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"The first time she made love..."
"The last time she made love..."
Like bookends on a shelf, Firsts and Lasts contain your story with beginnings and
endings. In the novel, the Big Story is built by putting together smaller stories.
Writing a series of Firsts and Lasts shunts the writing into ritual: wedding,
birthday, funeral, baptism, bris, bar mitzvah, dressing, cooking, games. Each First
marks a threshold; each Last marks a threshold. Cross a threshold and you enter
initiation. Get tossed out of a circle and you experience the ritual of exclusion.
Get eaten by a crocodile and you experience the ritual of incorporation. Ritual is
action repeated with purpose. At its root, story is about ritual change, and First
and Last events bring your character to a change of states. The First Time initiates,
the last time builds pain or memory or nostalgia.
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Writing Exercise |
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1. The first time she made love...
2. The last time she made love...
We suggest that you write a series of Firsts and Lasts for each character in your story.
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