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Voice: the Ending from Aimee Bender’s “Lemonade” At the bottom, I paid my parking dollar and said, Gracias, to the Mexican lady who worked the booth and I told her I liked her red earrings. She sort of stared past me with eyes that said, There are more cars waiting, so I moved on ahead and made a right turn, out of the mall. The people were all busy in their cars, listening to the radio, so there was no one to smile at so I just sent my love to the streetlamps. No one ever appreciates them, all day long, working so hard to turn red and yellow and green, right in time with us to make sure we don’t crash into each other. If there was any tiny chance, even the tiniest chance, that they happened to be alive, I bet I was the first person ever to tell them they were special. You are special, I said out loud in my car, but in case they couldn’t hear, I cracked my window open. You are special, I said, to the night air. And just like that, a green light. And then it’s me and La Cienega, all the way home.
According to this ending, try to write something about what has happened before.
Evan Peterson’s “Invention Exercises: Writing for Inspiration” (243-6) Writing for FUN Writing for COMMUNICATION Writing to EXPLORE and UNDERSTAND Writing for RELIEF
Choose one question interesting toyou (what if, questions in On Writing, or questions we have discussed) and try to answer it.
“Our sources are everywhere; we only need to be open to them.” (398) “The details of your life – and the lives of those around you – are rich sources” (399) Melissa Goldthwaite “This, Too, Is Research”
Possible Resources: Newspaper headlines Phone book “items around the house can become sources”: cookbooks, music collections, old letters… (399)
… and garbage For example: “a list poem about what a soon-to-be-married woman was throwing away” (399) “What’s in your garbage?” “What do those items say about you as a person?”
Exercise: Yard Sale Imagine something you find in a yard sale. What does this thing reflect? What kind of story hides behind this thing? Get an idea for your story from there.
More Resources Memory Dream Emotion *Music
Exercise: Write Stories that Matter to You Write down your first three memories OR Write down dreams you remember OR Give one intense emotion you have experienced to a fictional character. How this character is influenced by your emotion? (From Chapter 1 “Sources of Fiction” of JosipNovakovich’sFiction Writer’s Workshop)
Some Places to Get IdeasRestaurant Bar Hospital Supermarket Stadium
Tired? You can also “steal” ideas from your friends, classmates, family members, or strangers… Use others’ experiences. from history or biographies. Consider anecdotes. from Bible, fairy tales, classic novels… You can change the perspective and play with the reader’s expectation.
For example, the ending from Roald Dahl’s “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” Then Little Red Riding Hood said, ‘But Grandma, what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.’ ‘That’s wrong!’ cried Wolf. ‘Have you forgot ‘To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got? Ah well, no matter what you say, ‘I’m going to eat you anyway.’ The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers. She aims it at the creature’s head And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead. A few weeks later, in the wood, I came across Miss Riding Hood. But what a change! No cloak of red, No silly hood upon her head. She said, ‘Hello, and do please note ‘My lovely furry WOLFSKIN COAT.’
OR what if the monster in Frankenstein is a woman… What would be the relationship between this monster and her master?
Or we can take a shortcut now… It’s time for game.
Workshop your ideas: What is the most interesting idea for you? What is the least interesting idea for you? Why? What changes can be made? What is the potential of an idea? What are your suggestions?
Finally, in one paragraph, Tell me the idea you choose for your first draft. How do you plan to develop this idea? What kind of story are you going to tell?
