Sheila Calderon Blankemeier of Writing, Workouts and Werejaguars threw a meme at me. Before I could duck, I got hit with the Lucky 7. See below for what it's about, and be sure to check out Sheila's fun blog. below. Thanks, Sheila!
Here are the rules for Lucky 7:
- Go to page 77 of your current MS
- Go to line 7
- Copy down the next 7 lines or paragraphs as they're written-- no cheating!
- Tag 7 other writers
- Let them know!
So, I'm re-reading the Hunger Games Trilogy - I'm on Catching Fire. I thought it might be fun (and when I say fun, I really mean 'likely to be humiliating to my self") to compare the 7 sentences on page 77 of Catching Fire to my own 77+7+7. First, Suzanne Collins:
My appetite has returned with my desire to fight back. After weeks of feeling too worried to eat, I'm famished."
Okay, now this is from my last completed novel (which I'm quasi-querying) BookEnd:
"I wake up in a sweat, not remembering even having fallen asleep.
There's a knock at my door but when I open the door there's no one there. Instead, there's a stack of books. I look down the hallway and catch sight of crying-girl looking back at me. She quickly turns away and escapes up the girl's stairway. Crying-girl's name is Rose. Since the night we both arrived, I've never seen her do anything but cower and cry."
That was strangely not as painful as I thought!
There are lulls in every book, pauses before the next thing. I'm not as ashamed as I thought I would be. Yay! Now to swat this meme at other unsuspecting writers:
Laura Campbell at Writing Unleashed
Joseph Finley at Fresh Scraped Vellum
Daisy Carter at Fresh as a Daisy
Callie Leuck at Write On
MJ Fifield at My Pet Blog
I like this! It gets me wondering what's up with the stack of books, and why (I assume) crying-girl left them. And just why is crying-girl crying and cowering all the time? I also start asking why the MC woke up in a sweat. Is there something going on that's giving her nightmares? Is she scared of something? This all makes it very intriguing and compelling. I'd like to read more :D
ReplyDeleteAs much as we sweat sharing our work, it's never as bad as we think. And your little snippet was good, Alex. Waking with a sweat implies nightmares, but MC doesn't remember falling asleep, and presumably doesn't remember the dreams, and perhaps wonders as much as we do why s/he's sweating. And then the mystery of the books and crying-girl adds to the mystery. Do we want to know what the heck's going on? You bet! And all this from 7 lines! :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you called her "crying-girl". It's simple, yet effective. Great comparison work btw.
ReplyDeleteOoh, very brave! I don't think I could put my seven right after Suzanne Collins'! But yours are standing right alongside hers wonderfully! I, too, want to read more based on this excerpt! Crying-girl is intriguing, as is the mysterious pile of books. Why were they delivered at night? Was the MC expecting them? What will they reveal to her? SOO interesting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for tagging me! I've actually just played this game, so here's the link!
Ooo, love the lines! I'm intriqued and want to read more! So love having a stack of books delivered by a mysterious crying-girl.
ReplyDeleteThanks for tagging me! I'll post mine soon!
I like this. I want to know who these people are, and why they're behaving the way they are :-)
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show that the 77th page isn't as important as everyone makes it out to be. ;)
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