Thread: One sentence prompts an entire chapter?

It always amazed me how the TV Guide could boil down an entire 2 hour movie to two or three sentences. But, sometime one sentence can say a lot. My wife and I were discussing the main character in my first novel. She thought about his character and said, "He needs to be a rugged looking man, handsome, but not in a finely chiseled way. A man's man."

I said, "Yes, he needs a scar on his face, but other than that be a ruggedly handsome looking man. a masculine looking man."

This simple conversation of one or two sentences led to the entire first chapter, "The Night of the Jaguar" in which his uncle tests his skill against a jaguar that has marked their pasture as it's feeding ground. The jaguar almost kills him, leaving a wicked looking scar from the corner of his right eye to his chin. The scar later comes into play in the second chapter also as he faces his first actual challenge with a sword.

Later in the book, a pet monkey who constantly steal their things is followed to his hiding place, a cave. The very darkness of the cave led to another chapter where they learn to sail their ship and fire their cannons in total darkness using stealth.

The rainy season in the Yucatan led me to a chapter, when I did a word count, it was over 10,000 words and had to be cut into two chapters.

Does one sentence ever lead to a chapter or two for you?

lol, often I just scribble down a sentence that comes to mind all on its own and then when i get back to it, the line turns into a story.

I think this all came from years of writing flash with prompts, but often ideas for stories begin with a single thought.

I'll do you one better: I've written an entire novel from one sentence.

Originally Posted by Sam W

I'll do you one better: I've written an entire novel from one sentence.

Exactly, my first novel started with one sentence. "A simple, honest man is accused of piracy, his father is killed and he swears revenge."

Boiling down stories to one sentence is as useful as it is difficult for me. I find it incredibly hard to do, but doing it tells me things about the story--Mainly what the core problem is.

Titles seem to put whole stories/novels/poems into a few words or even one at times.

I think the ability to sum up something in as few words as possible is an extremely useful skill - I often find myself rambling on about something that should really take a lot less time to write about...

Having said that, though, in my limited experience the best inspiration comes from the smallest things -one sentence, one image, whatever that may be

Sit and listen to ten or 12 hours of budget debate in Parliament, then prepare your story for the next morning's early newscast. Don't leave out anything important, be sure you include capsule summaries of the final remarks by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, touch on all major points of view from both sides of the aisle, and do it all in a five-minute report.

That might be good fiction-writing practise. Of course, you have a head start, considering that most budgets presented by Governments are works of fiction to start with.