Exercises

** I now run daily exercises on my Online Writing Groups **

This page is designed is to either get your ideas flowing should you be stuck, use them at your writing group or just for fun! If you’d something ongoing, I also list over 1,000 (three-a-day) sentence starts plus 52 (one-a week) hints & tips in my 365-day Writer’s Block Workbook Vol.1 (available on Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo for just $1.49 (or on Amazon for $1.62).

Below a list of the exercises that I set in my (fortnightly) Monday night writing workshops… and of course you’re welcome to do. And if you really want to follow the form, set a stopwatch for 10 or 15 minutes and see how much you can achieve (we average at one to one and a half A4 sheets of paper, handwritten). Brownie points if your stories end up being 55, 60 or 100 words. If you do decide to have a go at these, do let me know how you get on.

Monday 22nd October

We had to write the first three exercises in first, second, third points of view (in any order) and past, present or future tense (again in any order):

1. Mixed bag: Doctor, horse rider, toothbrush, balloon, shy (I went with second person past tense)

2. Prompt: Fortune (I wrote in first person present tense)

3. Keywords: layer, clever, worry, toe, turn (which left third person future tense)

4. Dialogue only: choose two of your characters and have one of them come home with some news.

Monday 8th October

1. Keywords: execute, drive, interesting, sixties, connection

2. Prompt: Thistle

3. Sentence start: Lifting up the flap

Monday 24th September

1. Sentence start: Knowing it was the wrong…

2. Monologue: Your character is looking through a curtain.

3. Keywords: stage, photograph, project, page, discover.

Monday 10th September

You can read what we did here.

Monday 27th August

No meeting as it’s a bank holiday in the UK.

Monday 13th August

One of the stories has to be first person, one second person and one third person. One has to be past tense, one present tense and one future tense. I picked second / future for my first story then ended up with the easiest: third person past tense.

1. Keywords: kind, wonderful, chicken, yoghurt, after

2. One-word prompt: Slice

3. Title: Blue feathers

Monday 30th July

1. Keywords: careful, laugh, hide, view, get

2. Scenario: One character is pestering the other

3. Objects: stopwatch, curtains, phone directory

Monday 16th July

1. First person: Your character has a secret…

2. Second person: It’s not as bad as you think…

3. Third person: Fantastic fun (title)

Monday 2nd June

1. Keywords: music, light, secret, bang, repeat

2. Sentence start: Norman was one to…

3. Mixed bag: wizard, elephant, graveyard, scared, button

Monday 18th June

1. Complete character summaries (see 31st October below) for two random photographs

2. Keywords: twist, walk, wrong, pretend, hello

3. Sentence start: Riding along in the yellow…

Monday 28th May

1. Your character finds an inscription in a book, what happens next?

2. Your character looks through a hole, what can they see?

3. Keywords: mist, second, square, blue, half.

Monday 21st May

1. Complete a word web from the starter word of ‘long’. Then pick five words which then must be included in your story. Mine were: still, giro, Elaine, bow, stop.

2. From photographs, complete two character templates (name, nickname, nationality, age, job, hair colour, height, weight, favourite music, favourite food, regular saying, relationship, children, siblings, religion, aspirations, quirks). Then using these two characters, write a piece from two prompt slips (e.g. He doesn’t speak the language, She dislikes his mother… etc).

3. Sentence start: Hesitant to open the door…

Monday 30th April

1. Sentence start: As s/he stepped over the body

2. One-word prompt: stagger

3. Keywords: plot, red, super, path, cottage

4. Story prompts: these differed per person, mine were: beautician / nurse (characters), art gallery (location), talks too much (trait), cuddly toy (object), mistaken identity (plot point)

Monday 16th April

1. Keywords: puddle, cuddle, muddle, huddle, rich

2. Prompt cards: these varied per person but mine were: writer / show jumper (we each had two different job titles), beach (location), mobile phone (object), can’t read (trait – I obviously had to pick the show jumper for that one!) and end of an era (conflict).

We didn’t get to a third as we started talking about eBooks and I ended up showing the group how I created mine.

Monday 2nd April

The three exercises were:

1. Keywords: childhood, immortal, obstacle, 17, game

2. Scenario: He says “yes” to everything / She’s just started internet dating

3. Objects: yellow bus, mouldy oranges, child with wings

Monday 19th March

The three exercises were:

1. Keywords: python, red, pool, bottle, fine

2. Dialogue only: you character is in a difficult position (emotionally or physically) and we have to guess what

3. Sentence start: As the hand clasped around Jesse’s…

and in each case we couldn’t start any of the sentences with I, he/she or character’s name… not easy!

Monday 5th March

The three exercises were:

1. Prompt: Bun

2. Sentence start: The music played despite…

3. Keywords: edge, egg, envelope, elephant, easel.

Monday 20th February

For this session we had to use a different point of view (first, second or third) or tense (past, present, future) for each exercise:

1. Keywords: threw, cut, road, cobbled, candle (I used third person, past tense)

2. One-word prompt: shake (I used first person, present tense)

3. Scenario: waiting for an important delivery (I used second person, future tense)

Monday 6th February

1. Sentence start: ‘I’m not sure what to do’ (used as dialogue or first-person narrative)

2. Keywords: torch, pop, swallow, beige, snow

3. One-word prompt: serious

4. Keywords: strong, shut, idea, maybe blink

Monday 23rd January

1. One-word prompt: ‘Lead’.

2. To write an argument in dialogue only.

3. Keywords: money, great, sort, now, flower.

Monday 9th January

1. We started with a monologue where the person is waiting for something / someone.
2. Second-person set in an old house (empty or otherwise).
3. Story containing five keywords (smile, right, scarf, stare, enough).
I especially loved the latter and plan to use it for Flash Fiction Friday sometime.

Monday 12th December

1. We started with a title: ‘Last Christmas’ and some (including me) wrote about someone’s last Christmas (mine was someone emigrating to Australia so it wasn’t actually his last Christmas but potentially last he’d see with snow).

2. Then I gave out five keywords: ‘balls’, ‘red’, ‘door’, ‘unfestive’ and ‘distinctly’. You can imagine the fun we had with that.

3. Sentence start: ‘It wasn’t as if she’d done…’

Monday 31st October

1. We started by picking two pictures; one of a male, one female and completed a profile template for each (name, age, nationality, height, job, hair colour, quirk etc). Some of these characters were then used as inspiration during the evening but it wasn’t obligatory, more designed as a tool to get to know a character a little more in-depth. I had an 83-year-old female Romanian cleaner and 47-year old English photography professor!

2. The writing began with a sentence start of… Sarah (or another name) had always planned to… (and three of us wrote about weddings!)

3. Five keywords to include in a story: mix, fortune, white, bunch, smile

4. Single word prompt: flower / flour to use in any way we wished (between us we used both).

Monday 17th October

1. Four of us had story content wheels (protagonist / action / obstacle and goal) which were, respectively: Joy from the rock band / learns to foresee the future / the woman in 3b and to save mother. We could use any or all of these – needless to say we came up with some quirky stories.

2. Final sentence: …the day Lilian learned to drive.

3. Again four of us chose a word at random (calling / food / air and silly) and we had to include these in a story.

Monday 3rd October

Having just received a few bits from The Literary Gift Company including their Writer’s Toolbox, and wearing my ‘Careful or you’ll end up in my next novel’ tshirt, we literally had some fun and games:

1. Three ‘sixth sense’ prompt cards: the smell of your grandmother’s laundry room, a bat circling the sky and a man selling bananas. We could chose any or all of those (I did all three).

2. Spinning the ‘protagonist’ wheel we had ‘Leora who likes to visit Israel’ and the ‘action’ wheel produced ‘wears a disguise’.

