Ten Openers

A little while ago, one of my online friends said she'd hit the bottom of the creative well. There were some solutions bandied about and then the wise Dr. Phil (physics) recommended an exercise he picked up at Clarion. Write ten short-story first sentences in ten minutes. Write the first sentence only and don't edit, trying to incorporate the things you like to write about.

Jeri had some really good ones, and I've been thinking about doing it ever since. Then yesterday, Eric started talking about short stories and had a little game going, asking readers to contribute six-word short stories in the comments. So this morning, since it's hard to concentrate on anything for any length of time, I decided to go ahead and do it. I've been thinking about getting back into writing again for some time, and I keep telling myself that when the baby comes and I'm off work for a couple weeks, I'll do some writing, so hopefully this will kick things off. I'm totally satisfied with all of them, but there are a few in there that I like.

1. With the clerk's mouth magiced closed, Merlin could browse the blenders in peace.

2. "I don't care what you were told," the head custodian said. "Botched science experiments have their own dumpster!"

3. HeroMan spotted the criminals with his super-human vision and launched himself off the building, however, he forgot to activate the control module on his flight pack.

4. Dr. Stenner, veteranarian, looked at the chart one more time before beginning the operation; he had to triple check the procedure before he neutered the Wolfman.

5. Dead air hissed from the radio, and Gertrude as at the very edge of sleep when a voice called to her through the airwaves.

6. The monkeys had never shown that kind of behavior in test conditions before.

7. As a last ditch effort, calamatous Sam Winston set the homing beacon for his location, forgetting that he was completely outside the frequency range of the rest of his squad.

8. "If at first you don't succeed, add some more eye of newt," Wyatt the Wonderous told his captive audience of 6-year-olds.

9. Connor ducked behind the fallen tree as another volley of arrows flashed by in the space where his head had just been.

10. "All I need is a flashlight and a length of rope, and I'll get your bigfoot situation all cleared up ma'am."