Ten Minutes to Spare?

I love taking part in what I call 'quick writes' - taking a writing prompt and running with it for a set time. I use this with groups of adults and children alike. It's quite something to see everyone with their heads down and scribbling away. Somehow the pressure of working like this lights that creative spark for me, though I understand some people find the pressure a bit of a strain. The same activity would also good for a writing warm-up to be undertaken in the solitary confinement of your own writing space. 


For this activity you choose a storyline from one set of boxes and a genre from the other, then write for ten minutes without stopping. 

A woman/man walks into a room and finds a character of the opposite sex they weren’t expecting.	Two people meet on a bridge and one hands over a package.	A person climbs a cliff and someone is waiting for them at the top.
Something to do with the weather results in school girl being discovered as a blackmailer.	A group from a village Women's Institute win a competition to go on safari together.	While snooping around her employer's house a babysitter is and finds something disturbing.
A character hopes for a fresh start at their new school, but arriving on their first day they encounter someone they have met before.	Your character suspects their partner is having an affair and decides to spy on them. What they discover is unexpected.	A character buys an antique urn for their home, but when they get it home, they find there are ashes in it.

horror	historical	romantic
chick lit	sci-fi	fantasy
crime	rags to riches	war