Page 20

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Decide in advance which line — 1 through 10 — you’re going to use. Pick up a book of fiction and turn to page 20. Go to the line you’ve chosen. That’s your prompt. It may make absolutely no sense and you may be tempted to choose a different prompt. Stay the course! For 7 minutes, write whatever comes into your head in response to the prompt. (My line, from The Wind in the Willows, was: “Since early morning he had been swimming in the river…”)