3. A ‘final sentence’ straw gave us ‘the stain on the wall’ which was my favourite story of the night and Denny said the best story I’d ever written… so, it may well end up in an eBook anthology.

I used the Toolbox again at NLG’s Writing Circle Tuesday 4th October for a sentence start ‘Michael sat down in the middle of the road and started to cry’… with 12 of us writing from that it produced some wonderfully varied results. We’d started off with Alan’s 4-minute single word of ‘Paint’ (which we now have to hone to a 500-word max story for the 1st November meeting) and after ‘Michael’ we each wrote the beginning sentence (or therabouts) of a story and passed it to our left neighbour who wrote a bit more and so on until we received our own back. Again this produced some weird (very) and wonderful results.

Monday 19th September

1. Fill in a word association word web (http://eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/pdf/clusterweb2.pdf is an example), starting with the word ‘free’ then pick 5 of the words you created (mine were tumble, naked, black, hair, soap) and write a piece including those words. You could of course pick another 5 for another piece… and so on.

2. Devise a ‘story ingredients’ table (i.e. a column of characters, traits, conflicts, locations and objects) then pick one (or more) from each column. Mine were ghost / 4-year-old, scared, in a hurry, post office and photograph.

3. Sentence start: I realised what had happened when…

Monday 5th September

1. First person piece using a single word prompt ‘spring’ (this turned out to be quite hard for most of us – I picked it because editors usually work 6-months in advance but choosing a season, although Denny picked a child’s toy train spring, was easier said than done… literally)

2. Second person piece using the title of ‘The three keys’.

3. Third person piece including the words ‘top’, ‘mean’, ‘enjoy’, and ‘conversation’.

Monday 29th August (a bank holiday in the UK so no critique meeting so I set these extras)

1. Pick 5 (or more) words, at random, from any magazine and/or pictures and fit them into a story;

2. Write a story prompted by the word ‘sign’;

3. Write a story starting with ‘As Betty stared through the shop window’;

4. Re-write any one of the above using dialogue only.

Monday 22nd August

1. Single word prompt ‘best’

2. Include the words ‘France’, ‘tune’, ‘whistle’, ‘repetitive’ and ‘none’. Some of us struggled with ‘none’… I got mine in the last sentence just as the time was up.

3. Sentence start: As Ingrid opened the drawer.

4. Take one of these three stories and either change the point of view from one character to another and/or change the tense.

Monday 8th August

1. Single word prompt ‘Sunday’

2. Sentence start: ‘It felt as if he was going nowhere’

3. Four keywords to use in a story: paper, red, nut, stapler.

Monday 25th July

1. One-word prompt: ‘bind’

2. Haiku poem (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) with two prompt slips (mine were ‘flood’ and ‘covering up a mistake’)…we all did it but two of us (including me) couldn’t get less than 6 syllables on the final line:

It was the spring flood

that concealed the body

Jack hadn’t meant to kill.

3. Keywords: red, curtains, face, vicar and laugh.

4. Sentence start: It was only the child screaming that…

Monday 13th June

1. I handed out packs containing half a dozen magazine ‘people’ photos and asked the group to choose their favourite and complete the attached form to get to know their character (I had a grumpy 50-something clown called John).

2. That character then walked in a room and recognised someone else, another character from the pack or from their own imagination, to a good or bad conclusion. John went to a party at a hall (in normal clothing) and spotted a 20-something child’s aunt from a birthday party some years back.

3. We stared a story with ‘He/her rested his/her fingers on…’ and I picked a picture of a rather nerdy young German violinist and wrote about him treating the instrument as if it were a girlfriend.

4. Write something incorporating the words ‘roast’, ‘photograph’, ‘green’ and ‘Russell/rustle’.

Monday 30th May

1. A piece inspired by the word ‘Case’.

2. A piece including the following 5 words: system / lilac / format / wire / smooth

3. Pick a newspaper or magazine photograph of someone you don’t know (i.e. not a celebrity) and write their characteristics e.g name, age, address, height, quirk, favourite food, job (if they have one), sport, favourite TV programme etc. then using your character write a piece with them having to make an important phone call.

