This January, we’ve been working on first lines and beginnings in honor of the new year. This is our final exercise on beginnings! For now anyway! Happy 2025!

Today’s ten-minute writing exercise is:

In her flash fiction collection Ghosts of You, Cathy Ulrich starts every story with “The thing about being the murdered blank is you set the plot in motion.”

Pick an animal.

Start a story with the line, “The thing about being a talking whatever is you set the plot in motion.”

Our themes this month are:

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

We also wrote a complete work of flash fiction together the week of Monday, January 20 – Sunday, January 26.

We’ll do this all again in February with a new set of themes and a one-week flash fiction interlude. See you tomorrow for a new day of writing!