Monday, July 23, 2012

777: Seven sentences from page seven.

I was tagged at the weekend by Margot Kinberg to take part in the 777 challenge.  Writers are invited to share seven sentences from page seven, or page seventy-seven of their work in progress and then to pass the challenge on to seven other writers.

Here's the first part, seven sentences from page seven of Dark Light, which I confess I haven't worked on for months due to other commitments (like completing the dictionary).

It had soon become clear that experience had to be accompanied by an ability to write; that it wasn’t as simple as sitting at a keyboard and tapping out a couple of thousand words a day.  There were the issues of sentence construction, punctuation, grammar, prose, character development, plot, structure, and narrative flow.  

Delaney had anecdotes.  He had fragments of stories.  He had a jumble of stereotypical characters who spoke with flat, lifeless dialogue.  Locked in his head he had thirty years of experience of every crime on the statute books and the full circus of society.  What he didn’t have was a talent for the written word.


As for the second part, here are seven writers (no obligation folks).  Check out their websites and work: 

Gerard Brennan 
Susan Condon
Paul O'Brien
Ruby Barnes
Louise Phillips
RJ McDonnell
Sean Patrick Reardon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rob - Thanks so much for sharing what you're doing. I love the description of that chasm between having a story in one's mind and actually being able to share it. Nicely done!