Tag: starters

Great openings from Best American Short Stories 2013 !

Jul 11, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, short stories, starters

I’m making my way through my copy of The Best American Short Stories 2013, and I wanted to share with you some of the best opening lines. Remember, an opening line can get YOU going on your own writing. The trick is NOT to read the complete story until AFTER you’ve written your own story.…
Zoom in for a great opening…like Jennifer Landels’ “Allaigna’s Song” !

Jul 1, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in starters

If you’re looking for a great way to start your next piece of writing, think Hollywood and ZOOM IN, like Jennifer Landels does in her serialized novel, Allaigna’s Song. Take a look at the opening from the first excerpt published in Pulp Literature: If you walk down the grand staircase of Castle Osthegn, you will…
Make your opening paragraph Google-worthy!

May 28, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, starters, writing technique

Strange title for today’s post, I know. I’ll let you know in a minute or two what I mean by it, but in the meantime, read this short passage from “Man Changing into Thunderbird,” by Armand Garnet Ruffo(published in the summer 2013 edition of The Malahat Review): The room is cramped with people. an…
LIST OPENINGS…how they can help your fiction and nonfiction

May 27, 2014

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, power punch, starters, writing technique

There is a power to momentum that is undeniable and unstoppable. Many writers have learned to benefit from the energy of a LIST early in a piece of creative fiction or nonfiction. Let me SHOW you what I mean . . . Here’s a beginning paragraph from Gordon Grice’s “The Black Widow” in High…
STARTERS : Great opening lines from 2013 BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS

Nov 19, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in nonfiction, starters

I picked up a copy of the 2013 BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, edited by Cheryl Strayed. Here are a few of the best opening lines: On Thanksgiving my father asked me if I wanted to visit the Nazi. –“Keeper of the Flame,” by Matthew Vollmer The first time I heard her I didn’t hear her at…
4 Days to SIWC… 4 Writing Prompts from the 4 A.M. Breakthrough

Oct 22, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in starters

4 Prompts from one of my favorite prompt books, The 4 A.M. Breakthrough, by Brian Kiteley 1. Write about a shopping list, as if this shopping list had much more meaning than it could possibly hold. Imagine this list found hundreds of years later and analyzed for hidden meaning (or perhaps without understanding of its…
Nonfiction beginnings #003: Sarcasm to the ultimate!

Aug 9, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, power punch, short stories, writing technique

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…
Nonfiction openings #002: “The Good Short Life” by Dudley Clendinen

Aug 7, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fancy footwork, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, writing technique

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…
July 31st post comes early: A Starter for You from Rachael Frey

Jul 31, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, novels, short stories, starters

Ok, I’m getting ready to embark on a 17-HOUR flight to Singapore, so tomorrow’s post is coming, well…tonight. As in just before I leave. As in now. It’ll be short and sweet (maybe not so sweet, but short) because of that, too. Here’s the beginning line to Rachael Frey’s “The Lost Twice Legend,”…
Sara Dailey Week #001: Starter from a title

Jun 24, 2013

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by

Ace Baker

in fiction, nonfiction, novels, poetry, short stories, starters, writing technique

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…