There is nothing worse than sitting at a blinking cursor thinking, “I got nothing.” Many famous authors also had the same problem, but they did something about it - they just started writing. Some of it was not that good, but others turned out to be great. I wonder where certain stories would be if the writer had gone with their first idea, that idea that jolted then out of writer’s block? Here’s a few false starts, can you guess the novels?
Call me Darryl - “Call me Ishmael.”
In a hole in the ground there rabbit. - “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
Jacob Marley has just had permanent cessation of biological functions. - “Jacob Marley was dead as a doornail.”
Who doesn’t enjoy watching the charred remains of paper in the fire. - “It was a pleasure to burn.”
As Gregor Samsa woke one morning, he found his bed turned into a pink Barbie Convertible Glamour Mobile. - “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.”
The sky above the port was tuned to The Price Is Right. - “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
They’re out there, waiting to give me my happy pills. Maybe today, I’ll take them. - “They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.”
All happy families are dysfunctional, but ours, we got the gold medal. - “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Lolita, you never told me you were a pole dancer? - “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of time...heck, Once Upon a time. - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity...” (psst, maybe the first was better, what a LONG sentence!)
Getting that opening line just right is an integral part of the creative process, the best thing for your novel is having an opening line that grabs. It can grab in absurdity, or surprise, or stating something simple but compelling. Remember, anyone can write a first draft, it’s taking that first draft and making it polished that separates writers from writers. Happy writing.
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