Wretched Writing Contest

In the fashion of the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest, DHCLS is hosting a Wretched Writing Contest. The infamous first line "It was a dark and stormy night..." from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Paul Clifford is known as the most cliched and unimportant opening line in literature and has inspired many authors to write as poorly as they can in the spirit of fun!

To enter our contest, write a wretched opening line to a novel and submit it with your contact information to email address contests@dhcls.org by August 31st! For inspiration or further explanation of the contest visit www.bulwer-lytton.com.  Entries will be judged by our Friends of the Library! Small prizes will be awarded to our winners!

Rules

The rules for the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest Wretched Writing Contest are childishly simple:

• Each entry must consist of a single sentence but you may submit up to 5 entries.
• Sentences may be of any length but we strongly recommend that entries not go beyond 50 or 60 words. Entries must be “original” (as it were) and previously unpublished.
• Entries may be judged by categories, from “general” to detective, western, science fiction, romance, and so on. There will be overall winners as well as category winners.
• The official deadline is August 31st. No entries will be accepted after start of workday Tuesday, September 3rd
• The winners will receive a small prize and bragging rights!
• Finally, a tip: resist the temptation to work some variation of "it was a dark and stormy night."
• For more information please visit www.bulwer-lytton.com or just go laugh at their entries!

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford