Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Inspiration for something to writer or a “starter” is everywhere. Here is a simple method of finding it.

Looking for something to write? Looking for a starter for the next piece to write?

1. Go to any book shelf.
2. Grab any book.
3. Open to any page.
4. Point to any line.
5. Copy that line.
6. Keep going.

For example, I am sitting at a bar in a restaurant. I go to Gutenberg.org and click on one of their Latest eBooks. It happens to be, “The Castaways of the Flag: The Final Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson” by Jules Verne (I’ve heard of him, but not the book). I click on the HTML online version and randomly scroll down.

I click on a line, it reads, “Captain Gould rushed down into his cabin and came back with a pistol in his hand. But he was not given time to use it.”

I continue…The damage had been done. The drunken sociopath had steered the yacht parallel to the coming wave. Gould tucked the pistol into his coat pocket (perhaps it would be of use in the coming days) and grabbed a flotation device from the wall. The yacht rolled slowly and nothing would stop it from the disastrous conclusion. The drunk didn’t know what was about to happen, but Gould did…

The beginning of a survival-at-sea short story or novel or screenplay.

Next.