Okay, the prose may not be as bad as that of Mitch Albom, Claire Messud and other finalists for the Delete Key Awards handed out by One-Minute Book Reviews every year on March 15. But today’s New York Times reports on the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest for bad writing, run by the San Jose State University English department, which asks people to submit bad opening lines for novels in a vareity of categories. The contest honors Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose novel, Paul Clifford, begins, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Read a hilarious winner here www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/arts/15arts-BADWRITINGIN_BRF.html?ex=1219464000&en=9aeb5c4ccc96874a&ei=5070&emc=eta1. To read samples of the Delete Key Award winners’ bad writing, click on the Delete Key Awards tag at the top of this post.
© 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
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One-Minute Book Reviews 
Another hilarious winner. He probably tried to write “bad stuff.” The delete key finalists might have come up with more memorable work had they considered the well-known line: “When I’m good, I’m very very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.”
Malcolm
Comment by knightofswords — August 21, 2008 @ 12:05 pm |
Thanks, Malcolm. Wish copyright laws didn’t keep me from posting the Bulwer-Lytton winner here.
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — August 21, 2008 @ 8:02 pm |