WriTING my Way Through Lockdown.

‘Cause the Writing’s on the Wall.

pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: my brother by other parents, spies a ghost.

WriTING Task One: Write a list of those things that your senses have missed; one thing for each sense.

As those of you who have read more than one of my blog articles will suspect: I quite like writing. So, with lockdown rules putting paid any plans for a ski trip this side of ‘sometime never’, I signed up to an online writing course.

It may surprise you to know that I haven’t written anything before where I’ve made it up. All my writing comes from facts and research and my opinions of it; to write something completely made-up, that’s a first for me.

The course was online and twice a week, for eight weeks, we were set a writing task. Sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes odd. None were compulsory, but being someone who tends towards ‘completer/finisher’, I generally went for quantity over quality and tackled them all.

Here’s one…

My first instinct was ‘common sense’, so couldn’t resist writing a bit on that. The second attempt was, of course, the Alps.

My WriTING Effort:

Not so Common.

Four months without common sense. The ‘lockdown’ rules were created in a hurry; of course there are loop holes, of course they haven’t thought of everything, of course they don’t apply to you!

The Austrian Alps, all my senses miss you.

The sight of rolling alpine meadows with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains that smell as sweet as they look. The sound of cow bells, the owners providing the raw ingredient to the unmistakable taste of fresh grey cheese and buttermilk. The feel of warm sunlight on my pale face whilst dipping my fingers into a freezing cold melt-water stream.

pop trivia: ‘Sam Smith’ co-wrote and performed ‘Cause the Writings on the Wall‘ as the Bond theme for 2015’s outing, ‘Spectre’. The single made it to number 1. Who knows when we are going to see Bond’s next outing.

The writing course was called Zoom with a Brew, if you’d like to read more of my efforts, they can be found here. East Midlands Arts funded the course and created a website containing the submitted work of all the writers.