We’ve just finished our first Story Workout session and I’m as pumped up as you get can. The Workout class is supposed to be about writing prompts and practice. But I couldn’t help myself and I made the class read aloud the first paragraph from an Edward P. Jones short story called “The First Day.” It’s one I’ve read literally about fifty times and yet, each time I consider those words, I see something new, something brilliant in what this author has constructed. And I have to sit for a few minutes in awe.

But then I’m off and running and asking a million questions.

Most readers would focus on questions of theme and character and plausibility. And I’m interested in those things too. But as a writer, I am fascinated by the writing process itself, the sheer courage it
takes to follow a discovery of character, to enter into an imaginary world with no training wheels to guide you.

Was it hard to write from a young girl’s perspective? How much did he know about her family or what was going to happen on this day before he wrote the opening? What did his first draft look like and how did he know what to cut? Was this an idea for a novel but ended up as a short story?

These are the questions we’ll ask in the upcoming Reading as a Writer class. If you’ve been looking for the perfect match of Book Club and Writing Class, Reading as a Writer is it! We meet every other week (starting on February 3) for three sessions and we’ll be devouring a collection of some of my favorite short fiction, along with some stories I’ve always wanted to read.

One of the first pieces we read together will be--you guessed it--"The First Day.”

What books made you want to write?