exercise

1. Jamie Flathers English 101.50 and 56, Fall 2019 Page 1 of 2
Choose Your Beginning: An Exercise in Narrowing Topics
Choose one of these methods and start writing a beginning for your first topic. How does it feel?
If it doesn’t feel good—that is, if you’re laboring and don’t know where to go—pick another
method and another topic. Keep going until you find a method and a topic that seem to fit well
together.
1.
Start in scene. Many writers will try to start their stories in a scene, usually a scene that feels
important and engaging. Starting in scene will hook the reader right away and ground them in the
story.
You should choose a scene that is essential to the main character and shows them in action,
doing something that will have consequences later or sets up the plot. For example, rather than
start with, “I think the day will be the same as usual,” you may start with, “I wake up from a bad
dream and realize that today will not be like any other day.”
Feel free to play around with verb tense here. Try both the present and the past tense and see
which seems to fit the narrative better.
2.
Establish the setting. This type of beginning is useful if the setting of your story is essential and
you want to establish a certain mood. See if you can focus on one detail that will be striking or
interesting to the reader.
For example, in the short story “Oceanic” by Greg Egan, the first lines focus on establishing the
setting of being in a boat in the ocean: "The swell was gently lifting and lowering the boat. My
breathing grew slower, falling into step with the creaking of the hull, until I could no longer tell
the difference between the faint rhythmic motion of the cabin and the sensation of filling and
emptying my lungs." Egan uses specific, sensory detail to give the reader a sense of sitting in the
cabin of a boat and starts his story in a particular moment in time.
Keep in mind you can also do scene setting later in the essay if it turns out that starting with the
setting doesn’t work.
3.
Introduce your narrator or main character. Another option is to start with a strong narrative
voice or a strong description of your main character. This might be you, since it’s a personal
narrative, or it might also be someone you know—I’m working on an essay right now whose
first scene features my older sister crying on the side of the Rim of the World Highway. You can
present your narrative voice so the reader knows what to expect for the rest of the story.
Though J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is a novel, not an essay, it has an opening line
that establishes the narrative voice right away: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing
you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and

2. Jamie Flathers English 101.50 and 56, Fall 2019 Page 2 of 2
how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind
of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
The narrator sounds sour and rough but he also draws you in with his frustrated view of the
world and his disdain for traditional narratives. The narrator has a distinct perspective that gives
the reader a good sense of what the rest of the story will sound like.
4.
Open with a line of strong dialogue. Starting your essay with a strong line of dialogue can be
effective, but the dialogue should be easy to follow and to the point. As a general rule, dialogue
in an essay should always be doing more than one thing and never be there just for the sake of
conversation. Good dialogue will reveal character and progress the story’s key events or plot.
Essays can start with one line of dialogue and then zoom out to tell the reader who is speaking or
where the speaker is situated within a scene.
For example, in Amy Hempel’s short story “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Was Buried,” the
story begins with a striking line of dialogue: "Tell me things I won't mind forgetting," she said.
"Make it useless stuff or skip it.” The reader is drawn into the story right away by the funny,
strange dialogue and the presence of a “she.”
5.
Present a minor conflict or mystery. A good opening sentence should raise questions in the
reader’s mind, spotlighting a minor conflict or a mystery. This could be something as simple as a
character considering a recent event or a more complex mystery, such as an unsolved murder or
crime. Avoid presenting a mystery that is too big or confusing for the reader right away. Let the
first line hint at a larger mystery and ease the reader into the conflict.
For example, the opening line for Shirley Jackson’s short story “Elizabeth” raises several
questions: “Just before the alarm went off, she was lying in a hot sunny garden, with green lawns
around her and stretching as far as she could see.” The reader wonders why the main character is
dreaming about a hot sunny garden, what she is waking up for, and what the dream will mean
later to the character. This is a minor conflict, but it can be an effective way to ease the reader
into the larger themes or ideas in the story.