say he is resourceful. If management will still not permit him to come in, though there are no issues with that, he just goes barefoot everywhere, he might wrangle with them to bring shoes for his size out to him and he could pay them there, right outside the store. It can get very convoluted when management can't be more reasonable, as in reality there is no law for customers to be excluded just for not having shoes on.

Indeed no one is socking another in the jaw.

It is still fun to use these words with possible double meaning.

 

@FFBurwick -- Did you get something in on time? I missed out on that one, but I'm going to try and hit the rest of them for the year.

The new first line is going to be a bit tricky for me since it's a line of dialog and I absolutely hate stories that start with dialog. But I'll see what I can do to make it work. Next deadline is May 1. First line is "Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today."

 

Does this mean you're in for this round, @Homer Potvin?

 

I'm likely to submit something for the current prompt. It's a good one, and I am a dialogue guy. I had nothing for the shoes one, and I'm currently struggling with another prompt that I've had weeks to think about but nothing is coming to me. Sounds like something is coming in Homer's story, though.

 

Do you think a story that starts with dialog is set up to be a dialog heavy story? I used to like writing dialog like you @Set2Stun, but now the dialog in my stories is quite a bit more sparse. I'm not quite sure how that changed and I think it was gradual. But just thinking about the prompt it sort of suggests that dialog is going to be important in this story given the first line is dialog. I'm interested to know what you all think about this.

 

Okay, I've got a start to this one. I think I like how it's going so far. I hope some more of you give this a go. I think it's a fun and unique publication. Good luck to all of you, my writer friends.

I wonder who gets to come up with the first line and what their process is. Can I get that job?

 

This first line really does set it up as a conversation. I wonder if to stand out, one must avoid taking it in that natural direction. Glad you've already got an idea. Good luck to you as well !

 

I can't say I have much of an idea, but I've got the beginning of one at least. One of the interesting aspects of this is standing out and coming up with something that is going to be different than what everyone else is. And we have no way of knowing who is going to write and submit what so it's super hard to know if we're taking the prompt into a unique direction or not. That's also part of what makes this fun and challenging.

I was wondering the same thing about the first line being a set up for a conversation, but that's not the direction I'm going in. Mainly, I just don't trust myself to write much of a compelling story through mostly dialog or to have an interesting enough conversation going on.

You said dialog is one of your strengths. This might actually be a good opportunity to showcase those skills.

 

I did not know that War and Peace started with dialog. That's interesting.

 

I missed that opportunity, but seeing this possibility still for a future submission I will look toward maybe taking advantage of it. The first line can guide the writer, who may find how to use it, but it need not be indicating anything for others who would read the writing. Being predictable would not help still.