*puts on writer hat* *puts out an APB for Muse*

[icepixie]

Unlike many writers--if the massive amount of story prompt (often with an opening sentence) books/websites/what-have-yous out there are to be believed--I have no trouble getting a piece started. I have approximately eight billion files with just a few opening sentences in them. My problem is going somewhere with that opening bit. (This actually ties into a post/poll I plan to make soon, covering some, but not all, of the same ground as this poll and discussion from last summer.)

So for this one, I turn to you, gentle flist. I have the following passage. Tell me what to do with it.


The bit of snow that fell last night dusted the surface of the world: dark-shingled roofs, the tips of still-green blades of grass, the jagged remnants of cornstalks which had been threshed three weeks ago. The cold hit us with the bitterness that only the first snow of winter can have; the cruel unexpectedness of it after eight months without burned in our lungs. Even the sun seemed frozen in the sky that afternoon, none of the heat that had been so oppressive in the summer reaching us now.

Jim and I sat on the old trestle bridge, our legs hanging off the edge, watching the sluggish progress of the Bird River twenty feet below. In another month, there would be days and weeks where it would freeze solid.


Who are these people? Why are they sitting on a bridge (one very familiar to certain people, I'm sure ;)) in November, freezing their butts off? I honestly have no idea, and I have no clue where to go with it. I think this is why I usually stick to writing poetry.

(Incidentally, this is an excellent example of what I'm talking about in the post linked above, about how setting usually shows up first in the writing process for me.)

Comments

[alto2.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely start! You should definitely continue with it, even if you don't feel like you know where it's going. Sometimes, the only way to find out (and the only way to get the neurons firing so that things will start to come together) is just to keep going and see what happens next, even if it's only a few paragraphs at a time. They'll tell you who they are, and they'll tell you their story, if you let them :)

[icepixie]

Thanks. :)

Yeah, sometimes they talk by themselves (or, as I certainly learned in fiction classes, sometimes you make them talk ;)), but...these aren't. And I'm getting to the stage where blood is starting to come out my forehead when I stare at the computer screen. *g* Just kind of looking for a kickstart here, to see if it takes me anywhere interesting.

Eh, I'll poke at it some more. I really like the bridge and cornfields in winter, and I sort of don't want to sully them with characters, actually. *g* Hmmm...

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I sort of don't want to sully them with characters, actually.


Hee! You haven't seen "Paradise Towers" lately, have you? (Seventh Doctor and Mel) Your comment reminds me of it, a bit :)

[icepixie]

Noooo...is there a particular reason? :)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Of course--but if I tell you, it'll ruin that particular story for you, and since it's one of the better Seven stories, that'd be a pity :)

[icepixie]

To be honest, I was actually planning to avoid all stories involving Mel...

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Well, that's understandable, though you won't quite understand why everyone hates her SO much ;) And seriously, PT is a great story, if a bit more campily executed than it deserved. Richard Briers is in it, along with one of the sisters from Keeping Up Appearances, for whatever that does for you.

[icepixie]

though you won't quite understand why everyone hates her SO much ;)

Something about carrot juice and screaming? I think I could live without that in my life...

Richard Briers is in it, along with one of the sisters from Keeping Up Appearances, for whatever that does for you.

Well, if I knew them at all... ;) DW is only the second British series I've ever gotten into, the first being The Avengers</i. (particularly the Diana Rigg years). And a certain amount of Monty Python and Wallace & Gromit, I suppose, which mostly count.

[icepixie]

Apparently half that comment got lost. Recreated:

DW is only the second British series I've ever gotten into, the first being The Avengers(particularly the Diana Rigg years). And a certain amount of Monty Python and Wallace & Gromit, I suppose, which mostly count.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I got the whole thing via email :)

Something about carrot juice and screaming? I think I could live without that in my life...

Knowing that Mel screams is not at all the same as having experienced it yourself. Trust me on this. Failing to witness it leaves a gap in your DW literacy that cannot be filled by reading/hearing about it. :)

Well, if I knew them at all... ;)

If you haven't seen Richard Briers (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0001972/) somewhere, I will honestly faint. He's done quite a lot of stuff, and not all on British telly. If you've seen, for instance, Ken Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing or Henry V, you've seen him.

[icepixie]

Failing to witness it leaves a gap in your DW literacy that cannot be filled by reading/hearing about it. :)

And yet there are some gaps in my knowledge I'm really okay with having... *g*

Richard Briers: I have seen part of Henry V (back in high school), but all I remember about it is the St. Crispin's Day speech. Haven't seen anything else with this guy in it.

I'm hopelessly film-illiterate, I know.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

there are some gaps in my knowledge I'm really okay with having... *g*

Ah well. You'll never truly be able to participate in a good round of Mel-bashing, which is the reward for having suffered through her in the first place, but...suit yourself :)

Haven't seen anything else with this guy in it.

I...I am just gobsmacked. How is that possible?? Go thou and get both films--they're fabulous!

[icepixie]

You'll never truly be able to participate in a good round of Mel-bashing, which is the reward for having suffered through her in the first place, but...suit yourself :)

Sounds okay to me! *g*

I...I am just gobsmacked. How is that possible?? Go thou and get both films--they're fabulous!

I'll see about Henry V (I wrote a paper on it junior year; probably I should see the film for completeness's sake), although Much Ado does very little for me. *shrug*