Inspiration can strike at the most unexpected times. Today I woke up with a most peculiar thought. I’m not sure if it was a residual echo from a forgotten dream or simply the result of my atheist brain. Whatever the case, here’s the thought I couldn’t seem to shake:God no longer exists. I know this because I murdered Him.
You may disagree, but I think that sounds like a really juicy opening line to a novel. And given that the thought keeps pestering me, prodding and poking my brain like an attention starved child, I’ve decided to nurture it. Yes, I’m going to attempt to write a novel about murdering God. This may very well be a total waste of time; a self indulgent exercise by yet another aspiring novelist. However, there’s a chance – an infinitesimally slim chance, yes, but don’t stop me ‘cos I’m on a roll! - that it could be the best opener to a book since Tolkien scribbled the words “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”.
Tolkien, of course, had no idea what the sentence meant. He had never heard of “hobbits” and hadn’t the foggiest idea what a hobbit was. And yet it spawned the greatest mythology of all time. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, right?
So, here’s my opening paragraph. Let me know what you think:
God no longer exists. I know this because I murdered Him. And before you accuse me of plagiarising Friedrich ‘God is dead’ Nietzsche, let me make myself crystal clear: I stabbed God in the chest with a kitchen knife. I heard the last breath come wheezing from His punctured lung.
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