As you probably know, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an annual event to see who can write the worst opening line for a novel. Let’s do our own here at TKZ. Write a bad opening line in 50 words or less. The winner (as judged by the TKZ bloggers) will receive a signed copy of The Art of War for Writers. Entries must be posted before 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time. “By the mere fact that we bother to read a novel, thus expending time which might otherwise be passed in company with actual people, we are going out of our way to meet the characters to whom the novelist wishes to introduce us. He therefore owes us an assurance that they shall be even more worth our while than the average actual person.” – Clayton Meeker Hamilton, A Manual of the Art of Fiction
What fictional character would you most like to have dinner with? What would you talk about?
Dorothy Parker, the famous wit, once wrote, “This is not a novel to be thrown aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Today’s question, without naming the author or title (unless you simply cannot restrain yourself), what is a book you’ve read that you hated? Did you force yourself to finish it? What was it about the book that made you want to throw it with “great force”?
The reader subscription service Oyster has launched. Offering a library of 100,000 titles (with more to come), Oyster gives a reader unlimited access to their library for $9.95 a month. Think Netflix for e-books.
Market research: As a reader, is this something you might be interested in? What might it mean for writers?
Occasionally we’ll run a quote from a provocative post and ask you, dear readers, to respond to it. Today’s comes from author Lara Schiffbauer:
“Now, as we know, some writers have (what appears to be) lucky success. I’m not saying they don’t work hard, or aren’t talented. But, how many hard-working, talented writers do you know? That’s right. Quite a few, huh? And what makes any one writer who has that crazy-good success better than any of the others that you know? See what I mean? For every one lucky hard-working, talented writer there are many hard-working, talented authors who just didn’t have the stars align in quite the same way.”
Start a conversation in the comments!
A famous author once said that as we improve our skills and craft as writers, “We begin wrestling with stronger angels.”
Which angel(s) are you currently wrestling with in your work?
Note: If anyone knows the name of the author that gave that quote, let us know his name in the comments. Google search is being absolutely no help this morning.
