We once tried to write together a story on TC, sentence by sentence, but now you have a chance to craft a story for The First Line’s Spring 2008 issue. They’re looking for 300 to 3,000 words beginning with that issue’s preselected first line: “Sometimes the name they give you is all wrong.” (via http://www.utne.com/2007-12-11/GreatWriting/A-Literary-Treasure-Hunt-Seriously)

Jacek

And now on to last lines: http://www.utne.com/2008-03-07/GreatWriting/The-100-Best-Last-Lines-from-Novels

The American Book Review has made their list of the 100 best last lines from novels available online (pdf). The judges—a group of critics, reviewers, writers, and readers—picked their favorite closers from a list of some 400 nominees. Only last lines from novels, novellas, and short story collections that “unfold like a novel” were eligible.  

The most popular last lines generally came from widely acclaimed books. In an essay accompanying the list, which first appeared in the Jan.-Feb. 2008 issue of the nonprofit literary journal, James Phalen explains, “because the power and effect of these lines depend so much on what has preceded them, it makes sense that our judgments of those lines are influenced by our judgments of what has preceded them.”

Top honors go to Samuel Beckett in The Unnamable—the final 11 words of a nine-page sentence.

“…you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”

THE DEADLINE IS TOMORROW!

Write Like Sarah Palin

A Slate contest.

What is the single worst sentence in Sarah Palin's Going Rogue? According to Slate's Going Rogue index, it comes on Page 102: "As the soles of my shoes hit the soft ground, I pushed past the tall cottonwood trees in a euphoric cadence, and meandered through willow branches that the moose munched on." Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times didn't have to read past the first paragraph for her nomination: "I breathed in an autumn bouquet that combined everything small-town America with rugged splashes of the Last Frontier." ...

Do you think you can write like Sarah Palin? If so, we want to hear from you. The goal is to write a sentence that could be mistaken for one from her book. Keep it to a single sentence of fewer than 150 words and send your entry to writelikepalin@gmail.com by Wednesday. We'll publish our favorites later in the week. http://www.slate.com/id/2236477/

I looked at the Economist comments and suggestions and few of them are even a little interesting.

What struck me is the allegory and the head gear which looks like a tulip about to open/to bloom.

In Sufi allegory, the enlightened heart is symbolized by a tulip...

Nanna