Assignment 5

Final First Lines

You are done with your short story, right? Wrong.
You have the greatest hook, right? Maybe....
Today you are going to revisit the very beginning of your short story, which in a lot of ways is the most important part. If you were to submit a short story to a magazine for publishing and your opening lines were vapid, uninteresting, bland, boring, etc. there is a good chance it would not be read beyond those lines.

Your task: PART ONE
Write FIVE new openings for your story. Each opening should be between two-five sentences.

*Somewhere in your list include your ORIGINAL opener- the one you have right now.


If you are stuck for ideas, consider starting with the following:


1. Action. A clear event with lively verbs. You could come up with a couple of different openings using action. Be sure there is a potential conflict introduced.
Example: "There was no music. Most of the hamlet had burned down, including her house, which was now smoke, and the girl danced with her eyes half closed, her feet were bare." ("Style" By Tim O'Brien)
2. Dialogue. Start with a conversation between two characters or statement made by one character. This should follow the dialogue guidelines we talked about, and it should be revealing of a potential conflict in the piece.
3. Character description. This could be physical or personality. Be sure to reveal something about a potential conflict.
Example: "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut...." ("The Man I Killed" by Tim O'Brien)
4. Setting description. If you start with setting, it should be important to the plot or overall theme. Again, it should reveal conflict.

PART TWO

Visit the blogs of SIX other classmates. You can start with your group members' blogs, but also visit one or two blogs that belong to people you don't necessarily interact with often.

Read through their openings and leave a comment in which you state what opener you think is best. Explain your preference.