4. Sentence start: ‘As Francesca picked the book off the shelf…’

Monday 2nd May

1. From any of the pictures in this link, write a story about one of these characters learning something new.

2. Write a piece of flash fiction (200 words max) to include the words: settle, purple, river and junk.

3. To write a story (any length) including the sentence beginning (can be at the start or not): If only she’d realised that…

Monday 21st March

1. First person (I) using the prompt ‘Spring’.

2. Second person (you) using the sentence start ‘You think you’ve done everything’.

3. Third person (he/she) including the words ‘seat’, ‘black’, ‘frozen’ and ‘run’.

4. Write a piece with any p.o.v. incorporating these four words: soul, curve, rain and television.

Monday 7th February

1. One-word prompt: circus.

2. Four words to be included in a story (brownie points for 55, 60 or 100-worders): well, lemonade, green, dictionary.

3. We picked some pictures of men with a prompt that one of them had to give another/the others/or his wife/girlfriend some bad news.

Monday 24th January (concentrating on ‘titles’)

1. The Solo… (item or performance?)

2. The light on the ceiling

3. The making of Amber Glass (item or person’s name?)

4. Flight path

5. Sweet and sour

…with an added complication of writing at least one of them as pure dialogue, i.e. no ‘he said’, ‘she said’, no description or commentary of any kind. Whilst it sounds a headache we all rose to the challenge, in fact we all wrote most of them as dialogue and it worked really well.

Monday 3rd January 2011

1. Prompt: Cold Snap

2. Sentence start: The pod dropped to the ground and a green light…

3. Four words to include in a start/flash fiction: pie, mug, hair, bicycle.

Monday 13th December 2010

1. Continue the sentence start: ‘Connie could almost feel the frog bouncing around at the back of her throat’
2. Include four words in a short piece of fiction: I produced a 150-worder with merry, stand-up, private and blade.
3. Single-word prompt: fairy

Monday 15th November 2010

1. Single-word prompt: ‘calm’ (I wrote a piece about three people in a nursing home/psychiatric hospital where the son was sitting under a table trying to calm his mother who was pacing the floor)

2. Four words to be included: mine were new, point, camera and lolly (which produced a scene where a domineering husband disapproved of his wife spending so much ‘lolly’ on a new camera but she gets her own back)

3. Male picture prompts with scenarios: my picture was of two old men in a pub with a dog in between and the prompt was ‘He’s confused by his partner’s actions’ (Nora’s getting frisky!).

4. Sentence start: Sebastian looked at her blankly, was this supposed to mean something?

Creative Copy Challenge

There’s a great website http://creativecopychallenge.com which regularly provides 10 keywords for you to include in a story. You can find one set (in the order they were given) in ‘The Big Game’ in my Story A Day May 2011 31-story collection and here are some to be going on with:

#281: Risk, Worship, Hide, Task, Rebellion, Reveal, Ignite, Hall, Transmission, Table

#280: Sign, Plume, Call, Dawn, Long, Way, Turn, Doubt, Keep, Say

#279: Empty, Motion, Carve, Energy, Wish, Pass, Taste, Memory, Ideal, Depth

#278: Panacea, Disingenuous, Tenuous, Pandemic, Etymology, Tenebrous, Murine, Adumbrate, Panegyric, Verdigris

#277: Thrill, Sound, Burn, Feel, Consume, Sand, Easy, Smile, Tug, Dust

#276: Ridiculous, Sublime, Anarchy, Glasses, Business card, Headsets, Lighthouse, Raisin, Wine, Initials

#275: Diocese, Anthropologist, Judge, Fish, Baker, Chromosome, Derby, Handicapped, Drum, Parliament

