Today I was inspired by Natalie Whipple over at Between Fact and Fiction to write a new paragraph to start my first chapter. My intro starts with dialogue and I never really liked that. Plus that meant I couldn't really enter Nathan's contest!
So here's my new intro. Natalie made a great point that the first paragraph should kind of encapsulate the whole novel.
Eureka!
The paragraph kind of wrote itself (during my conference period when I'm supposed to be making copies). It's really rough and needs fluffing, but here it is for comments.
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If only she were a boy. A boy wouldn't need to climb a tree to escape Thutmosis and his stupid slingshot. A boy could pummel her brother and break that slingshot over his obnoxious little face and still get away with it. If only.