"It was a dark and stormy night. The wind howled like a pack of dogs and the rain pelted the windsheild of the racing car. Darkness shrouded the forest in mystery and...yeah I stopped reading at the first 'was'!
Whoever decided to teach children to write fiction by starting with a prompt like "It was a dark and stormy night" should be drowned in their own ink.
Nathan Bransford, former literary agent and current author and guru, posted a blog contest this week offering tantalizing prizes for a great opening paragraph. Over a 1,500 paragraphs appeared in his comments. HERE is the blog post.
Of the 500 or more that I read there were probably 8 of them that stood out. It is an excellent exercise in being a literary agent and seeing what comes into the inbox everyday. Check out the openings and see if you can spot the ones worthy of being finalists.
Also note the similarity in the threads on the market right now. Are you writing a ghost book? Is your main character dead? Hmmm.
