This month, several of our daily writing exercises will be working on first lines and beginnings in honor of the new year. Happy 2025!

Today’s ten-minute writing exercise is:

Take a work in progress or a story you know well. Rewrite the story, but start from the middle. You may only communicate backstory circumstantially. Do not recap or refer directly to anything that’s happened before.

Our themes this month are:

• First lines and beginnings
• The 3am Epiphany by Brian Kitely
• Sparks from Japanese literature
• Borrowed forms

Most days in January will be standalone writing exercises on one of these themes — so come, get the daily writing prompt, write for ten minutes on that or whatever’s at the top of your priority list.

But!

We’ll also be writing a complete work of flash fiction together the week of Monday, January 20 – Sunday, January 26.

We’ll limit our required investment time to ten minutes a day of writing, and exit the week with a complete work of flash fiction of ~900-1200 words. No pre-work needed, and of course, zero homework.

See you tomorrow for a new day of writing!