I'm good at starting pieces, but man, I can't finish a long story for anything. When I'm at work, I see a lot of books on how to start a story. The whole idea of the "hook" and how important the first few pages are to getting the reader's attention. I can do that. A good ending, though. That's skill.

During my senior year of college, I had to write two stories, 75-100 pages each. One in the fall, and one in the spring. They both sort of just stopped because I'd run out of time and the semester was over. The fall semester's opening was: "I light a cigarette as the shack burns." I'm in the process of rewriting the story, but I kind of like that opening.

I've written more nonfiction pieces, mostly newspaper articles, and I really enjoyed writing leads. While most of my classmates hated leads, I had a lot of fun with them. It's the same idea as fiction. One or two sentences to grab the reader. One time, I wrote a piece on traveling to London, and the lead was: "London is calling." The follow-up began with: "London called. I answered. And it was good."