This is your ruler, Snapper the Magnificent, presenting you with the latest hook challenge. If you are unfamiliar with this writing challenge allow me to explain.

The theory is most editors, due to the volume of submissions they receive, will reject the majority of the submissions based on the first page. With the title, information required, and guidelines (double spacing, size font) the first page is usually the first 13 lines of your story. This exercise is to see who can write the best opening with the same story synopsis.

Each challenge a new synopsis is presented. This weeks is written by the talented LAJD. Other future synopsis writers are...

1) Tiergan

If you like to provide a future synopsis copy the list above and add your name to it in your post in this thread.

If you are not sure what '13 lines' is, it is Courier 12 pnt in a 65 character line. (Kathy will probably provide a template). If your submission is longer than 13 lines it will get cut down to size (whining will do you no good).

Now here are the rules.

1) All submissions are based on the synopsis below. You can start anywhere you like in the synopsis as long it is how you would start your version

2) All submission are to be sent to me (my email address is up there) Send your email in the subject line
13 line hook challenge
and place your submission in the body of the text. Please write your submission as such

Your hatrack name

Entry # (I'll fill it in)

Title

Your wonderful 13 lines etc, etc, etc...

3) I will start posting submission when I get a sufficent number. The competition will last about a week after I post this message.

4) Voting will begin after I close the submissions. Please do not post anything in that thread until I close the submissions and open the voting. Everyone that submits an entry is encouraged to vote for your top three and favorite title (which can be part of the hook). All that did not submit an entry but would like to vote are encouraged to do so. And no voting for your own (that's lame)

5) At the close of the voting I shall tabulate the votes. First gets 5, second 4, and third 3. Winner is declared and you get to wear a pirate hat and say ARRGGH all week.

now for this weeks synopsis...

quote:

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Aaron Davidson is a pretty normal, smart 15 yr. old kid. He lives in upper middle-class America. He's just starting his sophomore year at an above average high-school.He and his two best friends Rich and Lewis have been best buddies since kindergarten. They live in one of the few towns left in the US where people don't lock their doors and bicycles can be left in the front yard overnight. Its a town based on a technology economy and the boys are all pretty serious geeks who are destined for engineering careers.

He and his friends are serious players of the MMORPG game World of Warcraft, but recently Rich and Lewis have become more interested in a different MMORPG called The Death. Always on the hunt for a new game, this appealed to them both for newness and for the possibility of helping science. According to Rich and Lewis, The Death was developed by researchers at the CDC in the US and Oxford in the UK to model human behavior in response to real world plagues. Turns out there had been a few MMORPG 'plagues' in the recent past that mimicked real epidemics. These researchers plan to use MMORPGs like The Death as model systems for epidemiological research.

Rich and Lewis are approached by one of the researchers, Dana, while they are playing WOW. She gives them the opportunity to both play and participate in the research. So Rich and Lewis abandon WOW for The Death. Aaron stays out of The Death mostly because he is wrapped up in a quest on WOW and has a big project due at school.

However, he is keeping an interested eye on what his friends are doing. Who knows, The Death may be the next big game. He wants to be sure that he gets in early too.

One weekend, he does not hear at all from Rich or Lewis. This is odd but his big project is due the following monday so he doesn't think too much of it. That monday Lewis is missing from school and Rich looks horrible. Rich tells Aaron that he tried to get Lewis to go to school but could not get him to leave the game. Lewis is still at home in his bedroom playing.

Rich tells Aaron that the game is really different, more real than WOW. At first it was a pretty standard questing game but when the sickness started to spread he began to feel physically ill like characters in the game. When he tried to quit, Dana would talk to him, encouraging him to stick it out. Finally, he pulled away late last night, but has been sick ever since. He's certain that the game has somehow infected both of them and is terrified that Lewis will sicken and die like the characters in the game.

Aaron and Rich ditch class and go to Lewis' house. Looking through the window into Lewis' bedroom they see Lewis sitting, glued to his keyboard. He looks ghastly. Standing behind him is Dana or at least a life sized version of her avatar. She is peering over his shoulder talking softly to him. Startled, she looks out the window and sees them. She grabs the back of Lewis' shirt and disappears with him in a swirl of light.

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