Two writing exercises; one on periodic sentences and one on reworking a proverb.
Periodic Sentences
He stood under the tree, sheltering from the wind the rain his trammelled mind, and ate his shoe.
She passed through aisle after aisle, cat food for the seven plus, shampoo for nits and scales, she stared at her reflection in the coolers, she listened to the hum and throng, she frowned at the whines and shrieks of dragging toddlers, and then she saw it, tucked behind the pyramid of half-price sweetcorn, a home-made bomb.
He was only three, skipping down the pavement, his mother shouting on her phone, his sister playing hopskotch, when he accidently stepped on a crack, and disappeared.
Molly and Maureen were selling cockles and mussels from a wheelbarrow, singing Alive Alive O, hoiking their spits and hoisting their petticoats, when, from ten storeys above them, a thirteen tonne dragon fell.
From the upstairs bathroom window, little Tommy watched the little bird that went to sleep early and woke up early and flew down to the lawn and pecked up the little pink worm and hopped this way and that, and sang a little song and Tommy squinted his rogue eye, raised his catapult, and shot it.
Reworking a proverb
The early bird catches the worm.
If you push your way to the front, you’ll get what you want but folk will holler.
The starling is the woodpecker’s competitor and, with the collapse of the starling population, the woodpecker is making a comeback, especially in the morning on the birdfeeder.
Get up early to win.
Long sleepers are big losers.
Better the raucous ring of an alarm than a growling belly.
A rich man leaps like a salmon in the pink pools of dawn.
Late is slovenly, late is starving.
I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow morning, the Asda worm sale starts at seven and there’ll be dangerous queues.
The bird that goes to sleep early and wakes up early gets to the lawn first, gets the first worm and is never hungry, nor is he popular with his compatriots.
SANDERLINGS 