#274: Pale, Dust, Wolves, Lurid, Grandfather, Shallow, Watch, Glass, Sleep, Old

#273: Scream, Stack, Ring, Quick, Sour, Funny, Twist, Kick, Overdue, Trade

#272: Rumination, Determine, Ostentatious, Illogical, Memory, Cohorts, Excess, Timidly, Notorious, Admonishing

#271: Chew, Night, Matter, Heart, Crime, Control, Whole, Young, Count, Plug

#270: Little, Animal, Empty, Awake, Hold, Grip, Crazy, Wise, Sink, Alone

#269: Split, Lace, Tender, Liquid, Path, Tension, Tears, Whole, Miss, Crop

#268: Hero, Score, Box, Ticket, Eye, Speed, Pour, Shadow, Change, Stop

#267: Slick, Creamy, Fly, Charm, Breeze, Straight, Flow, Kink, Zoom, Clip

#266: Afraid, Ruin, Throw, Reflect, Breathe, Flank, Stretch, Flame, Plenty, Slip

#265: Animal, Perfect, Grace, Dark, Control, Bow, Break, Behind, Chance, Cover

#264: Blubber, Stride, Pitch, Filter, Sound, Perhaps, Crop, Cheap, Frame, Roll

#263: Chase, Well, Gold, Companion, Control, Quarter, Woke, Float, Remember, Direct

#262: Electric, Dash, Force, Primary, Fight, Blame, Sick, Shiver, Deep, Blur

#261: Jaw, Boners, Stashed, Urine, Guy, Coral, Zest, Overpaid, Wig, Wetly

#260: Pain, Hook, Save, Pretty, Sweet, Home, Lady, Tonight, Thrill, Ramble

#259: Gnu, Foxed, Uncharacteristically, Zombie, Sketchbook, Xenophobia, Polyunsaturated, Incoherent, Blackberry, Gnarly

#258: Sound, Solitude, Plain, Afraid, Face, Step, Matter, Hollow, Wave, Reflection

#257: Fight, Give, Due, Burn, Thinking, Heavy, Force, Account, Reason, Vile

#256: Power, Are you?, Cord, Stairs, Brown, Storm, Adjust, Paid, Special, Count

#255: Pressure, Smile, Rose, Blind, Acing, Hope, Ridiculous, Savior, Hunter, Cactus

#254: Pain, Random, Strip, Grass, Move, Complete, Melt, Modern, Thrash, Forward

#253: Long, Standard, Wide, Scale, Form, Dome, Depth, Spring, Stamp, Remember

#252: Sketch, Tear, Electric, Mild, Explicit, Hold, Ill, New, Hang, Care

#251: Sand, Beep, Pound, Vibrate, Shudder, Rock, Sequence, Short, Sound, Pull

#250: Foreign, Identity, Memory, Strangers, Decode, Uncertain, Fear, Lost, Escape, Zap

#249: Victim, Impervious, Position, Check, Burn, Quick, Clean, Silk, Run, Sharp

#248: Unite, Shadow, Waste, Down, City, Yeah, Whatever, Live, Juice, Belong

#247: Throw, Hit, Share, Rush, Roll, High, Auto, Low, Enter, Blur

#246: Trapeze, Costumes, Sparkling, Peanut Butter, Daring, Juggler, Symphony, Balancing, Extravaganza, Contortionist

#245: Middle, Content, Wall, Wonder, Roam, Reach, Clash, Run, Long, Chill

#244: Die, Line, Highway, Realize, Hate, Mistake, Drive, Why, Mood, Rate

#243: Pop, Grow, Enough, Different, Truth, Stand, Empty, Sacrifice, Varied, Top

#242: Sink, Bag, Hour, Miss, Raise, Cold, Understand, Light, Now, Promise

#241: Waste, Pick, Overdue, Darling, Riot, Disgust, Break, Way, Choke, Smile

#240: Office, Early, Hidden, Blind, Stout, Heading, Drab, Flow, Feed, Silent

#239: Delusion, Shredded, Poutine, Platitude, Severed, Wonky, Minx, Sassy, Mounts

