Up for a writing challenge?
We want to see Your Story. … Or at least the first line of it.
In our Your Story contest, we give our readers a chance to get published in Writer’s Digest magazine by responding to a prompt with either a full story, or, in this case, a single-sentence story opener.
In our July/August 2012 issue, we invite you to write the opening line to a piece based on this photo prompt:
Your Story #43
Want in? Post your entry in the Comments section of this post, and it’ll automatically be entered in the competition.
The rules:
- Your sentence (just one!) must be 25 words or fewer. Entries of 26 words will be DQ’d (even though it’s my lucky number).
- The deadline is Aug. 10, 2012.
- One entry per person, please.
- How it all works: We’ll select the top 10 entries and post them here. In mid-August, readers will vote for their favorites to help rank the winners.
- This is a free writing competition. The prize is publication in WD.
- You can also submit your sentence via the form here.
- Finally, as we say about this publication contest in the magazine: “You can be funny, poignant, witty, etc. It is, after all, your story.”
Good luck!
–
Zachary Petit is an award-winning journalist, the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, and the co-author of A Year of Writing Prompts: 366 Story Ideas for Honing Your Craft and Eliminating Writer’s Block.
Like what you read from WD online? Check us out in print—click here for our low subscription rates.
Dawn arrives once again to dim my light I hope last night they saw the light hope is all I have until tonight unless they did see the my light.
And as the sun melted away, the man picked me up and I was alive once again.
The traveller walked all night to reach the ash fields.
From out of the chaotic caverns
The Sentinel and his guardians returns
To lead humanity and save the Earth
I steal a lantern from the distracted lovers on the beach, the glow spills on my beaten boots-a reminder of how I got here.
Arriving where you desire is rarely an end: what I can perceive from here is that it actually is a whole new and terrifying beginning.
As morning breaks, all I see is sand in every direction and my final destination is no where in sight.
Emerging from the eternal darkness of the Hollows alive and with Lantern, I faced a rising desert sun and three days walk through treacherous Barrens.
I emerged from the manhole to discover my hometown had become unrecognizable.
Kevin had laughed at O’Connor’s warnings of saboteurs but, the dawn before VegFest, a mass of foam obliterated every zucchini in town.
With chicken feathers all over his ranch and a dead woman in his bed, Ethan put the lantern down and pondered what to do next.
A star, even one compressed into a travel-sized cosmological carry-all, is too heavy for any one man.
Loneliness smoothed down his spine. The soft glow of the gas lamp had kept them away but now the small flame was beginning to sputter.
Dead men did not dream, they say. But, I was holding a light to look at my own dismembered body lying on the fresh snow.
Crisp snow crunches softly beneath his feet as the first rays of light signal the dawning of a new day shimmering elusively on the horizon.
As dusk fell the starlighter set out with his solitary lantern of eternal light – another worknight began.
He sighed as he set the lantern down, knowing full well that the sunrise would offer him as little hope as the lantern had.
The silence of the purple, petrified ocean was getting on his nerves; this cowboy needed home, a horse and some kerosene for his lantern, pronto.
The kids at camp teased me because my right arm is longer than my left, but as they nurse bad backs, I continue my quest.
The temperature didn’t even matter – he knew he had to find her and now.
I miss the tickle of cold on my neck, as the Sun rose to dance its rays on snow that falls through my hands .
For the first time in recent memory Vincent wanted to greet the dawn and looked forward to what this day would bring.
Tom promised me a night to remember and when I saw him on that secluded beach, I shivered in the lamp light.
‘Where has he left us now?’ The first asked.
‘It matters not.’ The second replied, pressing his nose against the convex glass, ‘we’ll find him again.’
Setting forth on life’s challenging road ahead of us, we’re never really alone when we carry God’s guiding light within.
Buck knew it was only a matter of time before a noose was around his neck.
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,” he hummed, while sizing up where might be the softest spot to dig.
I was in for a very long walk that I was completely unprepared for, but I had to go.
The irony of finding a lantern on my path just as the sun started to rise was a little too much for me to bear.
There’s something reassuring speaking my thoughts aloud. “Here”ll be good.” I said. “She’d of hated it here. Well… Time to give the bitch a burial.”
