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Just found out that most famous opening lines were rewritten 20+ times before publication

I was reading a breakdown of classic novel openings and discovered that *A Tale of Two Cities*'s famous first line went through 37 drafts before Dickens settled on it (found it on a literary history blog). Anyone else find it reassuring that even the greats had to grind through bad versions to get to the good stuff?
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blair_webb
Doubt @clark.alex took 30 tries just to say they exist, right?
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taylorc40
taylorc407d agoMost Upvoted
Is it really that hard to write a bio though? I mean, I just put "I drive around and complain about traffic" and called it a day. Maybe I'm missing something.
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clark.alex
Took me like 30 tries to nail my own bio, totally get it.
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