Nathan Bransford's Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Contest
Nathan is hosting a fun challenge in which you pit your first paragraph against other writers first paragraphs.
Here's my entry:
Samantha jumped at the knock on the door, the hard rap of knuckles against the wood. She glanced back at the screen at the email she had written. “God I hope I’m doing the right thing. She took a deep breath and clicked send, before getting up to answer the door. “Wow, Leah – you made good time,” she said as she opened the door. Sam gasped “Lyle!” and stumbled back as something silver flashed in front of her, ripping her shirt. Before she had time to think or act, he walked in, like a panther stalking his prey and kicked the the door shut with his foot. “Hello Samantha,” She backed away, gripping her torn shirt. “What…” He leaned back against the door, a sly smile on his face, holding a long edged sword. “You like?” he said, whipping the sword back and forth, and it whistled faintly as it slashed through the air. “Spado da Lato. It’s an antique, given to my father by his father and so on and so forth. I’ve made a few changes to it, of course.” Her stomach started to sting and she glanced down. She felt her stomach and looked at her hand. It was bloody. She looked back up at him. “You cut me.” she whispered.
Hmm! Yep, kind of over did it. Oh well! C'est la vie
Head on over and check out the entries and enter while there's still time.
At this point he has over a 1000 entries. I've read quite a few of them and they are quite interesting and very good. I couldn't possible compete but decided why not. There are rules of course, number 1 being this is solely for fun. The next is post the first paragraph of any work in progress in the comment section. The paragraph needs to be one paragraph and not multiple paragraphs masquerading as one. I may have broken the one paragraph rule simply because I wasn't sure whether dialogue itself is considered a paragraph in the writing rule. The deadline is Thursday at 4:00 p.m. eastern. The finalist will be posted on Friday and then everyone gets to vote on who the winner should be. For the grand prize winner, the prize is a critique or partial critique, and a galley of The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard.
Here's my entry:
Samantha jumped at the knock on the door, the hard rap of knuckles against the wood. She glanced back at the screen at the email she had written. “God I hope I’m doing the right thing. She took a deep breath and clicked send, before getting up to answer the door. “Wow, Leah – you made good time,” she said as she opened the door. Sam gasped “Lyle!” and stumbled back as something silver flashed in front of her, ripping her shirt. Before she had time to think or act, he walked in, like a panther stalking his prey and kicked the the door shut with his foot. “Hello Samantha,” She backed away, gripping her torn shirt. “What…” He leaned back against the door, a sly smile on his face, holding a long edged sword. “You like?” he said, whipping the sword back and forth, and it whistled faintly as it slashed through the air. “Spado da Lato. It’s an antique, given to my father by his father and so on and so forth. I’ve made a few changes to it, of course.” Her stomach started to sting and she glanced down. She felt her stomach and looked at her hand. It was bloody. She looked back up at him. “You cut me.” she whispered.
Hmm! Yep, kind of over did it. Oh well! C'est la vie
Head on over and check out the entries and enter while there's still time.
Ohmygod Robin! You had me all the way with this paragraph. I absolutely have to read the rest! And, that's what a first paragraph is supposed to do, right?Good luck in the contest. I'd vote for you.
ReplyDeleteI like it! Very exciting first paragraph. Good luck with the contest!
ReplyDelete