ARWZ :: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Discussion Forums

Violanthe · Webmaster Joined: 24 Jul 2003 Posts: 5902

Sometimes, getting that first line out when you first sit down can be a heroic effort. When you sat down to write today, what was the first line you managed to get on the page?
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction

DougGogerty · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:15 pm

Violanthe · Webmaster Joined: 24 Jul 2003 Posts: 5902

I've been having a hard time getting that "flow" in my writing lately. Which is partly why I don't have a first line to post. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow.
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction

H.T. Marie · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:13 pm

If life really is a box of chocolates, then death is a giant pan of fudge brownies...the special kind; it gets you even if you don't inhale, (or maybe that's how it gets you) but you're too stoned to notice.

Yeah...most of my great ideas end up one-liners that only I'm amused by. LOL. But I did spend most of my day researching and outlining a project inspired by this little sentiment, so who knows?

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

"Not quite..." Michelle pulled a face, "I have a choice of costume."
"Oh ? Trick doors again ?"
"That too... But I got a pack of spring-style cards. I put one in the Renew, Ping ! Bagged costume, boxed wig, shoes, accessories, whatever. Instant outfit."
---

Um, I also shuffled 20~~30 lines around, *perhaps* steered the tale around the hump...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Wasn't it such a lovely day, the day we went to Bangor...
---

Yes, I know it is the title of a jolly, tinkly song 'in the style of' Victorian music-halls and Community Singing...

Anyway, it spawned a wake from nightmare and dawn scribble about the last train to Bangor. The last train *ever* to Bangor. Which stopped at Conwy station, allowing the passengers and driver to scramble up the hill and into the robust Edward-1-ian castle and thus survive the tsunami from 'seen late by Spaceguard ' impactor in Eastern Atlantic. Think 'Deep Impact' finale with scant notice, as the BigOne was spotted, tracked, would miss, but had a loose scatter of moonlets that snuck in under radar...

Told by passengers' grown grand-son, who carries honourable title of 'Wiki', to the two unhappy adolescents he's about to send inland to Bala. Conwy community now has too many cousins & 2nd cousins for safe marriages. Girl will be a 'futures' swap, boy is her escort, also rite-of-passage, with hope he'll find a partner...

I can't write "The Last Train to Bangor" yet, perhaps ever...

David M. · Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:13 am

Try this one.

It was a dark and stormy night..... Just kidding!

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

It was a list I scribbled in my notebook...

Anime rei, anime_2, hoopla-short, hoopla long, wild child, legs, nurse, nun, rainbow brite, cute ann, alice / Dorthy, muffet, diva, fly_me, QoH, {unreadable squiggle}
---

Have you ever tried to concentrate on *anything* while in a hospital clinic's waiting room ??

A wall-hung flat-TV was blasting Breakfast TV at the empty area. I found the manual controls along the edge, and surreptitiously turned down the volume...

Five minutes later, just as my wits were meshing, secretary in office opposite zapped volume back up, aiming through the glazed partition. Aren't modern IR remotes marvellous ??

FWIW, I finally decoded the squiggle as 'Genie'.

Just don't ask...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Michelle walked out of the en-suite, pretty in bra and bloomers.
---

Okay, this is set about 20 mins on from point where my writing ground to halt, and was the first line of a dawn rush that only slowed after three or four pages of scrawl.

Serious weirdness ensues. It links into several multi-page chunks I can salvage from the previous try...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

"Something about that costume gives me goose-bumps." Michelle muttered.
---

Okay, that is about 5 minutes on from where the previous part stalled, and forms part of the bridge.

It is an important line, because it sets up some deep, dark back-story a dozen pages later, beginning with '...pretty in...' phrase I posted a couple of days ago. Haven't caught up with that yet, I'm writing in two places at once....

Hey, it is better than not writing at all !!

David M. · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:36 am

"Jesus Wendy, did you see it's eyes? What the hell was that thing?" Brett cried. "Get up! We gotta get out of here before that damn thing comes back!"
Brett grabbed Wendy's shaken form, "Why aren't you listening?"
_________________
�If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.� - General George Patton.

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

It was a surreal ride down the towering atrium, now dark but for those two glowing floors. The Mall opened as we passed the lowest office level, showed a twinkling, brightly lit arcade.

Richard H. Fay · **from "Ode to a Lily Pad"...** Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:54 am

Oh, what a beautiful green spot
To hunt for juicy mosquitoes
Sitting amongst the pond lilies
And the gently swaying cattails.

