My favorite book begins with the following line:

"I saw Byzantium in a dream, and knew that I would die there." - Steven Lawhead, Byzantium

Now, I’m not Steven Lawhead, though I did write him once and get a personal letter back which was kinda cool.  But the intriguing part about the one opening sentence is that it lays out the entire plot line in the opening sentence. 

It gripped me and made me want to read more. 

So as I’ve been trying to come up with my plot line, how would I summarize it all in one sentence that makes me want to read the whole book?

Writing a book is essentially journaling from someone else’s perspective.  It has a lot in common with blogging ‘cept for the dialogue bit.

So I had a conversation with myself.

"What do you want your book to be?" I looked at my reflection in the LCD screen.

"I want it to be a fantasy story that revolves around an unlikely hero ultimately growing into who he is… like The Hobbit or something."

"um… The Hobbit has already been written…"

"yeah, I know, but I needed an analogy.  I am intrigued by the use of some kind of magical item like rings or keys to make the story spring to life.  In the "The Magicians Nephew", Lewis uses a set of rings to tell the story of the creation of Narnia encompassing such amazing places as Charn (I think it was) and the Wood between the Worlds."

"okay, I understand… but aren’t you better off just starting to write and see what comes out?"

I looked at myself with a quizzical expression and decided that I didn’t like myself very much at this point. 

"I don’t understand"

"Just write." the LCD screen quivered as I kicked the table shifting nervously under it’s gaze.

"Shouldn’t I have some kind of outline?"

"You can if you want, but it’s up to you."

For a moment my focus changed and I saw the blinking curser at the top of a long blank page.

"um… there goes the battery…. have to go find another coffeehouse where I can plug in before I can write."

"Liar!  You are just stalling."

Suddenly, I was very uncomfortable.  People were staring.  This guy was absolutely nuts.  He’s talking to his laptop. 

Quietly, I threw away my trash, shut the screen down, and gathered my things.  The next coffee shop was about 9 miles away..

"I’ll talk to you when we get in the car, now shut up"

"Stupid waste of a rearview mirror" I muttered at myself.