Day 40

Task: Today write the opening sentence of your first bestselling novel.



This idea came to me when I went to a seminar for young writers. They talked about how much the first page, the first sentence even, can determine how popular your book will get. So, I thought to myself what my book would be about. And may I say, I had some crippling writer's block. It brought me back to the days of high school English when we had to write reports and essays and I never knew how to get started. I don't see myself as a writer even though I enjoy creative writing like poetry. This was a challenge. But I love a good challenge! So I kept pressing on. And here's the best one I came up with:

"There he stood, a shadow of the man he once was, a man he would never be again."

Whew! That was the product of over three hours in front of the comuputer and to be honest, I have no clue where I managed to dig it up in the first place. But hey, I found it interesting and am very proud of myself for coming up with this. This definitely opened my eyes to a tiny piece of what authors must go through when writing a novel. Now, I don't normally do this but I want to share my favorite opening sentences I've read in novels as a special sign-off. See if you know any of them yourself:

"Call me Ishmael."

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

"124 was spiteful."

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."