#238: Bizarre, Party, Clean, Cover, Fire, Hole, Jack, Tall, Started, Sneak

#237: Dust, Dark, Lovely, Chord, Reaction, Remember, Please, Voice, Wake, Welcome

#236: Birth, Simple, Kill, Mouth, Save, Everlasting, Spite, Root, Stretch, Early

#235: Wicked, Ride, Slew, Span, Refuse, Seed, Stupid, Flung, Wail, Brutal

#234: Wonder, Faster, Let go, Light, Honey, Sleep, Company, Breathe, Home, Awake

#233: Bucket, Bizarre, Underground, Birth, Lace, Hurry, Mud, Armor, Past, Ashes

#232: Master, Crumble, Pass, Pump, Vein, Dark, Taste, Obey, Burn, Twist

#231: Hurry, High, Carry, Damage, Resistance, Crazy, Candle, Spite, Quit, Real

#230: Strike, Tough, Half, Swear, Whisper, Different, Hock, Cry, Shot, Slippery

#229: Younger, Stood, Change, Reaction, Inside, Anger, Power, Believe, Art, Secret

#228: Number, Rock, Gas, Fast, Tense, Deep, Reason, Trace, Flame, Element

#227: Chase, Rude, Iron, Devil, Space, Outcry, Suggest, Overt, Hold, Massive

#226: Under, Success, Scene, Model, Arrive, Door, Hopeless, Cloud, Pop, Smash

#225: Strange, Track, Whatever, Band, Crush, Private, Leave, Wild, Recipe, Slang

#224: Contain, Pretend, Knock, Vision, Wonderful, Fun, Magic, Count, Grab, Seal

#223: Turn, Time, Tide, Struck, Shift, Sell, Dominate, Retain, Slip, Root

#222: Load, Protect, Copy, Worry, Hang, Silent, Mistake, Slight, Break, Power

#221: Obsess, Ride, Wave, Cold, Elusive, Follow, Bare, Without, Simple, Corner

#220: Ride, Reason, Listen, Answer, Start, Wait, Sick, Think, Popular, Few

#219: Move, Chair, Network, Lift, Punish, Pass, Fast, Speak, Crack, Clip

#218: Become, Wait, See, Freeze, Scream, Take, Amaze, Spin, Step, Hit

#217: Paucity, Pretentious, Fringe, Acrasia, Bother, Circumlocution, Alternate, Dozer, Balmy, Bent

#216: Score, Puck, Goalie, Winger, Referee, Stick, Helmet, Defense, Hooking, Brawl

#215: Fidget, Carnal, Floodgates, Ensconced, Gaseous, Alacrity, Callipygian, Taco, Grouch, Foreskin

#214: Badass, Fear, Uncertainty, Excuses, Linchpin, Limitations, Resistance, Defy, Bullshit (BS if preferred), Huge-ass latte

#213: Lethargy, Carbuncle, Meritocracy, Husbandry, Ornithopter, Enclave, Barrister, Syncopated, Detritus, Sumpter

#212: Concierge, Detritus, Energy, Annoying, Fester, Apology, No, Emerge, Stellar, Tired

#211: Deletion, Disclaimer, Wretched, Justifiably, Unshaded, Calliper, Sundacarpus, Flashy, Dwellings, Handicraft

#210: Narrow, Shallow, Broken, Sign, Straight, Chase, Screen, Sneak, Luck, Between

#209: Precious, Fragile, Special, Handle, Done, Damage, Silver, Plan, Trust, Little

#208: Break, Hot, Chamber, Praise, Down, Shot, Critical, Outrage, Cut, Living

#207: Resolution, Arbitration, Masturbation, Matriculation, Saturation, Exacerbation, Stimulation, Fixation, Personification, Elation

#206: Bodacious, Scalpel, Augmentation, Precision, Silicone, Cup, Increase, Surgeon, Delicate, Snowflake

