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Oct. 25, 2006 I've been lucky lately. I finished a novel late last spring and decided to only write short stories until I was able to get this (my second) novel published. I spent ten months writing Lord Madoc. It took a lot of energy and at times I even got bored with the rewrite which isn't supposed to happen. I remember one Saturday afternoon spent sitting at the kitchen table for two hours with my back turned away from the manuscript in disgust. I had a goal of fifteen hundred words that day and was barely able to spit out five hundred. In the end I was satisfied with the result and I'm now trying to find an agent, but I don't want to go through that again, until I find a publisher. I enjoy writing short stories and publication credits sure look impressive on query letters to agents, so I've concentrated on short stories, and I've produced ten over the past five months--a happy rate. The stories are mostly contemporary fiction: some with literary elements and others strictly genre quality. My ideas have always compelled me to write these stories, but suddenly I feel like I'm out of gas and can't think of any compelling ideas. My story ideas are like lead balloons: some bore me, others I can't come up with a plot for. I guess I suffer from the curse known as writer's block. I'm not wasting my time staring at a blank piece of paper, doodling silhouettes of naked women. I've been polishing my stories and printing paper copies of them in case my computer crashes. By rereading my stories I'm at least exercising my writing skills. When I find well written passages I read them out loud and in the process I'm developing my own voice as a writer. Before I write my next story, I know I'll need to have at least a vague outline, but I could possibly get a plausible idea for a story by simply writing an interesting sentence. Then, it'll be like filling in the blank, albeit a big blank. Writing a great sentence is one way to break the ice. Here are a few examples of great opening sentences. From "The Fall of the House of Usher," by E.A. Poe. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day, in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy house of Usher. The scene is set. And the alliterative and poetic quality of the writing makes this a pleasure to read. But a great opening line doesn't have to be so artistic. From "Murder in Mind," by John Mcdonald. She was a plump blonde, and she lay dead in the trail on her back. This jump starts the reader straight to the action. From King Rat by James Clavell. "I'm going to get that bloody bastard if I die in the attempt." Lieutenant Grey was glad that at least he had spoken aloud what long had been twisting his guts into a knot. This gets the reader interested in the motive right away. From Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow. He had to have planned it because when we drove onto the dock the boat was there and the engine was running and you could see the water churning up phosphorescence in the river, which was the only light there was because there was no moon, nor no electric light either in the shack where the dockmaster should have been sitting, nor on the boat itself, and certainly not from the car, yet everyone knew where everything was, and when the big Packard came down the ramp Mickey the driver braked it so that the wheels hardly rattled the boards, and when he pulled up alongside the gangway the doors were already open and they hustled Bo and the girl upside before they even made a shadow in all that darkness. The writer drops us into a cinematic quality scene of gangsters (they're about to fit someone with cement shoes) in action immediately and sets the tone for the whole book in one sentence. Amazing. I have a few opening lines of my own that I'm proud of. From "Mack McCool." Currently, submitted for publication. Ok man, my reputation is shot anyway so I might as well tell the truth about what caused me and my fourth wife to split. The sentence informs the reader what the story is about and establishes the narrator's style. From "Do unto others..." Currently, submitted for publication. Clint McFeely saw the fireball crash into the forested gully about a mile from where he was standing and holding his loaded twenty gauge shotgun and didn't know what to think. I create mystery. What is the fireball? (This story is Deliverance meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) From "Shoes." Currently, submitted for publication. Isadore ran. He ran toward the sound of a hundred boots and shoes hitting the dung-colored dirt road in disorganized unison. The reader will want to know why Isadore is running. Now, I hope I can construct my next great opening sentence and break out of this writer's block. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. www.mark-gelbart.com Email: agelbart@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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