NAME: _____________________________________ CLASS: __________

starting a story/jayk/august2014

WRITING STORY THE FIRST LINE
1. Start with a place or a natural object
(e.g. a beach, a street, a house, a market, a tree, a rock)
2. Start with a smell, a flavour, a sound, a sensation
(e.g. the smell of fish in the wet market, the taste of anchovies, the sound of rain in the night,
the feel of wind in your face)
3. Start with the weather
(e.g. monsoon rain, the sun at noon, a cyclone)
4. Start with a time of day
(e.g. dawn, midday, early evening after school, supper time, midnight)
5. Start with an evocative object
(e.g. an old wallet, a banknote, a coin, a letter)
6. Start with a character, plus one significant detail
(e.g. a wet mouth, a nasal voice, a scar, a hat)
7. Start with an incident
(e.g. It was the day when we lost)
8. Start with a historical incident or disaster (an earthquake, a tsunami, a flood, a traffic accident,
the Emergency)
9. Start with a randomly-generated list of words to be linked in the story.
10. Start with a strong childhood memory
(e.g. the first day at school, a family dinner, Hari Raya in the village)

Choose one of the ideas above and write the first paragraph of a possible story based on this idea.