When I finished my 365 story starts (the original purpose of "Once Upon a Time Project"), I thought I'd go through the list of pageant questions I have for my Public Speaking students (one of my current jobs is teaching SPK 101 at a private university.) My rule to myself was: just start writing and don't go back (except for obvious spelling errors--there still may be some less obvious errors...)
But I miss my fiction! I miss starting all those different stories, even though I agonized sometimes and wondered how I'd ever get another out of me. I liked exploring where I might go, and I could get out a lot of ideas I didn't know I even had until I pushed myself. So I had an idea:
I will use the pageant questions as inspiration for a story start. Perhaps I can go back to the personal essay for some of them, but, seriously, if I'm sick of myself, why wouldn't you be sick of me, too? I will continue to post the original question, so you can see it, but my posts may go anywhere based on sparks in my brain.
If anyone has found this blog based on pageant questions and would like advice for answering them, please ask me anything! There are plenty of tips and techniques, some of which may be apparent if you read the first seven I wrote essay-style (like: have a theme! Repeat the question. Go back to the question. Preview and recap main points. Use a transition between main points. Have examples/stories/anecdotes. Use two or three main points. Try an attention-grabber and a final thought.)
Lesson over. I need to see what Question #8 is and how it will inspire the start of a story for me!
Once upon a time...
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