#205: Climb, Party, Ask, Dumb, Fire, Pan, Amount, Total, Stuck, Power

#204: Tiny, Blue, Dance, Freak, Laugh, Tune, Sheet, Busy, Always, Count

#203: Sting, Clear, Mass, Waiver, Choose, Open, Visit, Pride, Line, Heal

#202: Lid, Low, Flow, Heavy, Crush, Loud, Ache, Stolen, Mind, Cure

#201: Ambitious, Bright, Fighting, Luckiest, Excitable, Wise, Yuletide, Eggnog, Rooster, Howitzer

#200: Celebrate, Cerebral, Clever, Continuous, Captivating, Cacophony, Crushing, Creative, Copy, Challenge

#199: Peanut Butter, Privileged, Holiday, Clueless, Golf club, Orange, Frightened, Legs, Miracle, Knob

#198: Pirate, Rum, Buccaneer, Deadhead, Pistols, Barrel, Pantaloons, Brig, Swashbuckling, Groupies

#197: Hold, Know, Noise, Long, Believe, Quiet, Soft, Fall, Stone, Lost

#196: Eye, Heat, Rise, Dream, Survive, Fast, Will, Thrill, Stalk, Hunger

#195: Fail, Trivia, Master, Dirt, Swerve, Memory, Drive, Bed, Touch, Right

#194: Put, Point, Bizarre, Weave, Spiral, Weird, Goofy, Pop, Cult, Fan

#193: Gentle, Sweat, Guide, Design, Simple, Full, Borrow, Trace, Technique, Flip

#192: Run, Break, Give, Take, Stand, Leave, Promise, Fade, Make, Look

#191: Chocolate, Frost, Icicles, Sparkles, Bitter, Cutting, Pike, Toque, Crampons, Seductive

#190: Suck, Will, Love, Great, Surround, Fluid, Big, Me, Enough, Move

#189: Shy, Ground, Luck, Treat, Touch, Face, Desire, Need, Urgent, Done

#188: Collywobbles, Collie, Wobbles, Holly, Slow, Slower, Turtle, Rabbit, Cat, Kat

#187: Erroneous, Advent, Innocuous, Decisions, Virility, Catacombs, Weathering, Placate, Catatonic, Gelatinous

#186: Happy, High, Sunny, Blue, Feathers, Horns, Diamonds, Grass, Fire, Stars

#185: Loquacious, Sedentary, Artistic, Voracious, Fluorescent, Rad, Delicious, Rotund, Decapitate, Slimy

#184: Codex, Defenestrate, Gizzard, Headology, Gelid, Catheter, Reincarnation, Shazam, Resilience, Burn

#183: Yesterday, Apocalypse, Gone, Empty, Desolate, Forbidden, Time, Eyes, Know, Vacant

#182: Exacting, Libation, Masturbatory, Losenge, Gargle, Sumptuous, Degraded, Cardamom, Nefarious, Syncopated

#181: Walk, Face, Too late, Change, Point, Deceive, Believe, Crack, Fall, Spend

#180: It’s been so long, You never know, Why should I?, Original, Odd, Humor, Influence, Sense, High, Luck

#179: Bone, Bore, Bunk, Blow, Break, Beat, Bleed, Bloom, Budge, Bend

#178: Log, Long, Lucky, Loose, Love, Lick, Lips, Lemon, Least, Legal

#177: Thing, Try, Test, Twist, Think, Trust, Thank, Treat, Twice, Thick

#176: Justify, Return, Request, Pay, Don’t, Stop, Deck, Lock, Never, Away

#175: Do, Run, Go, Stop, Slice, Piece, Get, Give, Eye, Tear

See the website for previous ones and they bet you that you can’t do it (I’ve done a few).

So, plenty to choose from if you’re ever stuck for a story (and I will be updating this page at least every fortnight) and / or you could take a look at my sentence starts page for many other sentence beginnings.