TOP NOVELIST Challenge #7: Begin the begin
Norman: Critic Steven Kellman writes that a novel's opening must break the ice, so to speak. "The ice,†he says, "must be broken with something sharp, or melted with something warm." So whether your ice pick is a a woman who is not beautiful, though men often think so, or even Stately, plump Buck Mulligan, or your melting tactic is to go with a truth universall known, or perhaps a description of the best of times and the worst of times, you've gotta begin somewhere, and the beginning has to keep the reader beginning.
Your challenge this week, contestants? An excellent opening line. Just one, maye two sentences. Nothing more.
"Marge Schottenheimer": There is a twist: Though Daniel, N. Lucy, Suzanne, and Perry are the only remaining contestants, anyone can submit an entry, and anyone can win. Yet only one of the remaining contestants can lose. You have until Monday.
Norman: And Daniel is on notice...allegations of plagiarism from a woman writer in Appalachia have surfaced, so you should take care not to pull an Opal Mehta on us. We find it no coincidence that the post was "accidentally" lost during the technical difficulties of the past week.
"Marge": And Lucy's on notice, too. First for being a romance writer who takes a pass on a sex scene, and then for trying to accuse the judges of subterfuge. Of course, you won't find that comment on this site...technical difficulties indeed. Good luck contestants. And others? Bill, Patricia, Sadie, Nels, Julia, Phillip, Devorah? You're welcome to join back in the fun for a week.
Comments
In the beginning was "In the beginning was 'In the beginning was "In the beginning was 'In the beginning was "In the beginning was the word 'In,'"'"'" followed by these very words here. What came after was the real story.
Posted by: N. | May 16, 2006 11:12 AM
Okay, just for the record, I know exactly who might have accused me of plagiarism and it's such a joke. She's actually a woman I went to undergrad with and she didn't get into Iowa. She wasn't a bad writer, but just not very original. And I guarantee you that what she's doing is claiming that I plagiarized a story of hers when in fact she's probably freaking out because she plagiarized that story from me and now she's afraid she'll get caught.
Stupid.
Okay, but that's not my entry. Here's my entry:
At first glance, Ireland was a disappointment: windy, cold, gusting with rain and quilted with hilly green pastures on which grazed placid, rough-coated cows and, in one field, a pair of donkeys in love. Connor, who'd come to escape memories of just such clumsy, nuzzling affection and its sudden absence, nearly turned around and got right back on the bus.
Posted by: Daniel | May 16, 2006 1:48 PM
Most of us, at one time or another, experience a moment of clarity, in which we realize that we've been going about things completely the wrong way and we see ourselves as we _really_ are - as if for the first time. The problem for Alexandra Caldwell - Lexi to her friends and family - was that she didn't manage to experience her "moment of clarity" until she was 34 years old, dumped by her boyfriend of 6 years who had never quite gotten around to popping the question, and in danger of losing her (admittedly dead-end) job at Hotstuff Magazine. What good, she wondered, could come from a moment of clarity so late in making its grand entrance?
Posted by: Suzanne | May 22, 2006 1:28 PM
There is always a moment when you KNOW your life will never be the same. Losing her virginity at sixteen was that moment for Penny Adler. Not because of the significance of such an act, but because she commanded a six figure sum for auctioning it off on Ebay and launched her career as the world’s first teen madam because of it.
Posted by: Lucy | May 22, 2006 1:35 PM
You don't believe a word I'm saying, I can tell that by the way you're looking at me; but I used to be just like you. I used to be so honest, and so careful, and so fucking dumb.
Posted by: Perry | May 22, 2006 2:05 PM