I’ve crossed some sort of invisible line in my novel; maybe it is the mystical half way point (I’m officially half way to my goal of a 75000 word rough draft). I’m setting up my characters, jockeying them into position for the big climax (we’re talking You’ve Got Mail kind of climax, not Transformers – there are no explosions). Chapters almost write themselves, dialogue comes more naturally; I have clearer goals when I write a scene. I imagine some of this comes with my daily practice. I already have a list of places I need to add in details so latter scenes make more sense. I have thoughts about pacing I want to change, images I want to make stronger, and themes I want to explore; but I also just want to get the draft done. Given this upsurge of inspiration and motivation (two factors I know not to ignore) on the novel front, I’m eager to return to it.
So this week, dear reader, I’m going to share a few of my favorite passages from novels (and hope I’m not infringing a million copyright laws). These passages inspire me to wisely choose my words, construct my sentences with care, and aspire to a level of writing that touches the reader’s soul just as their words have touched mine. I hope you enjoy them, and perhaps, dear reader, you’ll read the rest of the book too.
These are favorite opening lines. I get sucked in every time (and started to again as I re-read them).
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe
True! – nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! And observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
These are just random passages that make me stop and savor every time I read them.
My Antonia by Willa Cather
It was as if we were being punished for loving the loveliness of summer. (Describing winter on the prairie).
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
And the ladies, selecting the dainty with discriminating fingers and a little greedily, all declared that Mr. Pontellier was the best husband in the world. Mrs. Pontellier was forced to admit that she knew of none better.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Things happened both swiftly and slowly as they do in dreams, where it is really the same thing.
Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
He mistook the world: But I mistook my own heart, -and that slip was fatal.
“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
However, lacking both time and inclination, I did not wait to hear about the afflicted cow, but took my leave.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain,I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.
This is amongst my all time favorite sentences ever. Anyone who argues Rowling writes books for children should read this sentence and explain how that quality of writing is only for kids.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great glassy orbs, sprinkled with light from the stars they could not see.
So, dear reader, are there any lines that inspire you, move you? Share them in the comments.
July 19 Word Count = 38,855
