• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Please Comment: One Perfect Sentence

Latest Articles from Litopia’s Writers
Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.

From Our Blog

Full Member
Blogger
Joined
Feb 3, 2024
LitBits
0
New blog post by mickleinapickle

One Perfect Sentence

Posted on behalf of Peter Cox…

The prompt this month was to complete “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” in a novel way. In this, you manifestly succeeded In fact, this was arguably the best OPS contest we’ve run so far.

The results are as follows (remember, you voted for the winners, and each entry was anonymised):

first-300x300.png

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the first day of my School Summer holidays, and the day Jasper Herriot arrived on my street.”
For this masterfully foreboding YA opening, @Hannah F wins 100 LitCoins!

second-300x295.png


“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as the keynote speaker approached the podium in readiness to address the annual conference of the Chronically Undecided Society.”

Sly humour there! Congratulations to @Jonny for this – he wins 50 LitCoins!

third-300x300.png


“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of change, it was the age of fixture, it was the epoch of hubris, it was the epoch of shame, it was the season of Love, it was the season of Hate, it was the spring of freedom, it was the winter of chains, we held the world in our hands, we held nothing but dreams, we were all to be Gods, we were all nothing but demons – in short, the passing of puberty is so unlike any other passing that its wildest and most diligent biographers insist on its being received, for joy or for ill, in the superlative degree of comparative states – our coming of age.”

Possibly one of the longest entries we’ve yet received, and worth every golden word… @Rich. wins 25 LitCoins!

special-mention.jpeg


“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, for it was a tale of three mothers: The first having given her life to place him in this world, the second he had chosen to stand in her place, and the third saved them both from the incoming wall of water, and rode north to where the desert turned white.”

Which is a heck of an opening sentence, so in media res I can’t quite believe it! 10 LitCoins go to @Sarit.

I hope you enjoyed it, everyone – judging by the quality of entries, you did. Next month’s OPS starts on February 7th – I’m already looking forward to it – hope you are, too!


signature-300x203.png

---

* Like this post? Please share here
* Start your own blog here
 

Further Articles from the Author Platform

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • The Pink Coupe at the Catch-All Station
    About a quarter of a century ago, I developed the habit of working in German car factories. The exce ...
  • Young People Today…
    I went to college to do an Art Foundation course. Yay, good for me. But I was 48. And almost everyon ...
  • The Welsh One
    . We gazed from Cardiff’s seafront as the diamond radiance of a million stars glittered in summer ...
  • WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES
    I know there is an increasing upward trend in sales with audiobooks lately; people listening to a bo ...
  • What We Feed Strangers
    My first job on this side of the world saw me driving my boss’s wife’s little red roadster down ...
  • The Road Does Go Ever On
    So, midway through a recent walk through the forest, my phone notified me that I had done it, I had ...
  • Another Night in A&E (Part 2)
    My husband has not had a full-blown stroke.  He has more than likely had a TIA.  He is feeling bet ...
What Goes Around
Comes Around!
Back
Top