One Perfect Sentence – February Challenge is Open!

[AgentPete]

“Write one sentence that is the midpoint turn of a novel. Any genre.”​

- Thank you, @Rich. for suggesting this month’s One Perfect Sentence prompt. I’m very excited to see what everyone comes up with… it’s not the usual opening / closing sentence idea – it will stretch you in an interesting, creative way.

Pivot moments are like gold-dust to the writer. They’re the moment at which your reader sees thing in a whole new paradigm… not just a paradigm shift, more like a paradigm earthquake.

Yet, the challenge is considerable.

The sentence has to leave no doubt whatsoever in the mind of your reader that this is a kairotic or defining event. It mustn’t be overlooked or skipped. It must give the reader pause.

I think you’re going to enjoy it


The Rules are simple.

You MUST make your entry anonymous by ticking the “Posting as Anonymous?” box. Voting will open later this month.

 

[Anonymous]

She was lurking in the kitchen when James Parkinson walked in with a bottle of Jim Beam and a smile that made her think this party might not be so terrible after all.

 

[Anonymous]

With the damage from the attack the new point of no return was just past the Galactic Centre– as it slipped by he wondered whether to tell the crew.

 

[Anonymous]

They both had to take a couple of days off school, watching afternoon plays on television, sick bowls to hand, waiting for their fevers to settle, but the forty-eight-hour bug that rendered the pill ineffective seemed inconsequential at the time.

 

[Anonymous]

She lay awake for a long time with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat which said enough, enough, enough.

 

[Anonymous]

The new heart didn't automatically necessitate a visit to the grieving parents; the new voice in her head did.

 

[Anonymous]

Sarah grabbed the half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels and allowed herself to be led by the hand upstairs to Becky’s bedroom.

 

[Anonymous]

And then, to everyone's enduring surprise, Willy stirred from his drunken stupor and murmured: 'To be... da dum da dum, da dum the question... something like that... be brilliant... I'll get it in a minute.'

 

[Anonymous]

I baulked when she said, 'If your love was food, I'd be anorexic.'

 

[Anonymous]

"Now what will we do?" Lorcan joked, relief more powerful than his exhaustion in victory, they had finally achieved all they had set out to a lifetime and too many wars ago, for a moment he dared to dream of peace but his laughter died on his lips as Casimir replied coldly, "Now, we rule."

 

[Anonymous]

The bag hit the floor with a thud, Gin quickly thought about the .38 Special inside.

Yet Agent Fairex didn't know her cover was blown.

 

[Anonymous]

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," he said as he dropped the pickaxe and picked up a gun.

 

[Anonymous]

It was a trap alright, but he wasn't the target he was the bait.

 

[Anonymous]

Flipping a coin tells you what you really, really want to do, even if you've been lying to everybody important in your life, including yourself, about this One Big Thing – because your spontaneous reaction to the suggested 'answer' just cannot be faked.

 

[Anonymous]

'You could shoot me, you could shoot yourselves, you could even shoot some of those heavy-looking guys over there in the snazzy outfits, but when I shout 'three!' you better start shooting.'

 

[Anonymous]

'I'm aware that the expression "we are in deep shit now" might sound somewhat foreign, Your Highness, but, please, just take my hand, step up on the window ledge... and jump.'

 

[Anonymous]

"Eight months, and no, it isn't yours, of course, but believe me, she wishes it was, and you know, biology isn't everything, especially these days, so you should see her, you should, because, damn it, you idiot, you should."

 

[Anonymous]

"OK," said the world's least-known assassin, Lenny Hvratsky, waving an envelope at me, "I've taught you all the basics, and some twists that are all my own, so now it's time for you to just go on out there and ... make your own mark."

 

[Anonymous]

“By symbiotic, I mean paramount to the continuation of the human race and all, but you—yeah best case scenario it sedates you while it’s consuming you from the inside out.”

 

[Anonymous]

In the glow from the dying pyre, the apprentice wiped his eyes and, in a hoarse voice, said, “For the first time, I’ll disobey you and travel to The Haunted Land to face its lord ... alone.”

 

[Anonymous]

Like a lightning bolt, the wounded, winged representation of the goddess of love had cracked open something hidden deep inside her, something restless, almost feral.

 

[Anonymous]

And as the gangplank creaked from the dock, and the grubby sails were unfurled, she held the babe tight to her breast, thinking only, I'm not going back, not now, no, not now, not ever.

 

[Anonymous]

"The name's Bubb, BLZ Bubb – and I'm sure our... association is going to prove very profitable."

 

[Anonymous]

I held her hand all night, listening to every single breath, until there were no more.

 

[Anonymous]

Perhaps Garrett was right, it was all just a dream—except that they could wake up from a dream and go on making magic.

 

[Anonymous]

Jon smiled, like it was easy, because it was—just a click of the mouse and nothing would change for him, his family would be safe, his bank account accessible, trouble averted, and that sickening feeling, maybe one day it would go away, the people trapped and imprisoned—constitutionally free labor—left to starve, they’d go away too, and—“I can’t do that,” he told Shoulder Pads, his tone almost as sharp as her eyebrows.

 

[Anonymous]

"Now that I've been elected, we can do away with elections."

 

[Anonymous]

Those words, at once insouciant and lethal, rasped against him, and the edge of his disused spirit sparked along the whetstone of tyranny.