The Best Passage You Wrote in 2022
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion questions: What is the best thing you wrote last year? A line or passage that made you sit back and think, “Wow, I’m a talented writer!” And are you willing to share it with us? If so, copy/paste it in the comments below. Provide some context if you want, or let your words speak for themselves. Fiction or non, poetry or screenplay, even text message or email, let’s see an example of your best work of 2022.
It’s time to give yourself a pat on the back, writer!
What I want to see, in the comments below, is the best passage you wrote in 2022. The line or paragraph you’re most proud of having written; the one you’re most eager for others to read.
It can be fiction or non; poetry or script; even a tweet or a text or some words from your own blog.
Provide us some context, if it’ll help, and/or tell us where the passage came from, when and how you wrote it, why it’s your favorite passage.
Or let your words speak for themselves.
After you post your passage, read a few examples from your fellow WriteByNighters.
Let them know what you like about it and if the passage makes you want to read more.
Even if you’re short on time, just clicking the + sign is a helpful show of support. A little encouragement goes a long way.
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer and co-host of the Yak Babies podcast, and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.
WriteByNight is a writers’ service dedicated to helping you achieve your creative potential and literary goals. We work with writers of all experience levels working in all genres, nationwide and worldwide. If you have a 2023 writing project you’d like a little help with, take a look at our book coaching, private instruction and writer’s block counseling services. If you have a manuscript that’s ready for some editorial care, check out our various critiquing, editorial, and proofing services.
My editor called this passage from UNIVIRTUAL “nearly perfect”: ——- But it has always been so that great barriers are raised against great ambition. That is a historical fact. Heroes are heroic because they succeed despite obstacles thrown in their paths by the craven, the conspirators, and the cowards. If it is the destiny of humankind to live in a perfect world, where all needs are satisfied, where the democratization of experience is complete, where even the disadvantaged and disabled are full participants, then it will be so. And I will make it so. With that affirmation, I answered my… Read more »
Don’t know if this was my 2022 best. Might be: Zane feels the renegade sage’s spirit leave his body, dissipating into the numinous like smoke. The body left behind is still, mangled, and blood-soaked. Dead eyes frozen into a blind stare no longer connect with a living essence. Fennec is reunited with Mithra in the numinous realm now, friends and killers left behind. The horror of this loss rips through Zane like a cold shriek. Following hard on Branch’s death, this one leaves him thrashing in the depths. His spiritual guide and his hero are both gone, taken by uncaring… Read more »
Maybe the best. Maybe a passage, maybe not. But it sure was fun to write. Navel Epiphany I have gazed at my navel for forty days and forty nights. Wandered in the desolation of the Walmart parking lot waiting for the epiphany to bloom and burst into a vision. And there appeared before me a burning blue-light special. A voice like crushing gravel came from within, said unto me… My dear friend sometimes a navel is just a navel. You’re wasting your time and mine. Go forth, do something productive like tidily-winks or writing a book. I heard Sigmund Freud… Read more »
Love it. To often we want to imbue things with more meaning than there is meant to be and it becomes a muddle without its true meaning.
What’s going on? I need to sort through my memories. I remember getting into my Honda Civic and driving through dense fog down Hwy 30 to get to my birthday party. It felt scary to drive, seeing only 10 feet ahead of me but, I so wanted to get there. After all, my dear friends planned the party for me. Okay, I remember the sounds of highway traffic passing by as I attempted to leave the on-ramp and merge with trucks and cars. My guts churned because I could barely see them. My turn signal was blinking. I wanted to… Read more »
from the novella The Zenith and the Nadir: And so we skimmed, over the barest surface of this great living organism, which was, by all scientific theory our ancestral home. As to why, a treasure hunt, that started off by accident, and ended, well, stick around for the ending. The ocean has it’s secrets, and it doesn’t give them up easily. Oftentimes one thing happens when you expected another, or whatever you counted on doesn’t pan out. It’s a familiar story, in my case played out in unusual, and deadly, circumstances. The most noticeable thing presently is the quiet, or,… Read more »
Light Glancing out the window The early evening light calls Shimmering over The colors of fall Bussing the Asters With a luminous glow The light calls to me And I call to Gilly Let’s go for a walk Through the leaves that chatter With each passing step To the path in the woods Where the last of the crickets Sing summer away On the wings of the geese Who’s honks lead the way To faraway places Seen only in books We’ll walk for a bit In the gathering dusk As wind in the treetops Hums the season along And the… Read more »