In the glow of the lantern, I wondered what my wife’s head might look like skewered atop a spike in the sand.
Today’s my funeral.
I set the lantern down besides my boots on the sand, when your blind it really isn’t a useful tool.
Theo could only think of dark and light playing out upon the ash, causing his heart twinge of the unspoken.
(had to fix because of a typo *embarrassed*) Fixed sentence: Theo could only think of dark and light playing out upon the ash, causing his heart to twinge of the unspoken.
In the evanescent light of dusk I waited; the air itself disquieted with the exigence of the penultimate task that lie before me.
I had arrived.
Claudie says ain’t no faces in dreams, so eyes down, girl–maybe you isn’t out in your nightdress with a man wearing Mr. Rencroft’s boots.
After watching his dog run away for two days, Stephen got angry that The Prairie Dog Campground had misrepresented their scenery photos on its website.
We walked our last walk following a light ahead; a dying yellow, pale and alone, like there was no other color left in the world.
Sighing, he set down his lantern and looked out at the sunset, knowing that it would be the last sunset he ever saw.
The shadows grew behind my old, worn shoes.
The world rejected my theory of three that were never three but always four. And that’s why I went to the desert.
And He said, “I again take the Light tonight, and return it tomorrow morning — thou shalt not want.”
Cancer cut my life short, but it wouldn’t take my last breath. This seemed as good a place as any for a man to die.
This salty desert was treacherous; each tentative step could crumble the brittle crust that lay between him and the muddy depths below.
He could hear the Cessna’s engine sputtering in the distance as he lit and placed the last of the kerosene lamps on the makeshift runway.
It appeared as though nothing but wind, rain and sun rays had touched the Playa’s ashen floor until I dared to interrupt the dawning silence.
It was a dark and stormy light.
The flames still danced within my lantern, despite everything that had happened. I prayed they would hold out until I completed what must be done.
He couldn’t sleep,with all that was weighing on his mind, so he went for an early walk before the sun rose.
The familiar pest of clear thinking served to remind him that he knew better; there would forever be whispers.
Leaving lantern and body behind, in quiet desperation he flew off into the darkening sky, onto the ancient stellar path to Severna, to die again.
It’s embarrassing, but I have to admit that this is the first time I ever lost my keys while burying a body.
“Like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” I picked up the lattern and forgave myself for destroying my family. “Okay God.”
The stony desert stretched as far as he could see, making him an easy prey, faintly protected only by the flickering gas lamp light.
As sullen day rose in the sky before before him, he set down the lantern and left behind the quiet terrors of the night.
The distance yet to travel increased the weight of the lantern and I had to set it down.
How many times had he told her? Enough. Enough. “Don’t make me do something I don’t want to.” He had said.
With only the mysterious note and his desire to find the music box, he let fate take control and sat the lantern down and waited.
The day John walked away from his life, the descending sun painted the sky pink as if it , too, were embarrassed by his actions.
The earth had a way of crunching under foot this time of day, but each step brought the anticipation of a distant noise.
The sand was soft beneath his boots, muffling the sound of his footsteps as he approached the dusk that absolved each crime, he committed.
The cobalt moonscape glowed for me alone, motherless and hungry, as abandoned as this country where we’d buried our nuclear dead.
“He set the lantern down, dusted his hands and stared into the indigo sunset, trying to remember who else knew where she was buried.”
When I was sixteen, the god called Cowboy painted for me the first sunrise.
At the edge of the blue plains, I caught a setting sun to warm the freckles on your skin every day that I am gone.
As Rusty gazed out over the frozen landscape, he knew the horse was well and truly gone along with his rifle and all the ammo.
At daylight’s dawning he realized the severity of his situation, but one step forward would change his life, perhaps forever.
Searching the horizon, he began to lose hope of ever seeing her again.
“Just look at all that opportunity,” Jack said as he set the lantern down and gazed up at the beautiful desert sunrise, “It’s all ours.”
Chris never ceased to be amazed at how beautiful the world could still be, even after the apocalypse.
The landscape was bleak,and the night was coming, making the trip ahead of the man with the lantern even more determined!
When his pet scorpion Nacho asked why they walked in circles for the past three hours, Sinjin Soto dropped his rusted lantern and fell backward into the dust.
