We talk a lot about our favorite stories: the pieces we are most proud of. But our favorite complete work doesn't always include our favorite line or turn of phrase. For me, writing is a constant battle to find that one phrase or line that people just don't forget. It sticks with you. Either because it rouses an emotion or thought inside you. Makes you smile or laugh no matter how many times you read it. Or just turns you on.
So I ask. What is your favorite line you've written in any of your stories. I'll even open this up for a particular stanza in a poem if poetry is more your thing.
While I'm here, why not give your favorite scene you've written as well.
Either one can be sex related or not sex related.
Just curious on a.. Microscopic level, how much you all enjoy a good bit of word play with your writing.
"Four score and twenty years ago..."
probably a line from an unpublished poem, Fuck Part 4.
I want to feel the earth shake while you're putting it into my shake and bake
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
That's hard to say but I'm crazy insane, so I kind of like this excerpt from my story "Bluelight Special" in the Humor section...
Sarge finally freed the snap on his buckle. His pants dropped to the ground and as he attempted to step out of them, he tripped. Suddenly sprawled out on the floor, the sergeant sat up. “Shit!”
“Are you okay, Sarge?” Despite being handcuffed, Doreen pulled herself up into a sitting position to check on the sergeant.
“Uh, why, yeah,” Sarge moaned, “I’m fine.”
He strained, stretched, groaned and barely reached his shoes to untie them. In his effort to get off the floor, the sergeant rolled over, his large boxer covered butt, poked upward. The material pulled so tight, forming a wide backside camel toe, that both Doreen and Bugs thought it might tear and snap. But Sarge somehow managed to get to his feet with his underwear all in one piece.
The sergeant stood there triumphantly in his boxers, tank style white undershirt, and black socks. His look of victory quickly turned to disbelief. Raising an eyebrow in astonishment, he stared at Bugs standing next to him, wearing only a leopard print Speedo bikini.
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Sarge.
“A banana hammock,” giggled Doreen.
Bugs rolled his eyes, gesturing with the open palms of his hands. “Women like these.”
Sarge with a silly grin cornered his eyes away and whispered under his breath, “Yeah, right.”
“Uh!” grunted Bugs.
“Okay,” said the sergeant, “you never mention me falling down and I won’t ever mention those, whatever those panties are you got on.”
“They ain’t panties, Sarge,” Bugs desperately explained. “These are a men’s underwear.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“Would you two quit arguing about that damned banana hammock. I wanna get some action!”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” said Sarge.
Simultaneously, Sarge and Bugs moved towards Doreen as she dropped back, spread eagle onto the bed. Colliding just in front of her spread legs, they both backed away and gave each other an annoyed look.
“Guys?” Doreen seemed a little perturbed.
“I’m going down on her first,” demanded Sarge.
Bugs shrugged in protest.
“I outrank you,” added the sergeant.
Bugs backed off enough for the sergeant to crawl on the bed between Doreen’s knees. Grabbing her by the thighs he winked at Doreen and grinned. “Besides, I got more experience at this.”
Doreen rolled her eyes.
Damn, that's a tough one. It would have to be one of my poetry stanzas I think.
We linger awhile upon the grass
Where chequered shadows of clouds doth pass,
Shrouding the sun and its warming rays reach
Before passing on to let the summer heat preach.
or
Two become one as each become whole.
An irresistible, desperate, aching urge
To consume a beauty of angel, stole
In the frenzied swell of tempest surge.
He slammed into her hard and fast, the slapping sound resonating around the room like applause.
From my Lesbian story Katy and the Canadian: "My thoughts were like quicksilver, tiny jewels that shattered into fleeting remnants and I realized…I desperately wanted her to touch me."
Not the greatest line of all time but I liked how it conveyed the emotion & direction of the story.
Autumn eased into October like a well-acquainted lover. (A throwaway line, yet unused.)
I didn't write it, but I just heard it on a record I was listening to.
"First house that I saw, I wrote 'house' up on the door, and told the people that lived there they had to get out because my reality is realer than yours."
I'm Writing a Novel - Father John Misty
Don't believe everything that you read.
"I knew a bi-sexual woman once. She told me it was better to give than to receive and after what she gave me, I was inclined to agree with her."
This is an unused line of dialogue which has been bouncing around my head for years. I remember chuckling to myself as I scribbled it down on a an old receipt, desperate to capture it before it was lost to the ether. Such a wonderful paradox. I just needed a character into whose mouth it would fit :-)