The Best Advice From a Teacher

"Take your opening sentence and do the opposite with it."

From Mark Cugini (at The Writer's Center), who heard it from his teacher, who probably heard it from his teacher

Do you find comfort in starting story after story in the same way?
How does it begin...

• vague and leaving your options wide open
• drop the plot on the reader's lap asap
• describe, describe, describe the scenery to set the tone
• channel the character's feelings
• cheeky and playful
• dare to use dialogue
• Call me Ishmael.
• toy with reality so the reader is in disbelief

Here's one of my latest ones (rough stage that I gasp dare to share at the risk of exposing myself by sharing the very first draft)...

I watch my hands digging past the computer parts, the tarnished jewelry, even the occasional coin. My hands are like mechanical steel blades, mining this landfill, as I search for an unopened can of food and anything at all that can protect us from the sun flares. On good days, I come away with a decent jacket, maybe even a broken umbrella, but every day is a bad day if I don't find any food.

Now, according to Mark, I must take that opening and do something new with it. Rewrite it so it does start with dialogue. Attempt to be cheeky, playful, humorous with the situation. Paint the scene in layers like Hemingway would have done. Have the character introduce herself. "My name is Becca and I smell like..." First, I'd have to stand in or on a landfill to determine what she really would smell like, and then I'll let you know.

So try it out with your opening. Who knows, maybe you will stumble upon a new way to open your stories. Maybe you'll even change the way your current story begins.