Words Fly Up

Books and writing are the core of my life. I edit books, write books, and teach writing. I love this work, and will be happy to provide any editorial or writing service you need.
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Beginnings & Endings

February 15, 2015 By Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Back to Beginnings

As I wrote earlier, I sometimes begin a new session of classes with a lesson I call Beginnings. And so I did again with the new winter class in Newburyport. Rather than going to the local bookstore to look for terrific openings, I checked books that either I, my son, or my daughter own. I did remarkably well in finding strong, intriguing opening sentences. When I typed them up in a list to hand … [Read more...]

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September 29, 2014 By Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Beginning Again

Photo by Jim Barrett

Once a year or so, I teach a lesson in my adult writing classes called Beginnings. (I’ve written about this before, here and here.) I scour bookshelves—my own or the local bookstore’s—in search of excellent opening sentences. It’s not that easy. Many opening sentences, of fiction and nonfiction, are at least good, but too many are ordinary, and few really grab me. So as my fall teaching session … [Read more...]

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May 29, 2014 By Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Endings

A student and I exchanged book recommendations recently, in which I didn’t like the ending in either book, and my student, Brian, didn’t like the ending in one of them. The book we agreed on was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. The one we didn’t agree on was Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje. Up until the last few pages, I loved Esme Lennox. I have used the opening paragraph … [Read more...]

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September 20, 2012 By Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Beginnings

I often begin my fall classes with a lesson called Beginnings. I choose opening sentences from several works of fiction and nonfiction, and then discuss with the students what we can glean about the books from those first sentences. For example, from the opening of Anne Enright’s The Gathering—“I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother’s house the summer I was eight or nine, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Beginnings & Endings

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