In all my days on this Godforsaken Earth, I have never seen anything like that.
“Dammit, I should have peed before I left.”
The light would kill them if I brought it any closer.
Jeez, I should have killed the bastard years ago.
“One more time” he muttered as he grabbed the lantern, heading out to find her.
The pulverized remnants of Denver, Colorado crunched beneath the boots of the only man alive that could resurrect the long forgotten city and its people.
Against all odds, with desperation in my heart and no one left to stand beside me, I set out to find humanity’s last hope.
It seemed impossible but it was true — the footprints I’d been following ended abruptly, right here, in the middle of miles and miles of nothing.
I placed the lantern into the endless sea of ash, realizing that even the rising sun in the distant horizon didn’t hold any promises.
“Don’t stop now Daddy, or we’ll never find Mommy before midnight,” the soul in the lantern said.
The man with the lantern was tired, bone-tired, and the blood was already beginning to soak through the bandages again.
Where is the form you fill out to submit?
If that wasn’t your opening line, you added it to the form you were to fill out. This is it. Just add a first line.
It’s been three days now, and I’ve searched the entire beach.
Weston set the lantern down to get a better look at the alien substance covering the ground in every direction.
A curious lantern stood in the middle of the spongy rock tundra. Harrison bent to retrieve the beam of hope in the last unexplored terrain.
Chasing a dream and after countless days of wandering I’ve lost my love, my partner, and seeping through my cracked fingertips — my sanity with them.
I can hear my idiot friends screaming “don’t follow the light Jimmy! Don’t follow the light!” and all I want to do is make sure they realize how stupid they are, how absolutely pee-brained they are to think I can run away from ‘the light’ when my damned, good-for-nothing hand is a good-for-nothing lamp, and I can’t exactly run from nothing, unless you count sand particles and spiders, which I haven’t even seen yet but I’m sure are around somewhere.
There is yet hope for those lost in the depths of darkness to be guided, but only if they solemnly seek the light of God.
As dawn broke before my sight, and the precious lantern of yesterday became feckless, a breeze forced my eyes closed and left me clutching to hope, to Aline, and for a moment, it felt like we were together again.
I left a lantern and a breadcrumb trail of windswept footprints knowing she would surely follow me into the mountains they inhabited.
“Hurry up Tom; we don’t have much time to hide the body,” the man said to his son.
“Keep walking, pick up the lantern and keep walking,” he said again in the same angry tone he had been using all night.
Tired Sam, picking up his lantern, surveying the whole dusky area suddenly murmured “Pooh – long way to go” and walked to reach his destination.
The unpleasantness of their lunchtime argument finally behind them, Bob and Lantern walked into the frozen hellscape together, but tension remained.
At daybreak, he set the lantern down, desperately scanned the vast pale flats, and cast two small, pitifully-human cries into the inscrutable immensity, “Josie? Josie?”
Setting the old-fashioned lamp down, I screamed; Jacoby was dead. Forty eight years of marriage was over. Wiping my face, I kicked the sand, crying.
Clair sat the lantern down and looked to the desolate country, “Another land to conjure.” She thought.
It was unusually cold that day in Manhattan, plus all the people and the buildings were gone.
Pain, exhaustion, loneliness, it is all relative. The only absolute is survival. Get up, pickup the lamp and keep moving.
As I set down my lamp, I scanned the horizon intently for the other lantern that was supposed to be here at dawn.
I’m usually a faithful lantern, but when I discovered Jeremy’s plan to go to Slughashee, I refused to go any farther.
Don’t dwell on it. Walk away, taking the last light with you. They’ll find the body by morning, but they won’t find you.
As Carter put the lantern down, he knew his whole life will change as the dawn offers hope for the future.
As the passionate purples of twilight gently fade into darkness, he sets the lantern at his feet knowing it will draw her to him.
The first lantern had been found and just in time, as peace would have a maddening effect on the greediest of all mercenaries.
the smell of kerosine in the lantern kept my fear at bay. the snow would soon turn to treacherous ice; but i would be ready.
The flame’s aura felt warm against John’s fingers, as he lifted the lantern by its handle, and marched forward towards the coming dark.
By the time the fool realized I could see the glow of his lantern for miles, I had already centered the crosshairs against his chest.
