Apparently this meme has been around for a while, but I only just came across it. It’s a writing meme (so I apologise to all the non-writers out there), and is basically a chance to share a random excerpt of your current WIP (Work In Progress).
I was tagged in a Lucky 7 Meme post by Ben Trube, and enjoyed the excerpt that he posted. So, in the spirit of fun, I decided to have a look at my own WIP and see if I had anything worth posting.
The challenge is pretty simple:
- Go to the 7th or 77th page of your WIP.
- Go to the 7th line of the page.
- Copy the next 7 paragraphs (exactly as typed).
- Tag 7 other authors and let them know they’re it.
Well, as I said, I had a look at my WIP and it turns out that page 77 is a pretty interesting one. So, here goes:
Claws raked my back, effortlessly tearing through jacket, shirt and flesh. The pain barely registered. I just kept yelling and pulled at her hair even harder. She crashed to the floor next to me. I let go of her hair for long enough to clench my fist and slam it into her face.
I missed.
My hand hit the wooden floor and I heard bones break, but felt nothing. Then a hand locked around my neck and claws pressed into my throat.
I blinked away tears and my vision returned. It was blurry and shaky, and only my left eye was working, but it was better than nothing. Blood coated the floor below me, dripping from my face and pooling around my broken fingers and the glass from the shattered vial.
“It’s over, Gothi. Time to die,” Death-Faerie whispered against my ear. Her claws pressed deeper. I hated it, but she was right. I was about to die.
Bang!
The sound was deafening. The pressure on my throat vanished, and then Death-Faery collapsed to the floor by my side. I looked down. She had a hole in the centre of her forehead. Golden liquid dribbled from the wound.
As for tagging seven authors, please find my list below. Have a look at your own page 77 (or 7) and see if there’s something you’d like to share. (You’re welcome to share in the comment here if you don’t want to put it on your own blog.)
Jo Eberhardt is a writer of speculative fiction, mother to two adorable boys, and lover of words and stories. She lives in rural Queensland, Australia, and spends her non-writing time worrying that the neighbour's cows will one day succeed in sneaking into her yard and eating everything in her vegie garden.
The Happy Logophile 
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Thanks for tagging. Nice extract 🙂
My WIP has had to go back to the planning/outline stage again, due to creative differences between myself and my novel. I wanted a fresh invigorating funny novel that acutely reflected real life morals in a magical fantasy environment. The malformed novel it became just wanted to destroy everything that is good and pure.
I’ll beat it though.
Ha! I love the description of your “malformed novel”. I have no doubt you’ll get it whipped into heroic shape. 🙂
WIP right now is only 17 pages long, so here’s a clip from page 7 (first draft, subject to change as I figure out more backstory):
The eyes on the parchment moved, and then the face turned to profile. The demon’s nose was meant to be straight, but it had been broken at least once. Last year? Last century? A small gold crescent moon marked his ear lobe. She peered at the picture, trying to identify some clue to its location, but there was very little background.
“Do you know where he is?” she asked the goblin. “Where he came across?”
The goblin shook his head. “West of here.”
“That’s a big help. How am I supposed to find him, much less . . . deal with him?” One look at the man blew any thought of terminating him out of her head, no matter what he turned out to be. Finding him, though, that was growing more attractive by the minute. Once she found him she could–
She turned the parchment over and pressed it against her jeans. Damn.
“I can’t tell you where he is,” the goblin said, “but I can lead you to him. Well, almost,” he continued after Zee shot him a sharp look. “I can help you find him. That’s why they sent me. I’m good at tracking. Finding.”
“Then what do they need me for? Why not just send you to take care of the problem?”
Intriguing… I really would like to read more of your writing, Kay. It always sounds like it’s just up my alley.
I’m really trying to get back into this story, but it’s a struggle. I’m a finalist in the Golden Heart again (that was a stunner!) and the trip to Caifornia next month seems to be turning my brain to mush. I must say, your excerpt is a lot more violent than anything of mine. Well, no, there is the parallel world novel with the Aztec sacrifices . . .
Well, congrats on being a Golden Heart finalist! That’s great news! My brain would porobably be mush, too. 🙂 It’s funny that you say my excerpt is violent, because I don’t think of my work as being particularly violent — but then, there are 76 pages of build-up to this fight scene, so jumping into it in the middle is a bit different to reading it right from the start.
Anything with Aztec sacrifices is bound to be violent and interesting! Having done some research into Aztec culture and sacrifices myself (because, you know, that’s just what we do), I’m sure I’d enjoy reading something with that type of setting.
Wowza! That passage was exciting! I want to read more.
Yay! Thanks! So, I’ll put you down to buy a copy of my book when I EVENTUALLY get it written and then find an elusive NY deal, then? 🙂
Teasing us like that really isn’t fair… 😉
You’re right. But it’s so much fun. 🙂
Nice extract.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!
Well, now I’m going to have to do a little WIP-spelunking or somesuch (the WIP is currently disassembled over several files). Not sure what “page7” would look like right now, otherwise. (Also pretty sure I don’t have a “page 77” yet.) Also, I do believe you are officially the first (and only) person to tag me with this meme.
I like it better than the various “blog award” memes: it doesn’t pretend to be something that it’s not.
That’s one of the things I like about it as well. I’ll look forward to seeing what you come up with. 🙂
If I go with Page 7 it won’t be nearly as action-packed. If I go with Page 77 I’ll have to wait until I finish Page 77 (I’m pretty close… but I’m expecting my writing time to drop off a cliff for a few weeks).
If I’d looked at my page 7 and page 77 and didn’t like what I found, I probably wouldn’t have posted anything at all. I was happily surprised to find that page 77 was right in the middle of the first major combat scene in the book. 🙂 My vote is that if you think page 7 isn’t action-packed enough, you wait until you’ve done page 77 and go with that one. What’s a few weeks (or months!) in blog-time? 🙂
The thing with action is… it’s exciting even when you don’t have the context. Quieter scenes can be very interesting and engaging – but usually only if you have the context. As for blog time? That could be simultaneously and eternity and an infinitesimal moment.
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