First Line Buffet
Session 5| Inspiration Ready to Take
In college I developed some techniques for myself to combat writer’s block. I’d like to use today’s post to share one of those techniques with you all.
If I’m ever feeling stuck, instead of racking my brain trying to come up with ideas, I’ll write a few pages of first lines. For a while I did this exercise every morning. When I’m doing this exercise frequently enough I find that it strengthens my ability to produce lines that have that “first line energy” without really trying. It’s a freeing feeling, and it loosens up my imagination.
The obvious next step for this exercise is to use one of the lines to prompt a short, roughly 500 word, passage branching off of it. Sometimes this leads to a new story, and it feels more organic than staring at the wall trying to conjure something out of thin air.
So today I have prepared for you, a First Line Buffet. If you don’t know what to write about today, please try taking one of these lines and building off of it. They’re mostly vague enough to apply to a variety of genres and story concepts, and some of them are written like mad-libs. Don’t take it too seriously. I hope they’re useful.
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1. “I don’t care how it sounds. I’m responsible for this version of the world.”
2. There’s only one road that leads to the heart of the empty nothing.
3. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was __________. Now that I’m older all I want is _________.
4. The story she told me had an obvious flaw.
5. People don’t believe me when I say nothing impresses me.
6. It started on a hot morning in July— the day after I lost my car.
7. Some people are born who can’t taste anything.
8. 2009 was the year of _________.
9. There was no exact moment I realized my foot had something wrong with it.
10. The next time someone tries to give you advice, you should _________. That’s what I do.
11. There’s no practical application for my need for her attention.
12. The following is a list of every fight I’ve been in as a man:
13. My hometown. Killer of heroes. Deflator of legends.
14. I’m having an absolute ball out here.
15. What do you call this experience?
16. The December night was auburn and total, and we sat there on the roof drinking Rolling Rock, only pausing the conversation to pee on my step mother’s car from on high.
17. Nobody works in the city.
18. Hang your hopes on a real man, mama. This boy’s got a _________.
19. When she was little, Laney saw a _________. Now everytime she sees an old man sleeping on the streetcar she thinks about choking.
20. If it all starts to feel too mundane, just look around you _________.
My back was twisted in the morning, and I watched the fog coming out of the trees when I was the only one awake.
When a guy like me stays in one place long enough, his house starts to develop its own life separate from him, and the house dreams of what it might accomplish if it weren’t stuck in one place.
I stayed in Stevenson Hall for five hours after class because it was raining so hard.
We were so high the manzi’ looked like pulsating veins.
Two white vans sat in the parking garage.
I love # 12. Great idea.
Nice prompt list tbh, gonna keep this handy