Writers' 7 lines WIP Challenge

[Lady Grey]

I've seen this on Facebook as the 7/7 challenge - I was actually tagged and partaking was actually rather anxiety inducing.


You post the first 7 lines of a work in progress and tag 7 others to do the same. I figured I'd start a thread and then anyone can partake.


Here is what I posted - I have no idea where this piece is going to be honest - I might post some more excerpts of it in another thread (you know, the bits that I don't read back and cringe at myself )


'Come now, you're never too old for games.'
Lisette stared, unable to form words in her mouth.
He simply smirked, eyes menacing. Lisette dropped her gaze, took a deep breath, and forced her eyes to meet his once more.
'Who are you? Wh-'
His eyes seemed to flash and she felt her cheeks flush.
'Oh Lisette, you know very well who I am.'

[Jubal]

It reads well, I think

One from me, this was more like 7 lines in the original word document than it is here, but ah well - it's the start of one of the two sci-fi novels I have on the back burner:

Dust. It was one of the main features of life in Tarpit, but it never seemed to become less of an annoyance. A hovercraft hummed down West Street, its engines rumbling as it choked on the red haze and spat it back out. Mattlam Kasak adjusted his headcloth and face-mask, blinked in the harsh glare of the mid-morning sun, and waited for a gap in the traffic.

It hadn't been like this back in Gillmine. Home to the best college on this planet, Gillmine had been Mattlam's home until just a few months ago; it was over a century old, and some of the buildings were even made of stone.

And there was a damn sight less dust around.

[Lady Grey]

I like it

[Jubal]

Thankyou! The eventual novel (which I've got about one chapter of written) was meant to be a mix of deep sci-fi world building, political drama, and down-to-earth space western aesthetic; I'd like to go back to it someday.

[Caradìlis]

Those both sound great, I would definitely look forward to reading more of those in the future...

[Caradìlis]

Here's one of mine, it's the main thing I am working on right now, and it contains dragons, magic, oak trees, periwinkles and a lot of blue and green...

A very long time ago, long before this world began, in a different realm, there was a fair and ancient kingdom named Camelot. There lived a powerful sorcerer. He was, perhaps, the most powerful sorcerer who would ever walk upon that earth. You may know him as Merlin, whereas to me, he was my Cirdjas, my companion and my friend. On that ancient world, Merlin had a student. Her name was Vivien and her beauty was a thing of magic itself. Her long hair fell around her shoulders in a thousand curls as golden as the sun, her eyes were of the brightest blue and her skin as fair as porcelain.

[Son of the King]

I feel like everyone else's are much better than mine, because they're all great and I want to read more of them all (and already have read more of Lady Grey's ), but here it is anyway. Its the first 7 sentences of a short story which I wrote when working on the background of the world I run a Pathfinder campaign in.

Viknar swung his pick. The sound echoed through the empty mine and almost seemed to add to the chill in the air. The others had begun refusing to come this deep once the unnatural cold had set in, but Viknar's dwarf blood could feel the valuable ore close by.

Viknar swung his pick. Stonetown needed him to find the ore. The economy was already suffering greatly after the old mine dried up, and Newdelve turning out to be a false hope would be more than the remaining miners could bear. They would move on, sapping yet more life out of the dwindling village.

[Caradìlis]

I really like this and am very intrigued... Are you going to post more of this? I'd really like to know how it goes on.... 

[Son of the King]

Thanks! I can post the rest (and maybe some other stories from that world if I ever write them down) in a different thread .

[Jubal]

Here's the start of my other sci-fi story, which is entitled Taurion - it's a rather less "telling" start point, I think, but hopefully interesting nonetheless:

A shaft of light struck the floor of the cave. It was a little cooler than it had been the previous day, and the mosses that carpeted the floor were growing ready to be gathered.

Clambering up from the towns deep below, a young man hauled himself up growing floor. He unshouldered a large basket from his back, and patted the moss, walking onto the carefully to a few different parts of the cave to check that it was all grown and ready enough. There would not be many more harvests of the green-plants before the long dark, and so ensuring a good crop was vital.

Taking a rake, he scraped bundles of the moss up from the ground, gathering them up in his arms and dumping them into the wire-mesh basket. The shadowy figure of a bat flitted through the single shaft of light, catching a few of the flies that had begun to flit in and underground as the weather turned and hibernation beckoned.

[Caradìlis]

Sounds good, I'd read that... Particularly intrigued by the fact that people (whatever species "people" are in this case...) apparently live underground in this setting, despite the surface seeming quite habitable on first glance (given there are animals and plants and such-like)...

[Jubal]

This is a near-surface cave, rather than the surface itself. But I won't give away more than that - only to say that a) the surface varies significantly as to how hospitable it is and b) there are ways of living there, but they require a very different lifestyle.

[Caradìlis]

As I said, my kind of sci-fi (meaning "I don't have a clue what's going on. Must. Find. Out. Must. Read.")...
Looking forward to hopefully read more of it at some point...