In this section of the topic podcasts, I give provide a couple of story ideas or ways to get new ideas then list seven sentence starts picked from my http://twitter.com/sentencestarts Twitter page; each one, if you’d like to use them, for a daily writing project.
- Quick Writing Exercises has recently joined Facebook and it says is “a page for writers to get ‘warmed up’ and banish writer’s block. Try some quick writing exercises to get those creative juices flowing and brainstorm ideas!” One of the things they suggest is to write a Word Train. Similar to a Word Web (which I mentioned in episode 1) in which the words spiral out from the same word, a Word Train starts off with one word but each connecting word is produced from its predecessor – like an arm of a Word Web really. QWE then suggests picking the 5th and 10th word produced and including it in your chapter or scene, or if you’re feeling adventurous, in your piece of 55, 60 or 100-word flash fiction like my writing workshop group does.
- Another way of getting ideas is to look through newspapers and pick out individual words from article headings – for instance villains, dirty, tiger and hands (taken from the latest edition of The Weekly News) could provide a very interesting story!
Today’s sentence starts are…
1. The rocking chair swung…
2. Little did Janice know that…
3. Frank was so wrapped up in _____, that he didn’t notice…
4. Holly was prickly at the best of times… (is Holly the plant or a woman?)
5. As the door flew open, Innes…
6. Eddie’s face crumpled as he opened the envelope…
7. Grant curled into a ball as the blows rained…
