Writing Exercise to exercise your mind :)

Jumping back to my September post on writing...sometimes I like being given specific writing exercises. While I enjoy the freedom of free writes and choosing our own topics, sometimes it's nice to be given rules to write by. It definitely helps the writer's block. Anyway, here's an example of a fun little writing exercise we did that gets you out of a writing rut. 

It's called "55 word story"...these were the instructions:

Write a 55-word story that contains a full narrative arc. Your first sentence should have ten words; your second sentence should have nine words; your third sentence should have eight words, and so on, until your final sentence, which should be one word. It's a challenge! You can use a character that you created in a previous writing exercise for this class, or you can create a new character. 
As you write, continually ask yourself "What if?" It's also helpful to think in terms of a small unit of time: the time it takes for water to boil, to walk to the store, to take a bus, and so forth. 

And this was what I came up with:

Mark paused, then nervously walked into the dim, smoky pub.

It had been years since he had gone sober.

But tonight he felt he needed to drink.

It was his birthday and nobody remembered. 

He sat down at the bar.

"Your ID?" asked the bartender.

He contemplated his poison.

"Happy birthday, man.

Whatcha want?"

"Coffee."