Blue sand, and I’ve got the boots—each one on the right foot; I cannot take a wrong step, but you will, sister…just watch.
[...oops! single sentence!]
I laid wondering if that lantern was the second to last light I’d ever see, and those boot heels, the last things I’d ever feel.
Blue sand, and I’ve got the boots—each one on the right foot. I cannot take a wrong step. But you will, sister. Just watch.
His need for the lantern was done as his journey had only begun – exhaustion all over his face, his heart longing for a place.
Ragnor set the lantern down on the frigid snow-covered plain and waited for the sun to devour him.
He gazed across the Antarctic waste, wondering if his lantern’s glow served as a beacon for live men or a poor tribute to lost souls.
The echo of a past long forgotten began ringing in my ears, its bittersweet melody seducing me ever onward like the siren’s song.
The decision to die today had been made for Alexander by the Council, but frankly, he had other plans and that demon out there was going to go down hard!
Fire can give hope to a man, melt the heart of a woman, defend the truth and save a nation.
The gound my boots was scorched cotton-candy, and the fear of surviving alone crept into my bones as the sun disappeared.
The light off the lantern narrowed the vast expanse leaving it untested, much like my mind narrowed by its own biases.
The ground beneath my boots crunched like scorched cotton-candy, and as the sun dissapeared, the fear that I was the lone survivor settled into my bones.
Please DQ this comment, as it has 26 words, and use the one below it. My apologies, and thank you.
Ian goes to the spot he last saw his father every night in hopes that the sea will deliver the body back to the shore.
Dalton Weathermore watched the sun setting over the distant horizon, it’s beauty was not lost upon him despite being so far home.
Before I was born, someone told my father exploration wasn’t a good way to make a living, he had spent his life proving them wrong.
When one story ends, another begins… whether you want it to or not.
Inside the lantern’s protection I waited, knowing this was the last time to catch one of the nightsands, the last time to get the truth.
He’s inlove with the sunset but is afraid of the dark; that even the stars aren’t enough to get him illumated all through the night.
He’s inlove with the sunset but is afraid of the dark; that even the stars aren’t enough to get him illuminated all through the night.
I set out before dawn with backpack, .410 gauge Springfield Armory M6 Scout and Capt. William Thompson’s original 1821 map of Cocos Island.
He regarded his art as serious as God did his, and every canvas a new creation.
Suncatcher tugged on his lamp trap; the sky shrank, the flame flared, and behind him the people bowed their heads, pretending to pray.
Even in the strange half-light of dawn the truth didn’t feel different: no colour the sky turned could offer Anthony’s torment a forgiving hue.
The lantern ran out of fuel as the sun was going down and he tossed it aside, knowing not even darkness could stop him now.
It wasn’t normal for the Daybringer to carry a lantern, but this was an eclipse, and he wouldn’t be caught unarmed.
I like this. Instant intrigue.
Thanks! Dug yours too :¬)
Setting down his lamp on the remnants of yesterday’s snow, he let out a soft exhale in preparation for the dawn.
Stopping, he lowered his lamp to the floor and looked toward the horizon where she would be waiting but now it was time for rest.
topping, he lowered his lamp to the floor and looked toward the horizon where she would be waiting but now it was time for rest.
I miss her.
A brazen crunch filled the bitter air as I placed the lantern on the snowy earth, my shaking hand gripped the revolver in my pocket.
Beloved child of mine, when you finally bridle your heart, I’ll be here waiting and loving you the same.
As I laid down the lantern of the sacred flame, I just stood there, my eyes looking centuries ahead, staring into the distance of this land between two worlds; I was in the Sands of Time and there was no turning back.
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. I read it over five times, checked the the grammer three, hesitated with sending it, but before I did, I forgot to count the number of words. Ohh. And it was so good. It was the perfect opening sentence and now I am going to be penalized for word count once again. It’s just like English class. So close, so close…
After seven years of testing the biosphere, waiting for peak levels comparable to Old Earth, tears streaked Liza’s cheeks, humbled to stand on Martian soil.
It’s not often a man stands in his own shadow, but every now and again you meet a man who’s runnin’ away from the light.
Jake stops, gently lowering the lantern as he gazes across the desert, his mind searching for clues to the madness that has just taken place.
