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Tag: mystery
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Opening paragraphs #005: SUPER CHALLENGE!
Let’s do a quick review of our look at beginnings in the past four days: Day one: sharp contrast: tough, tough soft Day two: a bit of mystery Day three: 3-line description that ends with a powerful short line Day four: help NOT wanted; hesitation at interaction And now, on day five, we’re…
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Opening paragraphs #002: Add a bit of mystery!
Let’s jump right into today’s opening paragraph by taking a look at the start of Allegra Goodman’s “La Vita Nuova”: The day her fiance left, Amanda went walking in the Colonial cemetery off Garden Street. The gravestones were so worn that she could hardly read them. They were melting away into the weedy grass.…
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Neil Gaiman #003: The DOUBLE DELAY
Today, we’ll look at a very powerful technique Neil Gaiman makes use of in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s one I call the DOUBLE DELAY. Now, even kids know what a cliff-hanger is if they’ve ever read a Hardy Boys or Goosebumps book. The idea that you end a chapter…
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Speed bag drill #002: Mysterious deaths
So speed bags work this way: Once you finish reading the prompt, you start moving your pen on paper or you flash those fingers across your keyboard, and you keep going for at least five minutes. Today’s speed drill comes from “Findings,” in the June 2013 edition of Harper’s: Experts were unable to explain the…
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Starter: A mystery with two solutions
Today we’ll begin with a paragraph starter–the opening to Rebecca Solnit’s nonfiction article, “The Separating Sickness.” First, read the excerpt: Eddie Bacon was a forklift operator at Trident Seafoods in Akutan, Alaska. In the summer of 1999, he developed mysterious rashes on his hands, arms, and legs. He visited a doctor, who gave him a…