My hands are poised over the keyboard, the first sentence already in my head — not a proper sentence, some might say, as it doesn’t contain a verb, and, nightmare upon nightmare, it’s a flashback told in second-person singular voice using the present tense. But this is the year for throwing the rulebook out of the window into the shrubbery at the bottom of my garden and going speculative.
You, in a glass case?
Possibly, those are the only five words I will disclose to anyone during the writing process — five words that will take at least 50,000 words to answer.
Are there any other NWW participants willing to share their trigger sentence, with the proviso that it need not stay as their opener in subsequent drafts.
Happy writing 🙂
For those who would still like to join in with NWW, you can find further info at https://sarahpotterwrites.wordpress.com/novel-writing-winter-nww-2013/
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Sarah Potter Writes 
Best of luck in your writing adventure 🙂
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Since you planted this idea, it’s been growing and sprouting all kinds of things.
Maybe I should put at least some kind of story on the cards.
Might be what I need to get my life sorted once and for all.
When I have it, i’ll let you know – good luck Sarah!!!
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It certainly sounds like something is germinating there that won’t let you alone. And, yes, novel writing can prove most cathartic, especially with a first novel 🙂 It would certainly be great if you could join us on the NWW adventure!
Thanks for your good wishes xox
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Aaaahhh! What to do? Which novel to write? Which sentence to begin with…?
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Sarah, thanks for the nudge!! (We’ll see if I’m still thanking you 3 months from now!)
“I think I’d be a mermaid,” she said, quietly, and the words just sunk right back into her, causing not a ripple.
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Great stuff! Welcome on board. And thanks for your first sentence 🙂
Not sure if I’ll be thanking myself 3 months from now, either!
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This is a great opener, Sarah!
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You know, Naomi, my own novel is already weirding me out. It has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever written. Do you think it’s my age?
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I think it’s your wildly creative imagination! But that’s a good thing!
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…an overactive imagination can be exhausting at times, though, and terribly distracting when I’m meant to be concentrating on something else!
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My first line is:
You live here but you are too young to know it.
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That’s an intriguing first line from my favourite Welsh bunny. …And we have a matching first word in our opening sentences! Are you writing in the second person, too? Mine is jumping voice with each section narrated by one of three characters, so I can only do one section a sitting, or my head starts feeling as if it will self-destruct.
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