This weekend I cooked my first steak in my new place. Just as I was about to take the steak from the pan, the smoke alarms in the kitchen and the two rooms adjoining the kitchen sounded off. Mad scramble between preserving dinner and preserving eardrums aside (man those things are loud), I was rather taken by the idea of an earsplitting alarm to tell you that your steak is done.

So, the writing exercise: your own version of a steak alarm - take an everyday invention (like the smoke alarm) and twist it sideways. You can make it as useful or comical as you like. Now write a story utilising your invention.

One step further - what are the farreaching implications of your invention? For example, if earsplitting alarms are used to notify people of dinner, how would we communicate more important information, such as (for example) your house is on fire?