WRITING EXERCISE #2

In following my previous Writing Exercise #1, I liked it so much, that I've decided to do as the exercise suggests and that is to begin each day with One First Sentence. So if you are confused by this exercise, please review my WE #1 on my personal blog for reference. See below the actual exercise from WE #1:

Yesterday's EXERCISE: Write ten of your own opening lines for ten different stories. When you read, look for opening lines that immediately pull the reader into the story. And if you keep a journal or notebook, consider starting a new section and adding one first sentence each day--for the rest of your life.OBJECTIVE: To get into the habit of beginning your stories in the middle of things. Because you are not obligated to finish these stories, this exercise lowers the emotional stakes and helps to shake up and surprise the imagination.

PART I. BEGINNINGS

Chapter 2) THE STORY'S HISTORY

(It might be helpful to think of the story as a straight line with the first sentence appearing somewhere beyond the start of the line--ideally near to the beginning of the straight line and catch the reader up on the situation--how and why X has gotten himself into such a pickle with character Y.)

EXERCISE: First, return to a favorite story and make a list of events that occurred before page one. Ask: How do these events affect the story after page one and move the story to resolution? Do this exercise with several stories and novels. Then look at a draft of one of your own stories. Take notes on your story's history. Does your story have a past? A history all its own? Is the current situation grounded in the history of the story? You might discover that your stories have a case of amnesia--a lack of history that makes the current situation thin or lacking in alternatives and tension.

OBJECTIVE: To understand how stories and novels--and the characters in those stories and novels--all have a history that affects their forward movement and resolution.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR: "This discovery of being bound to a particular society and a particular history, to particular sounds and a particular idiom, is for the writer the beginning of a recognition of himself as finite subject, limited, the beginning of a recognition that first puts his work in a real human perspective for him. It is a perspective which shows him his creaturehood."

My (daily) ONE FIRST SENTENCE (1FS) exercise:

Feeling the hot water embrace my face in the shower I erase all the sad thoughts draining my soul and let them go.

My WRITING EXERCISE #2: Ok so I haven't had a chance to look at any magazines or stories, but I did go see a movie with some girl friends on Saturday, we went and saw MAD MONEY movie. We loved it. Anyway, I noticed right away when the movie started right after the previews...that it started in the middle of the story! BINGO!! Here's my writing exercise! It was awesome because this writing exercise was fresh on my mind and here I am watching the beginning of a story starting in the middle! Way cool! It stood out for me and I'm going to continue to look for stories or articles that start this way.