Sweet Hearts of The Rodeo---Week 10

It’s the tenth week of the Sweet Hearts of the Rodeo…this weeks task, review the feature writer of the week her work-in-process, and then write 3 beginnings to introduce a character in a story or scene consisting of a thousand words for all. This doesn’t seem to be too daunting of a task now does it? Perhaps and yet, maybe it is, what are the requirements the assignment sets forth?
In the past weeks, we have reviewed one author in particular and three stories of hers that begins differently.

A new character (someone we haven’t written about before) the choices are…

1) An omniscient narrative, where one character tells another character about a third character, hum, there is a lot that can be done with this. But there has to be a reason a character is taking about someone that isn’t in the scene.

2) Or begin a story with an event or a situation.

Now why do groups venture into this type of process, truthfully this can help you increase your writing process and be more successful. As I begin this session I like to review the notes that were taken from the prior week, lets face I’ve slept since then and I need to review this authors work and I want to re-familiarize myself with her technique.

Reviewing the author’s stories…

One story begins with a situation…

Another has omniscient narrative telling us the character lies, and there are a multitude of complications for the character as the story begins. All of the author’s stories are published and extremely well written.

What is it that I need to do at this point? In a situational scene, I want it to be troubling for the character.

Jo Beth watched, as Karen’s car plunged over the cliff. She turned and walked away as though it were nothing. It isn’t as though I can do anything about it; I’m the spirit that plunged down this same cliff, tragically, as it is said twenty years before…now all I can do is watch.
There was no one to walk away, when I hit the gas petal, determination is what drove the car that day for me. Now I wait for Karen’s spirit to make the transition to the other side, so that we may talk.

Karen in my view, for I felt her heart as she crashed was not ready to die that was her reasoning for bringing along Jo Beth. She wasn’t suppose to just walk away that was Karen’s thought as she hit bottom. Karen’s plan, which she didn’t let Jo Beth in on, was for her best friend to talk her out of it, too make a call on her cellphone for Johnny to come running and stop her.
It’s all about Johnny Dupree …

Okay, here is 178 words to the first part of the exercise. And as I look at what I have written, I see a different beginning. Before I leave, exercises and prompts are a great way to flesh out new short stories or beginnings to a novel.
Happy Writing!