Ms. Rudsit's Creative Writing Corner

Every famous novel began with a memorable first line. The following are the top ten most famous “first lines” in history.

10 Best First Lines from Novels

1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)

2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)

4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)

5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)

6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)

7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

Now, I’d like you to pick up your favorite novel or short story and in the comment section to this blog posting, write the first line to that piece of fiction. Feel free to comment on each other’s first lines.

As we discussed in class, poetry is all about universal emotions and connections between humans. When we connect with a poem, it becomes all the more powerful to us.

Midwestern poet Richard Newman traces the imaginary life of coins as a connection between people. The coins—seemingly of little value—become a ceremonial and communal currency.

Coins

My change: a nickel caked with finger grime;
two nicked quarters not long for this life, worth
more for keeping dead eyes shut than bus fare;
a dime, shining in sunshine like a new dime;
grubby pennies, one stamped the year of my birth,
no brighter than I from 40 years of wear.

What purses, piggy banks, and window sills
have these coins known, their presidential heads
pinched into what beggar’s chalky palm—
they circulate like tarnished red blood cells,
all of us exchanging the merest film
of our lives, and the lives of those long dead.

And now my turn in the convenience store,
I hand over my fist of change, still warm,
to the bored, lip-pierced check-out girl, once more
to be spun down cigarette machines, hurled
in fountains, flipped for luck—these dirty charms
chiming in the dark pockets of the world.

Now brainstorm a list of things that connect people, like seats at a sporting arena, clothes at Salvation Army, library books, etc.  In your comments to this blog, list a few ideas you have for a free verse poem around “connections.”

Hi class,

Welcome to my creative writing corner.  This is our online extension of Creative Writing honors where you can expand upon your illimitable and boundless creativity.

Your first assignment is to read the NPR article about writing six word memoirs. 6 words you ask? How can you write a complete story in just 6 words? It is a challenge, but in writing each word holds weight, each word should be chosen carefully.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18768430

It is is rumored that Hemingway was once asked to write a story in six words. The result? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

This is the ultimate in brevity. And so I have been writing my own six word memoirs. Here are some of the results:

Always taking chances on Prince Charming.

Found my soul on the beach.

Conservative English teacher: secretly a rebel.

Have cat and child, will travel.

Married, Divorced, then fell in love.

Living life as if on vacation.

Old soul at 8, young at 34.

Life got in way of writing.

Lost soul mate, found real one.

Now, I’d like each of you to post to this blog, your own six word memoir of your life. Enjoy!