So every now and again I write something of which I'm proud.

I'm currently taking a writing course as part of my work training (and it's the only one I've been able to get away from the office to take this month). We were given an assignment that asked us to turn the intro from the text below to something more entertaining and engaging.

The first paragraph was originally this:

An extremely large number of people enjoy reading murder mysteries regularly. As a rule, these people are not themselves murderers, nor would these people really ever enjoy seeing someone commit an actual murder, nor would most of them actually enjoy trying to solve an actual murder. They probably enjoy reading murder mysteries because of this reason: they have found a way to escape from the monotonous, boring routine of dull everyday existence.

I wrote this:

Last night, I sat back and did nothing as before my very eyes, a man was murdered.

And I wasn’t alone. Dozens of us witnessed the death of this man, whose name we never knew. Around me, I could hear the odd intake of breath as one at a time, we came to the same place on the page – for it was within the pages of the latest Richard Castle novel that we got to vicariously enjoy watching the life of a nameless stranger end.


The teacher said I blew it out of the water, and a few other classmates praised it as well. Now if only the writing assignment we've been given called "Where I sit" holds us half as well...