Not Just Anybody

[dotinthesky]

HELP!

NaNoWriMo started yesterday but I can't get my imagination to comply. I need your assistance in getting my muse on the rollerdisco floor. So...

1) Please choose a work of fiction sitting near you.
2) Randomly select a sentence (not a paragraph; just a sentence).
3) Stick it in this post's comments section (not forgetting to include the source).

Thank you. This will be a great aid. I'll attempt to use all the sentences in the first few chapters of my novel, and hopefully that will be enough to get things flowing.

Comments

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

The two nearest works of fiction to me are a Victorian edition of the complete plays of Shakespeare, and Bellwether, by Connie Willis; I chose the latter, because I wasn't sure you'd want to deal with Shakespearian English!
"The sunflower fad had apparently come here to die."

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I could have always worked in 'Spear's English into the dialogue, or a poster on the wall. But the sentece you gave me is perfect.

[littlelamb.livejournal.com]

the bus was waiting, panting heavily at the curb in front of the small bus station, its great blue and silver bulk glittering in the moonlight.

xoxo shirley jackson

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful sentence!

[sbeth76.livejournal.com]

I heart Shirley Jackson. From what work is that sentence taken?

[littlelamb.livejournal.com]

one of my favorite short stories of hers, "the tooth."

[sbeth76.livejournal.com]

I'll look it up.

[oatmeal-texas.livejournal.com]

"East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

"Dread began to gather in the corners of Kate's mind, and out of dread came panic."

[canudiglett]

"He gained great satisfaction in pushing it into a bin at Hackney Central."

A line from my forthcoming* novel, The Ambulance Man.


*Assuming anyone actually ever wants to publish it.

[rag-and-bone.livejournal.com]

"Now for a long time he'd been unable to find the far-away room; always it had been so difficult, but never so hard as in the last year." --Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms

[greenteablack.livejournal.com]

Mirta wasn't certain whether to land a punch on the clone or thank him for showing up

[greenteablack.livejournal.com]

The source is by Karen Traviss and it's from "Legacy of the Force - Sacrifice"

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

There's no fiction anywhere near me, since I'm at work, but I thought I'd contribute this:

"They fashion the package so that when it's opened at the other end, the atom in that package is set to spin in a certain way, or direction."
- Micro Mart magazine. ;)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

That's fine. There's always dialogue. ;-)

[moveslikegiallo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I could have given you a subheader, which was just "Has Mark gone mad?"

[belacane.livejournal.com]

The paradise valley is mostly ranch land, although there are a few settlements there.

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

An insult that stuck in my mind recently is

Fuck him and ride his wife

..from Patrick McCabe's Wintersmith. Good luck..

[desayuno-ingles.livejournal.com]

Robert A. Heinlein's JOB: A Comedy of Justice.

"It was a station wagon with a woman behind the wheel, a man riding with her."

[sbeth76.livejournal.com]

The trees loomed as they went by, trees upon trees, endless and verdant.
- The Emperor's Children, Claire Messud

[beeorkendurkey.livejournal.com]

Now he could feel a fizzing in his blood.

-from 'Mort' by Terry Pratchett, page 136 (paperback)

[saint-narcissus.livejournal.com]

"I do not think we should go any farther now," he said.

"The City And The Stars"
- Arthur C. Clarke

[geosh.livejournal.com]

"When the light poured down through a hole in the clouds,
We knew the great poet was going to show."

Mark Strand, "Blizzard of One"

[knacker-prince.livejournal.com]

"My tux, delivered with the others that morning, hung in the closet with a stiff pleated shirt of brilliant whiteness."

Tobias Wolff, "Old School", p.115.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

"Shagfoal look at I, and strong is go from I for move, that I is like to stone."

Unfortunately for you, I just started reading "Voice of the Fire" by Alan Moore.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Don't worry; I'm sure Shagfoal will play an important role in my novel. ;-)

[yllyan.livejournal.com]

'Dying would be easier, he knew.'

hope thats random enough for you ;-)

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Where's it taken from?

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

"Without the deflated clothes to give the corpse some definition, probably none of them could have said for certain what it had once been." - The Dark Tower VII-Stephen King