A Glossary of Good Beginnings 41. Interesting description. Ashes filled he sir when Iwas around theeump fie, Crackle, cracKleitwent 2. Sound. Boom! The trunk slamme. Bang! The car doors slammed as we got out ofthevan 43. The past in the present. ItisApi 10, 1912 The Titancis going to travel al the way ftom England o America, 4, Exclamation. Yesh! Wer going to Disejland tomorrow! Yeah!” yelled about astoud as Teould 5: A thought. I'm inbig touble ni, I thought to mye 6. A complaint. Items like we never go svicuming a Fife pol! 7. A surprise, Wor! Iwas doing ny back handspring and landed 8 Aauestion. are youens been Edern- Oe Wl Fi job! 9. Sound, repetition, and simile. Screech, seech, sceech The fist time ‘we ried to play the recondesit sounded like ion running his avs dow a chalkboard 10. Exclamation, repetition, strong feelings. Chore Chor! Chor! Chores are boring! Scrubbing tolls, cleaning sinks, and washing athnbs take palotof my time and are nt fun a all 11. Extremely strong feelings. The er fist tie [saw asparagus [hated it. had never even tied before and stl had it 42. A series of questions. Touch ofthe fu? Egg in he ait? Poor Ramona! ‘ary, exciting, or intense moment... redo un, bt I coun. aster seemed lke twas growing bythe mine! And then, the ost ‘horn thing was about o happen — Iscreamed andsatbolt upright in bed gesped salloving huge amounts oc 14, Main idea. [il abvays lovey grandparents’ each house. The way the waves ole over te gooey Sand and the way the sand weaves in between your es. “The way we pick up bamacle covered rocks and watch the sand crabs scurry aa. ‘The way wedig for clams and end up knee dep in be neverending sand. 15, Something interesting to come. Iall stared onan average dy. did think anything unusual vas goingto happen, butboy was wong! 16. Conversation. "We're moving” That's what shetold me cola’ believe it had jst made the askebal team and was making more ends. "What!" exclaimed 17, Reveal something unusual. "Company halt” jlled the dll master My ‘mora stopped and vent into position. Her dog tags clnkeassbe moved. 418, An unsettling description. aflash of lighting illuminatesthe harsh emptiness ofthe night [nan Orphanage chile cry mournfully They are staving 19. Unusual image of a character. Simon Wilken was snacking dain ona plum wt great gio, 20. Anecdote. On dark December night in 1776, ashe led abarfoct brigade ragged revolutionaries across the icy Detaware Rive, George Washington sad, Shift your at bein, Har But slowly orou'l vamp the dam boat” 21. Describe the setting. The deafening crowd was paced ito the Kingiome on the sold-out BuhnerBurz-Cut ight Hundreds of people were utited in brand new buzz-cuts and were enjoying the Mariner gum. 22. Address the audience. You walk into the dentist ofce You sit dow, to read a magazine, Butts no use. You'e scared and there’snothing you ‘boutit. 23. “Show” feelings. Isat in my des, sweat dripping down my face shut _my je tight, then opened ther, looked t my watch, 1:27. Tree minutes! ‘Three minutes until] heard sound, asound that would set me free for three months of otal nothingness. 24, Comic story. “Oh my Goi!” I exdsimed, "What John dong ont ther? ‘Why s he on his hands and knees, Mom?” Iooked out the big kitchen window ordering fy eight-year old brother as all ght Hewaslooking distressed. ‘Then he threw up. 25. Challenge the reader. Colin Grey the President of the New World Foundation, acl sights organization in NewYork, hs someting to ay about ypurcharacec 26. Focus on something important, in my old batered, black wallet ary many things. Alter fom friend. My lunch ike. My social secur cad. Many ober tdi and items aswel Theres one thing however which prize shove all my posesions tis photograph, 27. Alist. Thesweaton yourbroA lar of dust on your face. Outin the -yoods Somewhere And on ars. fal the places in the word el beston a hose. 28. A scenario, Right now | want you i pretend you are instore. As ouwal ‘round, you see that some products are ch rore inexpensive. Now, lok atthe labels on these cheaper items You will pobably notice that many of these labels say, “Made in Cina,” or "Made in Hoods.” Have you eter topped to wonder ‘why producs madein these countries reso much more affordable than the things manufactured right bere on American soil? 29, Fantasy or fairy tale-type language. Inter when Moby Dick was usta tapole, andthe sexs rolled and thundered orrthe jes and ont the shore, I searched for my first sand dollar still hidden somewhere in the ever stretching Long Beach Peninsula. 