Creative writing exercise: random first line prompt

If you want to write and you feel stuck when you are trying to compose, you can try a random first line generator. There are a variety of random first line generators on the internet. Here is a link to the one that I used: Random first line generator

The adventure begins…

Your first step in this writing activity is to go to the random first line generator (the link is above), and click “generate a first line.” It will give you a first line. If you really dislike the first line that you are given, click “generate a first line” again, and it will give you a different one. How cool is that?


Once you have your first line, you are set to write. I suggest doing a timed writing, starting with the generated line. I will now set the alarm on my cell phone to let me know when my fifteen minutes have expired. Setting a time limit is your only rule, other than “have fun.”


Let your imagination be in charge. I wasn’t planning on writing a fractured fairy tale but… there it is!

He had never seen so many homeless people in one place but there they were. They were standing up against the wall, as if they were afraid that the wall would collapse if they walked away. They were sitting on the floor, staring dimly at the dust and cobwebs. They were walking around, somewhat disoriented. A few of them tried to walk outside but were stopped by guards.
“We are expecting another tornado. It’s likely to be more devastating than the one that blew away your houses. Do you want to be a statistic?”
Some argued with the guards, saying that they were already statistics. They had become statistics because their houses blew away as if they were made of straw or of matchsticks. They said that they had to get back home because of the big bad wolf.
“There is no big bad wolf,” the guard said. Oddly enough, that guard looked just like the big, bad wolf. When he opened his mouth, he showed a set of fangs and canines that frightened the smallest of the newly homeless people in the basement of this building.
The little one looked at the guard with the fangs and said that he really was the big, bad wolf. Then he started to cry loudly and dramatically. The guard looked at the little one and immediately started thinking of ways to eat him for supper because he was the big, bad wolf in disguise.
He remembered the day that he tried to get a meal of roast pork. First he went to one piggy’s house. That piggy’s house was made of straw. Those were in the days when he was playing the trumpet so he had a lot of air. He blew and he blew and he blew and down came the house. Aha, he thought, that was his chance for a meal of delicious roast pork. He stepped over the rubble of the straw and walked into the house, which had been vacated. He checked the refrigerator and there was nothing but moldy cheese and dried up bread.
He was mad. That was not an appropriate meal for a big bad wolf.
But it was just a memory. He managed to get the job of being a disaster relief coordinator/security guard for the humans. He was hoping that it would be easier to catch humans than it would be to catch a bunch of little piggies. The only problem was that big, bad wolves usually didn’t find humans to be appetizing. He was no different. He would have to put his meal in a marinade for weeks to get rid of the aftertaste generated by eating the unappetizing humans. But, then again, what was he going to do? He wasn’t able to catch the piggies in the house made of sticks… and that brick house… well, he used all of his air supply so he wasn’t even able to play the trumpet anymore. He was not a happy camper.
So here he was, disguised as a human, getting ready for a meal, even if it was a small meal, like that very tiny human. He bided his timed, waiting for the humans to slip up and give him the little one on a platter.
But, alas, that did not happen. He decided, instead, that he would focus on something but his empty tummy. But what…
…marinade. That is a cool word. That’s the sauce. When you actually cook the food and add the marinade, you are marinating the food.
Well, he was still thinking of food.
He decided to think of music. Maybe Christmas music. After all, Christmas was just a few weeks ago. He started singing Christmas songs in this basement full of refugees from the tornado. Then he started thinking about Christmas dinner because thoughts of food always entered his head. Ahhh, Christmas ham and applesauce and vegetables. So delicious. Once again, he was still thinking about food.
He started talking with one of the female humans. She was very sweet. Ahhh, sweetness. He liked sweet food. His tummy started growling in happy anticipation. Dessert. Apple crisp. It was almost too good to be true. He walked away with the female human and went back to his job of pacing the floor in the emergency shelter. He paced the floor so many that some of the real humans complained that he was taking up too much space. He decided that it might be nice if he bit a few of them. His human disguise was wearing out, and he wanted to enjoy wolfdom once again…

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