Writing exercise: Just a minute

You've heard of Just a Minute - a parlor game come radio challenge where the victim has to speak, without deviation or hesitation, for 60 seconds on a set topic.

It sounds like a good idea for a writing challenge, so hang on a sec' while I get a fresh cuppa and find something to time myself with... Ah, here's just the thing: an online stopwatch, complete with jangly noise when you reach 00:00:00 so you don't have to keep tabbing back to check.

Now, for a real challenge I'd find a topic by going to Wikipedia and hitting 'random article'. But I'm not going to try to write about an injectable first-generation antibiotic or the Liverpool canal link, so instead I'll cast around and see what's in front of me. Other than the computer, of course.

Unfortunately, what's in front of me is the latest Top Gear Australia magazine, which I bought for an article by one of the few men worth being straight for, James May. He was driving a black and orange thing which wasn't a jaffa, but the fastest car in the world.

Time starts... NOW:

The Bugatti Super Sport is the fastest car in the world, and will happily zoom along on the wrong side of 400km per hour.

Maybe you're one of the camp that asks "why make a car that does 400k/hr when the speed limit's 110?" Well... a car that goes that

Time's up.

Hmmm... First point, you don't have time in 60 seconds to make much of a point, especially the complicated point I was going for about how making faster cars means making better brakes which means ultimately things like racing cars and hyperdrive Bugattis are making my dinky little Micra safer. Second, don't start deleting things and worrying about rewriting bits. No time for that.

Now, another go, and since I happen to have the magazine handy, and there's a piece in it on art cars, I'll have a bash at that:

Who said cars just have to be one colour? Black, red, white or silver on the outside, some variation on grey within? Weird things in cars, like thousands of stuffed toys piled up on the dashboard, are annoying because they reflect in the windscreen and make visibility difficult, but there must be more room for some sort of interior design in cars.

This writing exercise has merit. It's a lot of fun, if nothing else, and I suppose you could write a lot of nonsense if you did want to go down the 'random Wiipedia article' route.