GU Creative Writing Society 20/1/15
Creative Writing Workshop 1, Semester 2: Beginnings in Fiction
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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)
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. - Leo Tolstoy, Anna
Karenina (1877)
Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal,
thank you very much. – J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
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)
I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle (1948)
He—for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise
it—was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters. —Virginia Woolf,
Orlando (1928)
Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. —Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye (1988)
Mother died today. —Albert Camus, The Stranger (1942; trans. Stuart Gilbert)
Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. – Graham
Greene, Brighton Rock (1938)
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE is scrawled in blood red lettering on the side of the
Chemical Bank near the corner of Eleventh and First and is in print large enough to be seen from the
backseat of the cab as it lurches forward in the traffic leaving Wall Street and just as Timothy Price
notices the words a bus pulls up, the advertisement for Les Miserables on its side blocking his view,
but Price who is with Pierce & Pierce and twenty-six doesn't seem to care because he tells the driver
he will give him five dollars to turn up the radio, "Be My Baby" on WYNN, and the driver, black, not
American, does so. – Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho (1991)
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. – Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938)
About the accident itself I can say very little. – Tom McCarthy, Remainder (2005)
Warm Up Activity: In your groups discuss the opening lines above and how successful you think they are at
drawing the reader in and signalling clues and opening up a story. Discuss things like voice/narrator,
atmosphere, intrigue, silence vs. explanation, character, foreshadowing, tone, setting, ‘theme’, reader’s
position in relation to narrator (e.g. do we feel intimate or distanced?). Pick your favourite three lines from
the list above and see who agrees/disagrees with you and why. Can you name any other opening lines from
memory? Would you write any of the above lines differently?
Then discuss what you think an opening chapter should achieve. Think about things like character,
exposition, genre. What are you favourite opening chapters, and what is it that makes you remember them
in particular? How much should you reveal in an opening chapter? Make a list of things you think an opening
chapter should achieve (as a group).
Main Activity: Come up with three writing prompts as a group. Now, individually, start writing the opening
paragraphs of a story around these three prompts. Everyone should get about fifteen minutes to do this.
When you’re all finished, discuss briefly how you responded to the prompts and what ideas you had. Then
put your work into the middle and everyone takes a random one to read. Make notes about how this piece
works as an opening scene (obviously bearing in mind that it is a rough piece of work!) and also write down
any questions you have because of what you’ve read, e.g. ‘I want to know more about why this character is
hanging around an alleyway at midnight,’ or ‘I don’t understand why she’s being rude to him’. Once you’ve
swapped your work around a bit, discuss as a group the kind of things that come up a lot, and make some
conclusions on what you think makes a great opening to a story or novel.