You know the drill: take a line from something you like (or hate) and use that as the first line of whatever prose or poem or thing you’re going to be writing.

I’ve found it most useful if this is based on your current reading (i.e., something you’re already engaging with), but sometimes it’s nice to have something totally different.

Some first lines I’ve been meaning to play around with:

"We’ll burn that bridge when we get there."

— Lloyd Schwartz
Proverbs for Purgatory

"At the opposite end of on your feet"

— Susan Tan
from a UMB Faculty Reading (Some piece called something like "toast"?)

That there is a kind of joy in the begging
Itself, that all songs are love songs

— John Murillo
Song

  1. Pick a line and go.