Revisiting a short story published a year ago today.
One year ago today, my short story “Lower Strata” was published by the literary magazine Spillwords.
This story was based on something I’d started about 25 years ago. It is influenced a bit by my years working in the restaurant business. Over the summer of 2024, I pulled it out of the dusty digital files and reworked it a few times before sending it to Spillwords.
Continue reading “Flashback fiction: ‘Lower Strata’”How powerful first lines can draw your reader into your story.
One lesson the professors at journalism school drilled into my head was the importance of crafting a compelling first paragraph (aka the lede in news parlance).
The opening paragraph is the most important element of your story. It must grab readers’ attention and get them to read more, so it must be finely crafted and honed to its sharpest possible point.
The same applies to more literary writing–whether a novel, a short story, or a creative nonfiction essay. These five opening sentences from some recent stories and essays do a good job of hooking the reader. Each example below comes from The Pushcart Prize XLIX: Best of the Small Presses 2025 Edition. And while there are other notable pieces I could have pulled from this anthology, I chose these five because they are great and because you can also read them online, for free.
Continue reading “Friday Five: grand openings”
Andy writes! 