November 5th, 2009
I’ve got two projects out in the wild looking for homes. In the current state of the publishing industry, I’m not confident either will find a place to land. I would like to be, and two years ago I would have been. Today, not so much. It’s just the way the market bounces. So I’m trying to decide which of my gazillion ideas to write next, and I thought I’d toss out some first paragraphs, see what you guys think. These are the first five I could find without digging through my boxes of spiral notebooks and legal pads to find the others I know I have. Any favorites? Anything spark your interest?
It was Ariel’s turn to forage, and she’d been psyching herself up all week. Each trip out was more dangerous than the one before. Those who’d be waiting for her to return knew it, too. On the street, no one had your back. Out there, you were on your own. Pay phones had never been a reliable way to touch base anyway, but for nine months now smart phones had been just as useless. God, she missed texting. Stupid, when she didn’t have anyone to text. Or anything to say.
The accident had been a double fatality. The driver at fault under the influence. The driver of the impacted car in the wrong place at the wrong time. For the past twenty-four hours, Decker Clay had tried unsuccessfully to block out the remembered noise. The screech of metal creasing metal. Screams of rubber burning on concrete. Alarms and sirens blaring. Exploding glass. Even an eerie, disembodied whimpering he couldn’t shake.
Addie Stockwell was taping the spine on her book club’s eighth copy of Jane Eyre when Bella Potter arrived in Drury, Texas twenty-one years after leaving. Addie paused, frowned. Was that right? No. It wasn’t. Bella hadn’t left. She’d been taken from town. Forced from her home. Removed from her family. Abandoned for the second time in her life. To this day Addie could hear the twelve-year-old’s silence as loudly as her Aunt Rosamunde’s sobs. Disgraceful, what had been done.
He crouched in the corner of the landing where the staircase turned left and rose to the building’s third floor. He lived on the second, as did his tenant. She was the clerk on the phone in the bookstore below. Her name was Phaedra. She’d lived here and worked here a month. He didn’t trust her at all. He let her stay anyway. He needed her here because of where she’d come from. That place. They’d sent her. He was sure.
Linoleum made a better artist’s palette than carpet or hardwood or tile. That discovery came after three trial runs. He had to work up to the human killings, and nobody in the neighborhood missed the yapping dogs.
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All interesting! And so different. The last one freaked me out a little bit, but hey, not a bad thing necessarily!
I would be very intrigued upon picking up any of them.
The interesting thing is, I have my fave types of books, and some of them, if I knew WHAT they were I might not have grabbed, but reading them blind I was interested in all of them.
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You know, I didn’t even think to mention that they’re all pretty much different sub-genres! Very interesting that seeing something out of context and w/o packaging might make a difference! I also didn’t think to mention that I might write one of these for fun – and for my Website as a freebie. I’ve been thinking about doing something like that for a year, and haven’t had the free time until now.
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I so agree with Maisy! There was something with each one that caught me and made me want more to read!! Without knowing all the details, these are all very interesting snippets and I’m hoping we get to read full stories for all of them!! :)
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I would love to write all of them, Blanche. I play with them here and there, seeing what sticks.
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I vote #1! And good luck to your projects making the rounds.
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Thanks, Charlene! We all need luck these days!
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They are all each different in every way but # 2 catches my eye and leaves me wanting more! I like it the best! You’re the author, go with your gut! Which one do you like best?
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I’ve written a bunch of #2. But it’s been awhile since I worked on it. I like all of them for different reasons, so go back and forth!
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If nothing else it’s a good lesson about breaking out of reading comfort zones! LOL.
And it goes to show how much marketing matters. The first one made me think sci-fi, paranormal, which I would normally walk right by, yet reading it, I really enjoyed it.
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This is turning into a fun experiment!
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I like all of them, and the last one freaked me out, too, which I think is a good thing.
But #1 piques my interest the most.
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I’ve been working on #1 the most, actually, so this is good to hear. I like the shock value of #5, heh, but have a WHOLE lot of plotting to do!
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I vote for #3.
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I’ve got quite a bit written on that one. I just have a big plot point to figure out. I’m writing toward it, getting to know my characters to see which direction they want to go!
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I vote for all of them! Good luck with finding a home!
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That would keep me in deadlines for awhile!
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Love the second one and the last one was a oh, hook, more, wow read.
What fascinating snippets.
K.
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The last one is from a scene I really love, but yeah, eww, LOL!
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I liked #2 a lot! Good luck!
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Thanks, Maureen. That’s the one I’ve thought most about writing as a freebie. We’ll see!
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I like 1 and 5 the best. Really like 1. Had to re-read 5. Was a bit creepy. But by then I’d realized they were from different genres, so I’m okay with the creepy.
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Interesting how everyone likes #1. I’ve been writing on that one today, as a matter of fact!
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#2 usually isn’t my thing, but something about that drew me and well heck if you wrote it I know I’d read it ;)
They were all intersting but the second one would get my vote!
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Nice. So how do you get one done when you have so many ideas running at once?
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Well, when none of it is under contract and I have no deadline but my own, I hop between them as the mood strikes!