Monday, October 18, 2010

First Line Exercise

Write 10 different first lines. This is an exercise. Try using the Beginning a Short Story post below to come up with different ways to enter a story.

Try to write these lines fairly quickly. We will take 10 minutes to do that. That's one minute per opening line. If you finish early, feel free to write another 10 or another 10 or another 10. Write as many first lines as you can in 10 minutes. DO NOT CONTINUE THE STORY. Just grab your reader's attention. Ready, set, go!

After this exercise, we will watch the basic elements of Fiction. Please take notes as you watch the video. This is participation credit. Please hand in after watching.

After watching, we will continue with our next fiction exercise.

HOMEWORK: Please read the short stories: The Gambler, Nun, & the Radio, Fathers and Sons, and In Another Country. To turn in: identify the TYPE of short story you think best describes the story & what technique does Hemingway use to OPEN his story. See blog posts for notes.

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About this course!

This course stresses understanding the characteristics & techniques in the literary genres of fiction, poetry, and dramatic writing. This course will continue to build on students’ reading and writing skills begun in previous creative writing classes. Readings and discussions of works by major writers in the field will be examined as inspiration and models of fine writing. This educational blog is designed for the use of the students at the School of the Arts in Rochester, NY.