On Wednesday, I challenged you to the 50 First Lines Exercise.
Basically, you write 50 first lines, in a row, without thinking too much. I like setting a timer for 30 minutes to get that creative rush.
Now, I was hoping to make this exercise/challenge a contest. With prizes (see GUIDELINES – scroll down in original post). But, if I don’t get participants, well, it will just be a great exercise that maybe a few people did.
I really recommend you try it for your weekend workout. If you’re thinking, I can’t come up with 50 first lines in one sitting, then you should try this exercise.
If you’re thinking, And in you want me to do it in 30 minutes? You should try this exercise.
Letting go and timing yourself and not thinking too much about it you will write strange lines, funny lines, lines in genres you don’t normally dwell in, profound lines, surprising lines, etc, etc. I don’t know where some of the lines I wrote came from!
If you get stuck – think of a childhood memory, an embarrassing moment, the last fight you got into, something you saw on the bus… then put that incident in the distant past, in another country, in the eyes of a 12 year-old, in space. Try it with a paranormal twist, a surreal twist, a sardonic twist.
All you need to do to enter is to put your Top 5 lines in the comment section (in this post or the Wednesday post) by midnight on Monday. With 50 first lines, you’ll have a hard time choosing your faves.
On Wednesday, I will pick the Top 5 lines and give the next segment of the challenge. Ha! You thought we were going to stop at 50 first lines? Not a chance.
What a great challenge. I am going to do this, hope it will be before the deadline ends 🙂
Also:
Tag, you’re it!
Oh! You’re the 3rd person to TAG me and I haven’t done any of them yet. I’m fairly useless when it comes to those things – but I’ll see if I can slip it in somewhere.
PS I clicked on guidelines, it brought me to a login screen.
Thanks, Sylvia. I got it fixed now. It links to my original post (on Wed) – just scroll down the post until you see “guidelines”
Wow – this sounds like a great exercise. I hope I’ll have time to try it this weekend.
You have until Monday at midnight to enter. We’ve got our first entry on the original post, now, too. Yay!
This is an excellent exercise to do on a regular occasion. I’ll have to give it a try.
You have until midnight PST to enter! Challenge yourself to do it. I guarantee you’ll come up with something interesting.