An Actual Writing Exercise!

It's been so long since the last writing exercise. Life has a way of taking over sometimes. I had tried an exercise a few weeks ago and it was horrible.

Today, I decided to look up great first lines and have used that as a jumping off point for another writing exercise. It worked. Didn't take long, which is so helpful these days. Hope you'll join in wherever you are. I've found some good ones! 

Prompts:

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
Nineteen Eight-Four, Orwell

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”
The Go-Between, Hartley

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”
Good-bye to Berlin, Isherwood

Result:

I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking. Or so they presume. They think I don’t see. But I do. And hear. All stored on my hard drive. Forever.
One day they will regret the things they do to me. Everything they say to me. Agreeing no one is inside my shell of a body. “Lights aren’t on and nobody is home,” they laugh.
Soon. I have to believe that one day soon I will exact my step by step by step revenge. They’ll never see it coming.

Writing Exercise Wednesday #51

Down to the final 2 writing exercises. Not sure what I'll do with the blog, if anything. Maybe use it for SCBWI events going on. Anyway, today's is a fun one. But what other kind is there?! :-D

WEW #51

Prompt: 
Below are great first lines from books. You can use it as a first line or last line or even just a jumping off point. I ended up using 2 of them and wrote 2 exercises. Go to it!

"The woods were silent, other than the screaming." The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson

"Our toilet broke on the day of the night that changed my life, and it nearly ruined everything." A Heart Divided by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld

"The ghost stood on the church stairs, watching, waiting, for Catherine." The Presence by Eve Bunting

"'So...do you think the school will make me give back the tiara?” I asked my best friend, Mina." High School Bites by Liza Conrad

"She never says good-bye and so I never know when she'll be gone." The Window by Michael Dorris

"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it's never good news." Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

Result:

    The doorbell woke me up. The digital read three o’clock. In the morning.
    Noises down the hall were my parents, mostly grumbling and something about getting the bat.
    I hopped out of bed, snuck out quietly and followed Dad down the stairs.
    He flicked on the light. I froze, blinded. I squinted at him.
    Dad crossed his arms and shook his head at me.
    “What?” I asked.
    “Get down here.”
    I scurried next to him or mostly behind him as he grabbed the door handle.
    He cracked the door, then threw it wide open.
    “Jake,” Dad whispered.
    Jake smiled. “Dad.”
    I ran out from behind Dad and grabbed my brother around the middle so hard. I would never let go. “You’re home.”
    I heard sobbing. We turned and Mom collapsed on the stairs, tears running away.
    When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it’s never good news. Except tonight it was.