Writing games are tricks, exercises, things to try to get your writing brain in the mood. I find them useful when a story's giving me trouble - I can't think of a way out of the corner, or I can't think of a corner to get into, or I'm just not feeling in the right mood to write that story - as well as generating new ideas, and just keeping my writing-mind in shape. And on the plus side, they're usually fun to try, and you can end up with the germs of some great little stories.

Someone Else's Sentence

Take the book nearest you*, flip it open to a random page. Close your eyes, point to a paragraph. Choose the sentence in that paragraph that most appeals to you. Not the one you think might be 'easiest', or fits best with what you're already thinking, the sentence that you find most interesting, most creative, most evocative. The one that resonates. You can only pick one.

That's your opening sentence. Word for word, copy it down. Now, your next sentence cannot be anything like the one that comes after your chosen sentence in the book. It must be completely different in intention, in direction of plot, everything^. Think it up, write it down. Now shut the book, and put it down.

You have your opening two sentences. Start writing.

* Unless it's a maths book, or a book on biochemistry. Oddly enough, I've found this actually works quite well with physics textbooks.

^ You set the second one up so that you're not tempted to go back to the book and just paraphrase what they've written. The first one gives you your hook, the second one turns that hook in a new direction.