Willful Writing

A few years ago, Aimee Bender, author of the fantastically surreal Girl in the Flammable Skirt (stories), An Invisible Sign of My Own (novel), and the newly released Willful Creatures (stories) visited one of my creative writing classes. She had been to a writers workshop in North Carolina and was returning to L.A. where she lives and she agreed to stop over as part of an ongoing visiting writer's series we have at the university.

In class, she read her story from McSweeneys. It was part of the Twenty Minute Stories issue and featured a main character who was born with snakes for hair ala Medea. Later that night she read her story "Fruit and Words", which at the time had yet to be published but is currently featured in her new collection. She was very personable and genuinely interested in the students and their work. At the end of class, she gave the students one of her favorite writing exercises: Go to a book shelf and take the first red book you see. Turn to a random page (let's say page forty two) and find line twelve on the page. That is the first line of your story.

Try it and see what happens!