Writing Like F. Scott Fitzgerald

I had so much fun writing like JK Rowling, JRR Tolkien and Shel Silverstein in the past month that I decided to take my Modeling Mondays show on the road! I shared the prompt idea with the entire StoryDam community on their blog today and I'm really hoping to bring some exciting burst of creativity into the lives of fellow writers online.

For this week's selection of author and three sentences to use as a model I selected a novel that has somehow slipped through my fingers all these years. I picked it up this weekend and, by the end of the first page I turned to my husband saying, "Whoa. I want to do nothing else today but read this book cover to cover!" Needless to say, life got in the way and I'm still toting the book around, but the impact of the introduction of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was not lost on me. I knew then that I wanted to take a stab at recreating the sentences that drew me in so artfully.

For your reference, here are the first three sentences of The Great Gatsby that I will be using as my model:

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

 “Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

 He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that.

Now, I will rewrite this introduction by changing nouns, names, adjectives, adverbs and pretty much as much as I can while maintaining the basic sentence structure. I will italicize my changes. Let's see if I can make any kind of impact with my own creation...

In my older and more detailed writings my characters gave me one warning that I’ve been running from in my work ever since.

 “Whenever you feel like killing any one,” they told me, “just remember that all the creations in this world have had all access to your psyche.”

They never revealed any more, but I've always been unusually connected to my creations, and I understand their threats mean a great deal more than that.

Alright. I'm not F. Scott Fitzgerald and I put this together through what turned out to be a Migraine Monday for me, so I'm not sure how I feel about it as a whole. I'll have to come back to it later when my head stops spinning and the mystic blue lights of pain stop flashing.

If you're ready to join the Modeling Monday party, go check out the prompt on the StoryDam website and add your link for the whole community to see!

Also, if you have any ideas for future first sentences, or authors, just let me know. I'm always on the quest for the next great model.