When I was a junior in high-school my English teacher, Ms. Davis, gave us a creative writing assignment that I thought was fun and easy. It was supposed to teach us the importance of the first sentence of a novel. The attention grabber. People are meant to pick up a book in a store or library, glance at the first sentence, and read on if so inclined or toss aside if not.
We didn't have to write a famous first sentence because we were idiot 16-year olds who lived in a small town in Kansas and didn't know about the Internet, yet. Besides, professional writers had already done that for us. She gave us a list of sentences from books that most people read as juniors and snicker at the swear words and frank depictions of angst and sex that ruins characters. I chose The Fountainhead. The first sentence (although technically two) is : "Howard Roark laughed. He stood naked at the edge of a cliff." I don't know if that is precise; I'm doing it from memory and that was many bong hits ago.
Our assignment was to write a suitable first paragraph to follow that sentence. The thing was, we weren't allowed to read the books or anything other than that sentence. In fact, we didn't even know the titles at the time. So I wrote a paragraph that introduced the local preacher of a small town who was about to plunge to his death. Thankfully I don't have a record of the actual words I wrote, but needless to say, mine was mocked a little in class. Even the teacher threw in a guffaw. I didn't mind, because most everyone's were pretty weird. But they were fun, too.
Doing something like that was tough because we all had to put ourselves out there. She read them all anonymously, and you felt really proud when she read yours, and then a little miffed when everyone dismissed it. However, it was a great exercise so that we could all get over ourselves and be a little creative. Besides, I still remember my sentence after eleven long years (if not verbatim).
Even now, I read the first sentence of books and stop to contemplate how I would continue the story. It's fun; you might like to try it next time you pick up an unfamiliar book. Try this one: "The barometer of his emotional nature was set for a spell of riot."
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One of my best writing assignments involved us each pulling a name, location, and mode of transportation out of a hat. We then had to write a story which revolved around those things. I chose Alaska, Mr. Carriger, and Camaro. I wrote about a girl leaving her home of Alaska in an old camaro, who picks up a hitch-hiker, and then runs into a serial killer named Mr. Carriger who is supposedly an English teacher at a seminar in Whitehorse. That was kind of fun. I like your project, too. Writing and imagination are fun.
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