Turn to page 123 in your work-in-progress. (If you haven’t gotten to page 123 yet, then turn to page 23. If you haven’t gotten there yet, then get busy and write page 23.) Count down four sentences and then instead of just the fifth sentence, give us the whole paragraph. (Via Gwenda. Via Ed.)
Here's what I've got:
"I went to work on Wednesday feeling good about my place in the world. I had a role to play, a person to be, and I knew exactly how that person would dress. I’d wear my black coat with the flowers on the bottom, to be appropriately dressed but not too somber. Funeral-festive. I would be both sunny and sad and people would wonder who I was. I imagined his father hugging me close, thanking me for helping his son. His grandmother would take a shine to me and secretly want us to marry. I was good at my own family crisis and I could be good at someone else’s too."
Nice!
Posted by: Matthew Tiffany | March 13, 2007 at 02:41 AM
I like this very much, Callie; it sounds like at this point the narrator's change/determination has taken shape, which prepares the reader for an uphill (or downhill?) battle from here. So intriguing!
Here's mine (though I had to amend the rules a little bit, as I've no idea where my page 123 is): http://loudsolitude.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/the-bit-from-page-123-file-23/.
Posted by: w | March 13, 2007 at 11:08 AM
That is a wonderful paragraph, and I want it to be published so I can buy the book. I did one, too, and I tried to do a trackback to your site, but I am afraid I am so clueless as to how to work Wordpress that I really shouldn't be licensed to be around a computer.
But, since it's fun going around and reading everybody's page 123's, I'm including a link to mine, too--also I love your site!
http://www.sandishelton.com/blog
Posted by: sandi | March 17, 2007 at 02:16 PM