It does not do, thought James as he lifted his trusty oil lamp, to just observe destruction; one had to take part to undo it.
The boots pinched, the pants squeezed his grapes, the lantern burned hot, and the camper who’d refused to relinquish them coiled tiresomely around Crossgrove’s shoulders.
She didn’t want to be found, but the goal of his trek was to do just that.
Geordie’s outlook shrank from the inverted punch bowl of the prairie sky to the snow globe of lantern’s light as the sun slipped from view.
Hissing softly, the lantern’s light applauded the silent drowning of the sun as it dipped beneath the waves.
We all stare at the lantern held in his hand, our last ray of hope in this world of bitter snow and ice crystals.
They were half a day away from the horizon but dawn arrived too soon; he stands on the snow waiting to be swept away.
The blue sky has lost its color, and when this lamp fades, the flash of six cylinders wont be enough to bring it back.
As Smitty set down the gloaming lantern to savor his
last sunset, he discerned the cobalt tundra to be unsullied
by our prefab camp site.
Jed’s hurricane lamp marked the spot where his sins hid under the slushy earth. A night of violence that cheapened the sunset.
Twilight compelled the light of my lantern to follow.
Setting my lantern down on indigo-shadowed sand, I knew that although I killed her, the least I could do was grant her dying wish.
He bent to pick up his lantern, for the past was behind him and there were no more tears to shed.
I turned and stared at the setting sun, contemplating my departure, knowing that running away couldn’t solve my problems, yet understanding I could never return.
West Virginia had once been tired and hungry James thought as he sat the lantern down in the ashen land of his forefathers.
Staying vigilant while his family slept, Ethan grabbed the lantern, slipped out of the battered shelter and stood on the isolated beach thinking.
Ethan stayed vigilant while his family slept. Grabbing the lantern, he slipped out of the battered shelter and stood on the isolated beach thinking.
Whoops, I posted the wrong comment. Let me try again. Sorry.
The miles of sand reminded him that the journey had only just begun; he must face the uncharted territory alone.
Standing in the dry lakebed watching the dawn break I realize he’s right I am only a shell of my former self.
I sat my lantern down, looked at the snow covering the foreign land, and hoped I would find what I needed here.
Soldiers never volunteer, never back down, and never point out the obvious disadvantage to a bad location.
She awoke marveling at the sky melting into the mountains, wincing at rope biting into her wrists, and praying her teeth would sever his Achilles.
He grabbed the wretched lantern with his haggard and bloodied hand, and staggered to his master piece amongst indigo laden sand.
James Mason stepped out of the time machine; the glow of his lantern told him all he needed to know: a terrible mistake was made.
Folks whispered one of them ants tunneled deep and set camp in a wrinkle of grey but I was just trying to reunite the light.
He set the lamp down and blinked, shielding his eyes against the first glimpse of the sun in over three years.
The sunset and the light of my lantern seemed to dim with the same persistence.
Dawning light showed the blood on his clothes from last night. He was unable to save her, but would see that justice triumphs.
Soft lantern glow spilled out onto his feet, enveloping them against the growing cold of her absence.
It was unnerving just how similar the sunsets were to Earth’s.
He gazed at the horizon, slowly put down the lantern upon the snow ,realising the truth about his son as he shouted “Josiah”!!!
As he sat the lantern down on the inviting desert floor, he said to no one in particular “Well, I guess it’s about time to get to work.”
The crunch of sand beneath his worn down boot heals subsided, as the light warden raised his lantern to imprison the Sun once more.
With the law a few steps behind, and the desert sunrise only an hour out, the asylum of the border seemed farther away than ever.
My car keys had to be out there, somewhere.
I love this! Great humor.
Jeb saw the rain pelt the window, and heard the sea waves crash, but upon opening the door was greeted by something else entirely.
His horse screamed once and thumped into the desert sand.
The man rose, grabbed his lantern, and began to walk, after a long night’s reflection, as a new day and a new life dawned.
“It’s as good a place as any to keep a secret,” he told himself.
Sighing heavily, he set down his lantern, and raised his shovel.
Nice.
Nice, but One Sentence only, Blinkwinky.
Robert scowled, if she got too far she might find someone to tell, and that would just ruin his fun.
