I apologize for the length of time between posts; it’s been a crazy month! Anniversaries; endoscopies; cooking and planting; furniture shopping; reading like crazy; T-shirt redesigning like crazy… time flies! So today, let’s play with the concept of absence. Imagine that you (or one of your fictional characters) has been absent from home, friends, and family for some time with no word. As far as those people are concerned, the absence has been unexplained. They might have at least known that you planned to go away for a while, or they might have reported you missing.

Write the scene in which you or your character returns home.

Story starters are simple lines or paragraphs that you can use to start off a writing exercise. Just put it at the top of a piece of paper or file and go. You can use it directly as the first line of a piece, or use it as inspiration. Of course you could also get a bit more creative and use it as the last line, or incorporate it into the middle somewhere. You could re-phrase or re-write the starter if it better suits your story. But for the purposes of a quick exercise, it’s usually easiest to just use it as the first line of your writing. Today’s story starter is:

“The smell is coming from that ambulance.”