In his Fictional International essay "To Begin, To Begin," Clark Blaise writes: "The most interesting thing about a story is not its climax or denouement--- both dated terms--- nor even its style or characterization. It is its beginning, its first paragraph, often its first sentence.... the story seeks its beginning, the story many times is its beginning, amplified."
Opening a piece with "At least" is-- so the words would
suggest-- is to open in medias res, that is, in the middle
of the action. For example:
At least she had a desk. Or:
At least the cake was white. Or:
At least they approved of the groom's gerbil.
etc.
How many opening sentences, all beginning with "At least" can you come up with in five minutes?
Source: http://www.cmmayo.com/d5mwearchives.april.html
If you'd like to share some exercises or prompts of your own, feel free to comment on this post. Or if you write something in response to this exercise and want to share it, comment or send me a link. I would, of course, love to see what you wrote. But you're not obligated to share. In other words, do whatever you want with this. I just hope it proves useful for someone. If you'd like to see the previous exercises I've posted, just click on the tag below. Happy writing!
Opening a piece with "At least" is-- so the words would
suggest-- is to open in medias res, that is, in the middle
of the action. For example:
At least she had a desk. Or:
At least the cake was white. Or:
At least they approved of the groom's gerbil.
etc.
How many opening sentences, all beginning with "At least" can you come up with in five minutes?
Source: http://www.cmmayo.com/d5mwearchives.april.html
If you'd like to share some exercises or prompts of your own, feel free to comment on this post. Or if you write something in response to this exercise and want to share it, comment or send me a link. I would, of course, love to see what you wrote. But you're not obligated to share. In other words, do whatever you want with this. I just hope it proves useful for someone. If you'd like to see the previous exercises I've posted, just click on the tag below. Happy writing!
At least Hodgins had found his scorpion; wait, what the hell was that?
At least she’d remembered to put on her good underwear that morning.
At least he’d made it to first base.
At least he still had one bullet left.
At least it was late, so there weren’t too many squints left to witness his humiliation.
At least she hadn’t tried to kick his ass--much.
At least she still had her bones.
Edited at 2008-03-04 09:39 pm (UTC)
At least she didn't have to explain herself this time; one look at her face and she knew Angela would understand.
At least two full minutes had passed before she worked up the courage to look Booth in the eye.
At least she knew she'd been right all along; she could take comfort in that if nothing else.
And... my time's up. Not sure how well any of these would work as the start of something, but I quite like the idea of launching in to something in the middle of the action... *goes off to ponder some more*
I really needed that. Got a case of writer's cramp (don't like to call it block exactly) tonight.
*hugs*
BTW, if you click on the tag for this entry, you'll see a couple older posts that also contain various exercises/prompts. Maybe they'll shake something loose.
Edited at 2008-03-04 10:32 pm (UTC)
And for the wise words.
x
At least the room had stopped spinning for the time being; granted, it wouldn't last long, but he was determined to be grateful for small miracles.
At least he'd made it to the right delivery room.
At least Caroline had said the kidnapping charges wouldn't stick; how was he to know that his neighbor had called the cops after his partner had been a tad vocal during handcuff-oriented foreplay?
Thanks for the challenge!
*goes back to do proper writing*
: D
Re: : D
I watched most of the first season of Heroes when it aired, but then my DH and I moved, were without cable for a week or two, and just never got caught up. So I know Elle is the Kristen Bell character, but that's about it.
At least he stopped laughing long enough to suck in a few gasps of air before starting up again.
At least the puppy was happy to see her.
At least there was one other person in the world that could understand how she felt that day.
At least he was alive.
(which, of course, leads to...)
At least he was dead.
At least Goodman knew when he could push Brennan to act, or just stand back and wait. Bancroft, on the other hand, didn't know Brennan at all.
At least, Cam told herself, she and Booth would always feel a sense of connection.
At least Hodgins and Angela were able to talk about Hodgins' experience having been buried alive. Brennan, for her part, never discussed the issue with Booth until it was almost too late.
At least Zach was able to ask Naomi in Paleontology to partner with him for Halloween. It was getting her to partner with him afterwards.
How'd I do? Okay, yes? Yes? [is anxious...]
How'd I do? Okay, yes? Yes? [is anxious...]
*hugs you* You did great. Don't be anxious. This isn't a test. It's just play. :)
Edited at 2008-03-05 09:37 pm (UTC)
At least they hadn't found her haven; at least she could go there to forget about everything.
At least they had each other.
At least Parker could have one more ride on the carousel.
At least the flashlight still worked...
and I'm done. Ehh, I usually tweak and change all of my writing (perfectionist? maybe) so I'm really trying to restrain myself from changing these. :/
At least no one knew that she was crying. She smiled bitterly to herself, leave it to her to think of that as the silver lining. She had tried her best to be nonchalant about it telling the rest of the team she didn't do gifts and acting as though it didn't really matter to her. She even argued with Booth over the actual meaning of Christmas, but the truth was as she watched her team visit with their families she died a little more inside. Even Hodgins had someone to come see him But No one was coming for her, not her parents, not Russ, not anyone. She was completely alone and although she always knew that, being stuck here in the lab with her team and Booth for Christmas, made her realize more then ever how true it was.
At least she still had her hands.
At least she couldn't read his thoughts right now - or he didn't think so, anyway.
At least there were no interruptions this time.
Say, that was fun! :o)
At least he hadn't gotten himself shot again.
At least Angela wasn't around to see it, she doubted her hangover could handle the squealing.
At least this time there was no mistletoe involved.
At least she had her toothbrush.
At least they'd gotten through their latest encounter with the gravedigger without ending up buried alive again.
sga sentences
At least they could always use the aliens as an excuse.
At least they'd finally been able to find a piece of technology that wouldn't endanger anyone.
At least nothing had blown up in the past hour.
"As I was packaging what remained of the dead baby, the man I would kill was burning pavement north to Charlotte."
now hows THAT for attention getting??