Wandering the internet this morning, I found a list of fifty “topics.” I put that word in quotes because even though they call them topics, they read more like first sentences or sentence starters. It doesn’t give you much to go on.That, however, is part of the reason I liked it. The clips or sentences are short, yet evocative. They can take you in a hundred different directions, but each one will definitely take you somewhere. Use this when you feel as though you can’t get out of your own head and see what ends up on paper.

1. Everyone else was laughing.
2. On the other side of that door
3. Late again
4. What I’ve always wanted
5. A sound I’d never heard before
6. What if . . .
7. The last time I saw him
8. At that moment I should have left.
9. Just a brief encounter
10. I knew how it felt to be an outsider.
11. Hidden away in the back of a drawer
12. What I should have said
13. Waking up in a strange room
14. There were signs of trouble.
15. Keeping a secret
16. All I have left is this photo.
17. It wasn’t really stealing.
18. A place I pass by every day
19. Nobody can explain what happened next.
20. Staring at my reflection
21. I should have lied.
22. Then the lights went out.
23. Some might say it’s a weakness.
24. Not again!
25. Where I’d go to hide out from everyone
26. But that’s not my real name.
27. Her side of the story
28. Nobody believed us.
29. It was time to change schools again.
30. We climbed to the top.
31. The one thing I’ll never forget
32. Follow these rules and we’ll get along fine.
33. It may not be worth anything.
34. Never again
35. On the other side of the street
36. My father used to tell me
37. When nobody was looking
38. If I could do it over again
39. Of course it was illegal.
40. It wasn’t my idea.
41. Everyone was staring at me.
42. It was a stupid thing to say.
43. Hiding under my bed
44. If I tell you the truth
45. My secret collection
46. Footsteps in the dark
47. The first cut is the deepest.
48. Trouble, big trouble
49. Laughing uncontrollably
50. It was just a game to them.