The day after my eighth birthday, my father told me ...

Louise Doughty inaugurates a new column: "A novel in a year," with instructions to write complete the above line.

"Every time I am about to start a novel," says Susan Hill, "I look at it, and it is like a mountain and I say to myself, oh no, this time you have gone too far." If you simply sit back and think about the prospect of writing a book it will seem a vast and unconquerable task.

The way to make it less so is break it down into its constituent parts, which is what we will be doing over the next twelve months. "The art of writing," Kingsley Amis said, "is the art of applying the seat of one's trousers to the seat of one's chair."

I'm game: The day after my eighth birthday, my father told me "You're not gonna be able to capitalize on this cute thing for much longer. Better learn a trade."

How would you complete the sentence? More here.

Via Kitty.