Courtesy of Jodi Meadows.
Go to pages 123 of your current work in progess. If you aren't to page 123, go to page 23. If you're not to page 23, get busy and write until you are. Beginning with the fifth sentence from the top of the page, copy the entire paragraph.
From my YA book:
Clunks of metal downstairs made her pause. She didn’t know what it was, but it sounded heavy, and it was probably intended for her. Or Max. A man yelled—it sounded like the man that had visited her—and she began to work faster. She didn’t intend to be in this room when he came back more hurt and angry than he had been when he’d left.
This is from my first draft. I haven't read it in a while, and it's actually not so bad. Yeah, it needs some work ... but it's not terrible. I love when that happens.
5 comments:
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She raised her hands piteously. “You were too young.”
“This has all been a deception.” His tone was even, detached.
She jumped up, frightened again. She was losing him now, even now, he was slipping from her out the door and away and she must stop him. “No! I have always loved you! Yosef has been a good father all these years!”
This needs significantly more than what you had posted--but then, it's a few years old, too. Hopefully when I get back to that project, I'll have better skills (I will, I know).
Dude, you got mad writing skillz! Is this project completed? Or did you get so far into it and decide that maybe it wasn't all that?
Wow, when I read that last comment it totally came out wrong. I was not implying that I think this passage "isn't all that," I was wondering if you thought that about the whole project. Sheesh. Argh, I'll take the foot outta my mouth now.
Hey Kelly,
I just read this set of replies--no worries, I read you right the first time. I was working on this project and hit a wall right about the time that I got divorced about four years ago and just stopped. Several of the Wyrdsmiths want me to pull it out of the closet and get back to work on it, and it is sitting on my desktop to work on again, but now I've got this murder mystery thing, and... I'll work on it. I love it, it just needs a lot of work.
*whew* good, I'm glad you read it the way I meant it the first time. Don't worry about getting back to it right away--you will when you're supposed to. That sounds quite Zen but I think writing is a Zen type of thing, sometimes.
I know all about works needing work. The YA book I've been working on and off on for the past year? Yeah, I've decided just to scrap it all and start over. Some bits are good, I think, but it needed more direction. I spent a few days last week doing an outline for it (I didn't outline it the first time as an experiment and, blech) and tonight after the gym I'm going to tackle it. I'd like to get it done in a month or two. Ambitious, I know, but damn it, I like the story and I want to get it written and hopefully sold.
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