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Tag: openings
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Nonfiction beginnings #003: Sarcasm to the ultimate!
In the following passage, watch how Mark Edmundson creates a long buildup, lulls us into what we expect to hear–and then snaps us out of it in an instant! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? by Mark Edmundson, in The Oxford American Welcome and congratulations: getting to the first day of college…
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Nonfiction openings #002: “The Good Short Life” by Dudley Clendinen
As you read the following introduction, keep in mind that it is NONFICTION: THE GOOD SHORT LIFE, by Dudley Clendinen, from The New York Times Sunday Review I have wonderful friends. In this last year, one took me to Istanbul. One gave me a box of handcrafted chocolates. Fifteen of them held two rousing, pre-posthumous…
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Nonfiction openings #001: “You Owe Me,” by Miah Arnold
I’ll begin this week’s look at nonfiction openings with a tear-jerker from Miah Arnold: YOU OWE ME, by Miah, Arnold, from Michigan Quarterly Review The children I write with die, no matter how much I love them, no matter how creative they are, no matter how many poems they have written or how much they…
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Horror week #003: Exaggerate in your writing to grab your readers!
Exaggeration (hyperbole and understatement) is a tool often used in horror fiction. Stating that things are the absolute worst (hyperbole) sends a clear message to the reader: this character doesn’t want to be here right now–and neither would YOU! Look at how Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie use it immediately…
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Horror writing #002: Miss you…!
If you want to create some mystery, right out of the gate, then have something missing that really ought to be there. Look at how horror writer Patricia Windsor manages that in The Blooding: They were found in the woods, curiously and awkwardly lying in the first leaves of autumn. The girl had fallen…
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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 #004: Help NOT wanted!
Have you ever been in a situation where you want to help someone, but they don’t want to be helped? Take a look at this opening by Jess Row in “The Call of Blood“: Mornings he finds Mrs. Kang upright in bed, peeling invisible ginger with an invisible knife. She watches her hands with…
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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.…