30. Simple action to complex realization. [alk up te hill wth my fiends, then tum into ou cul-de-sac, goto the front dor, put the ey inthe loc, tum, and stp in, The house breathes kindof spooky hello a Ist my books, clown and goto the kitchen where the inetable not waiting: “Havea snack, Be bomescon Tove you.” 31, Startling statement. A reat crime was commited against people in 1942. Tis was the signing of Brecative Onde 9066 by President Franklin D Roosevelt hich called forthe eiton and interme ofl Japanese Americans. 32. Thesis. Education sake element in eelopng thesis neces fora sucess if. Too len, students ae mor irwolvet exeing a paycheck than spending ime on thee academic studies Students eed to realize that thet high schoo cases wll pepare ther for brighter future 33. Something outtandish. am adynamic figure often seen sealing alls and crushing ice. Thave been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more ficient inthe area ofheat retention write aard- inning operes. manage time efficiently. Occasionally, ead water for thee days in row 34, Fast action cael inside, taming the front door behind me. plopped ‘my backpack onthe oor and dashed forthe kitchen, Ourcat, sleepin the balla, quickly awoke and curt out of harms way. Lk {only ad afew precious seconds before my bother, coming in through the back dor beat me to the kitchen and nabbed the ls from’ brownies 35. A saying. Itwas Ralph Waldo meson who sid that "A foolish consistency isthe hobgoblin osimple rind” He id almost 20 yar go, but pethaps it bens repeating tay to out senators and congyessman who ats though our ‘country can continue to spend money it does ot haveNot-So-Good Beginnings Strategies you might consider not using. Without disparaging in any way, shape, or form the creative genius of any writer living, dead, or hereinafter to be born, I respectfully request that certain beginnings no longer be used. (Please note: There’s not a one of us, myself included, ‘who hasn’t used each and every one of these beginnings at some point in time. Now that we're all experts on the best ways to start a piece of writing we can, of course, laugh at these simple lapses in writerly judgment. But let’s not forget that we've all had them, too.) 1, The “telephone call” beginning. Hil My vane i Steve. Blah, blah, blah... Unless I'm calling someone on the phone to get them to buy something from me, (or writing a piece about telemarketing) there is no legitimate reason why this beginning should ever be used. 2. The completely unnecessary beginning. In this paper, | will be felling Yor about blak, blah, blah. Ishould always trust that my readers are smart enough to figure out on their own what my piece is about, Telling them ahead of time doesn’t win me any points. And, if my piece turns out to be about something different, then I’ve really gotten myself into a pickle, haven't I? 3. The “non-beginning” beginning. One day, blah, blah, blah. While this may be the well-intentioned opening of many an eamest yarn, it is not properly a begin- ning at all. [t doesn’t do anything; it just sits there on the paper, staring at us, thinking: “Couldn’t come up with a real beginning, could you?” We could all spare ourselves this indignity by simply trying any other beginning at all (as long as it’s not on this page). So let’s just do it, shall we? Sim- ilarly weak variations on the “non-beginning” beginning include “Once...” and “One time...” ‘Though not quite as bad, but still rather unexciting, the following beginnings may be used on an extremely limited basis and only in desperate situations (such as official prompted writing assess- ments for state tests): “Last year..”, “Last week..”, “Ayear ago..”, “Last month,...”, “A month ago,..", “Aweek ago...”, “A day ago..”, “A few days ago...”, “A couple of days ago...”, and so on.