stolen from Jon Gingerich, BTW
Jon says that all literay is cliche by default (in the beginning - due to readers assumptions / expectations). It will be neat to play with that concept.
Challenge: Write 500 words that does as the title suggests: 'Knock the reader off his/her stoop of certainty'.
I know what you are thinking (I am a sorcerer after all) - you are thinking... 'I will write a story about a bunny giving out eggs to kids, yeah, it is easter next week, or sometime soon. Yeah - I will write about that, then in the last three sentences I will say that the bunny had laced the eggs with strychnine and that it really wasn't a bunny at all but a freak genetic experiment by the government - or an alien come to destroy us - you name it.
That is not what I am talking about - the 'SURPRISE' twist / end is just that - and mostly they are contrived things that leave the reader feeling cheated... cheated and cheap and taken advantage of... Yeah - I'm talking about writing - what are you talking about?
No - go for something original - something not cliche - something strong - it doesn't have to be the beginning of a story - it can be anything at all - just try to bump us from our daily grind by giving us an insight into a character or world or action sequence or whatever that is not what we've seen a thousand times.
