Flashbulbs at (the old) Yankee Stadium (Photo credit: Yogma)

I was perusing the internet the other day in an effort to put off writing something. Suddenly I hit a web site that caught my attention. It was called The Story Starter. Under the header is a blurb that reads, “The Story Starter randomly generates 2,667,073,500 story starters. This idea generator can be used for short stories, novels, plays, scripts, or just for fun. What a great idea, I thought. If you find yourself blocked as often happens just surf over to this site and hit the button. What better way to break the ice of writer’s block. Since I was there I decided to hit the button and see if I could find the next first line or great idea for a short story. So, I rolled up my sleeve, stood at arm’s length from the keyboard and hit the button. This is what appeared; the awkward baseball star watered the lawn close to the skyscraper to avoid the argument.

I scratched my head and read the line again. What if the baseball star had just been cut from the team because he was just too awkward? With no money coming in he took a job with a landscaping company which worked down town. He hated arguments because his parents always argued when he was growing up. He moved away from an argument between his boss and another employee and watered the grass near the skyscraper instead of the area around the fountain. While there a fan recognizes him and asks for an autograph. This simple gesture spurs him to action and he decides to try to improve his awkwardness and, in the long run, his chances at a comeback. Okay, maybe not Pulitzer Prize winning material but it could work. I hit the button again.

I looked at the sentence and thought; I should have stopped after the first one.  The sentence said, “The slow football player built a house in a department store to find the missing horse. Now if by slow the sentence is calling the football player not so smart then I could understand why he wanted to build a house inside a department store but not how that could help him find a missing horse. Maybe if I crank up my Creation Engine I might be able to find a way to make this work. What’s a Creation Engine you ask? Well, I create it when I squeeze my eyes closed really hard and think about an idea and how to make it work. Okay, here goes, my eyes are tightly closed and I’m concentrating on the randomly generated sentence. OUCH! That hurt. Here goes, I think I’ve got something. The football player was being tutored by a girl he has fallen in love with. Her horse is stolen and he gets the idea to hold a “build-a-thon” inside the store, maybe a building supply store of some kind, to raise money to put up as a reward. I think I may have blown a rod in my Creation Engine but this story just might work. Stop your jeering in the back row. I didn’t say it was a great story idea just an idea.

This site is located here www.thestorystarter.com. Even if you don’t use it as intended it’s still fun and who knows, you might get a great idea from this generator or at the very least it may take a chip out of that writer’s block that stands in your way.