The soft glow of our lantern and the impending sunrise illuminated what we already knew: we had arrived.
As the sun set, I bent to lift the lantern aware this night would be my last.
The ice field concealed the depravity that was once my love, the man I keep seeing in every bitter shadow.
So, this was Earth. The ship left him with a lantern, clothes, boots and enough of what they called cash, to blend in.
Not yet ready to fully embrace the night, Dale placed the lantern at his feet and warily breathed out “In less than a minute they’ll all be released.”
“The end of nowhere but yet it is the beginning of the next somewhere. I see the horizon, but which way should I go? Um-Straight!!!”
And so, after August 1st, not a single chicken could be found.
The tempest before dawn left the desert bruised and abraded, and eroded the brittle flesh of my temper, as well.
The past few days left him broken. His little girl, gone. The police were no help. Just broken-record responses. It was up to him.
As he set down his only hope that will get him through the night,he looked over at the horizon praying for a miracle.
He discarded the lantern on the beach- it brought too much attention to the blood on his boots.
@jk_adams
“Jordan?”
“Yes Prime Minister?”
“I thought the GAMES were being held in the middle of no-where this time?”
“This is the Dead-Sea Sir?”
Satisfied that the ground did indeed appear undisturbed, John collected his shovel and lantern and paused momentarily for one last look at Cathy’s makeshift grave.
His name was Richard, and he stopped at that impasse in which the infinite cotton-candy sky meets the black enclosure of an acrid heart.
There are some things no man can bury and forget about, not even in the ashen snow of Kansas.
As Earth’s last sunset echoed the pale lantern light, the dying wind blew across the frozen, cracked ground.
Were they the last ones left, surely she could still see the lantern but only for a few more minutes – the sun was coming up …
I couldn’t believe it; I had actually managed to hide the body before sunrise.
His boots snuggled stiffly in the sand as he set down his grandfather’s glowing lantern and the dusk settled comfortably around him.
The sun was setting, the lamp was the only thing he got – the last thing he got, time to start walking.
The sun was setting, the lantern was running low, the blisters on Elvis’s boot-shod feet were agonizing, and Violet was nowhere to be found.
He’s exhausted from his long night trudging across the silent, barren landscape when the sun at last makes its appearance in the eastern sky.
Struggling to lift the lamp, I knew it was not night in an earthly sense, but an ever-constant cycle of sun and moon.
I named my lantern “Mel” because he looked like a Mel.
No matter how far he ran, he couldn’t escape their screams–their pleas for him to stop…
He reached down to pick up his lantern, realizing now he was the only survivor.
The lantern’s light cast a pinkish circle on the sand, augmenting over the blue shade of dawn same as peeking sunlight had across the sky.
Even in the darkest of rooms,there will be some window that lets in a streak of light;a ray of hope which John wanted.
(Gah, I just realized my WC was a word too high! May I try again?)
My night vision starts to kick in, and I gaze beyond my lantern at the sand dunes, remembering when there was an ocean here.
When my night vision starts to kick in, I put down the lantern and gaze out at miles of sand, remembering when there was an ocean here.
I hate ice fishing, it’s something we do to prove we can, like Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve, or dismissing chain letters.
Setting down her lantern beside her, June stood and waited as she did every sunset, for a man who would never come.
Reaching down for the lantern, I wiped the perspiration from my forehead; it wasn’t as easy as I thought to bury my first victim.
The volcanic ash blotted out the sun for six weeks but not on this morning; this morning we start anew.
Before he could finish the rest of the universe, God needed the spark of light to create the first life form.
Eerily, the sun sets at a time it usually rises, snow lays when it should have melted, and in the chaos he thought, ‘It’s perfect!’
Eerily, as the sun was setting at a time it usually rises, the snow laid frozen when long ago it should have melted, and in this chaos was his thought, ‘How perfect it all is!’
The lamp glowed dimly in the dusk, like the thoughts lingering on a life left behind, hopes thrown towards a sun that would never rise.
When Dean emerged from the fallout shelter following ten years of terrible isolation, his timberland hometown had been razed to a landscape of calcified ash.
Seeing the sun rise, I knew they hadn’t gotten to the atmosphere generator, yet.
Calamity Jane set the gas lantern down in the sand and withdrew the map from inside her leather vest.