'Oomph' #2

After the successful first series of sentences designed to give a lagging tale some 'oomph', here's another batch of story inspiring sentences to jump-start a sluggish story. And if you think of any, don't be shy, share them with the class!


-He/she/I picked up the newspaper next to me. The headline read, 'Escaped Cannibal Sheep Still On The Lam'.

-(Insert character name) lit a cigarette and cruelly blew smoke into the face of a passing cat.

-SUDDENLY EVERYTHING BECAME VERY LOUD!!!

-There was a pause, but it wasn't long enough to warrant writing a longer sentence about it.

-"Do you smell gas?" (insert character name) sniffed.

-All at once the lights went out, and when they came back on a second later an enormous wheel of cheese had appeared on the table.

-"What's that?" he/she said as he/she held the phone tighter in their hand, "A band of rabid monkeys is heading this way?!"

-"(Insert character name), I have a secret to tell you," he/she said, "I have a condition. Whenever I talk I put weird pronunciations on words that don't need them. It's called Shatner Syndrome."

-Her coat fell off and all of a sudden (insert character name) realised that his date wasn't a woman, but actually three chimps standing on one another's shoulders.

-Minutes later the scotch tape came unstuck and his leg fell clean off.

-The plot thickened. Then it thinned a little.

-Suddenly there was a sound of smashing glass. Everyone turned to look. Standing in the window was Steven Seagal, dressed as a seagull and bleeding profusely.

-"Stop!" he/she/I shouted, "Hammer-time!"

-Then, just as a lull in the plot had crept in, a furious debate over who was better, Batman or Superman, began.

-(Insert character name) interrupted their conversation. "Did I leave the iron on?"

'Oomph'

Don't you hate it when you're writing a story and suddenly you just get a bit... well, stuck. The story might suddenly seem to drag and you can't write a way out, or maybe you've hit an unexpected dramatic dead-end in the plot and don't know where to go from there, or maybe you've lost the inspiration to keep writing a particular section. Well fear not. Some of these suggestions will put the 'oomph' back into any story. Just insert one of these sentences at the point where you've got stuck and then write from there using the sentence as a cue! Simples!

-Just then, a dinosaur entered.

-"So, how 'bout that Internet, eh?" (insert character name) asked.

-Suddenly the face of Gary Busey appeared on every television screen around the world.

-"Ahh..." said (insert character name), "remember the time we were trapped in the canyon and facing that buffalo stampede with just a soup spoon and an inflatable mattress?"

-And then the milkman spontaneously combusted.

-At that moment a clown entered and proceeded to drop his trousers.

-The next day, the Moon Men invaded. They brought ice cream with them.

-Without warning, random gunfire rang out from the nearby Special Effects warehouse.

-There was a sound of glass shattering. He/she/they turned and looked. Standing in window was Steven Seagal, dressed as a cockerel and breathing heavily.

-Suddenly (insert character name) burst in. "Someone's stolen all the toasters!" he/she/they shouted.

-"Don't look now," (insert character name) said quietly, "but a weasel has just crawled up your trouser leg."

-In the morning a lawyer called at the house to tell (insert character's name) that their rich uncle had died and left them his 'former-abbatoir-turned-mansion' to them, so long as they spend one whole night in it.

-And then he/she/ woke up, only to find a badger had gained entry to their bedroom and was eating the alarm clock.

-Too late I/he/she/they realised that the brush salesman I/he/she/they had invited in was actually a ravenous bear.

-Suddenly everyone burst into song, belting out the lyrics to the Lemon Tree song until their voices were hoarse.

-That night, at the Wood-Choppers' Ball, fisticuffs broke out.

-Twenty four hours went by before anything of interest happened. And then...

-The phone rang. It was The President of the Federated States of Micronesia calling. And he was pissed as hell.