Your Favorite Passage
Posted by David Duhr in 
Have you ever written a line or a paragraph that’s so good, you almost wonder if it’s something you subconsciously memorized from a book someone else wrote? Someone far more talented and capable?
It’s a wonderful feeling, to surprise yourself with your own talent. You always know it’s in there, somewhere, lurking, but you (being the self-doubting writer you are) aren’t often able to see it. Even when other people do!
But then you bust out with a line that stops you in your tracks. Immediately it feels foreign. “I wrote that? But it’s so good.”
Let’s take a look at some of those lines, together.
In the comments below, paste or write out your favorite line or paragraph from your written work. One of those passages that made you realize, “Holy hell, I am a talented writer!”
Provide us some context, if you wish, or just let the passage speak for itself.
If it comes from something that’s been published, feel free to leave a link.
And definitely feel free to comment on each other’s passages! If anything jumps out at you, strike up a conversation with the writer, ask where you can read more of his/her work.
Note: Our email notifications are still not functioning! We’re working on it, but for now, subscribing to comments won’t do anything. You’ll just have to check back to see if anyone has replied to your passage or other comment. I know it’s a pain.
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is copy editor and fiction editor at the Texas Observer and has written about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others.
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I thought I did okay with this story: I had been home only a short time after going through Hip replacement surgery. I had the Visiting Nurses coming in almost daily for P.T., O/T. and a Nurse following up my recovery. This one day was a doozy for me…. I clipped the part about the busiest midday I had: As Charlie was greeting Alice, Maizie called to her that she was just getting dressed. Now the phone was ringing in the kitchen where Maizie had remembered to return it to its cradle. When her husband answered it, she could tell… Read more »
Excellent, Eleanor. Thank you for sharing it with us!
Have you been able to get back to a schedule here in 2018?
Context; A very young and heavy-set fellow supervisor had been dating an order filler at our (major retailer) Company. She’d been laid off after peak season and he’d been pestering our dept. manager to bring her back on board as soon as possible. I wrote this send-up for the in-house news letter. Names have been changed to protect the love addled: “…producing a pair of safety-orange pom poms, he lept to top of the stunned manager’s desk (defying every law of physics and gravity) and in the wam tones of a young man who’d abandoned professional restraint for romance gave… Read more »
Thanks, Ken. Love it. I forget, are you anonymous as author, or no? Have you ever gotten into any trouble because of something in your newsletter?
David, I was soul author, publisher and pot-stirrer for my newsletter so everyone knew who authored the slings and arrows. In fact, on one ocaission I did encounter a “spot of bother” as the Brits say, with my newsletter. During a company-sponsored golf outing, a young clerk I’d worked with (and felt I knew well enough to poke fun at) managed to overturn the golf cart he was piloting with Shipping manager on board. This struck me as Prime Time News. Next day’s edition featured a war-font sized headline: “Conner and Palmer Part Ways in Airborne Cart!” I described the… Read more »
His hair, which he wore in a military cut, was in full retreat.
Now that’s funny! Plus, that one sentence grabbed my attention and gave me a clear picture. Trifecta achieved.
Hi Gar. Thanks for sharing. I agree with E. Does this come from something you want to tell us about?
The line is from A Fatal Cell Phone Video, a legal thriller. The line is part of the description of the County Prosecutor.
This scene takes place after Jill was interrogated the murder of the man she was investigating for kidnapping a young woman who was being brought into the country illegally. During the interrogation, they bring up her past, including relationships with some questionable character. It is from my soon to be released novel, “The Jillian Factor.” It is an adult novel due to the language and situations contained in it. Tom took the driver’s seat, snapping the seat belt in place, but didn’t start the car. Facing straight ahead, his hands on the wheel, he said, “I’m sorry about what went… Read more »
Hi Barbara. Thanks for sharing; I dig it. Maybe this in particular:
“He wouldn’t be in a good mood either if someone was trying to frame him for murder.”
Poem I wrote about 12 years ago… The title: To Rhyme Is Sublime Let my soul make my body whole. I will refrain, from this awful pain! Let it try to chain…No! I will not let it gain! Nor defame. My good name. Damn it! Tried to tame! No shame. Soon it will be end game! Old so old. Feeling cold. Not bold. Death has its awful hold. No young ones left to mold. Did a good job, so I’ve been told. For decades I decay. I do pray, but the pain wont go away. Every day, is so gray.… Read more »
It’s nice to see some of the roots. Thanks, John.
sorry its in capitols… just the way it came out… THE STORY OF THE GREY JEDI… Creative non fiction,,,, THE GREY JEDI WERE ULTIMATE JEDI: THE WARRIOR PREISTS OF THEIR TIME THEY UNDERSTOOD THE DARK NATURE OF THE FORCE AND ALSO HOW TO OVERCOME AND SUBLIMNATE THOSE ENERGIES FOR THE HIGHER GOOD OF ALL SENTIENT BEINGS EVERYWHERE… STEEPED IN THE OLD MYSTICAL TEACHINGS THAT FIRST GAVE RISE TO WHAT IS KNOWN AS THE JEDI THEY SOUGHT TO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES FOR ALL THE REST OF US TO KNOW: THEY WERE THE LIGHT BEARERS: THE SHAMANS AND ALCHEMIST PRIESTS OF THE… Read more »
Thanks for sharing this; I dig it. Just the other day I was browsing the Star Wars shelf at my bookstore. The amount of choices were overwhelming, and I haven’t been keeping up. I read a few novels back in middle and high school — Kevin Anderson, I think? — but then sort of fell off, and now I want to get back into reading them. This gives me an extra push.