The First Line Skirmish

November 2026 round · Entries and voting open until 30 November

A reader decides in a single breath whether to keep going. This skirmish is about that breath. Write the opening of a story in 150 words or fewer — a first line, a first paragraph, or both. It can be the start of a book you are already writing, or something invented tonight. Fantasy, romance, mystery, history, memoir: anything the Houses hold is welcome. What the Guild will be looking for: a voice we trust within a sentence, a question we cannot help wanting answered, and a world that is already moving before we have been introduced to it. One entry per scribe each month, open to every rank. The whole Guild votes on the words alone, and the winner's name goes into the Hall of Fame. Here is the kind of entry we hope to see: The last honest man in Vessenmoor died on a Tuesday, which was inconvenient, because the whole town had been counting on him to testify on Wednesday. Inspector Halloran stood over the body, hat in hand, and did what he always did when the universe was rude to him: he reached for a biscuit. “Well,” he said to the corpse, “I do hope you had a better week than I'm about to.”

Prize: A free month of the Lorekeeper tier, sent to the winner by email when the round closes.