Publishing a book had been on my to-do list for a long time. I even had a few completed manuscripts lying with me, that I had submitted to a few publishers for their consideration. So, I decided not to go the self-publishing way with those stories.
Category: Writing (Page 2 of 19)
To a child, everything is a mystery. That is why children lead interesting lives. With every passing day a child discovers and understands new things about the world, and life is one big adventure. As the child grows up, he, or she, begins to know more and more about the world – the mystery is lost and life becomes boring.
One thing that continues to make life interesting is the uncertainty of it – the mystery of not knowing what is going to happen next. However routine your life may have become, you can never be certain of what tomorrow will bring.
The opening line is an important part of the novel. Though a novel is much more than the opening line – just like a house is much more than the gate – yet it can be a crucial factor in making the reader decide to go ahead and read the book. Stephen King says, “an opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.“
Here, I have compiled a list of 10 great opening lines from novels, in no particular order, along with my reasons for liking them.
Have you ever wondered what is the best age to write that book which will make you famous all over the world. Should you write it when you are young and reckless, or should you wait till time has got a chance to work its magic upon you and you have learnt your lessons from the hard task master that time is.
G. B. Shaw famously said that we learn from history that we learn nothing from history. Yet, history is an important tool to learn some lessons which otherwise we may never learn. So, I decided to have a look at the past to find out how old some famous writers were when they wrote one of their most acclaimed works.
Recently, I was reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing (a book you must read, if you haven’t), and I came across this interesting comment:
“… while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work , dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.”
I was surprised on reading this, because most of my life I have believed that with hard work and dedication anything can be achieved. So, why should it be impossible to become a great writer, even if you are a bad one today, or even if you are not a writer at all?
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