Opening paragraphs #001: Strength AND vulnerability, at the same time!

          For today’s starting paragraph, I decided to go with one that packs quite a punch. First, read how Megan Mayhew Bergman begins “Housewifely Arts”:

I am my own housewife, my own breadwinner. I make lunches and change light bulbs. I kiss bruises and kill copperheads from the backyard creek with a steel hoe. I change sheets and the oil in my car. I can make a pie crust and exterminate humpback crickets in the crawlspace with a homemade glue board, though not at the same time. I like to compliment myself on these things, because there’s no one else around to do it.

          Notice the pattern of the sentences here: STRONG, STRONG, STRONG, STRONG, STRONG, vulnerable. That last sentence shows readers that even though this woman tries to be strong, she has no one to share her life with. We end up admiring her strength AND rooting for her as the underdog? It takes a very talented writer to make that happen in a single paragraph… so here’s what I’d like YOU to do…

Try this:

Change the age. Make it a precocious child instead of an adult on her own. Give us the strength and the vulnerability. Make it the beginning of a chapter book–a prologue paragraph that will act like an introduction to the star of your series.

Coming tomorrow: Opening with a bit of mystery…Allegra Goodman!

Extra reading assignment if you want it: Here’s a blast for the past in a similar style to today’s post. It’s a classic, that’s quite in-your-face for when it was published: 1972! Judy Syfer’s (Brady’s) “Why I Want a Wife.”

Update: Quick e-mail received from Megan Mayhew Bergman:

An honor!  Thank you so much for featuring my work.

My sincere gratitude!

MMB