First Paragraph Contest

As a fan of hard-boiled detective fiction, it's the first genre I thought of when Curtis Brown literary agent Nathan Bransford announced "The 3rd Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge" earlier this week.

The task was simple: write a first paragraph. It's execution, however, illustrated why Bransford called it a paragraph challenge.

Amid a flurry of responses, I scribbled a paragraph and then edited it. I obsessively edited the poor thing over the course of two rather late nights (for me) before finally entering it today. Mine was the 2,363rd entry, and I don't harbor any illusions of winning -- that was never the point. The point was just to enter, a major victory in itself.

I'll post my entry after the contest closes this afternoon. It's not too late -- if you have a first paragraph ready, click on the links above and submit it.

UPDATE: Here is my entry:

After two punishing minutes of body blows and head shots, I didn't even feel the jab that finally broke my nose. Breathing was a chore and my left eye was swelling, so I focused on my legs instead. Hitting the canvas now would defeat the purpose of climbing in this ring. Everyone knows you don't get an audience with Angelo Bianchi if you can't earn some respect against his bodyguard, one of the city's best light-heavyweights. I took my beating.

My original paragraph was too long, so I edited it to the entry above. The material I cut from the end served to finish the thought of the paragraph, but I ultimately decided that it made for a better second paragraph. Here it is:

Spilled blood served as tithe and tribute--a universal currency in the neighborhood. Okay Angelo, I get it. But as the round neared its end, I also sent a message. My overconfident opponent dropped his left just enough, and I scored a right cross that sent him sprawling.

Should I have left it as one paragraph or is it better as two? Leave a comment below.