We did idea-jam at Clarion today, and Ben made us try to come up with 30 first lines in 10 minutes. I only managed 20! But here they are, in case they’re amusing to you.
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1. She leapt into the darkness, gladly.
2. Somehow her bra had made it into his laundry basket; it would never get washed.
3. The paper peeled slowly off the wall, fluttering in the breeze, weeping.
4. “Don’t shout at me!” she shouted.
5. A small whuff told her he wasn’t dead yet.
6. How many twinkle lights does it take to make enough magic to outweigh a dreary life?
7. A plastic film of Gothic trapezoid leading covered the window, this generation’s attempt to ape the wealthy they professed to despise.
8. Unicorns in the garden demand a response.
9. The spaceship hovered, an impossible geometry that made her brain hurt.
10. The silence of trees, the birds calling above, insistent, relentless.
11. “Come here, and and get it, oh, you’re a hot little number, aren’t you? Check out my plumage; I have mad nest-building skills…”
12. Twenty-three hours in, her lower back was a screaming ball of pain, and yet there was nothing to do but bend over the table, trying to ignore the fire.
13. Ridiculous, the list, imitative, but perhaps also generative? She hoped.
14. He opened the window and took a deep breath, knowing it would kill him faster, unable to resist the allure.
15. Trickle, tick-tick-tick, whirr, plop.
16. A composition of silver and blue, gold and light, a dozen different shades of wood, and against it all, snowy white bedding, inviting you in.
17. Toes. Why do we need toes, really? If only they were properly prehensile.
18. She longed for a tail, one that might show her displeasure when provoked, or pull her up into a tree when she needed to disappear.
19. These are the forbidden words: love, heart, stars.
20. The garden needs tending.
*****