Sara Dailey Week #001: Starter from a title

          Welcome to Sara Dailey week! Over the next seven days, we’ll be learning technique and getting ideas from a single article of hers, “The Memory Train,” that was published in Creative Nonfiction magazine, the one edited by Lee Gutkind.

          First up is taking a look at that title: “The Memory Train.” Other people’s titles can be great prompts, especially if you DON’T read the writing that goes with them first. It’s a bit like our captions idea yesterday–if you don’t know what it’s about yet, there are more possibilities.

Try this:

          So what do you think of when you think of a memory train? Come up with several possibilities for what this article might be about. Come up with ideas for what it might be about if it was a poem, a western, a romance, a Hollywood blockbuster. Jot down your ideas and come back for part two tomorrow!

Coming tomorrow: Fancy Footwork: Creating character and pathos in the very first paragraph!