prompts

Talya wore Heelies and a pedometer every day to camp. The pedometer was lost twice and found once. The second loss was via priority mail, en route from my office to her house. She emailed inquiring about her pedometer, and she attached a story draft. I suggested her next story chronicle the paths of the pedometer, wherever it landed. Where would 1124 steps take a 37-year-old Chicagoan in the Great Depression? Where would 7085 carry a 14-year-old boy in Brooklyn... in 2045? Where do 2738 steps take you - in any direction - from your bedroom door?

In his book "On Writing Well," William Zinsser argues that the purpose of a book's opening line must be to compel the reader to the following line, the first paragraph to the second, and the first chapter to the next. There is no room for ho-hum. Words are chosen purposefully, sentences structured for their tone and rhythm, and paragraphs ordered for their pacing. Any piece, regardless of subject matter, becomes appealing and satisfying because it is written well.

For example, "Skill Display in Birding Groups" by Bert O. States (originally published in The North American Review and re-printed in Best American Essays 2005) is very funny. I know nothing about - and am generally uninterested in - birding, but this essay is a delight. In the same collection, David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster," plucked from Gourmet magazine, is a fantastic read, lobster-lover or no.

Eleanor and her 4th-grade classmates workshop their journal pieces using writing prompts. They employ the original cut-and-paste method to move paragraphs around, enter the story in an alternate way, and move to a different point of view. Story-starting prompts might include "people on your block" or "the contents of the purse of the woman sitting one table over at your favorite Chinese food restaurant." For young and novice writers, especially, it's helpful for the prompts to reflect something personal, something tangible in their own life.

The next time I write to a close friend, I'd like to open with the sentence "I took the bold step of..."
...answering the phone,
...using red,
...draining the pond,
...going in person,
...staying put?

We all should take bold steps. How would the sentence end?