I've been working on a story for a little while now, (by which I mean I started a few months ago and have done nothing since due to my terrible work ethic), so here's what I have as the first page. Let me know if there are any problems with it or if you don't like the writing style. Or alternatively you can tell me just how amazing you think it is.
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You glance at your watch as the park darkens around you. It’s getting old, a birthday present from your mother from when you were only a child. The metal’s going a bit rusty, and every now and then the second hand stops until you tap the glass with your finger. It also has an annoying habit of beeping on the hour every hour, and no matter how many times you press the little button on it, it won’t seem to stop. Right now it says the time is five o’clock.
You can hardly believe it. It was only a couple of weeks ago when the sun was still high in the sky at this time. The evenings really do draw in quickly towards the end of the year. You might have to start doing your afternoon jogs slightly earlier if you don’t want to end up in pitch black darkness.
A rock plants itself beneath your foot, and you stumble slightly. Probably time to stop looking at your watch.
The park where you like to do these jogs has no artificial lighting, so it tends to become very dark at night. Especially on nights when the moon hides behind clouds. Nights like tonight. You’re not a particularly big fan of these kinds of nights. It’s not that you’re afraid of the dark, you just don’t like thinking about what might be hiding in it. You hurry up slightly as a large bush looms threateningly at you out of the darkness.
However, it looks like you might have left it a little too late tonight, as the sun falls below and you are left in complete darkness in the empty park. Slowing down slightly, you wait for your eyes to adjust. You can barely see the path in front of you, and you don’t want to end up falling into a ditch.
Before your eyes have a chance to adjust to the dark a bright light suddenly appears in the sky before you. Wincing, you hold up a hand to protect your eyes, slowing down to a halt as the blinding light fills the world in front of you. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the light fades, and you hear a dull thud.
Returning your hand to your side, your jaw sags open slightly in astonishment at what you see sitting on the path ahead of you. It’s a spaceship! you think to yourself in amazement, not quite able to comprehend what’s going on. But then fear grips your mind, and your jaw clamps shut again. It’s a fucking spaceship! What if they want to probe my anus or something?
You’re not about to put up with that sort of behaviour, people in civilized society shouldn’t have to deal with that. Other parts of the world might enjoy that sort of thing, (you’ve heard strange rumours about the Japanese porn industry), but you prefer to be able to jog peacefully in the park without extra-terrestrial life fiddling about with your extraction hole.
Deciding that the sensible decision here is to move yourself to a place where your anus is safe from alien life, you are about to bravely turn tail and run away when a door opens up in the spaceship, and you are blinded once again by a bright light.
You hide your eyes behind your hand, and the light quickly disappears again. Tentatively, you peek out from behind your palm. Your hand drops to your side and you are once again dumbstruck by what you can see. An alien is standing in front of you.
You’re not sure if it’s a massive coincidence, or if aliens have somehow had a hand in humanity’s film industry for the last few decades, but the alien looks exactly like E.T. Although the three piece suit he’s wearing doesn’t really match the rest of the look. You certainly don’t remember E.T. wearing that in the film. Then again, it has been a few years since you last watched it. Perhaps the loveable little alien had been more bank-managery looking than you remember.
Whilst you’re standing there slack jawed, the alien reaches into its pocket and pulls out a small hand held device. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit,” it says to you in perfect English, before it points the device at you and a beam of light comes out.
