*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 :)

[serendipityxxi.livejournal.com]

I often find myself with this same problem, I'll have a great start, be all excited about it and then have no idea where to take it. I also get random sentences that don't fit into anything I'm writing at the moment. I keep em all in a file and years down the line I'll write something they'd be perfect in and incorporate them. I figure one day I'll actually have a whole story that way *L*

As for the people on the bridge freezing their butt off, sounds like they need some privacy and are avoiding a conversation they'd rather not have judging by staring at the landscape.

I agree with the suggestion, just sit down and write, doesn't matter if its good or if it makes sense sometimes you can get the story the characters are trying to tell you by just typing.

[elflore.livejournal.com]

I definitely have the same thing often...I have tons of story ideas and starters and snatches of dialogue written down, but hammering those out into a full plot can be tricky.

As for this scene...it feels like a great opening for a novel to me, about the winter. The line about the river, 'days and weeks to come where it would freeze solid' is gorgeously atmospheric and provocative, and suggests to me that their lives are heading into an angsty place, a place where things they wanted, dreams they were trying to make happen, will have the breaks put on big time. Maybe these are two kids that had been planning on getting out of their small town and going to college, only for finances or family obligations to conspire to keep them at home, so they're left with a winter or a year figuring out who they're going to be now...

That's where my brain started walking when you set down this map. *g*

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

Who are these people?

Dunno, but they sure HATE WINTER. Gee, wonder why? ; )

So, what I'm getting from this is, something's coming, something that they've seen coming for a long time, and they're dreading it. Kinda like the anti-Christmas or something. Why that would drive them to sit on a bridge, I have no idea. Personally I think a cramped little "Waaah, our relationship is tanking" direction would be a bad one to take, here. This seems more like a community thing.

Um, so that was basically no help. Sorry, I tried.

[tarzanic.livejournal.com]

I like the passage, but I have no idea where to go with it. Well, other than random and bizarre, which doesn't fit the mood. If they're not talking to you, let them sit. Tell them they can continue freezing their butts off or they can talk to you and maybe you can get them inside with some hot cocoa.