A member at Speculative Vision turned me into a frog, and now I can't seem to write "human" poems anymore. I just keep thinking about ponds and fat, plump, juicy, scrumptious, delicious, oh-so-good flies.

croak-...ribbit...croak...ribbit...
_________________
"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!"

Richard H. Fay - Azure Lion Productions
https://azurelionproductions.com
See cool stuff featuring my art at the Abandoned Towers Zazzle Store:
https://www.zazzle.com/abandonedtowers

DougGogerty · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:25 pm

Tyler awoke when there was a thump on the floor above him. However, he did not think much of it. The house was full of people, and he would not get any sleep if he investigated every bump in the night.
_________________
Douglas E. Gogerty
-----
Around the Campfire
"No, I'm from Iowa. I just work in outer space."
-James T. Kirk

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

I'd got as far as Joe's 'I sighed,' then found myself grabbing for notepad. Inspiration had struck for the next chunk of the 'Hard SF' space-battle I'm also writing. Took me a few days to get back into this Curious Case. Needed to do some research and re-arrange some plot motifs...
---

"Big hands, big feet-- Other kids called me everything from 'Flipper', through 'Skippy' to 'Strangler'." I sighed, stroking my fingers up her lithe legs, "I grew into them..."
"Oooh !" Michelle shivered, "Do that again--"

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

I doubt they'd be so obliging that we could tap them to drink..."

That finished a paragraph left hanging yesterday. Then I added ~440 words which took M&J via some 'Deep Thoughts' to going in for breakfast...

Now I'm off to SpaceBattles, hoping some-one has commented on 'Soft Target'. Site was *recommended* to me as a more appropriate home for my 'Hard SF'. So far, the reception has underwhelmed...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Taller than the Brussels' Atomium it resembled, the rock-tug towered over the site like a jack-up rig at low tide.
---

Um, also the ONLY line I've written today...

DougGogerty · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:00 pm

"Now that we are at our final destination, where are you going to start?"

I wrote a story for the Mundane Science Fiction people. They are fairly strict on what is allowed and not allowed, so I considered it a challenge. I failed! It didn't have enough science fiction in it to satisfy them. Nonetheless, I also told the story completely in dialog. I like how it turned out! This was the first line for the second part.
_________________
Douglas E. Gogerty
-----
Around the Campfire
"No, I'm from Iowa. I just work in outer space."
-James T. Kirk

DougGogerty · Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:27 pm

The Mystic Order of Pumpkin Slayers is just like any other group of people. Well, people who would frequent a comic book convention anyway. MOPS, as they prefer to be called, is made up of four individuals. They are the four that slew the first pumpkins.

This one is a little more fun...
_________________
Douglas E. Gogerty
-----
Around the Campfire
"No, I'm from Iowa. I just work in outer space."
-James T. Kirk

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Wasn't actually a line...

Couple of days ago, I wrote my first words of the year, breaking the mental ice-sheet.

Figures of eight, figures of eight...

Then some time during the night, I scribbled several pages. Snag is they were not a story as such, more a story-board. And, as it stood, something of a 'Mary Sue'.
{FX: Shudder... }

I've been whittling at it methodically. Slowly, it is starting to resemble a viable tale...

Big problem is that it would form the core of the chapter *after* the one I'm hung upon...

Gordon Long · **Post the first line you wrote today** Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:52 am

Since nobody has posted on this topic for a while, I'll get it going again:

"Pack up all my pills and clothes,
Here I go, laying low.
Bye, bye, rest home."

I'm writing a parody for the Seniors' Vaudeville group that I direct. (If you consider that the average age of my Can-Can dancers is 76, you'll see why I think this applies as SF/F)

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

"Mi-- " I hesitated. A tall, slim, youth wearing biker gear, with impossibly stiff, black, Teddy-Boy hair and long side-burns ??
" 'Mickey Stratton' to the life." I nodded, "On you, it looks good."
She grinned.

---
Just don't ask...

And the HardSF ?? Still dead in space...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Changing the tale's setting has prompted a flood of words. It should also allow me to recycle umpteen thousand words from a failed, but worthy attempt, sweep up a bunch of wry fragments and keep going...

I'm even writing lively dialogue for the first time in many months...

