Exercise #1

Beginning a Story  (from What If?)

The biggest stumbling block to beginning a story is that new writers think they have to know where their story is going and how it will end--before they begin.  Not true.  Flannery O'Connor says, "If you start with a real character, a real personality, then something is bound to happen.  And you don't have to know what before you begin.  In fact, it may be better if you don't know before you begin.  You ought to be able to to discover something in your stories.  If you don't, then probably nobody else will."

Stories should start in medias res, in the middle of things.  Resist the temptation to give the reader a lengthy explanation of all they need to know to understand what they're about to read.  Short stories are short for a reason.  They're not epics.  Think of made-for-TV movies.  If you come into a made-for-TV movie 20 minutes late, you're right where you want to be-finally something has started to happen. 

Angus Wilson says, "Plays and short stories are similar in that both start when all but the action is finished."

Look at the beginning lines of these short stories:

From Brady Udall's "The Wig":

"My eight-year old son found a wig in the garbage dumpster this morning.  I walked into the kitchen, highly irritated that I couldn't make a respectable knot in my green paisley tie, and there he was at the table, eating cereal and reading the funnies, the wig pulled tightly over his hair like a football helmet."

From Richard Ford's "Rock Springs"

"Edna and I had started down from Kalispell, headed for Tampa-St. Pete where I still had some friends form the old glory days who wouldn't turn me in to the police."

From "Brownies" by Z Z Packer:

"By the end of our first day at Camp Crescendo, the girls in my brownie troop had decided to kick the asses of each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909."

From "The Use of Force by William Carlos Williams:

"They were new patients to me, all I had was the name, Olson.  Please come down as soon as you can, my daughter is very sick."

The Assignment:

(1) Write ten of your own opening lines (one or two sentences) for ten different stories.  Try for opening lines that pull the reader right into the story by creating some kind of tension or conflict.  John Updike says, "I try to instantly set in motion a certain forward tilt of suspense or curiosity, and at the end of the story, rectify the tilt, to complete the motion."

Because you're not obligated to finish any of these stories, this exercise lowers the stakes and helps shake up and surprise the imagination. 

(2)  Pick one of these lines that you like, and sentence-by-sentence, write the first two paragraphs of a story.  (If you're not crazy with what you come up with, pick a different opening and try to write the first two paragraphs of that one.)  Turn in the one you're either (a) the most pleased with, or (b) the least displeased with. 

This exercise is designed to help you understand how stories evolve "organically," and not from some pre-determined method or recipe.   And not by some grand outline.  Don't worry about middles or endings. 

Bring Two copies, typed.

Have Fun.  Good luck.