Short, short-fiction
While I'm not sure I like all the stories in this contest having to use the same opening line, I think this short fiction contest from NPR is pretty interesting.
Considering how important the first line of a story is, forcing participants to use "The nurse left work at five o'clock," ruins it for me a little, especially since the right line has the potential of providing volumes of context and story. Consider the opening passage from Raymond Carver's story Gazebo (which has stuck with me since the first time I read it):
That morning she pours Teacher's over my belly and licks it off. That afternoon she tries to jump out the window. I go, "Holly, this can't continue. This has got to stop."
Check out the contest site here.