D'uh, I must be ill or something...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

The Cat Nuns gently coated my face and shaved head with a strange, thick gel: At first, it itched like nettle-rash, then the skin went numb...
--

Um, about two years ago, I'd woken yelling, grabbed for note-book and pen. I scribbled enough clues to reconstruct the weird tale. Next day, I wrote about a thousand words, got the protagonists safely aboard ship, went back to my other stories...

Last night, I dreamed a later chapter. Haven't written it, because I finally made the goose-bump connection, scrambled to document that...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

... But I was too busy writing !!

Yeah !!!
---
---

I'd watched the falling receipts, made my own calculations, but it was still a shock when our Corner Caf� finally closed.
---
---

D'uh, don't ask how or why I tidied up the ending of the other tale, turned the page and began something completely different. I've since scrawled 40-some sides of 'reporter' note-pad, and still going strong...

Bad news, like my still-lurking 'FRAN', this tale-with-no-name is dire 'Urban Noir', so unlikely to appear in print. But, when this writing jag eases, I may be able to continue my hard-SciFi 'Convention' tales...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

The room was bitterly cold. When I dimmed up the lights, I could see my breath.
---

My urban-noir tale is still chugging along. I've sorted out the language problem, read up on some technical matters, hope the words will continue to flow.

I've managed NOT to be distracted by a lucid ISOT dream about a commuter jet tossed into the Pleistocene. I've also resisted the urge to dive back into my stalled 'Hard SF' space-tale before several missing plot-pieces are resolved...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

Um, I can't tell what I wrote, when...

I know I was writing until very late last night / early this morning. I wrote / edited / inserted some more each time I woke up. I added most of a page this morning while half-asleep before brunch...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercalation_(disambiguation)

Problem is the whole chunk was a 'bridging piece' which I had to get through before tackling the next 'significant' section...

Happily, it has also set up several minor plot twists, given my bemused characters some more stuff to wonder about...
---

Gotta go, must empty kitchen bin etc during daylight...

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

I lost most of yesterday to feeling ill. Symptoms were severe, flu-like, so I took a couple of antihistamines after breakfast, crawled back into bed, hid under pillow and slept until I was needed to zap dinner...

The only line I wrote, I promptly scribbled out as a dead-end.
( "Hangover..." Joe nodded. )

Today was better. I reckon yesterday was my primed immune system repelling boarders. I've filled 14 more sides of my current 'reporter' note-pad, I gotta stop due time & chores rather than ideas & energy...

"Fruit juice." I poured, pointed.
Joe nodded, glugged it back, "Made sure I drank enough water but, after our freezing night--"

Nik · Senior Member Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 804 Location: UK

After that, the evening just wound down. I clocked two more 'air miles' [on the excercise bike], took another shower. After grabbing my MP3 player from the [changing room's] charger, I scooped up the latest addition to our wardrobe and headed for my room.
---
[ Signifies inserted here for continuity...]

Tale's now up to very end of Day #07, and the game's a-foot.

I've been writing fairly steadily in my spare time: Scribble for 2~~3 days, catch up with typing, skip most of a day, resume...

Unfortunately, my spouse has picked up yet another nasty Winter virus, and spiking fever has upset her chemistry. I may have a cold brewing, but that's trivial by comparison...

Shadow_Ferret · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 6:12 pm

Jim nodded though he didn't fully comprehend. He stepped to the edge of Heaven and looked down. He was expecting an airplane view of the Earth, but instead was greeted by a panoramic view of the cosmos. Not the cosmos as seen through radio telescopes, but a multi-dimensional absolute of space, time, and infinity.

EllyNightmares · Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:00 am

This is from a randomly entertaining set tales for my friends. It's rather 'through the looking glass' and the characters are all based on some sort of cutlery or other assorted kitchen-y object. Here is the start of it (which I only found floating around in my head this evening and is therefor just a rough):

Mr. Spoonman sat at his writing desk � as often he did at this time of day � his fingers steeped over a crisp clean white piece of paper while his fountain pen balanced horizontally on his upper lip. He wondered if perhaps instead of covering the page in writing, he could cover it in ink blots; small and large, any kind of blotchy shape so long as they were of ink. He'd always liked ink but never found any joy in white pieces of paper; maybe that was why his writers block had lasted so long?

Violanthe · Webmaster Joined: 24 Jul 2003 Posts: 5902

Hi Elly! Welcome to ARWZ!
_________________
Violet "Violanthe" Kane
[email protected]
ARWZ.com: A Magazine of Alternative Reality Fiction