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nuxvomica

(13,783 posts)

7. I regret I never got to enter my novel's opening sentence

Reply to niyad (Original post)

Tue Nov 11, 2025, 10:13 AM

Tuesday

It might have won but I was too proud to consider it:

As evening approached, the cool breezes retreated and pleasing warmth invaded every tower in the desert city of Thujwa.

One author who taught a workshop I attended said my prose was "overwritten." I assume he meant because nobody paid me for it, in which case it would've been "underwritten."

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niyad

17 replies

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Highlight:

I have very sad news to report. The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest* is no more. [View all] niyad Tuesday OP

Aw man! I always enjoyed those! n/t Coventina Tuesday #1

As did I. niyad Tuesday #5

And you could have been a contender Dear_Prudence Tuesday #2

Thank you for that lovely compliment. One tries one's humble best. niyad Tuesday #6

Curiously, Bulwar-Lytton's intro followed Hemingway's famous dictum nuxvomica Tuesday #3

More like hemingway copied him? niyad Tuesday #8

That's a genuine shame. Paladin Tuesday #4

As will I. niyad Tuesday #9

I regret I never got to enter my novel's opening sentence nuxvomica Tuesday #7

It is a shame that you did not enter it! niyad Tuesday #10

I had not heard of this. Sounds hilarious. Disappointing to see it go. electric_blue68 Tuesday #11

You can check out the website, as the whole contest is archived. niyad Tuesday #13

Cool! I will. TY. electric_blue68 Tuesday #16

Reminds me of the story of the doorman at an exclusive London club. malthaussen Tuesday #12

Awww, thank you for that delightful story. niyad Tuesday #14

I misremembered as an opening line, "There is a fort in the South..." - turned out to be a few lines later. UTUSN Tuesday #15

Thank you for these, as I neither read the book, nor saw the movie. niyad Tuesday #17