{"id":1653,"date":"2010-04-21T16:44:22","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T08:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2010-04-21T16:49:13","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T08:49:13","slug":"story-starters-exercise-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/21\/story-starters-exercise-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Story Starters exercise #1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1151\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/28\/young-writers-seminar-and-a-submission\/theliterary\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/theliterary.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"400,80\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"theliterary\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/theliterary.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1151\" title=\"theliterary\" src=\"http:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/theliterary.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/theliterary.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/theliterary-300x60.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ok, this was on twitter. I got a starter sentence from @jolantru and suddenly wrote some <em>thing<\/em> to continue it before it hit 5pm. Here it is! I might do other story starters for fun like an exercise. The sentence was, &#8220;<strong>The book disintegrated in my hands. I cringed, dreading the  feel of dead paper on skin.<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1266434_blue_owl.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1654\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/21\/story-starters-exercise-1\/1266434_blue_owl\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1266434_blue_owl.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"231,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Hoot.\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1266434_blue_owl.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1654\" title=\"Hoot.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/1266434_blue_owl.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The book disintegrated in my hands.<\/p>\n<p>I cringed, dreading the feel of dead paper on skin.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whoops?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said, looking up at the animals gathered around me.<\/p>\n<p>They were talking animals. Or perhaps I was the one with the ability to understand what they were talking. After all, there were no humans around for me to compare with and I was the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153special\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh my, this does not bode well at all!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d exclaimed Thompson the giraffe.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Look, maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not meant to see my future eh? The future is unseen and all that junk. Make your own future, etcetera! No big deal!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said, shaking the dust off my hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My dear, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. That is the book of oracles. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just poof into nothing for no reason. The last time something like this happened was a decade ago\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Albert the hedgehog.<\/p>\n<p>I looked down onto my shoes, what left of the book was just dust. Yellowish papery dust.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yeah ok, so what happened after that?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The red soldiers came and destroyed the blue forest!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d exclaimed a squirrel.<\/p>\n<p>I turned around looking at each of the animals that gathered around me. They looked so concerned even though I had no idea what they were talking about. It made me want to hug them all for they were such fuzzy things. Except Albert though, he was prickly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forests aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blue. I never saw a blue forest before,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because it was destroyed! We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doomed! Doooomed!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d wailed Thompson.<\/p>\n<p>And everyone started crying and wailing once more. Good grief. Crying animals were not as cute as anyone would like to think it would be. It was more annoying than anything else.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Woah, woah! You guys told me I was the good guy! The person to save all of you, maybe this is a good sign, yes?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said trying to calm them down.<\/p>\n<p>They were still crying and panicking away. Really, I had no idea how they managed to survive all this time when they were under oppression from these red soldiers. I decided to walk away from them and sit by the large oak tree. Their wailings were giving me a headache and I was still wondering how I got into their world. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fall into any holes that I remembered or walked into large wardrobes.<\/p>\n<p>All I did was look into a mirror.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uuuungh, a mirror!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I groaned.<\/p>\n<p>A stupid mirror in the toilet of the oldest block of my school. How was I supposed to get something like that to get back to my own world? It probably would have to do with some epic quest, I guessed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Would you like some tea?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d asked an owl as it swooped down next to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes, that would be lovely,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I answered.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any hands to make some,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the owl.<\/p>\n<p>AUGH, why were the animals around me so, <em>so<\/em> frustrating. I took a deep breath as I looked at the owl on my right. Think positive thoughts, yes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Okay\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Right. Right. So why aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you panicking since I destroyed the book of oracles?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I asked through clenched teeth.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A copy is bound to turn up once more, it always does. I was there when the first one turned to dust,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said the owl primly.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, tell me. What exactly happened then. Maybe I can save you all as <em>they<\/em> say and then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all live happily ever after. Hopefully with me back in my own world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I muttered.<\/p>\n<p>The owl hooted and flapped its wings as it found another perch on a stump a few metres away from me.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It started with a boy named Josh,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ok, this was on twitter. I got a starter sentence from @jolantru and suddenly wrote some thing to continue it before it hit 5pm. Here it is! I might do other story starters for fun like an exercise. The sentence was, &#8220;The book disintegrated in my hands. I cringed, dreading the feel of dead paper &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/21\/story-starters-exercise-1\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Story Starters exercise #1<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[147,184],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-story","tag-story-starter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pf5tJ-qF","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1656,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seriouslysarah.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}