In January 2016, there was a hashtag going around Twitter: #FirstLineToMyNovel. Being a smartass, I wrote 18 of them. A few weeks later, I created a tumblr with a post for each of those lines, and added a plausible title, without knowing where the story might go.
Over the next couple months, I tried to flesh out each one into a short story, using my usual "first draft is good enough" writing technique.
One of those lines was similar enough to a story I'd already written, so I just went ahead and posted it.
With the rest, I began adding to them a bit at a time, as time and inspiration allowed.
Just to make things interesting, I set up some rules for me to follow:
1. Use the line from the tweet, verbatim, as the first line of the story.
2. Write start-to-finish. No rewrites or major edits. Clean up grammar and spelling only.
3. Write the stories on Tumblr itself. No writing offline.
For the record, I broke each of those rules at least once, but tried to stick to them anyway.
- ISBN13 9781365104343
- Publish Date 11 June 2016
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Lulu.com
- Format eBook (OEB)
- Language English