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Q&A How do you connect a non sequitur hook to a novel?

Start a notebook. Jot down ideas like that, let them ruminate and meet up with your other ideas and have idea babies, and then when you're stuck for inspiration, read through the notebook. Or, ...

posted 13y ago by Kate S.‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:07:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4726
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Kate S.‭ · 2019-12-08T02:07:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Start a notebook. Jot down ideas like that, let them ruminate and meet up with your other ideas and have idea babies, and then when you're stuck for inspiration, read through the notebook.

Or, yeah, if you have a story that goes with your line, you could use the line as an opening. But that means that you're more or less stuck with that ironic, detached voice for the rest of the piece, and I think that would be really hard to pull off. I'd love to read it if it were done well, but it would take a strong stylist to pull it off, and I get the feeling that you're pretty new to the game.

You could also try to have one of the characters use the line as dialogue. A joke told at the start of the story that becomes more and more meaningful as the events of the tale unfold. If you felt the need, you could have it bookended with a repetition of the joke at the end - perhaps through the bloody teeth of a character dying because he, too, was a naked pineapple. Or whatever. Again, pretty challenging, but brilliant if it worked. I'm thinking Tarrantino-esque.

Good luck with it, and have fun!

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2011-12-31T13:29:54Z (almost 13 years ago)
Original score: 3