Write Chapter One and Win

Sometimes we just need to get those words down on paper (or on screen). All of the thinking, dreaming, planning and putting off the dread moment of turning a blank page into one with a single word on it must end. Write that word. Write that sentence. Write Chapter One. Can't think of a first sentence? How about...

ONCE UPON A BLOODY TIME!

Okay, you can drop the bloody. That was just an expression of self-irritation on my part when I can't get started. The suggestion is that once you start writing, you will continue. Once you start committing to the words, the story will start to unfold before your very eyes. This challenge has been designed to give you that extra prompt, that additional incentive to get started.

Enter this challenge, get your first chapter out there, and be in with a chance to win a cash prize:

First = $25, Second = $10, 3rd = Runner up = $5 (x3).

The challenge

Write a chapter of a novel inspired by a well-known painting or other work of art.

It could be chapter one or it could be any other sample chapter. Could even be a prologue that introduces your main character(s) or otherwise sets the scene. Add a brief explanatory note about how you see the storyline developing (without of course giving too much away) and submit it by August 31st deadline (20:00 EST, 23:00 BST, or 23:59 UTC).

To enter: Just click on this link to the main Challenge page and add a comment with a link to your chapter and footnote. It's that simple.

Why the art theme?

Not really an art theme. More a source of inspiration. They say that Tracy Chevalier, author of the book Girl with a Pearl Earring, had a poster of Vermeer's famous painting hanging in her home for 16 years before she wrote the story.

Why wait 16 years? Just go visit an art gallery, think of a painting you have previously seen, or just look at some art (pretty much any kind of art, not just paintings) online. If looking at great art doesn't inspire you to think think up some great ideas for a novel, nothing will. If you are not sure how to write a novel, there are plenty of how-to resources online. Don't ask me, I have only ever written one and that was entirely unplanned in the first instance. Method I used was to take a short story I had written based on a photo prompt and just carry on with the story. Effectively I had written the first chapter by writing a short story that suggested there was more to be had. Again, so simple. So if you can't think how to get started on your novel, just think of the first chapter as a short story that you might want to continue beyond the punchline. Easy, peasy, yes?

Let's get started

You see a painting of a rural scene with shepherd boy taking a drink at a stream (Constable, The Cornfield) . What if the boy decides he wants something more from life? What does he want and how will he get it?

Think of the Mona Lisa and that enigmatic smile. Who was the subject of the painting? What does that smile hide. What can we tell the world about her life, how she came to be immortalized in that painting and what happened next? This is basically the story of Girl With a Pearl Earring, that sold two million copies in the first couple of years. Or so I understand it, as I have yet to read the book or see the movie.

What about a painting of a battle scene like this one?

In The Death of Major Pierson, the central figure is a black soldier fighting with an otherwise entirely white British army against the French in 1781. Who was he, and how did he come to be fighting for the British?

Tea anyone? I can think of nothing as undemanding as a simply designed set of tea pot with matching cups and saucers. Yet if you look at the

backstory behind this tea set displayed at Tate Britain in London, you will realise how much drama can be hidden behind so simple a set of artifacts. What drama could be hidden behind a painting of a simple domestic scene, portrait, an image of ladies taking tea?

Still need some inspiration?

Take a look at some of the suggestions I have made for artworks to inspire that nascent novel:

Inspired by art

Get started right now

Choose a painting or other art image

Look at the art

Write down a line inspired by what you see

If you have got this far, you only need to continue a narrative along the theme picked out in the first line. If it doesn't take you anywhere, start again! Nothing lost. Do it six or seven times and you are bound to have the genesis of chapter one of your new novel. You don't think so? Go take a walk, come back later, look again and you will see it. It's all there.

NaNoWriMo?

Forget it. Your new novel will be done by November

Happy writing!

Ray