ASSIGNMENT FOR READERS

Recently I gave my students an assignment based on a book they were reading, or had enjoyed in the past. I asked them to take the first line of that book and to write a short-short or flash fiction piece (not over 100 words). They were to showcase what, as writers, they would have written for the first paragraph following that first line.

I challenge you to do the same: Find your favorite book or a favorite first line. Write the next paragraph you think should appear.

Here's what I wrote:

"I was arrested in Eno's diner." (From "Killing Floor" by Lee Child.

I was arrested in Eno's diner.

If you're going to be picked up by the police, I guess it might as well be after you've enjoyed a plate of the best New Mexico-style green-cheese burritos, rice and beans ever prepared. Because I had been alone when I discovered the body of a yet-to-be-identified child and because I was what some might call a homeless accountant--well, you can see how I could be at the top of the suspect list consisting of one, can't you?
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I wrote this because on this computer I have a story started, "New Mexico Nights" about a traveling auditor/accountant who finds the body of a child and the suspicion surrounds the only stranger in town-her. The beginning is too slow (of course, beginnings never stay the same when I go into edits/rewrites) and I will be looking for something to grab the reader. I hadn't thought she would be arrested, just under investigation. But maybe I'll change my mind. And you do know, I can't use Lee Child's first line, don't you?