For Those Of You Currently Writing The Great American Novel

The Bulwer Lytton Contest...

These are the 10 winners of this year's Bulwer Lytton contest (run by the English Dept of San Jose State University),
wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel.

10) "As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in
the echo chamber he would never hear the end of it."

9) "Just beyond the Narrows the river widens."

8) "With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned,
unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue
eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description."

7) "Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept
along the East wall: "Andre creep... Andre creep... Andre creep."

6) "Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was
about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex change surgeon to become
the woman he loved."

5) "Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from
eking out a living at a local pet store."

4) "Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do."

3) "Like an overripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor."

2) "Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of
the word "fear," a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the
eye of death - in short,
a moron with suicidal tendencies."

AND THE WINNER IS... "The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness,
crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the
castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown
asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying
beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming
madly, "You lied!" ---

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"Blues is a Healer"
--John Lee Hooker

 

Thanks for the link Behad. I got those in an e-mail from a friend. I now have one month to prepare for the contest...I know I can win this one, because everyone on this BBS knows that I'm a terrible writer!

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"Blues is a Healer"
--John Lee Hooker